By: Megan R. Fistori & Gianna C. Marchetti
The best lawyers must be willing to work collaboratively, irrespective of who they represent. In actuality, we all are constantly exchanging ideas; whether a student or a professional in the workplace, no one writes or works completely independently.
When most recently did you confer with a fellow classmate while creating an outline for class; or when was the last time you asked a co-worker to review and edit the first draft of a memorandum, or vise-versa? The chances are, not too long ago! The collaboration process is an essential ingredient to success, thus laying a foundation for such while in law school is vital in order to bring these learned skills to the workplace.
A crucial legal practice skill for law students to grasp early in their academic careers is the organization and collaboration of work products. There are several different ways law students may practice the collaborative nature of their future profession – one of those being delving into technology platforms such as Dashboard Legal.
What is Dashboard Legal?
Dashboard Legal is an e-mail and practice management platform designed for lawyers. This internal-facing tool captures a lawyer’s knowledge, document, and task management. Dashboard Legal is a collaboration tool that allows a lawyer to stay organized while accessing clients and matters. The dashboard provides a snapshot of a lawyer’s current workflow in a cohesive manner.
How Can We Use Dashboard Legal in Law School?
We used Dashboard Legal to enhance the collaboration and organization of a review and editing process for an article. Written work products such as notes, case comments and blogs, are created and edited throughout the year by journal members here at Suffolk University Law School.
By utilizing features on Dashboard Legal such as multiple dashboards, checklists, and email integration, we are able to amplify the review process, sort materials and work product, as well as track and visualize updates in real time. These features are beneficial to a typical editorial board, which is frequently tasked with writing, reviewing, and editing multiple written works simultaneously.
Dashboard Legal centralizes and stores information in prominent, specific locations. This project management platform allows for authors and editors to keep track of edits and comments, and easily communicate throughout the entire editing process.
Using modern lawyering tools while in law school can benefit students after graduation. It’s critical to explore and test new tech products on the market. Technology is constantly disrupting the practice of law and focusing these tools allows students to leave law school with fine-tuned legal practice skills.
What Are the Potential Drawbacks?
Although Dashboard Legal, amongst subsequent modern lawyer tools, are quite beneficial to the modern law student, there are some potential drawbacks. First and foremost, access to the platform does come with a cost. Available are different pricing packages depending on one’s needs, such as an individual, group, and firm package. Be that as it may, with an array of free options to choose from it may not be practical budget wise for students.
Adopting a new tool also prompts the onboarding stage, which is pivotal in the adoption process. It is likely that the process as a whole will be quite time consuming; with several different new features and controls to learn, the onboarding stage is no effortless task. With regard to the adoption of Dashboard Legal, the end-user must become familiar with navigating the platform in its entirety. From creating and editing checklists, to utilizing chat features to provide updates, one must spend time with the platform to become adequately acquainted. Being that law students have quite hectic schedules; a structured and comprehensive onboarding stage may not be feasible. Since a user’s initial interaction with Dashboard Legal will begin here, it is key to take this into account.
Additionally, as the end-users of a technology platform, law students must remember that their engagement is essential; the platform is not fully operational without human intervention. For instance, one drawback to using the platform is the possibility of developing a cluttered dashboard. An increasing volume of documents, checklists, and other sources of information can overwhelm the dashboard, and hence requires student involvement. At all times recognize that the use of technology is the first step towards effective collaboration, but not the lone solution.
Final Thoughts…
It is important for law students to explore and familiarize themselves with the new age of technology transforming the legal industry. Law practice management tools, like Dashboard Legal is just one-way students can fine tune legal practice skills. Dashboard legal is a great example of how technology encourages a new wave of collaboration throughout the legal profession. If you cannot organize, share, or collaborate on your work product, as a legal practice skill, it’s going to be an uphill battle for any law student or lawyer.