Extranets: Creating the Collaborative Legal Services Program

By

Richard S. Granat

Introduction
Knowledge Leveraging
The Internet as a platform for collaboration and communication.
Features of a legal service Extranet
Intranet/Extranet Applications
Conclusion

Introduction

Last year’s legal industry buzzword was "intranet." Thus year it will be "extranet". Next year, I predict, the new buzzword will be "knowledge management systems" !. Intranets are private webs that use the protocols and standards of the public Internet. They are internal systems that are based on Internet technology that are designed to connect the members of a specific group of single organization. Intranets are about workforce connectivity. They connect people to people and people to information.

Extranets are extended intranets that connect not only the workers in a single group but workers who are located in different organizations and in different locations who are tied together because they have a common purpose or objective. The term extranet is used in this article to denote an interactive website on the Internet but which is protected for use to a list of designated individuals. It is often confused with, a restricted web site because of its interactive nature.

This is the first of two articles on why and how to build specialized legal extranets that support the delivery of legal services to low and moderate income individuals and families. This article argues that extranets will become an necessary computing platform for seamlessly tying together disparate legal services programs, pro bono attorneys, and community services organizations that all are engaged in the common goal of delivering legal services to low income individuals and families within a particular state. A second article will explain how to build an extranet for a legal services environment.

In the future, for public legal service programs to be effective they will have to leverage their own limited resources by working more closely with members of the private bar, other social and human service agencies, and community organizations. Many states are already creating centralized telephone-intake systems which will become the primary point of intake into the system for clients. A telephone-based legal advice, information, and referral system will be the primary point of intake into the system for clients. Once a client’s case information is inputted into the system over the telephone during the first contact, the organization operating the intake system can either provide legal advice or legal information directly, or transfer the case record electronically to a cooperating pro bono attorney or specialized legal services organization if the client requires more than telephone-based legal advice.

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Knowledge Leveraging

In order to make this kind of a system work flawlessly, an information network will have to be in place that can leverage the knowledge resources in the entire system . Extranets are being embraced by corporations and networks of organizations of all kinds because they bring immediate gains in helping people find information, work together, and distribute their results effectively.

When an attorney doesn’t know an answer to a question, whether he is functioning in a pro bono role or as a full-time legal services attorney, he or she should be able to consult an electronic knowledge base available from a desktop computer, which contains forms, diagnostic checklists, pleadings, and step-by-step instructions for common procedures and actions. In this environment pro bono attorneys also have access to the same centralized legal document stores (pleadings, memos, briefs, forms), so that they don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time a new case is assigned to them. They also have access to summaries of the law in particular substantive areas, diagnostic checklists, document assembly tools, and other aids which enable them to make a pro bono contribution with stressing the limited time they have available.

Many other work processes can also be simplified throughout the system:

• Conflicts of interest can be checked from any office or personal computer tied into the network.
• Individual case information is also accessible to anyone who has access rights, with compromising confidentiality.
• Secure communications, messaging, and conferencing are made possible.
• Lawyers in different organization can come together in a private space to work on individual cases, uploading case documents into a folder that only peoples working on that particular case have access.
• The system is used to schedule meetings, manage a master docket control system, broadcast announcements of new legal and policy developments, and keep track of the availability of individual pro bono attorneys to accept case assignments.
• Attorneys can be recruited directly from the web site, with the volunteering attorney submitting their resumes and qualifications, and up-dating these documents directly without the necessity of an intermediate administrative staff to collect papers resumes, type the information into a database and then maintain its accuracy.

In these kind of an organizational environment the boundary between legal service organizations and the private bar that contributes its services could become more diffuse, enabling teams of legal services attorneys and private attorneys to work together on particular cases and to augment each other's resources. By "private attorney" we mean lawyers who are not fully-employed by a legal service program and includes retired attorneys, law school faculty and clinical law students, government attorneys who want to make a part-time contribution, as well as individuals who are not engaged in the full-time practice of law who want to remain active in some capacity, such as women who have taken a sabbatical to care for young children. With an extranet in place, a telephone line, a laptop or personal computer, and a modem, all of these actors can now be active participants in a state's legal services delivery system.

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The Internet as a platform for collaboration and communication.

The Internet is the computing platform of choice to support these complex interactions, for it offers major advantages over its client/server predecessor. The advantages include:

• Reduced administrative cost. Extranets require minimal or no client administration or installation and ease of use. Any one familiar with how to use an Internet web browser (such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer) already knows how to use an Extranet/Intranet, because the universal interface is the same for both. This benefit is particularly important if agencies want to involve private attorneys in only a few cases a year. Instead of requiring that the private attorney install client software on his or her personal computer, the entire system is accessible through the Web browser.

• Scalability and Interoperability. Retrieval, use and management of complex information and complicated applications is possible through the Web's ability to handle more users and the Web's ability to handle more users and data than any other network in history. This feature will allow legal service extranets to scale up to service thousands of attorneys in a state. No longer will users be limited by the number of ports dedicated to dial-up access telephone lines. And those few attorneys that use Macintoshes and other non-Wintel based computers will have the same access to the system as Windows 95 users.

• Cost Efficiency. Because Intranet/Extranets take advantage of the Web's existing architecture and public domain software, it's easy to deploy and to maintain.

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Extranets offer the possibility of increased productivity, lower costs, and faster delivery of information and knowledge to everyone in the system. But like an operating system with no programs written for it, the Extranet platform is virtually useless without application software that takes advantage of it.

Some of the essential features and functions that one should look for in evaluating intranet/extranet software include:

• A capability to monitor and coordinate workflow between, and among professionals working in different organizations and different locations
• Enforce point-to-point encryption for all communications among all parties, including digital signature checks and password revalidation for would-be network users at various stages of entry combined with highly granular security to control access to forms, views, web pages data tables, individual records, and fields.
• Enable attorneys to retrieve their secured personal workspace over the Internet, whether they work for a legal service program, private law firm, or are semi-retired attorney working from a home office.

• Enable key attorneys to maintain perpetual contact through virtual conferencing and messaging that could even notify an attorney’s turned-off laptop.
• Centralization of electronic paper flow into a single document store that enables any attorney or support personnel to access any document, if they have permission, from any where location in the system and from any organizational base.

• Interoperable, so that, the system can run on different hardware platforms that are operating within different organizations.
• Have a customizable, and intuitive interface that is simple to learn and operate, and which can be easily modified for different types of practice without the need of extensive programming.
• Easily integrate with existing word processing programs and access data from legacy systems include integrated messaging and or E-Mail.

More specific applications that are designed for law practice that would operate over the Extranet include:

• A client intake/case matter module that is designed to collect demographic, financial eligibility, and case matter information. Problems should be easily categorized into user defined categories.
• A calendar component that should be able to track everything related to the case matter: meetings, tasks, telephone calls, depositions, notes.
• A Central Address Book which keeps track of contacts around each case or matter: client, court, judge, opposing party, opposing counsel, witnesses, and responsible office personnel.
• A conflicts checking application that enables the user should be to conduct a conflicts check from within the program by at least identifying all previous case matter and counsel contacts.

• A document management component that enables users to be able to access documents for each matter wherever the document is located. There should be a central document store accessible to anyone within the system who has permission to access the document database. The system should facilitate keeping either the most current documents or multiple versions of documents. It should be able to track revisions of versioned documents and maintain a history of successive copies of documents. It should also be able to lock documents to prevent multiple updates from being attempted simultaneously. Multiple pointers may exist to one document or collection and objects may appear in multiple collections at the same time.

• There should be a user-friendly and easily accessible user-interface, perhaps collections organized and displayed in a familiar nested folder structure. Objects, such as documents and conference groups, should be able to be assigned long descriptive names, brief summary fields and abstracts for easy browsing.

• There should be a capacity to place control over the creation, distribution and use of "private", as distinguished from "public collections", of documents, directly in the hands of particular groups of users who are collaborating on a specific case or project. Users should be able to create and manage their own private accounts, workspaces and permissions. Store, browse, retrieve, and version documents and apply fine-grained security to document collections. Without this feature, every time an individual organization which is part of the network wants to set up a document collection for a particular case, all of the work of uploading and security maintenance will be shifted to the administrator. Minimal system maintenance should be easily managed with the online administrator’s management screens.

• A robust collaboration component that transforms an area-wide case management interface into a multi-user workspace where attorneys, paralegals, and assistants can work together to review and edit documents, exchange ideas about case issues and events, chat and conference securely about a wide range of issues as well to plan strategy for individual cases.

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During the last 12-15 month period, new Extranet software applications have been released enable the "extranet" platform that is discussed in this article. Some large law firms are using this technology to connect together branch offices with central office functions, and even if provide access by their clients to certain files and records within the law firm that services them. The problem that a large law firm has in communicating and collaborating between its lawyer staff distributed throughout the United States or around the world with clients whose operations are also far-flung, is very similar to the problem of connecting a network of legal service offices and pro bono attorneys who are participants in the legal service system . This distances might be different, but the underlying work processes and communication patterns between professionals located in different places in a single state is very similar There is much that state-wide legal service programs can learn from the deployment of Extranets by large, on a national and multinational law firms and perhaps there should be some initiative to start a technology transfer where these large law firms make there technology available at low cost to legal service programs nationwide.

It is beyond the scope of this article to recommend one Extranet software application over another, but it is worthwhile to identify some of these emerging software applications and to target them for further examination and evaluation as the legal services community decides how best to implement state-wide systems.

Lotus Notes is usually at the top of any one's list of GroupWare for it is the company that invented the concept. Lotus, now owned by IBM, is successfully migrating its technology to the Internet with Domino and now provides a range of solutions which may large law firms now find attractive as a connectivity solution. Traditionally, Lotus has been expensive to deploy and difficult to program and was used by large corporate organizations that has the resources to invest in customized solutions. Lotus has recently reduced significantly the cost of its client software, and moved towards incorporating open Internet standards in its architecture. This Spring it is releasing client software that has the characteristics of a browser. Although Lotus Notes/Domino has ready made applications in document management, conferencing, email, calendaring, and human resource management, I do not know of an existing legal case management application that fits the legal service program environment that is an out-of-the box application. The cost of creating a customized application just for a legal service program is likely to be cost prohibitive and should considered carefully as one of the factors in deciding to use Lotus as a state-wide computing platform..

Netscape Corporation, the firm that re-invented the Internet for the masses, has staked its future on its suite of Intranet/Extranet application server and software. If you visit their web site you can experience Netscape's Virtual Intranet and the applications that Netscape and its partners have developed to support it.

Microsoft's also has a suite of programs that support the creation of an Intranet. When you purchase the Windows NT oprating system for networks, it comes with the MS Information Web Server and FrontPage, Microsoft industry leading web authoring system, and templates that enable a user to create a small scale, but working, Intranet in a day. Microsoft Explorer, the web browser, is free.

Another solution that is similar to Lotus Notes, is a web collaboration system offered by a new company called Radnet, Inc. Radnet was founded by Lotus alumni in 1995 and was built from the ground up to run on the Internet and is based on what is known as open Internet standards. Instead of using a Lotus Notes client, the user accesses applications through any web browser (Netscape or Microsoft Explorer). Radnet is significantly less expensive to deploy that Lotus Notes. One can download a demonstration version from the Web site and try it out (as is also true of almost every other application mentioned in this article). While Radnet is a start-up it is not a tiny company. It has received one of the largest initial venture capital investments in history, collecting more than $50,000,000 in start-up funds in 1996-97. The scale of the Radnet start-up demonstrates the grown magnitude of the intranet/extranet market and its significance of the future of computing. It is also comforting in terms of its staying power and depth of expertise and management experience. Enterprise-wide solutions require vendor organizations that can support large scale operations. If you system goes down, and the boss of the two person software company that you purchased your system from is on vacation and can't be reached, your entire state-wide operations could be crippled until he or she decides to return. While this may be an acceptable state of affairs for a small agency serving a small client base, or even a larger agency using a single case management application within that particular agency, enterprise wide solutions are a different category of software.. They are more demand more management and technical expertise from the vendor. You want to make sure that your vendor has the capacity to support you in a crisis and the staying power to go the distance . Home businesses and "mom and pop" operations are the new trend, but I wouldn't buy an enterprise-wide solution that my entire system depends on from that source.

Another new offering is, Livelink Intranet by Open Text Corporation, Live Link from Open Text Corporation sells a complete collaborative knowledge management system that includes three components: 1) a knowledge gathering system; a knowledge distribution system and a collaborative knowledge system. The knowledge gathering system includes tools for creating searchable index supporting all file types; maintains permissions on search results, and spiders that crawls networks and/or world wide web sites, fetching information to be index and catalogued. The Knowledge distribution component enable administrators and users to build browsable folders containing any type of data file; allows complete control over permissions on a file-by-file and user-by-user basis; monitors events of interest occurring anywhere within the system and uses "smart push" technology to notify users of the changes though any standard email reader. The "collaborative knowledge use" component creates project home pages that enable virtual teams to work on documents, have threaded discussions, bulletin boards, and to-do list.

Additional new product offerings include: an offering from Xerox call Docushare that has been used by Xerox as it own intranet solution for the past few years; Excalibur’s RetreivalWare; Linkworks from Digital Equipment, a web-based document management system; a knowledge management system from Fulcrum Corporation, [SearchSaver], which includes a bridge to PCDOCS; and a web-based document management system from NetRight Technologies, that is fast eroding PCDOCS market share in large law firms as it tries to adapt its aging product line to this new Internet technology. PCDOCS Group has also released a net product called CyberDocs, which enables a user to access PCDOCs from a web browser on the Internet. Finally, the PCDOCs Group has recently announced that it will acquire Fulcrum Corporation. The intergration and merger of these two organizations is a very promising development.

Another complete collaborative intranet system that is being used by more than a dozen membership organization is Washington, DC to create a private network for their members is InTandem by IntraACTIVE, Inc. The demo version at IntraACTIVE is a good way of experiencing how these system work.

Finally, HuskyLabs, Inc., a small firm in West Virginia that had it's start as a web development firm working for Fortune 500 clients claims that it has developed the first all-Java legal extranet for law firms and corporate legal departments. Husky's Web Site contains details on their Chakra for Law application suite.

A major factor to consider in the selection of any one of these systems is the cost of deployment. Whatever system is chosen it should be accessible from a web browser (Netscape or Microsoft Explorer) at the desk-top and the cost of per user needs to be low or zero Most document retrieval software vendors price their software on a per seat basis as if it were to be used within a single organization over a corporation intranet. In an "extranet" deployment the number of users could scale up quite rapidly so a price of $300.00 a user, or thereabouts, would make use of these programs in the legal services context impractical and cost prohibitive. Ultimately a system is needed that enables thousands of provide attorneys throughout a state to connect to the system easily. A price of even $100.00 per attorney is cost prohibitive in this context. An interesting pricing strategy proposed by HuskyLabs is to distribute the Java client software to users within the extranet for free; only users within the primary organization that maintains the server are charged on a per user basis.

Another important factor in evaluating a vendor's offering is the availability of a designer toolkit that supports the rapid development of custom applications without the need for expensive programming. For an example of a complete Java-based system that claims that applications can be written without programming that run over the Internet see the Website of Silverstream, Inc. Radnet also comes with Webshare Designer which it claims empowers users to create custom applications easily and at low cost.

The Internet has added two important new dimensions to computing: content and communications. In the past lawyers have used personal computers to run applications such as spreadsheets, word processors, and access to specialized data-bases such as litigation document databases. Today we also can used them to communicate and to find and manage all kinds of rich multimedia information

The Web’s greatest promise lies in the convergence of conventional capabilities, like database access, with content publishing, collaboration and communications. Such convergence will enable the creation of next-generation Web legal applications that are much more responsive the needs of the lawyer and which connect lawyers working in disparate organizations into a virtual network that results in large scale productivity increases, .provided there is local leadership that embraces a collaborative work ethic. The culture of the legal profession emphasizes competition and autonomy, rather than cooperation and collaboration. In the legal services context, severe limits on resources require that legal service agencies leverage resources on a state-wide basis and move towards a model of a single, integrated, virtual law firm that is dedicated to representing the interests of low income clients. It was not possible to conceive of a method of unifying disparate legal service agencies into a common organizational framework before the emergence of the Internet. Secure extranets that run on top of the public Internet is a cost -effective technology that can make a state-based unified legal services delivery system a reality.