these law firms have shareholder relationships to maintain.
It must be a touch frustrating if this investment goes unappreciated, as
employees look to use their own applications to carry out work and small communications with their clients. “Law firms are more agile now, which means the security level is often heightened because of the trends that come and go and affect the way you authenticate users,” said Whiter. “Shadow IT is a problem at the moment with WhatsApp being so prevalent. “After the pandemic, employees don’t care what device they are on, they just want to get access to documents securely. So there has been a shift to become slightly more open if you like less secure, which has raised questions about how law firms secure their data.” Here to Stay Unfortunately for law firms, working from home looks set to stay, even if it is only two days a week. As a result, a hurdle all of us have had to overcome is that of trust. Having faith in a lawyer’s ability to do their work may be a simple task, but the nature of the law industry and how clients pay for services means that firms need to trust lawyers to accurately track how long they have been working on behalf of each client. “When it comes down to things like the timing, lawyers almost have to hit the clock when they start working on a matter and then stop the clock when they stop working on it,” said Foster. “Even if it’s working at home. “This information has to be tracked because it’s all billable hours, and legal companies need to know that their employees aren’t just sitting there or out walking their dog, because they can no longer trust the work hours that a laptop is reporting.” The solution though, as Foster adds, lies in
Raquel Gomes Founder & CEO
getstafi.com
them when needed, which might mean making sure they can access the company systems or databases securely, as well as the proper use of communication tools like messaging or video conferencing apps.” Remote Investment Gomes also went on to say that “a reliable internet connection is crucial for efficient remote work” adding further necessity to investing in better technology in order to enable employees to work from home. These investments primarily revolve around security, but also aim to ensure that employees can continue to work together in their day-to-day duties securely, as Drennan explains. “Many legal services firms have stepped up to protect both work-from-home employees and their clients by making changes to online security throughout the organisation. Adopting the use of secure technologies such as VPNs for employees to log in and work on collaborative documents only on the company servers is one way that firms are adapting.” Robert Fakhouri, a practising Trial Attorney at The Fakhouri Firm, LLC agreed, adding “In my office specifically, we have adapted to an entirely virtual environment despite maintaining a hybrid work environment of working from home and from the office. “Our legal software provides remote access through a VPN system that provides top-of- the-line cyber security and the ability to work from anywhere in the world.” Tech modernisation projects can become a sizable investment, and at the end of the day,
Robert Fakhouri Practising Trial Attorney
fakhourilaw.com
Tech modernisation projects can become a sizable investment, and at the end of the day, these
law firms have shareholder relationships to maintain.
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