Vickie Adair is the senior technical writer at Media A-Team (http://www.mediaateam.com ) and also publishes as a freelance writer.

Technology will eventually change the way all businesses do business, even law firms.  Lawyers today frequently use the term “virtual lawyer” to refer to lawyers meeting each other in cyberspace, accessing resources and information over the internet, and emailing clients from their vacation resort.  I did a lot of research and found only one lawyer, other than Marc Krasney, who claims the title “virtual lawyer.”  And, that lawyer claimed to have world’s only true “virtual lawyer” practice.  Here’s how her “practice” works: she offers one year contracts at $1000 a month for 10 hours a month of online legal advice. Gee, she works from home over the internet giving advice, and she never has to see any clients.

But for Marc Krasney, Houston’s and probably the world’s only real virtual lawyer, the term means something totally different; what I call his “law firm of the future” comes complete with office, but you don’t have to go there, and you don’t get stuck with “online advice.”  What Marc does offer is flat fee billing, beginning at only $300 a month, with no hour limit so far, which includes real time video visits between lawyer and client via Phonoscope’s video unit and the personal service of a top lawyer with eight years in-house and litigation experience.

“I believe in giving people the best possible service at the best possible price,” Marc said when asked about his business philosophy and how that tied in with his extraordinary business plan. “I really like helping people, and one of my strong points is helping small businesses, usually with less than ten employees, by becoming part of the company’s management team and assisting in that company’s growth. These are companies that can have difficulty budgeting for unpredictable hourly legal costs.” 

Often small businesses can’t afford to hire an attorney to participate in contract negotiations or provide even minimal legal advice.  I know: I’ve been there. When we small business owners do think we’ve scraped together enough for the $200 an hour fee most lawyers charge, we often end up outraged by the final bill that was calculated on a point system and then find out our work was assigned to a beginning associate with very little practical knowledge of the issues involved that necessitated costly supervision by a senior attorney.

Also, if the lawyer comes to us, “our points” on the billing system start accumulating when the lawyer gets up from his desk to go to his car and ends when he sits back down at his own desk.  If we go to the lawyer instead of him coming to us, we lose work time which is our income-- and have to pay for the gas.  So, if you compare the Virtual Lawyer fees to the normal hourly fees determined by points, often for an associate's time, plus drive time, then it's easy to see how the client saves time and money with the Virtual Lawyer’s flat fee service.

Marc compared his service plans to cable television service where you can choose a basic plan, a deluxe plan, or a premium plan with all the movie channels; it gives you a way to get only what you need at a fixed price you can work into your budget. His firm’s basic service plan is $300 a month and covers most routine legal questions that arise in corporate or commercial law and in normal day-to-day operations concerning contracting, leasing, corporate law and procedures, and employment law.  The deluxe plan for $500 a month includes all the basic services plus corporate counsel, standard form contract reviews, outside law firm management, corporate secretarial functions, and standard form demand letters.  The premium plan includes all basic and deluxe services plus standard form contract drafting, and installation and maintenance of a Phonoscope video unit in your office that you can also use for other business. 

What surprised me in my interview with Marc, however, was his concern with having a “green” practice.  Not only does he use technology that cuts down on gasoline usage and exhaust fume pollution, he has a totally paperless office.  When he gets documents to file, they’re scanned into an electronic filing system and then the paper documents are shredded and recycled.  If you have ever been in a lawyer’s office and seen the rows of file cabinets and mountains of papers on tables and shelves, you know how rare this is.  So, I think he may also have the world’s only paperless law office that recycles all paper.

When someone in our town is innovative and progressive and puts Houston one jump ahead of the rest of the world in technology usage or anything else, I get filled with pride. Thanks to Marc Krasney, Houston is the real home of the world’s first “virtual” lawyer--a very “genuine” man. 

Check out www.mjklawyers.com .