When it comes to competing against massive law firms with dozens or even hundreds of lawyers, solo attorneys and small legal practices have learned to adapt. Small means agile and adaptable, able to provide better individual service to clients, and, above all, hardly ever being in the office.
This last trend — being out of the office seemingly 24-7 — is increasingly prevalent. Attorneys have always been known to burn the midnight oil, but thanks to modern developments and emergent working trends, it’s easier than ever to not set foot in the office for days at a time. Here’s how it works, and how the legal support industry has risen to support this trend.
A Universal Trend
American workers, including legal professionals, are simply sick and tired of being cooped up in the office. A 2016 Gallup survey found that 43 percent of respondents spent at least one or two days a week working out of office environments, up from just 39 percent in 2012. With the remote working and telecommuting trend picking up, it’s only natural that the legal profession is part of that trend.
Whether it’s taking depositions or interviewing clients, researching cases, filing court documents, or actually attending court dates, the career requirements for lawyers and legal staff are already itinerant. What’s changed for lawyers, however, is that now there’s even less need to check in at the office to do things like file paperwork, place phone calls, or attend meetings.
The Logistics of Keeping Out of the Office
Modern tech supports legal professionals who want to get out of their office. Whether you’re working out of the stillness of your own home office thanks to a desktop computer equipped with high-speed internet or if you’re constantly on the go and using mobile devices with good data plans to keep in contact with clients, partners, and staff, communication technologies have your needs covered.
This trend goes even further when it comes to supporting services associated with the legal profession. Cloud-based document storage and retrieval mean not having to be tied to a central server you can only access in one location. When you’ve got a little device in your pocket that can act like your personal law office, you don’t have to be physically present in a specific location to do your job.
The Perfect Example: Document Filing and Service Process
A shining example of how modern technology enables the contemporary lawyer to stay in the field for as long as they like is how handling legal documents has changed. The days of printing out documents at the office and then relying on courier services or process servers to hand deliver these documents, your legal practice can rely on a support service company like Rapid Legal to do the dirty work for you so that you don’t have to sweat about it.
An industry leader in eFiling California court documents and providing process of service across the United States, Rapid Legal makes it easy to both initiate and manage your legal document filing and serving from any location. Anywhere, anytime, and from any connected device, you can upload your documents and have the experts at Rapid Legal take care of the rest. Less time handling document needs means even more time out of the office — time that you can instead spend on providing your clients the kind of personal attention that they need.
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Spend more time on billable client hours and less time tracking down conformed copies and proofs of service.