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PAGE 10 FOCUS January 18, 2010 • Law Times Streamlining through technology Firm eliminates paper to improve service and efficiency BY ROBERT TODD Law Times M aurizio Romanin, president of Lawyer- DoneDeal Corp., knows how important it is for real estate lawyers to stream- line their practice and create efficiencies. He shudders, in fact, at the thought of the unnecessary tasks many practitioners face. "Hav- ing to rekey or enter in data into a system, it's ridiculous," he says. "If a bank sends you instructions on a mortgage, why should you have to get that in paper and retype it into your own file elec- tronically? That's 15 minutes of work, forgetting about whether you make a mistake." In framing his quest for en- hanced efficiency, Romanin sepa- rates two aspects of dealing with a file. First is compliance and per- formance, but successful lawyers combine that with marketing efforts, which really boils down to developing a positive and last- ing relationship with clients. But that can be tough when you've worked on a house deal and never met them in person. The marketing as- pect is what Romanin says will push Law- yerDoneDeal to its next level of service, hopefully removing the "illusion" that cli- ents can't get a hold of their lawyer. "We are going to significantly enhance the capability of a law- yer's client to access the lawyer over the Inter- net," he says. He says it's now pos- sible to give clients ac- cess to information in their files online that previously required a billed phone call to the lawyer, such as a confir- mation of when their closing date is. He ex- pects that new offering to be on the shelf by the end of this year. One person who is also keenly previously vice presi- dent of TitlePLUS. "Certainly, a big fo- cus of the TitlePLUS in- surance-ordering system is that it's interactive and it has, basically, due- diligence checklists for the lawyer in the system that constantly reconfig- ure to present the type of issues that are relevant to the subject transaction," says Waters. "The lawyer is much less likely to miss an unusual issue . . . on a given type of property," she adds. Waters also notes the David Feld and Sonia Kalia find they can serve cli- ents better through technology. Being constantly connected, however, makes putting work aside a challenge. aware of the power of electronic systems to streamline the practice of real estate law is LawPRO pres- ident and CEO Kathleen Waters, value of efforts through TitlePLUS to help law- yers avoid the need to re-enter data. But on a larger scale, she says LawPRO is trying to drive home to practi- tioners the extent to which they can streamline their operations with technology. "In the residential real estate area in particular, I think it's fair to say that clients have reasonably high expectations of what they want from their lawyer but prefer to keep their fees to a minimum. So to the extent lawyers can implement technology solutions that can expedite parts of the work, that then gives the lawyer more time to focus on the client relationship. That can be a really big win. "We know very well at LawPRO that issues around cli- ent advice and client communi- cations can be the riskiest issues to a practice. And really it's the time with the lawyer, whether it's face to face or through other forms of lawyer communication, that the client really values." One major benefit of new real estate technologies is heightened control for law- yers, says Waters. Checks for conflicts of interest and confir- mation of client-identification requirements are just two of the things technology can fa- cilitate, she says. There are even tools to help ensure that clerks are taking the proper steps to guard against real estate fraud. Among the real estate lawyers who have put the power of elec- tronics to work are David Feld and Sonia Kalia. The married law partners have transformed their Toronto practice into what their counterparts a few decades ago might have compared to the Star- ship Enterprise. Feld and Kalia don't work with paper, an impressive feat for a branch of law that is particularly document-intensive with faxes Editor-in-Chief Harvey M. Haber, Q.C., LSM and numerous leading experts as contributors Covers commercial leasing issues with specific emphasis on shopping centre leases in one text Shopping Centre Leases has been considered the definitive text on the subject since its inception in 1976. Revised and updated, by leading commercial leasing practitioners from across Canada, this Second Edition includes a vast collection of articles and precedents on various topics of current interest. For example: • Technology and Telecommunications Concerns • Pandemic Preparedness for Building Owners and Managers • Insurance for Shopping Centres • Leasing Aspects of the Franchise Relationship • Transfers of Lease, Assigning, Subletting and Change of Control • Operating Costs and other Additional Rents in a Commercial Lease from a Landlord's and Tenant's Perspective • Agreements to Lease, Letters of Intent and Term Sheets Carefully prepared this resource includes a number of precedent documents, a table of cases and relevant articles under each of these sections: • The Lease • Financial Considerations • Statutory Considerations • Rent and Expense of Operation • Operation of Business • Maintenance and Operation of Centre • Default • Precedents Order your copy today! Hardbound • 1,108 pp. 2008 • $185 P/C 0279010002 • ISBN 978-0-88804-477-8 For a 30-day, no-risk evaluation call: 1 800 263 2037 or 1 800 263 3269 www.canadalawbook.ca Haber_shopping centre (LT 1-3x4).indd 1 Canada Law Book is A Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. • Prices subject to change without notice, and to applicable taxes. www.lawtimesnews.com LT0110 1/12/10 3:16:58 PM and e-mails transmitted at a diz- zying pace. They've managed to do so by unifying their systems so that all documents come into their office as PDF computer files. They even utilize a soft fax machine, which converts faxes to an attachment on an e-mail mes- sage in order to forward informa- tion to clients. "That allows us to organize the information extremely well and make it searchable by any staff member," says Feld. "It also al- lows us to hire employees that can work offsite, and therefore we can hire more employees and have ev- eryone working on the same data at the same time." The firm has also shifted its communications primarily to e- mail. It helps that most of their clients are from a younger demo- graphic who rely heavily on their BlackBerrys or iPhones. Feld says that fosters "instant response time" for clients. But there is at least one draw- back to a more streamlined, tech- savvy real estate practice: "Because I'm so connected, I'm always con- nected. So it's hard not to answer a client at 9 p.m. It's hard not to answer a client on Saturday after- noon," says Feld. "All of the information keeps flowing and it just never really stops anymore. There's not time when I can stop working. So I just keep working until my wife says 'stop.'" LT Photo: Brian Ko, VIA Photography