Law Practice Management
One Firm’s Paperless Law Office
Posted Apr 21, 2008, 01:32 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
As Kermit the Frog found out long ago, it's not that easy being green. And now lawyers are finding that out, too, even though many strongly believe the benefits are well worth the occasional inconvenience.
For the past two years, San Diego's Sullivan Hill Lewin Rez & Engel has been working to create a paperless law office, and the dream is now a reality, reports the San Diego Business Journal.
When paper documents enter the 25-attorney firm's office "they are scanned into a database, filed according to company policy and then shredded and recycled." Other green measures promoted by the firm include recycled-paper letterhead and envelopes, shutting down computers at night and on weekends and double-sided photocopying.
Sullivan Hill is implementing these measures under a joint American Bar Association and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency climate challenge program that encourages law firms to take practical steps to help the environment.
David Friedland, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Beveridge & Diamond, is vice chairman of the Air Quality Committee of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. His own firm has a "green team" to promote such practices, but Friedland admits that it can be a challenge to adapt to them.
His own firm's policy of double-sided printing, for instance, "takes some getting used to,” he says.
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