Web Collaboration Products - A Technology With Great Potential For The Legal Community
Diane Pettus interviews Lee Rosen

Web Collaboration Tools allow lawyers to conduct meetings over the Internet. With the technology’s capabilities, users have the option of controlling each other’s computer screens, conducting online chat, and/or communicating by voice and video. Those invited to “attend” an online meeting do not need special hardware or software to participate, just an Internet connection and web browser. The application used (usually a small Java applet) is installed when logging onto the engagement.

The Rosen Law Firm, a divorce law practice that is based in Raleigh, has put web collaboration tools to the test and yielded great results for its lawyers and clients. In this interview, principal Lee Rosen discusses the value of web collaboration technology within the legal community.

DP: Can you give me some examples of when web collaboration has come in useful for your firm?

Rosen: Here are several typical examples from our office.

It’s time to review a document with a client, and the client can’t make it in to the office. Instead of a telephone conversation filled with “now turn to page 6, paragraph 7…then flip over to page 7, paragraph 12, fourth line down…", we have a web meeting.

Three folks in the office need a lesson on using our new child support calculator software. Instead of crowding them around a single computer screen, knowing they can't really see the screen, we meet on the web to have a lesson, with each person sitting before his/her own monitor.

We are having a problem with our computer and want to show it to our computer consultant while the problem is happening. Instead of leaving the screen right where it is, unusable, while waiting for the consultant to arrive, we collaborate over the web on pinpointing the problem.

DP: Is there more than one web collaboration product to choose from?

Rosen: When shopping for the product we use, our lawyers reviewed a number of available web collaboration tools, including PlaceWare (www.placeware.com), Webex (www.webex.com) and WebDemo (www.linktivity.com). Microsoft also offers a free program called NetMeeting, which has limited features. After a lot of testing, our firm settled on WebDemo by Linktivity.

DP: What about cost?

Rosen: Web conferencing products come in a number of different variations. Some products require the purchase of a server and licenses for each user, as is the case for WebDemo. Our software and hardware combination cost around $3,000. Some products lease time on the server, and users pay by the meeting or by the minute. Typical pay per meeting rates run about $.40 per minute, per user. Some products, such as the Microsoft NetMeeting product, offer limited functionality but are peer-to-peer products that do not require a server or hosting.

DP: You overviewed three typical uses for a web collaboration tool. Can you expand your description of how you interact with a Rosen client using WebDemo?

Rosen: When an initial draft of a settlement document is finished, and it’s time to review it with the client, our attorney often sets up a web conference. The attorney logs onto the WebDemo server and enters the information needed to hold a meeting, which includes basic information such as the email address of the attendees and the time and date of the meeting. WebDemo automatically sends an email to the invitees containing a hypertext link that, when clicked, takes the user directly into the meeting by opening a web browser window on his or her desktop.

Once all users have arrived, the meeting host clicks a button on the control panel, which allows the host to draw a window on the desktop. This new window serves as a viewing port allowing the invitees to see the host’s computer screen. Anything the host places in the new window, which is done by dragging and dropping, becomes visible to all of the meeting attendees through their web browser. In this case scenario, our lawyer would open the word processor, load the settlement document, and our client would then view the document through his or her web browser.

As the attorney scrolls through the document, the attendees can discuss it in one of three ways: over the telephone, as voice chat over the Internet, or through instant messenger text chat. Our lawyer can highlight document sections and make changes as the client provides input.

DP: How do your clients respond to this technology?

Rosen: Our lawyers are finding that their “ web” meetings are easier, more accessible, and more comfortable to our clients, because no one has had to drive across town only to sit crowded over a shared document. Without the time spent driving, an hour meeting is actually an hour of our client’s time, and he or she is able to get back to work and on with his life.

DP: I’ve heard that web collaboration technologies are increasingly being used in different training scenarios. Does Rosen do much employee training with WebDemo?

Rosen: A recent training session at our office involved one trainer and four lawyers, each sitting at his or her respective workstations. The trainer used our PC based phone system to conference in all of the lawyers. He then hosted a WebDemo meeting and trained the lawyers on Adobe Acrobat’s key document organization features. Our four lawyers sat back and watched as the trainer demonstrated feature after feature on their computer screens, and they listened as the trainer explained each aspect of the system over the conference call. Comprehensive training was completed in less than an hour. Before our use of Web Demo, the same trainer would have moved from individual user to individual user. The training would have taken much longer, with probably less retention of the material.

DP: What do you see as the future of web collaboration technology?

Rosen: The list of uses is practically limitless. How about conducting a WebDemo settlement conference? All of the lawyers and parties log into the meeting. Each party shows the documents that need to be explained by passing “control” of the meeting from one party to the next. As each party takes control, he or she opens a ViewPort and shows the relevant documents to the other attendees. Spreadsheets can be shared along with the supporting documents and, if progress is made, the settlement document is drafted with everyone watching as the document assembly engine cranks out the agreement. Each user is free to use his or her computer to continue working, and only a single window of their internet browser is occupied by the meeting. An attorney might even host a second WebDemo meeting, on the side, between the attorney and the client, so that they can simultaneously share documents and discussion in privacy with the first meeting.

Lee Rosen is a Board Certified Family Law Specialist practicing in Raleigh, North Carolina. Visit his web site at NCdivorce.com

About Linktivity
Linktivity, a 20 year-old Tucson, Arizona-based division of Converging Technologies Inc., provides server-based communications and control products that enable person-to-person interactions through a browser window. Linktivity products include WebDemo, a Web-based, real-time conferencing and collaboration software tool, and WebInteractive, a real-time software tool that gives support professionals an efficient way to manage and resolve online support requirements for personal computers. For more information, please visit www.linktivity.com.

About ATX
Since 1992, ATX, has pioneered a leading tax software that is easy to use and is sold at a competitive price. The company offers unparalleled tax season support with over 40,000 tax professionals now using ATX tax software. In 1998, the firm moved its headquarters to Caribou, Maine from upstate New York, and the company opened a facility in Fort Pierce, Florida. For more information please visit www.atxinc.com.