It is not exaggerating to say that for most lawyers, providing clients with a client portal is a critically important topic. The idea of using a client portal to better serve your clients involves more than better client service. This involves “best practices” for security of client information. Setting up a portal allows your firm to set up comprehensive processes for electronic transmission of confidential (and nonconfidential) information and it is generally a more user-friendly process than training a client on the use of encrypted email. It is an internal time-saving practice.

Client portals demonstrate to your clients that you are on top of recent technology trends regarding how confidential information should be treated and secure client portals help you ensure that you are observing your ethical obligations about handling sensitive material.

Many lawyers already have the technical capability for client portals provided within their practice management software solutions, but they haven’t taken the time to implement a firm-wide comprehensive policy on how these portals are used.

Others may use dedicated portal solutions provided by third parties. We will show examples of  both types of solutions. This practice obviously works differently for a large firm with an IT department versus a solo practitioner. We will focus on tools for medium-sized and small law firms, but the discussion of how to use client portals and why applies to every lawyer.

The genesis for this program was my most linked and most reprinted column of last year Email Attachments vs. Client Portals. Take a few moments to read that now if you missed it the first time to remind you of why you should attend this CLE program.