YOUR PEOPLE: CLIENTS AND COLLEAGUES IN A VIRTUAL PRACTICE

Small law firms with more than one legal professional can be linked to the same law office management systems via a telephone call or through the more technologically advanced modes of chat and videoconferencing.

You can also scale up a virtual law office easily and inexpensively when business opportunities arise. While attorneys must abide by the ethical requirements of the various states in which they hold licensure, virtual law firms are more marketable across larger territories.

Since a virtual law firm is accessed primarily through Web components, clients no longer need to visit its offices. A client in Galeveston, Texas, could very easily work with a virtual law office based in El Paso. Meetings take place via videoconference, and legal document exchange and storage happens in the cloud. Without the office space as an anchor, virtual lawyers can associate across state borders more easily, making it possible for attorneys in South Carolina to work with attorneys in Wyoming, and to communicate across the same basic law office management software systems that they would use in a traditional office setting. This means that virtual law firms can be marketed more broadly to reach a larger potential pool of clients representing a larger legal billing segment for associated virtual law office attorneys.

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