January 1996
Management must make decisions that serve a firm's practice and business, not the plans of the computer industry.
If measured by news reports and advertising, 1995 has been a year of unprecedented technology innovation. Microsoft Windows, the Internet, imaging and video conferencing fill many of the pages of this publication and virtually every other business periodical. Add television advertising from Microsoft and Intel, and the message cannot be avoided.
Finding a well-marked path through the craters from these technology bombshells can be difficult for large law firms. Small firms with a much smaller and newer technology investment can outperform (and underprice) the services offered by firms equipped as recently as three or four years ago. The Simpson trial, for better or worse, broadcast the image of technology in the courtroom around the world. Senior management, cautious about new technology investment in the rapidly changing legal marketplace, must make decisions that serve a law firm's practice and business requirements, not the marketing plans of the computer industry.
Today's technology innovations already have a significant impact on legal practice, and the impact will grow. The responses to this growth require good understanding and appropriate planning. First we look briefly at the hot technology.
Windows and the Internet
It's too early to declare a winner in the race for media attention between Microsoft's Windows program and the Internet. Separately and together they have the potential for a significant impact on technology support for the practice and business of law. Windows and Windows-based software offer a significant expansion in the range, quality and accessibility of computer tools for direct use by attorneys. Apple Computers, of course, deserves a nod for their pioneering work on the Macintosh interface and operating system. Yet it had minimal direct impact on the profession.
The standards and flexibility of the Windows environment allow its applications to be learned quickly and effectively. The barriers of learning a variety of separate programs, each with their own secret keystrokes, have fallen. With these possibilities, technology tools can be directed more thoroughly to attorneys themselves.
In 1995 the Internet, especially the World Wide Web, has grown to be a critical resource for communication and marketing. With its "pages" well illustrated, and its links enabling users to travel around the world for information from their desktop, the World Wide Web shows the possibilities offered by contemporary tools.
The library can move to the desktop, saving floor space and travel time, as well as providing access to materials for which there may have been no access at all. The materials can be as directly applicable to practice as the SEC's EDGAR files or as general as the world of business marketing materials. The cost of access to such information has dropped significantly and will continue to do so. Once accessible only through the proprietary tools of providers such as LEXIS-NEXIS, WESTLAW and Dialog, much key information has become public domain.
The dramatic attention and reward the market gave to Netscape Communications Corporation's initial public offering provide further evidence of the expectations of the business world for these tools.
Communications
E-mail is well established for internal communications at most law firms and businesses. This year, the demands for its use for communication between lawyer and client have grown vigorously. E-mail, used properly, can bridge conflicting schedules of time and place, enhancing responsiveness and contact with clients. Video conferencing from the desktop has become affordable. Face-to-face meetings can be saved for those times when it is most effective.
Technology Planning
Just a few years ago, law firms had a clear direction for technology planning. Replace the limited, unwieldy, expensive centralized systems (especially Wang) with personal computers for all secretaries and most support staff. Connect them together in networks for printing and filing. Install WordPerfect for word processing performance capable of the most complex agreement or pleading. Add e-mail and perhaps a document management system.
Today's challenges are different. Technology planning must:
Law firms often find that their information services support staff is limited in its ability to plan and implement the range and quality of technology change demanded today. Above all, they lack the training and experience to speak in "lawyer"--to understand the hands-on reality of performing legal work. In many firms, the technology committee serves as a haven for technology enthusiasts. They may not be representative of the broad range of views in the practice, especially those of the firm's managing partners or executive committee. Developing a technology plan, only to have it die when presented to an unfamiliar or uninvolved executive committee wastes time, effort and opportunity.
Technology Teamwork
Technology planning must deliver direct use of technology by attorneys who are properly organized, selected, supported and trained. Effective planning for law firm technology requires a team that not only offers technology expertise, but adds knowledge of and authority for the firm's legal practice, administration and client relationships. The technology plan must not only account for the desktop and network equipment and applications, but also for the legal practice and business issues relating to the deployment, implementation and training for the planned technology. The team should examine thoroughly the firm's practice and business needs, evaluate the role and design of desktop and network technology tools, select appropriate equipment and programs, and develop an implementation and training plan to achieve a high level and quality of use.
The team must articulate the business goals and objectives for technology implementation and enhancement. In many firms, a critical goal will be to expand the level of intense effective computer use by attorneys and paralegals from the current one-third level to two-thirds. Achieving this goal can improve client responsiveness and reduce support expense, without expending inordinate amounts of money or energy on attorneys not likely to use computers.
The Writing Environment
Writing remains the central activity of attorneys and the tangible result of their work. To enhance and support direct attorney use, current-generation Windows word processors such as Microsoft Word for Windows 6 (and just recently, 7) and WordPerfect for Windows 6.1 must not only be deployed, but must be molded to allow attorney writers to complete finished copy with little secretarial help.
Advanced templates supported by both of these programs can make them powerful tools with which to respond to the corporate pressures to decrease legal support staff levels. Document assembly programs can further automate the legal writing task by automating the creation of standard form documents, or standard clauses of negotiated documents.
Business Graphics and Presentations
One of my favorite questions for an assembly of attorneys is, "Do you use business graphics in your practice?" At first a few hands go up, usually confined to a litigator or two and some member of the technology committee. Many more hands rise when the question changes to "How many draw rectangles and circles, with lots of connecting arrows, when you really need to explain a concept to a client?"
Where these tools exist today in law firms, often they are confined to a few users in word processing and marketing. The new generation of diagramming tools makes it possible for all users to create attractive business diagrams that can be easily incorporated into word processing documents. Whether for court exhibits or everyday client communication, diagrams and other graphics have begun to be essential to legal practice and will grow in importance.
Finding documents can be a time-consuming and time-wasting task in legal practice. Without guidance or standards, many staff members create electronic piles of documents messier than any physical paper piles. To achieve the promise that all documents can be found "just by pressing a button" requires a robust document management system. Not only do documents stay "found," but attorneys lose their excuse for reinventing the wheel.
Communications and Electronic Publication
The pace of communications keeps ratcheting up. Today, the fax seems to be everywhere, yet its speed advantage soaks up significant staff time and energy. Desktop fax, broadcasting to and from personal computers, eliminates much of the effort now devoted to transmitting and receiving faxes. E-mail finally seems ready to become a standard resource.
Relatively new to communications resources are electronic publishing tools. These can be used for materials prepared or maintained by the firm or major clients, such as benefits or compliance manuals, easing the time, effort and expense for distributing and keeping these materials current. Lotus Notes and the hypertext markup language pages that form the World Wide Web on the Internet, as well as several other network-based tools support such publications. Video conferencing, with tools such as Intel's ProShare, has become accessible and affordable. Plans must incorporate adequate and appropriate security procedures.
Carrying one's office in a laptop case to client sites and courtrooms, as well as home, has grown very quickly in importance. The configuration of mobile computers for compatibility with office systems, as well as the installation and configuration of remote access tools, has become a key issue for technology success. Amtrak's installation of outlets at every seat in the dinette car on the Metroliner simply underscores this success.
Research
Electronic research through LEXIS-NEXIS and WESTLAW is now more than two decades old and is being complemented by newer entrants such as Law Journal EXTRA! These tools, once confined to special terminals in the library, can be used at every attorney's desktop.
Legal information can be found in many other electronic sources, including CD-ROM publications that, when networked, can expand significantly a law firm's resources without the staffing and space burdens of paper libraries. Online resources, including dockets and filings at courts, state and federal agencies are also growing in importance, and should be accessible from the desktop, often through the Internet.
Imaging and Back File Management
For several years, complex litigation has been supported by document imaging. These systems assure document control, common immediate access to key materials, high portability and sophisticated search and retrieval functions. The high expense resulting from the space and handling requirements of corporate files makes document imaging an important resource to evaluate as a routine tool for file storage, access and sharing.
Planning for Implementation, Staffing and Support
The technology planning process offers a key opportunity to embrace new resources, support the changes in business practices necessary to make effective use of them, and organize staff to implement and support new resources. A training program designed to teach staff to use the new technology will be an essential investment. Training should be designed just as carefully as the selection of desktop applications or network systems.
Robert L. Blacksberg is director, practices services of TechLaw Automation Partners, Inc., and leads strategic technology planning for law firms and corporate legal departments throughout the country. TechLaw Automation Partners is a national provider of legal technology consulting, design, implementation, training and maintenance services. Before joining TechLaw Automation Partners, Mr. Blacksberg practiced corporate and finance law for 18 years. He may be reached at (215) 246-3406.
Copyright 1996, The New York Law Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved.
