“Here’s the reality: The practice of law is changing. And rather than turning a blind eye, I’m going to recommend that you embrace it.”
As someone who works at a legal software company and firmly believes in the power of technology, I completely agree with what Heidi Alexander said at the start of yesterday’s MyCase legal webinar on “The Top 10 Law Practice Management Tips for 2016.”
And this idea of “change” isn’t exclusive to law–it’s everywhere! The “practice” of driving a taxi (you mean Uber?) is changing. The practice of dating (from eHarmony to Tinder) is changing. The practice of travel and staying in hotels (or an Airbnb) is changing. The reality is that the entire world is changing — mostly due to technology — and rather than turning a blind eye to the advancements of technology, you should embrace them!
So, how exactly do you do this?
Heidi says the best advice she can give is that you should avoid doing the same old things over and over — instead you need to innovate (hint: Google Einstein’s thoughts on doing the same thing repeatedly for his definition of insanity).
Okay, so, you know you need to innovate — but how?
Honestly, many of the changes you’ll likely need to implement into your practice will involve technology — so you need to understand it! For starters, staying abreast of changes in technology is now a requirement that was recently added to the comments of the ABA’s Model Rule 1.1 relating to an attorney’s competency and more than 20 state bars have adopted that requirement as well.
So, taking steps to understand technology is good start, but you have to do more than that–you need to actually implement changes. With that goal in mind, in yesterday’s webinar we learned about 10 practice management tips you can put into place in 2016. During the webinar Heidi covered:
- The changing landscape of law today
- How to build out a business plan (roadmap, goals — call it what you want but business planning–even if it is just an exercise–is essential to the health and profitability of your law practice)
- The benefits, tips, and the necessity to go paperless
- How to use automation and outsourcing to streamline your law practice management
- How to manage your practice (securely) on the go
- Much more!
In fact, just to give you an idea of how much information Heidi covers in this webinar, check out the long list of programs and tools below that Heidi discusses during her 60-minute presentation.
Also, we’d like to congratulate Edwin Moberly IV from Bishop, Paxton, Crigler and Moberley for winning the $100 Apple gift card! And of course, make sure to catch up on previous MyCase webinars on our blog. See you next month!
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500
Wisconsin Lawyer: 101 Going Paperless
The Document Naming System in Our Paperless Office
How to Start and Run a Paperless Office
Chat Tools for Lawyers
Slack
HipChat
Asana
Wunderlist
Evernote
Scheduling Tools for Lawyers
Doodle
TimeBridge
Schedule Once
X.ai
Automation Tools for Lawyers
Microsoft Quickparts
TextExpander
ActiveWords
TheFormTool
DraftOnce
Intake123
HotDocs
Pathagoras
DocMoto
Virtual Staffing for Lawyers
Ruby Receptionists
Virtual Paralegal Services
Marketing Software for Lawyers
Hootsuite
Buffer
Avvo Ignite
Lexicata
Zoho
Insightly
Streak
Hubspot
Google Analytics
Apps for Lawyers
Due
Evernote
Wunderlist
Instapaper
Zoom Meeting
GoToMeeting
Fuze
UberConference
1Password
LastPass
KeePass
Dashlane
