Volume 19, Number 3
April/May 2002
Sweet Spot Desktops
The $5,000 Law Office: Ferrari Performance on a Chevy
Budget
By Ross L. Kodner and Sheryn Bruehl
Enough to spend, but not too much; a substantial sum, but not
an extravagant one...There may not be a technology speaker or
writer alive who hasn't been asked, "What kind of technology can
I buy for, oh, say...$5,000?" How that got to be the magic
number, the stuff of myriad publications, countless CLEs, and
endless hypothetical queries, we may never know. But somehow,
throughout the evolution of technology, the $5,000 Law Office
seems to remain near technology's sweet spot-not on the bleeding
edge but not hopelessly behind the techno-curve.
As time goes by and law office technology evolves, what that
princely sum will buy is more astounding every day-it is only the
tip of an enormous iceberg of technology possibilities. Here are
some guidelines on how to build a $5,000 law office that will
suit pretty near your every need.
"If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere
else."
- Yogi Berra
The first step in creating the $5,000 law office is to draft a
technology road map, a plan. Too many lawyers put the cart before
the proverbial horse at this critical stage of the process and
start by scanning the ads in the Sunday paper for bargain
computer systems. They debate questions about buying a CD-ROM
drive or a DVD or about extended warranties. Occasionally they
accidentally hit the nail on the head, but more often than not,
they purchase the wrong equipment for their needs and spend far
more (or even worse, less) than they should. The end result is
that they accumulate a costly pile of hardware and software that
actually causes more chaos than the obsolete system it
replaces.
Only after you know your objectives can you intelligently discuss
your technology options. Starting by asking what technology you
should buy for a law office is like walking into a sporting goods
store and announcing, "I'm going on vacation...what equipment do
I need?" When trying to determine what automation updates and
upgrades a law practice needs, be sure to consider specifics like
the following questions: What procedures do we have for repeated
tasks like file opening and closing? Are they efficient, or are
we constantly duplicating our work? What features of our current
systems drive everyone crazy? Which do we barely use? How much
should we spend? Do we need professional guidance for our plan?
How big a project will this be? What's our vision of the final
product?
Your answers will uniquely apply to your law firm and the way you
operate. This information will directly affect which hardware and
software you buy, the training processes they will require, and
how the project should be managed and timed.
Start by making a list of the things you'd like your technology
to do for you. Don't worry about what is possible-brainstorm
about how your dream office would run. Involve as many of the
people who actually do the work in the office as you can, and be
creative! You might, for example, want to be able to enter a
client's address and personal information in the computer only
once but have it available for every process: time and billing,
document creation, telephone calls, etc. You might want to make
address/information changes without having to open six programs,
or have everything accessible on a Palm. Mary might want to be
able to get a first draft at the push of a button, or to use
voice recognition. Without a doubt, you would probably love to be
able to receive Word documents that don't require hours of
cleanup!
Next, candidly assess what you are up against with your
"liveware"-your staff. Is everyone relatively techno-savvy, or do
some partners use their computers for mood lighting because they
can't figure out how to turn them off? People's previous
experiences will color how well your technology initiatives will
be received. How much time and tolerance will the practice allow
for the learning curve associated with implementing new equipment
and procedures? Who will manage the process-and how capable are
they? Be sure to consider not only skill but also personality,
communication skills, and available time. Assess whether it makes
realistic sense to represent yourself pro se in the technology
process or whether you should seek an outside consultant familiar
with law firm technology who can help you avoid reinventing very
expensive wheels.
"If you think hiring an expert is expensive, try hiring an
amateur."
- Red Adair, oil firefighter, immortalized by John Wayne in
Hellfighters
Before making your plan, make sure you have solicited feedback and carefully evaluated the suggestions of people in every aspect of your practice, from managing partner to file clerk. This will give you a comprehensive and realistic appraisal of your needs and refine your understanding of what is needed. Just as importantly, involving everyone will help invest them in the plotting of the new technology plan, which will smooth the acceptance process and heighten everyone's enthusiasm for mastery of it.
"When you don't know that you don't know, it's a lot different
than when you do know that you don't know. He knows now that he
doesn't know. Last year, he didn't know that."
- New England Patriots head coach Bill Parcels, on then
second-year quarterback Drew Bledsoe
Now you are ready to find out what products and services are
available that suit your needs and how realistically they can be
implemented in your office. You can do this through an awful lot
of research and trial and error, or you can consult a
professional with specialized knowledge of not just technology
but technology in the context of a law practice. This is a unique
subset that covers a specific set of concerns about security and
confidentiality, record retention, reliability, etc., as well as
a substantial body of highly specialized software applications
with varying utility, quality, and reliability.
This is the step that can be the most intuitive for lawyers, who
spend a significant portion of their professional lives
explaining the importance of their own specialized expertise and
experience. Paying a premium rate for experience and professional
skill with technology is, in the long run, far less expensive
than creating a do-it-yourself fiasco or delegating the project
to a less-experienced attorney with a slightly lower hourly rate.
After all, if you were charged with capital murder, would you
hire your state's top criminal defense lawyer or the rookie a
month out of law school who never has seen the inside of a
courthouse?
Few practicing attorneys are qualified to assess a firm's
technology needs. Even fewer have the time to become familiar
enough with a widerange of law office technologies to be able to
research and fully evaluate appropriate products, make informed
recommendations, and then oversee the implementation and training
process to a satisfactory conclusion.
It makes far more sense-and can be far less expensive, no matter
what the cost-to get professional help early in the process and
save yourself from potentially endless frustration and
time-consuming mistakes. (And did we mention "expensive"?)
"A lawyer's time and advice are his stock in trade."
- attributed to Abraham Lincoln
This admonition concerning the value of a lawyer's time is, if
anything, even truer today. In a profession often driven by the
billable hour or the volume and efficiency of contingency work,
you cannot evaluate the costs or benefits of any technology
proposal without factoring in the value of the time saved or
spent by using it.
Never underestimate just how quickly that time adds up. At a
billable rate of $200 per hour, just 20 minutes a day equals
nearly $17,000 per year. So before you decide to bypass a
document management program that costs $400 per user to "save"
money, figure out just how much time you actually spend each day
looking for documents or waiting for a secretary to find and
bring them to you. If it's taking you just five minutes more than
it would take electronically, that $400 "saving" will cost you
more than $4,000.
The same is true for training. Often the hardest thing to
convince even the most techno-savvy office to budget for is
training. Yet it is the one line item that will most benefit the
firm. Buying software and hardware and then refusing to invest in
training is like planting a field and refusing to water it or
building a new house but forgetting to put electrical outlets in
all the rooms. It just makes no sense-none. Your staff will
likely eke out enough functionality to survive, but most of the
program's features will go to waste. Many will give up in
frustration before learning even the basics…and then
leave. Any experienced lawyer knows there is nothing more costly
and disruptive than staff turnover. Even just a few hours of
customized training by a qualified person can yield the tips and
tricks that will save time and money. The guideline cited most
frequently is to plan to spend at least as much on training as
you spend on the software itself.
If you absolutely cannot afford to bring in a trainer, at the
very least give your staff whatever resources are available to
you (product manuals, online training courses, third-party books)
and make time for them to spend learning the features of the
program. Try to find a potential teacher in your office willing
to follow user groups and listservs, read magazines and product
newsletters, and generally stay current on tips, tricks, and
advice for using your most critical applications. Some experts
caution, however, that if you can't afford the proper guidance
and training, you can't afford the project.
Technology investment is an ongoing process. You cannot purchase
law office technology the way you purchase a desk and expect to
have it covered for years to come. Like any other tool in your
office, software and hardware function most efficiently when they
are current and in good repair. In fact, technology requires more
care and feeding than other equipment. It's just the nature of
the beast to require updates, upgrades, and bug fixes, more disk
storage space, and larger backup units-plus faster computers
every few years. As you and your staff become more comfortable
with the undeniable benefits of technology, you will want to
automate additional areas and incorporate new features and
gadgets.
Be as forward thinking as you can about your practice needs: How
many staff will you have in two years? How many new files will
you open next year? In two years? Then find the most powerful and
affordable products you can. That balance of price and function
is the sweet spot between paying a premium to have the
newest/coolest/ fastest/biggest whatever and having it but
replacing whatever you bought in short order because nothing will
run on it and you have a severe case of buyer's remorse.
The only problem with the sweet spot is that it is a very
fast-moving target. What cost $3,000 today may be down to $1,200
by the end of next year. But by then, it may not be worth even
that to you-newer products undoubtedly will better fit your
situation.
Once you have some specific products in mind, you may want to
consider how best to pay for them and how to budget for ongoing
costs. It really doesn't matter whether a new system will save
you one dollar or one million if you can't afford it in the first
place. On the other hand, getting and implementing the proper
technology for your office could well be the thing to turn your
busy but struggling law practice from a weekly battle to make
payroll into a profitable entity.
If you know what you need, have run the numbers, and know that it
will help make you money, consider "smart leasing" as an option.
(See "The Thrill of Acquisition, The Agony of Paying for It: How
Law Firms Should Use 'Smart Leasing' to Buy New Technology," Ross
L. Kodner, www.microlaw.com/cle, for additional
information.)
But this does not mean those high-interest leases from major PC
vendors (what those of us in the know call "sucker" leases). The
magazine deal that touts the laptop of your dreams for "only" $79
a month is probably far from what it appears. Do the math; in all
likelihood, you would pay more in interest than by using a
high-rate credit card. We are talking about experienced equipment
lessors who can offer high buyouts and good terms because they
have a market for reselling your two- and three-year-old
equipment. This works best when you get the highest-possible
buyout and, therefore, the lowest possible payment for the
expected useful life of your technology. At the end of the term,
let it go and replace it with new equipment that requires nearly
the same payment. The high buyout ensures you aren't tempted to
hang onto obsolete technology; the ongoing lease payment remains
just another part of your regular operating expense, avoiding the
trauma of making five- and six-figure technology purchases every
three or four years. Although you may not be able to spend $5,000
today (even to realize that $17,000 cost savings we mentioned
earlier), most firms can easily come up with $175 to $200 per
month to accomplish the same thing.
If leasing isn't an option for you, look at other creative
financing options, from bank loans to low-interest credit card
offers, that give you the option to divide the payments into
manageable chunks. The potential of the technology available to
you in this price range today is truly nothing short of magic. If
you budget thoughtfully, choose wisely, and implement fully, the
$5,000 law office investment can radically change the way you
practice law and, even better, the way you feel about practicing
law.
Things to Consider
Case management systems. Case management systems are central
information repositories and can be the single most effective
investment to save time and money in your practice. If all your
other software connects with and shares information with your
case manager, you can achieve law practice nirvana: a single
entry point for client and case information. Therefore, it's
especially important to research thoroughly the available
products. The good news is that most are well under $500 per
person, and even the most expensive are seldom more than $1,500
even with training and planning time.
Word processing. The word processing wars are more or less over,
and Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are the victors. Because law
firms use both, you should have at least one license for each
product in your firm (See Kodner, "Becoming WPA: Word Processing
Ambidextrous-Down With the WP Wars! Up With Format
Compatibility!" at www.microlaw.com/cle.) Software products for
the $5,000 law office include Amicus Attorney from Gavel &
Gown Software; TimeMatters from Data.TXT, Inc.; CaseMaster from
Software Technology, Inc.; and AbacusLaw from Abacus Data
Systems.
Document management systems. In a profession where the product is
expertise bolstered by lots and lots of words, being able to find
and leverage prior work product efficiently is the key to
profitability. It is also the key to producing consistent,
high-quality work but still having a reasonable quality of life.
Document management systems organize your documents in an
electronic file cabinet that lets even technophobes locate work
product. On the back end, they index your documents so that you
can search by keywords to find exactly what you need. These
systems can be purchased for as little as $410 per seat, but in
the small firm office, Worldox from World Software best fits the
bill. (See Kodner, "Document Management Systems: Why Your Small
Firm Can't Afford NOT to DMS," at www.microlaw.com/cle.)
Billing and accounting systems. There is no room for risk taking
or excitement in time and billing software: If you don't bill,
you don't get paid. Be specific about your needs, choose only
from products by established and reputable companies, and be sure
that the product has local, experienced support available as a
backup.
Protection. Do not overlook data backup-and don't be penny wise
and pound foolish in making your choice. Invest in enough
high-quality backup capability to make an uncompressed,
unattended, automated backup of all the information on your
computer system on a daily basis. This means all your data and
all your programs-everything, without fail. Also, regularly test
the system's ability to restore the information. (See Kodner,
"Protecting Your Firm from Disaster: Data Backup and Electrical
Protection" at www.microlaw.com/cle.)
Power surges can destroy your system, so every component should
be plugged into some sort of electrical protection device.
Quality is key-don't rely on the $5 power strip from your local
grocery. Generally, a surge protector that costs less than $15 is
not worth buying. Consider an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
for your primary PC or a network server-and one for your phone
system's controller also.
Viruses are everywhere. More and more criminals are flooding our
computers with malicious programs that can cause all sorts of
damage and wasted time. Be sure you have capable antivirus
software on every computer in the office, or subscribe to online
antivirus services like McAfee's Clinic (www.mcafee.com). Then,
with religious zeal, update your antivirus software every single
day so you will be protected against the latest nasty strains.
Much or all of this update process can be automated; if you don't
know how to implement this, ask someone who does. Eventually,
there may be a new tort-negligent infliction of virus
distress-but for now, thinking you are not vulnerable to
something so foreseeable and potentially damaging is
foolish.
Specialty software. An enormous range of practice area-specific
software is available, covering everything from personal injury
and bankruptcy to tax and estate planning, real estate, and
family law, to name just a few. There are even programs for
judges and corporate or government law departments that don't
operate the same as traditional firms. Specialty programs are the
power tools of our trade and usually are designed and maintained
by people who are intimately familiar with the specialized needs
of that practice area. If you spend any substantial amount of
your time in a particular practice area, be sure to check out the
available specific tools.
Printers. Although a high-speed laser printer with multiple paper
bins is the best choice, it may not fit into the $5,000 budget. A
reasonable substitute might be a multifunction device that
provides laser printing as well as scanning, copying (perhaps as
a backup to a primary copier), and faxing. As a general rule,
multifunction devices below $500 aren't worth the money. Two
standout devices are Brother's MFC-9700, which offers very
capable 15 ppm laser printing and color scanning, copying (black
and white), and heavy-duty faxing for about $575; and
Hewlett-Packard's Laserjet 3200.
Personal digital asssistants (PDAs). Once you're addicted to
having information at your fingertips in the office, you'll want
it when you're out. Think you need a notebook computer? A PDA
with remote access to your calendar and Rolodex may be all you
need. Review the functions you typically crave when you're out of
the office; if they're limited to calendaring and addresses, a
$300 Palm-type device makes more sense than a $3,000 laptop.
(Consider getting a unit that uses the Palm operating system-it
is the most popular and has the most applications
available.)
Important resource. Be sure to acquire a copy of the ABA Law
Practice Management Section's latest book, Flying Solo, Third
Edition, edited by Joel Bennett, for some excellent technology
coverage. Visit www.abanet.org/ lpm for ordering information.
Ross L. Kodner is a "recovering lawyer" and
president of MicroLaw, Inc., a legal technology consultancy with
national scope, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a member of
the editorial board of GPSolo's Technology and Practice Guide.
Ross can be reached at rkodner@microlaw.com, www.microlaw.com, or
414/476-8433. Sheryn Bruehl practiced law as a
partner at Bruehl & Chapman, PC, in Norman, Oklahoma, and now
speaks extensively about legal technology trade
publications.
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