The Virtual Shingle: Providing Legal Services on the Web

A session I was really waiting for in order to prepare my futur carreer as a virtual lawyer (!!!): "Providing Legal Services on the Web" by Greg Siskind at Visalaw and Blair Janis.

This is a conference for eLawyers and wannabes (like me).

I was not aware of the ABA eLawyering Task Force and the website seems to be filled with valuable information. I'll post about my review later on.

Here are the overview quotes:

Lawyering verbs (interview, investigate, plead, etc.) are now virtual (online interviews, dealrooms, extranets, ecourtroom, etc.).

People don't hire lawyers because of fees, hourly rates, fear of prolonging disputes, etc. The Internet can be a good medicine to these issues since it is inexpensive.

80% of the time spent by lawyers is spent on things other people could be doing.

Most law firm websites are glorified Yellow pages.

If you are not a large law firm and don't have a lot of money, go to your local university IT department and ask a student to do it!

The good thing about blogs is the speed.

Slideshare is a useful tool to post slide shows on your blog. Here is an example with the presentation (to which I couldn't attend this morning) by Greg.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the presentation :-( (which went over the 4:15pm scheduled time) to meet with vendors in the Exhibit Hall...

"When I'll be older, I'll be an eLawyer!"
- Dominic J@@r