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As developers of a cloud-based law practice management and client communications system, we here at MyCase love to read and learn everything there is to know about cloud computing. So we make it a point to follow cloud computing trends, both generally and as they affect the legal field.

To that end, here’s our round up of some of our favorite posts about cloud computing from the past few weeks:

• Moving to the Cloud (ABA GPSolo Magazine)
• Law Firms and Cloud Computing (The Law Gazette)
• California Lawyers May Operate Virtual Law Practices in the Cloud (Legalethics.com)
• Cloud Computing: Who Owns the Servers That Will House Your Law Firm’s Data? (Lawyerist)
• Lawyers Say They Like Storing Data Online (ABA Journal)

–Nicole Black

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The United States has 1.25 million lawyers, and the perception from a regular stream of news stories suggests that is far too many.  Old and prestigious law firms have failed, lawyer layoffs have continued, law school graduates have sued their schools for misleading them about employment chances, and (according toThe New York Times) law school admissions for the upcoming 2013 academic year are headed for a 30-year low (down 38 percent from 2010).

However, the reality is that these headlines, all focus on “BigLaw” – the large corporate firms with many hundreds or even thousands of lawyers. While doom-sayers proclaim that the legal profession’s problem is too many lawyers, demand for legal services is still very large among the Main Street folks who can’t pay $1,000 an hour legal fees. These people need and will continue to need help with wills, divorces, taxes and house purchases. Such customers offer a lot of work to firms with costs flexible enough to be affordable.

What work will these lawyers do? It’s an undeniable fact that as society becomes more litigious, lawyers must deal with new causes of action all the time, and these affect the lives of everyday people.  Here is just one example.  In Los Angeles last year, the owner of a Honda Civic hybrid won an unusual Small Claims Court lawsuit against the auto giant for misleading statements about the high mileage her hybrid was supposed to, but did not, get. Experts said this judgment could transform product liability litigation nationwide for informed plaintiffs with a good small firm lawyer who can bring an individual lawsuit, rather than an expensive class action.

The point here is not so much the court action itself, but the fact that such causes of action affect the everyday lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people around the country.  Such people will need lawyers to help them.  The mega law firms with many hundreds or even thousands of lawyers may serve the 1% of the corporate world that is relentlessly pushing them for fee and overhead reductions. But, there will be a large group of customers – the 99% – who need sole practitioners and small firms

There is plenty of work available for those small firms that are affordable in their cost structures and nimble enough in their legal analysis.  Legislators have to justify their existence and continue to write new laws, providing work for lawyers to interpret these laws and advise their clients on their benefits or perils. Clients still look to lawyers when they need help or want to right a wrong.  The market is there for those lawyers who give up the perception that success as a lawyer means billing $1,000 an hour and making a million dollars a year – and who accept the reality that charging an affordable fee to help everyday people is a good way to make a living.

Edward Poll, J.D., M.B.A., CMC, coaches and consults attorneys throughout the country in the areas of starting and operating a law practice, strategic planning, profitability analysis, and practice development. He blogs at LawBiz, is a syndicated columnist and regular contributor to several major legal publications. His latest book, Life After Law: What Will You Do With the Next 6,000 Days? has received national recognition for helping lawyers plan for the time they decide to leave the practice of law. Ed is a Fellow, College of Law Practice Management®, Board Certified Coach to the Legal Profession, SAC® .  

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Lately, the blogosphere has been abuzz over the idea of legal education reform, in large part due to the recent release of Stephen Harper’s book “The Lawyer Bubble.” In his book, Harper discusses what he believes to be a looming crisis facing the legal profession, caused in part by the ailing economy and our profession’s failure to respond to the changing times. He suggests, among other things, that solutions include revising law firm structures and reforming legal education, in part by incorporating “practical skills” into law school teachings.

So when a My Shingle post from 2011 written by my co-author, Carolyn Elefant about whether law schools failed to properly train law students popped up in my RSS feed, it struck me as very apropos. In it, Carolyn argues that solo lawyers don’t require special skills training in law school, since “creating separate practice tracks for big law and solos would widen the chasm even further.”

But she goes on to suggest that “(i)ntegrating practical skills (for example, contract drafting into Contract Law) would improve law school further, as would incorporating discussion of ethical issues into substantive law classes instead of ghettoizing it as an independent unit void of context.” In other words, the practical aspects of lawyering should not be overlooked when designing a 21st century law school curriculum.

Fast forward to 2013 and the debate rages on when it comes to integrating practical skills with substantive teachings. For example, at the Legal Skills Prof Blog, Professor Scott Frueweld, in the context of discussing the book “The Lawyer Bubble,” explains that, despite the argument of one of his colleagues to the contrary, practical skills training should be an important part of every law student’s law school experience, since “classes that are labeled ‘skills classes’ bring about deeper learning of concepts. Skills teachers do not teach skills in a vacuum. Skills must be taught in a knowledge domain, such as civil procedure or fair use.”

So, despite the passage of 2 years, many continue to believe that the importance of revamping legal education to include “practical skills” is paramount. However, one thing struck me as I read through the legal education reform posts about the inclusion of “practical skills”– that business and law practice management skills are rarely discussed.

For some reason business and law practice management skills take the perpetual backseat to “lawyering” skills and, of course, to substantive skills. So much so that they’re not often taught in law school, or are relegated to a single 2 or 3 credit class–in large part because, as noted in “The Lawyer Bubble,” most law schools are incentivized to prepare students for careers in large law firms, despite the fact that at least 63% of lawyers practice law in small law firms.

As a result, law students graduate from law school with little, if any, practical business knowledge, technology expertise, or law practice management experience. This leaves bar associations with the burden of bridging the legal education gap by forming law practice management sections devoted to teaching lawyers the nuts and bolts of running a law practice.

Of course, the bar associations’ efforts are simply stop gap measures and last ditch efforts to attempt to supplement insufficient legal educations. Instead of relying on bar associations to teach basic business skills, law schools should lead the way and anticipate and serve the needs of their graduates by teaching important law practice management skills to their students.

Whether this will happen anytime soon is anyone’s guess. Criticisms of the current system are nothing new, but even so, legal education reform has been slow going. So for now, lawyers will have to take it upon themselves to ensure that they’re fully armed with the necessary law practice management and practical skills needed to run a successful law practice. And bar association programs are a great place to start this educational process.

But even so, let’s hope that the mounting pressures on the legal industry discussed in the “Legal Bubble” will serve to spur much-needed change, both in our profession’s long standing, but outdated, traditions and in the curriculums of law schools.

Let’s hope. That being said, I’m not sure about you, but I’m not holding my breath.

–Nicole Black

Today’s app is Google Now, which has been available for Android devices for some time now, but was just released for iOS devices last month. This app is Google’s intelligent personal assistant that is designed to provide you with the information most relevant to your daily life, right on your smartphone.

Like Siri, Apple’s personal assistant, the Google Now app responds to voice commands and also provides “information cards” catered to your needs, based on your interaction with your phone. The information is gleaned from your phone’s GPS data and the data that Google has collected regarding your search history. It then personalizes its results and predicts which “information cards” will be most useful to you.

So, for example, I’ve been using it for the past week and based upon my usage, it provides “cards” of relevant information, including traffic directions and conditions from my current location to my home, information about packages being delivered to me, the weather for my current location, and restaurants located nearby.

Of course, in order to increase the usefulness of the app, you must necessarily give up some of your privacy to Google. So, when I turned on the Google Now features, I was given the option to allow Google to save my search history, a setting I had previously disabled for privacy reasons. Since I wanted to see what this app could do, I chose to enable this setting and allow my searches to be saved for now. But it is important that you are cognizant of, and carefully consider, the privacy risks presented when using this app.

That being said, I think this app has a lot of potential. It’s free for both Android and iOS devices and is included as part of the Google Search mobile app, available for Android devices here and iOS devices here.

–Nicole Black

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Bar disciplinary actions–they’re something every lawyer worries about. The good news is that the most common client complaints that lead to disciplinary actions can be easily avoided by using innovative 21st century tools–such as legal case management software–designed to help you stay on top of your busy law practice and change the way that you do business.

But first, what are the biggest reasons for client complaints? According to Todd Scott at the  RU@Risk blog, lack of organization and failure to communicate with clients are among the leading reasons behind many ethics complaints: “Allegations of lawyer incompetence, disorganization, having a conflict of interest or not properly communicating with the client dominate many of the ethics complaints clients make against lawyers when they are unsatisfied with their matter outcome.”

The good news is that legal case management software makes it easy to avoid these types of claims. As Scott explains:

(C)ase management software is in a class of its own for organizing a law office that may otherwise be in disarray…

A basic case management system will replace paper calendars, rolodexes, timesheets, notepads, manual tickler systems, and telephone message pads.

But sophisticated case management software programs can do more than just help keep your law firm organized; more robust programs can change the way that you serve your clients, while simultaneously solving the client communication problem as well.

Regular client contact is the key to happy clients, as Jared Correia recently explained at the Attorney at Work blog. He recommends that you ensure that you regularly contact your clients about their cases, even if nothing new has happened:

A main ingredient of the vast majority of bar complaints circles around lawyers’ poor communication cycles with clients…One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a lawyer is only talking to your clients when you need something from them, or when they call to yell at you. Set up a protocol to contact your clients on a recurring pattern, just to check in.

And that’s where effective legal case management software with built-in client portals comes in. Using online portals, your clients have instantaneous access to information about their cases and can quickly and easily find answers to many of their most common questions. They’ll no longer need to contact you to find out their next court date or obtain a copy of a document from their file.

Instead, your clients will have 24/7 access to their files and can use their client portal to get whatever information they need, right when they need it–even if it’s the middle of the night. And, that leads to happy clients, as Mark Brenner, a MyCase customer, recently explained:

 “In California you can actually get sanctioned by the Bar for not adequately communicating with your client…That risk has been virtually eliminated with MyCase because my clients are always notified whenever I work on a case. And my clients feel validated by the notification. As a result, my index of dissatisfied clients has simply disappeared. All of my clients feel like they are my only client–and it’s all because of MyCase.”

That’s why the right legal case management software can change your law practice. You no longer have to struggle to stay organized and in touch with your clients. Instead, case management software simplifies your practice, making it easier than ever for you to efficiently run your busy practice and focus what really matters: practicing law and achieving good outcomes for your clients.

–Nicole Black

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We here at MyCase love to read and learn everything there is to know about law practice management. So we make it a point to follow blogs that focus on law practice management in the 21st Century. And, every few weeks, we’ll share some of the posts that we found to be most interesting.

So now, for your reading pleasure–our wrap up of some of our favorite posts from the past few weeks:

•  Your Practice Should Fit Your Personality — (Lawyerist) — Randall Ryder provides some useful advice for new solos
• Decisions to Make Before You Start Your Own Practice — (Divorce Discourse) — Food for thought from Lee Rosen about starting your own practice
• Top Apps that Lawyers Should Have — (Criminal Defence Blawg) — Brianna Jones recommends some of her favorite mobile apps for lawyers
• Make Mine to Go — (Slaw) — Catherine Sanders Reach provides useful advice for creating effective mobile sites for law firms
• The stress of being a solo practitioner — (Solo Contendre) — Dan Heilman describes the downfalls of being a solo lawyer–and how to manage them better.

–Nicole Black

The First App for Lawyers and Their Clients

This app is truly the first of its kind. It allows both lawyers and their clients to access case information on the go, no matter where they might be. Using the MyCase app for lawyers, your clients can download the app onto their iPhones or iPads and then log into the MyCase platform using MyCase’s secure and private client portal.

Once your clients log in, based on the permissions that you set, they have access to:

• Calendars
• Documents
• Billing data and invoices
• Messages

The client communications features are one of the highlights of the MyCase platform. And, of course the MyCase app makes it easier than ever for you and your clients to communicate securely and privately, all in one place. Not only is accessing the mobile app simple and convenient, the client portal saves you and your clients time and money in so many ways:

• You’re able to avoid emailing with clients, which is inherently unsecure, by communicating using MyCase’s secure portal
• All of your clients’ comments and discussions are in one place–and you receive real-time notification of new activity
• The secure client portal is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• The real-time activity streams eliminate time consuming and annoying “phone tag”

The Freedom to Practice Law on Your Terms

Cloud and mobile computing are the keys to managing your busy law practice no matter matter what time of day–and no matter where you are. And, the MyCase app is what makes it possible for lawyers to have 21st century, mobile law offices.

That’s because MyCase’s FREE app for lawyers provides you with access to all of the MyCase features that you use the most. Using the iPad or iPhone app, you can:

• Create new tasks
• Input calendar events
• Submit billing entries
• Enter new contacts
• Send secure messages to clients and colleagues
• Receive real-time notifications of new activity
• Access Documents

In other words, welcome to the convenience, flexibility and security of the modern law firm! With the MyCase app for lawyers, no matter where you are, you’ll have everything you need to run your law office–right in the palm of your hand. Cloud and mobile computing provide the groundwork and the MyCase app makes it possible.

So what are you waiting for? Download the free MyCase app today. Your firm’s bottom line–and your clients–will thank you.

When her son turned 13, she decided she wanted to go to law school: “Sappy as it sounds I became a lawyer because I was inspired by ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ I was intrigued by the practice of law and it was something that I’d always wanted to do.”

So, she sat her son down and discussed her aspiration to become a lawyer with him. After obtaining his blessing, they moved so that she could make her dream of becoming an attorney come true. The rest, as they say, is history.

All in the family

Angela is now a sole practitioner in Florida, where her law practice, Sigman Law Firm, P.A., is focused mainly on mortgage foreclosure defense. She opened the firm in 2011 after working for 2 small Florida law firms. From the very start, her firm was family run. According to Angela, it’s one thing that sets her firm apart from others: “We’re different because we’re a family run firm. My mom started out as my office manager and now my husband is my office manager. It’s really interesting to be run by family members and to be able to work together to make the firm a success.”

It’s all about improving her clients’ lives

For Angela, one of the most rewarding aspects of being a lawyer is helping her clients through difficult times. She explains: “When I’m able to help other people, it’s all worthwhile. But my job can be frustrating at times because you can’t always help people as much as you’d like–sometimes the law gets in the way.”

Even so, she always tries to achieve the best outcomes for her clients and does everything that she can to improve their lives. She explains: “I have a picture with a quote hanging in my conference room because I think that some of my clients who are going through difficult times might be able to relate.  It says: ‘Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.’”

The move to the cloud–and to MyCase

For Angela, a cloud-based law practice management solution was the only option. “I do a lot of work from outside the office,” she explains. “So it helps to have everything in one place no matter where I am, whether it’s home, court, or somewhere else. The cloud makes it possible.”

Choosing the right law practice management software was extremely important to her. As a result, she carefully explored all of her options, eventually choosing MyCase: “I did a ridiculous amount of research and was actually using Clio at first. But there were some key features that it just didn’t have. So after conducting more research, I started using MyCase.”

MyCase–it’s all about the features

And she’s never looked back. That’s because she can’t imagine running her law practice without MyCase. She explains: “It’s helped tremendously in terms of keeping everything organized. I particularly like the task manager because it helps keep things organized and saves me a ton of time.  The timekeeping features are helpful as well. Being able to go to one place and get everything done–that’s the best part about MyCase.”

According to Angela, another invaluable feature is MyCase’s client portal. She couldn’t imagine her practice without it because it improves client communication immensely. ”The feedback from clients has been great in terms of communication. Also helpful is that they’re able to upload documents and share them across the system,” she says. “And from my perspective, it’s much easier to communicate using the client portal. I especially like that I can see when a client logs in. That way I know the client saw the document, which is such an improvement over email, where you never know if they received it or looked at it. And I love that they can comment on it as well, so we can go back and forth about the document and it’s all in one place.”

Advice for new solos

After running her own firm for 2 years, Angela’s learned a thing or two. When asked if she had any advice for new solos, she immediately replied: “One thing I’ve learned after opening a solo practice is that if you handle too many types of matters you can easily get overwhelmed . So I really try to narrow it down to the areas I enjoy. It helps a lot to focus on a few areas you’re really interested in because if you don’t it becomes too time consuming to work on cases that involve unfamiliar areas of law that you’ll never work on again.”

Making the world a better place

As if she didn’t already have enough on her plate, Angela has grand plans to use her law firm to help those who are less fortunate in her community. She explains that “one of my goals is to start a non-profit that is somehow connected to my firm which would help local charities by taking a percentage of our profits. I also envision holding other fund raising events through the non-profit. So that is another one of my goals–to get that going and make a positive difference in the lives of people who live in our area.”

So, it should come as no surprise that when I asked Angela how she would like to be remembered, she answered “As someone who was compassionate.” Indeed.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, you’ve decided to head out on your own and start your own law firm, but have no idea where to start. Well, worry no more! There are plenty of resources available to newly solo lawyers, both online and offline. Whether you’re looking for information on the nuts and bolts of setting up your office  or are researching your legal software and technology options, there is a vast array of information designed to get you on the right track. So, let’s get started.

Books

There are a number of great books about the ins and outs of starting your own law firm. These books walk you through everything you need to know when starting a law practice:

• First, there’s the recently updated Solo By Choice: How to be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be and the Solo By Choice, the Companion Guide, both written by solo guru Carolyn Elefant.
• Another option is  Solo Contendere: How to Go Directly from Law School Into the Practice of Law Without Getting a Job written by Marc Garfinkle.
• And finally, there’s the old standby How to Start and Build a Law Practice authored by Jay Foonberg.

Blogs

Of course, there are a number of great law blogs devoted to solo and small firm attorneys which cover topics ranging from marketing and technology to law practice management issues. Here are a few of the most useful blogs for solo and small firm lawyers:

• Attorney at Work–a group blog covering a wide range of topics relevant to running a small firm practice
• Lawyerist–another group blog devoted to providing information useful to solo and small firm lawyers
• Solo in Colo–A blog by a solo attorney in Colorado that focuses on practical resources for solo attorneys
• My Shingle–Carolyn Elefant’s long-standing, extremely helpful blog devoted to all things solo.

Online forums and resource centers

Aside from blogs, there are a number of other online resources available for solo and small firm practitioners. First off, don’t overlook the solo practice listservs and groups offered by your local or state bar associations. And, in addition to those resources, here are a few of the more well-traveled online resources created for solo attorneys:

• Solosez–A listserv for solos sponsored by the GPSolo section of the ABA
• LAB–A forum for solo and small firm lawyers sponsored by the Lawyerist blog
• Findlaw’s “How to Start a Law Firm” page–Findlaw provides free resources for solo and small law firm lawyers who are considering hanging up a shingle
• Solo Practice University–An online university designed to teach lawyers how to open up and run a solo practice
• Google + Communities devoted to solos–SoloSmallTech and The Solo Lawyer.

Technology Resources

Technology is at the heart of every 21st century law firm. This is especially the case for solo firms, since cloud-based law practice management software and mobile technologies make it possible for solo attorneys to compete with larger firms in ways never before possible. So learning about new and emerging technologies is an important part of opening and operating a solo practice. Here are a few great places to start:

• Google + community–Cloud Computing for Lawyers is a community devoted to legal technology, including cloud computing, and its use in law practices
• MILO group–A Google group for solos and small firm lawyers who use Apple products in their firms
• ABA Legal Technology Resource Center–The ABA provides lawyers with a wealth of information related to using technology in a law office
• ABA Technology books–The ABA’s Law Practice Management Section publishes a large number of legal technology books designed to teach lawyers about law software, emerging technologies, online security, and more.

Conferences

Last but not least, don’t forget about the assortment of great legal conferences aimed at solos. These are fantastic educational and networking opportunities. So choose to attend one of two of these and invest in your practice and your future:

• ABA Solo and Small Firm annual conference
• State Bar solo and small firm conferences
• ABA Techshow

So if you’re thinking about hanging out a shingle, there’s plenty of information out there to help you establish a solo practice that works for you. So why wait? Seize the day and turn your dream of starting a solo law firm into a reality.

–Nicole Black