For the past few weeks I’ve been sitting back and watching how things operate.  What’s struck me is that this is a place that looks exactly like the other consumer bankruptcy law firms I’ve been working with over the past few years; a place of controlled chaos, where clients run the joint and the staff does everything possible to keep the ball moving forward.

I outlined a few things that needed to get settled when it comes to being a location-independent law firm.  They are:

• telephone systems
• computer needs
• email hosting and security
• faxing (because some people still use the fax, darn them)
• file management and backups
• case management processes
• effective calendaring
• client and public education
• staff management and human resources considerations
• electronic document management and archiving

I’m sure there will be more, but for the time being I think I’ve bitten off well enough to make for an interesting travelogue of sorts.  In the coming posts, which will unfold over the next 3 months or more, we’ll talk about the challenges of managing and growing a location-independent law firm without upsetting the apple cart too much.

See you soon!

Related posts:

1. Remaking The Bankruptcy Law Firm: Telephone Systems
2. Who Is Responsible For Marketing Your Law Firm?
3. Bankruptcy Software For Your Mac? Good Luck!

I live in an online world, untethered and rife with technology to make the practice of law more effective.  My life is my own, and my business is merely a portion of that life.

In other word, it’s the ideal work-life balance.  That is to say that it’s a work-life integration.  It gives me the opportunity to live my life holistically, to nurture my professional aspirations without sacrificing my personal needs.

But could this business model work for a traditional bricks-and-mortar law firm, one that has operated for 20 years in midtown Manhattan?  Can people working in that law firm be brought into the 21st Century willingly to improve their lives and their client relations at the same time?

That was my question when David Shaev and I started talking about how we could work together.  Since 2006 David and I have worked together on an informal basis, with me coaching him in his business operations and both of us referring work to one another.

Could we create a hybrid animal of sorts, a traditional law firm that has the flexibility to operate virtually as well?

As of this week, I’m the Managing Attorney at Shaev & Fleischman.  Headquartered in the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, one of our goals is to create a working environment that allows staffers and clients to interact in a way that makes them both more comfortable.

How we share information and communicate is important in this profession, and the world has changed rapidly in the past decade or so to the point where sitting behind a desk at the end of a long commute is counter-productive and arcane.

Our challenges are not insignificant.  David has operated his firm for two decades, and some of his staffers have been with him for nearly the entire time.  Their habits have been built over a long period of time, and their patterns are deeply ingrained.

I’ll be blogging about my experiences here, so you’ll get to see how events unfold over time.  I’m looking to you, my loyal readers, to give me your take on things and your feedback.  Watch me fall on my face or succeed, and I hope you’ll follow me on this incredible journey.

Related posts:

1. A New Age – The Untethered Lawyer
2. Just Released – The Untethered Lawyer For The Kindle
3. Untethered Lawyer Book Giveaway: The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated