Karen Cole lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is an experienced attorney who works from a home office. After law school, Karen clerked for a state Supreme Court justice, and then for a U.S. district court judge. These judicial clerkships provided a solid foundation for a career in civil litigation. After her clerkships, Karen practiced law, first as an associate and then a partner at a large law firm, and then as an associate and a partner for a medium-sized firm. Now Karen has her own firm, Premium Legal Writing. She works with other lawyers on their cases, thinking through strategies, doing legal research and drafting motion documents and appellate court briefs.

More and more lawyers are finding that they don’t need to work in law firms with brick and mortar offices. Karen says that most of the resources she needs for her practice are available via the internet. When she was in law school, students and lawyers used hard cover books to do legal research. Online legal research services are now readily available. Karen subscribes to a legal research service that she says is top notch. Zoom and other virtual services make meetings with other lawyers and clients easy. The pandemic led many more lawyers to work from home offices or in virtual offices. During the pandemic, bar associations started to make meetings and continuing education classes available electronically. Depositions in preparation for a trial that used to be held in an office are now handled electronically. And many court proceedings now take place via Zoom or a service like that. The shift to electronic meetings and court hearings that was necessitated by the pandemic will continue into the future. Electronic resources make connecting with people much more cost-effective than brick and mortar alternatives. That helps those working in the legal system generally, but particularly those who work from home offices. Karen discusses these and other issues in this podcast.

For more about Karen or to reach her, go to her website: www.premiumlegalwriting.com