Introduction
Richard S. Alembik, PC now operates a full-service videoconferencing studio (featuring the VSX 7000e by POLYCOM®) in its own offices.
Until recently this technology was limited to just a select few large international firms. This on-site “virtual airline” frees our clients and colleagues from dependency on the big firms and offers them some exciting new options in three distinct ways.
Attorney and Business Conferencing
The firm’s videoconferencing service can put anyone into virtually any conference room or law office on the globe.
But now that person can also be home in time for family dinner.
Needless to say, the firm’s clients can meet with its lawyers and staff, or with other colleagues (existing or potential) in order to cement new relationships and business deals that would previously have been too expensive or inconvenient to achieve. This technology allows conference participants to speak in a normal tone of voice, and to see and hear the other participants without the difficulty associated with old-fashioned telephone conferences or inadequate “toy” web-cams. It also allows multiple participants to engage in the same web-conference from multiple locations.
Long Distance Alternative Dispute Resolution
For parties to a dispute (who are more commonly separated by a continent or an ocean these days) videoconferencing technology is generating exciting new problem-solving techniques at a significant cost savings. Parties can now negotiate and mediate with the personal touch that results from seeing the other party and from being able to visually examine documents and exhibits in real time. A successfully mediated or negotiated dispute can save the firm’s clients legal and travel expenses for a fraction of the cost (financial or otherwise) of full-blown litigation.
Litigation Advantages
If litigation (or arbitration) cannot be avoided, then videoconferencing can make it much less expensive to pursue. The firm’s clients generally prefer to put the money saved when attorneys and witnesses do not need to travel in their own pockets. A witness who might otherwise not be examined or deposed due to the prohibitive cost of travel might get a second look and might therefore become an invaluable element to a case if he or she can be examined or deposed remotely.
Conclusion
Richard S. Alembik, PC is excited to offer its clients and colleagues trend-setting technology previously only available to the mammoth law firms, but with a small firm’s personalized approach to which the mammoth firms can never adapt.