Virtual Law Office – What You Need
If you are an attorney and are looking into the endeavor of starting up your own virtual law office, or VLO, you will come across many different white papers which are 50 pages long. In those documents your head will start spinning over big words like “cloud computing”, secure portals, encryption, enterprise content management, jurisdictional checks, SaaS (Service as a Software), and other techno-buzzwords to give you the impression that you need some sort of advanced degree in physics to figure it all out.
Well, you are an attorney which means that you’ve already had to endure about seven years of higher learning. So you will be relieved to know that you do not have to read any books, take any classes, or even attend any yawn-inducing CLE’s at some downtown Hotel while you keep yourself awake by checking the box score for the Yankees game. In fact, the learning curve is minimal if you do it right.
You only need two things to open up a VLO or an Elawyering website. Shockingly, the first one is a website. I say “shockingly” because many vendors who try to set up your online package do not include a website. And the second is a secure line of communication between you and your client.
Now, is there anything special about this website? Not really, aside from the fact that it should be secured with an encryption package if you plan to actually communicate through that site to your clients. And encrypting or securing this site is not exactly rocket science.
The second thing you will need is a secure means of communication with your client. Fact is that most attorneys in the brick and mortar world communicate with their clients through phones which are not secure at all for at least 80% of all their communications. The other 20% is either email or face to face meetings. So with respect to Elawyering, all you really need is to secure your email and any communications with your client that takes place through your website. Again, you don’t need to be an Albert Einstein to figure out how to set this up.
As such, you will probably want to shy away from vendors who will try to sign you up to some sort of monthly retainer program where you do not even get a website in return. Some vendors want you to believe that the process is so complicated and sophisticated, that their high fees are justified. Don’t believe it. You can do just fine with a secure website and a secure means of communication. While some vendors would have you believe that starting up a Virtual Law Practice will take weeks to months, don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Instead of weeks to months, you should be squared away with the basic structure in just days.
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