IT Services for Law Firms are an essential component of a well-functioning legal practice in today’s digital age.

Yet, it’s far more than just having the right hardware or software in place.

It’s about ensuring seamless integration of technology into the daily operations of the firm, facilitating increased efficiency, improved communication, and ultimately, superior service delivery to clients.

While the journey to find and implement the right IT services may be challenging, the rewards at the end of the road make it a worthy pursuit. Want to skip ahead? Check out our offering, Practice Next.

IT Services for Law Firms can be a valuable asset for you and your bottom line.

However, this necessitates that your service provider has a deep understanding of both the technological landscape and the unique demands of the legal industry, leading to the realization that finding the right IT service provider will take some dedicated effort.

Often, law firms are confronted with the daunting challenge of selecting the best IT services from a myriad of providers, each boasting different levels of expertise and a bewildering array of services. The complexity is further exacerbated by the rapidly changing nature of technology itself, with new software and hardware solutions emerging at an unprecedented pace.

Even after choosing a suitable IT service provider, there’s the uphill task of aligning their services with the firm’s specific needs and workflow. The integration of new systems can disrupt the established routines of legal professionals, requiring a great deal of patience, time, and effort. The process may involve retraining staff, modifying processes, and experiencing periods of uncertainty and reduced productivity as the firm adjusts to the new technology.

However, despite these potential hurdles, it’s worth noting that effective IT services can transform the operations of a law firm.

With patience, diligence, and the right support, law firms can harness the power of modern technology to drive their practice forward, setting the stage for success in an increasingly digital world.

This article will predominately focus on law firms of 5 to 75 total staff.

Firms smaller than this range (such as solo practices) tend to take a DIY-approach to managing their IT needs (which are minimal to begin with). Firms larger than this range begin to have some level of internal IT staff. But the 5 to 75 person range of law firms usually:

• Have a real, legitimate need for qualified IT services, and
• Are unlikely to have an in-house IT department (because the economics simply don’t make sense).

With this qualifier stated, let’s dive in.

Break-fix law firm IT is exactly what it sounds like. Something isn’t working, so you call your local IT consultant or company to fix it… and that’s virtually the only time you call an IT professional.

Firms that fall into this camp, generally:

As you can undoubtedly tell, taking a purely reactive, break-fix approach to law firm IT is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. The firm may think they’re saving money in the very near-term, but in almost every case, they’re being penny wise and pound foolish.

And honestly, most qualified, reputable IT consulting companies won’t take on clients interested in a break-fix only relationship. And it makes sense — if the law firm doesn’t take their technology seriously, why should they?

Yes, you can probably find some independent local IT consultant willing to come in as-requested, on an hourly basis. But most law firms want something closer to a gold-standard in law firm IT support (not just the cheapest guy who will take anything he can get).

The real problem, though, of break-fix IT is it lacks the preventative part of IT management. Proactive maintenance, monitoring, preventative care. Updating your systems. Testing your backups. Reviewing server logs.

So, for any readers that employ this plug-and-pray approach to law firm IT management: Please, do yourself, your firm, and your clients a favor, and consider method 2 or 3.

Next, we have managed, or proactive, law firm IT. While the particulars in this method can vary from firm-to-firm (and IT consultant to IT consultant), in general a proactive approach to Law Firm IT includes:

This approach costs more money up front, yes. Usually (with the right IT consultant) in the form of a predictable, fixed fee every month (fixed-fee, fixed-scope). But it will save you tons of headaches, drama, downtime, problems, and money over the long haul.

Trust me.

Because, fundamentally, the purpose of proactive IT care is to:

Being proactive with your law firm IT will result in:

Your goal ought to be to shift from being a firefighter, to becoming a fire marshal.

If I’ve convinced you to take a proactive, managed approach to law firm IT — we’re one step closer!

Now, be sure to find the right IT service provider.

Finally, our third method for managing law firm IT — doing it in the cloud.

Let me clarify something important.

This isn’t necessarily about replacing your firm’s server-based Practice Management or Document Management Software.

Here’s the context.

A lot of the top case management tools (along with various other software essential for legal practices) depend on server support; they need a dedicated space to operate effectively. This is a key reason why numerous law firms maintain their own servers. For a long time, if your aim were to utilize practice management software like ProLaw, PCLaw, Time Matters, Tabs3, or even Timeslips and QuickBooks, you needed a server, one way or another.

This used to mean you had to buy a server and (hopefully following method #2 above) retain a capable IT service provider to manage it for you.

Today, you have another option: A Private Cloud.

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A private cloud represents a fully hosted, secure IT infrastructure tailored for your law firm, encompassing all your software, documents, data, and sometimes even more. Software like the ones previously mentioned needs a server, and in the context of a private cloud, the cloud itself functions as this server.

Here’s the process:

In a private cloud setup, the cloud service provider constructs dedicated, private cloud servers exclusively for your law firm. They will handle the installation of your legal (and other) software, and transfer your data, documents, and sometimes even emails from your local, on-premises servers to these new cloud servers, effectively creating your own private cloud.

Choosing the right private cloud provider is crucial, as this provider should have in-depth knowledge of the software on which your firm depends.

They should be proficient in installing, supporting, optimizing, and maintaining your software to ensure it operates at its best. (Consider the times you might have encountered an IT consultant who seemed utterly perplexed when faced with an issue in your legal software.)

The responsibility for backups, maintenance, updates, and cybersecurity falls squarely on the cloud service provider. Your firm can effortlessly log in from any location, at any time, using any device, and immediately start working.

And everything just works.

Every member of your firm accesses a virtual desktop that displays in full-screen and extends across all monitors. Within this virtual desktop, you’ll discover all the necessary tools for your operation: your legal software, your file system (for example, “the S: drive”), your Office suite, Outlook email, and more.

Law Firm IT in the cloud brings the benefits of managed, proactive, IT with the added benefits of:

When it comes to managing law firm IT, the first, most important rule is to be proactive rather than reactive. This may be advice you’ve heard again and again — but in today’s day and age, there are still so many law firms that don’t practice this.

Avoid reactive, break-fix law firm IT management (what we referred to earlier as: “plug-and-pray”).

If so…

Stop.

You’re doing your employees, your clients and yourself a huge disservice. You don’t need to take a Cadillac approach to law firm IT management, but you do need to be proactive about it.

See Rule #4, below, for an overview of how to be properly proactive when managing your firm’s technology.

Warranties on servers, computers, and workstations exist for a reason.

While it’s not really a guarantee that things will go wrong after it expires, it can give you insight into what you can expect once a certain amount of time passes.

Maintaining and repairing existing servers, computers, and workstations longer than their warranty may seem like a good idea, but it can (and almost always will) cost your law firm more money in the long run. It’s another form of break-fix, reactive law firm IT management, and is simply not worth the risk.

As a rule of thumb, you should recycle equipment, especially servers, every 3 to 5 years. Any more is taking significant risks.

Similar to keeping your hardware current, you need to keep your software current — especially your critical law firm software.

This includes:

I’m not saying you need to jump on every new update or release of your practice management software the day it comes out.

But you should keep your software reasonably current, either using the latest version or one version back. At a bare minimum, make sure you’re at least on a version that the publisher still supports.

I’ve seen many law firms hesitate to spend money on their main application’s annual maintenance plan or support agreement… only to lose countless hours of their employee’s time dealing with bugs, outages, slowdowns, and other problems.

It’s important for every law firm, regardless of practice area, size, or location to proactively address their IT. The term for this is adopting Managed IT.

Managed IT is the combination of proactive and preventative care for your core IT infrastructure (server, switches, firewalls, etc.) and streamlined support for your firm’s employees when they need it (IE: an IT Help Desk).

In general, IT consultants and consulting companies fall into these categories:

Law firm IT problems are a certainty, even with new, under-warranty servers, up-to-date software, and capable Managed IT providers. And even with all the right elements in place, your IT management/support costs are difficult to predict.

Enter a Private Cloud.

A Private Cloud is a fully managed, fully hosted IT platform that will provide hosting for your critical software, your filesystem (files and folders) as well as your email and other systems. A Private cloud serves as a single, central system where all your firm’s technology lives and is maintained and is the alternative to the cycle of buying servers, repairing, replacing, and repeating.

For many law firms, a Private Cloud liberates the firm from having to think about, deal with and pay for law firm IT challenges.

With the right private cloud company, that company will be intrinsically knowledgeable about the software your firm relies on. They’ll know how to install it, support it, optimize it, and keep it running at peak performance. (Have you ever had an IT consultant give you that deer-in-the-headlights look when you present a problem within your legal software?)

The cloud service provider is responsible for all backups, maintenance, updates, and cybersecurity. Your firm simply logs in (from anywhere, anytime on any device), and gets to work.

And everything just works.

The conventional approach to IT support involved employing an in-house team. However, for smaller firms, this is often not a cost-effective strategy. While large firms may benefit from in-house IT professionals, smaller firms have alternative solutions.

Managed service providers (MSPs) are external teams offering IT support. They typically handle your law firm’s on-site servers and offer IT help desk services. Given that on-site IT infrastructure needs direct management, MSPs often provide on-site services, either on-demand or on a regular basis.

Here are several advantages of choosing an MSP (Law Firm IT Support team) instead of an in-house team:

Having worked with numerous law firms over the past decade and more, I feel it’s important to offer a word of caution to law firms currently receiving advice from a local IT firm or Managed IT provider.

Like many law firms lately, you might have shifted some or most of your software functions to web-based or cloud-based solutions. For example, you might have transitioned:

Many law firms are progressively moving each component of their technology stack to the cloud. With every step in this transition, there’s less reliance on your on-premise server.

This trend naturally leads to a point where an on-premise server becomes redundant. Once email, main software applications, and files/folders are cloud-based, there’s simply no need for on-site servers.

However, here’s a critical point.

Many local IT service providers recognize that the absence of on-site servers means significantly less work for them, which directly impacts their revenue. It’s notably cheaper to manage a law firm that doesn’t have servers and relies entirely on cloud-based tools.

Regrettably, this situation often prompts local IT support companies for law firms to assert, “You still need a server for (XYZ reason).” These stated reasons might include:

In reality, these remaining functions can be efficiently transferred to other cloud-based services (such as Microsoft Azure or Practice Next), eliminating any lingering necessity for on-premise servers. Sadly, it’s common to see local IT firms clinging to the idea of on-site servers to preserve their management fees and revenue.

So, if you’ve shifted all your data, documents, and applications to the cloud, be clear: You no longer require on-site servers, nor the continued expense of maintaining them.

Whether you have on-premise servers, manage law firm IT support with consulting resources or utilize a private cloud, you need an IT Service Provider who is available, dependable, and understands your practice.

I had you with available and dependable but shocked you with “understands your practice,” right?

No, I don’t mean your IT Service Provider should be an attorney who still practices on weekends. But your IT Service Provider should understand what separates law firms from other office-based businesses. Your IT Service Provider can better support you if they understand you and your business.

If they are expected to support your software applications (and they should be), then they should be familiar with them. Is your current law firm IT Service Provider familiar with and capable of supporting legal applications such as Time Matters, PCLaw, ProLaw or Tabs3?

Your IT service provider should not only take your direction but should be your partner in guiding your technology decisions. From helping you select the right software, to implementing that software, to managing backups, virus protection, to managing file/folder permissions and establishing secure remote access. They can’t do that if they don’t understand what it is you do.

When it comes to technology support for a law firm, it’s not just about bits and bytes. Law firms are special: They have a unique culture, unique requirements and use specialized software to manage their firms.

When selecting a IT Services for your law firm it’s important to properly vet them and do your due diligence. And, don’t forget to find out these key things that tend to get forgotten until it’s too late:

This is an area where what looked too-good-to-be-true often is.

There are always limits to what’s included in any given service, and it’s important to understand where those limits are. Determine which “gotchas” you can live with and where do you draw the line on being nickel-and-dimed.

Things to specifically look out for include:

Unless you pay your IT Partner by the billable hour (and I don’t recommend that at all), adding and removing users should be included at no additional cost.

If you are with a cloud company, they may draw the line at supporting your local equipment. Your local equipment (namely your firewall and switch) plays a huge role with how your connection to and printing from the cloud work. At a minimum some basic remote support for your local network should be included.

Sometimes, despite the best troubleshooting efforts, a server needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Though infrequent, there are a number of reasons this can happen, and it is something you should ask about.

Will your IT Partner rebuild your server(s) at no additional cost? If not—what is the fee structure?

Similar to the above question but slightly different: What about Operating System upgrades – like moving from Windows 8 to Windows 10 on your computer, server have an OS and every few years a new OS is released. This is a major project and does impact your firm. Most IT and Cloud Service Providers don’t cover this service by default (but the best ones do). You will eventually want to move to the newest OS for security reasons and for software compatibility.

When you need support, you want to make sure you are going to get it in a timely manner. Your definition of timely should align to your IT Partner’s SLA. Think of how the users of your firm will feel being told a ticket has been submitted and they’ll hear back within 24 hours – I’m betting that’s not good enough. Look for an SLA of 2 hours or less and find out if phone calls have a different SLA than emails or other methods of notifying your IT Partner of an issue.

Caution: don’t be fooled by IT or cloud providers that claim 24/7 support. More than likely there is a very low-level tech, maybe even just a receptionist, who will take your ticket and tell you someone will call you back the next day.

Ask thorough questions to understand what level of support you are truly receiving during non-peak hours.

In my experience it’s very rare that such a level of support is truly needed. It may make you and members of your firm feel secure, but it’s not likely to be something you will truly need or utilize.

Now that I’ve briefed you on what to look for in an IT Partner, let’s delve into your level of involvement in your firm’s day-to-day IT management.

The golden rule is: You should be aware of issues that are persistent, pervasive, and high impact.

Being aware of these types of issues allows you to be in the loop as to whether your IT services are truly working for your firm (or just causing headaches). You want to make sure that persistent or recurring issues are getting proper attention for full resolution and that high impact issues are resolved quickly.

Beyond that, it’s up to you and the firm whether you should be copied on every support item. Unless you are paying for IT services by the billable hour, you should allow your employees to work directly with your IT Partner to ensure they receive timely and effective support.

If you are paying for IT services by the billable hour (again, not recommended), you may want to funnel everything through you just to make sure you are aware of the potential costs involved.

Note that a billable hour model will inherently place a higher burden of basic IT support on you to save the firm money.

Law firm IT support is a two-way street, and many (if not most) IT issues can’t be resolved behind-the-scenes with no involvement from the user experiencing the issue. It’s important that users experiencing issues work with your IT Partner. This allows your IT Partner to see the issue in action which gives them more information and should lead to quicker resolution.

It’s important to provide clear information on what is happening, and which users are affected (or unaffected) by the issue.

Clear and accurate information narrows down the possible cause of the issue, leading to quicker resolution.

Periodically, your firm may need new network equipment including a firewall, wireless access point, switch, copier, or computers.

Your law firm’s IT support partner should be able to provide you consulting and advice, free of charge. Some IT providers will sell you used equipment, though you could probably find comparable pricing and better warranties by buying direct from the source.

Other times, and the best of both worlds, is when your IT partner has a relationship with a vendor and can get you discounted pricing and standard manufacturer warranties.

Moving offices can be daunting without considering the implications for your IT and employee’s ability to work during the move. If you are in the cloud, your employees should be able to work remotely while your old office is taken apart and your new office is put together – with minimal downtime!

Your cloud provider should be able to assist you with making any network updates necessary because of the move.

If you have an on-premise server, your law firm IT support partner will most likely charge a project or billable hour fee to physically take down your new equipment and reconfigure it in your new location. This can be costly and moving equipment can be risky. You should plan for at least a day of downtime, maybe more.

You should now have a better understanding of how your IT partner should work with you to support your firm and hopefully you’ve found some ways to get back more of your work time by doing less of your firm’s IT.