Building upon the innovations of yesterday’s and today’s law firm

By Olivia Clarke

When Gary Ropski started practicing law in the mid-’70s, his firm’s documents were typed on IBM Selectric typewriters.

The typewriters’ memory cards could remember maybe a paragraph of information and the signature, he said.

In the ’80s, his firm, which is today Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, became one of the first Chicago firms to give every attorney a computer.

But these computers did not have hard drives or operating systems, and did not connect with other computers. After he typed a document, his secretary needed to retype it because their computers weren’t electronically connected.

Times are different today. When Ropski takes a business trip to Japan, he can open his laptop computer and access his office phone, his e-mail, and the Internet from his hotel room. He can participate in a firm meeting on his computer, and research patents or court cases online from across the world. He is able to access documents located in his office’s files.

“It permits me to provide good client service no matter where I am, no matter what time of day it is,” said Ropski, president of Brinks. “I can be in touch with my clients and colleagues … That permits us to be much more responsive, sometimes much more efficient, and get better, quicker results for clients.

“I literally have a virtual office no matter where I am working.”

Law firms face new horizons due to innovation, whether it’s improvements in technology, updates in philosophies, or changes in management principles. Today’s innovations help lawyers practice law at a quicker pace, and manage their growing firms in new and different ways.

Technology tops most lawyers’ lists when they describe innovations in their law practices, but they also recognize that significant advancement has occurred in firm policies and in the management of their offices.

“A lot of lawyers who practiced a long time ago like to be nostalgic of the good old days when you had lots of turnaround time on drafts of documents,” said Richard Kohn, a senior partner and founder of Goldberg Kohn. “But I think in many ways the new technology is quite exciting.

“One can only imagine what technology will be like 100 years from now, and how it will transform the practice of law again.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5