How To Work from Home
If you set it up right, you can work just as efficiently, if not more so, than at the office.
Not the best home-office setup.
In a conversation a few weeks ago with another lawyer, I learned that insurance carriers across the nation are opting to have their in-house counsel work from home, which seems to be a popular trend these days. If you just passed the bar exam a few weeks ago and are thinking about hanging your own shingle, your office has gone “deskless,” or if you are just thinking about spending more time working from home, here is a handy guide on how to do that more efficiently.
Challenges
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If you don’t have a distraction-free area to work from home, that should be your number-one priority. Aside from that, one of the biggest advantages working in an office with others is the ability to collaborate. When team members are close by, you can run over to their office for a quick question and get an immediate answer, which doesn’t always happen when you email someone. It’s also easier to have a group discussion in person than on the phone. Collaboration is also difficult when the office files are usually stored in the office.
Offices also tend to have more robust hardware and things that you would likely never have in your house, like a copy machine.
Luckily, there are a few solutions to these problems.
Hardware
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For a home office computer, you do not need anything fancy. In fact, most laptops that you can buy in the $400 to $500 range will be faster and better than most computers in law firms today and would have enough horsepower to handle standard word processing and email applications. The laptop will be portable, and you can take it back and forth between the office and your home. It also takes up less space than a full desktop computer, if you are tight on space at home.
If you must print things, you do not need a high-powered copy machine. If you are going to print about 500 pages a month or less, you’d be better off with a multi-function laser printer. A multi-function laser printer will have a copy machine, fax, and scanner built into it, usually with a feed tray so you can scan or copy 20 or so pages at a time.
As far as file storage, that could either be a hardware issue or a software issue, depending on whether you want to keep your files in the cloud. One thing you do not want to do is email drafts of documents to yourself so that you can work on them from home. That creates draft confusion when you needlessly create multiple drafts of files. If you do not want to store your files on the cloud and you are working remotely from a home computer with an office computer back at the office, look into using a remote connection. That essentially lets you see and control your screen from a remote location. The benefit from a security standpoint is that the files never leave the office. You are not saving them on your home computer, you are simply using your home computer to view and edit the files from home. If you are hiring people to work from home, this might be the best choice for you because it becomes easier to manage stray copies of client files if the files never leave the office.
Software
If you plan on storing your files in the cloud, you’ll need a secure cloud service provider. That means one that you pay for. For example, the difference in the paid versus free Dropbox accounts is huge. The paid accounts include extra security on shared files with features such as password-protecting shared files and setting expiration dates on shared files and folders. Using the cloud is a convenient, safe, and ethical way for attorneys to store files.
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Office 365 has several tools for collaboration. I’ve previously written about Planner for Office 365. Microsoft just recently announced another tool called Teams, which is a chat and file-sharing tool. It’s kind of like having a group Facebook page for everyone in the office. You can upload files to the chat streams and also do video calls. In fact, Office 365 has a website where they announce all of the projects and updates they are rolling out currently and in the future. Looking at the projects that are in development for 2017, it looks like team collaboration tools are a priority.
Conclusion
Working from home can often have fewer distractions than the office. If you set it up right, you can work just as efficiently, if not more so, than at the office.
Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner at the Law Office of Jeff Bennion. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of San Diego’s plaintiffs’ trial lawyers association, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He is also the Education Chair and Executive Committee member of the State Bar of California’s Law Practice Management and Technology section. He is a member of the Advisory Council and instructor at UCSD’s Litigation Technology Management program. His opinions are his own. Follow him on Twitter here or on Facebook here, or contact him by email at jeff@trial.technology.
