How Lawyers Can Manage Their Technology Well, 0117 COBJ, Vol. 46 No. 1 Pg. 61
| Author | Sharon D. Nelson, John W. Simek, J. |
Technology in the Law Practice
Sharon D. Nelson, John W. Simek, J.
Can lawyers actually manage their technology (instead of it managing them)? Buying, implementing, replacing, and securing technology are huge challenges-especially when you have billable work to do. And yet, technology is the most important part of a law firm today-at least after the carbon-based units.
What Are Lawyers Doing Wrong?
Rare is the solo/small firm that does an annual review of its technology. Firms tend not to plan, but rather to buy technology when a new need arises, when a partner demands the latest cool tech toy, or when something breaks. In our world, we call that the "Break/Fix" method of (not) managing technology.
For the most part, lawyers don't even have a list of all the equipment they own They don't know when it was placed in service-they may think about this briefly in terms of depreciating capital expenses at tax time, but not in terms of planning to replace technology.
And, God help them, they often listen to a vendor they just happen to run into at a conference or someone who persistently stalks them with a deal that sounds too good to be true (hint: it is). A lot of decisions are made quickly because lawyers are in such a hurry to get back to practicing law. Understandable, but it often results in poor decisions being made.
Getting Yourself Organized
First, let's stress an important point: Technology has a life span For most computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc., that tends to be about three years. That does NOT mean that the devices will cease to work. It just means that we tend to replace them that often because performance will deteriorate as we ask more of our devices (specifically when software asks more) and because we tend to want/need new features in our technology. You may be able to stretch the lifespan of some equipment-servers, printers, multi-function machines, etc.—to five years.
Second, let's acknowledge that lawyers are terrible about budgeting. Make yourself a list of all the equipment you own, when it was placed in service, and who has the devices (this will need updating each year). For the most part, experts recommend that you plan on refreshing your technology, with the exceptions mentioned above, every three years. That means...
To continue reading
Request your trial