Learning something… practical?
First semester is almost up, so I’m finally thinking about the prospect of eventually becoming employed in this field. It’s awfully early to say, but for now I get the impression that much of the thrust of my education is more theoretical, rather than practical. Other people, attending other law schools, with professors who were recently practicing attorneys, give me this idea. Not to say that by the time I’m done I won’t be well-equipped to get one of the few legal jobs that is left in our economy three years from now, but I think there’s a big element missing in my curriculum: the World Wide Interwebs.
The interactive site at change.gov, no matter how corny you think it is, is a great example of how people use the internet and, more importantly, how they expect to be able to use a website and interact with whoever is on the other side of their screen, so to speak. And knowing that lawyering is mostly about good, specialized customer service, attorneys should take a lesson. And some of them are, setting up elawyering websites (like www.kimbrolaw.com) and engaging clients through email, gtalk and twitter. [Note that the American Bar Association, however, isn't quite up to speed on representing this new movement...]
And I have a hard time believing that such innovative practices will trickle down into my legal education in time to be relevant for me. So I’m trying my darnedest to ignore the advice I’ve been given by the College of Law to limit my online presence (UI is not the only school guiding students in this way) and instead do what I can to make connections, meet people, and most importantly, learn more of what I will need to know to practice law in the modern world. Seeing as how I have one follower of this blog, a twitter account and about 30 friends on facebook, I’d say I’m well on my way!
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Laura – The American Bar Association has an eLawyering Task Force for some time sponsored by the Law Practice Management Section. I am its co-chair and have been leading this group for about 8 years. Only recently have we detected much more interest among lawyers in delivering legal services online, which we believe has a great future for the legal profession. My company -http://www.directlaw.com enables solo and small law firms to offer legal services online using our web services technology with no set-up fee or major capital investment. You should take a look at it as well as my blog which covers these issues at http://www.elawyeringredux.com.
Comment by Richard Granat — December 13, 2008 at 8:17 am
Hi, Laura. You are wise to develop an online presence. The key is to monitor it regularly so that you stay in control of your name and the information you put out there.
Thank you for mentioning my virtual law office. It’s been a great way to develop my own solo practice, but it’s also important to understand the technology and ethics issues that come with elawyering. Check out my blog Virtual Law Practice which covers these topics. (http://www.virtuallawpractice.org)
As Richard Granat mentioned, the ABA has an Elaywering Task Force and the activity in that group seems to be picking up. There are different methods of practicing law online so make sure you investigate all of the options out there. Some attorneys try to do this piecemeal with a number of apps, others focus on form-generated legal documents, others create completely web-based law offices and there are other SaaS law practice management systems coming out.
After the success of my web-based law practice, my husband and I cofounded a company, Virtual Law Office Technology (VLOTECH) which sets up web-based virtual law offices (VLOs) for attorneys nationwide. The software as a service product allows attorneys the flexibility to handle both providing unbundled legal services that are document focused, but also to have a more personalized online experience with each online client. Please visit the website to see the product features (http://www.vlotech.com).
I’ll be happy to discuss with you and/or your blog readers about VLOs and virtual law practice in general. Just let me know! Best of luck to you!
Comment by Stephanie Kimbro, Esq. — December 13, 2008 at 8:51 am
I thought the administration’s grave warnings about our online presence were a bit overblown, at least for anyone who has sense.
The only way that you should worry is if you’re doing embarrassing things when you’re drunk or you’re shooting off your bigoted mouth in online forums. Either way, you’re already a liability to the legal profession and it’s probably better for all of us if your potential employer finds out and rejects you.
Comment by Nate — December 28, 2008 at 9:00 am