What would you say to reducing your office rent to zero? To reducing your overhead to next to nothing? To reducing your commute to the time it takes you to walk from your bedroom to your home office?
Sound pretty good?
It’s an appealing idea to a growing number of lawyers who have ditched the traditional notion of practicing law in an office building. These lawyers are the vanguard of new way of looking at private law practice and they figure, why sign a personal guarantee and 7 year commercial real estate lease locking you into huge rent payments when you can leverage technology to sidestep all that?
Enter the virtual law office (VLO).
The VLO lawyer (sometimes called the Home Office Lawyer or Third Wave Lawyer) is just like any other lawyer except she typically works from home and markets her firm and transacts business over the web. The VLO lawyer tends to be a sophisticated technology-user employing software (and increasingly, software as a service) to handle many of the facets of law practice management such as:
- online calendaring systems
- client file extranets
- software as a service practice management software
The lowered overhead costs and web-orientation provide the VLO lawyer the flexibility to deliver legal services across greater geographical distance and in alternative formats, such as unbundled legal services. North Carolina lawyer Steph Kimbro, owner of Kimbro Legal Services, runs her firm as a VLO. If you are thinking about a VLO, she recently posted a great checklist for any lawyer considering opening a VLO. She also is the co-founder of Virtual Law Office Technology, LLC, a company that provides software for VLO lawyers.
So, if lower overhead, shorter commutes and greater flexibility sounds good to you, give a look to what’s going on with VLO. You might find it to be a good fit for you and your practice.
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Virtual Offices 07.14.08 at 8:55 am
It’s great to see all types of virtual offices in a range of industries.
While I don’t believe a virtual office doctor would sit well with users privacy concerns, I think virtual law offices may be better off if names can be kept secure/confidential through the software whilst providing legal advice.
Laurie 07.17.08 at 9:52 am
Great post! I think virtual law offices are definitely the future for competitive small law offices. And large firms should consider allowing as many of their lawyers to practice this way as possible.
nicole 07.26.08 at 2:03 am
I think immigration practice is particularly suited to a virtual office. Clients can be anywhere in the world and need assistance navigating US immigration laws.
Thanks for a post supporting what I believe is the future of law practice.
Dawn M. Draper 09.15.08 at 1:54 pm
Hello. My name is Dawn Draper, owner of The Virtual Paralegal. I came upon your blog while searching for virtual law firms. It is great to see so many attorneys moving forward to paperless and virtual settings. I work from my home office for a couple attorneys, a few hours a week, and a document preparation service. I would love to speak with you should you be in need of a virtual paralegal. I have 12-years experience in a vast area of law. You can view my experience and work samples at http://www.thevirtualparalegal.com Thank you for your time.
Dawn M. Draper