3 Easy Ways Anyone Can Become a Tech-Savvy Lawyer

Technology can feel overwhelming for solo practitioners, but adopting the right tools can make a huge difference in efficiency and client satisfaction. This article dives into some of the best tech tools that successful solo practitioners use to stay ahead and be considered at least a little bit tech-savvy.

#1 Stree free scheduling

Managing client appointments and communications is crucial for solo practitioners, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. It’s time to consider some tech solutions that simplify scheduling and communication—all without needing a secretary.

Calendly: This app lets clients book time directly on your calendar. It syncs with Google Calendar and Microsoft 365, saving you from back-and-forth scheduling. Calendly integrates with Zapier, which can help you create awesome automated workflows. You could automate an email that new clients receive upon whatever trigger you desire—consider an automated email with a link to schedule a personal introduction call with you upon a new client paying their retainer or signing the fee agreement.
Microsoft Bookings: I always like to provide a free option. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365 (and you should), you’ve got a calendar scheduling app already. Microsoft Bookings offers a user-friendly platform that allows clients to schedule appointments online at their convenience. Clients can view available time slots and book meetings directly through a customized booking page, making the process efficient and hassle-free. This automated scheduling reduces the administrative burden and minimizes scheduling conflicts. Attorneys can sync the booking calendar with their Outlook or Microsoft 365 calendar, ensuring real-time updates and avoiding double bookings. The platform can send automatic confirmations and reminders to clients, reducing the likelihood of no-shows and missed appointments. Bookings does not integrate with Zapier, so for me, even though Bookings is free, I use Calendly. The benefit of automated workflows outweighs the small monthly Calendly fee.

#2 Speech-to-Text can be a game-changer

Transform dictation into text, saving hours on typing and reducing hand strain.

Dragon Naturally Speaking – This is one of my favorite speech-to-text programs. It is accurate, and they offer a legal edition. Once upon a time (2012), I was in a car accident and had a plate, pins, screws, and nerve damage in my arm and wrist. This made typing impossible for approximately a year while my nerves recovered. I was in a panic. How was I going to practice law? Send an email? Draft a brief?! Along with my throbbing arm, my head was spinning. Thankfully, I discovered Dragon Naturally Speaking, and I was able to keep my practice up and running. Dragon offers an online “app” product for dictation only called Dragon Anywhere at a reasonable price – $15 a month (with a 1-week free trial). Dragon’s dictation is the best I’ve used. It is far more accurate than Siri, Bixby, and the free “dictation” within Microsoft Word. The full local installed version of Dragon Legal v16 is $799 as a one-time fee. The program, rather than the app, has many features that the app does not. For example, you can give it commands like “open a new document in Microsoft Word.” Long story short, if the budget allows it, I would go for Dragon Legal and 10x your document and brief writing. When I dictate a legal document into Dragon, it needs very little editing, and I can speak the content so much faster than I could ever type it. My mouth and my “typing” are finally working at the same speed!Get Dragon Naturally Speaking
Microsoft Word – Microsoft Word offers a free dictation tool. You may not have noticed it, but it’s there.

If you click on the microphone icon, you can dictate right into a Microsoft Word document for free. I’ve found this feature helpful when I am in a hurry and prefer not to type a paragraph or two. Overall, I prefer Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking due to its accuracy, but in a pinch, Microsoft’s dictation software will get it done. Check it out and see if it improves your ability to draft a brief or even an email.

Grammarly – ok, it’s not speech-to-text, but it does take the text you’ve spoken and suggest edits to your spoken word so you can make a more polished final product. I don’t necessarily accept all of Grammerly’s suggestions, but I use enough of them that having this installed on my PC is a way of life now. They offer a 30-day free trial of their premium software. Once you have it review and suggest edits to some of your work, I suspect you will also be hooked on this simple PC add-on. Grammarly also has a phone app, but I never use it on my mobile device.

Get Grammarly

#3 Get Paperless on the Go

A paperless office isn’t just trendy; it’s efficient and cost-effective. With the right tools, any solo practitioner can leave behind the mess of papers and experience a more organized, streamlined practice.

Apple Notes – You may not have realized it, but you have a document scanner in your pocket. Apple notes offers a scanning tool built right in. As every lawyer knows, when a client takes a photograph of a document, it is often blurry, dark, or misshapen, and it is not something you want to submit to the court. Making a PDF scan is the only way to copy documents on the go. Thankfully, Apple makes the process easy. To use the included free scanner on your iPhone: (1) make a new note (or within an existing note), (2) click the paperclip, (3) then select scan documents, (4) get your document completely within the camera view – it will automatically take the scan when it sees all four corners of your document, (5) click save or scan the next page if your document is more than 1 page. This tool is robust…and free. Once you’ve scanned your document, you can email it, take notes on it, or otherwise just have a copy for safekeeping. Before Apple offered this free feature, I was a huge proponent of TinyScanner, which I used to scan copies of court orders as they were signed by the judge or other immediate scan needs like sending opposing counsel a copy of a document a client had brought with them to court that day. Apple’s free tool is all you need, although there are dozens of phone camera scanners out there to pick from if you prefer something else or are an Android user. You can also check out CamScanner and Adobe Scan if the Apple scanner isn’t your cup of tea.

#4 The Best Way to Take Meeting “Notes”

• Zoom with Otter.ai Integration: Conduct secure video meetings with clients and use Otter.ai’s live transcription to capture every detail for the record and later use on the file. If you are not a great notetaker or just want to really capture your client’s sentiment, tone, and story, give Zoom with a transcription integration a try. Zoom offers its own AI tool to generate transcriptions, but sometimes, third-party apps can give you more features. Grain also offers excellent transcription and has a free plan. Stay focused on your client interaction and review the full transcript later. Meeting with clients using a feature like this can really help you stay engaged and focused on asking questions rather than writing down notes.