Technology eReport Newsletter | ABA General Practice, Solo & By Kevin Chern Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a hot topic of conversation right now, as thought leaders in various industries debate the risks and benefits of moving computing into the cloud, but the arguments are largely academic. SaaS is here to stay. In fact, by the time the buzz over cloud computing really got rolling, most of us were already using it in some form or another, usually without having given much thought to the larger issues. One obvious example is the range of services offered by Google. While it may still be search that springs to mind at the mention of Google, tens of millions of Gmail accounts operate in the cloud.
Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and others operate similarly. Early Gmail users were motivated, to a great degree, by the large amount of free storage space, but that was only the beginning. Where SaaS Ends and TES Begins But SaaS is more of a launch point than an end result. The TES Difference Putting People in the Cloud TES for the Law Firm Client. Economy Pinches the Billable Hour at Law Firms. HOW TO; Bill 25 Hours in One Day. The lawyer's billable hour, like the quark or the gluon, is a convenient fiction. Its measurement varies from observer to observer and depends upon position. Take, for example, the one-minute phone call. Because many law firms bill in minimum quarter-hour increments, those 60 seconds are magically transmogrified into 15 billable minutes.
Or take two hours of research spent on Client A's legal problem, which turns out to be the same as Client B's problem. Through a process of legal alchemy known as double billing, lawyers can make two into four. While double billing is condemned by the American Bar Association, lawyers are not bound by A.B.A. rulings, and are free to bill both clients for the same work. 0.25 hr. Drawing (Kaz) Absurdities of the Billable Hour | Law Shucks. JD Supra | Legal Documents, Legal Forms, Court Filings, Articles. Comparing the Cost of SaaS LPM Tools to Conventional: The Metric. So, how many of you maintain a law library in your practice?
You know, the digests and volumes of caselaw and annotated statutory codes with the annual pocket parts that always slip out and of course, those loose-leaf reporters where you need to unscrew the metal binder clasp with a coin, then fumble around to slip dozens of flimsy sheets off of the metal stem and insert the updated replacements. Probably not many. My guess is that rather than buy all of those books and own them outright without any further costs (except de minimis updating fees), instead, you fork out anywhere between $30 and $300/month for commercial legal research services so that you can access a library online. But horrors! Doesn’t that mean that over a lifetime of use, you’ll wind up paying far more for legal research – thousands and thousands of dollars – than you would if you invested in a good set of law books?