Paper Tiger: The Best Way to Start Scanning Your Document


If you ever want to stop practicing law, and become a business management consultant, here’s how you do it: When lawyers ask you about going paperless, recommend the Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500.  It is, hands-down, the best scanner for law firms on the market; and, in over a decade of consulting work, I’ve never had a single complaint about it.  It’s fast, it’s wireless, it works on both PCs and Macs, it’s portable and it comes with PDF conversion software.  This version of the ScanSnap is under $500, and you can usually find discounts online, at sites like New Egg.  If you want to go paperless, but have been stymied by figuring out what hardware you need to get started, now you’ve got your answer.



This is not a product pitch, and I’ve never received a penny from Fujistu -- it’s just my opinion, backed by long experience.  However, if you find that the ScanSnap ix500 does not suit your needs, there are other versions of the ScanSnap available, including some smaller ones.  The ScanSnap is a great personal scanner, but if you have a bigger office, you might prefer a large scanner/copier for use by your entire team -- even if some folks have personal scanners for travel or appointments.  Among the other companies that sell business class scanners, Canon offers some excellent options, and Brother has traditionally been a source of relatively inexpensive, high yield devices.

But, whatever scanner you choose, get one, get scanning, and begin to derive the benefits of a paperless law practice.

. . .

Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia’s Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors Bar Association members now have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discounted rate.  To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top Shelf: How to Maximize Lawyer Staff in a Modern Law Firm

Image
Broadly speaking, lawyers take on too much.  You know: at work, emotionally.  They’re probably also trying to carry too many grocery bags into the house at one time.  You know how it is.     This, of course, leads to a whole host of problems, including that attorneys have higher incidences of alcohol and drug dependence, as well as depression, than does the general population .  Maybe you already knew that.  But, the fact is that this also has a direct effect on how much a lawyer can make. Hear me out: Because lawyers try to do everything, and to do everything perfectly, they’re also more prone than the general population to take on more work than they need to.  For example, they’re unwilling to delegate, including to paralegal and administrative staff, but also to other attorneys.  That means that lawyers end up being chief cook and bottlewasher, rather than focusing on the high-end work (strategy , client engagement), that they get paid th...
Read more

Transfer Portal: Sharing Files Securely is a Piece of Cake Now

Image
If you’re still sharing files with clients, referral sources and other attorneys, via email attachment – or, heaven forfend: fax! – you need to step up your game .  Email is an inherently unsecure technology; so, if you’re sending confidential information via email, you need to secure that information, by encrypting it – at the document level, or at the system level .  But, that takes additional time and effort, and cost s more.   Instead, why not share confidential information through a secure , encrypted platform, th rough which the person who is to receive the information logs into, thereby bypassing the email problem, where that information passes through several servers (some of which may be unencrypted), before reach ing its final destination .  With a client portal, your document stays where it is (safely encrypted), and your recipient comes in to get it.     Now, you can share files and documents via document storage programs in this fashi...
Read more

Hiring Percentage: What is the Law Firm Hit Rate for Bringing on Staff?

Image
Some lawyer s get burned hiring staff, whether it’s legal assistant s , paralegals or other attorneys .  But, just because you miss out once, in trying to hire somebody, doesn’t mean you should give up forever .  There are distinct advantages to bring ing on employees, including increased control over work product + improved revenue generation models.   In my experience, I’ve found that law firms connect on a successful hire (across all employee categories) about 40% of the time .  That may seem like a low number , but it represents about a 50% hit rate, meaning that every other hire should yield a viable staffperson , who’ll stay on between 3-5 years – which is not too bad, in the modern economy.     Putting that into baseball terms, which folks often do when trying to rationalize failure : your hiring batting average as a law firm, is about equivalent to Ted Williams’ 1941 season , when he was the last baseball player to hit .400 over a full seas...
Read more