President’s Column
8
learn on-line research skills. So too with paper filings: partners often want paper.
The problem is that this comes with a
price. We will lose clients, cases, and the
ability to keep up with the pace of legal
work. Paperless offices with case management software simply can do more and do
it faster. They can start to re-shape practices along economies of scale and take
advantage of reduced costs. On this latter
note, paperless offices using cloud-based
servers will not require the same-type of
office space. The huge storage files and
fixed office location stops being necessary.
Smaller, less expensive space becomes an
option. Remote work spaces are not only
possible, they are economically sensible.
Physically, practicing law can be different.
The challenge in this is anticipating the
repercussions of such shifts. To put it in Zen
terms, if a lawyer does not have an expensive, imposing office, can she charge a high
rate? Will clients want to meet at an attorney’s home? What if that client is a Fortune
500 company?11
At the same time, paperless offices are
here to stay. The longer we imagine that
we can live without such innovation, the
further back we fall. Or to put it in McLu-
han’s terms, if we cling to the old boat of
the SS Paper-Based, we risk descending
into the maelstrom.
____________________
Daniel P. Richardson, Esq., is a partner in
the Montpelier firm Tarrant, Gillies & Richardson and president of the Vermont Bar
Association.
____________________
The Fate of Democracy in an Electronic Age: A
Conversation with Arthur Kroker, in Voices in Democracy 91-92 (Bernard Murchland ed., 2000).
2
See generally Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997). Christensen posited that
some companies failed by putting too much emphasis on a customer’s current needs while ignoring new technologies or business models. The
idea of disruptive thinking has been adopted by
many business thinkers as a way to develop new
value in existing markets. See Kaihan Krippendorff,
Out Think the Competition 106-17 (2012) (promoting a set of skills labelled a “disruptive mind-set”
as a method to developing responses to business
needs).
3
Krippendorff, supra note 2, at 36-38.
4
John Markoff, Armies of Expensive Lawyers,
Replaced by Cheaper Software, NY Times, March
3, 2011, at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/
science/05legal.html.
5
Jason Tanz, How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other, Wired
Magazine, April 23, 2014, at http://www.wired.
com/2014/04/trust-in-the-share-economy.
1
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • WINTER 2015
North Carolina attorney Terence McEnally has
started this process by creating an app where
lawyers can bid to represent individuals who scan
and upload their traffic tickets. http://www.berniesez.com. See Amber Rupinta, Raleigh Attorney Develops App for Lawyers to Bid on Your
Business, Aug. 13, 2014, at http://abc11.com/
finance/raleigh-attorney-develops-app-for-lawyers-to-bid-on-your-business/256412.
7
Rich Vetstein, Airbnb Rentals Raise Thorny
Legal Issues, Massachusetts Real Estate Law,
July 24, 2014, at http://massrealestatelawblog.
com/2014/07/24/airbnb-rentals-raise-thorny-legal-issues.
8
Sanjay Salomon, Uber’s Problems Keep Piling Up, Boston.com, Nov. 5, 2014, at http://www.
boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2014/11/05/
uber-problems-keep-piling/K8dkfhVMEqLd1tf6RhwyLK/story.html.
9
Taylor Dobbs, Amazon Shutters Vermont Program Over Tax Issue, Vermont Public Radio News,
Jan. 6, 2015, at http://digital.vpr.net/post/amazon-shutters-vermont-program-over-tax-issue.
10
Peter Diamandis, Uber vs. the Law (My
Money’s on Uber), Forbes.com, Sept. 8, 2014,
at
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdiamandis/2014/09/08/uber-vs-the-law-my-moneys-onuber.
11
Anecdotally, I know several firms that have
heard the following words from a large client:
“We usually don’t hire a firm as small as yours … ”
6
www.vtbar.org