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Work Environment The firm attaches great importance to the quality of its work environment and maintains an open door policy to ensure the personal compatibility of its lawyers and staff. Our objective is to maintain a spirit of teamwork, cooperation and informality. We allocate considerable resources - both in staff and technology - to ensure that our lawyers have the necessary tools to work productively and efficiently to meet the demands of our clients. Firm Resources TECHNOLOGY CAPABILITIES Committed to providing efficiency, savings and value to our clients through the use of technology, Cummings & Lockwood maintains a state-of-the-art wide-area network that connects each of our five offices. Our standard desktop has high-speed direct access to the Internet. While the firm's technology is industry-standard, we have devoted a great deal of our resources to improve and customize these products. When necessary, products have been developed in-house when none were available in the marketplace. Even with custom applications, Cummings & Lockwood standardizes these applications on the same client-server database and development technology which is used for our other software. This provides us with the ability to merge data in a single report from multiple sources. Training and Support All new Cummings & Lockwood personnel receive technology training conducted by our full-time training staff and, in certain cases, by professional training companies and consultants. Basic training includes comprehensive instruction in each of our core products: Windows Microsoft Office Suite and time and billing software. Additional sessions are available for desktop faxing, remote access and practice-specific applications. Refresher classes are offered periodically. Cummings & Lockwood supports an internal Web site to provide employees with information concerning technology policies and procedures, firm technology standards and frequently asked questions. Support is offered on a 24 x 7 basis through staggered staffing hours and emergency beeper phone numbers. Support staffs are located in each of the firm's main offices. Administrative Tools Cummings & Lockwood's time and billing and accounting system provides real-time access to all billing and accounting data in the firm and enables task-based billing and budgeting, flexible bill formats and electronic billing and receivables. The records and conflicts system employed by the firm provides real-time conflict checking, bar coding and scanning, and allows users to request files electronically. The system also generates daily and weekly new business reports that are circulated throughout the firm. Our e-mail system is industry-standard and interfaces with many of our other products. The firm relies heavily upon e-mail to communicate internally and with clients. We are acutely aware of security issues related to sending e-mail and e-mail attachments and have set up secure connections with many of our clients to permit electronic communication. Cummings & Lockwood also supports a document management system to store and secure all documents produced within the firm. This system also enables our attorneys to share documents and operate more efficiently, thus benefiting our clients. Trusts and Estates Tools Cummings & Lockwood has used technology to leverage its considerable depth of knowledge in the Trusts and Estates area of law. The Estate Planning Practice System (EPS) enables our attorneys to assemble quickly and efficiently estate planning documents that reflect the renowned expertise of the firm. The system facilitates immediate and regular evaluation of C&L's estate planning documents and gives the attorneys a flexible tool for tracking the estate planning process for all of our clients. EPS also provides a sophisticated framework for the administration of trusts, ensuring thorough monitoring of trust income, principal, distributions, disbursements and accountings. In addition, EPS gives attorneys and paralegals immediate access to a host of information regarding estate planning, estate administration, tax preparation and more. This library of information is reviewed and updated frequently, thus providing lower research costs and greater value for every client. Corporate Practice Tools To assist attorneys in our Corporate practice, the firm subscribes to an online service that provides tools for the production of ready-to-file incorporation forms. Litigation Tools Cummings & Lockwood has many tools to facilitate its Litigation practice including docketing and case management, deposition and document image scanning tools. RESEARCH CAPABILITIES Cummings & Lockwood maintains an extensive library system in order to support the legal research requirements of our attorneys and clients. Libraries are located in each of our main offices. In total, the library system contains a collection of over 30,000 volumes of print resources and a wide range of electronic databases, including Lexis and Westlaw, as well as many CD-ROM products and Internet resources. For convenience, the firm supports desktop access to Lexis, the Internet and the Cummings & Lockwood Electronic Library. The Electronic Library features an index to the materials held in each of our libraries and databases containing full-text documents and images compiled to meet the needs of specific practice areas. The library also supports an attorney work-product database which includes searchable full-text documents. Supported by an experienced team of professional librarians and support staff, the Cummings & Lockwood library is ready to assist attorneys and clients with any research project. The library staff offers instruction on how to best utilize the information resources available to the firm and maintains relationships with many libraries throughout the country to facilitate inter-library loans and document retrieval. In addition to supporting specific research projects, the library staff also maintains and distributes many current awareness resources. Through newsletters, journals, newspapers and electronic watch services, the Cummings & Lockwood legal staff is kept abreast of current developments and the latest topics of discussion in their practice areas. The library staff continues to evaluate these resources to find the best ways to meet the information and research needs of our attorneys and clients.
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