A Paperless Law Office in 12 Simple Steps (Part 1 of 2)
Too many excuses are made for a law firm’s inertia toward a paperless or just “less paper”-ridden office. The reason? Most often, “We aren’t sure where to start”. Well here’s a simple plan to help get the mountain moving.
- You need a plan – a paperless plan. But don’t call it that. If you’re leading the cause and the cause involves lawyers, don’t utter the word “paperless”. Some of your attorneys may break out in hives 😁. You’ve got to trick them. Call it something like the “paper reduction project” or the “cost savings experiment”. If you’re really good, make them think it’s their idea.
So, you need a plan and that plan should look a lot like a document retention / destruction policy (check out this Lawyerist guide from California attorney, Megan Zavieh). Make sure you are armed with accurate details about what you are required to keep, for how long and in what format (in other words, can you convert the paper file to digital and still comply with retention rules related to your practice / type of document). What do you keep in paper format? What can you scan and destroy? What do you just destroy? What do you send to the client for safekeeping? - Make a paradigm shift happen. Certain things just HAVE to change. First, training. Technology training has to become an unquestionable piece of law firm culture. People must understand how to use the tools they have in front of them to make this project successful. They have to be experts in Word, Acrobat and any other software implemented. The problem with NOT understanding the full potential of these tools leads to a lack of creative thinking and problem-solving.
- STOP PRINTING but buy a new printer(s). Yes, you heard me correctly. But this time buy a VERY expensive printer with VERY expensive toner. It will make you think twice about every single line of ink you use. Do you have an assistant who doesn’t care about costs? Keep supplies in your office and force them to face you every time they need more. Then, start questioning everything that is being printed. Is it being printed in order for an attorney to be able to sign it? So that we can then scan it? And then EMAIL it to the client? Every day. Some of you are doing this silly thing – sometime tens of times a day. How about this simple rule: if it came in digital it stays in digital! (look for step #11 in next week’s post for tips on digital signatures)
- Get a desktop scanner. You can certainly have large scanners peppered around the office but professional personnel should have a desktop scanner to make the scanning process convenient and easy. Give them training (step #2) and a proper place to file the scanned docs (see step #9 next week).
- Put the plan into action – assess and attack the current paper situation. Start shredding, sending and scanning with gusto! Become a paper hater.
- Convert all the paper possible to digital. Many, many and more and more companies are offering paperless statements; change subscriptions, newsletters, and reports to the digital option.
Stop printing prebills. Deliver them as PDF files and teach attorneys how to mark them up on their iPads or on their computers with Adobe Acrobat (step #2 is critical here).
Make sure your letterhead is in digital format -and stop paying for preprinted letterhead and envelopes! Your expensive new printer will print beautiful envelopes when you need them (see step #3).
Next week, on Tech Tuesday we will share steps 7 through 12 for moving your firm in a paperless – or more realistically – LESS PAPER-filled law firm!