Law Firm Makes Case for CD-ROM Networking   by Angie Mongillo As corporations tighten their grip on legal expenses, law firms have been forced to find ways to be more efficient. Most have responded by adopting technology in their practices -- investing in workstations, word processing and time management software, local area networks, and CD-ROM libraries. But too often making the decision to embrace these new technologies has been easier than putting them to efficient use. Reynolds Roux Price Casas & Riley, a full service law firm based in Los Altos, California, discovered this fact when it replaced the majority of its traditional law books with CD-ROM libraries. "We had moved to CD-ROM databases to make it possible for everyone in the firm to do computerized legal searches quickly," says Daniel L. Casas, a partner of Reynolds, Roux, Price, Casas & Riley. "But having the databases accessible only through our library's standalone PC was so inconvenient that it was difficult for all lawyers to take advantage of the technology." The firm, which provides services from business formation and technology licensing to estate planning and civil litigation, had invested in several CD-ROM based law libraries to minimize the inefficiencies associated with book-based research. Included were the Brancroft & Whitney's LawDesk, a four-disc set that covers appellate court decisions back to the 1920s, Deering's Codes, Research Institute of America's (RIA) OnPoint System for tax research, Miller and Starr Real Estate Law and the Witkin Reports, one of the most important civil law databases. Powerful search-engine software provided by the libraries' electronic publishers ensured retrieving information from these thousands of pages of court decisions, statutes, and treatises was short work. The limited access to the databases hindered their use, however. The only CD-ROM drive was installed in a standalone 486/50MHz PC workstation located in the firm's library. Some of the attorneys were reluctant to spend time learning how to use the software; all were frustrated when they had to stand in line to gain access to the workstation. Even though the move to CD-ROMs was specifically made to empower the attorneys for a competitive advantage, they continued to rely on one or two associates to do all the research. That often caused problems. "Since our associates became the database experts, those of us working over the weekend to meet a deadline called an associate if we needed research," Casas explains. "This was obviously inconvenient." To make the databases more accessible, several of the lawyers suggested installing internal CD-ROM drives at each desktop. Casas resisted. He knew that purchasing electronic law libraries for each attorney would be too costly and sharing discs among seven or eight people would prove counter-productive. Since the office was already networked, the decision was made to provide shared access to the CD-ROM data on the NetWare Ethernet LAN. After investigating several products, Casas selected Compact Devices' TopSpin CD-ROM server. The TopSpin server provided the firm a cost-effective means to share CDs on the LAN while offering easy installation, use, and administration. "Installing TopSpin was incredibly easy," says PC and Networking Consulting's Richard Lacampagne, a system designer and consultant who installed and regularly services the law firm's network. "I plugged it into the network, powered it up, and it was immediately visible as another node on the network. I've set up other CD-ROM servers and found them to be royal pains." Lacampagne credits the TopSpin's independent-server architecture for the speed in which the server was installed. Performing as a true file server, the standalone TopSpin server emulates the NetWare file server but operates independently of any other server or workstation. This feature eliminates the time-consuming task of loading NLMs and drivers onto the NetWare server or installing memory-resident programs on the workstations. The added benefit, says Lacampagne, is that an office administrator can set up and manage the TopSpin without being a network guru. "Although many firms would prefer to contract out all network tasks, installing a TopSpin is simple enough for an office administrator to install," says Lacampagne. The server supports and manages up to seven SCSI-II devices. Should the firm need to significantly expand its CD-ROM capabilities, it can readily install another TopSpin server on the same network segment. Now, with CD-ROM networking in place, the lawyers at Reynolds Roux Price Casas & Riley can conveniently access all the information contained in the electronic law libraries from their desktops. TopSpin shows up as a NetWare server, with the attached CD-ROM drives appearing as volumes. The user simply clicks on the appropriate CD-ROM icon and the CD-ROM appears on his or her screen. Because gaining access to the server requires just a few keystrokes, even the firm's most technology-shy users now rely on CD-ROM databases, notes Casas. Administration is equally simple. When a disc is removed, its access control configuration remains with the server and is reactivated when the disc is reinserted. Discs are automatically exported upon insertion, and thus require no further action by the office administrator or the users. To eliminate confusion when discs are placed in different drives, they are shown by both drive ID and disc name. Networking the CD-ROMs has allowed the firm to achieve its goal of getting the lawyers to use the CD-ROM technology they had in place. It is also realizing the technology's efficiency benefits. Lawyers can get the information they need immediately, without traveling to the server or physically swapping discs. They can accelerate document assembly by cutting and pasting relevant passages from the law libraries as they are preparing documents. And computer searches of the firm's four-disc LawDesk library is now a simple one-step process since the server allows multiple CD-ROM drives to be mapped as a single drive. Having the CD-ROM law libraries easily accessible over the network has sharpened Reynolds Roux Price Casas & Riley's competitive edge, according to Casas. To illustrate, Casas relates a recent incident in which an attorney from out of state called asking about a particular citation Casas had used. "Without getting up from my chair, I was able to type in one LawDesk computer search, retrieve the citation, and give him the answer while we were on the phone," recalls Casas. "Previously I would have had to call him back after physically going through the file or walking down the hall to conduct a computer search on each of the LawDesk discs. Too many time-consuming interruptions of that kind during your day, and you're out of business." An added advantage of networking the CD-ROMs is that Casas and his colleagues can simultaneously access LawDesk. Even when several are utilizing a database at the same time, Casas has encountered no significant performance degradation. "Networking CD-ROMs is an ideal solution for law practices," says Casas. "In fact," he adds only half in jest, "I'm afraid it won't be too long before it will be considered malpractice if a law practice doesn't take advantage of CD-ROM technology!"