Directlaw.com Company Blog - Developments in Virtual Lawyering

To help solos and small law firms learn how to deliver legal services online, DirectLaw has created DirectLawBasic , a full-featured  version of our virtual law firm platform for solos practitioners.  For a $29.00 a month subscription fee, a solo practitioner can enjoy all of the benefits of a virtual law office with no up-front fee, large capital investment or binding long-term contracts.  The only limitation is the number of automated legal documents made available.

DirectLawBasic  only enables the attorney to select only five documents for online use from DirectLaw’s extensive libraries of state specific legal forms and documents.

 (CALI) is offering a free online course on digital law practice, primarily for law students and law professors, but anyone can register.

As we approach the New Year, we want to thank our valued DirectLaw subscribers. We realize that the idea of offering an online secure portal to your clients is a new one for many law firms, and we greatly appreciate the willingness of these law firms to be innovative in delivering a new kind of client experience.

Last year the American Bar Association Legal Techonolgy Resource Center reported that only 52% of solo practitioners have a web site. You can't be a virtual lawyer without a web site. By definition, a virtual law firm has a secure client portal that requires a client to log in with a user name and password to a secure web space. Within this secure web space transactions between the lawyer and client can take place without compromising the confidentiality of client data.

A survey just released by Epoq, the developer of the Rapidocs document automation system  that is built-in to the DirectLaw virtual law firm platform provides support for the proposition that lawyers can save a huge amount of time in creating a first draft of a document by using a document automation system.

If you purchase a DirectLaw Subscription for a one year term, either as a New Lawyer, or regular subscriber, you are now entitled to a free month of courses at Solo Practice University ® .

Case management, document management or automation, e-billing, SaaS, e-discovery, mobile apps, virtual law office.  This is just a starting list of legal technology that promises a better, faster, and more efficient law practice.  It’s enough to make your head spin.

For years some law firms, but not all, have used some form of document automation in their law offices. Ranging from an MS Word macro to long standing programs such as HotDocs, as well as automated forms distributed by legal publishers such as Willmaker by Nolo, some law offices have incorporated some form of document automation in their law practices. Document automation of legal documents that are generated in high quantity by a law firm is an indispensable process for increasing law firm productivity and maintaining profit margins in an era of intense competition.

DirectLaw's founder and CEO, Richard Granat is participating this week in the Minnesota's State Bar Association's "Nine Days in June" Unconvention. Instead of concentrating CLE in the Twin Cities Area, where most of the population is Minnesota is located, the MSBA does a road show throughout the state to make it easier for attorneys in other parts of the state to attend. It's a good idea for states that have manadtory CLE like Minnesota.