News From the Legal Expert in November
A friend’s daughter graduated from law school two years ago and decided to hang out a shingle and start her own practice. My friend called me and asked if there was any guidance I could give regarding setting up her first office. I reached out and spoke with the new solo practitioner to see how I could assist.
Her questions focused on what tools would best help her work collaboratively with other lawyers and clients. She already had several business and small corporate clients. These clients were geographically diverse. This young lawyer had spent a good portion of the last two years working remotely because of COVID. Unfortunately, her first job was with a firm that was not as technologically advanced as she would have liked, and therefore, she has little experience using technology.
Her question was very broad, and I started to talk about case management systems, billing software, and intake systems and services. Then, she stopped me and narrowed my focus.
Was Google Workspace a viable option?
So long as she understood what Google Workspace could and couldn’t do, my answer was yes. I explained that Workspace could provide her with a custom email for her firm and included tools that would allow her to collaborate with her clients. These included Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and more. I also explained that there were various pricing plans but that she needed to be especially careful with client information, and she should look for services with enhanced security features.
I told her to do some research as Workspace was a cloud computing platform and that she needed to understand what this meant and how it affected her work. In addition, she needed to make sure her client information was secure.
I also recommended that she sign up for the plan she thought was the best fit and try it out to make sure it met her needs before committing. Join.Law gives everyone a 28-day free trial, and she should take advantage of it. I also pointed out that it was highly unlikely that Google would be leaving this space, and they were clearly a strong vendor.
Finally, the price point for the services she would receive, in my estimation, was very reasonable. As a young lawyer, you must focus on overhead and keep costs down but not skimp on quality or security. For these reasons, I believe Google Workspace is a solid choice.
