Practice Management

Will Corporate Clients Force You to Go Paperless?

It’s undeniable that corporate clients led the mass migration in law firms from WordPerfect to Word when they informed their law firms they refused to continue to convert documents back and forth. Will they now lead the way to a paperless practice?

Back in the “good old days” when fax was used as the primary method of document exchange, it didn’t matter whether clients and their law firms used the same software. But when exchange of documents shifted to an electronic exchange via email attachment, it became increasingly important to corporate clients that their law firms use the same software. Converting documents back and forth, with the attendant formatting clean-up and inevitable occasional document corruption, became too bothersome for clients. When the complaints began, smart firms listened, and converted.

Now we’re seeing a shift to a more paperless paradigm at in-house departments. A recent article in the April, 2008 issue of Inside Counsel magazine entitled “Paperless Progress” focuses on this shift. The tie-in to the “going green” objective of today’s corporate conscience, which responsible corporations are increasingly emphasizing, has particular emphasis in the legal industry, because law firms are among the heaviest paper users of any industry.

In a reader poll, Inside Counsel asked “Is Your department taking steps to move toward a paperless office?” Survey results indicate that 51% of corporate counsel are. It’s just a matter of time before law firms must actively do the same.

The first steps you will need to take? Get a decent scanner. If you’re a small firm, or looking to deploy scanners widely, take a look at the Fujitsu ScanSnap or Xerox Documate. Then you need a document / image management system. That will ensure you can put your hands on the correct document in seconds.

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Full post as published by Law Practice Management on March 30, 2008 (boomark / email).