Elevator Rides at Law Firms Call for Delicacy, Tact

May 31, 2007 by

The Sololawyer has a reaction to a post at Law.com called Elevator Rides at Law Firms Call for Delicacy, Tact.

Okay, riding the elevator in a fancy office building in order to get to a fancy office in a fancy big law firm may sound like fun, and the social gaffe possibilities are endless; but, may I make a modest proposal? Get a solo law practice, and ride a car to your small office, which is a converted house on a busy street 10 minutes from your home; or, even better, put your office in a room in your house, and avoid the commute. Then, you won’t have to worry about running over little old ladies on your way to an appointment; that is, unless she lives with you.

Once again, Rick Georges points out the benefits those of us that are Connected, riding the Third Wave, Carpet Commuting attorneys know and love. Surely, Chuck Newton will chime in on this one.

Source for Post: Sololawyer.

Filed Under: Untethered Lawyer

Packing Up One Box

May 31, 2007 by

I’ve begun packing for my big move to the world of the virtual law firm, and it’s turning out to be far more interesting that I would have otherwise guessed.

For starters, this afternoon I realized that I have one lonely box of files to cart with me.

Wait, what? One box of files?

Yup, just one box. And it isn’t even full.

Everything is saved on the computer system. Every note, every memo, every pleading. It’s all there. The only “wet ink” stuff I keep are the original petitions for my open files – the rest of it gets scanned and given back to the client.

That leaves me with a problem. Well, three problems. I have three filing cabinets that are being used for storage right now. They’re filled with wires, old keyboards, stacks of office supplies from days gone by. I’m not leaving them with my landlord, bu I’d really like to put them to good use. If you know of any not-for-profit organization that is willing to come by and pick it all up from me, please drop me a line.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How Much Do You Really Make?

May 31, 2007 by

I was on the phone with one of my consulting clients the other day, reviewing some of his office practices so that I could begin to work on my recommendations. We were talking about his intake procedures and, during the course of our conversation, it came out that he spends approximately three hours on the intake alone.

OK, I reasoned, maybe that’s all the time it takes to put together a Chapter 7 case. If so, that’s probably not so bad. Not great, but not bad.

Deeper digging ensued, and my client revealed to me that this marathon intake session was only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, his office spends upwards of six hours on a Chapter 7 case – and that doesn’t include the meeting of creditors!

My client couldn’t understand why I was dumbfounded and befuddled. He also couldn’t understand why he felt like he was working too hard for too little money.

You bet I could, though. And to illustrate my point, I asked him to pull out a calculator and join me in some math.

By the end of our conversation my client realized that he is currently making approximately $18 an hour. All because he spends too much time running around in circles, chasing his clients and spending too much time doing work that could easily be performed by others.

Bear in mind, I’m not suggesting that client intakes should be done by non-lawyers. What I am suggesting, however, is that each job be done by the person who can be best trained to handle the task. After all, does the lawyer need to be the one getting the documents from the client? Can a legal assistant enter creditors into Schedules D, E and F?

Look around your office and think about all the things you do that can be done by someone else. Better yet, think about how technology can replace a person entirely.

As for my client, the goal is to give him a raise without raising his legal fees. Should be fun.

Filed Under: Law Office Management

Palm, Inc. – Products – Foleo

May 30, 2007 by

This just in from the Futurelawyer. Rick ask will Treo users really want one. Quite frankly, I am disappointed Palm is even wasting their time with such a device. I really don’t see a need for it. And, how may Treo users already have laptops? Why in the world would I want to carry around something this large that does not have my entire filing cabinet on it? Which I do on my MacBook. I would Palm spent the time updating its OS and keep upgrading the Treo.

Foleo

Well, the cat is out of the bag, and the new product that Palm announced today, available this summer, is the Foleo, a mobile companion to the Treo, which provides a 10 inch screen and full keyboard, connecting to the Treo via BlueTooth. So, if you don’t want to carry a notebook, this will access the information on the Treo, and permit full document editing and web browsing and email on a larger screen and keyboard. It isn’t a UMPC, but only costs $499. The question is, will Treo users really want one? Too early to tell, but it IS really slim and cool looking.

Source for Post: Futurelawyer.

Filed Under: Virtual Law Office

Link: Google.com!

May 30, 2007 by

For those in the know, if you type the command “link: yoursite.com” in Google, you’ll get a return of all sites that Google sees linking to your site.

Example: in a Google Search, type: “Link: YourSiteName.com” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Virtual Law Office

4 Reasons why NOT to move to a home office.

May 28, 2007 by

Remember, I’m no home office expert, but here’s some food for thought concerning the wrong reasons to move home to work. I’ll append to this list from time to time.

1. You think Couch + Home = TV.

If you think that going home means you get to sit down, relax and watch TV, it may be difficult to fight off that temptation. My current home office (which is just the “computer room”) has a TV set right next to the desk (recall that I do not work in my home office. Just a place to surf the internet and well … watch TV! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Virtual Law Office

VISTA Upgrade may invalidate your XP serial number!

May 27, 2007 by

vistaNow I can’t confirm this because I haven’t tried it personally, but it seems that if you upgrade a machine currently running Windows XP, Microsoft allegedly has sabotaged the Vista upgrade install, to INVALIDATE your Windows XP Serial Number!

That would mean you could not use the XP Serial number on any other computer say, if you wanted to legimately install XP on a secondary laptop or desktop!

You bought XP, why would Microsoft try to take that sale away!?

The good news is that there is a “workaround” to preserve your XP serial number: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Virtual Law Office

The SEO Advisor answers my last two questions

May 26, 2007 by

Just the other day, I wrote about a great podcast The SEO Advisor, by Paul Stanton.

Paul answered 2 of my 4 questions and yesterday addressed my last two question on his podcast.

Here is the direct link:

Part 3 & 4: Link Ranking & Hosting your Blog ‘outside’ your main domain?

Again, you can subscribe to his podcast entrires and listen to them on your computer through your preferred RSS reader at http://recordings.talkshoe.com/rss8524.xml

or

Subscribe to it using Itunes at itpc://recordings.talkshoe.com/rss8524.xml

His main podcast page is: http://www.TheSEOadvisor.net

Thanks Paul!

Filed Under: Virtual Law Office