Bar gears up tech plans to assist membership.

Bar President Greg Coleman is kicking into high gear his program to help Bar members with technology.

He gave an overview during the Member Benefits Committee and the Special Committee on Technology/Office Tools & Resources meetings at the Bar's Fall Meeting October 16 and 17 in Tampa.

"I want to have in place a toolbox of technology solutions for our members from young to old, from solo practitioners to small and midsize firms," he said at the Member Benefits Committee meeting, adding that most large firms have their own information technology staffs.

He said the Member Benefits Committee will help by reviewing a range of tech programs and services that can be added to the Member Benefits Program. Coleman said he hopes the committee can review up to 10 or so potential offerings in time for them to be included in a scheduled revamping of the Bar's website set for early next year that will put all technology information and resources in one place.

The special committee is working to organize and set up the new tech website segment.

Both committees worked on Coleman's goals. The Member Benefits Committee set a special meeting for November 20 to hear in-person presentations from tech companies. Coleman said he hopes to have tech goods and services ready for the Board of Governors to review at its December 12 meeting, which will allow those to be included in the rollout of the revamped website.

Programs will include document management, forms, security, billing, practice management, and secure cloud computing and storage.

And the special committee worked on organizing that part of the website, including grafting in parts of the Bar's Law Office Management Assistance Service, which the website will substantially replace.

That will have practice management information and videos as well as "a whole portion on technology applications and products. It's not necessarily making recommendations, in terms of which product to buy. But if you're a solo practitioner coming out of law school opening an office, this is hardware we're recommending, without a brand, and this is the type of software we recommend, practice-specific software, account software, ancillary devices, and things of that nature," Coleman said.

He also hopes that a "low-cost IT consulting" service can be offered through the website, which he said would be an efficient alternative for small firms when they have IT problems. For many of those firms now, Coleman said, "the best they can do...