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The economy is in the tank, your office rent is eating a hole in your pocket, and you keep reading about lawyers operating virtual law offices. You’re not sold on it, primarily because you can’t figure out how to make it work. You’re in the city, you’re in the country, you’ve got a big staff, a small staff … whatever your position, you can easily begin to transition to a virtual law office even if you stick with your current office setup.
That’s right – you can have a virtual law office without moving from your “real” office space.
Why? Because being virtual means, to some extent, giving yourself the freedom to work without the constraints of a four-walled office. It may or may not mean working in a way that doesn’t involve meeting clients in person. That part’s up to you.
So without further ado, here are my four steps to starting a virtual law office:
- Mobilize Your Telecommunications. When your phone line is plugged into the wall you’re limiting your freedom of motion. Consider either a cell phone or, even better, a virtual PBX system such as Grasshopper (formerly GotVMail). This is a terrific system that gives you a full-featured office phone system through an online interface, and lets you have each extension ring to whatever phone number you choose. At about $50 a month (at least, that’s what my bill comes out to) you can’t beat it.
- Minimize The Dead Trees. Paper is the bane of a lawyer’s existence, but the problem gets worse when you want to “take it on the run.” A decision to work from home turns into an entire production filled with boxes, Redwelds and sticky notes galore. With a good scanner (the Fujitsu ScanSnap is a lightweight machine you can keep on your desk) you can easily scan everything into handy PDF format. Leave your office behind without forgetting that critical pleading on your desk.
- Power In Your Lap. Your laptop is critical to being able to work remotely. Make sure it’s got a big enough hard drive so you can stuff it with all of your programs and files. Keep an extra charged battery handy for those “no outlet” situations. And make sure it’s sturdy enough to withstand life in your bag.
- Online All The Time. Face facts. We can’t live without the Internet. Email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, web surfing, research sites … how did we all survive without it? Anyway, the upshot is that you can’t be without Internet access. You have a few options. You can go out and link your smart phone with your laptop (assuming your phone supports this feature) or you can get yourself a broadband card for your laptop. I’ve had a Sprint 3G broadband card for a number of years and it’s very good (in spite of the fact that Sprint has awful cell phone service in my area).
Will these four steps get you all the way to a virtual law office? No, but this will give you the chance to walk out of your office each day to get some work done, stretch your legs and maybe get some sun.
What technologies do you find indispensable for getting work done without being shackled to the desk? Share your thoughts in the comments area below!
Photo courtesy of ToniVC.
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This is a nice guide. I have just started using my Virtual office Chicago and although daunting at first it is proving to be very efficient. You just have to make sure you are known and always able to access the office. It also means you can work from home depending on your situation which is great.
With the economic crease I think that a virtual office is the good solution. Thanks for your post