by Paul Bernstein, Esq.

More and more is being written about software that you can "rent" online, and at the ATLA convention this year, 2001, my topic for presentation is the title of this article: "The Virtual Law Office – A technology and Resource Showcase For the Small Office Practice."

Most smaller law firms are still dealing with getting their computer network in their office working well….and, well you should get that in order first, before you move into the more advance world of Applications Service Providers ("ASP"). Yet, many are betting on the ASP being the wave of today and tomorrow.

For a great deal of information on this topic, take a look at the article "Software Shakeout – Application Service Providers Promised to Transform The Way Business Is Done. What happened?" This is a special report from BusinessWeek and should be required reading for all lawyers…it’s the issue of March 5, 2001 and starts at page 72.

Regular readers know of my affection for eGroups, and that affection has grown even more, now that eGroups is a part of Yahoo. I’ve written in TRIAL Magazine and all over about how these online resources can be your electronic rolodex, email, data storage, calendaring, to-dos, database, document storage and management resource and more. To-be-sure, and as the BusinessWeek article points out, many even among big business have been concerned about security and the reliability and ongoing existence of ASPs; however, the article discusses reasons why the "smart money" is betting on ASPs to make it, particularly those that create their presence on the Internet from the ground-up using the latest and greatest Internet tools.

If you have a mind to, I’d like to hear from you about your views on this topic. Here’s some questions for you to deal with:

1. Do you have a well-working, Local Area Network (LAN) in your office now?

2. If you do not have such a LAN, why not?

3. Might a web-based information resource be what you are looking for?

4. Do you know that you can have your calendar on the web?

5. Do you know that you can get emails to remind you of calendar events via the web?

6. Do you know that you can post your to-dos on the web?

7. Do you know that you can have your rolodex on the web?

8. Do you know that you can store your documents in folders on the web?

9. Do you know that you can, now, lease software like WORD, via the web?

10. Is security a concern to you? Why are your specific concerns?

11. If security or a "work-around" for security on the web was provided to you, would you change your opinion of a web-based virtual office?

12. Would you like to access your office from any computer hooked up to the Internet, no matter where located, without the need to carry around your laptop which has PCAnywhere or whatever other software you now use to access your in-office servers?

13. What reasons do you have to not at least give an ASP approach a try?

14. What, specifically, are you using on the web, at this time, as an ASP or virtual law office?

And, BTW, both West Group and Lexis are betting as well that lawyers will go for these types of resources in a huge way. We’ll have lots to tell you about those two vendors next month.