Solo Practice

The Ultimate Digital Law Firm

By Garrett Worley

Traverse Legal, based in Traverse City, Michigan, is one of the most innovative firms I’ve come across so far.  Enrico Schaefer, the firm’s founding attorney, uses alternative billing and technology to gain efficiencies that can be passed on to his clients.  Plenty of boutique firms are doing this these days, but Schaefer has taken it all the way.

Traverse Legal is a digital law firm in every sense of the word.  The firm utilizes a paperless records system and a secure extranet makes files available to clients and virtual workers.  Schaefer notes that the secure extranet improves the level of confidentiality because papers are easily scattered and lost.

Clients can log in to the extranet and view the relevant documents for their case, communications between staff and completed work.  This allows the client to get updates without having to call the office and sit on hold.  The efficiency of such a system is obvious and it allows attorneys to work from anywhere an internet connection is available.

A radio interview with Enrico Schaefer is available here.  It’s definitely worth a listen.

Full post as published by Garrett Worley's Blawg on October 24, 2007 (boomark / email).