Maine Law Practice Management

The cool thing about working in 202 4 , is that everybody has more flexibility than ever before -- especially about where they want to work .  That’s awesome; and, that’s as it always should have been .  And, it’s also true for business owners, who should no longer feel compelled by client per ception to work in a downtown office .  And, lawyers: most of your clients, too, are working from home .  They get it .  Literally everyone gets it.     But, if you never leave your house, you might wake up one day with Cheetos dust covering your lips, and wondering what happened to Tuesday .  (In this hypothetical, it’s Friday.)  Human contact is still a good thing .  And, with respect to managing a law firm, contact with other attorneys can be essential for building a viable referral network.   So, even if you don’t want a traditional office space – and, honestly: why would you? – you can opt for an office share, potential...

It’s 202 4 , and everybody is still kind of bad with passwords.  Many passwords, in fact, still contain the word . . . password .  That can’t be good.     However, there are three simple moves that you can make to ensure that your passwords are more impressive, and difficult to hack .  That will, in turn, better secure the systems that you are using passwords to protect – which, at this juncture , are pretty much all your systems.   Step one, is to generate stronger passwords .  You can try passphrases .  You can use a password management tool, that will generate more secure passwords for you, so you don’t have to .  And, you can ensure that you’re not using the same password across multiple programs, which is dangerous, because if one gets hacked – they all get hacked.     Step two, is to lean into password managers .  Not only can those systems generate strong passwords for you, you can also use these tools to mana...

Every law firm owner is aware that outside actors can breach data, and cause a host of problems.  Hackers are the bogeyman, in this situation .  And so, much concern is spent over password management , encryption and email scams , including ransomware and phishing.     But, to have a truly effective data security program, law firms also need to consider the access that internal staff enjoys .  An under - covered segment of most data protection laws is that those laws also require that internal users only have access to the data that they need to have access to to perform their jobs.     So, ask yourself: Does your paralegal need access to your financial data ?  Must your bookkeeper have full access to your case files ?  For screening purposes, should certain lawyers be barred from viewing certain case files?   That’s just a smattering of potential queries you could make, but the overarching idea is that you should look at each person...