Working Remotely

With the Corona virus pandemic causing havoc, people are urged to work from home for the foreseeable future. For lawyers, that generally is not a problem: The ABA Tech Survey Report showed that in 2019, nearly three quarter of attorneys had worked remotely, and that most lawyers who have children tend to work from home more often.

In previous articles, we pointed out that most law firm management software providers these days offer a cloud solution that allows you to work from anywhere, at any time.  So, if your law firm is using a cloud-based law firm management software package, you shouldn’t have a problem, as you already have access to your cases & documents. And with the Office 365 licenses, you can install the software on several devices, so having it at home should not a be problem either.

What else do you need to work comfortably from home? Let’s go over the list.

  • A PC, laptop, or tablet. While it’s possible to work on a smart phone, once you have to start merging documents, or have clear overviews of reports etc., having a PC, a laptop, or to a lesser degree a tablet, is a better option.
  • A fast, and preferably unlimited bandwidth internet connection. You don’t want to wait for your information to appear on your screen, nor do you want the distraction of having to check whether you have sufficient data left.
  • Robust Wi-Fi that makes that fast internet connection available throughout your house.
  • A backup internet connection. Internet connections do oocasionally go down temporarily and sometimes it can take a while before they’re restored.
  • A UPS. Not only Internet connections can go down. Sometimes the electricity does, too, and you don’t want to lose what you’re working on when it does.
  • A conference speaker. Making conference calls with associates and/or clients are more comfortable with a conference speaker.
  • Webcam. As you’re less likely to have in person meetings, video conferencing usually offers a viable alternative.
  • If you’re going to work many hours a day from home, then a decent monitor, mouse, and keyboard are a must. This also applies if you are using a laptop. And do yourself a favour and get yourself an ergonomic keyboard and mouse. Your body will be grateful.
  • Lawyer tend to work with documents and having a scanner at home usually is a necessity. You can scan the documents and upload them to the cloud. A printer, too, is a must.
  • Lawyers work with sensitive information that is attractive to hackers. To work securely from home, you need a firewall. For security reasons, it is also recommended to have a VPN, especially now cybercriminals are increasingly targeting people who work remotely.
  • Headphones or earbuds. There tend to be more interruptions and distractions when you’re working from home. Headphones and earbuds can help keeping those distractions under control.
  • If you’re going to spend several hours a day working, you also want a good, comfortable chair and desk. To prevent being too sedentary, you may consider a sit-stand desk converter.
  • You also need ample lighting, preferably natural light.
  • You may also consider one charger for all your gadgets to prevent a jungle of cables and chargers.

Specifically for lawyers, you probably should consider using a secure client portal, if you aren’t already doing so. It allows you to securely communicate and collaborate with your clients, and also makes it easy for them to follow-up on how their case or cases are going.

There are certain other measures to be taken as well. If you won’t be at the office, you need to communicate these changes with your clients, staff, and colleagues. You have to make sure you have ways to communicate securely. You also may want to consider going to the post office to set up (regular) mail forwarding so the mail that usually arrives at the office now is delivered at home.

Now, working from home comes with its own set of challenges that you have to be aware of:

  • There will be distractions and interruptions. Interruptions are external factors. As Steve Ranger puts it: “Distractions are slightly different. These are mostly the result of being in a different environment to the one which you are used to, and that means habits are disrupted and priorities get muddled. In the office your priorities are (mostly) well defined – you’re there to work. At home your priorities are different; having fun, cooking, eating, cleaning, watching TV – almost by definition everything not work related.” You need discipline and routine. To make working from home feel more like work, one author suggests dressing like you’re going to work. It is also a good practice to set clear work hours, and to work in the same area.
  • You must find new ways of collaborating with colleagues and clients and remain aware of the fact that all these relationships need in-person attention. You don’t want to rely on written communication only, as the chances of miscommunication are bigger. There are plenty of tools available to collaborate, like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, to name but a few. Just make sure that you set expectations with your clients and colleagues.
  • You have to take your mental health into account. More than a third of people who work from home experience difficulties adapting to the isolation and loneliness that come with it. So, make sure to call a friend or co-worker every once in a while.
  • Many people also feel less motivated when working from home.
  • Security is another challenge. Make sure you have all patches installed, for all devices you’re using, including routers! Invest in the necessary infrastructure (like a firewall). Change your passwords regularly. Use encryption to secure all devices.
  • Stay focused but cut yourself some slack. Make sure to unplug and switch off.

Keeping all of the above in mind, working from home should be a comfortable experience.

 

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Managing your Law Firm in the Cloud

These days, virtually all providers of law firm management software offer a full cloud solution, which is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. What does that mean? The Wikipedia teaches us that Software as a Service is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as on-demand software, Web-based software, or as hosted software. SaaS apps are typically accessed by users using a thin client, e.g. via a web browser. SaaS has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including law firm management software.

Let us take CICERO LawPack as an example. Effectively, all you need to start running it is a device with a browser, an Office 365 Business Premium license, and the Office apps installed on the device. The software to manage your law firm, your data and your documents are all stored in the cloud, on different servers. As Office 365 Business Premium comes with SharePoint, it only makes sense to store all your documents on the SharePoint server, since it offers many benefits (more on that below).

This set-up is quite different from the olden days where each law firm had to have its own servers and workstations. The main difference with this cloud solution is that your documents are no longer stored on a computer in your law firm, but on the SharePoint servers. In this set-up, you pay per user, and each user has 1 TB of data included in the subscription.

For those who are switching to this SaaS model, it is good to know that all services such as updates and backups of SQL data are typically included in the subscription price for the law firm management software. Typically, there also are no separate start-up costs, and the number of users is can be adjusted monthly. Often, the service provider will offer existing customers a test period where they can already move your database to the cloud, so you can try things out and get an idea of the speed.

In the past, some law firms used Citrix or remote desktop software to be able to work remotely. This typically was done because of licensing issues, i.e. to avoid having to pay multiple Microsoft licenses per user. But that is no longer the case. The subscription-based Office 365 model has entirely different licensing conditions where you pay per user and the user is allowed to install the Office apps on multiple devices. So, this workaround is no longer needed. (The sources below contain a blog article where that is explained in more detail).

As mentioned above, this set-up has many benefits. Having the workload shared over several servers typically increases the speed of the delivery of information, and also lowers the operational risks. If for some reason the data server is temporarily not accessible, you still have full access to all your documents. This set-up also allows you to use multiple factor authentication (MFA) to log into the software.

In a previous article, listed below, we already explained the benefits of using a SharePoint server. It offers a file hosting service, collaborative software, enterprise content and document management, intranet solutions, as well as the possibility to develop custom web applications.

Most users particularly appreciate the ability to share and collaborate on documents, which allows you to work simultaneously with multiple users on a document without the need for any email traffic. Your clients and associates, e.g., can just leave their comments in the text.

Moreover, all documents are indexed, which makes it easier to search through documents from different case files.

There is also an integration with Microsoft Teams to manage chats with clients or employees.

In short, this SaaS solution offers lower costs, less to worry about, and the ability to work more securely, effectively and flexibly.

 

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