Independent Technology Consulting
I'm an independent technology consultant for solo attorneys, small law firms, and owner-operated businesses. I help you modernize the way your firm runs — without enterprise complexity or platform sales pitches.
Cole Flanders
Founder, Cole Christopher Solutions
Specializing in Microsoft 365
Deep expertise with cloud productivity tools your team already uses.
Independent, owner-operated
No platform partnerships, no license resale, no upsell incentives.
Built for small firms
Right-sized scope, transparent flat fees, no enterprise bloat.
The Problem
Three things most small firms I talk to cannot answer with confidence.
You don't actually know which AI features are already turned on in your tenant — or what they can read. Microsoft has been quietly enabling Copilot Chat, Teams meeting summaries, Outlook drafting, and AI search across the suite. Many firms find out the first time an associate mentions the summary that auto-generated after a settlement call.
Matters close, but access doesn't. Old engagement folders. Guest accounts from co-counsel three years ago. Sharing links that don't expire. Most firms have years of accumulated external access nobody has reviewed since the work was finished.
If a court, the KBA, or a HIPAA auditor asked you tomorrow to demonstrate reasonable security of client data, could you? Most firms can't answer with confidence — not because they failed, but because the ground has shifted faster than anyone could keep up.
What I Do
Most engagements start with one and grow into the next.
“Before you spend anything new, get a clear read on what you have.”
I review your Microsoft 365 environment — security baseline, sharing exposure, retention setup, AI surface area, license fit — and translate the findings into plain English you can act on. For law firms, each setting is mapped to the duties you owe under the Kentucky Rules of Professional Conduct and KBA Ethics Opinion E-457.
“Build the right foundation once, on a flat fee.”
Move onto Microsoft 365 properly — or fix what was set up hastily. Email, files, calendars, shared documents, collaboration — configured for how a small practice actually works. Includes data migration, security baseline, sensitivity labels for confidential and privileged content, and team training.
“The work that holds everything together after the project is done.”
A trusted advisor on retainer for AI Authorized Use Policy drafting, sharing and retention reviews, cyber-insurance compliance walkthroughs, and the planning sessions before any major change. Someone to call when you're not sure whether the tool the vendor is pitching does what they say.
How It Works
Hiring a consultant should not feel like a leap of faith. Here's the path most engagements follow.
We talk about your firm, your current setup, and where you'd like to be. No pitch, no pressure. If we're not a fit, I'll tell you and point you somewhere better.
Within a week of our call, I send you a clear plan: scope, timeline, deliverables, and a flat fee. No hourly billing surprises, no scope creep.
I do the work, coordinated with your team's schedule. You stay informed without having to manage me. Status updates are short and in plain English.
When we wrap, you get documentation, training for your team, and the option to keep me on retainer for ongoing advisory.
About
I've built my career around helping organizations get real value out of their cloud productivity tools — first inside larger companies, then increasingly with the small businesses and small firms that get overlooked by the enterprise consulting world.
I started Cole Christopher Solutions for a specific reason. Too many small firms get sold enterprise-grade complexity they don't need, by vendors and partners whose compensation is tied to license volume. I wanted to do this work the right way: independently, transparently, and at a scope that fits an owner-operated practice.
I'm not a Microsoft Partner and I don't resell licenses. I'm an independent advisor who happens to be deep on the Microsoft cloud platform. Much of my work today is helping law firms translate the duties they owe — under the rules of professional conduct, HIPAA, their cyber-insurance carrier — into Microsoft 365 settings they can actually point to.
Based in Louisville, Kentucky. Working with small firms across the country.
Principles
A new practice with no clients yet has to be transparent about something else — how it intends to operate. These are the four rules I built the business around.
Independence is meaningless if it doesn't sometimes mean talking you out of a project. A real share of my discovery calls end with “you don't need to hire me — here's what to do instead.” That's not a sales technique. It's the work.
If a project takes longer than I scoped, that's on me. Owners have a hard enough time budgeting; the last thing you need is hourly-billing anxiety or surprise change orders mid-engagement.
You don't need to understand how the cloud works. You need to understand what you're deciding. Every conversation is in plain English, and every recommendation comes with the trade-offs spelled out.
When an engagement ends, your firm should be able to maintain what we built without me. Every configuration change, every workflow, every administrator setting — written down, handed off, owned by you.
Questions
The objections that come up most often in discovery calls, answered directly.
Still have questions?
Book a discovery callReady?
A 30-minute discovery call. No pitch, no pressure. We figure out together whether this is a good fit.
What you'll get from the call
Or email cole@colecsolutions.com