Technology Lets Beach Attorney Close International Transactions
VIRGINIA BEACH — From an office in Town Center, Tom Rose has developed quite a relationship with a few Canadian companies.
Rose, an attorney with Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders, has worked on multimillion-dollar transactions for a number of companies north of the border, including a $1.3 billion merger between Oilsands Quest Inc. and CanWest Petroleum Corp.
Thanks to the telephone, his computer, e-mail and his BlackBerry, Rose, who practices law in the areas of international securities, capital markets, mergers, acquisitions and business ventures, can usually perform his role in the Canadian transactions without traveling.
“With the advent of the BlackBerry, you don’t have to stay tethered to a desk,” Rose said, waving his palm-size device in the air. “Technology has made working with people a lot easier.”
Technology is changing the fabric of commerce and that includes the practice of law, said Monica Bay, editor in chief of Law Technology News magazine.
“The legal profession is undergoing a massive change from a private-club-style management to a more corporate model,” she said. “Technology isn’t the cause of the change, but it is a tool being used in the change.”
Lawyers are becoming “increasingly mobile,” according to a survey conducted by the American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center.
More than 2,500 lawyers responded to the annual assessment released earlier this year, and 23 percent said they or their firm have plans to buy a PDA, smartphone or BlackBerry during the year.
The survey also revealed that 82 percent of lawyers said laptops were available at their firms, up from 71 percent last year.
“You couldn’t have said that in the early ’90s,” said Laura Ikens, a senior research specialist for the bar association’s resource center.
Chuck McPhillips, a partner in the Virginia-based law firm Kaufman & Canoles, said he can remember when faxing documents was a big deal.
“Technology has changed a lot of things,” he said.
Like Rose, McPhillips has some international clients but doesn’t go to them very often.
“There’s nothing that takes the place of face time when it is needed,” McPhillips said. “But I think with technology the way it is now, it would take a compelling reason to justify the cost of an international trip.”
Rose said technological advances not only help him, but they can save a client money, too.
“A lot of international firms often hire New York lawyers because it is considered America’s financial hub,” he said. “Thanks to technology, we can now offer them representation without charging them New York lawyer prices.”
Rose has done more than 30 private securities deals totaling more than a half-billion dollars for international clients over the past year, thanks – in part – to technology, he said.
“As you see the market changes, and becomes more global, services are going to change as well,” Rose said. “It takes your geographic location out of the equation.”