Second Opinions

Our Big Firm Wants to Go Paper-less

Arthur Smith asks: My firm, Husch & Eppenberger L.L.C., is based in St. Louis and wants to go "paper-less." We have eight offices and 250 lawyers, linked by a wide area network. We use PC DOCS 3.8 as our internal document management software, integrated with the Microsoft office suite, as our basic tools. While this allows profiling of documents other than those created on our system, it does not lend itself to the kind of organized file retrieval system that our litigation department wants to create. The goal: Replicate the traditional paper filing system, with separate "folders" within each case for correspondence; pleadings; discovery; experts, etc.

We need to capture not only incoming paper documents; but case-related e-mail as well as mail attachments. Can you make suggestions for software that might supplement, but not replace, PC DOCS for this records management function in a large firm environment?

* * * *

By Ed Siebel

PAPER FILE Structure? Try Macintosh! Replication of the traditional paper filing system is precisely how the Macintosh filing system works. Two attributes of the Mac operating system permit both the easy organization of a "digital fileroom" and near instant access to virtually any document, image or transcript on any hard disk on the network.

* * * *

By John L. Mellitz

LITIGATORS ARE different. No matter how large the firm, each litigator is, at heart, a solo practitioner. Administration, rules, procedures, record keeping ­ all are wasteful activities with respect to "the case."