Technology & Special Services

When you hire Womble Carlyle, you receive more than top-notch legal counsel. You also get state-of-the art technological support to help your legal team work with optimum efficiency and effectiveness on your behalf.
 
The firm’s Practice Support Group of paralegals, developers, engineers, deskside support analysts and trainers work to provide technological solutions in service of clients. During a trial, for example, the practice support staff provides comprehensive support, including on-site assistance in preparing and displaying exhibits and presentations.

The Practice Support Group’s capabilities include:
  • Trial Support. During a trial or hearing, members of the practice support staff work on-site to help prepare and present exhibits using PowerPoint, Sanction, Trial Director and other technologies.
  • Off-Site Access. Because Womble Carlyle handles matters nationwide, it is crucial that our lawyers be able to function in remote locations just as well as they could in one of the firm’s offices. So our attorneys and staff are equipped with the latest laptop computers. Data is fully accessible by our lawyers from remote locations through the firm’s VPN and virtual desktop capability.
  • Database Management. Womble Carlyle offers the latest and cost efficient technology in processing, managing, and reviewing client case data. Client data is processed using Ecapture and Escanit technology. These technologies allow us to run key word searches for relative information. The data is then loaded into Relativity, Summation, or Ipro databases for review. Using these in-house options provides an efficient cost-saving alternative to using a third party vendor.
  • Document Assembly. Our in-house document assembly systems have enabled us to increase productivity in preparing documents and reduce costs for clients. Our systems typically use a "decision-tree" format enabling the user simply to answer a series of questions to create complex documents from existing pre-approved templates. Our document assembly systems range from very complex drafting systems, such as trusts and estates with more than 1,300 separate templates, to simple, standard litigation form drafting systems.
  • Imaging. Womble Carlyle has the capability to quickly and accurately scan, number and link images to their respective document databases. Our imaging program provides quick and easy retrieval of documents in original format that includes handwritten notes and other marginalia.
  • Video Conferencing. Every Womble Carlyle office is equipped with videoconferencing equipment for high-resolution videoconferencing between firm offices and with clients, providing a practical, cost-effective communications solution. In addition to office-to-office communications, we use person-to-person videoconferencing to link individual attorneys in the firm to individuals in clients' offices. GotoMeeting, a state-of-the-art Webmeeting solution, is available to all attorneys and clients wanting to engage in real-time, collaborative efforts.
  • Client Communications. The firm’s e-mail system is a point of emphasis, with safeguards and redundancies to make sure the firm’s attorneys can always communicate with their clients, even during a primary systems failure. Microsoft Office Communications is enabled on every computer and laptop in the firm, allowing users to connect via Instant Messaging (IM), quickly ascertain the availability of resources throughout the firm, and communicate with Internet-based IM services that our clients may be using.
  • RFID Technology. Womble Carlyle uses the latest in RFID technology to track all of our clients’ hard-copy files within the firm, enabling us to manage our files in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible.
The firm's Wide Area Network (WAN) is a state-of-the-art Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network which facilitates efficient collaboration between any of our offices. This network enables the highest quality voice, video, and data services. It is backed up by high-bandwidth Internet connections in each office which switch to back-up networks in the event of a primary WAN failure.
 
Also, the firm’s Network-Attached Storage (NAS) infrastructure is designed to meet the growing storage demands of the firm’s caseload. Each office’s storage capacity can now rapidly expand to meet the needs of even the largest tort.

Internet Web Site, Intranet, and Extranet
Womble Carlyle has been on the Web since 1995, and maintains a process of continuous improvement and evolution. The Womble Carlyle web site is intended to provide a destination that enables clients and friends to keep abreast of issues and trends affecting their businesses.

We have established and maintain secure, private web sites for members of the Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC) and for Lex Mundi, an international association of 160 law firms and more than 21,000 attorneys across the globe.

We use a firm-wide SharePoint-based intranet to distribute various types of information within our internal network as well as grant the capability for clients to access their work product in secure, collaborative SharePoint extranet environments.