Let’s start by acknowledging the elephant in the room: coronavirus. Because of it, everyone is at some level of lockdown, for better or for worse.
How do those of us under lockdown continue with our professional lives?
We think it starts with understanding what exactly it is each of us does in our profession. Each of us is primarily in either an “information” business or a “physical” business.
A “physical” business is one in which a revenue-generating workflow cannot be completed without physically interacting with people or in-transit objects (e.g., ER physicians, pharmacists, delivery workers). Think of an “in-transit object” as something that is passed from one person to another.
An “information” business is one in which a revenue-generating workflow can be completed without requiring physical interaction with people or in-transit objects (e.g., radiologists, software engineers, attorneys).
Yes, attorneys. We’ll revisit that in a minute.
Further, there’s very little today that is truly needed to run an information business: an internet connection, a browser, and the right web-based platform. That’s why so many Silicon Valley software companies were able to switch to “work from home” so quickly. There’s no physical interactions with goods or people, so once you empower the right people with the right connected tools, they can work from anywhere — whether that involves delivering content as an individual contributor or collaborating as part of a team.
In other words: An information business is a perfect fit for remote work, including collaboration-based ones.
Back to attorneys, and everyone else involved in a video deposition workflow.
The steps in a video deposition workflow are:
1. Conduct deposition
2. Receive transcript
3. Create page:lines
4. Prepare pleadings
5. Create trial clips
Let’s quickly run through each of these:
1. Conduct deposition: With remote deposition tools, multiple attorneys can log in and conduct and analyze the deposition from their office or home. All you need is the witness, court reporter, and videographer in the same room. [Information gathering]
2. Receive transcript: The court reporter electronically delivers the certified transcript to the attorneys. [Information transfer]
3. Create page:lines: Attorneys add objections/issue codes/highlights/notes to key portions of the transcript. [Information refinement]
4. Prepare pleadings: Assemble relevant page:lines for submittal to court [Information collation]
5. Create trial clips: Clip relevant portions of deposition video in preparation for trial [Information refinement & collation]
It’s clear that all of these steps involve the gathering and processing of information. And all of these can be handled remotely by attorneys via cloud-based tools — sometimes even through a single platform.
If you’re an attorney or working with one, consider using a secure, integrated, cloud-based deposition workflow platform like Threadeo. So you never have to make the choice between keeping your family healthy and getting work done.