Ignoring the future is no way to run a law firm. The future arrives every morning when the office is opened for the day. Morning after morning adds up to a long future that can make or break a firm. As for responding to it when it finally arrives, that is not a sound strategy either. Responding is not proactive. Responding is a strategy that always leaves you playing catch-up. You are always behind the eight ball.

Positioning for the future in advance puts your law firm ahead of the game. When you position your firm for the future, you are not playing follow the leader. You are the leader. That’s the way it should be.

Wave Goodbye to Legacy Software

The most important thing any law firm can do to position itself for the future is to transition away from legacy software. It is called ‘legacy software’ for a reason: its legacy is in the past. We are not dealing the past at NuLaw, we are dealing with the future. It is time to adopt software that serves the needs of the present but is also ready for the foreseeable future.

That sort software has a few key characteristics. First and foremost, it’s found in the cloud rather than on local servers. Cloud computing is both the present and the future; there is no getting around it. That’s why we developed NuLaw as a cloud-based case management app and built it on the Salesforce CRM package.

Another characteristic is scalability. If you’re thinking about the future with the right mindset, you are planning on growth and expansion. You need software that can scale up along with your firm. If your software doesn’t scale, you’re going to have problems.

Say Hello to Mobility

Your typical law firm is very familiar with smartphones. But how do staff attorneys and other employees use their phones? The fact is that mobility is now king of the internet. Your firm needs devices that can utilize all that this mobility brings to the table. Old cell phones that cannot run modern apps need to be retired.

If your firm utilizes tablets and laptops, the same thing applies. Updated devices make the best use of updated case management applications, billing software, communication applications, and so forth. They do so safely and securely – as long as they are maintained to proper security standards.

Embrace Automation and AI

Two of the things that sets NuLaw apart are automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Both technologies are built-in to our software for the purposes of making running a law practice more efficient and productive. Note that the two technologies are quickly being established as mainstays of legal practice software.

Automation saves time and increases efficiency. Artificial intelligence enhances case acquisition, billing, calendaring, and even e-discovery. If your firm’s legal software doesn’t utilize automation and AI, you’re already behind the times.

The future doesn’t remain the future forever. Eventually it becomes the present. This is why it’s so critical to position your law firm for the future in advance. The goal is to be ready when it arrives. If you’re not ready, all you can do is respond or ignore. Neither strategy is viable when you’re trying to grow a practice.

As the creators of a market-leading case management application based on the Salesforce CRM platform, we believe it is not enough just to know that modernizing technology is a good idea. We believe firms need to know why. After all, the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ is that which provides the motivation to modernize.

The basis for this post is a survey of millennial lawyers published in April 2019 by Major, Lindsey & Africa. There are three key statistics from that survey that really zero in on why technology modernization is so important for law firms. Bear in mind that the baby boomers are beginning to retire. Millennial lawyers are coming in behind them.

1. The Need for Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is very important to millennial attorneys. According to the survey, 75% say they would be willing to sacrifice some of their compensation in order to reduce their billable hours or have access to a more flexible work schedule. Simple enough, right? What is not so simple is understanding how technology effects work-life balance.

A modern case management app should, at the very least, make the modern law office more efficient. NuLaw does. Greater efficiency leads to more productivity. As such, attorneys who do their jobs more efficiently are capable of generating more revenue without having to take on more billable hours. Increasing efficiency is the first step toward offering millennial attorneys a better work-life balance.

2. Loyalty Among Junior Attorneys

Despite some 40% of millennial lawyers saying that they view partnership as a long-term career goal, 75% of them also admitted to either being open to new job opportunities or actively seeking them out. That is big. If 75% of the junior attorneys in your firm are actually looking for work elsewhere, where does that leave you for the future?

The point here is that making sure junior attorneys stay with your firm long enough to become partners should be a priority. It cannot be if your firm is still using outdated technology. Remember, the millennial generation was raised on technology. They expect that the technology they are given to do their jobs is up to date. They do not expect to be encumbered by legacy technology that has not kept up with the times.

3. Millennials Are Committed to Change

The millennial generation and their younger counterparts are somewhat unique in that they take very personally what they believe is a responsibility to change the world. Where previous generations maybe gave an affirming nod to the need for change, millennials and Gen Z members actually take an active role in facilitating change.

This suggests that the millennials at your firm are going to try changing the way you do business with the goal of better serving clients and the local community. But they will only try for so long. If your firm is resistant to change, those millennial attorneys will ultimately go elsewhere.

Some 62% of those who responded to the Major, Lindsey & Africa survey said that millennials are already changing both law firm culture and policies. More importantly, 70% said they were confident in their abilities to achieve their long-term career goals. Both statistics suggest that millennials are committed to change – whether their firms are behind it or not.

It’s time to modernize your law firm’s technology. If you are still behind the times, you’re in danger of alienating millennial attorneys.

We get the fact that cost is always an issue when you are talking software upgrades. We also know that plenty of law firms stick with the status quo because it seems to be working. They do not want to spend on new software when what they are currently using seems to be working just fine.

If your firm is in that position, would you give us an opportunity to explain the financial benefits of NuLaw? We believe we can justify the cost of a new cloud-based case management application in all but a few cases.

Maintaining On-Site Hardware

We are extremely proud of the fact that NuLaw exists in the cloud. We firmly believe that the cloud is not the future of software – it is the here and now. We also believe that most law firms will save money in the long run by moving to the cloud. The savings begin with not having to maintain on-site hardware.

The useful life of your typical server is anywhere from 3 to 5 years. Let’s say five years to be on the high side. Over 30 years of owning a law practice, that means replacing hardware six times. Every replacement means hardware and labor. And yes, the price of both goes up with every upgrade.

When hardware breaks – and it does – you bear the entire cost on your own. If broken hardware results in a software crash and significant data loss, you bear the expense of repairing the damage. Move your case management software to the cloud and all those problems go away. We take the hit on hardware. It is just one of our costs of doing business.

Software Upgrade Costs

One of the reasons we are talking costs is the simple fact that switching to NuLaw does involve some upfront subscription fees. But as you know, upgrading your local software costs money too. We are willing to bet you would spend more to buy new software and licenses than you would on a software subscription.

Even better, you might pay your software developer every time you need an upgrade. That’s not the way cloud software works. Cloud software is presented as a service. You subscribe to the service, not the software. Our job is to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. We do that without any additional charge to you.

Maintaining an IT Staff

If hardware and software costs are not enough, consider maintaining your own IT staff. We all know that labor costs are the highest costs of doing business, and there is no exception for the legal industry. Maintaining your own IT department is a costly venture that requires paying several skilled individuals a good salary plus a generous benefits package.

You do not need a large IT staff with NuLaw. Why? Because we are your IT staff. You only need one or two IT pros to handle maintaining your computers and mobile devices.

It is our firm belief that most law firms will spend less over the long term by switching to NuLaw. We would love the opportunity to sit down and discuss this with you further. If you are interested, give us a shot. Let’s see if we can justify your firm’s transition to cloud-based case management software.

Believe it or not, attorneys can employ some key communication strategies that actually reduce unnecessary communications with clients. The key is understanding the root causes of why clients attempt to communicate without any real purpose. Once you figure that out, you can cut down on communication volume.

Here are four strategies for reducing unnecessary communications at your firm:

1. Provide Regular Updates

The number one reason clients contact their attorneys is to get updates on their cases. That is normal and to be expected. However, an attorney does not need to receive a phone call every single day. Rarely do things change that quickly. So how do you put a stop to daily phone calls? By offering regular updates.

There is no black and white rule for how often updates should be provided. But contacting clients every time their cases are touched pretty much heads off most unnecessary phone calls. Such frequent communications do not have to be long and detailed, either. A simple one or two-sentence message is often enough to let clients know what is going on so that they don’t worry.

2. Communicating in the Cloud

It is rarely a good idea to give clients personal cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Doing so is an open invitation to a communication tsunami. Instead, it’s better to give clients access to cloud communications via your case management app. By the way, NuLaw contains a secure communication module for just that purpose.

With chat and other communications tools, our software makes it easy to keep communications within the cloud environment so that clients aren’t calling your cell phone or sending e-mails to your personal address after hours. They will limit themselves to communicating when they know you are in the office.

3. Answer Every Single Contact

Though this next strategy might seem counterproductive, it’s not. One of the big reasons clients continually try to contact their attorneys is that they aren’t getting a response. The more times they have to make a phone call or send a message, the more anxious they become. This only increases the frequency with which they try to make contact. If you answer every single contact with a clear, concise answer, you relieve some of that anxiety and subsequently reduce contact volume.

Note that the attorney doesn’t have to answer every single contact him or herself. Members of the support staff can respond to less urgent contacts that don’t require specific advice. Junior attorneys can also be utilized for contacts that require a bit more knowledge. It is less important who answers and more important that every contact be answered.

4. Schedule Phone Calls

When phone calls cannot be avoided, its best to schedule them. In this day and age of so much busyness, it’s too easy to find yourself entangled in a game of telephone tag that will never have a clear winner. Scheduling phone calls eliminates the game and streamlines communication.

It goes without saying that some of the communicating that goes on within the legal industry is unnecessary. But that’s true in any industry. It’s just more pronounced in law because every unnecessary communication distracts attorneys from working on cases. If you understand why unnecessary communications happen, you can take action to prevent them. Hopefully the strategies discussed in this post will get you pointed in the right direction.

Law is not usually an area that we normally associate with big data. But that’s only because the legal sector has historically been slow to adopt new technology. The fact is that data can be a tremendous help in the ongoing effort to grow a practice. It all comes down to understanding how a practice is performing in all areas of case acquisition.

A Few Key Questions

We will assume that your case acquisition program is not data driven. With that assumption, there are a few key questions to ask about your firm, questions that should illustrate the importance of making data part of the equation. Here they are:

• Do we know what our top referral sources are?
• Do we know how many referrals come from those sources?
• How many prospects do we expect to actually become clients?
• Among those that are converted, how much revenue can we expect to generate?
• Do we use online intake to convert prospects into clients?
• How do prospects find us online?

Believe it or not, a lot of law firm owners and managers cannot answer these questions. They do not really know the numbers behind their case acquisition efforts. They do know the bottom line, which is good, but they do not know what goes into making the bottom line what it is.

Data Provides the Answers

Hopefully you now have a better idea of why data is so important to case acquisition. It provides the answers to all of the marketing department’s questions. Data tells the marketing department where prospects are coming from. It tells them how successful they are converting prospects to clients. Data also measures how well attorneys are doing in the converting process.

By way of example, imagine your law firm works with other industry partners and website owners to exchange links. Let us also say that one of your backlinks has consistently delivered 12 to 15 leads every week. Suddenly that drops to just two or three. Your data tells you that something is wrong. Now you can go investigate and hopefully fix what is broken.

If you are not tracking referral sources, you would have no way of knowing that something is wrong with that link. You would not know to go fix it. As a result, you would have fewer weekly leads to follow up on. Fewer leads means fewer opportunities to convert prospects to clients.

Data Offers a Snapshot

Data-driven case acquisition is very much tied to marketing. But there is something else at play here: the current state of your law firm. Data helps by providing a snapshot of all the most important key performance indicators at a glance. Understanding the current state of your business makes future case acquisition efforts more productive.

For example, your case management app should be able to clearly tell you the current status of every prospect your firm is working with. Knowing that information makes responding to each prospect a breeze. On the other hand, not knowing the status of current prospects means your firm is less nimble and responsive to them.

Data-driven case acquisition is the way to go. If your firm is not using data for generating leads, contacting prospects, and converting those prospects to paying clients, it is time for a new approach.

For law firms, working at home can be an option. Attorneys, legal assistants, and support staff can all work from home when necessary. Moreover, giving staff members work-at-home opportunities can enhance the work-life balance and give employees a sense that their employers care about them as people.

We believe that there are a number of essential work-at-home strategies that law firms can employ to make the most of those opportunities they wish to give their staff members. Four of them are discussed in this post.

1. Adopt Cloud-Based Software

Working at home in the legal arena requires access to software. In this day and age that means cloud-based software. The place for every law firm to start is adopting a cloud approach for everything from case management applications to accounting software. You will be happy to know that NuLaw is a cloud-based package.

The cloud’s most attractive benefit is access. From in the office or outside of it, staff members always have access to software, communications, and so forth. Moreover, data can be shared in real-time among team members. With an internet connection and a device to get online, NuLaw is just a tap or click away.

2. Create a Device Policy

Device usage is generally a concern when employees work at home. When a law firm adopts a bring your own device (BYOD) policy, there is not much they can do or say about staff members using their devices for personal reasons at home. But when devices are supplied by the firm, that’s another matter. As such, creating a device policy is a very good idea before allowing staff members to work at home.

A device policy determines exactly how firm-issued devices can and cannot be used. It stipulates how data is transferred and protected. It might stipulate certain websites that are not allowed, as well as how users protect their passwords and usernames.

3. Practice Time Tracking Diligence

Since the home environment is not always conducive to productivity, it is imperative that staff members be encouraged to eliminate distractions while working at home. A good way to make sure that happens is to be diligent about monitoring time tracking. This is one area in which management needs to be especially diligent until good work-at-home habits have been developed. Even after that, routinely checking time tracking never hurts.

4. Insist on Secure Communication

We are proud to say that NuLaw has a built-in communication module that offers secure communications for the entire legal team. When attorneys and staff members work at home, they should avoid using personal communication methods to conduct business. Everything should still go through the secure cloud platform.

Secure communication is essential to both client privacy and law firm integrity. It can be essential to the integrity of any case. To be as succinct as possible, working from home is never an invitation to use less secure means of communicating with clients and between staff members.

There is a lot to be said for working at home. With the right mindset and a few key strategies, law firms can allow staff members to work at home from time to time without any loss of productivity or service. It all starts with NuLaw.

Why all this talk about data? Because data is driving the future of every industry. Big data is especially important in a day and age in which it is possible for us to generate exponentially more data than we can practically use. The task for companies like ours is to figure out how to make better use of the data we do collect.

It is possible that none of this makes sense to you. As an attorney, your area of expertise is practicing law. Fair enough. Here are three examples of how big data is changing law practice, referenced from a November 19 article published by the Legal Executive Institute:

1. Automated Rate Setting

First up is a well-known law firm that streamlined its rate setting via data analytics. The firm had always relied on a committee to set rates for the new year using an application written into the dashboard of the firm’s software. Members of the IT department knew what kind of data the committee wanted, so they programmed the app accordingly.

Over several years, the IT team figured out that just 24 of the 65 metrics the committee was interested in accounted for 94% of the information necessary to set rates. They then devised a computer algorithm to analyze those metrics and automatically calculate new rates.

It turns out that the computer algorithm can do in seconds what it took the committee weeks to do. Just by crunching data and analyzing it against established metrics, the IT team was able to automate rate setting.

2. Better Task Code Entries

Next up is a firm that was having difficulty producing budgets across all its practice areas. At the heart of their problems were improper and missing task codes. Not utilizing proper task codes made it impossible to produce accurate time entries, therefore making it extremely difficult to meet client expectations when preparing budgets.

A solution to the problem was found in a new data application leveraging machine learning and Bayesian inference to ‘teach’ a computer how to properly code tasks. The application was even able to produce new codes for tasks that did not have an existing code set. Ever since, the firm’s task coding has been more accurate and timely.

3. Better Use of Public Records

The third example comes out of the UK, where attorneys who specialize in real estate transactions must comb through mountains of data maintained by the government’s Land Registry. Normally, individual ownership records must be downloaded as PDF files and reviewed manually by attorneys. Big data changes that.

The firm cited in the report turned to a big data application that connected their computers directly to Land Registry systems. Moreover, the application accessed Land Registry data in bulk, analyzed it in real-time, and produced a portfolio of relevant data ready for download.

Implementing the big data solution dramatically reduced the amount of time attorneys spent pouring through records. The computer system does all the heavy lifting and delivers a concise portfolio of information that is instantly useable.

Big data is at the heart of modern business. It has made its way into the legal sector as well. And because it has, applications like NuLaw are capable of doing more – so that attorneys can concentrate on their clients.

Every internet user owes it to him or herself to protect precious data while traveling. As an attorney however, you have an extra responsibility to your clients. You are obligated, both professionally and legally, to ensure that all the information you have pertaining to client accounts and cases remains private. You have to protect that data at all times.

Below are some suggestions for improving data security while traveling. They are based on the assumption that you will not be using your smartphone to do a lot of work in the airport or at your hotel. It assumes you will be using a laptop computer.

Turn Off File Sharing

Right off the top, go into your computer’s network settings and turn off file sharing. Having file sharing activated makes transferring files to various devices around the office a breeze, but it also leaves your laptop vulnerable outside of the office. Turning file sharing off makes it harder for hackers to steal data from your laptop.

Encrypt Your Home Folder

The next tip is to encrypt the home folder on your computer. The home folder is the folder that pertains to your individual identity. It contains all your documents, pictures, program files, etc. Encrypting it prevents hackers from easily stealing information from it.

Your Mac or Linux home folder should have the same name you use to log on to your computer. If you are running a Windows system, there is no home folder per se. Instead, you will have to encrypt all the appropriate folders individually. That means encrypting your documents folder, any program folders that might contain information about your clients, and any shared folders you use for in-office file sharing.

Use a VPN Service

A virtual private network (VPN) is an excellent tool for fighting hackers. When you access the internet through a VPN, you are connecting your computer directly to a secure server. From there, you are able to access the internet by using the VPN as a launching point.

VPNs protect privacy in two ways. First, they hide your true IP address while broadcasting a fictional address. Second, they encrypt data in both directions. The combination of these two features makes life very difficult for hackers. A good hacker can still break in, but it takes a lot of work. There are easier targets for them to spend their time on.

Run Your Antivirus Software

Before you log on to any public network, you should run your antivirus software. Do a complete scan that looks for everything: viruses, trojans, malware, etc. Repeat the scan before you shut down your computer to end the session. The goal here is to catch any suspicious software before it has time to do any damage. Also note that in order for your antivirus software to be effective, it has to be kept up to date.

These are just a few suggestions for keeping your data secure when traveling. Remember that while NuLaw is a secure legal case management application hosted in the cloud, it cannot do anything to prevent hackers from targeting your system over a public network. You have to take the necessary steps to prevent that yourself. Never forget you have an ethical and legal obligation to do so.

A lot of people in the technology sector are talking about quantum computing. It is said to be the next big thing in computer technology. If all the experts are right, quantum computing will eventually find its way into the global legal system. But will it be good or bad? Does quantum computing represent a benefit or a threat?

Quantum Computing Basics

Quantum computers are built to take advantage of the natural properties observed in the science of quantum physics. If you are not familiar with quantum physics, it is the study of quantum properties at the subatomic level. It studies the relationships between electrons, protons, photons, etc. These properties can be applied to computing to create ever more powerful machines capable of completing the most complex tasks.

Imagine data currently stored on your computer being converted into quantum data. Where a traditional computer relies on magnetized bits of information organized as ones and zeros, a quantum computer stores data using subatomic particles arranged in certain ways. The benefits of the quantum model are found in the quantum properties of those subatomic particles.

Superposition and Entanglement

There are two quantum properties that are especially intriguing to computer builders. They are superposition and entanglement. Superposition is a property that allows a quantum system to exist in multiple states simultaneously. In space, you could have a quantum system that exists both at the far and near ends of that space. If the system were represented as a cube with the top and bottom, it could be both right side up and upside down simultaneously.

Entanglement is a property that allows quantum particles to be perfectly linked even separated by distance. Because they are linked, they behave in exactly the same way. If one moves to the left, so does the other. Entanglement is so powerful that it works across light years of space.

Legal Applications

What has been described here is little more than a basic introduction to quantum computing. More important to this discussion is its legal applications. One must remember that quantum computers are capable of doing things that classic computers cannot do. For example, no classic computer on earth can factor a 500-digit number. It is child’s play for a quantum computer.

Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize law practice in several ways. For example, it will likely be able to provide sound legal advice in place of a human attorney at some point down the road. Powerful quantum computers will be able to analyze and compare unfathomable amounts of data from legal documents, past cases, etc. to render sound advice.

It has been suggested that quantum computing might also be capable of replacing human judges and attorneys when deciding clear-cut cases that do not require intuition or moral judgments. And even if judges and attorneys are not fully replaced, quantum computing should at least help them do their jobs more effectively.

NuLaw is by no means capable of doing what quantum computing can do. But it is an excellent case management application for the modern era. Because quantum computing in the legal sector is still a long way off, you need the best case management app you can find right now. We believe it’s NuLaw.

Use your laptop at the courthouse to logon and file documents. Use your cell phone to communicate remotely with clients in NuLaw’s secure communications portal. Simply put, NuLaw brings mobility to legal case management by giving you access to your data 24/7.

Mobility is Important to Modern Law

SEO experts have been telling their clients for years just how important mobility is. They cite annual statistics that show growing numbers of internet users relying primarily on their cell phones to do what they do online. Unfortunately, we do not hear these sorts of things as they pertain to the legal industry. We should. Why? Because mobility is particularly important to modern law.

According to an ABA study, 95% of attorneys working for firms with 100 or more lawyers telecommute to some degree. In addition, 66% of solo practitioners telecommute as well. Those numbers may not be surprising if you are among the attorneys who work this way.

Here are some other interesting stats from the study:

• The average attorney telecommutes 40 days annually
• Nearly half of all attorneys use a tablet when working out of the office
• Laptops and smartphones are the most used devices for telecommuting
• Most lawyers who telecommute (78%) do so from home.

It is clear that the modern attorney doesn’t always do his or her work from the office or courtroom. Attorneys work from home. They work while on vacation, enjoying a cup of coffee at their favorite coffee shop, etc. The only way this is possible is to have access to one’s legal case management application remotely.

Built with Mobility in Mind

Here at NuLaw, we have gone to great lengths to make sure our legal case software is mobile friendly. You might even say it was built with mobility in mind. NuLaw is a case management application that relies on the popular Salesforce CRM app as its foundation. That app was mobile friendly long before NuLaw was built on top of it.

NuLaw is cloud based. That means all of your data is stored in a secure cloud environment on our servers. It is not stored on your laptop or mobile device. This offers both security and convenience. You have access to NuLaw and your data around the clock without having to worry about someone hacking your device and stealing stored information.

NuLaw is also responsive. What does that mean? It means the application works seamlessly regardless of the device you are using. All the same functionality and visual acuity you enjoy on the desktop or laptop is experienced when you use NuLaw on a tablet or smartphone. The application has been designed that way for a reason: we understand that working remotely is part of a lawyer’s job.

We do not have to tell you how important mobility is. You experience it every day in your work. What we can tell you is that mobility is a lot easier to embrace when your legal case management software is mobile friendly. NuLaw is.

If you still use legacy software that doesn’t fit your mobile lifestyle, it’s time to change things up. And if your firm is using a cloud-based application you are not happy with, you have yet another reason to consider NuLaw.