Frequently Asked Questions About Richard S. Granat
and the Center for Law Practice Technology, Inc.

What is the Center for Law Practice Technology, Inc.

The Center for Law Practice Technology, Inc., is wholly-owned by Richard Granat and is the vehicle through which he offers consulting and training services. The Center is based in Baltimore, Maryland, but is primarily a virtual organization existing mostly on the Internet.

What kind of consulting does Richard Granat do?

Richard is a sole practitioner, so if you hire the Center for Law Practice Technology, Inc.,  you get Richard. 

As a sole practitioner, Richard's work is highly specialized. He specializes in helping law firms, corporate legal departments, and public legal service programs apply information technology to improve the delivery of legal services. The focus of his work is to use information technology to not only automate legal services, but to innovate: to develop new ways of delivering legal services to clients that result in greater client satisfaction often at reduced cost. Often a by-product of this approach is that the suppliers of legal services -lawyers, paralegals, and support staff- also experience a greater sense of professional fulfillment. He works as a counselor to law firms and legal service organizations, helping them solve their problems and address their issues. For example, when he does technology strategy work, it is normal that the organization form an internal committee to be responsible for developing the strategy, while Richard serves as the guide to that committee: helping them agree on action steps and a work plan, suggesting various forms of information collection and analysis, contributing to the generation of creative ideas, challenging thinking and shepherding the process through to a conclusion.

Among the topic areas he works on are developing long-range technology plans; developing new forms and patterns of legal service utilizing information technology; functional requirements analysis of work flow process as a basis for legal service re-design; knowledge management projects for legal organizations; and creation of legal websites, intranets, and extranets.

What doesn’t Richard do?

Richard doesn’t do the kind of consulting where a firm wishes to contract for significantly sized research studies culminating in a report. His philosophy of consulting is that it is better for an organization to conduct their own analyses and reach their own conclusions, stimulated and guided by his input. He also doesn't make recommendations concerning basic law office automation such as which word processing or time-keeping and billing program a firm should use or what kind of networking system.
 

Where does Richard work?

Everywhere. Although based in Maryland and Florida, his mix of clients in recent years has been throughout the United States,

How does Richard charge?

Richard’s fees (in 1999) are US$1,500 per day for private clients; and $1,000.00 per day for public and non-profit legal service organizations,  plus travel expenses.  Often a fixed price contract can be negotiated for a discrete project, such as the creation of a web-site. (He does not offer his services in units of less than a day.) These fees are subject to an unconditional client satisfaction guarantee: If when the work is done, the client does not feel that full value was received, then the client decides how much it was worth and how much to pay (if anything).

On multiclient trips, all travel expenses are shared equally between all clients involved, so that each pays only a fairly allocated fraction of the total travel expense.

There is no charge for reading time spent examining material provided by clients. Richard encourages clients to send extensive materials in advance, so that initial meetings can be immediately customized. (The only exception is where the client specifically requests that analytical work be done.)

Similarly, Richard does not charge at any time for telephone or email consultations, unless these get to be so extensive as to consume vast amounts of time.

What about proposals?

Richard does not participate in competitive proposals.

What about references?

Richard practices total client confidentiality, and therefore does not disclose the name of clients he has worked for in the private sector. Public legal service clients include the Maryland Legal Services Corporation (http://www.mlsc.org); the Project for the Future of Equal Justice and the equal Justice Network (http://www.equaljustice.org); the Center for Law and Social Policy; (http://www.clasp.org);  and the People's Law Library of Maryland.(http://www.peoples-law.org).  Other law related web sites include: Legal Advice Line, the Divorce Law Information Center, and the Center for On-Line Mediation.

How do clients begin a relationship with Richard?

The most common process is that, after a telephone conversation to establish the topics of interest, the client provides Richard with extensive reading so that an initial meeting can be as productive as possible. (Richard also sends any material he has that might be helpful.) The client then retains Richard for a single day to get work on the issues identified by the client, with the goal of producing by the end of the first day an approach to resolving the issues. The client then has two decisions to make. Given the guarantee, (designed to eliminate any financial risk to the client) the client can decide whether or not sufficient value was received in the one-day meeting to pay the bill for that day. Second, having had a chance to judge both content and style by working with Richard for a day, the client can decide whether or not to proceed with the relationship.

Contact: Phone: 410-484-9833/FAX: 410-484-5433
E-mail: richard@granat.com
Last updated on 04/30/2007