While there is something to be said for a face-to-face meeting, you can get just as much or more done at a virtual meeting, especially if you use some of the new tools that let you collaborate across the web. Virtual meetings have several benefits: you can hold them on an ad hoc basis without leaving your desk, and you don’t incur the time and expense of traveling to an in-person meeting.

You can easily “meet” your clients virtually, either by phone or by video. The phone is effortless – everyone knows how to use a phone. Video conferencing, too, …

Many lawyers are fearful of moving away from hourly-rate billing because they are concerned that alternative-billing will be a risky bet.  Is there a way to ensure that you, the lawyer (or the “house” in betting parlance) will win the majority of the fixed-fee bets?

Of course there is, but you have to lay the groundwork before moving to this type of billing.  Here is one suggested method.

First, track or review your actual time and amount billed for all files of the type for which you are considering moving to fixed rate billing.  You should probably review not less …

Someone once said: “Life is a series of interruptions interrupted by interruptions.” No one recorded who said it… the person doing the recording was probably interrupted when they were about to write that down…

But as practising lawyers, we are interrupted all the time.  When it comes to recording your billable time, being interrupted before you capture that time can be costly.

You get to the end of a crazy day. You’re wiped. You’ve been running around like a maniac all day, responding to and sending e-mails, talking with clients on the phone, putting out fires and drafting …

Are you making the most out of your voicemail system?

As Joe Walsh of The Eagles once sang:

So I got me an office, gold records on the wall.
Just leave a message, maybe I’ll call.
…
Life’s been good to me so far

How many times have you called someone only to be greeted by a message that says: “Hi. You have reached Joe.  I am unavailable. Please leave a message.”

What is wrong with this greeting?

First, if you don’t know Joe you have no idea if you have reached the right person or even the right organization. …

These days it seems that many young people are reconsidering a decision to enter or stay in law.  The authors think that there are many reasons to still value a legal career.  But there are also some important questions to ask of yourself in considering a career in the law.

For one, a career in law offers you not just a job – it offers you much more.    Your legal career has the possibility of offering you novel and fascinating work that continually changes and brings you in touch with bright and interesting people. Your skills will be challenged at …

Adopt dual monitors to increase satisfaction in moving to a paperless office system.

If you have to go to court, you want to make sure that you are being the most effective advocate possible. There are many ways to persuade the trier of fact – but you can shine by bringing a picture (or graphics) which, as they say, are worth a thousand words. So think about how you can make your next case sparkle (and hopefully win the battle) by bringing persuasive technology with you to court, to a mediation or to your next arbitration.

What can you use? Here is a selection of alternatives:

• Use (PC or Mac), Keynote (Mac) or

…

In manufacturing, there is a metric known as “Cost of Goods Sold”.  When it comes to legal services, the equivalent metric would be the “Cost of Services Rendered” (CoSR).

Do you know what it costs you to render an hour’s worth of legal services?

This metric looks at what you expect an hour’s worth of each lawyer’s legal time to cost your firm, on average.  For a solo lawyer, it is straightforward – the total forecast expenses for the firm (including the lawyer’s draws) divided by his or her billable time expectation.

For example, if a lawyer expects that his …

We have spoken and consulted with a number of lawyers lately who have called about taking a law firm paperless.  Certainly many lawyers become anxious at the thought of giving up on paper and practising in a paper-less world (there will probably never be a situation where we fully abandon paper).  Often, that concern is rooted in a fear that somewhere the rules of professional responsibility or other regulations governing the firm require that paper files be kept. There are, of course, specific requirements in every jurisdiction regarding retention, maintenance and destruction of client files (check your specific practice …

A Virtual Law Office has been defined many different ways by many different people.  It can certainly be seen as one form of e-lawyering, or using the power of the  Internet to deliver legal services.  It is a secure method of delivering legal services online that is accessible to the client and the lawyer anywhere they can access the Internet.

Simply put, there are several different ways to create a virtual law office. One is to be entirely web based. Another is to establish a virtual practice as part of a “bricks and mortar” firm, meaning the virtual lawyer utilizes …