Beth+Adelman

HW Assign 1

__5 advantages:__ 1. Environmental (for example, no energy wasted commuting) 2. Flexibility for attorneys - design your own schedule 3. Convenience for clients -- can communicate from anywhere and at hours that are convenient 4. Lower overhead for attorneys 5. Ability for attorneys to offer lower cost legal services (presumably because of lower overhead & more efficient workflows)

__5 disadvantages:__ 1. Additional ethical considerations for eLawyers 2. Related to online portals, there are potential third party data storage issues 3. No f2f contact (is representation potentially disadvantaged by what can be gleaned from being in the same room with a client?) 4. Potential for breaches of security 5. Difficult to bundle services for complex legal services in an e-environment

__3 Definitions of Virtual Law Practice/eLawyering__

Def of Virtual Law Firm from Wikipedia: A virtual law firm is a group of lawyers with diverse expertise that are banded together through technological means to provide a suite of services to its clients.

Def of Virtual Law Firm from DirectLaw.com: A “virtual law firm” or “virtual law office” is characterized by access by the firm’s clients to a password protected and secure web space where both the attorney and client may interact and legal services are consumed by the client. More specifically a virtual law firm can be defined as having a secure client portal that is accessible from the law firm’s web site. The "client portal" is what enables a law firm to have a law practice on the Web. Through this secure portal, for example, a client can have private discussions of legal matters online, purchase legal advice online, assemble documents through the web browser, download and upload of documents for review, and pay legal bills online.

Def of eLawyering from the eLawyering Blog (http://www.elawyeringredux.com/promo/about-this-blog/) [|__Marc Lauritsen__] , co-chair of the eLawyering Task Force in an article in Law Practice Magazine in January-February, 2004, p. 36, succinctly defined eLawyering as: “all the ways in which lawyers can do their work using the Web and associated technologies. These include new ways to communicate and collaborate with clients, prospective clients and other lawyers, produce documents, settle disputes and manage legal knowledge. Think of a lawyering verb—interview, investigate, counsel, draft, advocate, analyze, negotiate, manage and so forth—and there are corresponding electronic tools and techniques.”