Lemery Greisler

Organized in 1989 as Lemery & Reid, Lemery Greisler LLC has developed its practice in various areas of law, including corporate, municipal finance, technology, bankruptcy and taxation, litigation, estate and trust, environmental/ land use, healthcare, real estate, and employment. With its primary offices in Albany and Saratoga Springs, NY, the firm maintains a sophisticated Internet communication and communication software system, offering assistance with collaborative Web page creation, encrypted communications, file distribution, and more.

“Our previous analog systems made it hard to appear as a cohesive unit."
— Robert May, Principal and Founding Member, Lemery Greisler.

In 2004, Lemery Greisler had separate phone systems for each of its primary offices. With two receptionists, two phone numbers, and two offices, it was difficult for the firm to appear as a single entity, which indeed it was. Clients were sometimes directed to hang up and dial the other office telephone number to reach their attorney — a fact that the firm, and likely its clients, was very dissatisfied with. In addition to the external benefits of a single system to unify both locations, the firm wanted the simplicity of an integrated system that would streamline internal communications with four-digit dialing across locations, and centralize management tasks.

“The installation went as planned and the new system was up and running without a hitch. ShoreTel is just easy to implement. Nothing went as easily as this implementation went and the potential for disaster was enormous. That’s saying a lot.” 
— Robert May, Principal and Founding Member, Lemery Greisler. 

Placing high priority on feature functionality and smooth integration, Lemery Greisler chose ShoreTel. ShoreTel provided Lemery Greisler with two ShoreTel 120 Voice Switches in each of their offices, and a mix of ShoreTel IP and analog phones for their attorneys and staff. So that mobile workers would no longer be tethered to a phone line to check voicemail or perform other telephony tasks, the firm also acquired several softphone licenses, which enable the delivery of the system’s full unified communication capabilities to a user’s PC or laptop. Other benefits include:

• Implementing the ShoreTel system has allowed Lemery Greisler to reduce the number of receptionists from two to one, which is a quantifiable savings.
• ShoreTel Director, the system’s browser-based management interface, allows the IT team to remotely manage the system at both sites, including voicemail, automated attendant, and desktop applications.
• With 99.999 percent availability built into the system, the ShoreTel solution’s fault tolerance means that even if something goes wrong with a T1 line, the office phones still work fine.
• Group-based call routing option enables managers to set up automatic call distribution (ACD), putting in place in just seconds the service options clients require.

“The most satisfying benefit to having the new ShoreTel system in place is that we now present a single entity to people calling into the firm...as if everybody is working within the same building.”
— Robert May, Principal and Founding Member, Lemery Greisler.