Think of businesses that have file-storage issues, huge amounts of research conducted and high-volume paperwork, coupled with security considerations like client confidentiality. Do law firms pop to mind?

You only have to consider this example of a matter heard in Australia (which pales in comparison, it must be said, to Hong Kong legal IT savoir-faire). In one of the largest discovery exercises (in the history of the Supreme Court of New South Wales), the applicant's tender 'bundle' comprised over 11,000 large ring-bound folders!

Ridiculous? Maybe; but at least with innovations in legal IT (we shall use this term to refer to any information technology system that is used in legal practice) this sort of burden can be managed without US$100,000 worth of photocopying charges in the disbursements' column of the bill, and without chopping down a forest to satisfy a client's litigious urge.

Given this nightmarish example (and it is far from an isolated one), law firms worldwide, not usually known for adapting to new methods, are being forced to gain a fast understanding of what is on offer in the world of legal IT.

Legal IT is not an infant anymore, rather a robust and energetic adolescent. 

As with any maturing industry, expert consultants have a large role to play. Bizibody is an organisation of such people and ALB spoke with Silvia Low, a business process consultant, about the role that businesses such as hers play for law firms.

"What we do is recommend to our client law firms what they might need to implement and how to do it. Sometimes they know for themselves what they want or need and we see them through the process. Sometimes they don't and we have a look at the business and work with them."

Bizibody works with law firms, stretching from the fledgling end of the continuum, where it helps with the whole set-up phase, to the big boys that may need only minor guidance. "Brand new practices simply need a core database - the ability to track clients to matters, and a billing or accounts system. At the higher level, our clients might require pretty sophisticated knowledge and document management systems." 

According to Low, document management is really just a subset of knowledge management.

Yap Lian Seng is a practitioner with the Stamford Law Corporation, a Singaporean corporate firm. "Document management refers to the day-to-day workflow of the lawyers," says Yap. "There is a need not only to maintain security and efficiency, but the system must also have a good interface; if no one uses the system, it obviously fails. Netware and Windows may not be robust enough to handle these demands. We use iManage, which is high capacity and reliable, including indexer and search functions, as well as facilities for saving and retrieval, and email."

Von Chan, director of the organisation that produces iManage - Efficient Office, adds: "Basically, iManage expands on all the MS software that we are used to using, and more. We share the lawyers' visions that the document management system is not simply about document management but should also include billing and accounts functions as well."

Singapore-based Efficient Office, which has representative offices in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur covering the whole of Asia, is this region's partner for iManage, an American product now used by seven out of the top 10 US practices.

The primary attraction it appears, and this comes from less partisan clients of Efficient Office, is that iManage allows lawyers to collaborate on an international scale - a crucial feature for a global law firm.

Efficient Office also produces Interaction, which works hand-in-hand with iManage and is a client relationship manager. Much more than a cueing system or database, Interaction makes sure the practitioner discharges all fiduciary duties but also nurtures and develops the 'quality' factors of the client/lawyer relationship. 

A classic horror story for a lawyer involves a huge discovery matter with perhaps several hundred thousand individual sheets - all of it evidence. You are approaching trial, and a crucial document cannot be found. It is rare that your case hinges on this document, but it hardly looks professional when you have to ring the other side and ask them to reproduce.

Document management issues are serious ones since legal practices are the classic high-volume paperwork businesses. ALB spoke with Benjamin Ang, administrative director of White & Case in Singapore, who holds qualifications in both law and IT.

He explains that the modern law firm needs a product that categorises as well as describes. "Ringtail is an Australian piece of software that is gaining worldwide recognition. It scans all documents and organises them."

Ringtail, which is produced by Ringtail Solutions Inc (Diskcovery is the largest distributor of Ringtail Solutions in the APac region), can be used both for litigious work, ie discovered material, or in front-end work, ie due diligence in M&As.

"In these situations, MS Access is insufficient," adds Ang. "And when we do work in certain jurisdictions, like Indonesia, we can't afford to rely on web-based databases. These are not smooth." 

Peter Elliott, CEO of Viewpoint, is an expert in the use of legal technology. He is a qualified barrister and solicitor (New Zealand) but stepped away from legal practice to build his now successful business, Viewpoint. Elliott's company produces a product known as Viewpoint Administrator, which is your company secretary squashed onto a CD-ROM.

This product not only provides all the relevant company secretarial precedents for almost two-dozen jurisdictions (including Singapore and Hong Kong), it also cues you, the lawyer (client manager), to make the various necessary steps in maintaining good corporate governance.

"Administrator was designed to ensure strict adherence to statutory compliance," says Elliott. "It is your task manager. As well as that, however, we designed it properly in the beginning by placing special emphasis on corporate governance." 

One of the leading reasons why lawyers leave practice is timesheets. The temptation is there to bill the hour per day that is spent filling out: phone call, one unit, matter number, client name... and so on. Billable time is wasted doing billing!

But timesheets and bills are a necessary evil. As such, legal IT technicians realised long ago the potential goldmine in producing a program that cuts out some of the duplication and time wastage.

Yap offers further insight to ALB: "We all hate timesheets and doing bills, but it is a critical part of the job. A law firm needs software like Elite, which helps with billing, timesheets and accounts. It also has a client relationship management function which, in a sense, manages your clients' diaries for them."

Software has moved on fairly swiftly from the relatively uncomplicated programs that assisted with filling out timesheets. It now performs a number of tasks directly related, and ancillary to, billing.

ALB spoke with Mark Gower, the sales and marketing manager of Copitrak, in Hong Kong. Copitrak produces a product that can sort out your billing issues if you are running your case from a hotel room 10,000km from your office.

"Traditionally, law firms have traced internal costs related to copying, faxing, printing and long distance calling with manual, that is, hand-written systems. The problem is that manual systems require accurate recording of disbursements by staff with an administrator spending many hours inputting this information into the billing system," says Gower.

"Many firms in Asia are following their US and European colleagues by embracing modern technology and implementing an automated system to track the disbursement work their staff undertake. It is here that Copitrak's DIAMonde Technology can help."

An impressive two decades in the cost recovery business means that Copitrak has built a reputation that sees it working with 44 of the world's top 100 law firms. With a global network and eight Asia service offices from Beijing to Singapore, plus the APac regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Copitrak offers a worldwide service.

"Most manual systems record 30% cost recovery at best, whereas an automated system can increase this to more than 70% by simplifying the process for users and reducing administration requirements," says Gower.

"The fact that Copitrak fully integrates with your existing network and machinery makes it a smart solution for firms looking to consolidate and manage their operational costs. Moreover, lawyers in Asia are much more mobile than ever before - the so-called fly-in, fly-out phenomenon. They need the latest technology to keep them effective - mobile phones and PDAs, for example. This technology is expensive, so firms are choosing the latest mobile and Internet based systems and allow firms to recover these costs seamlessly." 

Lawyers have enough to do as it is. Then comes the end of the CPD/CLE year and if you don't squeeze in 10 hours of CPD you won't be entitled to the renewal of your licence.

A bit of an exaggeration, but lawyers often leave CPD to the last minute. This is where Vinciworks can help. This Hong Kong business runs an online legal education course that makes reaching your 'points' infinitely more efficient.

"We take original content and create online courseware and then we get this accredited by all the relevant law societies. We are the only people doing this in Hong Kong," says Howard Finger, CEO of Vinciworks.

"We try to go beyond CPD, and provide general online training with our online library [www.cpdonline.com.hk]. The problem with traditional CPD is that you only have to turn up and you get your points and if you have to cancel then you lose your money. Well, with our courses it is 100% flexible. You can log-on and log-off when you want. It overcomes the traditional problems completely."

Vinciworks also offers its services privately - in other words to individual multinational law firms for online, cross-border training seminars. 

Law firms often seem to undervalue the effort provided by their secretaries and administrative staff. Well, ALB hasn't forgotten them. So if you are a secretary and read this publication, or you are a particularly magnanimous boss, then in the interests of mental health, consider these products.

Transcription services do not just refer to court transcripts. They can also refer to transcripts of meetings, witness statements and phone calls - all the things that used to be called dictation and file noting. And here's the pearl for secretaries - someone else wants to do this work.

WordWave is an organisation that can meet the transcription needs of any law firm, big or small. It uses Smith Bernal Reporting for court services, including transcripts, and Casetrack for easy access to online judgments. For important meetings, WordWave sends out technicians to monitor the information flow and then the recording can be emailed to its offices for prompt texting. Key clients include Allen & Overy, Norton Rose and JP Morgan. 

The world of the dark-wood, dusty, leathery library law firm has been metamorphosing for many years, although change usually occurs some 20 or 30 years behind the rest of the business world. Not so with respect to IT. The nature of the beast, when practicing law, means that firms are generally pretty sensitive to exogenous changes that can make life easier, and more accurate.

And the value of the 'more accurate' component should not underestimated - top US firms are throwing up to one quarter of their entire fee earnings at PI insurers in order to obtain coverage against disgruntled, or even frenzied, litigators. That's right, 25 cents in every dollar of income for coverage in case of error.

Well, computers and software, although subject to the 'GIGO' adage, are not subject to human error - post programming stage, anyway. For instance, Elliott explains how Viewpoint Administrator cues lawyers to take certain steps (that may have been overlooked).

It only takes one costly piece of human error and suddenly your client's business is deregistered, or the fact that a particular piece of evidence cannot be located changes the judge's mood, etc. Elliott continues that Administrator is therefore your assistant - constantly fending off the possibility of potential negligence claims.

PI and professional negligence are very serious concerns that can be partly alleviated by the use of legal software. Whether it is used for the transcription of important minutes, a search system for the needle in the discovery haystack, or for an important reminder on your firm's precedent system, legal software can prove invaluable.

Besides all this horrible talk about getting sued, it just makes the working day shorter. And this alone is surely reason enough to at least have a look at what our IT friends are doing out there.

Find out more:
Visit www.cpdonline.com.hk

or contact us at:
Tel: 2522 8779
Fax: 2522 8774
Email: inquiry@cpdonline.com.hk