And now for something really different ...

Like it says in my profile, I enjoy law office technology. Well, not really. It is more of an obsession. I should spend more time practicing law and less fiddling with hardware and software. Today my inner geek has triumphed. I want to write about a free tool for case management. Yes, it’s from Microsoft. But that is its strength, not a shortcoming. And did I mention it’s free?

I’m talking about SharePoint. More particularly, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. It’s been around since about 2000, when it was known as SharePoint Team Services. Today it comes in several flavors ranging in price from free to several thousands of dollars. Unless your firm is in the AmLaw 500 you only need to consider the free version.

SharePoint is not easy to describe. One of Microsoft’s gurus calls it a list of lists, but it’s much more than that. It’s a place to share calendars, contacts, tasks, email, and more, all while controlling access both inside and outside your firm or organization. Think public folders on steroids.

So what can SharePoint do for you? My firm has three offices in South Carolina. I have one case where lawyers from two of those offices are working together. With SharePoint I can create a website for collaboration, documents, case calendar, and notes. I can control who has access, for example, me, my secretary and paralegal, Bill from Rock Hill, and his staff. If we have co-counsel from a different firm, I can grant access to her with no programming knowledge at all. With SharePoint I don’t have to worry about a pleading received in another location but not sent to me. As soon as its image is posted on the SharePoint site I get an email notification. If Rock Hill gets a hearing notice, a staffer there puts in on the SharePoint calendar. Since my Outlook calendar connects to SharePoint, the hearing appears there instantly.

Today’s version is so tightly integrated with Microsoft Office that there is even a “Save to SharePoint” option in the file menus of every application. I mentioned Outlook integration briefly. You can actually view the SharePoint site in Outlook. If a new document appears on the site, you can open it with Outlook’s preview feature. You can collect case emails and store them on the SharePoint site for each case. You can drag and drop messages, contacts, tasks, notes and events from Outlook to the case site. When you draft, say, discovery responses, you can save the document to SharePoint; send a message to other team members; and create a “workflow” for commenting and editing the responses before they are served. And, once you configure the site, all that happens automagically.

Most basic setup tasks are done inside the SharePoint web interface. Creating the site, adding team members, setting up pages for correspondence, pleadings, discovery documents—it is so simple even a lawyer can do it. Microsoft recommends pushing site creation down to the lowest staff level. Like NCO’s run the Army, our secretaries run the office. They know where things go. They’re the ones who should create the “filing cabinet” that is part of the SharePoint site. And once you have a case site set up for auto accidents, med mal, trip and fall, you can save it as a template. The next time you open a case you don’t have to go through the same configuration routine.

You can customize SharePoint as much as you wish. Some things—look and feel, arrangement of page elements—can be done in SharePoint. I paid $150 two years ago for SharePoint Designer. Microsoft now gives it away. It is a “WYSIWYG” editor for adding custom workflows and other elements to a SharePoint site. If you are really ambitious you will need Visual Studio or a similar development tool—or hire a programmer.

Microsoft says Windows SharePoint Services should only be installed on one of its server products: Windows Server 2003 or 2008 or Small Business Server 2003 or 2008. It does not support installation on a client operating system. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Check out this blog for instructions how to install SharePoint on a Vista or Windows 7 box. Even if your network is peer-to-peer you can enjoy SharePoint’s benefits.

Take a minute and look at the SharePoint article in Wikipedia. See some of the features in action on Microsoft’s website. This product is worth a look for any shop needing a cheap upgrade from Exchange public folders. For that matter, anyone who uses only Outlook (or even note cards) for practice management should seriously consider moving to SharePoint.