James+Rowland

** PART 1 ** Your assignment is to create ** two ** lists: Create these lists and post them to your homework wiki page. ** PART 2 ** Search the web and find at least three definitions for “Virtual Law Practice”, “Digital Law Practice” and/or “eLawyering”. Copy/paste the definitions into your homework wiki with a link back to the place you found.
 * THE VIRTUAL LAW OFFICE **
 * 1) 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.
 * 2) 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.
 * Part 1**
 * 5 Good Things**
 * 1) Reduced overhead costs. (No rent, no office staff, no utilities)
 * 2) The appearance of always being accessible to your clients.
 * 3) Digital tracking of client matters and documents.
 * 4) Appeal to younger clients who are more digitally inclined.
 * 5) Manage your clients when you have available time.


 * 5 Bad Things**
 * 1) Constant issues with scope of practice vs. licensure.
 * 2) Risk to client privilege by hackers and isp vendors.
 * 3) Requires constant and high speed internet access to be practical.
 * 4) Requires the lawyer to be tech savvy.
 * 5) Limits the practice to specific items.

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. Conducting business through the log-in portal is different from conducting business over email, as the log-in portal is secure and must adhere to strict regulations and standards. A completely virtual law office will conduct all business online, while some small practices choose to integrate a VLO log-in portal to provide more options to their clients. (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_law_firm)
 * Part 2**

[|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.”

Who is a digital lawyer? M. Ethan Katsh said that Digital lawyer is a lawyer who is one who has a: “[s]ensitivity to the value, qualities, and capabilities of information in electronic form is probably the distinguishing characteristic of the digital lawyer. Such lawyers will understand that supplying the right information quickly is more important than ever before. Such lawyers will be aware that the “library” of cyberspace can be virtually any computer or any individual connected to the network. Such lawyers are likely to depend heavily on data communications to clients and on a “network” of colleagues, consultants, acquaintances, and experts.”