Surf's Up!

How the Internet, wireless and other technologies are streamlining the law office

Remember when surfing meant going to the beach? When wireless meant radio? Well, now there's wireless surfing.

The Internet is spawning new technologies that promise to streamline the law office, save time, reduce the propagation of paper and keep attorneys in closer contact with clients. Law firms are using many of these technologies right now.

Print once, publish many
Shutts & Bowen in Miami scans documents into PDF format and publishes them on their extranet for sharing documents with big clients. Randall Kalik, Shutts & Bowen's director of technology services says, "No one has to print out anything. No one has to fax or FedEx a document. As long as you have a connection to the Internet and a secure login, you're ready to go."

Shutts & Bowen uses iManage and Infolink for document management and extranet services and Summation for litigation support, which also includes an extranet to share exhibits.

Pittsburgh-based Cohen & Grigsby hosts their own client extranets. Cohen & Grigsby's Director of Technology Kevin Sullivan says that providing the service in-house gives them total control over the look and feel of the extranet, including the security architecture, to the point of granting or denying access to parts of documents. Attorney control client access and clients can have different access levels for different people.

"You can turn around a deal a lot faster if everyone has instant access to work product." Sullivan points out that e-mail is not the answer to document distribution since many people don't have remote access to their e-mail. The ability to access through a browser makes the information more accessible.

Sullivan says that his firm plans to install a high-speed imager that will scan up to 80 pages a minute, which, he says, will provide them with the ability to publish litigation documents on extranets.

He says, "Extranets allow access to work in progress from anywhere in the world — people that are travelling, people that are home — it doesn't matter where they are, as long as they have access to the Internet then they have access to the work product."

On-line research
Many standard research materials are available on CD-ROM or online. It's just a matter of time before all standard research material is available digitally, including state and federal laws, court opinions, industry-specific information and other standard resources.

Cohen & Grigsby still has books, but if any of their 100 attorneys are so inclined, they can browse and search BNA and CCH publications from their desktop computer. Sullivan says, "We're moving in the direction of making more resources available on computer desktops simply because it gives users access anywhere just as if they were sitting at their desk. If we can make more information accessible by computer, then it removes barriers to working remotely."

With more cars and more traffic, telecommuting, remote offices and war rooms become more appealing and practical. Sullivan says that Cohen & Grigsby people work remotely every day, and that the their Florida office is run remotely using servers in Pittsburgh.