Dropbox for Solo and Small Firm Lawyers

Dropbox is a file storage, syncing, and sharing web-based utility.  You download the Dropbox app and install it on your computer, iPad, or smartphone.  You will then be asked to create a Dropbox account, if you don't already have one.  The account is free up to 2GB of storage and you can buy up to 100GB of storage.  Dropbox creates a folder that can be accessed directly through the Finder or Windows Explorer or through its System Tray icon.  Drop files into the Dropbox folder and it automatically syncs them to Dropbox's secure Webservers.

That's great in itself, but here is where the fun begins.  Let's say you just set up Dropbox and your office and put the outline for your oral argument before the Supreme Court in it.  You go home but didn't bring your work computer with you.  No problem, open the Dropbox folder that you installed on your home computer and there it is.  If you work on the file and make changes, Dropbox will automatically sync those changes with your office computer so that everything is current.

What if you are working with co-counsel?  You can share the file, or even a whole folder, with co-counsel.  Your co-counsel can make changes and they will be synced to your computers as well.  Think of the trouble this will save for collaborative work.  It has the collaborative power of Google Docs while still running your own word processor on your own machine.

It strikes me that just about every solo/small firm lawyer will have a use for this.

Here's a video the demonstrates how Dropbox works:

- Peter H. Berge

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed