In recent blog posts, we have looked at some of the different ways lawyers and attorneys can use SaaS or practice management solutions in the cloud, as well as some of the benefits associated with SaaS practice management solutions.
While the benefits certainly outweigh the challenges associated with cloud and SaaS legal solutions, it is important to be cognizant of some of the challenges they may present. By doing this you will be sure to pick the appropriate solutions that address these challenges.
Ethics & Security Concerns
It’s no secret that as an attorney you are constantly dealing with clients’ personal information. Some of that information can be extremely sensitive. Most states mandate “Reasonable Care” be shown when utilizing legal cloud solutions and handling your client’s sensitive information. Practice management solutions like CosmoLex take great pride in the high level of security it offers.
Lack of Control
Legal solutions in the cloud are owned and maintained by the software provider, because of this the perception is that there is a lack of control for the firms who use these systems. This isn’t exactly the case though. For example, CosmoLex allows you to set permissions and access on a user to user basis, which keeps the control in the hands of the leaders at your firm.
Data Loss
When you run a firm, your data is incredibly important. This goes beyond just client information. All your financial records must be properly maintained and recorded. When you use on-prem legal software it’s your responsibility to back up all of your data so that in the event of a system crash you will hold on to all of that data. Naturally, firms become concerned that if their data is hosted elsewhere it may not be backed up. The truth is any cloud provider worth its salt will backup all of your firm’s data.
Data Migrations
For any law firm who has looked to migrate their data from one system to another, they probably have a horror story to tell you, especially if they were dealing with their accounting data. While this is a challenge of migrating to legal solutions in the cloud, it’s only a challenge if you utilize a system that hasn’t created a solutions to overcome this challenge. With CosmoLex your firm can easily import all of its accounting data by simply importing electronic statements.
So while there may be some challenges of moving your firm into the cloud most of them can be met by working with the right provider of legal solutions in the cloud.
