Do The Work

Smartphone Tips For The Savvy Lawyer

Lawyers aren’t typically known for their love of technology but many legal professionals have taken to using their smartphone on the go, at work, and at home.

Latina-lawyer-diversity-cellphone-smartphone-iPhone-texting-300x191Lawyers aren’t typically known for their love of technology but many legal professionals have taken to using their smartphone on the go, at work, and at home. According to the 2017 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey Report, 94% of lawyers surveyed report that they regularly or occasionally use a mobile device for law-related tasks at home.  If you’re one of the 94%, there are a few tips you’ll need to know about doing business on your smartphone.

Email Is Not 100% Secure

Around 89% of lawyers use their smartphone to access their email but some email apps may not be 100% secure. It may be better to use your smartphone to log into an online client portal to access client messages because they have their own security protocols designed to keep client data safe.  It’s also, more convenient and efficient.  Most email apps are cumbersome because they use threads that can be difficult to navigate once a conversation becomes lengthy. Using an online client portal attached to a case management program such as Smokeball, you can easily organize messages, set up calendar meetings, and schedule/assign tasks all in one place.

Quality Is Important

There are a lot of apps out there for lawyers to use on their smartphone. Many of these apps are great because they make organizing a busy life easier, but be careful. Some free/cheap apps are designed poorly and may be vulnerable to hackers.  Also, some apps are not secure because they grab personal data from other places such as your contacts list or email.  Allowing apps to grab sensitive client information could be a violation of client/attorney privacy.  Before you download any app on your smartphone, do a little research. Have other attorneys used this app without any problems? According to the experiences of other attorneys, does this app deliver on its promise?

Public Wifi

If you’re in the habit of connecting to public/free Wifi on your personal smartphone, you may want to break that habit when using your business smartphone.  Public Wifi is not secure, and using it to conduct business for your law firm could leave client data vulnerable.  It’s better to turn off the smartphone setting that automatically looks for a Wifi connection when in a public place. Use your data plan instead, especially if you have sensitive data stored on your phone.

Unload Sensitive Data

Downloading client information and documents onto your smartphone makes it easier to work while on the go. However, having sensitive data stored on your phone is also risky.  Your phone could be stolen or the information could be compromised if someone accesses the data without your permission.  This is especially important to consider when traveling for work. It’s better to keep data stored on your office server or a cloud server that you can access using your smartphone. That way, you don’t have sensitive data on your phone, and if your phone is compromised, lost, or stolen, no one can access the client data with accessing the remote server or cloud service.

Savvy lawyers use caution when conducting law firm business on their smartphone.

***

Smokeball - Lynn_ProfessionalLynn Luong is the Digital Marketing Manager for Smokeball, a case management software that increases productivity and efficiency for solo attorneys  and small law firms to become more profitable.  Lynn has over 8 years of experience in marketing with a focus on digital by developing successful strategies and managing many areas of marketing.

Shares5


Shares5