Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/43390
promised benefits have rung true. Looking back to the 2011 Corporate Counsel survey: • 65 percent say improved remote access has been a big plus (hosted services can typically be accessed from any Web browser); • 56 percent like the simplified support (upgrades and maintenance are the vendor's problem); and • 32 percent note that they can now get by with less sophisticated hardware. Hosted services bring some significant disadvantages, too. Of respondents using these types of applications: • 65 percent point to their limited customization abilities; • 39 percent say security is a concern; and • 16 percent fret about having less control over their data. Their information, after all, now resides on someone else's equipment. The truth of the current situation is that many of the hosted services (SaaS) that law departments are using aren't full-blown cloud solutions, where data can be scattered on different servers in different, often unknown, locations. Instead, they are a more controlled — and controllable — variation. Data may still be hosted off-site and applications and equipment maintained by a vendor, but there aren't any unknowns — attorneys involved with the matter or system often specify in the engagement contract 10 Corporate Law Departments ILTA White Paper exactly where the data may be housed, accessed and backed-up. THE CLOUDS ARE ROLLING IN It's clear that as attorneys become comfortable working in a virtual environment, several trends will arise from becoming more expert in the substantive businesses that they serve. In addition, the successful attorney must become even more technology-savvy because this is the only way that he can successfully coordinate the virtual team and effectively bring to bear all of the resources to address a client's problems. As these disruptive innovations continue in the legal profession, the skills, capabilities and work approaches of attorneys and professional staff are likewise adapting. Just as pencils and carbon paper are gone, so too are techno-phobic attorneys unable (or unwilling) to use technology as a core part of their practice. Firms and departments are focused on hiring and retaining technically savvy staff with the skills needed for this new world of cloud lawyering. Such employees are in high demand and very mobile. In addition, firm structures are changing. The virtual law firm has some real staffing advantages and the traditional law firm structure will change greatly. Both firms and law departments need to re-engineer their operations to emphasize excellent process workflow, internal communications and fast, precision delivery by a small, often ad hoc, team. Information has always been power, metaphorically, but it's now king. Adapting to this new approach will only work efficiently if and when the data and documents, as well as the case management and collaborative technology, are immediately available across the Internet in a responsive, high-bandwidth technological environment. Internet technology makes the process