With a steep fall in revenue, many lawyers in the profession are striving hard to survive. Working extended long hours and taking on all jobs available to them, even at under cost. Attention has only been paid on the revenue side and cutting the pay of their staff or retrenchment as a last resort but nothing has been done to cut down other costs.

OPERATION & ADMINISTRATION
To a non-lawyer, the first thing that comes to mind about a law office is bundles of papers and documents.

Everyday, enormous amount of paper shuffles in and out of a law office, for example receiving and sending letters, documents, facsimile, email printouts etc. Much of these papers require time and manpower to administer on a day-to-day basis, such as collating, photocopying, filing, distributing and so forth.

Furthermore, there are legal requirements requiring documents to be retained for a minimum number of years and to satisfy these requirements, law firms have to rent premises just for the purpose of retaining these old documents. In order to save costs, the rented godowns are often located in remote area where it is not uncommon to take days, extra manpower and cost to retrieve just one closed file. Inevitably, such delay usually leads to bad client relationship.

Clearly, there is much room for improvement in these areas and the experience of other professions shows that this can be achieved by using information technology ("IT").

LAWYER'S IT DILEMMA
Though lawyers may know that IT can reduce costs whilst at the same time bring about better office management and greater client satisfaction, they are still falling behind the trend. There are various reasons for lawyers' sluggishness to integrate IT into their daily practice.

The Electronic Transaction Ordinance was only enacted in 2000. Before that, electronic documents do not provide certainty in terms of its legal effect. Accordingly, it is logical that lawyers would not expend as people do nowadays in IT.

Furthermore, the costs of IT are not cheap. Buying a single computer may not be much, however, when one is needed for each staff, and a server system including its recurring maintenance is required, the costs greatly multiplies.

Putting the costs issue aside, another hurdle is the lack of IT skills. To lawyers, language and law are natural to them, but not the use of IT. IT presents uncertainty and complexity, which are not something they favour.

Even with the all above resolved, the biggie is still there - no one-stop software that meets the daily practice needs of lawyers. Off-the-shelf softwares are either too difficult to integrate/use or too simple that it does not meet the needs. Accordingly, even if lawyers are fully geared with IT equipment, full potential has not been utilised.

BETTER IT APPLICATION, BETTER LEGAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
With PRC entering the WTO, the legal system is one of the competitive advantages and most value assets of Hong Kong. Being that, it is the intention of the Secretary of Justice to promote the Hong Kong legal system, making Hong Kong a leading regional centre for legal services and international dispute resolution. To that end, the Hong Kong SAR government has encouraged the use of IT by all professions in order to increase the quality of their services.

Not only would IT increases the quality of services, it also increases efficiencies, allowing lawyers to meet up with client's speedy decision making that is required in order to stay ahead in the slump of the economy. To facilitate the legal profession to enhance their services and provide a solution to lawyer's IT dilemma, i-LegalService Limited has undergone extensive research and development. The end result is the i-LegalService's practice management system - "Themis PMS". Themis PMS is an application used via the Internet, a user need not purchase any special programs, all that is required is a standard computer with Internet connection and a web-browser. Themis PMS gives faster, better control over the tasks that one must keep track of as a lawyer.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
The experience of lawyers is a legal firm's most valuable asset. But how can it be utilised to the fullest extent so that all members of a firm are benefited? Currently, much time is wasted chasing documents, or locating colleagues with the relevant expertise are nightmares of lawyers. To solve this problem, Themis PMS has a precedent collection system with good indexation enabling precedents to be centralised systematically, hence saving time.

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Clients do not generally value legal expertise because they have no parameters to judge, most of Clients' satisfaction however come from the degree of care, attention, responsiveness that a lawyer can provide. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that some client's contact had gone missing or is incorrect due to office administration error. Very often, lawyers are held up by court appearances and meetings during day-time, and they can only respond to clients after office hours.

Themis PMS's contact management feature helps to alleviate the problem by centralising client's contacts and allows changes to client's contacts to be tracked by use of version controls so that you always have the most updated client information. At the same time, Themis PMS provides a secure direct access function for clients, even when the lawyer cannot be reached, the client can still keep track with the progress of the case and give clear instructions to his lawyer.

SECURITY
Convenience and ease of use is the aim of the DMS, security is also one. Themis PMS is one of the first to have full PKI integration and timestamp function provided by Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited.

Connecting to Themis PMS would require an ID-Cert, hence authenticity. Also, on Themis PMS, documents can be signed (for legal effect) and encrypted (for confidentiality). As a matter of fact, Themis PMS is the first program that automatically applies electronic time stamp to accurately record the time each email is sent or received via the system.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST ("COF")
COF is a troublesome procedure and not many lawyers bother to do any proper checking if their memories do not give them any instant warning. Themis PMS can help to avoid this. Every new case will be checked against the contact management database to ascertain if there are any files associated with the new case.

TIMESHEET
Accuracy is vital. Themis PMS has an event recording function that allows accurate and detailed particulars of events and time spent to be recorded for each case and work done for your client. Every member of the firm involved in the case can keep track of all events relating to the case, this useful tool also helps to speed up the process of bill drafting.

ANYTIME-ANYWHERE
Themis PMS is the first locally developed online document management system specifically designed for the Hong Kong legal profession. As an online application, users can work anytime-anywhere in addition to solving the problem of choice and costs of IT. Hence, lawyers can now travel around or stay at home and still be able to manage their legal practices at their fingertips.

STAY AHEAD
With all these features and functions, Themis can surely save time and resources that were previously spent on document and office management, bring about enhanced quality and efficiency of legal service.

Accordingly, with time and money conserved, lawyers can concentrate on more important aspects of their legal practice. In addition, with the introduction of Internet connectivity on flights, lawyers do not need to worry about being cut off from their office anymore, they can connect to Themis PMS and work or remote-control anytime-anywhere!