This year's TECHxpo kicked off with a candid and encouraging talk from the OBA's Innovator in Residence, Peter Aprile, who said, he doesn't see himself as an expert in legal technology, but rather an explorer. He wants more exploration to increase the quality of legal work and create an empowered environment with huge rewards. The message was clear: who wouldn't want these results, and we can all explore, either one small step at a time or in a few leaps, you choose. Either way, the risks involved in technology implementation are usually worth it for the potential increase in fulfillment, income and access to legal services for our clients.
In fact, a basic techno-literacy, is not just a benefit, it had become necessity, and that baseline of knowledge seems to be constantly changing. Many clients are taking note of technological competence. For example, higher level of knowledge in Word (use of hyperlinks, styles, multilevel paragraph number, AutoText) can mean you are billing your client two hours instead of double that or more.
The OBA's TECHxpo is a yearly all-day conference that's here to help us all improve our knowledge and perhaps play a bit with the new tech toys out there (for the slightly nerdy like me). This year's theme was "Optimizing Your Practice." It covered a wide range of topics, including using Word and Adobe as the powerhouses that they are, understanding the cloud, going paperless and staying paperless, automating client intake and document generation, finding the right research platforms, using Evernote, and lots more.
With so much information provided, all in an effort to democratize tech talk, where does one start? Here are a few suggestions:
- If you don't yet have a cloud practice management system, check out the online discussion comparing Clio to Cosmolex. Practice management technology is the heart of most law firms, so finding the right one for you is crucial to peace of mind. Cosmolex, which entered the Canadian marketplace a little over a year ago, offers compliance with trust accounting requirements. Clio has integrations with many apps such as Lexicata, which Clio recently acquired. They are both fantastic systems, and which system you choose, whether one of these or one or the many others on the market, will depend on your particular needs.
- Watch the online discussion on using the full potential of Word and Adobe. "But I've already spent so much more than 10,000 hours on Word, and 10,000 hours makes an expert," you might say. Speaker Barron Henley quickly shows us there's much more to learn, since Word is quite complex with lots of hidden tools. He provides some excellent tips to speed up drafting and avoid repetition.
- Keep your information secure by listening to what tech companies know about you, and get some tips about crossing the border with your cell phone and laptop.
If you're interested in more advanced options, check out my discussion on automation, which includes automation of client intake, tasks, and documents. I'm not exaggerating when I say possibilities here are sometimes quite surprising and definitively inspiring.
Remember, leveraging technology is not a one-time project. It's a journey, so just take the first step and see where the exploration takes you.
TECHxpo 2018 is available online on-demand on the OBA's website.
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