Understanding Methods of Establishing Electronic Client Communications

By: Dave B. Cunningham and Brad W. Robbins

Baker Robbins & Company

Communication has always been a critical element of the practice of law. Over the past few

years, the requirement for direct, immediate, inexpensive exchange of written information —

messages and documents — has become a paramount service issue for law firms and their clients.

During this time, technology related to electronic data communications has evolved and become a

viable tool to support these requirements. Unfortunately, difficulties in implementing these

capabilities in a usable and supportable manner has slowed their general acceptance. By better

understanding the alternatives available, firms can provide systems that meet their clients'

communications requirements.

Electronic communications with clients can generally be categorized into three areas

document exchange, electronic mail messages and electronic faxing. All three technologies are

growing in use and acceptance within firms, but offer enough alternatives and issues to make the

implementation of an effective system troublesome. Because the increased need for document and

electronic mail exchange is rapidly being driven by clients, this article focuses on the setup of

systems to support these two technologies.

Document Exchange through Manual File Transfers

A basic system used to transfer documents between a law firm and its clients is a PC

equipped with a modem and communication software. To work, the sending and receiving systems

must be configured to communicate with each other. This often involves a fair amount of trial and

error on both ends before the connection settings are established. Once established, transferring the

documents is a manual process; it requires a person to be involved on each side of the

communication. For this method of communication to work, not only are personnel required to be

available, they are required to be available at the same time — else there will be delays when timely

1

delivery is vital. Therefore, while this method can be quite effective for communicating with a

small number of clients, it is a less attractive solution as the number of possible client connections

increase.

As connections to more clients are needed, PC–with–modem systems become difficult to

manage as each client will probably have unique system requirements requiring different software,

different settings, and possibly different equipment at the firm to establish a connection. Further

compounding the complexity, is the ever-evolving technology and as the client's systems change, a

law firm will have to make changes to their own systems over time to maintain the ability to

connect to their clients. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, this type of system is common. It is a

relatively "low–tech" approach that does not require a substantial investment in hardware or

software.

Electronic Bulletin Boards

One step up from this level of communication is an electronic bulletin board service (BBS).

A bulletin board is simply a designated place on the firm's computer system where attorneys copy

relevant documents for their clients. To maintain security, clients only have access to their account

on the bulletin board; they cannot access the firm's computer system or the accounts of other clients.

The primary benefit to this method of communication is the ability for attorneys and clients to send

and retrieve documents at any time. The process does not need to be manually attended by

personnel on both sides of the transfer.

2

Finding a Common Ground for Electronic Communications

The industry trend of moving from centralized, proprietary systems to PC–based networks

has been a tremendous advantage in establishing communication links between lawyers and their

clients. The more open standards of PC-based networks are making the exchange of information

much easier. But even today, if a lawyer wants to use a product such as Symantec's pcAnywhere to

send a document to a client, the transaction will occur more smoothly if the receiving end also uses

pcAnywhere. The words "standards" and "open" are used frequently in the technology arena, but in

practice there are usually too many standards and not enough openness. To resolve these

incompatibilities, firms must find a "common ground" between their systems and those of its clients

to exchange information.

Electronic Mail as a Tool

The use of electronic mail (e–mail) can provide common ground. Electronic mail packages,

such as Lotus cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail or WordPerfect's Office package, are commonly used by law

firms to exchange internal messages. They can also be used to exchange messages remotely to

clients. While these brands of electronic mail software are themselves only slightly more

compatible than the previously described communications software, these incompatibilities can be

overcome through the use of gateways — software that converts data from one format to another.

For example, cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail cannot directly communicate with one another, but they

both offer gateways that allow them to exchange mail messages directly. To use this type of

communication solution, gateway software is installed on a PC that would automatically connect to

a client's system and transfer information on a periodic or as needed basis.

One tremendous advantage to this method of communicating is that messages and documents are

received in the same manner as internal e-mail messages; no additional systems must be checked.

Likewise, the client's electronic address would be shown along with the usernames of other users on

the firm's network. In effect, the transfer of a file technically would happen much the same way it

3

would with a manual file transfer, but without the need for human intervention to perform the

transfer since the file would be attached to an electronic mail message.

Public Electronic Mail Services

A gateway to a specific electronic mail package such as cc:Mail would also provide

communications with other clients who use cc:Mail, but not those who use other electronic mail

packages. To avoid installing gateways to each mail application supported by the firm's clients, the

firm could install one gateway to a national electronic mail service such as CompuServe, MCI Mail,

AT&T EasyLink or Lexis Counsel Connect. These services are computer networks that carry

messages and files between individuals in different organizations for a fee. The Internet is a

national, public network originally established to provide communication and access to research

among educational institutions and the government. This network will now carry your messages

and files at no cost (although charges are being considered), but as it is costly to have a direct

electronic mail connection and somewhat complex to initially establish the connection, it is

normally subscribed to through an intermediary service for a small connection or membership fee.

As these networks also provide other services, the selection of a service is usually based on ease of

use, access to bulletin boards and other information sources, message transfer to other services,

services used by clients and cost.

Each of these services can provide a link to any client who subscribes to a similar service.

When an individual or organization applies for connection, they are given a unique address. Using

the Internet as an example, an attorney Ken Potter at the law firm Jones & Jones may be assigned

the address KPOTTER@JONES.COM, which contains his user name, the firm's assigned name and

the extension COM to differentiate it as a company rather than an educational institution (EDU).

Once the attorney and his/her client obtain addresses, they can exchange messages and files with

each other. The only drawback to this type of service is that unless the service is integrated with the

firm's internal electronic mail the attorney will need to check a different service for client messages.

Therefore, this integration is becoming more common.

4

As a result of the charges associated with these services, a firm may find that it is more

cost–effective to establish a direct gateway connection to those clients who have the largest volume

of electronic information to share, and use public services for all others.

Electronic Document Exchange Issues

Exchanging drafts of documents with clients electronically can minimize the delivery time

and provide the client with copies of relevant documents as well as reduce the charges for facsimile

transmissions. However, firms should be aware of three issues regarding electronic document

transfers across public electronic links — document format compatibility, security and document

management. First, although electronic mail gateways and services provide the ability to exchange

word processing documents, they do not convert the document from one word processing format to

another. The firm will need to ensure their word processor has the capability to convert their

documents to the format needed by their client and read those received.

Second, a firm should investigate the security policies and system maintenance procedures

followed by public electronic mail services to ensure they provide adequate protection for the

electronic mail messages and documents that will be transmitted. In connection with this issue, it

would be a good time for the firm to review its own policies for protecting the confidentiality of

electronically transmitted information.

Third, sending documents to clients for their review and possible modification places an

additional significance on the firm's control of documents and their versions. The firm should

consider its requirements for maintaining editorial control of its work product. The ability for a

junior attorney to send a document in an editable form directly to a client carries a number of

implications which the firm must consider. While document management applications such as PC

DOCS, SoftSolutions and Saros offer exceptional management of documents used internally in the

firm, they cannot track documents sent to clients in the same manner.

Other Methods of Document Exchange

5

To address the issues of security and document control, alternatives to the use of electronic

mail for document exchange are available. Lotus Notes software has positioned itself at the

forefront of "replication" technology by providing the ability to automatically copy and update

information at several locations. Applications which take advantage of Notes provide the client the

ability to have access to the same information as the firm's attorneys. Based on the setup

determined by the firm, a collection of information (documents, notes, etc.) used by the attorneys

would be copied periodically to the client's system for their use. With electronic mail the attorney

must send a document to a client, but with a Notes–based application, the client would have the

ability to search for and retrieve documents on their own. All information is tracked and

maintained in a controlled manner, but security issues related to clients having access to so much

information must be addressed in the application design and the firm's procedures.

Establishing a Plan for Electronic Communications

If immediate access is needed to an electronic mail service, an individual account on

CompuServe or America On-Line may be considered. However, an evaluation of the best

connection method(s) for the firm as a whole should be conducted.

A first step in determining how a firm should establish an effective communications system

is to evaluate the needs and current communications technology of its clients. Clients should be

evaluated not just on their amount of business with the firm, but with their needs for electronic

communications. For example, a large litigation case may have substantial fees but benefit less

from electronic communications than a smaller contract negotiation in the Business area. In

determining client needs, be sure to note the computer systems and electronic mail gateways or

services currently being used. Compare the communication needs with the functionality and costs

of the alternative methods of providing communications. For example, sending documents across

the Internet has no direct charge, but setup may be more difficult than with MCI Mail, which does

charge for document transfers. Whichever method is selected, the use of electronic

6

communications is a valuable tool for providing effective information sharing among law firms and

their clients.

7