Second Opinions

Leaving Mega Big Firm for the Country

By Dan Coolidge

THIS question hits home. Literally. I live in a bucolic and idyllic rural community in central New Hampshire. I recently switched firms, and I now practice patent law at a prominent intellectual property law firm. Unfortunately, it's a two-hour drive away in Boston.

Commuting every day is not a realistic option. At the same time, if I want to work from home, I have to be available to my office. The disruption had better be minimal -- not so much to me, as to my clients and partners. Particularly, because I am a "new guy" at my firm, I have to be readily available -- even a bit "in your face." Accordingly, for now, I spend more time in Boston than I will in the future. For when I am in town, I bought a small condo that's walking distance to my office. (It had better appreciate or I am never going to retire.)

But when I am working at home, I need the same resources I have at the office. Software setup is no real issue, but connecting to the office for resources that are local to the office network is crucial. Living out in the boondocks, it's something of a worst case scenario -- I do have Internet access, but the best speed I can get is 28 Kbps. No cable modem, no DSL. Can I survive?

Of course I can. I have better working conditions in my home than anywhere else. I have available three phone lines, one of which is dedicated to my private and sole use (any family member who gets on that line risks incineration). During the day, the house is generally empty, so the other two lines are free. And I have a cell phone. Communications has not been a problem.

Do I have to have high speed access? No. It makes it annoying to download a 12 MB file, but that's about it. And how often do I really need that kind of capability? Most of the time the largest files I need take less than 10 minutes to download. I have had to learn patience, and the ability to do something else while the file is downloading. I recommend, however, using a download manager like GetRight which will re-commence a download where you left off if you get disconnected. Doing a long download twice requires more patience than I have been able to muster.

I am not sanguine about the reliability of my Internet service provider. Too many things can happen in the country. I have my primary Internet hookup, as well as a free backup service from NetZero, and I can dial into MSN as a third backup. I am never without access to my primary lifeline, the Internet.

I have generator backup for the infrequent power outages, and a "uninterruped power supply" (UPS) unit that could supply a small city for a week. This may have been an excess of caution, but after a lightning strike that took out a lot of my equipment, I am a bit overcautious.

Speaking of paranoid: Everything is backed up. Redundancy pervades. I have two computers, each connected through a keyboard operated switch to a single monitor, keyboard and mouse. I have spares of each available in case of failure.

I keep a CD-RW on each computer, and regularly backup critical files. Because I lost two years of work on a book, I have "gotten religion" about backup. I have backup CDs of all my critical software, and I keep them offsite at a neighbor's home.

I have ZIP drives on every computer, allowing simple physical electronic document movement. And when I leave home, I e-mail to myself duplicates of every critical document, and carry two diskettes with the files as well.

As to other equipment, I still use a standalone fax machine which also serves as a backup printer should my primary laser printer fail. I have a flatbed scanner with sheet feeder used primarily for OCR. I also have a desktop sheeted scanner for scanning letters and short documents for online filing. I don't keep much paper at home, but have access to critical files online. Eventually, my office in Boston will be the same -- never having to look for the paper file (which will continue to exist, but stay I central filing. Paper will never be totally eliminated.).

Of course I have access to my office. We currently use a Citrix server to allow Internet access to the office network. Eventually we'll implement virtual private networking. This kind of access is critical. It allows a local call to connect me, so I can stay online and available be e-mail. It gives me access to all of the capabilities of my office, and the support services I need. I can get research done for me or access what I need directly. People are learning that I am almost immediately reachable by e-mail, or the phone. Most of my clients are happy to communicate by e-mail.

Not having a secretary at home has not been an issue. I use voice dictation (Dragon Naturally Speaking) to enter correspondence, disclosures and the like. I can then send the electronic files to my secretary for clean-up. I also have a top quality suite of programs to permit me to ignore document format issues: I use QuickView Plus to be able to read most anything, supplement it with Conversions Plus from Dataviz, which not only allows me to re-format most PC files to something I can edit, but also allows me to read and convert Macintosh documents. Document conversion has become a background non-issue.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an issue. I am acutely aware of the insecure nature of Internet e-mail; I use PGP encryption regularly and have not yet had a problem. However, I am also aware that my home office doesn't not have the same kind of security that I do in Boston. I have to be conscious that documents left on a table may be seen by friends who ought not to see them. I am disciplined about keeping only the current project open on my desk, having as much as possible in electronic form on my computer and client information on my computer stored in an encrypted and password protected disk. Without the password, only I can read the file. And I change the password monthly.

Because of my technical background, I am my own technical support most of the time. If you are not technically adept, find support systems. Redundancy is the safest option, and a knowledge of how to do simple technical tasks like installing a printer and locating and installing a video driver on the Internet is crucial.

Downsides? The phone still rings in my Boston office and voicemail picks up. I am hoping we'll implement delivery of voicemail by an e-mail interface so that it will be as easy to retrieve, store and respond to as e-mail. For now, I still have to call in to get voicemail.

Face time is still critical. There's no substitute for in-person contact to build relationships. I tried video conferencing (on the cheap, golf-ball sized videocam and Internet hookup) and found it to be too distracting and not sufficiently beneficial. It will get better with time and bandwidth, I am certain, but it's not for me ... yet.

If I'm not in the office, I'm not available for emergencies that require physical presence. That's simply a downside cost to working from home. I make it as minimal as possible, but it remains nevertheless.

I'm certain that as a career move, working out of my home is not helpful. But as a matter of lifestyle and connection with my family, it is, for me, a worthwhile tradeoff. Do I recommend it? I think I have the best of both worlds -- a sophisticated national practice and a rural lifestyle. I wouldn't trade it.

Dan Coolidge, a member of the LTN Editorial Advisory Board, is a patent prosecutor and transactions lawyer with Fish and Richardson in its Boston office.