Blogs

How do you define Essential Services for SIP?  Does this differ from WFH? 

• Probably not.  This has been a good opportunity to get these types of setups in place and working. 

How are you handling mail and courier deliveries/processing for SIP? Does this differ from WFH? 

• We have a few staff members that can walk to the office, so they will probably deal with this, assuming the post man actually delivers anything. 

How has your office physical security changed for SIP?  Does this differ from WFH? 

• No.  Our building is already on lockdown.  We are only allowing staff, bar members and deliveries into the building. 

How are you handling specialty printing (e.g., checks) and wet signatures for SIP?  How does this differ from WFH? 

• We are very old fashioned here.  This has been a real problem, especially how we do things.  We are looking at options not just from a WFH or SIP standpoint, but for going forward.  Wish us luck. 

If you have a "scan everything" policy, how are you executing on that for SIP? How does this differ from WFH? 

• Not really in practice today.  Just starting a "less paper" objective here.  Remember, we are very old fashioned here.  I came here and within 6 months shredded over 500 boxes of stuff that was from the 70's and 80's that I'm sure no one even knew about.  Working on the 90's and 2000's as we speak.  My shredding company hates me. 

• A lot of SIP orders in Texas exempt law firms, especially if they are supporting Essential services.
• SIP in New Jersey exempts law firms, although we only have 1-2 people from Office Services physically present on a rotating schedule.
• We're finding that most of the states where we have offices exempt legal services, identifying them as essential.
• WFH and SIP from a tech distribution wasn't different for us.
• WFH and SIP similar from IT perspective, but not from the human perspective.
• Priority mail is being scanned and made available in project folders.
• Rotating staff
• We have a scanning crew in the office, however major concern ongoing due to close proximity the job requires and exposure to COVID
• Notary signings
• There are 2 who go there (Ricoh runs our central services), scan important mail and email it to the appropriate persons
• Washington's order allows staff to go to work to maintain essential business functions (including supporting remote work)
• Office service folks have been considered essential to receive and distribute mail
• 1 person a day can go into office to get mail, scan it, take out any important deliveries.
• I'm SIP, WFH and Home Schooling 2 kids.
• We have no issues with getting mail at each of our offices. It is scanned and placed in NetDocs for users. 
• We're scanning mail and putting in folders in Imanage
• We have gone to remote online notarization for two notaries.
• We have a small team onsite who scans email and emails.
• Signatures! We've had to figure out how to SECURELY sign and get signatures
• Only have 3 people on site in our HQ for basic functions like mail scanning, package delivery, etc.
• Remote notarization
• We have teams onsite (Los Angeles) that come onsite a few days a week to scan the mail and process hardcopy materials.
• If you have Citrix ShareFile there's an esign product that works well
• Our state (Maryland) does not allow remote notarization; will be available October 2020
• Remote notarization is not yet legal in all states
• Remote notarization
• Our DocuSign licenses have increased by 25%
• We have a small team onsite to scan in mail, print and sign cheques and scan in items needed by WFM staff
• Our somewhat limited DocuSign rollout accelerated very quickly
• I am library director. Having one staff come in 1x/week to triage mail and at least scan invoices in.  Implemented e-signatures to move POs/invoices forward.
• Our DocuSign also has left the pilot group and gone firmwide ...
• Having issues getting DocuSign to respond! WE have licenses but want to increase
• Just purchased DocuSign yesterday!
• We encountered some vendor resistance to providing ACH information, as we no longer are printing and mailing checks.
• I had to WFH before the SIP order was issued by the governor.
• We are looking at SIGNiX MyDox for electronic signatures.
• Our accounting team set up very quickly iPay, and other ways to work remotely.
• We are working on DocuSign rollout. There are known documents types that can't be signed with DocuSign, this will still be challenge
• Using AssureSign for electronic signatures
• Five or less people in each of our offices, DocuSign use way up, some specialty printing needs for Immigration and Private Client Services practice groups. dictation is an issue, start-stop, foot pedals, luckily we had equipment available.
• Iowa and New York have had an Exec Order re: remote notaries allowance. Illinois looking into the same (while Bill allowing such is pending in IL Leg.)
• Major uptick in Zoom usage
• We are using DocuSign
• Washington fast tracked their remote notary to start tomorrow. It was scheduled for October.
• I prefer not to WFH - as an extrovert, I thrive on in-person interactions. I'm adjusting :-).
• Social distancing policy for Washington and Oregon
• Some staff have jobs that are very dependent on being in the office and processing mail, updating books, etc. I am having them work on projects and doing professional development activities as much as they can, but if we SIP for a long time, I don't know how that will play out.
• Using Citrix - BigHand had add-on to make foot pedal available
• Also using the BigHand add-on for RDS
• How are eDiscovery needs that involve physical items (e.g. paper>>>scanning; CDs/DVDs/hard drives>>>plug in) being handled?
• Starting to leverage iPhone Voice Memo, speech to text capabilities.
• DocuSign really useful.
• What service are people using for remote notary? I know of DocVerify.
• Notary services are SIGNiX eNotary.
• re ediscovery working with just select vendors; precise designation of staff who have to come into office but with all the precautions.
• anyone have success printing checks from Elite remotely via citrix? what check services are you all using if not?
• Re eDiscovery issue - the handful of employees in the main office were given instructions on how to plug in any hard drives that come in to desktop computer in the office that the Lit Supp can remote to then handle.
• In NYC, one of our e-discovery providers is classified as providing essential services, so our vendor plans limited operations starting Monday to pick up boxes, scan, etc. - the items that cannot be handled electronically.
• Outsourced Office Services team --  on-site to take care of mail, scanning, copying, deliveries, etc.
• Our issue with ediscovery is scanning of any incoming physical drives and media before connected to our network. We have sent people home with the Linux boxes we use to perform that scanning before they are allowed onto our network, and we work ad hoc with them.
• Yes, law firms in Canada are currently defined as an essential service
• Court personnel (in CA at least) are essential services. We are all being encouraged/told to work remotely, but we can go in as needed.