Small Law Firm

[iSee]

Nope, I use a proprietary client to access the server. Encrypted transfer. Works for both Mac and PCs.

IM is for transfer between users quickly.

If 2 people worked on a document, ms word can compare the documents and highlight the changes.

Just some ideas for you to get started. I am not here to provide a complete solution for free.

Ah...
Your name is "Consultant" after all.
Anyway, my wife's current setup is fine, since she doesn't have to share files... I just saw your mention of iChat and blew it up (in my head) into something is isn't!

 

[ChrisA]

My parents are setting up a small law firm soon and i think they should convert. what pieces of equipment to we need to do this and how will it all fit together?

Ask you parents what your "freind" should do. Tell them he want to set up a corporation to reduce liabilty for himself. He needs to know what papters to file and how to word them and if it matter in which state he files them. I'll bet you $10 you parents answer will be "Hire a lawyer."

Same answer here: Hire a profesional. It may not even cost you anything the people at the Apple store will set you up.

The big problem I see is (1) Security, ensuring private stuff remains private. Easy to do if you have just one computer and one user but in an office of networked machines that are connected to the Internet it is NOT easy. Also in a law office to cos of failure here is high. Ask your parents to think about what would happen if information got out because they didn't follow even the simplest industry standards for safeguarding their client's data.

#2 problem is related it is "backups". And no, Time machine is not the total answer. What if the building burns down. What about theft. I say "related" because theft means the data is now in some un-known hands.

Aside form all of that I'd think you'd want some 24" iMacs wired with gigabit Eithernet to a file server where the data is kept. Then you have a wellplaned backup system.

If the users need to be moble then gt MBPs and buy a nce big monitor fore each desk

I thing you will want a good laser printer that can duplex as well as a color printer.

Don't bother with wireless for the iMacs. Wired is MUCH faster. And if it is a new office they can pull the data cable when they pull the phone cables.

One more thing. Time is litterally money so buy some backup equipment. Can you imagine what a failed server would cost the office? If not backup hardware then a real good plan about how to instantly reconfigure one of the other desktop machines to act as a server

A better question, well aharder one is what kind of phones to install. Look into a small PBX built around comunity hardware and open standards. i like "IP Phones" and I like Asterik but hire a profesional to set this up. Asterix now runs well on Mac OS X and makes for a nice integrated phone/mail message system that can follow users even to remote locations

I'd go shopping for a consultent who could do both the computers and the phones.

 

[laxmax613]

Ask you parents what your "freind" should do. Tell them he want to set up a corporation to reduce liabilty for himself. He needs to know what papters to file and how to word them and if it matter in which state he files them. I'll bet you $10 you parents answer will be "Hire a lawyer."

Same answer here: Hire a profesional. It may not even cost you anything the people at the Apple store will set you up.

The big problem I see is (1) Security, ensuring private stuff remains private. Easy to do if you have just one computer and one user but in an office of networked machines that are connected to the Internet it is NOT easy. Also in a law office to cos of failure here is high. Ask your parents to think about what would happen if information got out because they didn't follow even the simplest industry standards for safeguarding their client's data.

#2 problem is related it is "backups". And no, Time machine is not the total answer. What if the building burns down. What about theft. I say "related" because theft means the data is now in some un-known hands.

Aside form all of that I'd think you'd want some 24" iMacs wired with gigabit Eithernet to a file server where the data is kept. Then you have a wellplaned backup system.

If the users need to be moble then gt MBPs and buy a nce big monitor fore each desk

I thing you will want a good laser printer that can duplex as well as a color printer.

Don't bother with wireless for the iMacs. Wired is MUCH faster. And if it is a new office they can pull the data cable when they pull the phone cables.

One more thing. Time is litterally money so buy some backup equipment. Can you imagine what a failed server would cost the office? If not backup hardware then a real good plan about how to instantly reconfigure one of the other desktop machines to act as a server

A better question, well aharder one is what kind of phones to install. Look into a small PBX built around comunity hardware and open standards. i like "IP Phones" and I like Asterik but hire a profesional to set this up. Asterix now runs well on Mac OS X and makes for a nice integrated phone/mail message system that can follow users even to remote locations

I'd go shopping for a consultent who could do both the computers and the phones.

about the iMacs, i think that two 15" MBPs would be better. you could use them wired in the office, and then use wi-fi at home and at meetings, starbucks etc. I also think that a mac mini server would be better than time machine.

 

[ChrisA]

that sounds like what we would do. Time Capsule looks like a good tool for dealing with important legal documents.

Is this a joke? You can't be serious. This is why you need to hire a pro.

Seriously. Loosing a documant has to be the #1 disaster at a law office. What else do they do but "documents". Youwant a system that can:

• Be expanded without need of replacement
• has redundent hardware so a broken disk does not mean you've lost work
• can be backed up

without taking it down

I can add more bulets but a much better thing might be some kind of disk array that uses RAID. One that can rebuild a faild drive and swap in a hot spare

The primary data storage needs this and I'd argue you backup device needs this too.

In addition you will need a way to backup the data to take it off-site

 

[laxmax613]

Is this a joke? You can't be serious. This is why you need to hire a pro.

Seriously. Loosing a documant has to be the #1 disaster at a law office. What else do they do but "documents". Youwant a system that can:

• Be expanded without need of replacement
• has redundent hardware so a broken disk does not mean you've lost work
• can be backed up

without taking it down

I can add more bulets but a much better thing might be some kind of disk array that uses RAID. One that can rebuild a faild drive and swap in a hot spare

The primary data storage needs this and I'd argue you backup device needs this too.

In addition you will need a way to backup the data to take it off-site

hey, i'm a kid, not an IT expert. i'm just trying to help my parents start up their business. i WILL use a pro to help me with setting this all up, but i want to get a grip on what i need to know in order to talk to the pro in a knowlegable way.

 

[spacepower7]

websites

check out these

http://www.macattorney.com/

http://www.themaclawyer.com/

 

[nuckinfutz]

hey, i'm a kid, not an IT expert. i'm just trying to help my parents start up their business. i WILL use a pro to help me with setting this all up, but i want to get a grip on what i need to know in order to talk to the pro in a knowlegable way.

Don't listen to people then they start ranting. Your parents KNOW the most dangerous issues facing small firms. I'd bet money losing a document is low on the list because you client should be keeping the hard copy. What "will" screw a small firm up is missing an important deadline that blows your case up which then may cause a malpractice suit from your "former" clients.

Again the technical stuff is not hard. Every small firm needs a system comfortable for them for case management, Time & Billing and calendaring. If your parents are doing their own Paralegal work them the specialized legal apps really aren't worth it IMO because they are doing most of the lifting themselves.

 

[davinche]

Basically, I think that OS X can not reliably talk to XP because I spent hours on the phone with Applecare, and we were not able to get it to work. That's not to say that it doesn't ever work, but in an office where everything must work perfectly all of the time, it was unacceptable.

Also, WEP can be decrypted in minutes. MAC addresses can be spoofed. What's left? better encryption.. so it'll take an hour instead of a minute, Security through obscurity (in the form of an obscure password) is not secure enough for me.

So you think because you had a problem that everyone else has a problem. I use my Macbook Pro at work everyday. I talk to a whole bunch of XP machines (transfer files, shared printers), as well as 2000 and Vista. I'm not sure why you had an issue but the issue would be end user related not OS X related.

 

[ChrisA]

hey, i'm a kid, not an IT expert. i'm just trying to help my parents start up their business. i WILL use a pro to help me with setting this all up, but i want to get a grip on what i need to know in order to talk to the pro in a knowlegable way.

Sorry. I actually did suspect someone was joking.

When I worked for a dot-com designing a sever farm we had a rule that we would aply to the proposed designs that said I should be able to walk in the the server room and pull out any random power cord from the UPS thereby taking down a "box" as if it just had a hardware failure. The goal was that no one outside the server room should be able to notice. I also should be able to remove the data cable on any disk drive without causing a problem. Everything had to "fail over" so that no failure could take the site down.

You likely don't need that level of reliability but you still need a story about what will happen if something breaks and the time it will take to recover

 

[blackstone]

Again the technical stuff is not hard. Every small firm needs a system comfortable for them for case management, Time & Billing and calendaring. If your parents are doing their own Paralegal work them the specialized legal apps really aren't worth it IMO because they are doing most of the lifting themselves.

Having worked as a paralegal, I can tell you that if anything, well-tailored time/billing/calendaring apps are more important for a small firm that doesn't have much in the way of support staff. A paralegal or secretary can afford to spend extra time trying to work around the deficiencies of software that is not tailored to a law firm's needs. A lawyer can't -- there's too much else to do that demands his or her attention.