Canadian Lawyer 4Students

5 1 3 When you're working in a virtual law fi rm, clients can't walk through the door to get your attention, "You want to make the extra eff ort to be engaged," says Nguyen. Maintain regular contact via e-mail, tele- phone, and video conferencing. rough prompt and regular communication, reas- sure clients your virtual practice enables you to be more proactive rather than making you inaccessible to them. Chris Bentley, the executive director of the Ryerson LPP, says lawyers should fi rst speak to their regulator about whether virtual articling would serve their clients well. "I'd want to make sure there's a plan in place so [students] de- velop the skills they need not only to succeed themselves but to properly serve members of the public," he says. PUT PUBLIC INTEREST FIRST: 1 4 3 2 While you may be staying at home, having the mindset and environment for work is essential. Staying in your peanut butter-smeared jammies all day or cozying up in bed with your laptop is prob- ably not a good idea. Grogan says she starts every day as if she's leaving for work before she settles into her home offi ce. "With virtual fi rms, sometimes it can be isolating," says Anne Nguyen, who had experience training in a virtual law fi rm environ- ment at Ryerson University's Law Practice Program before land- ing a work placement in-house with Nissan Canada's legal team. She suggests you take advantage of the technological tools you have to speak to colleagues o en and develop relationships. Once in a while, make time to meet your colleagues for lunch or coff ee. Working in a virtual law fi rm does not mean doing away with face- to-face time with clients. Take every opportunity to come out and meet with clients and show up at networking events. At her cloud-based fi rm, Grogan says she has much easier access to fi rm documents than she would have had in a traditional law fi rm. Her principal can "dive into my documents whenever he wants; I can dive into whatever precedents he's got," she says. Once you get to know the restrictions around fi les you can and can- not see, go ahead and familiarize yourself with the work your colleagues are doing and how they're doing it. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE TECHNOLOGY: ESTABLISH A PROFESSIONAL ROUTINE: STAY IN THE LOOP: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR VIRTUAL ACCESS: Grogan says most of the technology she and her principal use is either available for free or for a small fee. At Round Table Law, Morris and Grogan begin their day with video conferencing, using screen-sharing features when necessary. ey also use the app Slack or Google Hangouts to chat online throughout the day. All of the fi rm's documents are available to both of them on the cloud, and a practice management system helps keep things organized. GO THE EXTRA MILE: FOR STUDENTS FOR LAW FIRMS 50 AUGUST 2016 C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4STUDENTS RIZE F WITH g the ntial it can be isolating " says Anne E E ADVANTA ing in a virtual law fi rm, E LIC T FIRST: S

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