Not so long ago, a telephone call I had with a client ended with him saying he would send me a copy of the document in question via WhatsApp. For those who, like me, have heard of WhatsApp but are not entirely sure what it is:
'WhatsApp is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS'. Essentially, it allows you to send and receive free messages, provided you have the app installed on your phone. Needless to say, as soon as I had put the phone down I hurriedly downloaded the app and created a profile. Moments later, I received the message with the document attached and was able to provide the legal advice needed.
This is just one example, and even in my wildest dreams I can't imagine the technology that we will be making use of by the end of my career. Online banking and online shopping are part of everyday life for many. Perhaps it won't be long until clients want online access to the deeds and documents we store for them, and the advice we give them.
The digital age
But we must also recognise that not all of our clients live in the digital age. This is never more true than when practising as a private client lawyer – a significant number of my clients are in their later years. Many of these clients do not use email, let alone follow the latest crazes in social media. For them, it is important that we continue to send and receive letters and send payments by cheque. They must not be left behind in all of the excitement created by this brave new world. Yet, whether you are acting for an OAP or a technology driven entrepreneur, there is still nothing that beats picking up the phone to speak to clients or getting out of the office to meet them face to face. This is likely to remain a constant truth while all else changes.
It is, however, not just the way our clients work which is changing. The way we work is changing too. There continues to be a drive for paperless offices. Not an easy feat for paper-loving lawyers, especially private client practitioners, who are often found with their heads in dusty old settlement deeds or sets of plans. But firms are making progress: some are even intercepting incoming mail in the early hours of the morning so that it can be scanned off-site before being delivered to fee earners' inboxes in time for their arrival at the office.
That is, if they even come into the office. Flexible working hours and working from home are becoming more commonplace. One firm has gone as far as saying that fee earners can work as many or as few days as they like, take as much holiday as they want and work from wherever they want, provided, of course, that clients are not affected. Another is giving its employees the chance to buy pre-fitted offices to install in their gardens so that they can work from home.
The sceptics say that these changes are motivated by a desire to save on office space, or are simply a publicity stunt, but whatever the reasons, it is clear that these policies and others like them are changing the way we work. What will not change is the importance of getting the job done to the satisfaction of the client. But where and how that is achieved is becoming less significant.
Previously published in www.solicitorsjournal.com – December 2014
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