Practice Management

2010 ABA Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering

Posted on March 26, 2010
  This year’s 2010 ABA Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering was awarded to the Rosen Law Firm.  Lee Rosen was presented the award by eLawyering Task Force co-chair Richard Lauritsen at the keynote luncheon at Techshow yesterday.  Following the presentation, Ari Kaplan was the keynote speaker discussing the convergence of technology and marketing...

Technology at Techshow to Enable Online Delivery of Legal Services

Posted on March 25, 2010
  Exhibitor Hall at this year’s ABA Techshow has a number of different web-based technologies that allow  for attorneys to take all or portions of their practice online.  Most of them seem to be practice management applications, and not so much geared towards working online securely with clients...

Clearing Up the Terminology Before TECHSHOW

Posted on March 24, 2010
  TECHSHOW is here.  Some of the buzz this year is related to cloud computing, SaaS and web-based technologies that take aspects of law practice management online.  There are a lot of terms thrown around when discussing these topics.  One of them is “virtual law practice”...

Microblogging about VLOs

Posted on March 17, 2010
Yesterday Martindale Hubbell’s Connected kicked off an event centered around virtual law firms with a two-hour Twitter conversation hosted by Larry Bodine.  You can read through all of the tweets by running a search for #MHVT on your Twitter account...

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Upcoming Events in March Related to Virtual Law Practice

Posted on March 01, 2010
The South Carolina Bar Association is hosting a session entitled “The Virtual Law Office: Making it Work for You”, Friday, March 12 at 9:00am.  This session, taught by yours truly, will be a live webcast or if you are in Columbia, South Carolina, please join us at the Bar Center...

Residency Requirements and the Virtual Law Practice

Posted on February 26, 2010
  I’ve been reading with interest the case of Attorney Ekaterina Schoenefeld who filed a lawsuit against the State of New York claiming that by requiring an attorney to maintain a physical law office in the state, New York law discriminates unconstitutionally against attorneys who are out-of-state...

Family Favorite Award Winner for the 4th Year in a Row

Posted on February 17, 2010
  I’m excited to announce that my virtual law office has won the Wilmington Parent Family Favorite Award under the category of “attorney” for the fourth year in a row!  This award means a lot to me because it comes from my clients.  I took a risk going solo and then again by starting a completely web-based practice...

Presentation on Virtual Law Practice for Ethics Commission 20/20

Posted on February 07, 2010
The ABA’s Commission on Ethics 20/20 held a public hearing at the ABA’s Mid-year conference in Orlando, Florida to discuss topics related to their Preliminary Issues Outline.  On Friday, I was honored to be invited to speak to the commission about virtual law practice...

Reminders for Avoiding Malpractice in Virtual Law Practice

Posted on January 25, 2010
  This past Friday I attended a Law Practice Management Section Council meeting at the NCBA Bar Center.  This is the first meeting I’ve attended in person. Usually I am on conference call and booming my thoughts to the group via voice box.   Thanks to the Chair, Lee Rosen, these meetings are about the least boring I’ve [...

Contributing to the Lawyerist

Posted on January 24, 2010
  I’m happy to announce that I will be a contributor to the Lawyerist.com blog.  Here’s my intro post.  An article on unbundling legal services with a virtual law practice should post sometime next week.  If anyone has requests for topics related to virtual law practice that they would like for me to cover on this [...

Drawing the Line ? What a Virtual Law Practice is Not

Posted on January 13, 2010
Defining virtual law practice and the delivery of legal services online by licensed professionals is becoming ever more important as the market continues to fill with companies offering various forms of online legal services.  Two of the biggest concerns that surround these companies include the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) and misleading the public...

Recent AZ Bar Ethics Opinion Discusses eLawyering Methods

Posted on January 07, 2010
  The Arizona State Bar has published Ethics Opinion 09-04 “Confidentiality; Maintaining Client Files; Electronic Storage; Internet” in December 2009.  This opinion will apply to attorneys operating virtual law practices within the AZ Bar jurisdiction and is similar to the NC Bar 2008 Formal Ethics Opinion 5, Web-based Management of Client Records published July 2008...

Happy New Year ? Going on Year 4

Posted on December 31, 2009
Happy New Year!   I reviewed many of the virtual law practice news from 2009 in my last post.  In this post I want to look forward to the year ahead by providing some news about my own virtual law office and upcoming speaking/sharing engagements. 2010 will mark year four of owning my own solo, virtual law [...

2009 Recap of Virtual Law Practice

Posted on December 23, 2009
  This year has brought the legal profession closer to the acceptance of virtual law practice as a method of delivering legal services through the use of technology.  Virtual law practices are improving access to and affordability of legal services to the general public...

Lawyerist Guest Post on Setting Up a Virtual Law Office

Posted on December 18, 2009
My guest post for the Lawyerist, Adding a Virtual Law Office to your Practice, went up today.   From the post: Delivering legal services online is a growing method of law practice management as both attorneys and clients find ways to benefit from the use of the technology...

Virtual Law Practice Teleconference and Live Audio Webcast

Posted on November 30, 2009
This upcoming Thursday, December 17 at 1pm EST, Richard Granat, Marc Lauritsen and myself will be co-presenting a CLE teleconference and live audio webcast entitled “The Virtual Law Firm: Benefits, Costs and Ethical Pitfalls to Avoid.”   It is sponsored by the American Bar Association LPM Section and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education...

Technology eReport: Setting Up a Web-Based Virtual Law Office

Posted on November 20, 2009
Check out my article in the November issue of the ABA GP/Solo & Small Firm Technology eReport: Setting Up a Web-based Virtual Law Office.  From the article: Consumers are actively seeking more affordable and convenient access to legal services over the Internet...

Minimum Requirements for Delivering Legal Services Online

Posted on November 18, 2009
Co-chairs of the ABA eLawyering Task Force, Marc Lauritsen and Richard Granat, have submitted a draft set of minimum requirements for delivering legal services online which was published in this month’s Law Practice Today.  As a member of the Task Force, we have discussed these minimum requirements as a set of guidelines that attorneys will be able to [...

Does Your Virtual Law Practice Need a Phone Number?

Posted on November 16, 2009
When I first opened my virtual law office almost four years ago, I wanted to handle every aspect of my practice online.  With most of my client base, this worked fine and was what they preferred as well.  I have an estate planning and small business setup practice and the majority of my clients are [...

Keane Award Nomination Info Available

Posted on November 16, 2009
The updated materials for the ABA Jim Keane Award for Excellence in ELawyering have been posted on the ABA website for the 2010 Techshow and on the ELawyering Task Force website.  Requirements to be considered for the award are listed as well as an online nomination form...

Response to ?Ethical Pitfalls of Virtual Law Practice?

Posted on November 10, 2009
This past week an article came out in Lawyers USA Online entitled, “Ethical pitfalls of virtual law practice.”   The article discusses some of the ethics risks that exist in this form of law practice.  However, there are a number of safe-guards and smart practices that an attorney may engage in to avoid these “ethical pitfalls...

Excellence in eLawyering: ABA Keane Award Nominations

Posted on November 03, 2009
It’s that time of year again to consider sending in your nominations for the ABA’s James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering. The Award is presented by the Law Practice Management Section’s eLawyering Task Force at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago at the end of March...

?In the Meantime?? ? Temporary Operation of a Virtual Law Office

Posted on October 28, 2009
  Over the past year I?ve spoken with attorneys who have been laid off from Biglaw firms and are seeking new positions or attorneys who have just passed the bar and are having trouble finding a position to launch their legal careers.  Both groups of individuals are working hard to establish or reinvent themselves within the [...

Susskind Predicts: ?Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change?

Posted on October 19, 2009
  Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, has written a guest post for the Legal Rebels blog entitled “Disaster Ahead for Lawyers Unwilling to Change. “   Susskind looks at changes in the profession as well as the impact that the economic recession has had on our clients...

Online Drafting Resources for your Virtual Law Practice

Posted on October 16, 2009
  One of the most useful methods of teaching yourself how to draft legal documents is to read a variety of samples.  If you’re a virtual solo, you may not have had the previous experience of a traditional firm’s files to learn from.  And let?s face the truth ? your client has most likely gone online and searched [...

Social Networking Policies for a Virtual Law Practice

Posted on June 14, 2009
Last week I gave a brief presentation for the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP) about developing policies for online social networking. While researching for the presentation and round table discussion, it occurred to me that having a policy in place for social networking is a wise idea for a virtual law practice...

Transitioning with a Virtual Law Practice

Posted on June 05, 2009
Over the past couple weeks I have spoken with two or three attorneys who have been  laid off from their positions at large law firms.  A couple of them knew that the practices of their BigLaw firms were not sustainable in this economic environment and had the foresight to pad their savings...

Article Notes Rise in Virtual Law Firms

Posted on May 25, 2009
Today’s Legal Technology section over at Law.com has an article about the increasing number of solo practitioners who are profiting from going virtual.  As I’ve blogged about in the fall of last year, operating a virtual law office is a great way for a solo or small law firm to compete in this difficult economy...

Twitter and the Virtual Law Office

Posted on May 05, 2009
  I’ve been using Twitter on almost a daily basis since last summer as @StephKimbro.  I started using it out of curiosity and am at over 1400 updates.  I have met many new people both in the legal profession and in other industries through Twitter...

Spring Virtual Law Office Update

Posted on April 24, 2009
By now the word has circulated that the ABA Techshow website has posted the audio file from Richard Susskind’s keynote presentation at the ABA Techshow in Chicago earlier this month.  I wasn’t able to attend the event and accept the Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in Elawyering...

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