Law Firm Technology 2015 for Small and Solo Firms
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This presentation was originally given as part of the Maryland State Bar Association's Hanging Out a Shingle series, designed for lawyers opening their own law practice. It's author is Baltimore workers' compensation attorney Byron B. Warnken, Esq. Warnken is the owner and manager of the six lawyer firm, Warnken, LLC. (http://www.warnkenlaw.com)
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Law Firm Technology 2015 for Small and Solo Firms
- 1. Law Office Technology for Solos and Small Firms Byron B. Warnken, Esq.
- 2. Why am I Qualified to Tell You I own and manage a 6-lawyer law firm I gave the firm a nearly complete makeover in 2013, designed to make the firm more efficient, able to handle more work without more people Good or bad, I’ve made a lot of decisions that solos and small firms need to make with regard to their technology I won the Fastcase 50 award in 2014: “Highlights entrepreneurs, innovators, and trailblazers – people who have charted a new course for the delivery of legal services.” More importantly, because Pat Yevics told you so www.warnkenlaw.com
- 3. Please Don’t Wait Until The End • You might forget your question • You might have something valuable to add • You might have the same question half the room does • Also, don’t worry about taking notes – you’ve got the materials and you can contact me anytime www.warnkenlaw.com
- 5. Technology is About Systems
- 6. Our Systems are Unique to Us • What is the lifecycle of a file? • When do I communicate? • What do my clients expect? • What do I want from my practice? • What do I do first? • What can I delegate? • What can technology do for me? www.warnkenlaw.com
- 7. The Decisions I Made for Myself • I want to build a growing personal injury practice • I seek client results, firm profitability and then lifestyle. • I only want to handle a few select cases myself • I want to provide the attorneys who work for me a general system & technology framework that they can customize to serve their clients • Technology and efficiency are vital www.warnkenlaw.com
- 9. Law Firm Technology: from before intake until after the file is closed • Your technology considerations on a given case start before you are hired • Your technology considerations exist at every stage of a case or matter • Your technology considerations for that case or matter live for the lifetime of your firm www.warnkenlaw.com
- 10. The Website • Your client knows about you before you know about them www.warnkenlaw.com
- 11. Takeaways: Websites • You need one • You need to own and control the domain name and the content • You want to rank in search engines for, if nothing else, your name and the name of your law firm • Bonus tip: try to control all ten search results on the first page for your name and firm name. Use AVVO, LinkedIn, Facebook, a blog, award sites www.warnkenlaw.com
- 12. The Initial Phone call • What happens when a potential client picks up the phone to call you? What happens from their perspective? From yours? • I use a Comcast VOIP system w/ auto attendant. • I don’t need a receptionist; I can control the call flow around my office; can forward to a cell phone; I can get my voicemails via an app www.warnkenlaw.com
- 13. Potential New Client Presses 1 • If not currently represented, press 1 • Forwards the call to an intake center in TN • Intake center is trained on the questions to ask for each kind of case my office handles • Certain criteria – direct to a cell phone, otherwise an email • Potential new clients can also press other numbers to speak directly to the attorney if they’ve been referred to a specific individual www.warnkenlaw.com
- 14. Once a client • The client gets direct dial numbers to speak directly to a paralegal or very quickly to their attorney • Select clients – our Maryland Troopers Association clients – get a cell phone number and can speak to an attorney immediately 24/7/365 www.warnkenlaw.com
- 15. Takeaways… Initial Client Contact, and, Related, Your Phone Systems • You need to think about how you are going to get hired • How does technology facilitate you getting hired? • How do your phone systems work? • The mobile phone – how does it relate to your work? How do you use it without it owning you? www.warnkenlaw.com
- 16. Low Tech: The Initial Consultation www.warnkenlaw.com
- 17. Most Small Firms and Solos are the Shepherd www.warnkenlaw.com
- 18. Technology Back in Action: The Case Management System • We all have one. Automation and Integration are two major differentiators • What Can the Case Management System Do… www.warnkenlaw.com
- 19. Case Management System- Features to Consider Calendaring Task Assignment Time Tracking & Bill Production Escrow Account Tracking Expense Tracking Document Creation SOL Tickler Rolodex/Contact Management Automated Backup Conflicts Checking Hierarchical Relationship Management www.warnkenlaw.com
- 20. Questions to consider when choosing a case management system • Cloud or Local? • Accounting Integration? • Any Document Automation? • Billing/Case Conclusion? • Most Basic Question: Is it Suited to You and Your Practice www.warnkenlaw.com
- 21. Case Management: There are a Ton
- 22. There are also the free ones…
- 23. Takeaways: Case Management Systems • You should probably have a formal, technology, computer based system • It should handle calendaring, file/matter management, contact management, task management • It should be auto backed up • It should handle SOL tracking • Should handle/help with conflict checking www.warnkenlaw.com
- 24. Remember… • Perfect is the enemy of good. Pick a system. Go with it. No solution is a perfect solution. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one. www.warnkenlaw.com
- 25. In the thick of it… • Conflicts checked. File opened. Contacts added and cross referenced. Documents auto-created • Email. Email. Email. www.warnkenlaw.com
- 26. What Email Should You Use • One that works. • I’d much rather have a branded domain (ie @warnkenlaw.com) than a generic, but more important is that you can use it easily • Email foldering, for me, is vital. • I know what I have to do and what I’m waiting on. • I use google enterprise apps. www.warnkenlaw.com
- 27. Personal Productivity • I think of my personal productivity as distinct from my business or my clients • My personal productivity encompasses those things, but it’s more • I Have Trouble with Work-Life Boundaries. Managing personal productivity helps. www.warnkenlaw.com
- 29. Back to our client… • Medical Records Have Just Come In • 4 inch high stack www.warnkenlaw.com
- 30. The all-in-one • Purpose – move back and forth between paper and digital • Paperless office is not a reality • Fax, copy, print • Bells and whistles: staple, collate, two-sided, color, emails, high-speed, folds, etc. www.warnkenlaw.com
- 31. Other Hardware in the Office… • Desktop or Laptop for all employees. If anyone has the secret of how to eliminate this, please tell me. • (we have to create and manipulate documents with ease) • A Postage Meter, depending on volume • (we have to mail stuff) • The Internal Network… www.warnkenlaw.com
- 35. Even the Internet didn’t come from the Internet www.warnkenlaw.com
- 37. What does this shift look like day to day… • I filed the workers’ comp claim online (soon, everything will be e- filed) • I ordered medical records on a secure portal from a medical records aggregator • I cut the check for the medical records with quickbooks online • I secure the off work note from another secure online portal where my client is treating • A complicated issue came up, I researched it on Fastcase and Lexis Advance • I wrote a letter in word and I did a mileage log in excel, using Office 365 • The case settled – I edited the PDF settlement agreement from Adobe online www.warnkenlaw.com
- 39. Connection… • Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn • Listservs! • Message Boards / Forums www.warnkenlaw.com
- 40. Takeaways: Software and the Internet There Is Only One Thing It’s Called The Internet www.warnkenlaw.com
- 41. The List of things that can be done via software and the Internet… • Dictation • Document Creation • Accounting • Videoconferencing • Client logs in divorce cases • Taking credit card payments • Booking a conference room in a nearby city • Analyze a deposition transcript • Book a massage www.warnkenlaw.com
- 42. The First Three Things You Need to Think About When It Comes to Technology (and maybe the only three) • Your Client • Your Staff • Yourself www.warnkenlaw.com
- 43. The Gear • Smartphone • Email • Internet Connection • Computer • All-in-One (fax/print/scan/copy) www.warnkenlaw.com
- 44. In Case You Just Came for the Apps… • Omnifocus (productivity) • Wolfram Lawyer Assist (multiple useful tools) • Nuzzel (aggregates your social media feeds) • iDashboard (tracks your web visitors) • Fastcase (legal research) • Scanner Pro (mobile scanner) • SimpleMind (mind mapping; brainstorming) • Square (take credit cards) • Nest (manage your thermostat) • Uber (get transportation) www.warnkenlaw.com
- 45. If It Can be Automated • It will be! • (if it hasn’t already) www.warnkenlaw.com
- 46. Thank You • I welcome thoughts or questions… – Byron B. Warnken, Esq. – byron@warnkenlaw.com – www.warnkenlaw.com – 443-921-1100 www.warnkenlaw.com
Editor's Notes
- Of course it’s about gadgets to some degree. But it’s much more than that
- I want to be a solo to be my own boss, make my own decisions, take the clients I want. Of course I want to make money, who doesn’t it? But I don’t need to know how to run a legal factory. Just give me the gadgets, just tell me what to buy. The problem is – even the one who sits in this chair has systems, has a way of working. You have systems and ways of working and visions and goals. If you don’t do some hard thinking about it, you will wind up with the wrong technology around you. “Why?!?” Always has to come first.
- I’m not here to talk about business development or web marketing, but in discussing law firm technology, I have to discuss the website. You’re using technology to convey a first impression. It’s quite an important piece of technology. Whether they’ve been referred to you by name, or you answered their initial question via your content, they’re on your website. It’s what we do these days. We look people up on the web. Without getting into all the specifics of a website, I will say this… you need one. AVVO is insufficient. I would use AVVO and engage with AVVO, but AVVO is insufficient.
- Two people. Face to face. One expressing problems, the other listening People still want this for most problems If people don’t want this in a given practice area, should you be going into this area?
- Being the guiding light, the helping hand, the shepherd, is what most small and solos do. Of course there’s more to it, but there are two major pieces that technology cannot replace. 1.) The relationship. Never outsource the relationship. 2.) The high level thinking.
- Tell the story of the guy who left dad’s firm to go solo
- Lexis has one. Thomson has one.
- In a workers’ compensation context: we’ve opened the file, filed the claim, been in contact with the insurance company, ordered medical records, gotten contesting issues, etc. Job issues, treatment issues. And a bunch of questions.
- Scans the med records in a few minutes. Sends them right to your desktop or emails anywhere you want to go. I’ll talk about interoffice network in a minute
- That’s it. The Internet does the rest. No server, no hosted stuff. Just a switch to get cables around my office.
- Software Used to Look Like This
- The software used to get installed on machines like this. The dreaded server in the dreaded server room. It would be distributed to each individual computer from this big box.
- Now it all lives here.
- You Can’t Get the Internet on a Plane!