Being able to work remotely/worldwide has always seemed like a great idea. We've been watching many industries being able to accommodate a flexible lifestyle and people choosing to live/work and run their business from the most exotic parts of the world. The idea of running a virtual business has been out there for quite some time. I've seen writers, software engineers and even COOs running their businesses or doing their job from a remote location. For a moment I thought that a similar formula could be applied to law firms. Some states did a great job in terms of coming up with guidelines and regulations that would allow lawyers to run their practice from a remote location while being in compliance with the states' laws. Looking at how some states handle the "set up and running of a virtual law practice", I've been pleasantly surprised. Also, many BAR Associations have expressed their interest in MCLEs that would educate the legal professionals in the "know how".
In 2019, a lot of things were in the initial stage, at the possibility/consideration, if, maybe and possible level. COVID-2019, however, didn't give a lot of chances or leave room for doubting and reflecting. This was a time for action and the record showed once again that preparation beats any type of challenges. The day when lockdowns were enforced around the country/world, some of us realized how late we were in transforming our legal practice. We had minutes, not days, to decide where will all the files go, who will receive and process the mail, will our legal services be qualified as essential and are we going to stay in business at all? We knew about the option to go virtual and some of us were even aware of all the available tools, but some of us were still stuck in the old way of doing things and not ready at all for this kind of change. Now more than ever, running a successful virtual legal practice became the key to many lawyers' success. However, is it possible to have an 100% virtual practice? The following things need to be kept in mind:
- Although some states would allow law firms to operate on a virtual/remote base, you would need to have an office address in the state you are licensed in. Check with your state for local guidelines and rules.
- Many legal professionals opt for co-working virtual offices in their city/state. This way they fill the requirement of having a state official business address. Please be mindful that even though some of the virtual offices providers offer full services membership packages, with scanning, mail forwarding and even virtual secretary, you would need to hire a local legal assistant, preferably within a commutable distance from your office, who will be able to pick up the mail, scan and load into the software that you have access to. I find Clio, SmokeBall and Leap very helpful, but we will talk more about them in a different article.
- The official address and the mail processing are the only downsides at the moment that don't allow the legal practices to go fully remotely, or at least not yet. If tomorrow you decide to run your practice from Thailand, most likely you won't be able to do that for the reasons listed above.
- Although in light of the COVID-19 events, most courts are running virtual appearances, be prepared to have to attend in person hearings when things are back to normal. Meaning that, you or someone in your office, will have to commute to Court. One option would be to hire a local counsel, but that would not always be cost-efficient.
- If you or someone in your office is assigned to handle the receipt and forwarding of the mail, be sure to consider the proximity of the USPS, FedEx or UPS office to the person's location. If your legal assistant works from the virtual office, chances are that they will have a carrier scheduled for daily pick up. However, one thing to keep in mind is that if the office has an account with FedEx and your business account is with UPS than that may be an issue. Your mail won't be picked up unless you call for it. Same applies to you or your assistant when working from home.
These are some of the things you will have to keep in mind when running a virtual law firm. Be on the lookout for more helpful hints in our future articles.