In the News

Technology: Not Just An Administrative Convenience
By Barbara Rudolph / Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
Monday, August 16, 2004

As the efficient processes of digital technology become the predominant mode of operation for U. S. and international business, attorneys need to ensure that their offices include the information tools necessary to match these contemporary business processes.

There can be multiple levels of return on office technology for the law practice. With a modest amount of planning, insight and guidance, the use of technology not only frees up more billable hours, but its very existence in the practice is a signal to the outside world that the firm has the capability to accommodate present day business methods. In addition, office technology can evolve from an administrative convenience to a suite of strategic tools enabling client volume growth.

For instance, email provides an immediate, efficient and inexpensive means of carrying on a conversation with an established client. Sending written messages can provide in-depth inquiry and response information without interrupting the schedule of either party.

According to attorney David Keele, of David A. Keele & Associates, LLC, a law practice with its own email domain, many of his institutional clients, �such as banks, insurance companies and other kinds of corporations, rely almost entirely on email. They never pick up the phone. They email their needs because they�re busy. They want email out [with their questions] and email back [with my answers]. They don�t want me to try and return a phone call.�

Keele�s firm of three lawyers and up to five staff members practices general law with a current emphasis on real estate issues . He opened his doors in Chelmsford in 1996 and always has been a strong technology proponent.

�To survive and grow you must stay current on the technology,� he adds.

If there�s more than one computer in an office, it�s a good idea to link them together on a network and centralize office documents on a single server with back-up measures. In this way, documents on the system can be accessed from any terminal and quickly sent to a central networked printer, copier or fax machine. In addition, the back-up measures provide assurance against information loss.

Denise LaGasse heads up the LaGasse Law Group, LLC, a four person law firm in Tewksbury. She installed an office Ethernet network and centralized documents on a Windows 2003 server with tape back-up.

With a practice concentration in elder, estate planning and real estate law, LaGasse notes that, �now, when we�re writing a will, we can pull out a template from the document, discuss it and confer, as we edit it.�

LaGasse has a unique perspective on technology and the law. Her first career, spanning 23 years, was as a software engineering manager, most recently at Hewlett-Packard (formerly, Digital Equipment Corporation/Compaq). She received her law degree in 1993 and practiced part-time while still working with Compaq/Hewlett-Packard through December 2003. At that time she bought a 20 year-old law practice in Tewksbury.

�I see everything from my �technology manager� viewpoint,� LaGasse explains. �So, in order to make the law practice work for me, I knew I had to install the systems that I was used to for efficiency, ease of use and 24/7 access."

Broadband or DSL Web access makes Internet use very easy and the sending/receiving of large documents possible in very short periods of time . By incorporating wireless computer access into a practice, attorneys can move about the practice from office to client conference rooms to the law library areas with their laptops without wasting time shutting down and booting up again.

Additionally, installing secure remote access into one�s office network enables lawyers within the practice to travel and still access their office information, documents and network at the click of their laptop button.

Both LaGasse and Keele have set up encrypted wireless access in their offices, remote access to their office networks and fast Internet access. Keele loves to use the wireless remote capability when he�s away at his vacation home, �I can be anywhere in my house doing anything and still be in contact with my office when it�s necessary,� he says.

Keele�s broadband access enables his practice to maintain a competitive edge. The firm receives large documents very quickly without having any of its members waste time by physically driving to a bank or a government department.

�The digital delivery of information, like a closing package from a bank hit in a big way in 2001,� says Keele �By 2002 it was the standard means of this type of document delivery and if your firm wasn�t in the electronic world, you weren�t doing business.�

With her remote capability, LaGasse was able to manage her Massachusetts law practice from her home in Florida from her laptop for an entire month. �Having remote access enabled my team to contact me whenever it was necessary and gave me 24/7 access to my office network and documents,� she adds.

Though both LaGasse and Keele see the value of technology, neither wants to be responsible for it themselves. Both have brought in the expertise of Westford based Ekaru, LLC, an IT outsourcing company that provides hands-on help and strategic planning assistance for small and mid sized law firms that an in-house IT department would furnish for a larger law firm.

�Our firm has become increasingly dependent on technology for the management of client documents,� Keele says. �I cannot run a business and worry whether my computer is going to turn on. That�s where lawyers become bad business people. From 8:30 to 5, if I worrying about my computers, I�m not making any money.�

Because the 20-year-old practice was not tech savvy when she took it over, LaGasse not only bought new computers and set up systems through Ekaru, but she also decided to have the tech services company come in to provide employee training.

�When any office staff moves from a conventional setting to a more automated technology environment, there is a change in culture, processes and habits of doing things. Sometimes the idea of this kind of change is unsettling,� LaGasse acknowledges.

"One of my marching orders for Ekaru is, �keep me current with technology�,� says Keele. �The efficiency of my office is a wonderful thing. A classic example is the digital transmission and reception of data. It allows us to be more efficient, and the more efficient you are in the legal business with institutional clients, the more often they say,�Oh, Keele�s office can get the job done quickly and efficiently. Let�s give the job to him.��

Both Keele and LaGasse have additional technology goals for their firms. LaGasse wants everything and everyone in her firm to be totally automated from email, to calendars, to billings. In addition, she envisions expanding her practice to include a second office in Florida. She looks forward to a time when all her documents and applications are centralized, secure and accessible from anywhere.

Though Keele is very happy with the level of technology his firm now employs, he does toy with the idea of a �paperless office�. But, he says,� I�m just not sure that it will happen. The offices that laud themselves as paperless are not that busy. Banks still are using paper though they say they are heading in a paperless direction, I�ve been hearing that for eight years. I know registries of deeds and probate courts want to be paperless; they are not.

One thing that is coming is the digital filing of legal documents with the appropriate courts or legal agencies. Keele says. �Instead of having massive staffing to deal with the paper that comes in, one person can just direct the electronic pleadings to the right place. We already see this happening at the federal level for bankruptcies. Soon we�ll be required to file a bankruptcy electronically.�

LaGasse and Keele both realize that the reach of technology is becoming inescapable. It is an integral and evolving part of every kind business and business process, including the practice of law.

�People who don�t embrace technology are going to get stuck,� warns LaGasse.

Says Keele, �I just love it when one of my competitors calls himself a dinosaur and dubs technology the most abhorrent thing in the world.�

Barbara Rudolph is a professional writer. Ekaru is among her clients.