9/25/13 The Frugal Firm Abra C. Siegel Siegel Law Offices, Ltd. 875 N Michigan Ave , 31st Floor Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 869-4279 Email: siegellawoffi[email protected] www.linkedin.com/in/abrasiegel Marc W. Matheny 244 N. College Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46202 (317) 639-3315 Email: [email protected] hp://www.marcmathenylaw.com 1 9/25/13 The Frugal Law Firm FRUGAL DOES NOT MEAN “CHEAP” Don’t break the bank. 2 9/25/13 Essenal Law Firm Technology • Core System: Mac or PC • Communicaons: Telephone, Email • Finances: AccounWng / Time & Billing • Workflow: Document Management • Systems: Pracce Management • Mobility: Smartphones and Tablets The Next Level • Document Assembly / Document Automaon • Strategy, Taccs and Execuon: Ligaon Soware • Specialty Soware • Advocacy Presentaon Tools • No Hands: Voice Recognion an Digital Dictaon Soware 3 9/25/13 TIME TO UPGRADE? • PC / Mac – average lifespan 3-5 years • Server – 5-7 years • Operang Systems and Soware – Support / No Support – “Goa Have it Syndrome” Copiers Scanners Fax • All in One • Separate Components • CoPiers / Printers – Inkjet v. Laser – Costs of Use 4 9/25/13 Desktop Scanners • Fujitsu ScanSnap – One Touch Scanning – Adobe Acrobat Pro – OCR Soware • Hitachi Magic Wand Can scan bound pages Smartphones • iPhone • Android • Windows • Apps 5 9/25/13 Alternave Telephone Systems • Cell Phones: Who needs a landline? • VOIP • Online Hosted Services Tablets and Apps • iPad • Android • Windows Surface Inexpensive Apps Mobile and Easy to Use 6 9/25/13 Email and Email Systems Ø Mozilla Thunderbird Ø Gmail Ø Case Management Soware • Word Processing • Presentaon • Spreadsheets 7 9/25/13 Case Management Tools Time & Billing 8 9/25/13 Pdf’ing Alternaves to Tradional Case Management Soware • Telephone text messaging • Google Calendar texts 9 9/25/13 Credit Card$ Credit Card$ • Advantages • Disadvantages • Ethical Issues 10 9/25/13 VIRTUAL RECEPTIONIST • NO employee costs. • Accessible – anyme – anywhere OFF-SITE TELEPHONE ANSWERING • What are your needs? – Direcons? – Pricing? – Dockeng? – Potenal client screening? 11 9/25/13 WEB BASED FAX • E-Fax (hp://www.efax.com/) • FaxToMe 12 9/25/13 Encrypon Soware • True CryPt • Sopho’s Free Encrypon • AxCrypt • AES Crypt • ds crypt • MS Word • Google • Mozilla – Sunbird – Lightning for Thunderbird • IOS • Outlook 13 9/25/13 An-virus An-malware An-spyware • Automacally install updates • Subscripons must be renewed and kept up to date • Must they always be acve? FRUGAL FIRM ONLINE LEGAL RESEARCH • Start with Google • Know your Operators (“” / - / ~ /SITE: ) • Did you know that the ABA Sells a “Google for Lawyers” Book? (Shameless Plug) 14 9/25/13 Online Legal Research More Online Sources FREE SITES Public Records Directory Legal Informaon Instute (Cornell University (www.law.cornell.edu) 15 9/25/13 More Online Sources • US and Canada Public Records Directory (www.publicrecords.searchsystems.net/) • United States Prinng Office (www.gpoaccess.gov) • Illinois Municipal League (IML) o (Sterling Codifiers offers free statewide searching) WEB PRESENCE 16 9/25/13 LAW FIRM WEBSITES SOCIAL MEDIA 17 9/25/13 LAWYER REFERRAL / LAWYER DIRECTORIES • Bar Associaons – ABA – State – Specialty – Local • Business Associaons WEB BASED LAW LOCATORS A Necessary Evil? • Be careful, be careful, be careful. 18 9/25/13 MAPS • Free Visionary – A free program similar to Trial Director - http:// www.visionarylegaltechnologies.com/ products/product.aspx?ProductsID=2 19 9/25/13 • Freemind – Mindmap software - http:// freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/ Main_Page GIMP – A Photoshop like product - http:// www.gofree.com/download/Windows- Software/Graphic-Design/gimp.php • Sketchup – A program to help you with 3D Models http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/ DAZ Studio – For those who really want fancy 3D models – they have medical models you can purchase - http:// www.daz3d.com/ 20 9/25/13 • Timeline – Create Time Lines - http:// www.freewarefiles.com/ Timeline_program_61407.html Skydrive -http://windows.microsoft.com/ en-US/skydrive/download • THEFORMTOOL (similar to Pathogoras or HotDocs) See http://www.theformtool.com/ • Nitro Reader (form fill/highlight) •Cardmunch.com ( Iphone app) 21 9/25/13 Flashdrives • Useful for cheap Data Storage • Portable • Not very secure – Encrypon • Soware - TrueCrypt • Hardware - IronKey What is on your Flashdrive? • IronKey w/ – Firefox Portable (Browser) – Thunderbird Portable w/ Lightning (Email) – Apache Open Office Portable (Office Suite) – Spybot S&D Portable (Malware cleaner) – Sharepod (Ipod manager w/o iTunes) – Gimp (Free Photoshop clone) – Foxit (PDF Reader) – Arena 3.0 (Chess game) 22 9/25/13 23 THE FRUGAL FIRM Original Materials by: Marc W. Matheny, Esq. Patrick Crowley, Esq. Supplemented by: Abra Siegel, Esq. The Frugal Firm is not “the cheap firm,” or the one that cuts corners unnecessarily. This is an introductory session to explore alternative solutions that can save you big bucks! Discover low cost alternatives to the products and services everyone assumes are necessary. Find free web based services, protect your systems from attack, and determine when it is time to upgrade without thinning your wallet. The frugal law firm is perhaps one which may have limited resources, or perhaps makes a conscientious decision to use available technology to its fullest prior to making the jump to what is perceived to be newer or better. One of the important matters to address for a solo or small firm is that one cannot spend like a big firm. A small firm simply does not have the resources for imported leather chairs and mahogany paneling. Neither does a small firm have the resources for multiple servers, state of the art telephony and three monitors per work station. Much depends on the size of the firm and the ratio of staff per attorney, but in general, a solo or small firm does not have a per person overhead budget comparable to a large firm. Numbers dictate what can and cannot be accomplished, and the bottom line budget will determine the technology resources which are available. We will try to show some technology tips for the uninitiated to get the most from lesser resources. Essentials for a Law Office: At ABA TECHSHOW 2013, one of the featured topics was Top Ten Essential hardware and software for a law office [did this also get featered in 2013 – I was not at show?]. Those essentials have not changed and whether you are a frugal law firm or the techiest of high tech firms, you still need these essentials: • The Foundation: A Decent Computer System; o The Core Systems: o Communications: Telephony and E-mail; o Finances: Integrated Trust Accounting, Time & Billing and General Ledger Software; o Systems: Practice Management Software; o Mobility: Smartphones Tablets and Slates; o Workflow: The Paperless Office and Document Management; • The Next Level: o Efficiency: Document Assembly, Document Automation; o Strategy, Tactics and Execution: Litigation Software; o Specialty Software; o Advocacy: Presentation Tools; o No Hands: voice recognition and digital dictation software.1 No matter what you have otherwise, a strong core system, either a Mac or a PC, with a fast processor, plenty of memory and adequate space to store programs, documents and files. This type of system should feature at least 2 GB or more of memory (preferably 4+ GB), a 320GB or larger hard drive, likely at least one 23-inch monitor, a 512MB+ video card, and a Pentium core duo or quad core processor running at a minimum speed of 2.0-3.0 GHz. As you add more memory, get a larger monitor, upgrade the video capability, or install CD-RW and DVD drive, the price will hit the top of the range. A budget system will have a slower CPU, less memory, a smaller hard drive, a smaller monitor, etc.; and the converse is true for a high-end system. Users doing only 1 The Top Ten Hardware and Software You Can’t Live Without, Copyright © 2010, 2011 and 2012 by the Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO7) and Richard Ferguson. Tablet Appendix Copyright © 2012 by Marc W. Matheny basic things with limited software can get away with a budget computer. A power user or someone working with a large number of applications, voice recognition, or document imaging or video, should consider buying a higher end system.”2 Email and Email systems. There are a variety of email inbox tools, from the totally free services provided by Gmail and the inbox services such as Thunderbird, to the more traditional and most widely used email inbox, Microsoft Outlook.3 To take email one step further, you must purchase practice management software. Note Taking software. Many lawyers still use legal pads to take notes, but by using a cloud service, you can access your notes from anywhere with an internet connection. Evernote (www.evernote.com) is free. Law Practice Management Software and Services: There are literally hundreds of law related practice management products that can either be based in house on a server, on an individual machine, or “in the cloud” with an internet based service. The Frugal Lawyer that purchases practice management tools may wish to purchase cloud based services simply factored upon the comparatively lower cost per month, and the fact that upgrades are included in the subscription package. However, over a period of several years, and over several attorneys and their staff’s work stations, it may be more “frugal” for the Frugal Firm to purchase stand-alone software such as Tabs³ ™, PracticeMaster™, Amicus™ and the like. It has been said that case management software is like marriage -- for better or for worse, it is easier and cheaper to stick with one. It is not advisable to switch from brand to brand, as no case management system is fully compatible with another. You cannot, for instance, make the switch from Amicus to Abacus or to Tabs³ / PracticeMaster and expect that all information will seamlessly transfer.