TechnoLawyer

Originally published on August 23, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

2011 dropped a bomb on me. This year just plain stinks. It has tested my solo practice, my confidence, even my faith. On May 21st, my mother suffered a massive stroke. According to some interpretations of the Bible, the Rapture was supposed to occur on May 21, 2011. My father had planned to play a joke on my mother by piling up his clothes in the living room and hiding in a closet. Deciding against it, he went to let Mom in on the joke. She didn't laugh. She was too nauseous, and couldn't see or stand. After a 120 MPH drive to UAB Hospital, I was fortunate enough to see her smile one last time. She remained in a vegetative state for two more months before passing away on her 68th birthday.

My father, brother (also a lawyer), and I, with the help of my wonderful wife, sat by Mom's side day and night. I continued to work on existing cases, and decline new clients. To make matters worse it was the summer time — when the court system all but shuts down. I would have lost my business, let alone my mind, if not for virtual services.

We all read about virtual law firms and the virtual services they use such as receptionists, typists, and remote control applications. However, this summer I learned that these services provide an important safety net even in a traditional law practice like mine with office space. In this issue of SmallLaw, I'll tell you about three virtual services that literally saved my law firm.

You Can't Avoid the Phone Forever

After word got out that I was having a hard time, a friend relayed my troubles to Jill Nelson, the the top dog at Ruby Receptionists, a virtual receptionist service in Oregon gaining momentum among lawyers. Sympathetic to my plight, Ruby offered to answer my phones until I got back on my feet. A few email messages later I had a system in place. A warm, professional group of receptionists greeted callers, knew what to ask, and knew the people with whom I needed to talk. With Ruby I was able to concentrate on simply surviving the loss of a parent, instead of playing phone tag.

Making the benefits of Ruby even more obvious is my ability to review all calls from my iPhone via the Ruby Receptionist app. It displays who called, lets you know if they left a message (transcribed by the Ruby staff) or a voicemail, and enables you to create a new contact entry. Even cooler is the app's ability to notify Ruby of my whereabouts so that my phone doesn't ring during hearings. I can even message Ruby from the app to give them special instructions such as returning a call to a client for me.

You Can't Think of Everything

While sitting helpless in the hospital, I tried to get some work done. While I could accomplish more than I thought possible with my iPad (read my previous SmallLaw column, Using the iPad 2 in the Field in a Wrongful Death Case), there were times when I needed to access my desktop computer.

For example, the day I had to make a mad rush back from the hospital to the courthouse for a hearing I had forgotten a document I needed to present to the court in hardcopy form. Its residing in my Dropbox account was of little use since I couldn't print reliably from the iPad. I spent the hour drive to my hometown tracking down buddies who could print the document for me.

How much simpler it would have been to have a remote desktop server in place! Enter iTeleport for iPad, which I now have thanks to the efforts of TechnoLawyer. Now when I'm out of the office and need access to my desktop it's only a click away. iTeleport leverages the iPad's beautiful touchscreen to recreate my desktop computer. It perfectly implements the touch controls so that I can print documents, run non-iOS programs like Microsoft Word, and even stream music and movies from the office to my mobile location.

You Won't Have Time to Type

On another occasion, I again found myself in my least favorite place — under the gun. I had a brief due that couldn't be put off any longer without detriment to my client, so there I was resembling a trained bear on a motorcycle in a hospital waiting room pecking away at the iPad's virtual keyboard (sometimes virtual is not a virtue). This document needed some serious appellate formatting that made blood drip from my ears. If I'd only had somebody to type it for me.

Now that I'm enjoying 20/20 hindsight, I've started using LegalTypist. Unlike a virtual paralegal, which I suspect would be overkill for most of us, LegalTypist is simply that — an administrative assistant who optimizes your workflow. I can email a recorded dictation file or just dictate using a telephone. Within 24 hours, I received the document formatted properly for my jurisdiction. The best thing is I don't have to train anybody, implement weird proprietary software, or have a monthly contract for services I don't use often. The company is just there when I need them without a commitment to justify when bookkeeping.

The Bottom Line on Preserving Your Bottom Line: Plan Ahead

Life is unkind to everyone at times. However, a large law firm can keep rolling along if one of its lawyers becomes unavailable. Small law firms — solo practices in particular — don't have a deep bench or any bench at all. My mother's death crippled me emotionally and nearly crippled my law practice too. Had I known then what I know now I could have had services like Ruby, iTeleport, and LegalTypist in place to ease my stress during my time of need. These services are more affordable than ever, even on a rookie solo's nonexistent budget. You'll never be fully prepared for the unthinkable. Fires, natural disasters, and even death are very real threats to our legal careers. Plan ahead SmallLaw subscribers, plan ahead.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on June 28, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

You've got a problem. A big problem. Literally. Large law firms differ from small law firms in one important way — money. They've got it. We don't. They can invest hundreds of thousands into ad campaigns. How nice. For those of us in the trenches, taking grenades from every high school booster ad campaign or restaurant menu designer, advertising is a little less glamorous. Sure we'd love a billboard on every corner and a thirty second spot during primetime, but the Benjamins just ain't there! So what's a small fish to do in a big pond? Quit looking at our small size as a weakness, and recognize our strengths instead! Here's how.

Use Your Non-Billable Time Productively

One area where the lack of size matters is overhead. A small firm could run indefinitely on a large firm's monthly operating budget. Large firms are particularly vulnerable here as they've grown so accustomed to branding campaigns, gourmet cafeterias, and other such amenities for so long that they can't imagine practicing without them. They should at least cut the crappachino machine. But they won't. Their loss, your gain.

Time is on our side. While silent phones are disheartening, realize that because the large firm across town is responding to client emergencies around the clock they don't have time to learn new tricks like how to optimize their Web site for Google, or how to institute a paperless office. They'll just pay the next SEO shark lying in wait for a sucker to swim by — and not get much value for the big bucks they spend.

With your down time, you've made your way through Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie Stricchiola's The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization and learned about backlinks, content management systems, keyword-laden URLs, title tags, and more. With the money you saved by going paperless you now have enough scratch to get your Web site up and running. While the large firm lawyer across town just spilled his non-soy low-fat double-caramel latte on his monogrammed custom shirt while reviewing his slam-dunk marketing bill, you just took first place for "Seattle personal injury lawyer" on Google ninja style!

How Technology Created a New Frontier for Small Firms

Technology enabled small law firms to evolve from the primordial soup of big city boutique and small town general practice firms into the next big thing in our industry — more variety than even Darwin could imagine, including virtual practices. (Our ailing economy and the abysmal job prospects for law school graduates have also helped usher in this new era.)

Ten years ago the sole practitioner was revered as a sad little being that either couldn't play nice with the other children or didn't have the grades to get a job in a boutique or large firm. Back then if you wanted to go solo it helped to have a rich relative, preferably deceased. It took money. In my dad's day an electric typewriter was high-tech and the price tag reflected it. A small firm had to weigh the benefits of technology versus its cost.

Today, cost and technology rarely come at odds (except perhaps for those just out of law school). The new cost-benefit analysis focuses on technology versus productivity with a little cost sprinkled on top. For example, if you want to go paperless, buy a scanner for $450ish. Couple your new scanner with Dropbox, or any of the other myriad cloud services, and you've just gone paperless. Now a box of paper will last months rather than days. You will consume ink or toner only for printing court exhibits. Your filing cabinets hit eBay, and you stop sending a monthly check to that offsite storage provider.

Technology also empowers your marketing as intimated above. Before the advent of WordPress you had to understand Web development code such as ASP.Net or PHP if you wanted to create and maintain more than a brochure site. It was tough to learn and expensive to outsource. We were at the mercy of Web designers.

But now that you can register a domain for $10 per year, find great hosting options for under $100 per year, and run WordPress using a professionally-designed theme (I use Headway Themes) to make your site pop, you've got no excuse whatsoever to ignore the trend in our profession.

And what is that trend? That potential clients use Google for everything. Studies show that most folks will search for something before they ask the person sitting next to them. These people are searching for doctors, electricians, and yes even lawyers. And they're looking for answers, not your curriculum vitae. Lawyers publishing articles answering these questions are killing their competition.

What's in My Small Firm Toolbox?

I run a paperless office with a scanner and Dropbox. I ditched the fax machine in favor of an online fax-to-email service. $10 a month. I run www.clarkstewartlaw.com using WordPress (free) hosted by Bluehost ($80/year) so I don't have to learn code.

As I discussed extensively in my last SmallLaw column, I use an iPad 2 to remain paperless while in court and for many other mobile tasks. I use Fastcase (free on iPad or iPhone) for legal research, and Google Calendar and Gmail. And thanks to a very gracious offer during a current family hardship I'm having my calls answered by a virtual receptionist via Ruby Receptionist to lighten my load.

I learned how to do all this by reading SmallLaw and TechnoLawyer's other newsletters (I was a fan before I became a columnist) as well legal blogs like iPhone J.D. and Legal Practice Pro. I joined every legal email listserver I could find such as the ABA's Solosez. I also joined my state's criminal defense lawyers group. I now have access to legal marketing, mentoring, and beneficial technology for nothing more than my time!

In short, if you are willing to learn, technology can elevate your practice, enabling you to offer incredible value, once only available from large firms, to your clients at a fraction of the cost, thus beating the big boys at their own game. When that large firm across town shuts its doors, you can buy its crappachino machine at a discount.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on April 26, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

I am an unabashed Apple fanboy. They say the first step to recovery is admitting the problem. I was in line at Wal-Mart the day of the iPad 2's release. While I've used the iPad extensively in my solo practice since purchasing Steve Jobs' magical device, I was finally able to put it through the paces a couple weeks ago in the field here in Gadsen, Alabama.

I recently filed a wrongful death case against several municipalities in Alabama on behalf of a client who lost his only son during a high-speed chase gone wrong.

My Investigation at the Scene of the Accident

I conducted my own preliminary investigation using my 16 GB WiFi iPad 2 and a number of supporting apps and gadgets, including a Verizon MiFi for an Internet connection.

Once on the scene of the accident I accessed my DropBox iPad app to pull up my client's file and compared the photos in there with the scene in front of me. The iPad shined in this endeavor as the two years that had passed from the accident to the lawsuit had not been kind to the accident site. The paint used to mark points of impact and the location of the body had nearly faded to oblivion, so my "fresh" iPad photos became my landmarks.

I used Voice Recorder HD with DropBox support to record a brief statement from my witness while simultaneously taking notes in Penultimate using a Kensington Virtuoso stylus rather than my pudgy fingers.

I used my Canon EOS Rebel T1i EF-S DSLR to take multiple photos of the scene. Then, using the EyeFi wireless memory card I loaded these files into my iPad for later review.

In conjunction with the MiFi, I was able to search the Alabama court system's database to see what kind of criminal record my witness sported in case I needed to perform damage control in the future.

Using Google Maps and an officer's statement of the chase, I retraced the route through the county while the iPad sat shotgun (I was able to watch the dash-cam video of the chase before heading out to "relive" the chase).

While following the chase path I received a call from my client stating that an interview I gave a local station was playing on the radio. Once at his office I used the iCab Mobile Web browser to locate the audio clip on the station's Web site and saved it to my DropBox account. This browser lets me do things previously only available on jailbroken iOS devices. I also used iCab Mobile to look up some slang that an officer buddy gave me regarding his opinion of the subject cop in my lawsuit. Even I didn't know what "high-speed, low drag" meant!

After my investigation I used the 30 minute drive back to my office to catch up on email and Facebook via the VoiceBrief app that speaks aloud your email and other information.

An Almost Perfect Sidekick: 90% Bill Gannon, 10% Barney Fife

To be fair, using the iPad was not without its cons. The major issue I encountered was the GPS support. As noted above, I have the 16 GB WiFi model. As I understand mobile GPS technology, Apple products rely on both the internal GPS radio as well as cell tower triangulation to provide the most accurate location fix for the user. Since my iPad has no cellular radio I was limited to the internal GPS to get me from A to B, which proved problematic.

Although it could easily find the address of a witness I needed to speak with, it struggled to find my current location to calculate a route. It insisted on using my last known address as the point of origin when in fact that was 30 miles away! Perhaps I found a bug that Apple will address in the future, but in the end I had to use my iPhone to get to my starting point. Once I set a land-speed record to cross the rural county to make my appointment with my witness, the iPad performed beautifully.

Another complaint is the amount of glare on the iPad's screen. I was outside on a sunny day and had a really hard time seeing the documents and photos on the iPad. I can live with this issue as sunglasses and anti-glare screen protectors can help.

In hindsight I could have used the iPad 2's built-in cameras to take video and photos of the scene. While the HD video ability is useful I'm not impressed with the still camera results. After a photo is blown up to fit the display it loses a lot of image quality. Knowing my photos may well become exhibits I opted to bring the big gun — my Canon Rebel. I could have watched the dash-cam video via DropBox, but streaming it would have taken forever. We've all wiped the blood from our ears after watching a YouTube video over a 3G connection! I recommend using the iPad's native iPod app synced from iTunes to load any videos you need.

Conclusion

I was pleased with the performance of my iPad for legitimate legal investigatory work. As an added bonus, after its debut in the field, the iPad 2 is now a bona-fide tax write-off.

Written by Gadsden, Alabama lawyer Clark Stewart.

Publisher's Note: The WiFi iPad lacks assisted GPS. If you need GPS functionality, buy the AT&T or Verizon WiFi + 3G model. — Neil J. Squillante

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on March 29, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

In November 2009 I hung my shingle, and by some miracle I'm still in practice! The folks who publish SmallLaw asked for my opinion as to the most important lessons I've gleaned from my "minute" of practice. After wracking my brain for a week trying to answer this question, I have narrowed it down to three lessons any new solo should heed should they want to make a go of their own law practice.

1. Get a Mentor

A professor once told me that you'll never know more law than when you walk out of the bar exam, and you'll forget it all! That couldn't be truer. I am humbled every day by the vast amount of law that I don't know.

One of my favorite sayings is access is better than ownership. Since I don't own the knowledge yet I love to access it from my mentors. I'm truly blessed to come from a family of judges and lawyers. I call them at least once a day. I can't imagine how difficult it would be if I had to approach every legal problem from scratch. I couldn't do it. I don't know how solos without such mentors avoid malpractice. In fact, this connection with other lawyers explains why many lawyers practice together in law firms rather than alone.

If you don't have a personal relationship with your colleagues then pick one by reputation whom you admire and forge a connection. Get out your phone book and call them up. I would advise those in the hunt to not focus as much on the expertise of the attorney, but more on their reputation.

You may learn a lot from the local king of torts, but we all know how that book ended! Find someone people in your community praise and look upon favorably — an Atticus Finch. Better yet go talk to the toughest judge in your area and ask them whom they recommend. His Honor is basically the Simon Cowell of our profession. He'll be more than happy to mold you into the type of lawyer with whom he likes to deal by steering you toward an attorney he respects. By following the judge's advice you'll be well on your way to obtaining a quality mentor.

2. Don't Fall Into the Technology Trap

It's just human nature. You hung your shingle, paid the rent, and now you need all that shiny new technology to make your practice hum. It will go out and club potential clients over the head and drag 'em back to your office with checkbooks in hand. "Please, oh wise and technologically gifted one, take my money!" I had this dream once too, and have a veritable bone yard of gadgets and shelfware lying around as evidence. So does fellow SmallLaw columnist Pete Armstrong.

I've got countless programs that didn't do what I needed. I have a premium Evernote account I had forgotten about until it auto-renewed for $40! But perhaps the most shining example is the Livescribe pen I picked up last year for about $200. This little gem uses special paper (read $$) that a camera in the pen picks up and translates my writing into searchable text that is linked to an audio recording of what was said at that particular second. It works great, but it hasn't paid the bills. I thought it would serve me well in court as I took notes because if I missed something I could just tap the note and hear the audio from that second. In reality I don't have time to take notes. I think better on my feet — on the fly. Had I known that I could have saved some coin.

Balance the cost of the technology with the learning curve, and a take hard look at your true use for the tool. A prime example is my Web site. I spent a long time last year creating it from scratch. It looked awful, and my site lay in useless ruin for quite awhile. I had spent 100 bucks on Web hosting and had nothing to show for it. Had I used my balancing test up front I would have gotten with the times and used something like WordPress from the beginning. Now the site is functional and looks professional.

A final note on technology — do your homework. A good place to ask questions is of course Technolawyer's Answers to Questions newsletter as well as Solosez from the ABA — and the past searchable archives of both. They're chock full of answers to everything from accounting systems to smartphones — and in the case of Solosez lots more such as bicycles!

3. Communicate

Communication is the most important lesson to learn. A wise person once told me that procrastination is rooted in fear. I never put this aphorism into perspective until I started my practice.

I would put off phone calls with clients because I knew that they were not going to be happy with what I told them, or I just didn't have any updates. In reality your client doesn't really care if you know anything or not. They just find comfort in the fact that you're thinking about them and their case.

Brand new lawyers will ask about malpractice insurance. The best malpractice insurance is to communicate with your clients! It's a pain in practice, but it's part of the job. My advice is to take a day each week and chalk it up as a loss. Spend that day making phone calls, jail visits, and writing letters.

I have certain clients who aren't happy no matter what miracle I work for them. Others I could slap with horrible news and they would thank me. It's kind of like publicity — even bad communication is good communication. The bottom line is that as long as your clients understand and believe that they can reach you when they need you they will have faith in you and tell their friends.

Conclusion

If you've thought about striking out on your own, now is the time. The economy may still be tanking, but advances in technology for the small firm practitioner have opened the door of what was once boutique law with a sledgehammer. It's a frustrating, fulfilling, and terrifying experience that I highly recommend to all lawyers!

Written by Gadsden, Alabama lawyer Clark Stewart.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.