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Easy chair rider: take the technology you have, tune it up, add on some parts, and you'll have a streamlined practice you can run anyplace, even from the comfort of home.

Article Excerpt
You bought a computer to keep up with the practice of law, but you've become set in your ways, doing the same things you learned on the first day of the Information Age. Upgrading your memory doesn't necessarily mean adding to your computer circuitry--it can also mean learning how to do new things with what you have. Just as new styles and fabrics made office-appropriate footwear more comfortable, new attitudes and software can make your practice smarter, yet more relaxed.

Your PC probably came loaded with Windows and either Microsoft's Office or Corel's WordPerfect Office suite, both of which contain word processor, spreadsheet, contact-management, and presentation programs. You have an e-mail program that you're comfortable using. You've even connected several computers on a local area network (LAN) in your firm. Besides your copier, fax machine, and printer, you may also have a laptop, cell phone, and personal digital assistant (PDA) for working when you're out of the office.

Congratulations. You have the technology. Now get a competent computer consultant familiar with the needs of the legal profession to advise you as you take the next steps.

A few basic hardware upgrades may be worth considering.

A powerful laptop. You bought your first laptop to take a few notes and read that backlog of e-mail on the plane. But these computers are now capable of standing in for your office desktop model, so if you want to work productively, invest in a newer version with at least 256 MB of RAM, a 750 MHz processor, and at least 12 GB of hard-drive storage. Also spring for a full-size keyboard, a modem card for using the Internet, and an Ethernet card (if this is the type of network your computers use) or a docking station that will let you access your office system.

Double-duty office machines. At a minimum, get a scanner or printer that handles both black and white and color images, but do your research to make sure that it doesn't require exorbitantly priced toner cartridges. Some sole practitioners are trying out new copier/fax/printer/scanner combinations, since one machine is cheaper to maintain than three or four. Quiz other lawyers about how well their machines' various functions work; depending on the volume of your practice, the machine may not be able to keep up. And bear in mind that a flat-bed surface on which to lay documents, rather than just a feeder, makes almost every task easier.

The digital copier is winning some law-office converts, who say it makes better copies than photocopiers, runs more quietly, needs less maintenance, and includes a scanner. Hook one of these machines to your computer network, and you can print to the copier from any workstation--and make multiple copies that are automatically collated and stapled. The feeder may scan quickly, but image processing can take several minutes, and transferring a scanned image into the program on your computer where you want it saved may involve a few steps. If that program's format is proprietary, it may not accept images imported from the digital copier, so check compatibility before you buy.

A new "toy." A fairly inexpensive toy might be a digital camera or a cell phone with Internet access. Puttering around with the technology is the best way to learn what works and doesn't work for you--and you'll conquer your fear of playing with the bigger "toys."

Regular backup. Now you need to learn to take care of your electronic files by backing up your data. Just do it. It can be painful and slow, like a five-mile training run on a cold rainy morning, but you'll be glad you did it when one day you have to face a mugging, theft, fire, or other natural disaster. These can rob you of all the information you have so carefully assembled. Formulating a disaster-relief plan--and testing it to ensure it's reliable if you ever need it--is the first stage of technological maturity.

Some lawyers back up their data to CD-ROMs, but those provide limited storage space. Most users prefer to back up their office computers on an external hard drive, which costs only about $200 and can be taken off-site each night. Set your backup program (like the one provided with Windows 2000) to back up your important data--such as files you use...

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