In this post, I’d like to explain how screen sharing has many practical applications for a lawyer, contrary to most of the market noise which tends to associate online meetings almost exclusively with sales demos, training and internal meetings (all of which we do as well). In demonstrating the ways in which I use LoopUp in my day-to-day life, I also hope to show how we don’t just sell our services to other businesses: we actively use our own services to great effect.
I’m EVP & General Counsel at LoopUp so, unsurprisingly, I’m a regular user of our audio and web conferencing services. Surprisingly, perhaps, I use it to make contract negotiations, and dealing with external providers, easier and more productive.
A great example was a major partnership deal we’ve just signed, and which we’re excited about announcing shortly. During the contract negotiation phase, we used our service for our regular contract calls and our integrated screen sharing to draft ‘live’ on the call. It’s a great benefit when everyone can see contract changes in real time, and discuss them in the context of other supporting material. For example, demonstrating part of the services can illuminate the practicalities behind the legal wording. Sharing background material, spreadsheets and relevant websites can all help bring everyone onto the same page on a legal conference call as much as a project management or sales call. And because you can allow others on the conference to share their screen, all parties can explain their position better.
There’s no need to email material to each other during the call, nor fruitlessly spend time trying to describe something when it’s more easily grasped when seen: a picture is worth a thousand words after all.
It’s still a meeting, even if a remote one, so you still need to manage it effectively, but because you can close down points (or reach a more enlightened decision to park a point) faster, you can move through negotiations faster.
I’m now so keen on the benefits screen sharing brings, that I’m using our service for more of my two-person calls as well as multi-person conference calls. An example is when I’m instructing outside advisers. From patents to regulatory to property law matters, I can rapidly give advisers a much richer context for the matter at hand than in a pure one-to-one audio call. I’m then more confident the project will move forward in a targeted way, resulting in more valuable advice and less iteration to the end result.
I hope this brief post has highlighted some ways screen sharing can be of benefit across the business, and for all lawyers.
