Law Practice Today

One of the cruel realities of being “suddenly solo” these days is the suddenness with which your solo practice can begin. We hear too frequently stories of lawyers being laid off and escorted from their offices with only a cardboard box of personal items. Even longtime partners in large firms might find that they cannot return to their offices after being informed that their services are no longer required.

In these scenarios, making choices about legal technology will likely not be your first concern or priority, at least until you calm yourself down and start to think clearly. However, I thought that it would be instructive to take a look at this setting to think about legal technology from a fresh perspective. Think of it as “lean” legal technology. What is the least technology you might need and the least you might spend to have adequate technology to launch a solo practice when you find yourself suddenly solo?

If you can develop a hard-headed focus on what you really need, forget about how you think others might judge you, remember the attitude of the old MacGyver TV show, and be resourceful about making good use of what you already have, you are likely to find yourself with “good enough,” and possibly much more than adequate technology to do your work and eliminate technology and technology cost concerns from your list of start-up worries. In 2009, almost everyone has a stockpile of technology in their homes – often better than what they use in their law office – and it’s vital that you find ways to unlock and use what you already have when starting a new solo effort.

1. Take a Deep Breath. Really. I’m not going to argue that you aren’t in a tough spot. You are. However, lawyers are problem solvers. Give yourself a little time and space to think and deal with technology as a problem to be solved. More importantly, think of it as a problem with many possible solutions. Lawyers tend to bog down by worrying endlessly over finding the “perfect” technology solution. That’s a bad idea in general, and it’s especially bad for the suddenly solo. Ultimately, you want to focus on a “good enough for now” technology solution that will allow you to start your new practice and do your work at a basic level while you concentrate on the many other start-up issues that you will face and do actual paying work.

2. Take an Inventory of What You Already Have. It’s easy to underestimate what you already have in hand, especially in our homes. In a time of crisis, it’s always good to have some physical activity. Here’s a good suggestion: walk around your house and office. Find and touch each item of technology you already have and write it down on a list. This gives you are starting point and takes you away from the “I have no technology” phase to the “here’s the list of what I have to work with” stage. That’s a huge and positive change in mindset.

3. Go on a Treasure Hunt. The initial inventory will likely be a good example of “inside the box” thinking. You’ll capture the obvious things. That’s not enough. Broaden your scope and walk around your house and list the technology that your spouse and children use, old technology in closets or the basement and any other office-related technology or equipment that is actually present. Some examples: your DSL or cable modem that has a wireless router that you can use for a wireless network in your house that you haven’t set up yet, a scanner or printer you don’t use any more, or an old desktop computer that could be repurposed for backup storage.

4. Identify Your Software. People tend to underestimate what software they already have on their computers and what all they can do with it. On a Windows computer, go to the Start menu and take a look at all the programs installed on your computer(s). Add them to your inventory. The free Belarc Advisor program (http://www.belarc.com) will actually audit your computers and give you a handy list of not just the hardware configuration, but all of the programs installed on a computer.

5. Take a Hard Look at What You Really Need to Do Your Work and Manage Your Practice. Someone I respect once said to me that all it takes to start a business is an Excel spreadsheet. I don’t necessarily advise this and neither did she, but there’s an important kernel of truth in that statement. At a fundamental level, you are looking to do things like track the flow of money in and out, generate bills, create documents and perform other basic tasks. Think about that. Sit down and consider carefully who your likely clients will be, what work (meaning the actual tasks) you will be doing, the nature of the work in your practice area, the volume of clients and work (a hugely important factor in making technology decisions, see my recent ABA Journal column called “Going Solo on a Budget,” http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/going_solo_on_a_budget/), and the other likely day-to-day realities of your new practice. I suspect that you’ll find that, at least at the beginning, a phone, email, a word processing program, and a spreadsheet or other simple accounting program will cover most of what you need to do. In areas where you think that’s not the case, take some time to rethink how you will do those things and whether you can accomplish them with what you already have. You might be surprised. Key point: You will probably need to learn to use more of the available features of your programs than you currently use.

6. Match What You Have to What You Need. Here’s the fun part, or at least the part where you can put your lawyerly problem-solving skills to good use. Take your technology inventory list and “your actual needs to do your work” list and start matching what you have with what you need. You want to identify obvious gaps that will indicate what you probably will have to go out and acquire. You also want to identify needs that can wait until you determine how your practice will develop – heavy-duty scanners, fancy fax machines, and high-end printers are examples that fall into this category. I cannot emphasize too much the role volume will play in your decisions. For example, if you only send or receive a few faxes a year, that old scanner in your closet and $10 a year Internet fax service will be a more than adequate solution.

7. Make Lemonade Out of Lemons. I maintain that focus on cash flow is one of, if not the most important considerations in a start-up practice. The dollars you don’t spend on technology now go directly to your profitability. If you think about billing cycles, it’s not unreasonable to find yourself in a scenario where you go for a few months with little or even no income. Armed with your list of gaps of what you think you need as compared to what you have, you want to take a second pass and see if there are creative ways to satisfy the needs with what you already have. Here’s an example. The DSL or cable modem that brings the Internet to your home can usually be used to set up a simple wireless network. Investing a little time in setting that up can make the hard drives on other computers, printers and scanners in use in your home outside your “home office” and other peripherals available to you from you main computer.

8. Free is Good, Especially for Software. After you’ve made the best use of what you already have, you’ll need to look at what you have to buy. A lawyer who has left a big firm will often be used to having a comfortable set of software tools. It can be traumatic to lose those tools. For certain practices and certain needs, you will have to consider carefully and purchase commercial software. That will vary by practice area, client types, and volume of work. For other needs, there are some free and Open Source options that can provide excellent no-cost solutions that get you through the start-up period to a time that you can better afford commercial products. You can get a feel for the huge variety of Open Source programs at Sourceforge.Net (http://www.sourceforge.net). For example, if you have a relatively small number of clients who you bill by hour, a simple free time-tracking program might suit your needs perfectly. Again, this approach might not work for everyone and for all things, but it might work for you for certain tools.

9. Turning Technology into a Utility Cost. A great approach to consider – note that is has both pros and cons - is to turn technology from a capital cost into a monthly utility cost. What do I mean? Some lawyers see technology costs as a big barrier to starting a firm because they imagine spending thousands and thousands of dollars upfront to buy software, hardware and services as an initial capital investment. If you use leasing and financing options, you can turn the same technology into a manageable and budgetable monthly expense. Online tools in the Software as a Service category (SaaS) also allow you to pay a fixed, reasonable monthly for tools hosted on the Internet, saving you network infrastructure costs. Hosted email services, collaboration tools, case management programs, and extranets are examples of ways you can use online tools to cut upfront costs and have a very high level of technology.

10. Find Internet Bargains. DealNews.com and other Websites collect and alert you to great bargains in technology. As an example, I recently bought a well-reviewed color Brother all-in-one printer/copier/scanner/fax for $80. If your day-to-day primarily involves email and working with electronic documents, this type of unit might serve your initial needs without breaking the bank. For external hard drives you can use for backup, these sites will show you bargains on almost a daily basis.

11. Develop Your Internet Presence. Yes, you really do need a website. Yes, a blog is a great way to go. And, yes, you can over think all of this. If your name is available as a domain name, buy it. Take a look at Squarespace.com WordPress.com and TypePad.com and see if you can use one of them for a basic website or blog. You probably can. You can point your domain to the site you create on these services and few will be the wiser. The cost will be a fraction of what a custom-designed site will be. You can upgrade later, if you need to. For now, you just want to get out there. You might also look into the social networking vehicles. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are all free and can be used to create an Internet presence and connect with people. I suggest looking at LinkedIn first. My best advice is to try to understand these before jumping in and then use only those that get you to your target audience.

12. Think About Technology Selection as a Process. Your needs will change as your practice and circumstances change. Schedule some time to run through the process outlined in this article from time to time (and certainly by the six-month point in your solo practice). A lean, focused approach will be a strategy that serves you well in the long haul because you will learn to ask the right questions and understand the options you have. If you decide to splurge or buy something just because you want it, you’ll be aware that you are doing that and the reasons why you are (and the potential consequences).

A Few Words on Specific Technology Items – The Bare Minimum List.

I want to strongly recommend two resources on technology for the suddenly solo. The first is Ross Kodner’s excellent series of article called “Minimum Daily Tech Requirements” (details and links at http://rossipsa.com/?p=354), which originally appeared on the great legal tech resource TechnoLawyer (http://www.technolawyer.com). For specific recommendations, these articles are a treasure trove. The second is a book aptly named “The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide,” by Sharon Nelson, John Simek and Michael Maschke (http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm? section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5110685). This book gives you great overview and a set of specific recommendations.

However, even though I can’t recommend those resources enough, I thought I’d end with my take on what the “bare minimum” you might be able to get away with to start a one-person “suddenly solo” practice. The usual caveats apply, so consider this list in the spirit it’s offered. Depending on your practice area, client list and volume of work, this list may or may not be practical. I assume that you have a modest volume start with a few clients and a transactional rather than a litigation practice.

Here’s the list:

• A base computer (I’d recommend a notebook, but you could get by with a desktop PC if you don’t do work outside the office). I’m fairly agnostic about the computer choices these days – if you really want a Mac, go for it, but think about what practice-specific software you might need to run. More than likely, what you already own will work at the start.
• A smartphone (typically, a BlackBerry or iPhone). Handle calls, get email and get Internet access from outside your office. Get an unlimited data plan. You might already have one or be eligible for an upgrade.
• One or more external USB hard drives for backup and an online backup service, such as Mozy.com, to back that up.
• A multi-func tion (scanner/copier/fax/printer) printer. It depends on what your needs are, but probably based on a laser printer unless you have a need for color.
• An office software suite. Typically, this will be Microsoft Office, but you might prefer something else. Make sure it works well with your clients’ documents if you choose something other than Microsoft Word.
• A PDF creation tool. There are free PDF creation programs, but I like Adobe Acrobat Professional for any lawyer because of all the extra things it can do for you.
• Something to handle finances, billing, timekeeping and the like. The choice depends on your needs. You might need a legal accounting program, a standard small business program like QuickBooks, or you might have the type of practice where you could run things off a spreadsheet for a period of time.
• A website or blog. You have to be locatable on the Internet.

Will that get all lawyers all the way to where they need to go? Of course not, but it will get many off to a quick, “good enough” launch.

Concluding Thoughts. It’s easy to spend a lot of time worrying about technology, shopping for technology, and designing the perfect technology system for your new firm. Frankly, it’s better to spend that time on other priorities, like figuring out where your first check from a client will come from. The approach in this article is designed to help you get a “good enough” technology platform to get you started. It’s also designed to help reduce your stress about getting technology in place. Most importantly, it offers ways to think about lean legal technology and provides a framework for thinking in a focused way about technology that will serve you well at the start and into the future.