BUSINESS
CAREERS
Green
Continued From Page 20
The firm also saved over 600
sheets of paper in 2009 alone by
simply setting the printers’
defaults to print double-sided.
“Not only does it save paper and
waste, it also reduces the amount
of energy that goes into printing,”
adds McLeod.
The benefit of implementing
sound environmental practices
extends beyond the firm’s bot-
tom line.
Virtual law
practice to
become norm
Virtual
Continued From Page 21
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To Mountain’s knowledge, most
Canadian law societies have yet to
consider virtual law firms.
The outlook in Mountain’s
home province recently cleared a
little. “The Ethics Committee of
the Law Society of BC concluded
in July that the procedure a law-
yer follows when drafting a will
(specifically, what meetings are
required with the client) is a stan-
dard of care issue, not an ethical
issue,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It
therefore declined to express an
opinion on the matter. This result
paves the way for virtual law prac-
tice in B.C.”
To promote the concept of vir-
tual offices, Granat created mylaw-
yer.com, where North Americans
who buy legal services can find
forms and virtual law firms. In
spite of such efforts, the concept
hasn’t caught on in Canada. Most
provinces have yet to welcome an
ABA-defined virtual law firm,
according to mylawyer.com.
Granat also recommends vir-
tual practices as extensions of
existing firms only. “It’s hard to get
work virtually when you don’t
have an established practice.”
A self-professed techie, Moun-
tain took some time to create the
“back end” of several Canadian
document assembly “widgets”
using tools from DirectLaw.com.
“Developing the decision trees that
account for people’s needs is com-
plicated,” he admits. “You have to
think about all the possibilities.”
Evolution of the client base
will tilt the playing field in favour
of elawyering—just not right
away. “People today who do wills
are 50-plus, and they (with apol-
ogies to DirectLaw’s 69-year-old
Granat) are not typically familiar
with technology,” says Mountain
of his own practice.
“People who are comfortable
with technology are the 20-some-
things who think they’re never
gonna die.” They will likely
engage lawyers in other ways
online, though. “Maybe they’ll do
incorporations online,” Mountain muses.
Meanwhile, Granat offers his
vision of elawyering’s future. Serving “canned” form creation tools to
lawyers will give way to helping
lawyers build their own document
assembly tools for their practices.
He also envisions an “ecosystem” à
la Wordpress, where developers
create applications for the platform that attorneys can plug into
their virtual setups.
Granat says: “Eventually it will
reach a tipping point where almost
all lawyers will have a secure vir-
tual presence for their clients.”
