Using Dropbox with Amicus Attorney
(Presentation Notes)
Full Presentation & Video Available @
http://accellis.com/ using-amicus-attorney-with-dropbox
Materials by: Colleen Heine
Amicus Attorney Certified Consultant
My name is Colleen Heine and I am with Accellis Technology Group. We provide legal
technology consulting solutions to firms nationwide as well as complete network support. I am
an Amicus-Certified Consultant, meaning I work with all of the products Gavel & Gown offers
and I specialize in practice management programs. Accellis Technology Group is also a member
of the President’s Club within Gavel & Gown.
Over the past 20 years, Gavel & Gown has continued to focus solely on case management
software with their development team exceling at keeping up on the trends within legal
technology. In this year’s release, the Premium edition of Amicus Attorney included Dropbox
integration. We will move on to a product demonstration shortly and will be looking at the
Premium 2014 edition, but any Amicus Cloud users should keep in mind that Dropbox
integration is available for your office as well. For any firms on Small Firm Edition or legacy
versions of Amicus, this feature is not currently available. However, if you’re interested in
upgrading or learning more, I’ll have my contact information up at the end of our presentation.
Today, we are going to take a look at how Amicus Attorney’s integration with Dropbox can
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improve your firm’s workflow by providing access to documents on the go. First, we will begin
by learning more about how Dropbox works and the benefits of integrating it with Amicus
Attorney.
Dropbox is a file hosting service, just like you store a file on your computer or server, only now
it can be accessed over an internet browser. Or you can view it locally in your office right from
your computer’s storage, giving you the best of both worlds. Providing optional cloud access
means firms can access their items from a web browser via computers, smart phones or tablets
from anywhere. One also has peace of mind of mind knowing that if a device is lost, stolen or
damaged, that the sole copy of one’s work or personal items are backed-up and readily
available. People often initially view Dropbox as just additional storage space to place
documents, photos or videos, but it can be so much more from a business perspective.
Firms utilizing Dropbox are given the freedom to truly work anywhere and have access to their
data at a moment’s notice. Gone are the days of packing up your redwells for the night or
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forwarding emails with a surplus of attachments containing your client’s files, now you can drop
your files into Dropbox and continue to work outside of the office when needed.
How Does Dropbox Work?
The question I get asked on this topic often is, “but how does it work?” This is a completely
valid question because most of us are used to the server to workstation environment where the
server lives down the hall and houses all of your programs and files including Amicus Attorney.
Your computer could then connect, when you were in the office to look at your files and
documents. This set-up often left you limited when out-of-town or over weekends. With
Dropbox, you install a folder right on your computer that will sync over to any other device
you like to work on. For example, I’m an iPhone user and I can download an app to access my
stuff right on my phone. Think of it like a virtual USB drive or, if we really want to date
ourselves a little, think of it as your floppy disk that you could take from computer to computer
to continue working on documents except your information is just being accessed in the Cloud.
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So just like I drag and drop files to a client’s folder, I can do the same in my Dropbox folder and
it is automatically shared with any device of my choosing. Storage servers are provided by a
managed service provider, and their infrastructure is located in data centers across the United
States.
Dropbox Storage & Pricing Options
Storage size is going to be based on which type of Dropbox account is chosen-- basic being the
free package, with 2GB of storage typically for personal use. Pro Edition’s pricing begins at
$9.99/month with over 100 GB of storage, and Business being $15/ month per user granting an
unlimited amount of storage needs. This is the recommended platform for any business users
because you’ll have access to additional features such as unlimited versioning of documents that,
trust me, your firm will use! Let’s next take a look at some of those benefits specific to business
account holders.
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Business Account Benefits
If a firm member left today, does your office have a policy in place from preventing documents
from going with them? Similarly, if a user lost their tablet that was syncing with their email
account, is your firm able to remotely prevent users from accessing those documents? Businesses,
especially law firms, are going to benefit from the file-sharing components by granting access to
their files with co-workers, clients, of-counsel or remote firm members with the click of a
button. With Dropbox, there is a deletion recovery and version history that allows up to 30
days of unlimited recovery. You’ll have access to an additional collaboration utility outside of
Amicus or email. Firm audit logs allow administrators to view user activity or confirm changes
or uploads.
Project harmony is an upcoming feature that was recently announced for business accounts
only. In our image here you can provide feedback and edit notes to co-workers as an additional
collaboration tool. In this shot, the PowerPoint the team is working on notes directly on the
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slides rather than in an email message that you need to go back and reference. This is one of the
features that prove Dropbox is continuing to design with businesses in mind.
Using Dropbox within Amicus Attorney
Next, let’s move over to my Amicus database. I want to show you the look and feel of working
with Dropbox right in your Amicus office.
First let’s go over how the firm’s administrator would enable access under firm settings and the
Online Services section of the Documents module. I’ve already enabled my account and Amicus
provides a nice guide for this set-up. Typically you’re going to see an enable option that will ask
for your Dropbox log-in information. As that is entered, each of my Amicus files will be added
into Dropbox as a sub-folder. This is a quick process, but one that should be done by an AIC or
Amicus Independent consultant to protect your existing documents.
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When you sign up for a Dropbox account, an apps folder is created within the Dropbox folder
which will work like any other folder on your hard drive except it automatically syncs to your
other devices. When I enable my Amicus access it takes each of my active files and creates a
folder in Dropbox for each file. This way as I’m working on the Cooperman case, my
documents are separated from the Smith file. I’ll also have a new icon in my system tray on my
computer so I can easily access the documents I was working with last or be taken to my web
account.
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Let’s open the web portal to show you what that looks like as well:
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So let’s say I was working from home and wanted my co-workers to see a pleading that I
drafted. I can find my Jackson Real Estate Matter and upload the document form my desktop.
From here, I may also want to share it with my client. Every time we see this link symbol it is
the opportunity to share a document. I can now enter my client’s email address along with any
messages. Besides individual documents I also have the ability to link or share entire folders.
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In coming into the links section, I can also remove access at a moment’s notice. Let’s say I share
with a client their entire file or need to prevent a user from sharing an old draft. I can open
links and remove the document that was being shared.
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Under events, I also have a timeline or audit log of my recent activities:
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I also have the ability to close access to a linked document:
Let’s move back over to Amicus and pretend I am the paralegal who is in the office today and
have been instructed to review our motion. I’ll have the ability to access it right from Amicus
Anywhere or from my traditional Amicus file. Users can also create Dropbox subfolders to
separate out their work. From Amicus you could view the document, delete it and it will also
be removed from Dropbox or search the information in the document details. Any changes in
Dropbox sync every 15 minutes.
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I can also see which documents have been shared through Dropbox within Amicus:
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Using Dropbox in Amicus Anywhere:
When integrating Amicus Attorney with Dropbox you’ll truly have the best of both worlds, a
server based practice management system with the cloud accessibility of documents. You’ll be
able to control who can view specific documents with the click of a button. Rather than
emailing back and forth documents with edits or comments, if one person accesses or versions a
document those changes automatically get pushed to everyone’s Dropbox account.
Mobility
Moving back to our presentation, we will address some of the benefits and concerns that firms
should be aware of when new to Dropbox. As I said before, with mobile access to your work it
will truly give firms the best of both worlds: the mobility function they need and the server
security provided by working within their own office. Mobility is a luxury that attorneys need
to take advantage of, and with Dropbox attorneys can manage their data more effectively.
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Today’s attorneys have moved away from the traditional briefcase carrying 9-5 working image
of a lawyer. Being in a service oriented business, you need to take advantage of mobility: the
ability to work from anywhere. When a thought or edit comes to your mind, you’ll no longer
have to draft notes to bring into the office the next day. You can pull up your Dropbox account
from your tablet on the couch to make a new version, edit change or share with co-counsel
from the comfort of home. Being out of the office or waiting in a court room no longer needs
to be a burden as you can continue to work around your schedule providing updates to clients
is a breeze and truly collaborating with your co-workers, regardless of where your office is that
day.
Security
Let’s review the common concerns when working with a file sharing program like Dropbox. Bar
associations across the country have continued to address what it means to work in the cloud
for law firms. This debate is one that will continue in the legal environment as policies continue
to evolve and change at your local and state level.
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Keep in mind that the security of Dropbox and the Ethics of your law firm using the service are
two very separate conversations. Your firm needs to be concerned and take proper precautions
in both arenas.
Dropbox has over 4 million businesses entrusting their services including Foursquare and
National Geographic. Dropbox encrypts your data during both the transfer and storage of your
data as well as offers Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and AES-256 bit encryption. In layman’s terms-you’re being offered bank level security with its partnership with Amazon Web Services for its
Amazon S3 storage service. Now I don’t know about everyone, but my laptop and paper files
definitely don’t have armed guards protecting them.
Lastly, a procedures and policies guide is another extremely important part of any new software
implementation. How many of you today would know who in the office is uploading firm
documents to an external party like a USB drive or even to Dropbox? Are they limited by size
of documents or confidentiality from taking firm documents outside of the office? Do they have
access to HR or other personnel files?
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Your firm’s administrators and technical support providers should work together to develop a
procedures and policies guide that all firm members sign off on to prevent any miss-use. Make
sure to enable Dropbox’s two-step verification feature to properly secure your account. This
means getting away from the user id and password, but having a secondary step during each
log-in specific to your firm. Also take advantage of the email notification option whereby your
firm admin can be notified if someone else attempts to connect their device or app to your
Dropbox account.
Ethical Considerations of Using Dropbox
Next, let’s discuss the ethics of working in Dropbox. As an additional resource to this robust
topic, our office will provide access to a whitepaper covering the Ethics of using Dropbox in the
legal field. I stress each of you review this document and also your state’s bar association’s
policy and opinions on hosting your documents in the cloud. Keep in mind the privacy policy
and terms of service have been a hot-button issue in the past with Dropbox; our quotation
demonstrates the storage and transmission of your firm’s work could create a liability issue. We
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have several resources within the whitepaper that can better explain your safety when working
with Dropbox. Firms nationwide have entrusted Dropbox and Amicus Attorney’s developers
saw the need for integration on multiple platforms in their latest release.
So you may be thinking, I’m interested, but what’s next? I would initially recommend each of
you sign up for a free trial of Dropbox today to get a feel for the ease of use of the program.
Should you consider it for your business’ needs, discuss it with any firm administrators to
develop a procedures guide in the office reflecting how Dropbox should be used internally.
Next, once a firm account has been created or purchased, work with an AIC (Amicus
Independent Consultant) to complete the integration with your Amicus Premium or Amicus
Cloud account.
Keep up to date on your bar association’s rulings and policies regarding cloud storage and also
the terms of service for Dropbox. Both of these are continuously evolving, and you should
always be informed of any changes. Each of our attendees today will be provided a whitepaper
addressing the Ethics of using Dropbox prepared by our office.
A recent American Bar Association survey conducted said 58% of attorneys are using Dropbox.
Keep in mind the security and ethical questions to ask if considering Dropbox, and if your firm is
already using Amicus Attorney we strongly recommend the integration of both products.
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Related Resources:
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Ethical Considerations of Using Dropbox in Your Law Firm
Amicus Clouds Adds Dropbox Integration
Amicus Attorney Premium Edition Demonstration
Getting Your Firm to Actually Use Your Practice Management System
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About Accellis Technology Group
Accellis Technology Group is one of the nation’s leading providers of IT Consulting & Managed
Services for the legal industry. We help law firms of all sizes reduce their day-to-day
administrative tasks so they can focus on growing their business. Whether you need quicker
access to help desk support, proactive IT management, improved security, or custom software
solutions, Accellis can provide the expertise and direction to meet your goals. Our unique
approach often saves clients thousands every month, while improving support, network security
and efficiency.
Additional whitepapers and articles can be found at http://accellis.com/blog/
Contact information:
Colleen Heine
Senior Software Consultant
Accellis Technology Group
Phone: 216-662-3200
Email: cheine@accellis.com
www.accellis.com
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