With cyber security concerns on the rise, how can you safeguard sensitive information against security breaches? To stay in contact with your clients on a regular basis, you probably use email as your preferred way to share and discuss details about their case. But as we’ve all read in the news, email is not the most secure way of sharing sensitive information. Without internal encryption, information shared between your practice and your clients may be intercepted by a third party.

Florida has become the first state to mandate technology CLEs. Beginning January 1st, Florida lawyers must complete a minimum of three extra credit hours of technology-related CLE courses, raising the standard to 33 hours every three years. The FL State Bar decided that lawyers within the state have a technological competence to protect and serve their clients as necessary.  Florida Bar Board of Governors member John Stewart stated, “[l]awyers now have to be familiar with social media issues, e-discovery, e-filing, legal outsourcing, web-based conferences, cloud computing and record keeping, how electronic records are stored and secured, webinars, protecting their electronic communications with clients, and other issues.”

When searching for the best practice management software, you need to consider which application will best improve your firm’s efficiency. One factor to look at is whether the software can take care of all your firm’s needs from a single platform. Many practice management platforms integrate with multiple third-party applications as a means to increase functionality for their users and draw in prospects. Although it may seem as though your firm would benefit greatly from software that integrates with many other applications, this may not be the case.

A User Interface, or UI, is the series of visual elements that you interact with in a software program such as buttons, icons, screens, and pages. All of these elements contribute to the functionality and usability of the application. A successful UI has to be equally appealing to the eye and easily navigable, especially for those who would not consider themselves “techies” (perhaps this sounds like someone you know?). A well-designed interface can shorten the learning curve of an application, helping you perform tasks easier and faster without wasting billable time. For this very reason, some of the country’s most gifted designers, lawyers and technologists have been collaborating to apply legal design and innovation to legal products and services.

“All anyone asks for is a chance to work with pride” - William Edwards Deming The principles of total quality management (TQM), spearheaded by William Edwards Deming decades ago, continue to be exceptional tools for practicing attorneys. Given the competitive landscape currently facing the legal community, it is essential for any law firm to offer best-in-class service. After all, the name of the game is client satisfaction and their happiness drives referrals. These principles are not for rainmakers only, however, and it is critical for your entire team to buy into TQM.

What are the unique steps your firm takes to complete tasks? By now you’ve processed hundreds of new clients. You perform the same steps for every new client, but have no way of knowing their status in the process. With all the work you have on your plate, there is no time to run around the office, figuring out which member of your staff was in charge of each task and if they are on track.

There are so many benefits to keeping track of your time: efficiency, organization, and responsibility. Once you figure out where specifically you are spending your time, you can then determine where improvements in your time management need to be made. Budgeting your time and allotting more time for higher priority tasks, will lead to fewer distractions, better organization, and more responsibility (and accountability).

Unless you’ve been living off the grid, by now you’ve most likely heard the term that has been catching fire around the world: “the cloud.” But what is it exactly and how are these “tech-savvy” people using it? As it turns out, you are probably using “the cloud” on a daily basis without ever taking notice. Popular platforms for cloud computing include Google Drive, Office 365, Apple iCloud, and Dropbox, to name a few. These applications store and access information through the Internet, in contrast to the traditional, physical, in-house servers that interact with a computer’s hard drive to manage data.

At long last, the legal sector is getting with the program. Adoption of legal technology is on the rise. Lawyers are starting to use practice management software to enhance the productivity of their practices. With cloud-based applications, lawyers can easily store and access all of their legal documents and client information in one portable device in any location at any time of the day.