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Getting Started with eLawyering

By Stephanie Kimbro

It is not necessary to convert to a completely paperless law office in the clouds in order to benefit from different methods of elawyering. Most lawyers would prefer to get their feet wet first and then gradually find ways to take portions of their practice digital – whether that means moving to cloud-based applications for certain tasks or something smaller in scope, such as the use of a virtual paralegal or virtual assistant. There are a few simple first steps that a lawyer might take to getting started with elawyering.

First, consider what portion of the firm’s law practice management would most benefit from the use of technology. For example, find a process that could be automated or streamlined in a way that would be more cost-effective to have handled by a software program than by an associate or staff member of the firm. Identify the tasks that take up the largest portion of your day and take you away from focusing on your clients’ individual needs. These are the first tasks that you should assign to a digital alternative. Perhaps your firm could speed up the client intake process holding initial web conferences or by having clients register to complete a secure online client intake form before making an office appointment. If you are a transactions-based practice, then consider finding a document automation and assembly software that will allow you to focus time less on boilerplate and more on creative writing of provisions that are unique to your client’s legal needs.

Second, before selecting any technology, be realistic in your expectations. Expect to review anything generated by the technology you have chosen whether it is a legal document or messages provided by a virtual receptionist. The lawyer cannot place complete responsibility for producing competent legal work in the hands of technology.  Technology can make running a law practice much easier, but it does not replace the due diligence or expertise of the lawyer.

Third, be honest with yourself about your comfort level with technology. In order to successfully and ethically implement elawyering into your law practice, you have to enjoy technology enough that you are willing to keep up to date on the development of the elawyering methods you are using. If you are not interested in doing so, then you need someone at the firm whether it’s another associate or a hired IT consultant who is willing to keep everyone current on the latest security information, best practices and updates necessary to protect the firm and its clients. Even if you are not willing to read technology blogs and keep current on the developments in technology for law practice management, you still personally need to maintain some level of current knowledge about the safe use of your laptops and mobile devices that contain firm information.

Fourth, when researching ways to implement elawyering into your practice, consult with your state bar’s ethics rules to see how or if they are being updated to cover the technology you wish to use.  Some state bars are drafting new ethics opinions related to cloud computing or third-party storage of law office data. Other states are simply amending rules to provide guidance in the comments to the rules. If you operate a multijurisdictional practice, consider the impact of different states’ regulations on the use of technology and how you will comply with these.

Most importantly, before diving into elawyering in your law practice, consider your client base and their needs.  If your clients are more tech-savvy, they might find web calculators or web advisors useful for self-education about their legal situation. If your clients are less trusting of technology, then they may only be comfortable sending encrypted emails but not using web conferencing tools. Based on your practice area and the clients you serve, a particular digital tool may end up being more of a hindrance than a help if it is being used to communicate with clients who are reluctant to use that method. In those cases, the form of elawyering might be better focused on the practice management side of the firm for the benefit of the firm members rather than for use by the clients.

Through the use of elawyering, there is an enormous amount of potential to streamline a law practice to save time and resources that may then allow the firm to lower its costs to serve clients. It may be tempting for a law firm to try to take all operations online for example or outsource large portions of the work to computer systems or virtual assistants. However, the law firm considering elawyering may wish to proceed with caution, one step at a time, to determine which methods will be most effective, and ethical, for use by the firm.  Even as they increase access to justice for the public and improve the lives of those in the legal profession, some of these elawyering tools are still facing scrutiny by national and state bar regulators.  In some cases where the lawyer’s jurisdiction is undecided about the use of a particular technology, it may even be necessary to work at educating the state bar and other attorneys about the use of an elawyering tool before implementing it in practice. As these technologies become more adaptive to the ways that law firms function and they provide for more customization by the user, it will become easier for a law firm to step more fully into the use of elawyering methods.

Stephanie Kimbro, author of Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online and a forthcoming book on delivering unbundled legal services, is the winner of the 2009 ABA Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering. She has operated Kimbro Legal Services, a North Carolina virtual law office, for the past six years and is a technology consultant for Total Attorneys and author of the blog, Virtual Law Practice.