Extranet Heaven

I have become more and more convinced each month that the law is too relatively simple things. First, you have to have a strategy based on knowledge and information. Second, you need to break that strategy down to a series of task which lead to a logical outcome in favor of your client.

I think lawyers fall down on both of these critical aspects of legal practice all too often. Granted, it is hard to focus on such issues when you are so focused on billables that you cannot remember the last non-billable conversation with your client that you had.

I think most lawyers could come up with a reasonable strategy if they put their minds to it. The missing piece of the puzzle is the breaking down of that strategy into categories, and from categories into tasks which need to be assigned and completed.

Our basecamphq.com extranet allows us to assign categories and tasks within categories. The extranet captures all information (if you wanted to capture all information) concerning the case, including notes of your conversations with everyone involved in the case (the write-board or Wiki). But, the million dollar value (for only $40 to $100 per month) is the ability to break categories or issues down by specific tasks and to assign those tasks.

I have a brain full of ideas on this task based approach to legal services which I will be posting on frequently in the future. We brought our case manager online today and have him on track to his new high tech life starting now.