Are you missing the boat if you don’t have a technology-infused law practice? Is your practice going to dry up and disappear if you don’t have the latest cloud practice-management solution? Are you worried that you are still practicing law like it’s 2007 and saving files to a local server? Are you worried that you don’t have a law firm Instagram and Snapchat account?
As lawyers, we face a lot of legal technology questions. There is no doubt that the practice of law has changed in the last 10 years, but there is also no doubt that the fundamental core of the practice of law has stayed the same and will be the same for a long time. You will need to think on your feet and work hard and know the law and market and find clients and cross-examine witnesses. The only thing that has changed is how we do these things. So, the only question you should be asking yourself is, “Can I do this more efficiently?”
It Doesn’t Matter What You Do
It is impossible to give one piece of advice for all areas of law. I’ve written articles about trial presentation and jury focus-group tools and I get responses from people that say, “Totally pointless for my family law practice. Thanks.” Personal injury lawyers find clients in different ways from corporate formation lawyers. But, none of these things matter. Certainly, while tips on how to win over juries don’t help you if you don’t do jury trials, there are technology shortcuts that can help you, whether it’s using websites or social media to market, using technology to go paperless, or using software to manage and organize your client contact list.
There is something out there to make you work more efficiently. Here’s how you find out what it is: Figure out where you are lacking or where you are wasting your time. If you are wasting a lot of time and money on file storage solutions, for example, someone has probably built a better tool for that.
It Doesn’t Matter How Successful You Are
I talk to a lot of attorneys who say, “I don’t need to change anything. I’m already very successful.” Even if that’s true, again, it’s the wrong question.