The Oklahoma Bar Journal December 2022

L aw P ractice T ips

What Technology Do I Need to Set Up a Solo or Small Firm Practice?

By Jim Calloway

I OFTEN CONSULT WITH lawyers setting up a new solo or small firm practice. There are many items involved in setting up any new business – like applying for an employer identification num ber (EIN) and deciding on the best entity to use for the business. But there are also aspects of setting up a law practice unique to the legal profession. The OBA Management Assistance Program maintains the Opening Your Law Practice resource at www.okbar.org/oylp and provides a day-long seminar on the subject twice a year. Our fall Opening Your Law Practice program was recorded and is available on demand at no charge (no MCLE credit) at http://bit.ly/3tpkkio. As the end of the year nears, law firms are making their plans for the next year. So in this month’s column, I decided to outline the technology tools a lawyer should consider when opening a new solo and small firm practice. HARDWARE There are many different ways to assess cost for law firm technol ogy purchases. First, there is the initial purchase price. Today that is more associated with hardware than software, as most software tools have evolved to subscription-based models.

because, like buying a car, you may be offered additional options. As for the computers required, you already know whether you are a Mac or PC user, and nothing I write here is likely to change that opinion. Reception and secretarial workstations are likely best set up with desktop computers. But for the lawyers, I strongly recommend a business-class laptop. Roughly speaking, these will be in the $1,000 to $2,000 price range. It is better to purchase one with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed than Windows Home because Pro has superior security and networking tools, including the hard drive encryption tool BitLocker. For comparison purposes, I have included a screenshot of a Dell XPS 17 laptop costing just over $2,000. A model just like this, but with Windows Home instead of Pro, costs $50 less. That is not $50 you would want to save. I would never buy a laptop with smaller than a 17-inch monitor, but that is my opinion. I also believe it is best to have at least 16GB of memory. Note the computer in the graphic has 32GB of memory. The reason a laptop is highly recommended is that sometimes you need to work from different

Everyone in the office needs a computer for their workstation. If there is more than one person in the office, the computers must be networked. Setting up a network for a small firm is not a hard task. But since it is rarely done, it is better to pay a local computer shop to set it up than try to learn how to do it yourself. That vendor will likely know things about network security you do not. But do enough research to know what you need

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL