Collaboration Tools for Law Firms

In general, law firm practice and services are facing a big challenge when they start to think about the assumption of the collaboration tools to utilize. Latest methods for delivering such service have resulted in coining new terms such as Electronic Discovery 2.0, Law 2.0 and the Web 2.0. These are important terms that indicates new processes being innovated and used for the deliverance of legal services that takes advantage of today’s information technology and modern telecommunication.

To equip lawyers with collaboration tools means to eliminate geographic barriers which enable them to effectively represent their clients’ case wherever they maybe. Technology has led to the transition of law firms into today’s virtual law firms:

• IM (Instant Messaging) – an online form of real-time communication that is text-based.
• Internet Fax – allows the sending and receiving of faxes via the internet.
• Intranet – an internal website for an organization that used for secure sharing of private information.
• KMS (Knowledge Management System) – an IT (Information Technology) based system used by different companies for capturing, creating, distributing, sharing or storing of information.
• Open-Source Software – software or an application that are available at no cost to any business.
• P2P (Peer to Peer) Network – a network of computers that are connected directly to the internet. This eliminates the requirements of web servers or web host to access the internet.
• Packet Sniffer – software utility used for the purpose of capturing, intercepting or logging of data on a network.
• PBX (Private Branch eXchange) – phone system for serving the communication requirements of a business.
• Social Networking – web services that allow the creation of an online community profile in order to make friends, promotion, share information or to socialize. Among the popular social networking sites are Facebook and Twitter.
• SQL (Structured Query Language) – programming language used for modifying, managing or querying of information on a database. Popular free SQL are MySQL and PostgreSQL.
• SSL (Secure Socket Layers) – protocol that provides secure communication over the network.
• Virtual Phone Extension – phone system feature that allows an extension to be assigned to any number.
• VNC (Virtual Network Computing) – graphical system for remotely sharing the computer desktop through the internet or network.
• VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) – a protocol that transmit voice via the internet.