While Google products may be ubiquitous among consumers, it's a different story in the legal market. While some solo practitioners and small law firms are using G Suite for their work, as their practice and client demands intensify, many are turning to legal-specific practice management platforms, lawyers and tech consultants said. Meanwhile, G Suite is largely shut out from midsize and larger firms chiefly because of document management concerns.

Google's G Suite includes its cloud-based Docs, Sheets, Slides and Calendar apps, the option for a business email address, and other features. Starting at $6 a month, G Suite's price point, ease and familiarity can appeal to a small law firm or solo practitioner busy starting their new law office.

Brett Burney of Burney Consultants said the professionalism of sending work emails from a firm domain address, and not the generic “@gmail.com,” is enough for some lawyers to switch to G Suite.

He also explained a law firm can pay, through G Suite, to improve the confidentiality of sharing their data in Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs. “That's simply a cost of business you should do to enjoy the confidentiality of using G Suite.”

Still, a few solo practitioners and small firms don't make the jump to G Suite and continue using Google's free Gmail and other apps for their practice because of a lack of time or understanding of the potential harm, lawyers and technology consultants said. 

“They haven't taken the time to educate themselves about the security and privacy concerns because they are worried about cost or ease,” said Edward Zohn of two-lawyer firm Zohn & Zohn and chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association's solo and small firm section. “That sounds a little harsh but once you start with something it's really hard to change. It's hard to change your habits, and attorneys are sometimes resistant to change because they are busy practicing law and they don't want to revamp and learn how to do something new.”

Midsize and larger law firms, meanwhile, are more likely to refuse to use G Suite because of document management and cybersecurity apprehensions, according to law firms contacted by Legaltech News.

“Our focus has really been on using the systems that the firm has so that we have the ability to apply our information governance standards,” wrote Kelley Drye & Warren chief information officer Judith Flournoy in an email. “If we allow the use of G Suite, we lose that control.”

Akerman chief information officer Danny Rhinehart echoed Flournoy's document management apprehension, voicing concerns regarding G Suite's cybersecurity for his firm's 700 attorneys.

“G Suite does not have the granular security requirements or data loss prevention functionality we require,” Rhinehart wrote in an email. He added, “Google is an advertising company, and we don't trust them with our data.”

Those concerns can also be felt by small and solo firms, and as their practice grows, tech consultants said many begin to integrate legal practice management platforms into G Suite.

“We do see it a little bit with using Gmail and Google Docs in the small law firm arena,” observed Josh Taylor, an attorney and legal content marketing manager for law practice management software company Smokeball Inc. He added that using G suite “whets their appetite” for software geared specifically toward the legal industry.

Of course, how much a small or solo firm uses G Suite can depend on their clients. Take for example Houston-based solo practitioner Melanie Bragg, who chairs the American Bar Association's solo, small firm and general practice division. She said she uses Gmail primarily for email management and praised G Suite's synchronization to various platforms as an integral part of her business.

But the Houston lawyer revealed she's beginning to leverage Dropbox more frequently over G Suite's Google Drive for her file sharing because it's what her clients and colleagues use. 

The American Bar Association's 2018 TechReport found that of lawyers who reported they used cloud computing for work-related tasks, 60% said they used Dropbox, a strong lead over the second-most reported Google Docs (36%).

To lawyers Zohn and Bragg, heads of their respective solo and small law firm associations, Dropbox is easily the more widely used cloud-based service in their market segment. 

“Dropbox and G Suite aren't the same, they are different paradigms,” Zohn said. “Dropbox is just a big disc drive and to a lot of people that's it's appeal, to me that's its appeal.”