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Google’s web-based, call-forwarding service could be a boon to lawyers tired of tracking their calls from several phones, according to legal technology experts.

Initially available only by invitation, Google Voice is now being offered to the masses.

Each user is assigned a Google Voice number. The service forwards calls from the user’s other phones – work, home and cell – to that number. It also sends free text messages, checks voice messages and even transcribes voice messages into text.

Different settings allow the user to determine which phone received the call and who is calling. A “Do Not Disturb” feature routes calls directly to voicemail if the user doesn’t want to answer calls.

“I think it can be helpful in a couple of different ways, especially for solos or small firm lawyers who maybe don’t want to spend a lot of money on systems, so they have this one number to ring them all over the place,” said Jennifer Ellis, associate director of media technology at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.

Brian J. Malcolm, an associate at Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis in Birmingham, Ala., said it’s also useful for lawyers in larger firms.

While on vacation in Hawaii recently, he set up Google Voice to forward all calls from his office and cell phone.

Malcolm, 27, said other young lawyers at his firm are also using Google Voice.

“[W]e are using it for repeat clients, friends and family and potential network contacts, who you want to be able to reach you conveniently, no matter where you are,” Malcolm said.

Google Voice can also record phone calls. (An announcement alerts callers that the call is being recorded.)

As with any electronic communications, there are potential ethical issues involved for attorneys.

“You have to make sure you have a good password,” said Ellis. “And you definitely want to look at Google’s privacy policy because [voicemail and text transcriptions] are sitting on their servers.”

Malcolm said he tells everyone he gives his number to that it is a “Google number” – a central number that will reach all his phone numbers.

“My thinking is that severely confidential matters aren’t usually left on voicemail, and there are … confidentiality risks associated with any voicemail system, including your own cell phone system and, to a lesser degree, your firm’s,” Malcolm said.

In any case, he said, “I think something like this will eventually take hold. Calling five numbers to reach one person is going to get old in this day and age.”

- Nora Lockwood Tooher

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