1039 Texas Bar Journal • December 2013 texasbar.com

Apple’s new iPad Air (from $499) issubstantially lighter and thinner thanits precursor, the iPad 4. The tabletincludes a 64-bit A7 processor, front-and back-facing cameras, and optionsfor cellular data.

BENEFITS OF LAW PRACTICEMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

If you struggle with problems likethese, law practice management soft-ware could rescue you. With a coupleof mouse clicks, you can have:

1. A list of all email and other cor-respondence.

2. The dates of all scheduled meet-ings, depositions, hearings, dead-lines, etc.

3. A list of all documents relatingto each matter.

4. Links to saved cases and researchon the matter.

5. Copies of phone messages andyour notes from phone calls.

6. A list of outstanding tasks asso-ciated with a particular matter.

7. The name and contact informationfor all parties related to a matter.

8. A list of all other matters youhave handled for the same clientor with the same opposing counsel.

9. A conflicts report showing all thematters associated with a name,as a client or otherwise.

Law practice management softwarecan help you be more organized, effi-cient, and productive. It can produce abilling report for your various dailyactivities. It may have invoicing capa-bilities and the option to coordinatewith your accounting software, ulti-mately reducing administrative steps,time, and errors. It can give youremote access to information and doc-

uments that previously were availableonly at your desk.

CHALLENGES OF LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Law practice management softwarereally can make your life as a lawyereasier. Like most technology, however,it will make life worse before it makes itbetter. To enjoy the previously describedbenefits, you may have to:

1. Research the various productsavailable or engage with consult-ants who will likely recommenda product they sell.

2. Spend time exploring and exper-imenting with a product or twoto determine which is most likelyto meet your needs.

3. Shell out a significant chunk ofchange to purchase or subscribeto the product.

4. Shell out more to install the prod-uct and make it play nice withyour computer, printer, scanner,smartphone, and other software—although you might skip some ofthis by using a cloud solution.

5. Shell out more for help configur-ing it to your needs.

6. Take time to help the consultantunderstand your needs and yoursystems.

7. Abandon your computer whilethe consultant works on the instal-lation, configuration, and datamigration process (again, perhapsnot when using a cloud product).

When a client calls unexpectedly, do you fumble to find the information youneed while the client wonders why you can’t answer the question quickly? Doyou have trouble sorting through all the appointments and deadlines on yourcalendar to identify the ones that relate to a particular case? Do you rely onyour increasingly overloaded memory for conflict checks? Do you lose moneybecause you can’t remember how much time you spent on a dozen differentphone calls during the day? Have you lost hope of ever getting organized?

TECHGEAR

WALTER M. REAVES JR.has been a solo practitionersince 1980 and currentlymaintains an office in Waco.As a criminal defense attor-

ney, he handles both trials and appealsand has managed high-profile casesthat have been covered by Newsweek,Time, the Texas Observer, and othermedia organizations. He has served onthe board and executive committee ofthe Texas Criminal Defense LawyersAssociation, and he currently serves onthe board and executive committee ofthe Innocence Project of Texas.

gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com This is a great blog that covers primarilycriminal justice issues. Scott Henson, theauthor, spends a lot of time at the TexasLegislature and has the inside story ontopics he covers on the blog.

sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policyThis blog is written by Professor DougBerman. He analyzes cases fromacross the country that have an impacton sentencing.

blog.simplejustice.usThis is the grandfather of all legal blogs,written by New York lawyer Scott Green-field. He’s a prolific writer and usuallyhas three or more posts every day.

legalease.blogs.comWritten by lawyer coach Allison Shields,this blog has good thoughts on produc-tivity and how to run your law office.

WEBLINKS

TECHNOLOGY

Stress ReliefWhy a solo attorney should buy law practice management software.BY DEBRA L. BRUCE

8. Shell out more for training onhow to use all those bells andwhistles.

9. Block out otherwise billable timefor training yourself and yourassistant.

10. Call tech support or the consult-ant many times until you reallylearn to use the product.

11.Call tech support again when youget a new smartphone or scan-ner or anything else.

12. If you later decide to change pro-grams, you will struggle and wastea lot of time and expense migrat-ing your data to the new program.

IS IT WORTH IT?Is it really worth all that effort? For

most lawyers—even already-swampedsolos—I think it is. Here’s why:

1. Your competition increasinglyuses technology to provide fasterand more cost-effective serviceto clients. If you don’t get in thegame, eventually you will priceyourself out of the market, orwill work harder to earn less.

2. The longer you wait to becomefamiliar with technology, thefarther you fall behind—and themore difficult it gets to catch up.

3. Most malpractice results fromdisorganization, not from failingto know the law.

4. Inefficiency and disorganizationincrease stress, and the practiceof law is already stressful enough.(Caveat: at first, learning new soft-ware may increase, rather thandecrease, your stress.)

5. Consistent use of practice manage-ment software will enable anotherlawyer to step in for you, shouldyou suddenly become disabled byillness or injury.

6. With all of your data organizedelectronically, you can work re-motely and reduce your overheadfor physical space.

7. You can improve your bottomline, even with all the increasedcosts described above.

texasbar.com/tbj Vol. 76, No. 11 • Texas Bar Journal 1040

A REAL-LIFE ILLUSTRATIONOne of my coaching clients is a solo

with a flat-rate billing practice. Whenhe is more efficient, he makes moremoney. (When hourly lawyers stopleaking time hunting for things, doingredundant administrative tasks, andforgetting to record smaller incrementsof time, they make more money, too.)By integrating document scanning andpractice management software into hispractice, my solo client accomplishedwhat used to take 117 hours in 96 hours

per month. If his time were calculatedas being worth the modest rate of $200per hour, that extra 21 hours per monthwould yield an extra $50,000 per yearand a priceless reduction of stress. TBJ

DEBRA L. BRUCEis president of Lawyer-Coach(lawyer-coach.com), a law practicemanagement coaching and trainingfirm. She practiced law for 18 yearsbefore becoming a professionallytrained executive coach. Contact

her at debra@lawyercoach.com.

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