Around the Blogosphere the Week of 12/14/08-12/20/08:Part II- Law Office Management

Continuing my trip around the blogosphere with you, we move on to the Second Part of our Journey Law Office Management and Tech posts.

1. Cornell Univ. Legal Information Institute is a really great service providing case law and statutory law for no cost (but you should donate)to users. LII has a new beta program for attorneys to get referrals from other LII users. Go to the NYS General Practice Section Blog for more information. Oh by the way, did I mention that it is free?

2. Susan Cartier-Liebel's Build a Solo Practice Blogis one of the most popular blogs in the legal world. Susan is the founder of the Solo Practice University a great resource for CLE, "bridge the gap" and "develop a new practice area" learning.

In this blog post she shares a new service that can help a solo (or anyone else) organize the business cards they get, loose receipts, as well as other information. Really it is a scanning operation for your stuff, but if you don't have the time to do it yourself, or you just are not going to do it (or you don't own a scanner) then this service is cost effective. It is called Shoeboxed and it looks pretty interesting. I will be checking out myself before the year is out. You may want to do the same.

3. Susan also has a second post that is very important as money for legal services begins to dry up. In her post "When Pricing Your Legal Services, Remember Your Client" Susan suggests that we might want to start understanding what our potential clients are going through financially, and start to think about how we can help them through this difficult stage in their lives. I think if we are just looking at this problem now, we may be too late, but while not answering any questions, Susan raises the issues that are on our clients pricing minds and makes us think about these issues too. Which leads me too our next post:

4. The Dirty Thirteen, or as the post writer (the modestly named Greatest American Lawyer) calls it, the Thirteen Worst Things About Hourly Billing.

As a long time fan of "Value" billing I see the last two posts going hand in hand. I will have my own Value billing post up in a couple of days (weeks?) and will discuss it further, but I want to say one thing now: In a time of economic uncertainty, the two things a client wants most is a fee certain, and a fair shake. Value billing provides both.

5.Allison Shields is the President of Legal Ease Consulting and is a business consultant for law firms. She also writes another really great legal business blog by the name Legal Ease Blog.(What else would you call it if you were she?)

In her recent post she talks about "When E-mail Isn't Appropriate."

I have to say that I disagree to an extent with Allison. In a day and age where time is money, and money is scarce; where clients complain that lawyers do not communicate enough, I think E-mail, text messaging, and now Twitter Direct messaging, can really reduce client anxiety. I will agree with her on one point however, if you will be bringing important information to a client by electronic medium, it is only fair to the client to make yourself or another in your office available to answer any questions your client may have thereafter.

I find the best way to do this is to send the e-mail late in the day so that the client will get it in the morning (if it is more urgent than that, I pick up the phone.) I then ask that they respond with questions which I can peruse while waiting in court; answer from my blackberry; or call my secretary or associate to help me respond. Then I return calls at the end of the day, or at least I try to. I am not perfect but I am improving.

6.Your best source of new business is your present client. If you are in a practice area that doesn't lend itself to clients who have other legal matters you could work on (like Criminal law for example)then you need to constantly look for new work or referral sources. This post on the Rainmaker Blog gives some excellent suggestions and ideas. It is worth the read.

Well that is two posts down but I have a few more to go. I will have more for you in a little while.

Are You In Or Out Of The "LOOP?": A Product Review

Hello everyone from rainy Florida, my stay in the sunshine state has so far been pretty cloudy. It's been raining and some baggage handler stole my computer, which really sux. Anyone who knows me knows that my computer is an extension of my arm. Fortunately my friend Catrina has offered to help me out and is taking this post down for me. (Everybody shout out to Catrina!)

I. One Product,One Price

OK so why am I so excited that I had to get a blog post out? Because about 2 months ago I ran into a new program that is changing my practice and saving me a ton of money. And I wanted to give it a good try out before I told others about it. The product is called The "LOOP" (Law Office Operating Platform)and after 2 months I can honestly say I LOVE IT!!! What I love about the "LOOP" system is:
1. it is easy to understand,
2. it is easy to enter information into,
3. it provides the total package in one complete program, and
4. even though they continue to add new features, they never raise the price. In fact, their business philosophy is one product at one price.

II.What is The "LOOP?"


Now, the "LOOP" is a combination of client management, task management, contact management, and research management, which is about to be combined with an accounting program that will capture all the work performed on a file. Whether one bills on the hour (something I do not suggest)or one handles his work through a value build system this operating platform will cut the back office costs by 30%. That's not even the best part of this program , the best part of this program is I have reduced my legal research costs by nearly $800.00 a month so far. Here is how it works. At a cost of $79.00 per month per user, I now have access to every statue and case law decision of every state and federal court in the country. Now WestLaw and Lexis charge over $800.00 per month for that privilege. Additionally, this program unlike LoisLaw is easily searchable, as easy to search as WestLaw and Lexis using Boolean and Natural Language. Additionally, with 2 clicks of my mouse I can move the case or the portion of the case I need right into the file or document I am working on. I can also permit my client and/or co-counsel to view this file at any time by assigning them the key code that only goes to that one file. In other words, the "LOOP" has the ability to act as an affordable intranet.(Actually that feature is in beta testing so it is coming, but guess what? It won't change the price!!)


III.Fully Customisable Interface

One of the things I hate about programs that come in a box is that they think one size fits all. There is nothing more annoying than having to try to fit a criminal defense into a client management program that was really designed to be used by personal injury lawyers. Matrimonial cases and Will cases are just fundamentally different. The one size fits all scheme forces me to lose time having to answer a bunch of questions or bypass tasks that have nothing to do with what I am working on. Not the "LOOP"! The "LOOP" system begins by asking you what client information you need and what tasks do you require. Now, I can use some of my buzz words (such as: send a CPL240.20 Notice; as opposed to Discovery Notices, which would be used in a civil case). I can assign tasks to my employees and partners and they can file journal entries as the task becomes completed.

IV. Integration is the Key

By having a platform that customizes all of a clients file within one program, I can easily begin to see patterns among witnesses and cases. The "LOOP" is completely searchable so I can enter the name of a police officer and find out all the cases I have with him. I can enter notes on Prosecutors and Judges and build "a book" on them just like they do in the big firms. I can easily conflict check and finally, I can review tasks and arguments that worked or did not work in other cases similar to the one I am working on. I have yet to see any program that doesn't cost thousands of dollars per year that does this. Most programs like this are out of financial reach for the small and solo practitioners. Now you know why I am excited.

V. 15 Day FREEBIE On Me!

Ok just so you don't think "That Lawyer Dude" is not looking out for his "peeps", I spoke to the President of The "LOOP" and I have arranged for all of my faithful (and you first timers too) Readers to get a FREE 15 day tryout of this thing. If you sign in using this Promotion Code (SB111111) You get the 15 days free. NO STRINGS ATTACHED. So give it a try on good ole' TLD.

Now don't say I never did anything to help you.

Oh yeah one other thing. All the information you place on the "Loop" is stored on their site and backed up on another site far from the first one... That means when some jackass baggage handler from JET BLUE or the Transportation Security Administration (now there is an Oxymoron) steals your laptop, you can still find and use your files. Why? Because The "Loop" works on PDAs and Smartphones. ALL OF THEM (not just I-phones)

I'll be back soon, as soon as I can find a new computer.