The Bottom Line
February 2000 Vol. 21, No. 3
Statements or expressions of opinion or comments appearing herein are those of the editors or contributors, and not necessarily those of the association or section.
Contents
* LOE to sponsor management roundtable
* From the chair--multidisciplinary practice update
* Top partners in law firms must use computers
* Electronic mail--benefits and perils
LOE to sponsor management roundtable
The Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) of the ISBA is sponsoring a management roundtable in Peoria on Saturday morning, March 11, 2000 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Packard Plaza.
The purpose of this roundtable is to let lawyers share their frustrations and successes with others on the management topics of planning, facilities, financial management, HR, technology, personal relationships with staff, clients, and each other, as well as marketing, client relations, compensation, and time management.
Four roundtables will be featured. Present at each roundtable will be an "expert" on the topics pertinent to that table. Each participant will be able to sit at each roundtable during the session. Each attendee will take home a checklist of "seven key elements" pertinent to the topic of that table.
The following experts are scheduled to appear:
Alan Pearlman--"The Electronic Lawyer" from Northbrook
Paul Bernstein--a practicing attorney and law office consultant from Chicago
Paul Sullivan--office administrator of the 23-lawyer firm of Quinn Johnston Henderson & Pretorius of Peoria
Dr. John R. Day, a psychologist from Peoria
Kettie Sprenger, legal secretary with Quinn Johnston Henderson & Pretorius of Peoria
Dan Cusack--practicing attorney and managing partner of Cusack, Fleming, Gilfillan & O'Day of Peoria
Registration fee is $25 and attendance is limited to 40. For a registration form, contact Doug Barringer at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield, or Paul Sullivan at Quinn Johnston Henderson & Pretorius in Peoria.
From the chair-- multidisciplinary practice update
By Paul Bernstein
Under the dynamic leadership of, among others, Cheryl I. Niro, Illinois State Bar Association President, and Attorney Terrence J. Lavin, co-chair of the ISBA Task Force on Multidisciplinary Practice, the ABA's race towards seeing the huge accounting firms able to own law firms has been slowed down, and properly so. For more information on the ISBA's efforts, see the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin issue of January 6, 2000 at page 21 and also the ISBA Bar News issue of January 3, 2000 on page 1.
It is quite interesting to note another article published in many places, including the January 7, 2000 issue of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin at page 1. The articles headline is: "Review finds extensive violations of auditor rules." The first sentence of the article will give you an idea of what the rest of the article discusses: "Nearly half of the partners at accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP reported having violated rules prohibiting them from owning stock in companies they audit, and many more such lapses went unreported, a review led by an independent consultant has found."
Whew...how lucky those accountants are, for from what I can glean from this article, lawyers would be disbarred for similar conduct...but apparently not the CPAs. In fact, although I am a CPA too, I've never heard of a CPA being "disenfranchised" from practicing accounting.
This is a very timely report and should cause the ISBA to multiply, ten-fold, its efforts to fight the ABA's recommendations favoring multidisciplinary practices. For myself, it's not a question of self-preservation of a lawyer's turf or protectionism, but just common sense...lawyers are in the Constitution and our obligations of confidentiality, total loyalty to our clients, avoidance of even the appearance of impropriety, and all other ethics lawyers must and do follow mean that no other group or profession can come close to what we do and how we do it.
If you want to read more about the violations noted in the report, go to the following locations on the Internet:
http://www.sec.gov
http://www.sec.gov/news/pwcrept.htm
http://www.sec.gov/pdf/pwclaw.pdf
The last noted web address is the complete report, over 130 pages, in Acrobat format.
This ABA-sponsored proposal is a very serious matter and warrants all lawyers in all areas of law practice to be aware of what is happening here and to stand up and be counted.
Top partners in law firms must use computers
By Paul Bernstein
It amazes me, even at this late date, that there are so few lawyers in leadership positions who are actively using computer technology. Computers are much more then glorified word processors. A couple of examples will suffice in my excursions of recent times.
Leaders must lead
At a recent bar association convention I attended, I participated in a committee meeting where one of the topics for discussion was the savings to the bar association if the member directory was distributed on the Internet instead of in hard copy. Thus, the member directory would be uploaded to the Internet and accessible and searchable by any lawyer at any time and from any place, as long as the lawyer has access to the Internet. The projected savings to the bar association in terms of not distributing the member directory in hard copy were estimated to be tens of thousands of dollars -- a very substantial sum, to be sure.
Benefits to bar associations of Internet-based publishing
There are clearly advantages to distributing a member directory and other publications of a bar association on the Internet instead of in hard copy. First and foremost, of course, is the tremendous savings in the printing and publishing costs as well as the handling, mailing, postage, and the like. Because of the way the Internet works, all that would be necessary would be for the file containing the membership directory, which is or should be on a computer at the bar association's headquarters in any event, to be uploaded to the bar association's Internet site, and then be readable and/or searchable by anyone with proper access thereto.
Other benefits would be that the membership directory would always be current and up to date. It is amazing how many of us either change our telephone numbers, move our offices, merge, or whatever in the course of a year or so. These frequent changes would obviously not be reflected in the hard copy member directory in your possession. On the Internet, however, as soon as changes are communicated to the bar association by a member and input into the computers at the bar association, the files on the Internet would be updated, and all information would be as current as current could be.
Nevertheless, one of the leaders, and the Chair of this particular committee where I was sitting in, indicated that he preferred pieces of paper and a book in his hand and seemed, from my point of view, relatively unconcerned about the tremendous savings the association would have if they no longer had to publish a hard copy publication.
In my own "confrontational" and "take-no-prisoners" way, I pointed out to the Chair of this committee that he needed an "attitude adjustment." The Internet is here to stay, and the savings were significant, important, and appropriate. In addition, as a leader, it was imperative that leaders lead and pave the way and show the way for others in the organization. For clearly, if a committee chair prefers paper, then why shouldn't lots of other lawyers?
Lawyers as power users of computer-based technology
The other concept that I wanted to enlighten readers about, is the absolute and imperative need for the top partners in all law firms to be extremely computer literate and power users of computers. This does not mean that you have to become a bits and bytes programmer, or that you have to know how to install software or manipulate various driver-software or other critical aspects of the computer. Indeed, it is my philosophy, in force and effect for many years and continuing to this date, that whenever new software is being installed on computer systems, (even a solo practitioner's only computer) or is being upgraded, the lawyer should hire somebody to do it, first backing up the entire system, then loading the new software or upgrade and then having not only the new software be demonstrated to show that it works, but also have demonstrated that all of the former software that used to work continues to work properly as it did before.
The problem with lawyers not learning certain aspects of computer technology and using it, is that, as the leaders of the law firm, they are looked upon for leadership in every area. The partners are looked upon to bring in the business, for their integrity, for their commitment to client causes, for the trying of cases and to be the spirit of a team in the law office that wins for its clients. That spirit of winning must be tightly integrated with computer technology.
Suggestions for all lawyers
So, what does that mean? What should lawyers do when it comes to technology? Here are a few suggestions.
* Continue to read this newsletter and others, cover to cover for good suggestions, ideas, and topics of interest for your firm.
* Have a computer on your desk and learn to use it. And, use it!
* As pointed in Bill Gates' book, "Business @ The Speed of Thought," partners should just get on the Internet, surf a lot, experiment, use e-mail packages, go take a half day course on the use of web browsers and Internet e-mail, and have training sessions in the law firm so that the senior partners of the firm become very, very experienced and capable using the technology. And, continue to USE IT!
* Have periodic, firm-wide meetings, perhaps on a Friday afternoon, or even on a Saturday where technology is discussed, and perhaps the senior partner even extols the virtues of some of the things the partner has been doing. This type of leadership will go a long way toward making the whole team enthusiastic.
* One of the most overlooked aspects of the use of computer systems in the office is electronic mail, for the purpose of communicating with associates, paralegals, and staff. How many times have you communicating something to somebody and either forgotten about it or had them misinterpret what you asked for, or they did it in a fashion different from what you had directed and argued with you about what you said or didn't say? If you use electronic mail and either save a copy of what you sent or send yourself a carbon copy so that you know exactly what you said, you will then be able to show whoever you sent the message to, exactly what you said, and then question them on how they might have misinterpreted what you did ask them to do.
It is only with this team effort that lawyers can provide the leadership in a law firm that is necessary so that computers can perform their full and complete functions in the office, and that is to provide the background, heart, and soul of how the law firm operates on a day-to-day basis, thereby handling all of the administrative, time tracking, matter tracking, to do's, calendars, and all other items that are related to the needs of the law firm.
Lawyers, don't hesitate a second before you undertake this type of "I'll show you personally how our law firm can benefit from the use of computers and the Internet" approach. It is imperative that you learn to do this and understand what it means not only to you and your law firm, but also to society in general.
Sharing of knowledge and not constantly reinventing the wheel
Another use of technology is for senior lawyers is to share their knowledge with other lawyers, particularly younger lawyers who may have questions about something new and different for them. One need look no further than ISBA NET and the wonderful conversations that go on there regarding products liability, premises liability, civil procedure and the like, where lawyers freely and happily and cooperatively exchange information among themselves.
It is imperative that you, the lawyer, do your own Internet surfing...you can instantly answer questions found in those Internet email and forum/conferencing messages and help us all. Instant communications is key, as is YOUR reading the messages. Getting your secretary to "pick-up" your email and printing it out, and your eventually finding the print-outs and responding in a delinquent fashion to such communications is not what it's all about today in our fast moving world. By time your response hits the Internet, the conversation you are responding to is "old news."
Application's Service Providers (ASP) are in your future
Better days are surely ahead because changes in society and the Internet are happening quickly. More and more resources are available on the Internet. High speed lines are coming down in cost and are now available to many. Indeed, I have had a DSL line in my home for several months now and don't know how I ever lived without it. Today, such lines, including modem access through your cable company and your cable TV provider, provide very high speed transmissions for Internet activity. What this means, in turn, is that a whole new industry of application service providers, or ASP's as they are called, is going to flourish. ASP's will create your "Virtual Law Firm" on the Internet. Among the benefits will be that none of us really wants to muck or play around with new software loading or hardware/computer system or software upgrades in our own offices. The way to handle that will be to subscribe to law-office-focused application service providers whereby, on some remote server, all of the applications such as case management software, litigation support software, document management software, time and billing and the like is present and kept in a very secure, well backed up environment.
However, if you never learn to use computers and feel comfortable with them, even when ASP's become more available to lawyers, as they have become available to many other industries, you will not be able to understand the features and functions that are available or be able to make the best decisions to bring your law firm into the modern world, and you will not be as efficient, productive, or valuable to your clients, or anyone else for that matter, as you might or should be.
A recent advertising supplement came in a national magazine entitled, "The Soul of Corporate Computing--the Enterprises, Resources, Planning, and Application Series, Part 3," discussed the ultimate killer application. It was pointed out why the ASP market has taken shape so rapidly and appears to be on the verge of dramatic growth. Among the reasons were the following:
* A shortage of skilled Information Technology experts makes it difficult for small law firms to recruit and maintain experienced staff.
* The cost of managing computer-based resources in small to mid-size companies is too expensive. Plus, "the life cycle of technology is becoming shorter and shorter, so that technology needs to be continually refreshed." ASP's can take on that role.
* Outsourcing has become more accepted.
In another section with another quote, it is noted: "It's an irreversible trend that software will be delivered over this mechanism. Computing has switched from information processing to information sharing. Things need to move to a centralized model, because it's all about information distribution."
It is also noted in the article that Microsoft recently began a program to offer its back-end software on a subscription basis to the ASP's. The combination of Microsoft Window NT server technology developed by Citrix Systems that allows Windows applications running on an NT server to be accessed by browsers or Windows terminals, is one of four leading platforms for application services today, notes the article. Others providing similar Internet-based resources are the Sun/Netscape combination, Oracle Corporation and the Lotus/IBM resources which are using Notes and Domino server platforms.
One lawyer's virtual law office
Some lawyers are already using these capabilities. Mark Choate, is a lawyer, formerly of Alaska, now living in Hawaii, with his main office in San Diego, California, and who is a frequent speaker at various bar associations on the topic of the virtual law firm. (It has been my pleasure to work with Mark in presentations before the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, in February of this year and for the Consumer Attorneys of California at one of their functions at Lake Tahoe in March of this year).
Mark is the epitome of the virtual law firm and how an application service provider's types of resources via the Internet are, indeed, a lawyer's home away from home.
I always get a kick out of Mark coming in to a conference, fresh off an airplane to participate in a seminar, and he holds up his slim, lightweight notebook computer, and starts off by telling the audience, waiving his computer in the air, that the computer in his hand is his office. He then hooks up the notebook computer to the Internet and shows how he runs and manages his entire office, (every case and all documents, every memo, every telephone call, being recorded on the system), all with that notebook computer, from anywhere in the world where he can dial up his office via the Internet.
Folks, all of this is happening now! It is not going to stop. The trend is clear. It is moving forward at warp-speed every day. Vendors who do not accommodate and rework their software so that it is Internet accessible and workable with any kind of computer are going to perish and perish quickly.
Senior lawyers--don't think about it--just do it!
However, to use all of these resources in a law firm effectively, senior lawyers in the law firm must, and I emphasize the word must, become facile with computers, and learn to use not only their word processing and case management software and electronic mail and the Internet, but to be the leaders in their law firm in the new and innovative uses of technology, and so as to provide the leadership that is essential to the successful implementation and use of technology.
Electronic mail--benefits and perils
By Paul Bernstein
Electronic mail is truly wonderful. It has a number of advantages over "regular mail" sent via the United States Post Office. Some of the benefits are as follows:
Benefits of email
* Immediate: You can just click on the "reply" menu-choice and compose your response to email you have received. If your email software program is configured properly, the message you are responding to is copied automatically into your reply.
* Cost effective--low or no cost: If you subscribe to an Internet Service Provider ("ISP") such as Interaccess. com in Chicago, or AmericaOnLine (aol.com), or CompuServe, and if you have selected the "fixed-price" pricing option, you can receive and send an unlimited number of email messages without cost--clearly a lot cheaper then postage stamps.
* Labor savings: No letter to print out, you can file the message in your electronic folder on your computer instead of having to take a physical copy and put it into a paper-based client's folder, no envelope to print out, and no trip to the out-box or mail box. All this saving in labor costs is very significant.
* File attachments: Not only can you send email, but you can attach files to the email. Whether its another draft of a complex settlement agreement, or a spreadsheet, just attach the file on your computer to the email message and send it off. Instant communications of one to 100 or more pages of information with just a few mouse clicks and, again, at no postage cost.