Virtual Law Firms v. Face-to-Face Collaboration
Yesterday's online version of the Washington Post contains an interest article, Recession Sends Lawyers Home, that discusses the growing number of virtual law firms. The article discusses Virtual Law Partners and others. One of my partners wondered whether our true competition would come from virtual firms rather than BigLaw.
It's interesting to note that Virtual Law Partners does not list litigation as one of their practice areas, and I don't think that's an accident. When done best, litigation is a very collaborative process. It is much easier to collaborate effectively when you see people and can talk together in war rooms, collaboration rooms, or wherever, without trying to multitask because an email came in while on a conference call. The ability to run into someone's office to say, "hey, I just had this really cool idea. What do you think about this?" and be told on the spot that you're a genius or an idiot, or more likely that with some tweaking, there might be something there is worth its weight in gold.
Let me offer this insight. My partner Mark travels back and forth between our office and Los Angeles a great deal. Our collaboration is much more effective and in-depth when he's here than when he's not. So, for what it's worth, my answer to my partner's thought is that I'm not yet persuaded that virtual lawyering is our greatest threat. But I'm open to being persuaded.