Running a virtual office *UPDATED*

One of the glorious things about being a contract attorney nowadays (or, indeed, a solo practitioner generally) is the virtual office. All the infrastructure that used to be a costly requirement for a formal office -- secretary, computer, printer, fax machine, copier, paralegal -- is reduced to a computer, a printer and a telephone.

I don't need to tell you about the computer or modem, obviously. If you're reading this post, you know about them already. Nor should I need to remind you that you don't just want a plain old printer printer. Instead, you want an all in one that combines printing, faxing and scanning capabilities.

This last, incidentally, is becoming increasingly important. More and more often, clients who used to fax or mail to me the documents they receive from the Court or opposing counsel, scan these same documents and simply email them to me. I love it. I'm no longer buried under mountains of paper (because, as you recall, I don't have a secretary who does my filing). Instead, I have neat, easily accessible computer files that contain the hundreds, or even thousands, of pages my clients send me.

The above is a good explanation for why my clients (all of whom are lawyers) need scanners. The fact is, though, that I find I need my scanner too. When my clients hand me a big paper folder and ask me to prepare a motion for summary judgment or summary adjudication, or an appellate brief or writ, I go through the folder and scan all the documents I need. I can then arrange them in whatever order is necessary and, using Adobe, bate stamp the pages. (It's actually called "page numbering" in Adobe, but I think of it as Bate Stamping.) That way, as I write, I can easily insert the required page sites. I also don't have to riffle through hundreds of pages. Instead, I can just have them visible on the screen next to the document on which I'm working.

But that's equipment. What about people? The miracle of the internet is such that you can hire support staff as easily as your law firm clients hired you. Here's an example of a paralegal organization that will also do large document management. I've worked with organizations like this before and I can tell you that, without exception, I've been extremely pleased with the work product. Just as you and I are, these paralegals and document managers are professionals. They care about their work and they care about their reputations.

If your typing skills are limited, or you're simply overwhelmed by paper work, you can also find word processors on line. My sister, for example, runs a home based business editing and typing documents. As we do, she relies on emails, scanning, faxes and telephones to get the job done. Her clients are loyal, and that speaks well to her reliability. (I'll speak well about it too, but I'm her sister, so you have to assume bias.)

Need help filing or serving documents in California? Try Castle Copy. I used them when I had to prepare and serve multiple Calif. C.C.P. sec. 1985.3 subpoenas duces tecums, and they were wonderful. They did all the worrying about the proper procedure for that darn ten day notice and for actually getting the documents (and California lawyers, you know what I'm talking about). I recommend them very highly, but I'm sure you can find other equally good filing/service organizations.

As you can see, working out of your home and taking advantage of available technology and all the other independent businesses out there, there is nothing to prevent you from functioning in the same way as a large office with vast numbers of support people. Best of all, these are costs that, once incurred, can be passed on directly to your client. Everybody benefits, because there are no fixed carrying costs -- there just a one time price for a service directly rendered. What could be better?

UPDATE: Since writing the above, I've learned about a gal who provides editing services that can be used by those lawyers who feel that their writing could use a little, how shall I put this tactfully?, tightening up (and, yes, you know who you are). This lady provides a similar service and I'm sure you can find some more if you look.

The contract lawyer's library

When I started working as a contract attorney, law firms were just starting to have in-house email. One of my friends had an account on some long-gone ISP, and couldn't find the words to explain to me precisely what it was he was doing. Even if the internet existed in those dead and gone days, I knew nothing about it, and it was not yet a useful tool for anybody but the geekiest.

For me, legal research meant arming myself with a well-funded copy card, boarding BART, and heading to the San Francisco Bar Association's law library in the historic Monadnock Building. For particularly sticky research projects, I'd get off BART a couple of stops early and go to the better stocked library at Hastings Law School.

Trips home could be tiring, as I'd be weighed down with about a hundred pounds of photocopied pages, not to mention the guilt of all that wasted paper. What all of this meant was that, despite the home office, I wasn't home much.

Things changed when computers started having affordable CD drives. (And I bet many of you remember the times before, when loading a new software meant feeding in up to 50 floppy disks.)

I immediately jumped on the opportunity to get law libraries on CDs. These were three disk sets that were updated monthly. The currency of cases could be a little worrisome by the end of the month, but it was wonderful to sit at my desk, in my home, doing legal research, just as if I was a big time attorney with access to Lexis or Westlaw (which were still on dedicated computers, not on the internet).

Things only got better when Lexis went on line. I was one of the first to sign up. While I'd never liked Lexis (and I still don't), I was thrilled to have instant access to current California cases and, even better, the "push of a button" ability to Shepardize my cites. A lot of the stress went out of my practice at that moment.

Eventually Westlaw went on line too. I actually thought long and hard about signing up for it, since it was (and is) significantly more expensive than Lexis, but I simply could not resist the lure of the key number system. For that reason, I have a Westlaw account to this day. I've discovered that, for my day to day practice, a limited account suits me just fine.

The databases I use are California cases, the Rutter Group, and California Trial Court Filings. The latter is a fairly new database that has complaints and points and authorities that lawyers have filed in courts throughout California (although they're very heavy on Southern California filings). I find this database extremely useful, since it saves me from having to reinvent the wheel everytime I write something. I never rely blindly on anything these briefs say, but they're a very useful short cut to procedure, forms, and both general and specific issues. Incidentally, Lexis has a similar database.

If I have to do federal or out-of-state research, my clients are usually very agreeable about giving me access to their Lexis or Westlaw. They know that I won't abuse the privilege, but will use those passwords only for the client's specific research project.

Another wonderful tool is the internet itself. As with the Calif. Trial Court Filings database, I never accept anything I find this way at face value. Instead, I use it as a shortcut to consolidate information that I then check against reliable sources. Still, I do assume that Court websites are reliable, and if they say "X" as to their own practices and procedures, I believe that "X" is true.

Looking back over the years, I feel singularly blessed to be a solo attorney in cyber times. The research options available to me now were simply unimaginable back when I started. Without ever leaving my home (and dog), I can conduct legal research into every area of the law, nationwide. And my research is more comprehensive and reliable than it could possibly be 20 years ago. Frankly, without the internet, it's doubtful that I could maintain my simultaneous existence as a part-time lawyer and full-time mother.