Tech Savvy Cost Reductions

Florida commercial litigation lawyer Marc Dobin wrote an informative article for law.com on cost saving tech solutions for smaller firms.

Starting with securing a firm's web presence, Dobin recommends GoDaddy.com, which offers domain name registration, very low cost web hosting, and has tremendous customer service to assist the novices.

While GoDaddy also offers adequate, free website templates, Dobin points to justia.net for the free version of their search engine optimized websites specifically for law firms. According to the article: "It is a template-based, form-based, legal-specific website, but is very professional looking and has good SEO. It is probably 75 percent of what I would want with a website with 0 percent of the cost."

For the firm's blog, he utilized the free Google product blogger.com, and then he registered his blog's domain name to protect against domain name poachers.

For email he turned to another Google product at Google Business Solutions that provides email accounts that function just like Gmail accounts -- but they also allow a firm to use their registered domain name.

The Google Business email accounts also have POP3 access, so IPhones and BlackBerries can access the mailbox.

Rather than a land-line fax, Dobin highlights unityfax.com -- a site that allows you to send and receive faxes (using a traditional fax number) via the web or email. For only $4.99 a month for unlimited inbound faxes, it is cheaper than a fax line and you can keep your fax number permanently (in fact, they can even port your existing fax number).

Dobin explains the way unityfax operates: "The faxes are sent to an e-mail address that can then forward them, using a Google Mail filter, to any user on the domain." And because the faxes are received as PDFs, they can be read on your computer or smartphone.

And for document delivery, he recommends yousendit.com, which allows password protected large volume delivery of electronic documents. You can send up to 2 GB of files in a password protected zip folder for $3.99, which is a significant savings over Fed-Exing hard copies.

As every legacy form of communication and marketing now offers a digital complement or alternative, Mr. Dobin underscores the advantage enjoyed by the technologically savvy.

Ernst & Young's Global GC on the Evolution of the Business of Law

Each week there seems to be a new indication of the evolution of the business of law.

This past week, American Lawyer.com posted a video of a conversation with Ernst & Young's Global General Counsel, Trevor Faure, discussing the future of the law firm model, as well as the client model.

Some of the highlights of the interview include:

• Currently, GC's are facing the application of world class business methodology to the practice of law.

• Attorneys across the board are being asked to increase coverage, compliance, and client satisfaction, while minimizing costs and stabilizing headcount.

• To do this, attorneys need to -- on some level -- define, measure, and analyze elements of the business, including financial efficiency.

• If GC doesn't address the issues of efficiency, then Finance or Procurement will.

• While lawyers may be conservative by nature -- and perhaps not the most comfortable with data and financial management -- they are nonetheless facing demands for financial efficiency driven by globalization.

• The challenge for lawyers is to become business astute, which means facing the imperative of translating complex, subjective, unpredictable services into some sort of metric-based management.

• This challenge applies to every size of law firm or general counsel.

• Even when the economy completely rebounds, the re-evaluation of the attorney/client relationship is not going to revert to pre-recession status, because...

• Globalization is a one-way street. The movement of capital around the world seeking the highest return is resulting in both law firms and clients building and designing efficiencies that they are not likely to give back.

Corporate-Minded Law

September's ABA Journal has a feature story on the growing momentum of private equity legal-service companies taking market share away from the traditional law school model.

According to the article, "Backed by institutions, private investors and hedge funds, these entrepreneurs and financiers employ a growing legion of lawyers in the United States and offshore."

"Even though their enterprises don't counsel clients—they are prohibited from doing so by the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct—they are changing expectations about how legal services are priced and delivered."

The common denominator for these legal service companies' business models is the unbundling of traditional legal disciplines and then providing specific efficiencies.

• Some drive down costs by automating routine legal tasks.

• Others assemble dedicated teams of lawyers for in-house legal departments to draft simple contracts, review documents and conduct research.

• Still others use proprietary models to predict probable outcomes in complex commercial litigation, then contract to finance the most promising cases, freeing up corporate litigants' capital for other uses.

This emerging hybrid of lawyer-entrepreneurs "speak a language investors understand. Rather than profits per partner, they talk about market share and return on invested capital. They converse as easily about finance, technology and management as finer points of law. And their enterprises produce steady returns even when unemployment soars and stock markets tank."

The Return of Legal Rebels

The ABA Journal started their Legal Rebel's project last fall, with a manifesto announcing their commitment to innovation in the legal profession, questioning the status quo, and using technology to serve clients and society.

After an eight month hiatus, the Legal Rebels site looks to be back in the saddle, with profiles featuring a slew of innovative and off-the-beaten-path approaches to the business of law.

Included in the updates are:

• A young lawyer who purchased a 100-year-old firm on craigslist and is now thriving in a small town.

• Continued coverage of SoloCorps.

• The story of an ex-prison guard's path to law school.

• The need for bookkeeping skills in a solo practice.

• How the lessons of military intelligence apply to a solo practitioner.

Add these to the 50 existing profiles, which weigh in heavily on technology, and the Legal Rebels project remains an important look at the stew of ideas shaping the next generation of lawyers.

SoloCorps

With a wink and a nod to the classic movie "Blues Brothers", Carolyn Elefant and Lisa Solomon kick off their road trip with: "It's 529 miles to Omaha, we've got two fully-charged laptop batteries, a Kodak Zi8, it's hot and we're wearing sunglasses."

This is SoloCorps, a multi-armed social media project organized by two East Coast entrepreneurial solo practitioners who set out to explore the "the rich range of experiences of solos and small firm lawyers across the country."

Lisa and Carolyn's posts at myshingle.com provide an overview of the project, which inlcudes attending solo-themed conferences and capturing the stories and experiences of like-minded attorneys. As Lisa writes:

"As lawyers, we’re all constantly telling stories, whether we’re making an impassioned closing argument before a jury or just swapping war stories over drinks after work. And, as longtime members of Solosez, Carolyn and I have witnessed, time and again, experienced lawyers helping newer ones by sharing stories of what they’ve been through over the years."

"As you’ve probably read a million times, the legal profession is in a state of upheaval, with conventional law jobs being lost each day and biglaw on the demise. Yet out of this turmoil, the solo experience endures and inspires."

Part mentoring program and part documentation of the different approaches to being a solo or small firm, you can view travelogue videos and interviews with lawyers (topics range from Alternative Legal Careers to Going Solo After Big Law to IP to general interviews) on their blog.

Follow the project on Twitter (hashtag #soloheart)

Or meet up with the SoloCorp project September 29 - October 1 at the 7th Annual Solo and Small Firm Institute in Grand Rapids, MI.