Creating a Document Online: Getting Started with the Major Players

• Author: Dennis Kennedy - Tom Mighell
• Pages: 61-67

61

Creating a Document

Online: Getting Started

with the Major Players

For lawyers, probably the most common method of electronic

collaboration has been the exchange and forwarding of word

processing or spreadsheet documents by email. If you and a

client were working on a contract or settlement agreement you

were negotiating with opposing counsel, the process would

typically start by creating an electronic file (usually in Word),

then emailing it as an attachment to the other person for

review and editing. The draft could then be mailed or faxed to

the other person, but today email is the primary tool lawyers

use to exchange documents.

After your client received the document, he or she might

then email (or fax or print and send) it to another person. If many

people needed to review the document, this “forwarding” pro-

cess could be extensive and protracted. Often, it might be a while

before the marked-up draft was returned to the original author.

If the draft required further editing, the original author

would make the changes and send it back out to the group, and

the whole process would start all over again. And again. And

again. Maintaining control of the draft was important. Often it

became difficult to determine what draft was actually the most

current. Many of you no doubt have participated in meetings

and calls where it gradually becomes clear that people are

working from different drafts. While this process was and is

still commonly used, it is also highly inefficient and unneces-

sarily time-consuming.

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