Getting Equipped: Technology for Lawyers

Lawyers face a daunting challenge in the world of technology. Choosing the right technology to fit a firm or individual’s practice is not only crucial but also complex. The reason for this is simple; most attorneys must run a wide range of products, all of which have to work together, to fulfill their daily needs. Unlike other industries, where one or two main applications solve 90% of the firm’s needs, law firms might need 10 or even 20 diverse applications.

Once the attorney or law firm has chosen the applications required, then the other parts of technology such as desktop computers, network servers, printers and handheld devices follow suit. The important thing to consider here is that the software determines the hardware and not the other way around.

Examples of the types of applications an attorney might need are shown below:

• Time & Billing
• Calendar & Docketing
• Case Management
• Client and Contact Management
• Document Management
• Court Forms
• Jury Instructions
• Deposition Transcript
• Table of Authorities
• Citation Checking
• Legal Research
• Family Law
• Macros and Template

Choosing the right applications can dramatically streamline the workday and allow an attorney to compete with larger firms who have nearly unlimited resources. Choosing the wrong application suite can mean cumbersome, time consuming days fighting technology instead of gaining from it.

There are two basic approaches to selecting your application suite, both starting with the type of practice you have. For example a Family Law attorney would use a different suite than a Business Litigation attorney. While there are some overlapping applications, the two in this example quickly diverge in their needs.

The first approach is to find and All-In-One software suite that fulfills most or all of the firm’s needs. Examples of these types of packages would be Prolaw (www.elite.com/ProLaw), AbacusLaw Gold (www.abacuslaw.com), Perfect Law (www.perfectlaw.com), TABS with Practice Master (www.tabs3.com) and Lexis Total Practice Advantage (www.lexisnexis.com/.../practice.../total-practice-advantage.aspx). In this case, a high premium is placed on full integration. The value of this is significant in terms of work flow and collaboration.

In an integrated package a client and matter are entered a single time and then can be accessed from any part of the application. If a case is headed for trial, the important dates can automatically be generated, linked to the matter and then communicated to the concerned attorneys and staff. Thus a single entry creates multiple access points and cases can be viewed from a number of different angles all within the same consistent application. Starting at the client level an attorney could examine all matters, a specific matter, correspondence, dates, trail notes and even email correspondence.

This type of integrated package is thus highly valuable due to its single point of entry and multiple points of access. There are however drawbacks to this approach. Much like a sports team, you can draft players who fit well together and often have a very good team. Other teams might choose the “best available player” for any particular need and then try to fit things around their stars. The same concept applies to an All-In-One package.

Prolaw for example shines on the front end in terms of navigating a case, its calendar-centric approach and accessibility of information. It is also extremely complex on the back end where time entry and accounting take place and many find it cumbersome in this area. AbacusLaw is very simple and intuitive but lacks features for fairly common time and billing needs, and has only rudimentary court rules embedded in its calendar.

The trade off for an All-In-One is that not all parts are as strong as a firm might like them to be. So a choice is made to either live with the way it works and reap the benefits of a single integrated package, or to choose the best player in each area and integrate those as much as possible. The second is the more common approach because most firms or individuals make decisions one at a time, rather than examining the larger picture. Of course some firms simply make the choice to get the best of each application and this is certainly not a bad thing.

Let’s look at an actual boutique Family Law Practice. This particular firm handles well known clients needs and so they not only have to handle the client carefully and professionally but must often work against firms who may have more size or resources. This firm uses the following suite of software:

• Dissomaster – Dissolution of Assets and Support calculation
• MS Office – Outlook Email
• WordPerfect – Word processing
• PC Law – Time, Billing and Calendaring
• Legal Solutions Court Forms
• LiveNote – Depositions
• Adobe Acrobat Professional – Transmittal of documents and Court filings
• Paperport for Scanning

Each of these products stands essentially alone and each is one of the top choices for a firm of this practice area and size. This particular firm puts a high value on personal interaction and relies on a few strong applications such as Dissomaster and PC Law heavily. There is little need for a collaborative approach or multiple points of access since each client is essentially confined to a single attorney. This suite works very well for them and they find it easy to use since they are very familiar with each application.

Let’s look at a larger firm with a Litigation based practice. This firm has two offices and a diverse practice in 4 basic areas of law. Primarily it is a business litigation firm.

• Microsoft Office – Word processing, email
• iManage – Document and email management
• TABSIII and Practice Master – Integrated Time, Billing and Case Management
• TimeMatters – Calendaring and Case Management
• Jury Instruction Selector – Jury Instructions
• HotDocs – Document Assembly
• Legal Solutions – Court Forms
• Equitrac – Cost RecoveryBlackberry Enterprise Server

As you can see this firm has taken a hybrid approach using both an All-In-One (TABSII and Practice Master) and some other players to accomplish its goals. The end result is outstanding document management through iManage, a consistent word processing program and then other applications to fill its needs in diverse areas.

This firm requires, within each practice area, a high degree of collaboration. So it is clear why they need things like document management and case management, allowing them multiple points of access to centralized matter information.

In both cases the firms are faced with integration of a number of disparate packages and thus the choice of desktops, handhelds, servers and peripherals must fit the application needs.

Before moving on from this topic it is important to note Timeslips. This is a small firm or individual time and billing software package that is as robust as anything on the market. Timeslips ONLY does time and billing so you need an accounting package, a calendar etc. to go with it and while it can integrate with other things it basically stands alone. We see Timeslips in small, medium and even larger firms and despite its drawbacks it is extremely capable in time tracking. For attorneys starting out on their own, it is the de-facto standard in the industry and thus worth a mention.

For an individual user, an attorney would commonly have either a desktop with single or dual monitors or just as often a laptop, docking station combination with a full sized monitor, keyboard and mouse. The best selling of these are the HP and Dell lines and it is our opinion that only business class computers are acceptable for a professional.

In the case of the desktop a common configuration would be as follows:

• HP 6000 Pro Desktop
• Core 2 Duo processor
• 4GB of RAM
• 160GB or larger hard drive
• DVD-Writer (although rarely used)
• 22” flat panel wide screen monitor or dual 19” square monitors

Approximate cost of this computer is about $800.00 to $1,000.00 for dual monitors.

For a laptop, the most common selection is as follows:

• HP Elitebook 6930p
• Core 2 Duo processor
• 4GB of RAM
• 160GB or larger hard drive
• DVD-Writer (although rarely used)
• Docking Station with full sized keyboard and mouse
• 22” flat panel wide screen monitor or dual 19” square monitors

Approximate cost of the laptop setup is about $1,400.00 or $1,600 for dual monitors.

Probably just as important or perhaps more important in today’s mobile world is a handheld. There are two very basic choices and then a huge variety in those categories. The first is the venerable Blackberry from RIM. There are a few different models of the Blackberry but they all share some common traits. The first thing you notice about a Blackberry is how sturdy the device is and the standard models can really take a beating.

The differentiator with a Blackberry is that it is built for the corporate world. When a law firm supplies Blackberry devices to its attorneys they generally support them through what is known as BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This is a software package that resides on a server at the main office. It pushes out email, contact and calendar updates to the firm’s Blackberries.

The thing that law firms love about the Blackberry Enterprise / Blackberry solution is the security aspect. If a Blackberry is lost or a user departs the firm, the unit can be wiped remotely via the Blackberry Enterprise Server administrator. Thus potential sensitive information such as client lists emails and other firm data can quickly and easily be removed without having the device in hand.

The Droid, iPhone, Palm Pre and other handhelds can also be supported via a firm’s network but with less security. With these devices integration is done directly with the firm’s email server but the device is essentially just a client and cannot be manipulated from the main office. A user’s email could be disabled, but the device would retain contact information for example. Thus while these type handhelds might be more aesthetically pleasing, they are not nearly as desirable for a security conscious law firm.

Most attorneys go to extraordinary lengths to service their clients. This means that they must be able to work remotely as well as within the office. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but for the remote user all that is required is a home or laptop PC. The basic types of remote access are:

• VPN – in this case the user logs in to a network from a remote computer, accessing shared drives, but using locally installed software to perform tasks.
• Remote Control – examples of this are GoToMyPC, VNC and LogMeIn. The remote computer simply remote controls an office computer so that on the remote PC only screens and keystrokes are passed and all data remains in the main office.
• Terminal Server or Citrix Server – this is similar to the solution above except it is hosted by a server at an office location. This is generally the fastest and most secure of the remote computing choices.

Much of the discussion thus far has centered on a law firm as opposed to an individual. With a handheld, a computer and some reasonable software an attorney can be in business as a sole practitioner. This can simplify things and create some challenges at the same time. Generally however there are some simple steps to getting setup that make sense, and keep cost down.

A sole practitioner may be alone, or have an assistant but in either case certain services must be provided that would otherwise be part of a larger firm’s IT department. Two examples of this would be an email system and a backup process.

A typical sole practitioner, with one assistant might look like this:

Software

• Timeslips – Time and Billing
• Quickbooks – Accounting
• U.S. Court Forms – Online court forms
• Microsoft Office – Word Processing and Email interface
• Carbonite – Online Backup System
• Google Apps (Gmail) with Outlook Integration – Email, calendar, contacts

Hardware

• Desktop Computer for Assistant
• Laptop Computer for attorney with docking station, mouse, keyboard and monitor
• All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier
• Ether switch to connect all components
• Handhelds for both attorney and assistant Infrastructure
• Internet Connection (DSL, Cable, T1, other)
• Phone System
• Voice Mail

Most of the items above are relatively low cost and it is important to note that hosted applications like email, backup and even voicemail can offer a big savings while providing excellent results.

Often we see small firms start out with a system such as the one described above. If the attorney is successful, the firm can grow rapidly and quickly a system like this can be outgrown. Once a firm reaches about 5 attorneys and staff, it is generally time to add a main file server. This will then provide some of the services that are hosted online above, improving the way things work, speed and provide for all users as well as providing shared drives and potentially collaboration tools.

To summarize, there are a myriad of choices for law firm technology but all of them boil down to a few simple needs. The challenges is to get things in the right order (software first) and to make wise choices on each part. Keep in mind when you select hardware and software that an application such as Timeslips with thousands of users will be better supported and offer more features than a very small company’s software. For hardware, get business class machines from major manufacturers so you have a good warranty and support when you need it. Don’t take chances to save a few dollars because in the end, it is your time that is paramount. If you keep that simple fact in mind, your technology choices will nearly make themselves.