Law Technology

The Original, Often Imitated, Genuine Article: Ross? Paper LESS Office

By Ross

“A Paper LESS Life: A Common Sense Guide to (Green) Home and Business Sanity”. That’s the working title of the book I’m furiously working on - the logical next step after 15 years of the Paper LESS Office(tm). If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I’m feeling quite flattered over the last few years. Friends and colleagues have written about . . . what sounds mostly like the Paper LESS Office, sometimes with attribution (thanks to those who have - very kind!), sometimes not. Sometimes, it’s like reading my own materials with someone else’s name on it. But instead of being bothered by it, I’m thrilled! And flattered

Why?  Well heck, I’ve given away my Paper LESS Office concept in terms of articles, listserve posts, blog posts and of course in the form of my downloadable CLE materials for free for 15 years! Many thousands of lawyers and others have benefitted from the concept, which I first formulated and began writing and speaking about in late 1994. How do I know? Just tracking the downloads of Paper LESS Office materials from MicroLaw.com over the years shows more than 300,000 anonymous downloads (I have never required registration or “decloaking” of visitors as a pre-requisite to access). I’ve received probably nearly 2000 emails over the years from law firms, businesses, associations and individuals.

I’m thrilled because ultimately, it’s about the cause. It’s about helping people and firms and companies to turn the chaos of their lives and practices into cases. Seeking organization and accessibility and portability of everything important to us in the process of living and working. I have long thought far beyond the narrow constraints of law practice. For years in the opening of my various CLE programs about “The Paper LESS Office,” I have asked my audiences, “who here isn’t buried in an unending sea of paper that conspires to bury us every single day?” Hands always nervously shoot up, accompanied by the inevitable chuckles of personal recognition. Who isn’t buried in receipts, product manuals, school papers, old homework, bill, tax returns and more at home? Who doesn’t have file cabinets, frankly, chock full of crap that no one will even open again for fear of being sucked into some paper-lined tear in the space-time continuum from which escape might be impossible?

ALL OF US! It’s perfectly okay to admit that much of your life you’ve been powerless over paper!

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The essential core of The Paper LESS Office has, conceptually, never changed. However, the Paper LESS Process has evolved over time to acknowledge and leverage new and developing technologies. So here it is, in a nutshell, my own Offical Paper LESS Office(tm) process:

1. Scan everything as an “image” PDF (always advocating real Adobe Acrobat as the PDFing tool) - use a “decentralized” scanning approach as I’ve advocated from the mid-1990’s then with desktop-connected Visioneer Paperports and today with Fujitsu ScanSnaps and its big brother the Fujitsu fi-6130 - in combination with big multi-function devices (MFDs) down the hall for bigger scan jobs.
2. Store everything using some kind of document management system/program/process - remembering, it’s ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS! Whether Worldox, Worksite, eDocs, Netdocuments, legal practice managers, FileCenter, Documentum, Dynafile, Outlook (with my “OutlookSmartLinks” approach), or whatever you might use (note: the fact that you might be chronically anal and personally disciplined DOES NOT mean a Windows Explorer/My Computer-based approach will work - it’s woefully inadequate and fairly dangerous).
3. Convert all or some of the image PDFs into accessible or “searchable” PDFs as needed (using Acrobat’s built-in functionality or an automated tool like Autobahn DX from Aquaforest)
4. If possible, shred and responsibily recycle the paper that is no longer needed (and/or after returning originals to clients or at least asking)
5. Then never waste a moment of otherwise billable time or of a satisfyingly productive life chasing paper
6. Then BACK IT UP responsibly, following the plain-English guides in my SmallLaw article called “The Ultimate Backup Regiment for Law Firms” (http://blog.technolawyer.com/2008/12/smalllaw-the-ultimate-backup-regimen-for-law-firms-.html).

In the legal world, add: connect all the Paper LESS documents to a Paper LESS case/project/matter file in practice management software or “Outlook PaperLESSLinks.” In the world at large: consider even Web 2.0 products like Shoeboxed, Earth Mail, even a tweaked Gmail or online document repository to augment/enhance traditional local storage.

And let’s emphasize two particular things that are of essential importance:

• The Paper LESS Office PROCESS is more important than the specifics of the equipment. And for the process to work, it has to tap into that most fundamental element of human nature - that even the smartest, most dedicated people, in the heat of stressful multi-tasking days, tend to gravitate towards the laziest, easiest, least painful ways of getting things done. If the process requires three pages crammed with bullet points, fuhgeddaboutit - it’s too complicated and won’t work. The procedure for scanning, saving, storing, retrieving, shredding, recycling should be less than one page, no more than six bullet points in big 14 pt text for easy reading! Simple works, complicated doesn’t!
• You absolutely, positively, unequivocally must properly backup all your Paper LESS files especially if there is no hard copy counterpart! Read my backup article - fail to take these steps at your own peril! While a Paper LESS Office or a Paper LESS Life eliminates paper and in fact is the ONLY WAY TO BACKUP PAPER, this only works if you protect yourself! DON’T BE STUPID - BAD TECH HAPPENS TO GOOD PEOPLE!

When I first thought up the process, being Green wasn’t in the forefront of most people’s minds. Today, if it’s not at the top of everyone’s list, you deserve to be on some ice shelf that cracks off and falls into the sea! Turns out that Paper LESS is intrinsically green - anything that can reduce the amount of paper we produce (by reducing demand), and anything that can incentivize responsible recycling helps the planet. Paper LESS Office = Paper GREEN Planet. A nice, but originally unintentional Paper LESS side benefit.

For a few links to some of my own Paper LESS Materials (including the earliest CLEs and articles), check out MicroLaw.com and in particular, for the latest CLE materials:

• Go to MicroLaw’s latest CLE materials listings and in particular, this program: “From Paper to Pixels: Building Electronic Case Files with the Paper LESS Office“
• Read: “In Search of the Paper LESS Office: What Really Works” here with client and friend, Dale Cottam from Hirst Applegate
• Read: “Moving Towards the Paper LESS Office” an ABA GP|Solo article

Among many others.

And don’t forget the core of the Paper LESS Office rationale - the financial motivation for businesses and law practices, especially those who measure/sell their time. Do the basic legal math, after asking how much time each person in an organization wastes, currently, every day, chasing “never where it’s supposed to be when you need it” paper files:

• Being Paper LESS you can bill/save/repurpose at LEAST 15 minutes a day . . .
• If you bill $200/hour . . .
• You can bill another $50 a day
• That?s $250 a week
• That?s about $1000 a month
• That?s $12,000 a year. Per lawyer (not to mention staff time recovery)
• In a five lawyer firm, that?s $60,000 a year in ?found? billings
• In a 50 lawyer firm, that’s $600,000 a year in “found” billings
• In a 500 lawyer firm, that’s $6,000,000 a year in “found” billings

That’s not pocket change! Paper LESS is the perfect bailout package for every business or family in these tight, tough and trying times, don’t you think?

But just remember, Paper LESS is *NOT*. I firmly maintain that anyone who talks of being “paperless” speaks of a mythical state of being that may never be achieved in our life-times. Paper will come to your office - clients will bring it, you’ll get it via snail mail, you’ll pick it up at Bar meetings and conferences, you’ll still need to file paper documents with legal entities for some time to come. While you might immediately scan it and shred/return/store it, it DOES mean you’re dealing with paper, if to a lesser extent. So you’re not “paperless” - there is no such thing at present. And trying to chase the holy grail of the mythical paperless office is likely to be frustrating and fruitless, for the above reasons. But being Paper LESS - now that’s obtainable - today - and it’s proven - and it works.

So with that said, back to another chapter of the book! And thanks again to all the folks who are expanding and carrying on the Paper LESS Office with their derivative writings, speeches, blog posts, Facebook Updates and Tweets! Whether it’s me carrying the torch or others, it doesn’t matter. It’s not about authorship or credit for the ideas, it’s about the message - helping others to become Paper LESS in their businesses, practices, organizations and lives.

P.S. Thanks to Courtney Kennaday, PMA for the South Carolina Bar and South Carolina’s best law practice management resource (she knows why).

Full post as published by Ross Ipsa Loquitur on March 25, 2009 (boomark / email).