MEggert

= PART I = = Benefits = = 1. Convenience and accessibility to client (busy people, elderly or infirm who find it difficult to leave the house = = 2. Convenience to attorney regarding work-life balance = = 3. Unbundling and low overhead lowers cost of services to clients = = 4. Lower costs of services allows attorneys to help those who previously fell between poor enough to receive legal aid and those able to afford traditional legal services = = 5. Not only does it allow attorneys to help more people, it opens new markets; both those who could not otherwise have afforded gotten legal assistance and those who like the technology. = Negatives = 1.@StephKimbro: VLP is a professional law practice online, a secure portal accessible to both the client and the attorney = = Twitter Debate: Virtual Law Offices—Game Changer or Business as Usual? Posted May 7, 2010 By [|Molly McDonough] [] = . 2. **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. Think of lawyering as a "verb" - interview, investigate, counsel, draft, advocate, analyze, negotiate, manage, .. - and there are corresponding Internet-based tools and technologies.** ABA LPM Sect. eLawerying taskforce: [] = 3. A Virtual Law Office, or VLO, is 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. In contrast to a traditional law practice, a VLO allows attorneys and clients to communicate securely over the internet, download or upload documents, and conduct other business normally conducted face-to-face over the internet. [] = 4. The ABA Law Practice Management Section's  [|eLawyering Task Force]  (disclosure: I am Co-Chair of the eLawyering Task Force), defines a "virtual law practice" as one that offers to its clients a secure client portal, as part of the law firm's web site, where the client can log in with a user name and password, and interact with their attorney, as well as consume other online legal services. A virtual law practice is more than simply communicating with clients by email and never meeting with clients face-to-face. In order to have a "virtual law practice" by our definition, you have to have a web site and a portion of that web site has to be dedicated as a secure portal for clients. Without this distinction, many law firms can claim that they are "virtual law firms" simply because they use email extensively, as the ABA Study seems to imply, giving the impression that integration of Internet technologies as part of their legal service delivery system is much higher than it actually is. Post to E Lawyering Blog [|**http://www.elawyeringredux.com/2010/07/articles/virtual-law-practice/2010-aba-legal-technology-survey-report-on-elawyering-questionable-data/**]
 * 1) Security/confidentiality concerns of keeping materials on a/the cloud system
 * 2) Need to constantly maintain/update technology knowledge
 * 3) UPL (forming attorney/client agreement)
 * 4) May loose personal touch found via interactions with client
 * 5) Limits to type of practice (i.e. limitations mentioned in the webinar such as trial practice).
 * PART II **