Steve+Kenney

Five **good** things about running a virtual law practice. What are the advantages over an entirely office-bound practice? What are the efficiencies gained, money made or saved, etc.
 * Assignment 1:**
 * 1) There is the potential for better accessibility to legal services, especially for clients that would find traveling to a traditional law office burdensome.
 * 2) Reduced overhead and potential efficiencies result in lower costs to the client and/or higher net revenue to the practitioner.
 * 3) A VLP can provide both personal and professional flexibility – e.g., flexible hours allowing for a better work-personal life balance; and the ability to consider and implement alternatives to the traditional hourly fee arrangement. The latter is another way that can make legal services more accessible to more potential clients and enable the practitioner to take on assignments that would not be “profitable” under an hourly arrangement.
 * 4) Enhanced ability to network with other VLP’s.
 * 5) Enhanced ability to compete in those practice areas where “clients” are turning to online legal services sites.

Five things that could go **wrong** running a virtual law practice. What are the mistakes you can make, problems you could encounter, issues raised, etc.
 * 1) There are potentially unique/additional ethical issues that must be considered and addressed.
 * 2) As a solo practitioner, one simply has more limited resources for office support (IT, billing, etc.). Careful attention must be paid to researching and selecting competent and efficient service providers.
 * 3) Some matters are inappropriate for a VLP – e.g., complex litigation, or anything that requires a persistent physical presence or accessibility.
 * 4) Within traditional law firms, there are more opportunities to cross-market – e.g., a client initially comes to a firm for estate planning services, but later needs representation in litigation or complex business transactions.
 * 5) Traditional firms have the ability (not always realized) to establish and maintain a collegial, mutually supportive atmosphere among lawyers and practice areas. Such an atmosphere is a valuable, albeit an intangible asset. This advantage is likely lost to a solo practitioner in a VLP.
 * 6) Despite careful planning and scheduling, the unexpected does occur and VLP’s are probably at a relative disadvantage for “backup” or surge capacity.
 * 7) Will potential clients be comfortable with the delivery of legal services in a non face-to-face setting? Will they understand the limited scope of an unbundled service or will they develop or have unrealistic expectations of “full service” at VLP pricing?

Find at least three definitions for “Virtual Law Practice”, “Digital Law Practice” and/or “eLawyering”.

Taking “Virtual Law Practice” to be synonymous with “Virtual Law Office,” they can be defined as “an online law practice that exists through a secure log-in portal and can be accessed by both client and attorney anywhere an internet connection is available.” [] Similarly, a virtual law firm can be defined as “a group of lawyers with diverse expertise that are banded together through technological means to provide a suite of services to its clients.” Id.

Another definition is:

"A virtual law practice is a professional law practice that exists online through a secure portal and is accessible to both the client and the lawyer anywhere the parties may access the Internet. Legal service are delivered online using this method. The lawyers and their clients have the abiltiy to securely discuss matters online, download and upload documents for review, create legal documents, and handle other business transactions related to the delivery of legal services in a secure digital environment." // [|Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online] //, (ABA, 2010), Stephanie Kimbro.

For “eLawyering,” the ABA seems to define it as:

"eLawyering is doing legal work - not just marketing - over the Web. Pioneering practitioners have found dramatic new ways to communicate and collaborate with clients and other lawyers, produce documents, settle disputes, interact with courts, and manage legal knowledge. ELawyering encompasses all the ways in which lawyers can do their work using the Web and associated technologies." []