Who Wants Budget Stability? A New Year, Better Predictability

The year’s end is a time for reflection and projection. You look back at what happened over the past year, and you think about what the future holds. Some of this process is subjective, and some of it is speculation – but some of it is hard numbers.

Take your law firm’s budget, for example.

How was your IT spending in 2017? Did you stay within the parameters, or did you experience any major technological fall-out that caused you to dip into another line item?

What about next year? How’s your server holding up? Will this be the year be the one that results in multiple repair bills or the cost of a replacement server (and the associated migration costs)?

Good news: There is a way that you can stabilize your law firm’s IT budget for 2018. Migrate to a cloud environment, such as Legal Workspace, and you will experience predictable monthly costs instead of highly variable IT repair and maintenance bills.

Consistent bills, consistent budget

Because a cloud environment like Legal Workspace is constantly upgrading its software, servers, and security, those costs to your law firm – and that worry – can just disappear.

The responsibility is on Legal Workspace’s shoulders, not yours. No longer will you have to pay for upgrades. You won’t have to stretch a dying server’s viability until its last gasp. Instead, your data will be stored on up-to-date, state-of-the-art equipment.

You’ll simply pay for a predictable, unchanging monthly bill. Now that’s easy to budget.

Quicker client payments

Not only will you be able to stabilize your law firm’s IT budget, but you can utilize Legal Workspace’s tools to get paid faster, too.

Administrators can spend hours reviewing invoices. They might allocate a significant portion of their day to sharing invoicing information with attorneys – and attorneys might be wasting their time on clunky timekeeping and pre-billing. The Legal Workspace team can work with law firms to determine the best technology and processes for streamlining billing.

Working with Legal Workspace on this issue results in faster payment. As Diane Kuhre, firm finance manager for Davis Schilken, PC, puts it, “Since I can complete monthly billing in half the time, invoices get out the door in two days. The firm gets paid much more quickly now.”

All-in-one solution

Other headaches can fall by the wayside, too, when you start to use a cloud environment. Constantly adjusting to hackers’ increasingly adept and creative ways to penetrate law firms’ shields is a major annoyance – and it takes significant expertise (not to mention serious dollars) to protect your firm’s data adequately.

That’s one of the many reasons so many law firms now take advantage of a cloud environment for data storage. Law firms no longer need to worry about security updates or maintaining back-ups; it is all taken care of for you.l

Adopting the use of a cloud environment like Legal Workspace results in many benefits – not least a healthier bottom line. Just one simple decision can stabilize your IT budget, take away headaches about security and back-ups, and get your law firm paid more quickly.

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Server or Cloud? A law firm deliberates

We get many calls every week from law firms that are debating between the cloud and maintaining local IT resources. Yesterday, we received a call that a law firm is losing productivity because of unexpected server downtime. Concerns about data loss overwhelm the managing partners. What if the server fails?

The law firm is being proactive and looking into solutions. One option is working with their IT vendor, which wants to upgrade their server hardware. But the estimate for that project is prohibitive: $15,000 for server hardware and 40 hours of work at $175 ($7,000). On top of that, they can expect the usual costs for network upkeep that come from quarterly updates, 6 hours of work every quarter ($4,200 annually), and monthly maintenance, four hours of work each month ($8,400 annually).

The managing partners wonder: What if there’s another way to protect our data and reliably keep our firm up and running? Is there a more sustainable option to stabilize costs and eliminate downtime?

There is.

It’s the cloud.

An instant productivity boost

The law firm has an IT administrator on staff who deals with server downtime and other day-to-day tech issues. From his arrival to his departure at the office, he spends every day running around troubleshooting. What would his day look like without the hassle of damage control? He could spend his time evaluating new technology, customizing legal applications, and training new employees — all in the service of maximizing billable hours.

Other, smaller firms have a slightly different IT problem: Attorneys and staff members have to figure out what to do when technology fails. Imagine that problem disappearing. They could get back to focusing on revenue-generating activities.

Were the law firm to migrate to a cloud environment, such as Legal Workspace, the IT administrator, attorneys, and staff members could reclaim their time. Legal Workspace’s data centers have a history of more than 14 years of 100% continuous uptime.

Wasted time eliminated.

More than convenience: Safety

That concern the managing partners have about data loss if the server fails? It’s a real problem that could occur whenever you use an onsite server. Cloud solutions such as Legal Workspace have geographically redundant data centers that render data safer in the cloud than it could ever be on an onsite server. Here’s a video that illustrates the difference between server and cloud security. Legal Workspace has advanced security measures in place, such as:

• Limited physical access to servers
• Staff that’s available to react if a problem occurs
• Firewalls with sophisticated detection system
• Advanced data encryption

Using a solution like Legal Workspace also allows law firms to provide the tightest security available to their clients. For example, a firm that works with healthcare providers will need to be HIPAA compliant. Legal Workspace has a HIPAA-compliant version of its cloud environment and will even sign a business associate agreement. Other special security mandates from financial institutions and government contractors are easy for a solution such as Legal Workspace to meet and exceed.

Security concerns eliminated.

What choice would you make?

What choice do you think the law firm made? Did they plunk down $21,000+ and upgrade their onsite server, or did they jump at the chance to advance both productivity and security by switching to a cloud environment? Did they decide to eliminate downtime and stabilize costs?

The choice seems pretty clear.

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Reclaim 69 Billable Hours This Year

Everyone gets spam emails. It’s a part of life, so you deal with it. But do you realize how much time your employees spend reviewing and deleting spam emails?

The average worker receives 121 emails per day, and nearly 50 percent of those emails are spam. It takes some time to differentiate spam from the real thing—about 16 seconds per email on average—which doesn’t seem like a whole lot of time until you start doing the math:

If your employees are anything like the average worker, your employees and attorneys spend 16 minutes each day, 80 minutes each week, 5.5 hours each month, and 69.3 hours each year managing spam email. That’s over one and a half 40-hour work weeks per year spent just dealing with spam.

Worrying about spam is a waste of time and money when your staff should be concentrating on more productive and strategic initiatives, such as workflow management, assisting clients and maximizing billable hours. Free or included spam tools, such as Microsoft 365’s spam filtering, are not advanced enough to unburden your employees and protect your network.

Not just wasted time: Spam can be dangerous

Law firms store trade secrets, protected health information (PHI), and other high-value data which makes them valuable targets for cyber criminals. Some junk emails might be easily identifiable as spam, but others are more nefarious. For example, hackers have become increasingly clever when it comes to email spoofing and phishing. Both email spoofing and phishing look very much like the real thing and attempt to fool recipients into either giving away their information or downloading hazardous software.

Ransomware can be another issue for law firms if employees and attorneys aren’t properly trained to recognize malicious emails. An employee might receive an email with a seemingly benign attachment and open it—only to unleash a Cryptolocker virus in your network. The virus systematically enters and locks files on the infected computer (including network files), and the user can only regain access by sending money to the hacker, who may or may not release the information. Spam has the potential to directly compromise attorney-client privilege.

Get those hours back

Implementing the right spam solution is imperative to reclaiming billable hours and securing your law firm’s network. Technology is now available with advanced features such as opening attachments in a “sand box” to check for malware before sending the attachments to the end user’s inbox.

The time, effort, and expense it takes to set up a system for reducing junk email offsets the time, effort, and expense individuals sink into managing it on their own—and you’ll spend a lot more time, effort, and expense if a user in your firm finds itself the victim of a malicious cyber-attack.

Legal Workspace regularly implements spam solutions and provides end-user training to improve law firm efficiency and protect firms from email threats. We are serious about protecting data in a world where hackers and spam purveyors continually invent new ways to penetrate defenses. Get serious about stopping spam, and reclaim those hours back.

Reach out to Legal Workspace to learn more about spam filtering options.

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Is Your Outdated Office Hindering Law Firm Productivity?

Law firms are constantly buried in paperwork. The sheer amount of paper that a single lawyer can use is substantial: One survey found that individual attorneys use between 20,000 and 100,000 sheets of paper per year on average. Another study has shown that a document gets copied 19 times on average and that workers typically spend between half an hour and two hours a day searching for documents. Paperless workspaces have multiple benefits, both for the environment and for a firm’s bottom line.

1. Increased law firm productivity and efficiency

Chaos and wasted time are byproducts of an office that still depends on paper documents and filing systems. The application support specialists at Legal Workspace report witnessing turmoil surrounding lost files at firms. When you go paperless, that headache ends because everyone knows where documents are stored, and everyone has access to them whether they’re at home, on the road, or in the office.

Collaborating with clients also gets easier because there’s no need to search for and send physical copies of documents—and staff no longer need to spend as much time filing and making and distributing copies to involved parties.

Instead, attorneys and staff can concentrate on getting things done (GTD). Going paperless allows you to follow David Allen’s GTD system without impediments:

a. Capture your tasks and responsibilities: Creating an electronic to-do list gives you the freedom to achieve your goals from anywhere.
b. Clarify the steps it will take to achieve your goals: Breaking down your goals into attainable and discrete steps increases your productivity.
c. Organize and prioritize: Knowing what you must do when—and knowing where the tools are to get your work done—are key to productivity.
d. Reflect on your tasks and goals: Reorganizing and updating priorities is easily done electronically.
e. Engage: Getting things done is all about ticking off boxes so you have the time to concentrate on the more creative and engaging aspects of your work.

2. Workflow automation

Simplify, systematize, and promote efficiency with workflow automation. A paperless office makes taking advantage of the benefits of workflow automation that much easier because all an office’s important documents are stored in one place, rather than multiple copies scattered across the office.
The team that needs the file knows exactly where it is, and everyone can access it on all their devices. Then, workflows can be set up that automatically create new tasks once another task has been accomplished.

Once a firm locks down the basics of using workflow automation, they can begin to implement delegation systems in their practice management software or apply a document management system.

3. Integrate applications

Having a paperless office allows law firms to take advantage of other technologies. For example, you can now store documents in your practice management application or document management application. Integrating these applications helps with efficiency and workflow, too: When you use a practice management application, documents can be organized and connected with your firm’s cases.

And, if you use Legal Workspace, which hosts all the software applications you need to run your firm on the cloud, your attorneys will all have access to those applications (and those documents) on any of their devices, anywhere they want to use them.

4. More space, more money, more time

It’s probable that going paperless will have positive effects on your law firm’s bottom line. If you’re not storing and filing physical copies of paper, you don’t need all that extra equipment and space. That translates to reduced budgets for things like paper, copy machines, filing cabinets—and maybe even a decrease in rent.

5. Going Green

Of course, one consequence of going paperless is a reduced environmental footprint. If you eliminate the usage of one ton of paper (about 200,000 sheets), you save 17 trees. As more corporations are reducing their environmental impact they expect their law firms to do the same.

Tech leaps, no worries

Technology around paperless solutions has grown rapidly over the last few years, and with that growth has come improved security and convenience. Legal Workspace has redundancy built into every security measure, which means that its clients’ data is constantly being monitored and protected.

As most other industries adopt paperless systems, law firms can feel comfortable following suit and selecting a cloud-based platform like Legal Workspace to help them access and manage their applications.

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Workflow on your Workspace: Become More Productive and Efficient

Are you using your software to its full potential?

 

Many law firms own legal software applications to assist them with case management, time and billing, and accounting. The question is: Are you using your software to its full potential?

Most law firms use only a portion of their software’s features and integrations without realizing and maximizing the software’s full capacity. The application support specialists at Legal Workspace estimate that most firms only use about 40 percent of the functionality of workflow automation or case management software.

Law firms are particularly poised to take advantage of workflow automation because many of their processes are methodical and follow a set procedure. Developing repeating workflows not only increases efficiency, but also ensures accuracy.

To figure out what can be automated, firms should define their repetitive workflows and problem areas.

Here are five guidelines to help you understand how automation can work for you:

1. Standardize and implement. Different practice areas have different processes that are methodical or repetitive. Determine which processes fall into that category, identify common issues, then streamline them to make procedures standard.

Here’s an example: Most firms repeat the same process every time they take on a new client. The firm will go through an approval process, run a conflict check, and finally proceed with the client intake process. Those steps can be standardized to prevent bottlenecks and keep the process on track.

2. Checklists. Practice areas typically have sets of milestones or tasks that need to be accomplished. Two good examples of events that benefit from using a checklist are 1) when a new case is entered into the system and 2) when a case is closed.

 In both scenarios, there are many small to-dos that need to be completed in a certain order. At the beginning of the relationship, firms need to set up the file and the billing, assign staff to the case, send a thank-you letter to the client, and countless other administrative tasks. When the case has closed, there’s a similar laundry list of items to do, such as finalizing billing, document storage, and more.

Rather than having an individual keep track of all the small tasks—or hoping that everyone remembers their responsibilities and performs them in the correct order—a checklist makes certain that every task gets accomplished and that nothing happens twice.

3. Document generation and file-sharing. The application support specialists at Legal Workspace have seen data privacy issues arise out of human error when people recycle electronic documents, using them repeatedly for the same purpose. Let’s say an attorney pulls up Jane Smith’s document because he needs to create the same type of document for John Jones. He searches for all of Jane’s information and thinks he replaces it with John’s new information in the document—but he gets interrupted mid-stream and forgets to replace Jane’s social security number. Not only is this scenario inefficient, compromises sensitive data.

Increase accuracy, efficiency, and security when you standardize document templates in your firm based on practice area. Use case management or practice management apps, such as Amicus Attorney®, Practice Master ®, or Time Matters ®, to pull data and autofill the documents accurately. Then, share your files with the appropriate parties using a secure platform in the cloud, such as Legal Workspace.

4. Calendar templates. This workflow feature helps attorneys track standard tasks and deadlines that need to happen on a case. For example, a personal injury attorney might construct a statute of limitations calendar template, which includes the deadline and reminders going backwards six months, 90 days, the month, and the week before the deadline hits.

Automating reminders allows attorneys to worry about the finer points of their cases, rather than the administrative details.

5. Triggers. Often in a law firm, one action leads to another action. A more advanced feature in some practice management systems allow users to set up “triggers,” which simply means that once you indicate within the system that a certain event has occurred, another action that relates to the case automatically pops up. For example, if a status of a case changes, a trigger would prompt users to take the next logical step.

 Taking advantage of the features that likely already exist as part of your case management or practice management software is a simple way to increase efficiency, accuracy, and security. If you need assistance determining what you can do and how to do it, Legal Workspace’s application support specialists can help you fine tune your automation so firms can maximize their billable hours. Reach out now.

 

 

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10 Technology Mistakes Lawyers Make Every Day

An email arrives from an address you don’t recognize with an attachment that is marked “important.” Since it may be something urgent from a current or prospective client, you decide to open it. However, with a quick click, you could inadvertently download a virus that could hijack every file on your firm’s server.

Security is just one of the technology challenges that law firms face every day, and the threats are constantly evolving. Nearly 60% of the respondents to the International Legal Technology Association 2015 Legal Technology Purchasing Survey listed security management as their top IT challenge. That was followed by email management at 48%, information governance at 40% and risk management/compliance 33%. BYOD, cloud-related security risks and change management were all tied at 22%.

Additionally, Bloomberg reported last year that at least 80 of the largest U.S. firms by revenue have been hacked since 2011.

Lawyers need to understand how even simple errors can compromise their firms, their clients and even their livelihoods. By educating attorneys and staff alike, law firms can keep their data—and their reputations—intact and avoid the top-10 mistakes that occur at firms every day.

Clicking On Attachments From Unknown Senders

While attorneys strive to be responsive, being too quick to open every email can lead to serious consequences. This is the most common way law firms find themselves infected with viruses such as Cryptolocker. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, more hackers will use malware to hold organizations’ data hostage in 2016 than in 2015—and there were more than 4 million samples of ransom-ware in the second quarter of 2015 alone.

Prior to opening an email, check the email address to find out if you recognize the sender and if it is his or her correct information. Also check the subject line and body to help identify any red flags such as typos, inconsistent information or requests for access to personal or financial data. Most importantly, be sure you have robust virus protection installed that can scan attachments and warn you before you hit open.

Storing Unencrypted Client Data On A Laptop Or Mobile Device

Laptops, tablets and phones are prime targets for thieves. They contain almost anything a thief needs to harm your practice–client files, financial information, passwords and personal data. Thieves can auction off the information, use it themselves or can simply sell the device–putting your firm at risk from other unauthorized individuals.

The portable nature of laptops and mobile devices means that they are often in areas that are at a high-risk of theft–cars, restaurants, hotel rooms or subways–when compared to office-bound PCs.

In short, laptops and mobile devices are easy targets. You should avoid storing information on these devices. Instead, opt to store information in the cloud, which offers an elevated level of security including two-factor authentication, intrusion detection systems and encryption. That way, if your laptop or mobile device is stolen, they may have the hardware but not the data.

Failing To Invest In High-Quality Internet

When a new DSL provider offers a cheaper rate for internet access, it may be tempting to sign up. Cheaper isn’t always better. That is especially true now that so much data is moving to the cloud. Good quality bandwidth, such as fiber through an internet provider, will always pay off when it comes to staff productivity by eliminating connectivity issues with apps, voice calls and more.

Investing In New Systems Without Considering Security

Clients expect you to provide stellar, seamless service. But they also demand that their data stays secure every step of the way. If your systems do not include top-notch security features, the odds are high that your firm will have to rip it out and start all over again.

This can be a challenge for most lawyers, as security standards and threats are constantly evolving. For example, imagine that you implement an online solution that uses an out-of-the-box firewall. When one of your clients conducts an audit and discovers how basic your security is, they may demand that you install a new software program with enhanced security that includes intrusion detection systems, full-disc encryption and two-factor authentication.

If they do not have a security expert on staff, law firms should consider partnering with a business or consultant that specializes in protecting electronic systems and information. These experts, who are dedicated to staying abreast of technology and its threats, can ensure the highest level of protection for your operations.

Listening To “Bob From Microsoft”

Lawyers are now well aware of cyber threats and are exploring proactive ways to protect themselves. Hackers are now taking advantage of that.

The con starts with this: Someone from a tech support company may call your direct line claiming to have noticed a virus on your computer. When he or she offers to do a screen connect to fix it, you accept their help. But allowing an unverified technologist to remote into your computer is a huge mistake.

No one is ever going to call you out of the blue to fix your computer, no matter how knowledgeable they sound. If you do not recognize the person or the company, you shouldn’t let them anywhere near your computer.

Falling Prey To Proprietary Data Storage

There are hundreds of legal software applications to help you manage your firm. Sometimes trouble arises when law firms outgrow their current software and need to upgrade to an entirely new system. Different software applications format data differently (and oftentimes they have a proprietary format for doing this), which makes extracting or transferring that data out or to another program difficult.

Skimping On Training

At a time when technology plays such a large role in the success of law firms, cutting back on training to save a few dollars can cause extensive harm. Chances are that if a lawyer or a staff member doesn’t understand how programs or apps work, they will either resist using it or won’t be able to take full advantage of all of its features.

It’s like giving someone who has never driven the keys to a race car.

Take the time to fully acquaint all lawyers and staff with new solutions. Have trainers or providers explain how the solutions work, what they offer and how to leverage them in day-to-day tasks.

Handling Your Own Tech Challenges

While some attorneys shy away from technology, others embrace it. You may think you can hire one-off vendors to manage your technology infrastructure and services, but that is usually a short-sighted approach. In the long term, you will probably lose time and money and heighten your security risks. Just think of the lost billable hours, headaches and frustration that happen when you have to call your managed support provider (MSP), explain your tech troubles, and manage their timeline and budget. Choosing the right IT provider that specializes in law firms, cyber security and legal software can make all the difference. When you hand off IT to the true experts, they can handle your technology issues easily and correctly the first time.

Choosing Solutions Based On Cost, Not Effectiveness

The cheapest solution is not always the one that pays off. Your firm needs to take the time to understand the features of new technology and how your attorneys and staff will use it. Only then can you thoroughly weigh the pros and cons of each new tool. For example, many firms use non-legal-specific software for bookkeeping. It may be cheap, but a good billing and accounting software program designed for law firms is a better choice since it can accommodate specific issues firms face when tracking timekeepers’ hours.

Not Taking A Holistic Approach To Technology

When selecting different technology tools and systems, you must consider the needs of everyone, including attorneys, staff and clients. Only then can you select tools that will help meet everyone’s goals. That means you, or any other individual attorney, may not be the best person to make decisions on new software purchases.

You should work with experts who are familiar with many different types of software and know how to line up a firm’s needs and goals. Experts can bring a completely different, and more encompassing, point of view to the technology selection process as well as a keen eye for helpful and powerful integrations.

In today’s world, it’s impossible to avoid incorporating technology throughout the practice. Clients won’t accept that approach, and younger attorneys wouldn’t want to. By avoiding a few common mistakes, you can make technology work to your advantage, not let it hamper or harm your practice.

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What’s Killing Your Law Firm’s Productivity?

According to LexisNexis, the majority of non-billable hours are spent on practice management or administrative tasks. Process and workflow automation is as important for law firms as it is for any industry. Although your “product” is not tangible, it is nevertheless measurable. The “commodity” produced by attorneys is knowledge. This knowledge is often in the form of advice given, agreements achieved and documents produced. However, the value of all of these is usually measured in time. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, maximize productivity and minimize costs, attorneys must manage proactively and strategically the production of the time commodity.

Time management is where case management software can be of great benefit and provide a significant return on investment.  

What if you could:

— Ensure that you never miss a deadline?

— Generate documents (and find them later) with only a couple of easy steps?

— Create billing entries from any task (documents, calendar, notes, research, etc.) with just one button?

— Quickly turn those time entries into invoices that can be sent via email for faster payment?

— Find any document, file, note, message, etc. with one global search field?

— Access all items related to a case (calendar, documents, email messages, notes, contacts, etc.) from one window?

 

Practice Management Applications and Document Generation Software

 One key to maximizing revenue is to maximize the number of billable hours, and reduce the amount of time spent on non-billable activities. Although some of your non-billable tasks may not be related to a case, such as practice management and administration, often time is spent on case-related actions for which you would not want to bill your client, such as searching for a document, email, or notes that may not be organized as well as they should be.

At a rate of $300/hour, 10 minutes spent searching for stealth information is $50 of billable time wasted. You can easily see how this wasted time, protracted out by several cases, can result in a significant decrease in productivity and, ultimately, profitability.

 The good news is that Legal Case Management and Legal Accounting software can greatly reduce your number of non-billable hours as well as maximize your production of billable time.  There are several systems available that will help you accomplish all of the goals listed above, and more.

For case management we recommend Amicus (for the smaller law firm) and Time Matters (for medium to large firms). Both programs offer comprehensive, efficient case management and legal document generation to help you work more efficiently and meet deadlines.

 

Billing and Accounting Software for Attorneys

If you’re working long hours to increase revenue and not seeing a return, it might be time to look into a legal billing application. Thankfully there are many time and billing software options for attorneys to ensure you’re capturing all of your billable time and easily generating invoices for individual cases or en masse.

For small firms, Tabs 3 and PCLaw are complete time, billing and accounting systems with functions to meet the unique needs of legal billing and accounting. PCLaw has the added (optional) benefit of a front office module which also handles case management functions. For large law firms, Juris provides the scalability, flexibility and reporting requirements unique to firms with multiple attorneys, a large support staff and complex billing requirements. These systems provide easy methods for capturing all of your billable time and easily generating invoices either on an individual basis, or en masse.

These apps will help you capture more hours, maximize revenue and control costs with fully integrated time entry, billing, payables, receivables and management reports.

 

 Leveraging the Cloud

Most legal applications require dedicated space on your server. That’s where Legal Workspace comes in. Our clients find that maintaining their own server’s security, upgrades, repairs, support maintenance and uptime is time-consuming and costly. With Legal Workspace, we manage your server and IT needs so you can spend more time practicing law and less time worrying about server and IT maintenance.

Our secure legal cloud is the perfect environment to host your virtual law firm. Work from anywhere using any device to maximize efficiency while on-the-go.

 

Legal Workspace is a complete solution created exclusively for law firms.

— Full IT management and maintenance

— Enterprise-grade security to protect against online threats

— Access Legal Workspace from anywhere using any device

— Military grade data centers located in the US

— Easy and affordable scalability as your firm grows

— Host all of your legal and business applications, no on-site servers required

 

Download this blog post here.

 

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