What is the point of technology? Unless you have a Gizmodo-esque fetish for gadgets and gizmos, you may wonder why you need to get tech’d up. And you do.

Efficiency. The practice of law is changing, especially for solo and small firm practioners. The large-overhead model law office, with a receptionist, legal secretary or paralegal, a lot of paper, and dictation/transcription equipment is a dinosaur in its death throes. The goal of a solo lawyer today should be to run a streamlined, stripped-down practice. Technology allows you to do this. With technology you can work faster and more efficiently, freeing up your free time and providing more value to your clients.

Technology also allows you to work more comfortably. If efficiency should be the first goal of a tech-savvy law office, portability should be the second. Work where you want, when you want. No more calling your secretary to ask her to fax a copy of a document to the nearest fax machine. You should have it with you already on your laptop. Just e-mail it to opposing counsel. Or if you are frequently saddled with Luddite opposing counsel, carry a portable printer or use the internet to print to the nearest printer.

It takes careful adoption and use of technology, but the solo or small firm practitioner today is a compact, streamlined, and stripped-down lawyer, and good tech solutions is really the only way to accomplish that.

SoloSmallTech.com has two parts, a blog and a forum/discussion board. The blog is frequently-updated with tips and tricks, software information, technology ideas and innovations, etc. It’s kind of Gizmodo meets Lifehacker meets a solo or small firm law office. The comments provide a space for readers to react, contribute, and expand on the topics contained in the posts.

The forum is entirely user-defined. It is meant to be a place where solo and small firm practitioners can discuss their own integration of technology into their practices, help one another find solutions to technology problems, and more. It’s yours. Do what you want with it.

Origins

I started the SoloSmallTech forum quite a few months ago as a forum for solo and small-firm practitioners to discuss technology issues. It was aimed at solo and small-firm practitioners because unlike larger firms with technology consultants or departments, we are on our own. We are our own tech support. And unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of information (free information, that is) about how to be your own tech support and a lawyer at the same time.

Many solo and small firm practitioners hire third-party tech support, but in my view, this is often a waste of time. Sure, it makes sense to call someone for the big problems, but you can get back to work a lot faster (and be more efficient generally) if you know a bit about your own systems.

Furthermore, technology at its best increases efficiency and slashes costs. This is what I have discovered in my own practice, at least.

About me

I am a solo practitioner focusing on consumer law. I have an office, but no support staff. I am approximately 95% paperless. The other 5% is due largely to leftover files I haven’t yet scanned. I am about 75% mobile, meaning I can work anywhere, any time. The exception is that I don’t have a mobile printer or scanner, and I still have to check into the office for mail. And I have a land line at the office.

I have a laptop as my only computer, two backup methods (an external drive and offsite upload), and two monitors (one being the laptop monitor).

I love software solutions, and dislike hardware solutions. I carry a Palm Tungsten E, but rarely use it, though I keep it synced. In other words, I have few gadgets. I have no copier or fax machine, only a duplex scanner and printer, in my office.

I use Time Matters/Billing Matters Plus v7 as a full-service time, billing, practice management, and accounting suite. I have a love/hate relationship with this program. I love that it does everything that I need, and does a decent job at it. I hate that:

• It is sooo slooooooooow;
• It is user-unfriendly;
• It is poorly documented; and
• It is, in many ways, completely archaic.

And then again, in other ways, it rocks. More on all that later. I just wanted you, my readers, to get an idea of where I am coming from when I talk about technology.

Goals

I hope that the blog and forum will encourage the growth of a community of solo and small-firm practitioners who are able to help each other troubleshoot solve problems with software, hardware, practices, and systems. I hope also that the industries who develop, implement, and consult on relevant software will stop by now and then and take note of the discussion.