One of the best things I ever did for my law practice was go paperless.  One of the best pieces of equipment/technology I bought for my office was a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner (in fact, I have 3 of them).  So what does it mean to go paperless?  What it doesn’t mean is that your office will be devoid of paper.  Right now, that is simply not realistic.  For example, I practice divorce litigation in the Massachusetts Probate Courts and since the court system is not paperless, I must file pleadings by paper.  Also, if you’re an estate planning attorney, you will have occasion to keep original Wills and Trusts.  The idea is to use LESS paper and not entirely paperLESS.

The first step in going paperless is getting the basic technology.  It is a costly investment at first, but you will get your money’s worth by having increased productivity and a clean office.  First, decide what kind of scanner your office needs.  If you’re a solo or a very small firm, you should invest in the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 that I mentioned above.  You can either get one ScanSnap and put it in a central location where everyone can use it, or splurge and get one for everyone (I prefer the latter for my office).  If you have a larger law office or if you do large amounts of transactional work, you might want to invest in a commercial bulk scanner.

The good thing about the ScanSnap is that it also comes with Adobe Acrobat Standard edition.  The software itself is worth buying the scanner in my opinion.  If you happen to buy a scanner that’s not the Fujitsu, then you will want to go buy Adobe Acrobat.  If you want to splurge, I would upgrade to the PRO version.  In my opinion, all attorneys should have and learn to use Adobe Acrobat regardless of whether or not you’re going paperless.

*Tip: Do not buy a flat bed scanner to use exclusively for paperless office.  Top feeders like the ScanSnap scans much faster and will cause you less heartache in the long run.

Once you have a scanner and Adobe Acrobat, it’s time to start scanning.  What do you need to scan? Everything!

The challenge at this point, is knowing how to organize and find files.  I would suggest the following naming convention:

<year>_<2-digit month>_<2-digit day> <Correspondence type> to/frm <Party name> re <subject matter>

So for example, if I was receiving a letter from opposing counsel regarding a settlement agreement, I would name it as such:

2011_04_17 Ltr frm OC re Separation Agreement.pdf

The way this will look on your computer is that everything will be ordered chronologically and just by looking at the file name, you’ll be able to know what the file is about without to open it up.  It makes for searching through a client’s file, extremely simple.

You should also institute an office policy that every single piece of paper that comes into the office, must be scanned first, no exceptions.  And every single piece of paper that goes out, should also be scanned.

*Tip: Don’t let the enormity of scanning all your old files keep you from going paperless today.  Start going paperless now and move forward.  You can always hire an intern to scan old cases.  This will make the transition less a herculean effort.

If you remember to do this and keep the naming convention consistent and keep at it, sooner rather than later, you will be running a LESSpaper office and clutter and the need for big filing cabinets will be a thing of the past.