A Look Into The (Legal) Office of the Future?

If this is the Office of the Future....bring it on! 

Welcome to the office of 2020 or so. If you still go to one, that is. Thanks to instant wireless communications and encryption technology, remote working -- from home or anywhere else on Earth -- will be commonplace 10 to 15 years from now. But an office in the traditional sense will still come in handy for working on team projects as well as for meeting clients and suppliers.

What follows is a glimpse into a typical office-of-the-future. What the heck -- imagine that it's yours.

Electronic wallpaper covers the walls. When you're not using it to show charts, graphs and other business presentations, it will be easy to switch to between pictures of the kids or some other pleasing images. Office chairs will have built-in sensors to detect your stress level. Depending on the result, the chair can then gently suggest a brief nap or exercises to help decompress.

The "office computer" is just a wide, high-definition laptop monitor with a wireless connection to a central server. If a keyboard is needed, the monitor can project one on the desk or a soft pad for virtual typing. But, more often than not, you'll typically bark out voice commands to the machine. Say "Display the Perkins account," and the computer will oblige with a slew of information about the client: Financial numbers, past orders, a video of a recent meeting, information the client has posted on the Internet recently and more.

Actually, many of us who work from home or telecomute and are trying to stay on top of technology are pioneering the change in the legal profession.  The bit in our mouth remains the unimaginative, threatened, insecure organizations which feel the need to stifle legal creativity and our own inability to educate the clients as to the benefits of the technology.

Solos have always led the charge in technology in the legal profession.  The next 15, 20 years will be no different...just incredibly exciting and very fast-paced.  Stay open, innovate, create, share your ideas but recognize it is happening and there is nothing one can do to stop it. 

Comments

[Edward Wiest]

To be a little practical from the cost side:

1. How much energy will it take to run this place?

2. Will the energy even be available?

3. Will we be able to afford that much energy?

3. Will our clients (whether they access via teleconferencing or in person) care about the visual aspects of this investment (plasma wallpaper?)?

Strictly my 2 cents (ov ever decreasing value).

[jack]

virtual meetings are available now. we use Yugma (www.yugma.com) to do business with clients across the city, country, world. you should check it out - they're currently handing out free accounts for people who have blogs.

either way, they're cutting cost for traveling and using yugma has increased our meeting efficiency, as opposed to just teleconferencing.