If you have a practice-based blog and a website, then you are already light years ahead of your professional peers. But technology. That’s a whole other animal in 2016. It is very daunting and intimidating to a lot of lawyers regardless of its importance to an effective and efficient practice. Quite frankly, beyond a laptop/tablet, smartphone, and finally acknowledging they need law practice management software, most lawyers are just screaming, “I’m not into this stuff! This is not what I signed on for! How am I supposed to go solo? When will I have the time to actually practice law? I just can’t KEEP UP!”
Well, you are not alone in this anxiety-inducing hysteria. Sometimes I feel like I have one foot in yesteryear and one foot in tomorrowland and if I move the wrong way I will fall into the great abyss. Now there is a real term for it: Technoshock – when the advancement of technology is so fast-paced that it outstrips the ability of the individual to comprehend it. This term, believe it or not, I’ve been told is in psychology books.
Even with all the far-reaching predictions about artificial intelligence, the elimination of lawyers, Big Data, e-discovery, etc., most lawyers and law firms are just realizing maybe they should actually consider first looking at this type of technology help. The train has left the station but we are still contemplating if we should get on the train? See my point. Technoshock.
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Regardless of Technoshock, you can no longer avoid bringing state-of-the-art technology into your practice. You need it; your clients need it. So, just capitalize on your strengths, and if technology still remains the great intimidator, then you have to pay others to compensate for your “chosen” or “perceived” shortcomings. But you no longer have the option to decline technological advances. This is the reality. Not if you want to practice law in the 21st century and actually make a living.
Jared Correia, senior law practice management consultant at LOMAP, and I have had many podcasts on the topic, which you can find here. But I am also going to give you a short list of the “essential”* technologies you need to at least investigate. This will help keep you grounded and guide you for when you are ready (which should have been yesterday, sadly).
So, here we go and in no particular order:
- Productivity software. This is easy. You probably already have some version of productivity software, whether it is Microsoft Office suite or Google Apps for Work or your own compilation of favorite applications for email, presentation creation, databases, spreadsheets, and document drafting.
- PDF conversion software. It’s pretty self-explanatory, software that will convert your documents to PDFs. You scan paper documents, they are now editable, you can remove metadata, add encryption, and even build form files. (Are you sweating yet? Don’t. Just do a little homework and you’ll realize it’s just not that hard.)
- Document automation/document assembly software. Basically, a software program that takes your most used forms and allows you to customize them for each individual client. But there is more. There are different levels of integration with your other software programs. You should be able to merge client information and incorporate clauses from your “clause library” as well as have plugins for your existing productivity tools.
- Time and billing/accounting software. Time capture, invoicing, trust accounting reconciliation and reporting tools. Enough said. We don’t want your head to explode.
- Practice management software. Some call it a Law Practice Management Solution. But it should include client/contact management, document management, calendar management, time, billing and accounting capabilities and email archiving. The majority are cloud-based and therefore portable, a key component today.
- E-discovery tools. Yes, you need e-discovery tools. What is e-discovery, you ask? It is the electronic aspect of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in response to a request for production in a lawsuit or investigation. You can now be deemed incompetent if you don’t know how to do e-discovery and have a system in place to do so. I encourage you to find e-discovery vendors and see if they have a free sandbox for you to play in and learn. And do it now.
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“Essential” is always debatable and a subjective term, but you will have to do a cost-benefit analysis on the value of your time to do these tech-oriented tasks versus hiring someone or getting the technological assistance. And I personally appreciate the acknowledgment that sometimes we have to have others assist us in office management, whether an individual or the actual physical technology. There are a lot of brilliant lawyers who are techno-junkies, getting their fix with every new electronic toy or software package out there, spending hours updating their current systems with every new program that emerges. Well, we are not all like them, and it really is okay that we aren’t.
Again, as a solo practitioner you can no longer ignore getting relatively up-to-the minute technology into your office in order to be more cost-effective, streamline functions, stay competitive with your peers, and present “large.” And dollar-for-dollar, it also means you get to earn more and keep more of what you earn because of this efficiency.
Susan Cartier Liebel is the Founder and CEO of Solo Practice University®, an online educational and professional networking community for lawyers and law students who want to create and grow their solo/small firm practices. She is a coach and consultant for solos, an entrepreneur mentor for LawWithoutWalls.org, a member of the advisory board for the innovative Suffolk School of Law – Institute on Law Practice Technology and Innovation, an attorney who started her own practice right out of law school, an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law for eight years teaching law students how to open their own practices, a frequent speaker, and a columnist for LawyersUSA Weekly, The Connecticut Law Tribune, The Complete Lawyer, and Law.com. She has contributed to numerous legal publications and books offering both practical knowledge and inspiration. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, and you can email her at [email protected].