Hopefully, this theme will do for now. It’s much more simple, incorporates my favorite color (orange!), and best of all, it functions straight out of the box (or zip file). I’m still going to tinker with the Elegant Themes, mostly because I have a few other sites to set up, but that $80 for a developer’s license is starting to look like a bad decision, especially since the themes don’t auto-update.

On the other hand, it’s free. It also allows you to put a description on links instead of a URL only, which Movable Type doesn’t seem to have as an option. (That’s reason #900 why WordPress is a superior option).

So why use an offline WYSIWYG editor at all? For my WordPress blogs, there really isn’t a good reason. Everything I write is in the browser and in the cloud. Sure, the image uploading is mildly unintuitive and requires a popup window, but that’s really a minor quibble after using some of the other crap out there (cough cough Zoundry, cough cough MT).

The reason for using an offline editor is solely because we use MT at work and it is pitiful. We have to draft the post in BlogDesk, spell check in Word, and then manually enter everything in MT. There has to be a more efficient way.

Enter the new alternatives:

Zoundry Raven

Well, you failed. I wanted to like you. According to reviews, you are totally awesome. You also have that remote image hosting feature that allows me to embed images in a post and automatically host them on Photobucket or Flickr!, which would be so darn handy, since we can’t host images on our own servers at work.

Unfortunately, you failed on first install. I wrote a lovely post in Shakespearean English on NYC’s first ever murder/shooting/stabbing free day, and you ate it. Not only that, but whenever I try to do anything in the program, such as write a new post or view the HTML code, you pop up with thirty straight “attribute tag missing” error messages.

Is it Windows 7 64 bit that is causing conniptions? Possibly. I tried running you in Windows XP compatibility mode, but that didn’t fix the problem.

It also appears that development on your platform stopped in 2007 when you went open source.

Windows Live

I have mixed feelings about you so far. You have the amazing Microsoft spell check built in. However, I seem to be having issues using bold type and other stylistic choices. You also did this weird quotation thing to start. Yes, readers, I am writing this stream-of-consciousness in Live Writer now, as I need to test this for work to see if it will suffice.

So far, so good. Let’s try a picture.

I like you. I really do. Oddly enough, I can’t seem to turn off bold text, but I think that might be an issue with my blog’s format. The code is bold tag free, so this really could work as a BlogDesk replacement at my workplace. I might even start using this for my personal blogs, if the image upload feature works as nicely as it has so far.

The final question is how you handle bulleted lists. We often do a “Related Resources” section at the bottom of a post with three or four links to other helpful content. Let’s give it a shot here.

Related Resources:

• Consult me for absolutely nothing (WillieP)
• I still don’t like Senator Leland Yee’s Bullet Button Ban (WillieP)

EDIT: Dear God, it all worked! This must be why the Windows Live Writer platform put all of the others out to pasture. I have found my new workplace replacement. YESSIR!

EDIT EDIT: So yeah, apparently Live Writer has a remote image hosting feature that uses FTP. Though that could come in handy for many people, note that most of the free image hosting services (like Flickr!, Photobucket, Picassa, et al) don’t allow FTP unless you pay for a pro account. No es bueno.

Though your vote in the Presidential race is absolutely meaningless, there are many important propositions on tomorrow’s ballot. I’m going to be doing a bit of a cram session on most of them tonight, but when it comes to 34, 35, and 36, you have the chance to impact the state’s law on the Death Penalty, Three Strikes, and increased penalties for human trafficking, especially in regards to child sex workers.

Out of all of the measures on tomorrow’s ballot, those are the three I am most familiar with because my job as a law blogger means I’ve had the opportunity to study them in depth. Here is the short version:

34: Formally ends the Death Penalty, saving the state an estimated $100 million per year. You might be a soulless bastard, much like me. You might think that capital punishment is sometimes called for, like for mass murderers and child rapists. Did you know that our state is so bad at legally killing people that we’ve only executed 14 people out of 900 sentenced to death since 1978? We’re awful at killing killers efficiently and it costs us hundreds of millions of dollars per year that could otherwise go towards children or paying down our budget deficit (or hiring more prosecutors … hmmm?) The only downside of eliminating the death penalty is that prosecutors have less leverage to force plea bargains on defendants. That’s a mixed bag there, as they’re going to prison either way if they are guilty. We might just be freeing an innocent person or two.

If you have no soul, think of the cost savings. If you have a soul, it should be a no brainer. VOTE YES ON 34.

More on this:

http://losangelescriminallegalblog.com/2012/10/prop-34-end-the-death-penalty-save-130-million-per-year.html

35: Increases penalties for human traffickers. These are the classy folk that either force illegal immigrants to work for free using the threat of deportation (labor trafficking) or use their ever-so-strong pimp hand to force women into prostitution. Mostly, our existing laws already cover what 35 proposes. What it does change, however, is that it will increase penalties for those two types of gentlemen (and gentlewomen) and for sex traffickers that deal in the child sex trade. Those who force minors into prostitution can face a *life sentence*, which is pretty damn appropriate. While it will cost some additional money for the longer sentences, we really only prosecute a few hundred or so of these twerps per year anyway. The cost is insignificant in comparison to the benefit. YES ON 35 as well.

http://losangelescriminallegalblog.com/2012/10/prop-35-increases-sex-and-labor-trafficking-penalties—part-i.html

http://losangelescriminallegalblog.com/2012/10/prop-35-increases-sex-and-labor-trafficking-penalties—part-ii.html

36: Reforms Three Strikes. California’s 3 Strikes law was one of the first of it’s kind. As is, if someone commits a third felony, they can be sentenced to life. It sounds great, except that there are all sorts of crimes that shouldn’t get a life sentence, such as a famous CA case where a guy stole a pizza and somehow it was charged as a felony.

What the new version of the law will do is simply require that the third strike be a serious or violent felony, such as rape, murder, and aggravated assault. Good times. Plus, if the third felony doesn’t qualify as a third strike, it will still have a double penalty for the repeat offender. Doubly good times. The proposition will also allow those who are on life sentences under a third strike to petition for release if it was a nonviolent offense. After a short increase in court activity, this is expected to save a ton for our state’s prison system (and overall budget). YES ON 36 as well!

http://losangelescriminallegalblog.com/2012/10/prop-36-complicated-overhaul-of-the-three-strikes-law.html

That’s right. Senator Yee’s proposed SB 249 came to him after watching a CBS San Francisco report on the evil “bullet-button” contraption that circumvents state laws!

What’s a bullet button? It’s probably better to start with the current state law. As written, the law prohibits owning assault-weapons. What’s that? By statute, it’s defined as a gun that has a few nifty features, such as a detachable magazine, pistol grip, and telescoping stock. In short, the law targeted the AR-15.

The bullet button, which has been around since at least 2009, is a device that fits where the magazine release button used to be. It requires the use of the tip of a bullet or a tool to press the release. As such, it technically is a fixed magazine and takes the AR-15 back out of the assault-weapons ban.

Sounds dangerous right? And the Aurora shooter used an AR-15, so they must be bad, right? Well, that’s certainly debatable. James Holmes did use an AR-15. He also used a “century clip” or 100 round magazine, which is illegal here in California. Holmes’ AR-15 reportedly jammed, leading him to switch to one of this other weapons: the legal Glock 40 pistol or the Remington pump shotgun.

The AR-15 isn’t the enemy of safety, nor is the bullet button. The Virginia Tech shooting was done with pistols. The Sikh temple shooting was done with a pistol. The Arizona shooting was done with a pistol. Holmes, Page, Loughner, and Seung-Hui all used Glocks, the same weapon used by most law enforcement officers.

The Heller decision and the Second Amendment protect the right to own a pistol, so a bullet-button ban isn’t the solution.

Besides, there are other legal and much more worrisome devices to ban, such as the bump-stock. It makes your AR-15 into a machine gun … legally. Wait, did we just inspire another piece of legislation?

Firearms evolve. If you ban a fixed magazine, the bullet button emerges. If you ban automatic weapons, the bump stock emerges. If you ban all semi-automatic rifles, criminals grab banned guns or perfectly legal pistols. If you ban all guns, you violate the Constitution.

The true enemy is untreated and unreported mental illness and the disconnect between mental illness treatment and background checks. The failed solution is ineffective gun control laws written by individuals who know absolutely nothing about guns.

SB 249 will make the owning or possessing of a bullet button device a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to six months in jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine. Selling the devices can result in up to a year in jail and/or a fine of exactly $1,000. Present owners of bullet-buttons will have to have the device removed at their own expense.

A few of my other gun-related posts:

• Woke Up This Morning, Got Yourself a Gun (Legally in NYC) (FindLaw’s New York Criminal Law Blog)
• If at First You Fail To Infringe Upon Their Gun Rights… (FindLaw’s Chicago Criminal Law Blog)

Even still, I’m a geek. It’s evident from this blog, 2fat2furious, the nine blogs I manage at work, my two twitter accounts … you get the point.

I want the best and newest gadgets. It’s my birthright, as the family geek and as a child of the DOS/Windows 3.1 era. I was in third grade when I first installed Windows 3.1. It was off of a family member’s six floppy disk collection, which in retrospect, was probably bootlegged.

So, being that I’m a geek, and being that I hate my out of date, iPhone 3GS, why in the world would I not want to jump on the prepaid iPhone bandwagon.

Well, I’m already on a prepaid iPhone. But let’s come back to that.

The problem with the Virgin Mobile solution is two-fold. First of all, the phone itself has to be a VM iPhone. No bringing your own device, no subsidies. You are now $600 poorer, at least. Congrats.

The more important problem is that Virgin Mobile sucks. I say this as a former customer. My first venture into the prepaid smartphone world was a HTC Touch Pro running Windows Mobile 6.5. I had it on Boost, which is technically the same network as Virgin.

My data speeds were amazing. In fact, I may have even tethered the phone to my netbook for an entire summer, when I was living on a friend’s couch. Gotta check the sports scores and Facebook, right?

After that summer, when I returned to countryside Virginia, I saw the Virgin Mobile ads for $25/month Android with unlimited data, all on the Sprint network! Hell, that’s half of what i was paying Boost, and I’d get ANDROID. OOOOhhhhhh.

Long story short, it was awesome. For a month. Then the influx of thousands of new phones killed Virgin Mobile’s servers. I had data outages in Washington D.C., Miami, and at home in Lexington, Virginia. Even once the outages stopped, my speeds were still unusable.

I then moved back to California after graduation. I used the phone all the way across the country, from Lexington, Virginia, to Los Angeles. It sucked the whole way. It even sucked during the week I spent in Kansas City. You’d think they’d get it right in their corporate home town.

Needless to say, I later ditched the phone. It wasn’t worth the $25/month savings to have  a phone that half of the time couldn’t even handle streaming Pandora. Don’t even think about using Google Maps Navigation when you got lost either.

So, I know what you’re thinking. It was just his phone. Nope. My brother got an Optimus V on Black Friday last year, against my advice. His data speeds were tolerable for a couple of weeks. They have been crap since. He’s not a geek at all, and he still describes the phone as “unusable.”

So why the big difference between Virgin, Sprint, and Boost? The rumor on the internet is that it has something to do with Virgin’s network management system. They seem to shove all the traffic through a narrow pipeline of servers in Kansas. The theory sounds about right. When you do a SpeedTest, using the app, the closest server almost always goes to Kansas, even if you’re in Los Angeles.

Being that the experience on the iPhone is heavily dictated by the data speeds, I’d pass on VM’s iPhone. There are far, far better alternatives. Straight Talk, for example, has a Bring Your Own Device plan. It allows you to buy that used (or new) AT&T iPhone and put their SIM card in the back. $45 a month, unlimited everything.

Straight Talk is where I’m at, even if I am too broke for a new iPhone.

As part of a co-venture with a few friends, I’m proud to announce the pre-launch of 2 Fat 2 Furious. Yes, the title is a play on the worst of the otherwise amazing movie franchise. It’s also a self-deprecating play on our BMIs. The site is meant to take a humorous look at cars, food, and food in cars. As of now, we have a few bloggers, including myself, who will be focusing on used cars, maintenance, angry rants, and possibly resto-mod projects. Piggy will be focusing on his life as a car salesman, as well as all of the absolutely asinine stunts that they pull with the cars before they sell them. It should make for good fun and a lot of stories of blown rods.

Since we’re in the pre-launch phase, expect a lot of ugly pages, broken links, and wardrobe malfunctions until we get a look and feel that we’re comfortable with. However, I still invite you to check it out at http://www.2fat2furious.com/.

License, Insurance, and Research

These may seem obvious but they are still worth stating. You will have to pay bar dues, which in California are currently about $500 per year. Malpractice insurance is also a necessity, which the California Bar’s preferred provider’s Strong Start program offers for $500 per year. Before you’ve even started, that’s $1000 off the top.

As for legal research services, this is going to be a really hard section to project, as your needs will vary based on your experience, practice area, etc. For those of you lucky California-admitted lawyers, new attorneys are provided with CEB OnLaw service for free for a year, which includes practice guides and template forms in most practice areas. For others, if you really need to be cheap, you can look for a local public law library and use their services or take advantage of an unpaid law student intern and use their student LexisNexis and/or Westlaw account.

Total for this section: $1000 per year for license and insurance, unknown for legal research.

Office Space, Internet, and Phone

Some new lawyers prefer to practice out of their homes. Personally, I hate the idea. Not only do you have the annoyance of family running around and the problems of getting motivated everyday to get out of bed and start on time without getting distracted, but there’s also the issue of projecting a professional image. Some clients truly will not care if you practice out of your home. Many will. One of the few benefits of this disgustingly terrible economy is the rate that office space is being rented at. In Los Angeles, the city which I currently call home, the prevailing rate is $400-600 for an individual office in a commercial tower. Since I’m an incredibly cheap bastard, I’m going to go for the cheapest spot, which runs about $400 per month.

Often, electric is included, but you’ll usually have to cover internet and phone service. If free internet is included, I’d still consider getting your own if possible, as shared internet has a tendency to           s l o w   d o w n   when the entire building is streaming videos and downloading junk off the internet. There’s always that guy who downloads large amounts of bootleg torrents at work and spoils the connection for everyone. You can’t afford to have large amounts of downtime. Budget about $50 a month for business internet.

As for phone service, a lot of people will recommend cell service. And yes, you should have a cell phone. I’d recommend something cheaper than traditional service, especially if you are going to maintain separate business and personal lines. Companies like Straight Talk and Boost Mobile offer prepaid cell service for $45-$55 a month for unlimited talk/text/data, which is half of what a traditional post-paid company would charge. Straight Talk will soon be selling the SIM card to activate service on any unlocked phone as well, so you can hook up that iPhone that you desperately crave and use that for your business line. To supplement the cell service, I’d recommend adding a Google Voice account, which allows for free calling to the United States and Canada through your Gmail inbox or you can hook up a traditional phone through a VOIP device connected to Google Voice, such as the Obi110 VOIP bridge. They are a little tricky to set up, but Google has free calling through at least 2012, which means your phone bill for 2012 will be $50… total. Google also provides free transcription of voicemail, which is a feature that is indescribably useful.

Rent: $4800
Internet: $600
Cell: $600
VOIP Box: $50

Total for this section: $6050 ($1250 if you have a home office)

Technology

This is probably the most debatable area. The blogger at the Lawyerist insisted that a $1100 Mac was the best option and an $1100 Lenovo laptop was the only other resonable choice. Poppycock, I say! What do you need your computer to do? Internet research, Microsoft Office, and other miscellaneous office software. You do not need that much computer for such elementary tasks! Indeed, my ten year old Compaq desktop can still run any office software you can throw at it.

What I would recommend, especially for those just starting out straight out of school, is to stick with your current laptop if it is in good condition. Back up your old data that you need and then format it with a clean installation of Windows and Microsoft Office so that it runs reliably and virus-free, but your existing equipment should be sufficient.

Now, if you lack a computer, or yours is falling apart, or you just want something new and shiny in the office, you still don’t need to buy a $1,000+ laptop! I’d recommend having at least one netbook or laptop in the office, so if you meet with a client off-site, you can still access your files and draft that last minute settlement agreement while everyone is still in the room. Netbooks can be had for as little as $200 due to the surging popularity of tablet computers. They are also great for video conferencing via Skype, especially if you want to Skype on the netbook while bringing up work materials on your desktop computer.

For your “daily driver” or regularly used office PC, I’d recommend the cheapest thing you can find. Why? It’s an office PC. It won’t be abused by children. It doesn’t need a lot of power. And if they are cheap, you can replace them IF they manage to fail. It is very unlikely that they will fail, but it is a possibility. If you are a Mac person, the Mac Mini can be had for around $500. For PC users, an Acer Veritron N or Dell Zino will provide all of the power you need for around $300 with Windows preinstalled. I’d go Acer over Dell due to bad experiences with the later in the past, but then again, the Dell Zino that my father has on his desk is three years old and hasn’t had a single hardware issue. For either the Mac Mini or PC, you’ll need to add a monitor for about $100.

As for printers, do not get an inkjet printer. Do not get an inkjet printer. Do not get an inkjet printer. Go for a laser printer. You will almost certainly not need color printing except on the rarest of rare occasions. You can pick up a laser printer for $50-$60 on sale on Amazon or at your local electronics store. Before you buy, check the cost of replacement toner. Generic is usually better, in terms of cost, but certain companies like Canon have resorted to installing patented microchips in their cartridges that monitor the ink level. Generic cartridges will read as empty since they cannot infringe on the patent, so you will have error messages popping up every time you print. If you look up the generic replacement cartridge on Amazon, the user reviews will usually discuss this if it is going to be an issue.

Another great feature to have: auto duplexing. This will print on both sides of the page and allow you to save a ton on paper, especially if you tend to print a lot of drafts. Obviously, you won’t want to file double-sided documents with the court, but for internal work product, it can be a very useful feature.

Keep an eye out for leftovers from other people’s upgrades. Personally, I scored a couple of free laser printers off of a friend’s law office that he was replacing due to paper jams. I fixed the jams, got new cartridges at $10 a piece, and I’m good to go.

Finally, there is one more thing to note. You will want a sheet fed scanner. My Lawyerist nemesis (kidding…) recommends a standalone machine that costs $400, the ScanSnap. Personally, I’d get a multifunction printer that has the sheetfed (as opposed to flatbed) scanner. The ease of putting the documents on the printer itself and hitting “Copy” far outweighs any arguments against multifunction devices. Plus, if you get a landline phone, you can use the fax machine features as well. A multifunction laser printer with sheetfed scanner and fax will run you about $100 on average, $60 if you get it on sale.

If you are going to have multiple computers, budget for a wireless or wired router and consider paying the extra money for a network-enabled printer so that you can share one printer with all of your users.

Also, toss in another $100 or so for a three computer license of the most basic version of Microsoft Office if you don’t already own it.

Computer and monitor: $400
Netbook: $200
Printer: $60
Microsoft Office: $100

Grand total for your first year: $7,810 which includes bar dues, malpractice insurance, rent, internet, cell and VOIP phone services, and a basic computer setup.

Add more for legal research, case management software, and accounting and billing software if needed.

Online Law Firms – An Optimal Model

                “The practice of law… today is about as modern as performing surgery in a barbershop.” Gordon D. Schaber, Late Former Dean of McGeorge School of Law.

The legal profession, being the conservative industry that it is, evolves at a truly glacial pace. The use of technology and the internet has only changed the everyday practice of law by an inch compared to the leaps and bounds other industries have advanced using e-commerce. Instead of carbon paper and typewriters, there is a paralegal typing on a template and hitting the “Print” button twice. E-Filing and Fax Filing, though increasingly common, are not the norm. It seems that a lawyer from twenty-five years ago, once she is updated on the changes in substantive law, could practice today with barely an adjustment, though she may freak out when her cell phone rings for the first time.

Though many goods and services previously thought to be the exclusive domain of brick and mortar stores are now thriving online, not all legal services can move online. Litigation, criminal matters, and other practice requiring the use of a courtroom and judge still must take place in the “real world”. However, there is currently a void left to be filled in regards to the forms of practice that require the knowledge of a lawyer yet are mostly paperwork based. Examples include the drafting of legal documents such as wills and contracts and the filing of patents, incorporation documents, and for the more common man, the uncontested divorce.

Even for practice areas that require in person service, all forms of practice can become more efficient using the most modern forms of technology. Collaborative online workspaces allow the experienced attorney in Los Angeles to make revisions to the new associate’s draft of a document that was completed in San Francisco only minutes earlier. Even better, once the revisions are made, with the associate watching and perhaps videoconferencing with their distant coworker, the document can instantly be sent to the client’s secure workspace, where they can review, ask questions, and approve the work. Meanwhile, the thousands of pages of discovery that need to be perused can be simultaneously analyzed by a dozen paralegals or contract attorneys from a third, fourth, or tenth location. The possibilities, for the bold and tech savvy, are infinite. An optimal model for a modern firm would combine basic stripped-down brick and mortar offices with a flexible data network that allows the firm to utilize human capital in the most efficient manner possible.

Current online structures

The current state of online legal practice, for most firms at least, resembles a combination of a billboard and a pamphlet. Online lawyering is stuck in a glorified marketing phase. Lawyers hire a web designer for a couple hundred dollars to create a static webpage advertising their services, which doesn’t change for years at a time. The supposed “revolutionary” attorneys are using Twitter and blogs to attempt to attract business, but is this really enough? Is a prospective client really going to care if their attorney can write a blog posting about the intricacies of the intervention of non-relatives in adoption situations involving former significant others of a biological parent that stood in loco parentis for a few years? This might impress a client or two, but most will read the first seven words, get a headache, and either call the attorney or go back to Google to find someone that has been positively reviewed on Yelp!. And for those prospective clients not familiar with such sites as Yelp!, Twitter, and Blogspot, they probably aren’t going to be reading the blog in the first place.

Most importantly, these firms, while advertising online, do little of their business or work online. Their meetings with clients usually still take place in the office, the work is done in the office, and the only thing the internet is used for is to occasionally email the documents to the client. The internet is used solely to attract customers, not to work with them.

A rare few attorneys do practice the full online experience. Using their online interface, where the data, software, forms, and everything else needed to practice is stored in a central server, the cyber firm gets the data from a questionnaire of the client, software auto-fills in a form or two, and a lawyer theoretically reviews the form. It is then sent to the client via the same encrypted technology used by online merchants such as Amazon to transfer credit card data. The setup requires virtually no human interaction and very little time per case.

The problem with this form of firm is that not only do the attorneys have to be incredibly tech savvy to deal with the new and sometimes buggy software; the client must also do the same. The client also has to have the faith to entrust their legal matters to someone they will never meet or see. The attorney also will be either confined to practice areas that don’t require appearances in court or their online client base is limited to a reasonable distance from the attorney, which defeats the purpose of an online firm. Nearly all fully online firms are currently limited to areas like Estate Planning and Contract Drafting.

Finally, there is increased competition from non-lawyers that run legal paper mills. LegalZoom is one example. They provide all of the paperwork and guidance needed for a do it yourself legal project and from a corporate standpoint, they collect all the fees without the hassles of representation. Fortunately for attorneys, most legal tasks are too confusing for the average person. Attorneys still have the benefit of being able to translate legal gibberish to their clients and give legal advice based on reasoning, experience, and judgment, whereas LegalZoom only has the paperwork.

The optimal model

A happy medium is a “spoke and wheel” brick and mortar model combined with either a secure internet connection or a private intranet, which is a miniaturized internet that connects only a handful of computers. In this model, there are still brick and mortar offices, though the size, staff, and most importantly overhead of each branch office is greatly reduced. A model practice might have a dozen branches across the state, each sparsely staffed and equipped compared to the traditional firm. The less busy offices would contain perhaps only a single attorney, and the offices in major metropolitan offices would contain three or four. A central hub, located preferably in a low-cost area, contains a few supervising attorneys, a dozen or so paralegals, the servers, and perhaps an IT specialist.

Traffic through the website would be routed to the central hub, where the case is first checked for conflicts with current or former clients. Then the client’s information is entered into the network. If the matter is routine, such as writing a will or is a form-based legal matter, the paralegal prepares the basic paperwork, it is reviewed either by an on-site attorney or one of the attorneys in a branch office that has downtime, and then it is sent to the client or court. If the matter requires a court appearance, the paralegal prepares the paperwork and then forwards everything to the closest branch office. The attorney at that office reviews the paperwork and the facts of the case and contacts the client to fill in any missing information. The filing of the case is preferably handled electronically or through support staff. The calendaring, organization of client files, billing and collections, and nearly everything but the actual lawyering is left to the central hub’s support staff. The networked calendars also allow the various offices to forward overload work to other unoccupied attorneys across the network.

A major benefit this model has over the currently ultra-rare fully online practice is the attraction and flexibility of brick and mortar offices. While these offices would be much smaller and less expensive than the traditional firm, a physical location and in-person contact would still be available for clients that are reluctant to handle their business online or that need the comfort that an in-person advocate brings. In cases such as these, the branch offices would resemble a sole practitioner on the surface, but with the support and resources of a larger firm. The intake and communication with the client can take place in the branch office while the preparation of motions, forms, and filings can be done at the hub.

The most attractive part of this model is that the technology already exists and is not very expensive. Google Applications, and competing products from Microsoft or Sun Microsystems, contain all of the office productivity software that would be necessary. Google’s offering also contains private email, instant messaging, and an internet based phone system. For a firm with less than fifty employees, it is completely free. There are also add-ons for free or low cost, such as ManyMoon which adds a familiar social networking interface to the Google Applications suite. An associate with a question can post a quick message, like a Twitter “Tweet” to the Firm’s network. A partner can assign tasks for a case to different employees, with each task appearing on the user’s homepage and calendar. An overworked attorney in Los Angeles can post a request for assistance on their clients’ files and the paralegal staff in the Hub can respond instantly. This is a drastic difference from the state of current firms, where attorneys still utilize memos and emails and where attorneys and paralegals without work to do waste time that could otherwise be utilized.

The Pitfalls

The main pitfall is that the legal industry might not be ready. If a firm were to adopt the optimal model, there would be headaches, at least initially, when dealing with such routine tasks as filing documents with the court. Some jurisdictions have adopted e-filing or fax filing, but many others still require that someone stand in line at the courthouse and file the documents in person. This limits the effectiveness of an online firm if they have to hire someone to run to the courthouse in distant jurisdictions to file cases. Third party court runner and courier services exist for this purpose but they add overhead and delay.

The optimal model is also still best used for practice areas that require little or no in court appearances. For example, an attorney stuck in a five day murder trial in Roanoke cannot handle the dozen or so uncontested divorces that they might be able to handle otherwise. And a dozen clients will likely have fees that add up to more revenue than a single criminal case. Also, the criminal defense attorney cannot shift the burden if he is overloaded like a family law or estate planning attorney can. Flexibility is reduced. However, there is a great benefit, no matter what the practice area, to having a staff of paralegals and dozens of attorneys across the state to rely upon if an attorney has an evidentiary issue or needs research on a case done.

Another possible pitfall is the potential for missed conflicts of interest. In the current predominant form of online practice, a client fills out a questionnaire which includes information that by itself might create a conflict of interest if the firm already represents the opposing party. Most lack the preliminary step of conflict checking before gathering facts about the case. A client database that checks for conflicts before the clients’ information is revealed would be pretty simple and inexpensive to design, but it would have to be kept under the tightest of security and potential clients would have to trust the firm enough to enter sufficient data to find conflicts, such as partial social security numbers, date of birth, driver’s license number, etc. Such a database would be a prime target for hackers and would require the most advanced data protection methods. For a small firm, it might not be necessary to check all of this extra data in order to check for conflicts, but if the firm becomes dominant in its practice area and develops a massive client base, client names alone won’t be enough to determine whether there is a conflict.

The next problem is the increased IT cost and data security issues of the optimal model. Centralized servers, dozens of computers in remote locations, software licenses, and fees for service providers will add up quick. Staff to repair and maintain the systems might also be required. There is also the issue of training for employees. Tech-savvy lawyers would be the optimal employees, though with the Google and ManyMoon solutions, a familiarity with basic office software and social networking applications would suffice for most employees. The other benefit to using a service provider like Google over one’s own servers is the lessened need for IT staff and equipment, as Google stores the data on their servers. This must be weighed against the risks of having sensitive client data stored in remote servers.

The requisite tech-savvy lawyers are an issue as well. Finding attorneys that are experienced enough to manage the firm while being tech savvy enough to run the day to day software, as simple as it may be, means that there is a very narrow pool of potential attorneys to hire. Most recent law school graduates would have the requisite technical skill but would lack the legal practice skills. And most experienced attorneys with the requisite legal practice skills would lack the technical skills.

Finally, there is also a limitation in the customer base. The first question that was asked by a fellow law student that heard of the optimal model was “Are you hoping that all old people die?” The initial response was, “Ummm… yes? Or they can go somewhere else.” The vast majority of clientele would probably be younger. However, the branch offices would give the firm enough flexibility to handle clients that aren’t comfortable doing the bulk of their work online, which would include the hypothetical “old people.”

Also, firms that rely on online customers typically shoot for quantity over quality. They perform brief tasks for less than a traditional firm. The average consumer doesn’t usually purchase goods online because they are too lazy to go to the store. They purchase goods online because they are cheaper and shopping online is a time saver. Legal services provided online would also have to be cheaper in order to attract customers that would otherwise be more comfortable walking into a normal law office. Since the optimal model has both an online component and brick and mortar based operations, this effect is slightly reduced, and price discrimination is an option. Online customers can get services done cheaper than customers that come into the office and require in-person time.

The optimal model’s benefits, namely the ability to shift excess work from one office to another in order to maximize the utilization of human capital provided by attorneys and support staff, as well as the ability to expand quickly and cheaply (only a small office, a computer, and an attorney is required to fully enter a new market) greatly outweigh the major detriments. Security issues can be managed by using data encryption in the connections throughout the network, as well as antivirus and firewall software. The brick and mortar offices offer the flexibility to accommodate clients not yet comfortable with their cases being handled primarily online. And the Social Productivity software and talents of dozens of attorneys and paralegals will allow firms to process cases much more efficiently, meaning less cost to the consumer and the ability to handle more cases and more revenue for the firm.

Related Online Resources

Google Applications for Small Businesses

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

ManyMoon Social Productivity Software

http://www.manymoon.com/

LegalZoom

http://www.legalzoom.com/

Virtual Law Practice

http://virtuallawpractice.org/

Virtual Law Office Technologies

http://www.vlotech.com/