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To clarify, the notion of VoIP has been around for several years. One of the first promises of VoIP was free unlimited telephone calls to anyone anywhere using your Internet connection. Simply download free software and click to talk. It was neat and it worked. The voice quality, however, was poor and the novelty wore off quickly. Plus, the value proposition was no longer compelling when residential long distance rates plummeted and cell phone plans included calls to anywhere in the U.S.

Today, VoIP is more than just Internet telephony. It’s about the integration of IP-enabled voice, data, and video communications. Major equipment manufacturers such as Mitel, Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel have developed advanced VoIP systems with powerful applications to provide collaborative solutions for the office environment. Some have brought their offerings to the market from a telephony background (like Mitel and Nortel for instance) while others (like Cisco) have evolved from a data orientation.

Large established companies around the world are beginning to convert their network communications systems to VoIP. For example, France’s largest food and consumer products chain is converting all of their 200 locations to VoIP. Here in the U.S., CompUSA is doing the same with their stores nationwide. When one of the largest electronics retailer chooses to go VoIP, you know the switch is on.

So, how can VoIP systems and applications benefit the lawyer and the law office? Here’s a sampling of the features and functionalities that this technology can offer.

Benefits For the Lawyer

Time is money for lawyers, especially for those billing six-minute increments. Efficiency and productivity are key to maximizing time. Let’s look at some of the ways that VoIP applications can help lawyers be more efficient and productive.

Call Management. An application called “Your Assistant” is a perfect example of how VoIP systems take advantage of the functional interoperability between your phone and your computer to offer exciting new simple-to-use applications. A desktop control panel provides visual point-and-click access to advanced call management features. Because it integrates with your existing Personal Information Manager (PIM) software (e.g. ACT!, Goldmine, Outlook, Notes or MSN Messenger), you just click on a contact name from your PIM to dial. And with your phone and computer interoperating, you simply pick up the phone to talk when the call is connected. It even remembers your most frequently dialed numbers and makes them available in a dedicated drop-down menu. Each call is time/date stamped and you can add notes of your discussion. It’s the best way to document your calls with your client and save it in the client-matter folder. And for those of you on the clock, you can sort the call history by client/matter number at the end of each month and voila!—you instantly generate billing for all calls for each client and matter with time/date, duration, and annotations.

This application also has an advanced caller ID feature. When you receive an incoming call, a caller ID screen pops up giving you all of the caller’s contact information and the call log for that person. Glance at the call history and notes to quickly refresh yourself on prior discussions. The caller ID is useful when you’re on the phone. The screen pop let’s you quickly know who it is calling and whether to answer. For example, the screen pop tells you it's Joan Anderson, a major client located in Texas with whom you last spoke a week ago regarding a summary judgment motion in an employment case. Click “Answer,” or “Send to Voicemail,” or “Forward” to your secretary or an associate working on the case.

Conferencing. Lawyers are constantly on conference calls. Most of us do it one of two ways. One is to establish a bridge call number and have all of the participants join in at a specified time. Rarely is everyone on time and you waste precious billable minutes waiting on people. Every time the bell chimes, you ask, “Did someone join?” The other way is to bridge everyone in yourself. You call one person, put them on hold, switch to your other line, dial the next person, then connect that person into the main line, and repeat this process. Miss a step and you’re likely to hang up and disconnect everyone. After you’ve managed to get most of the people on the line, surely enough Bob is not available when you call. The rest of you chat about the weather waiting. Your second line rings. You put everyone on hold and switch over hoping it is Bob. You ask him to hang up so you can call him back from the conference line. You switch back over, everyone’s still chatting about the weather, put them on hold, call Bob and patch him in.

VoIP simplifies conferencing because of the way it can provide “presence awareness” and interoperate with your computer. Open your firm’s address book on your computer and next to each name is an icon that indicates whether that person is on the phone, logged in for instant messaging or video enabled. It allows you to “see” who is available for a conference. Just drag and drop a name into the conference box to add the person. If someone calls in late, the caller ID screen-pop let’s you see who it is. Click “Add” and the person is instantly plugged in.

You can also conduct voice, instant message (IM), and video sessions simultaneously with one or several people on the call. Need to send a private message to Sarah about the negotiating point being discussed? Start a separate IM or video session with her for a virtual sidebar. It’s the perfect way to keep people from the same side on the same page. In some ways, its even better than negotiating face-to-face since you can privately communicate with your people in separate IM or video sessions without having to call for bathroom breaks. You can record each conference session and save them as either .wav or .mpeg files. File them into your client/matter folders along with other documents or e-mails and use any standard Windows multimedia software for playback.

The video conferencing capability is also great for holding internal meetings or conducting firm-wide CLE sessions. In my old firm, we used a pay-for-service that provided a video link between our D.C. and New York offices. It was very costly and each office had to crowd everyone into the boardroom. VoIP eliminates the need to pay for such services and allows everyone to attend a video conference from his or her desk. Those working at a satellite office or teleworking from home can plug in as well. You can even log and record attendance so you know who skipped out.

Unified Messaging. One of the best applications of VoIP in my opinion is unified messaging, meaning voicemail, e-mail, and even faxes can all be managed from one unified inbox that integrates with your existing e-mail and PIM software.

Most lawyers have hundreds of saved e-mails that they’ve filed and sorted into various inbox folders. And yet, rarely do we keep more than ten voicemails at any given time. The reason is simple. With traditional phone systems, retrieving voicemails is tedious and time consuming. You would have to listen and skip through each message to get to the one you need. We would rather try to commit the voicemail to memory or scribble on notepads rather than go through this process. It is no wonder why we tend to be very selective in picking and choosing the voicemails we keep, saving only those that are critical or CYA material. But if you think about it, there is no reason why voicemails should be treated any differently than e-mails. Both are equally important for reference and “documenting” purposes.

With VoIP, all voicemails and e-mails are handled the same way. Voicemails are automatically received and stored as .wav files and organized automatically into your Lotus Notes or Outlook Inbox under a “Voicemail” folder. Click to listen and insert annotations or subject headers. Drag and drop them into client/matter folders just as you would an e-mail and sort them any which way you like.

Wish you had a copy of that voicemail that your client left about a month ago giving the go ahead to settle the case or the one from opposing counsel regarding the terms of the settlement? Simply open the client/matter folder, scroll through the time/date stamp or search under the subject lines—“settlement terms from atty. smith - 4/01/03 3:35 p.m.” Forward the file to your client as an attachment. Suddenly, you don’t think twice about saving voicemails. The same can be done with faxes as well. No need to maintain separate fax machines and numbers. Because VoIP uses a data protocol, faxes can be sent directly to your office phone and the system will route them into your unified inbox as a fax file. And because VoIP can carry voice and data simultaneously, you can be on the phone, send an e-mail and receive faxes all at the same time.

Mobility and Flexibility. All clients tend to think they’re the only one. They expect you to be on call to handle legal issues as they arise. The call-forwarding feature of VoIP systems gives you the ability to stay connected and always be present, or at least appear to be so. Set up multiple call-forward profiles with separate access levels for different would-be callers. Here’s the way I set mine. The general public gets forwarded to my voicemail. Law firms working on an active case are forwarded to my assistant. If she’s not available, then they’re forwarded back to my voicemail. Managers of the company get routed to my cell phone, but only during business hours. Calls from senior management come to my cell phone any time. If I’m on vacation, they’re routed to my hotel room. It’s a great way to manage your presence.

Teleworking is another way that VoIP systems allow you to be more mobile. The traditional notion of teleworking meant that you “RAS in” to the office network though your dial-up phone line. You got limited access to e-mail and it was excruciatingly slow. Teleworking with VoIP means that both your home computer and your home VoIP phone are connected to your office network, giving you the same voice and data access that you would have at the office. Here’s the set-up. Your VoIP phone is connected directly to your cable or DSL modem. A separate jack in your VoIP phone connects to your computer. That’s it. The software in your VoIP phone automatically connects to your office network with your profile, giving you direct access to your voicemail, e-mail, fax, and network files. You can assume your office number or assign a different extension to your VoIP phone.

This works even with your notebook computer. Instead of a desktop VoIP phone, your computer has a “softphone” application that mimics the appearance and features of your desk phone. Connect to the Internet and your notebook computer becomes your office phone. Systems vary somewhat by manufacturer, but with Mitel’s teleworker system, all of your voice calls are handled exactly the same as your office phone because all of the call management functions are performed by the network server. This means you can connect over Internet from anywhere in the world and always have available the features of your office phone. Imagine traveling overseas and being instantly connected to your office phone and data network. Mitel refers to this feature as the “office-in-a-box.” Whether you’re using your VoIP phone at home or the “softphone” while on the road, you’re connected to the firm’s network as if you’re sitting in the office.

You also get the ability to take your office number with you to different locations. For example, you’ll be working all day in the second floor war room parsing through discovery files or traveling to the New York office where you’ll be stationed in one of the visitor offices. Simply punch in your ID to commandeer the phone nearest you. All of your profiles, speed dials, call lists and address books are downloaded from the network, and the phone will now operate and function as if it’s the one back in your office. All of your incoming and outgoing calls will be made using your office extension number. Mitel’s advanced “5230 IP Appliance” pictured on the right incorporates a PDA connector for your Palm, BlackBerry, or Windows CE handheld. Dock your PDA and the phone is automatically reprogrammed to mimic the one in your office. You can also use the dock to recharge the PDA and sync all of your PIM applications with the network.

Another useful VoIP application is text-to-speech (and vice versa) conversion. With this feature, you just call in to the office network and the application will read your e-mails to you. This is great when you don’t otherwise have access to e-mail. It can work the other way too. Let’s say you want to discreetly check your voicemails without having to excuse yourself out of a meeting to make a call. The speech-to-text feature converts your voicemails into text that you can “read” from a BlackBerry or a computer.

Benefits for the Law Office

The law office always benefits when its lawyers are more efficient and productive. But there are also direct benefits of VoIP for the law office.

Return on investment is usually important for any business when it comes to assessing the benefits of adopting new technology. Let’s consider the return in cost savings. The most obvious is in toll charges, since the idea of VoIP is to by-pass long distance carriers via the free Internet. The savings are substantial especially for international calls that still incur high rates. Another area of cost savings is MACs—moves, adds and changes to phone extensions. For law firms, each summer brings in a new batch of newbie associates that require new phone lines. You also have lawyers moving up or out throughout the year. This means having to reprogram phone extensions as offices are shuffled among the lawyers. With traditional PBX telephone systems, MACs require onsite service technicians to reprogram each extension. When you consider that some firms might require over fifty MACs per year at a cost of a first-year associate’s billing rate for each extension, it’s a significant expense. With VoIP, you avoid this cost completely because the IP phones are plug-n-play. Simply plug the lawyer’s phone in the new office and the network automatically recognizes the phone extension and identifies the new location. Better yet, have the lawyer just code his/her ID or dock his/her PDA into the phone. The MAC is done instantly and automatically without the need for a service technician.

Troubleshooting and repairing are other areas that the law office can save money with VoIP. With traditional PBX systems, you normally have to report a problem to your vendor, who then will dispatch a technician. VoIP systems can be enabled for remote diagnostics and repair, which means faster response and less costly repairs. Some VoIP systems can also be monitored remotely by a service vendor to detect and fix problems and implement programming changes remotely in the background without disruption to the office.

The law office can also benefit from reduced IT administration costs. Most lawyers are not aware that the phones and computers are connected to multiple servers that are housed somewhere in one of the back-office rooms. Two sets of cable wire—one from your phone and one from your computer—are fished through the walls and across the ceiling into this room. This is where the IT people manage the firm’s network data servers and PBX systems. Because VoIP uses the same network for voice and data, the first obvious cost savings is the use of a single cable wire to connect both the phone and the computer. You might not think this would be much of a savings, but at about fifty cents a foot, reducing the cost of thousands of feet of cable wire by half is a lot.

Next, you can also reduce your IT staff since there’s only one network system to manage, instead of two. One other savings is space. Not only do you minimize the number of servers, but each one is much smaller (about the size of a DVD player) than the traditional microwave sized boxes. You can stack them vertically in a small closet and give the back-office room to a paralegal for better use.

Besides cost savings, VoIP can help the law office be more productive for its lawyers. The auto attendant feature of some of the more advanced VoIP systems is a great way to have a virtual 24/7 receptionist for the office. The auto attendant greets callers and connects them to appropriate extensions with an interactive voice response system. It asks the caller to name the person or department they’re calling. It will even recognize common short-form names such “Steve” or “Bob.” If there’s more than one Bob, the auto attendant will narrow the choice down by asking for Bob’s last name or his department. If Bob is not in, the auto attendant will locate him according to the call forwarding priorities he set. The built-in security features can recognize lawyers from the office by their voice and provide them with preset access to information in the office network directory or the lawyer’s personal contacts database. For instance, the general public might be provided only the office extensions while lawyers from the office can access cell phone numbers and select members of the law office can get home numbers.

Lawyers are not usually the first to adopt new technology. We’re a conservative bunch and we always seem to prefer the status quo. But change is good sometimes, as they say, and this article describes some of the ways that VoIP can benefit the lawyer and the law office. Several law firms around the country have made the switch already, such as Sheppard Mullin, Williams Kastner, and Weissman Nowack to name a few. CBF Group Inc., a support service company out in Fargo, North Dakota, uses a VoIP system in providing their law firm clients with 24/7 administrative and messaging support. If it helps them help you, well . . . .

Post Script

The transition to VoIP is inevitable. More and more cable operators, telecommunications carriers, and information service providers (ISPs) are using VoIP technology to offer a combination of voice, data, and video over their networks. Wireless will soon get in on the act when a format called WiMAX offers ultra-fast (about 30 times faster than 3G) wireless transmission of voice, data, and video. All of these convergence activities prompted the FCC in March to issue its eagerly anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to help them determine whether VoIP is a telecommunications service, information service, or a new category of communications. The answer has enormous implications for the communications industry with billions of dollars at stake for companies on various sides of the issue. The reason is because each segment of the industry (long distance carriers, local phone companies, ISPs, cable operators, and wireless providers) built their businesses around regulations that treated them differently from each other. Now that they’re all getting into the same VoIP space, no one is sure how the service should be regulated. In my opinion, VoIP should be regulated based on function, not form. We probably won’t see resolution of this issue for at least another year, but the rumblings will go on until the FCC will hopefully act in way that will allow VoIP to benefit everyone.

Editor’s Note:

Recognizing Mr. Na worked for one of the larger VoIP vendors, I asked him to give us some idea of how much this technology might cost a law firm. Here was his response:

John Tredennick: Here is the hypothetical. We have an office with 25 users. We now have a standard system which does not support VOIP. So, if we or other readers got excited about the functionality you have described in this article (and realizing there are other vendors offering similar technology) what would be the costs and what would we be buying?

For example, new telephones? A server to manage all of this? What else, software?

Mr. Na’s response: John - In your hypothetical, you would be buying the IP phones, application software, and the server (in this case, the 200 Integrated Communications Platform for Small/Medium Enterprises). The cost for a 25-user environment would be about $15,800. Here's the breakdown:

1 Premier Business Package Server - $6,500
12 Basic IP Phones - $2,500
13 High-end IP Phones - $4,500
Voicemail - $300
Your Assistant Software w/ unified messaging - $2,000

You can also add the Teleworker solution for $170 per user and wireless capability (wireless handset "twinned" to desktop phone) for $800 per user.

Christian S. Na is U.S. Assoc. General Counsel & Corp. Secretary (MNSI) of Mitel Networks, Inc., a manufacturer of enterprise level PBX and VoIP communications systems. He is also Chair of the VoIP Policy Subcommittee for the Enterprise Communications Association. Christian is a member of the ABA Section of Business Law and recently spoke on Hot Top Topics for Corporate Counsel at the 2004 ABA National Conference for the Minority Lawyer.