Technology puts attorneys on fast track

While there are many trends in the legal profession, one of the most significant factors of change is technology.

"Technology shrinks time frames," said Michael Stoffregen, associate attorney with Neale & Newman LLP. "What it's done is it's increased pressure to do things quickly because we have become accustomed as a society to almost a vending-machine mentality ... With e-mail you can negotiate documents and transmit revised drafts instantaneously almost."

That's good news for clients, but developments like fax ma-chines, e-mail, voice mail and cellular phones have forced lawyers to become much more efficient in order to keep up.

Springfield attorney Rick Van Pelt, who specializes in divorce and family law at Van Pelt & Van Pelt Attorneys at Law, and who has been practicing law since 1983, said after a half a day in court, he'll return to the office to find two to five faxes awaiting him, most of which require action.

"It really makes organization that much more important," he said, "because there is definitely a lot more information coming in and a lot more requests for service."

Client expectations in regard to reaction time for production of documents is greater than it was when Van Pelt began practicing law nearly two decades ago, and he attributes that to technology.

"We always try to define what those expectations are or give a time frame within which we'll be able to accomplish a certain task, but in every facet of life, the speed of the transfer of information has increased ... and that impacts on us," he said.

Said Stoffregen: "If somebody is immediately accessible via cell phone, the expectation is that the turnaround is going to be quicker." That puts more pressure on to get the product out faster, he said, "and that is a big impact in a profession where there's zero tolerance for defect." He believes the attorneys that do a good job managing the increased resources are the ones that will be the most successful in the future.

Clients benefit from the ability to prepare documents more quickly, said Crista Hogan Shuler, executive director of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association. "Attorneys used to spend a lot of time drafting documents," she said. "Now they spend a lot more time reviewing, and, conceivably, if an attorney can spend more time just going over and over a document-making certain it suits a client instead of spending a lot of time in the drafting process, I think you end up with a better product."

Another trend in the legal profession is the ability to file online. Some courts have begun using automated filing particularly federal court and courts in Kan-sas City and St. Louis and Van Pelt predicts more courts will do the same.

Shuler believes the advances in technology have made it easier for smaller practitioners to compete with large firms. "They don't need all the support staff that they may once have needed in order to do their job," Shuler said.

But those advancements also have made it increasingly important for attorneys to stay current with technology and businesses practices, "and it's a challenge because things are moving so quickly."

Van Pelt sees technology continuing to evolve and having even more of an impact in the future. When he began practicing law, computers weren't widely used. It took one to two weeks then to accomplish work that today takes only a day.

"The next 10 to 15 years will be interesting," he said, "in that I'm quite certain that technology will continue to develop so that we'll be able to do things better and more rapidly in the future."

New firms arriving

Another trend that seems to be continuing is the arrival of more firms from places like Kansas City and St. Louis into Springfield. Van Pelt attributes the increase to the fact that Springfield is a growing, dynamic business community.

"I think it's been considered by a lot of firms in Kansas City and St. Louis to have a lot of potential for clients," Van Pelt said. But firms that come in from out of the area find that there's "quite a bit of loyalty to the attorney/client relationships that have existed for awhile."

Van Pelt believes that's one reason why there have been not just firms from Missouri's larger cities moving in, but either mergers with existing companies in Springfield or the hiring of several local lawyers within those new companies. "I think they've learned that just coming here without that kind of person-to-person connection is probably not sufficient to develop the business they'd like to in this area," he said.

Another trend is larger companies breaking into smaller groups. Shuler said that's probably due to lawyers wanting to practice in a specific area of law.

Van Pelt believes specialization is the best course for a lawyer today "simply because many areas of law have gotten so complex that it's hard to practice as a general practitioner in all areas ... I feel it's better to pursue a few limited areas and gain all the knowledge and expertise in those areas you can, and I think we're seeing more and more of that," he said.