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1/26/2010

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Hardcore Scanning for Law Offices of ANY Size

Lawyers are afloat in a sea of paper presenting challenges in both short term and long term storage, being able to find information quickly and reducing malpractice risks from handling all of this paper. As firms move more and more to a paperless environment (or at least a reduced paper environment), scanning has become an integral piece of accomplishing these goals. In this session, attorney Nerino Petro and legal technology consultant Britt Lorish Knuttgen help guide you through the maze of scanners available, including desktop scanners, multi-function machines, flatbeds and portable scanners, giving you practical application examples for each. They also focus on having internal scanning policies and standards, and enforcing those for consistency within your firm.

Also included in the discussion are software products to accompany scanners for maximum benefit. These products include OCR (optical character recognition) software, as well as document management systems and PDF software. The importance of scanning to searchable PDF is also explained and highlighted.

The standing room only crowd was treated to a number of product demonstrations during this presentation, and left with a better understanding of how to implement a scanning workflow for better paperless practices. Both Nerino and Britt will be speaking again at ABA TECHSHOW 2010, and Britt is currently a member of the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board.

Click here to read Britt and Nerino's paper.

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1/19/2010

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Capturing Quicksilver: Records Management for All That Other Stuff

In this “Best of ABA TECHSHOW” post, we are pleased to bring you the written materials which supported last year’s popular e-discovery session:”Capturing Quicksilver: Records Management for All That Other Stuff.” This session was presented by Sharon Nelson and Peg Duncan, who took a close look at the world of Web 2.0 data which may or may not constitute a “record” for the purposes of records management – and E-Discovery.

Sharon and Peg offer their thoughts on what constitutes a corporate record, from wikis to blogs to social networking postings to tweets. There is much to give a records manager heartburn in these materials.

In the end, Sharon and Peg agree that the format of the data is not the point – the content is. So if company information is created, it is probably a record. Even if it isn’t a record, it certainly is subject to being discovered in litigation. This also means that records managers must have a way to capture this “quicksilver” when under a litigation hold.

The implications of this new world are profound. Reading these materials will bring you quickly up to speed on a subject which didn’t exist just a short time ago.

Click here to read Peg's paper, and click here to read Sharon's.

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1/14/2010

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: E-Discovery Ethics: An Ounce of Prevention ...

The legal press and court opinions continue to be filled with incidents of E-Discovery misconduct and sanctions. One survey found that in 2008, 25% of all reported E-Discovery cases involved sanctions. Attorneys caught up in these cases face court sanctions, malpractice claims, and disciplinary proceedings, as well as dissatisfied clients. Protect yourself and your clients by following the core ethics requirements for E-Discovery - Competence, Confidentiality, Communication, Candor, Cooperation, and Diligence. This session was presented at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 by Judge Herbert Dixon, Ralph Losey and Dave Ries.

Click here for a copy of Ralph Losey's paper and here for a copy of Dave Ries's paper.

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1/5/2010

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Research on a Dime: Effective Authoritative Sources for the Budget-Minded

Keep Your Research Costs Down

Catherine Sanders Reach & David Whelan

Today’s economic troubles make our 2009 ABA Techshow presentation, “Research on a Dime”, as relevant as it was when we first put it together. Well ahead of Google Legal Scholar, our presentation covered a number of ways that you can use free, or free-to-you, legal and business information resources to keep down your research overhead costs. For a short list of tips, check out the related article, 10 Ways to Stretch Your Research Dollar, from the March 2009 Law Practice magazine.

The financial woes of lawyers have also been felt by the legal publishers. They are caught between the dropping off of print subscriptions and increased demand for comprehensive online resources. But free online resources, subsidized by bar associations or even from the publishers themselves, give lawyers choices.

What can you do? The rules are pretty much the same as ever:

1. Monitor your electronic licenses. If you are licensing both Westlaw and LexisNexis content, and they overlap, consider dropping one or cutting back coverage. Use free resources, when you can and they are reliable, to supplement your fee-based resources.

2. Curb your print enthusiasm. Stick to single volume softbound books, like those put out by ABA Publishing and sections. Avoid looseleaf services wherever possible, because the updating and annual increases are highest in these types of binder sets.

3. Get expert at using your tools. Know how to find information quickly. Don’t forget to start your research in the commentary, and then dig in to the statutes and cases. Know how to search your online services.

4. Negotiate your costs. Know what’s free and what you need to license electronically. Then get the legal publishers with the applicable content to compete on price. Legal research is no different from a new kitchen – get quotes and know what you’re getting for your money.

5. Make the system work for you. Use RSS and e-mail alerts to help you stay on top of changes in your practice areas. The legal publishers are providing this as part of your license. Getting updates on changing law can have a huge impact on your ability to practice competently.

Click here to download Catherine and David's paper.

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12/22/2009

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Taking the Leap Essential Technology for the New Law Practice

There are few milestones in a lawyer's career that provide excitement and terror in such equal parts as the decision to open your own law firm. Not only do you need to be a subject area expert in your chosen field of practice, but you also need to become well-versed (if not expert) in the entrepreneurial art of starting and running a business. Suddenly, phone systems, marketing campaigns, and smart phones don't just magically appear in your hand courtesy of an IT staff or legal administrator; instead, each new undertaking is a new world to be explored and mastered.

It is against this backdrop that we were so pleased to be asked to present at ABA TECHSHOW last year on Essential Technology for the New Law Practice. We dug in and really tried to evaluate the options that we thought provided a start up law firm the most bang for the buck and least outlay of that most valuable of commodities: time.

It is worth noting again here, as we did in our manuscript and presentation, that in preparation for the session we leaned heavily on the excellent book by Sharon Nelson and John Simek, The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide. There is no more convenient, practical and up-to-the-minute resource available to the lawyer starting out and trying to make sense of her new firm's technology needs.

We commend that book (as well as a trip to this year's ABA TECHSHOW) to set you and your new law practice off on the right foot. We hope you find the materials valuable and wish you a successful 2010!

Click here to read Bruce and Erik's ABA TECHSHOW 2009 paper, "Taking the Leap: Essential Technology for the New Law Practice."

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12/18/2009

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Telecommuting 101 - Take the First Step

Telecommuting and remote access use many of the same technologies, but that’s about where the similarities end. While it’s great to have remote access anywhere and anytime, that’s typically meant for those who only need access for a short amount of time. Telecommuting, on the other hand, is a ‘hole ‘nother way of working. There can be lots of reasons why people want to telecommute, but it typically boils down to the individual situation. If you don’t need to have face-to-face meetings, then telecommuting may be an easier argument to push. Face it, with today’s technologies like video conferencing, web cameras, and free Skype services, there are less reasons for mandatory face-to-face meetings.

I know many lawyers as well as staff who prefer to telecommute and their law firms have found ways to make it happen, mainly because they didn’t want to lose that valuable individual. The downside to telecommuting is that the telecommuter becomes isolated and may miss out on the interoffice conversations and camaraderie. But that may not be a problem for many telecommuters – they simply find ways to communicate.

To learn more, read our paper from ABA TECHSHOW 2009, Telecommuting 101.

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12/8/2009

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Defining the Bottom Line

Are Lawyers TRULY in touch with profitability and their bottom-line … or "Accidentally Successful"?

Historically, lawyers tend to think they are great businesspeople because they are able to write nice checks to themselves and their employees every month. Not so much for many law firms in today’s economy. Still, as lawyers, we indeed tend to just focus on substantive law … on being good lawyers and not managing the law firm finances. I don’t know many lawyers in small firms who know how to generate their own income statement and balance sheet, let alone read the one that their accountant or bookkeeper gave them. What about the difference between Accrual, Cash or Modified Cash Accounting and how that affects advanced expenses to clients? Do we as lawyers properly analyze how profitable our lawyers are … or know how to run a report showing billed amounts vs. collected amounts? Unfortunately, not enough of us know.

ABA TECHSHOW 2009 seminar paper Defining the Bottom Line states that in most cases, law firm salaries are the largest expense, and unless you are overstaffed, making a dent in reduction of non-salary expenses is normally not going to happen. However, most law firms spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how to cut marketing, office supplies, and other non-salary expenses. Defining the Bottom Line by Debbie Foster (ABA TECHSHOW 2010 Chair) and Steven Best discuss practical ways to make an impact on the bottom line. Their paper and presentation provides a fantastic nuts and bolts primer on law office accounting. Every attorney should be REQUIRED to read this seminar paper from ABA TECHSHOW 2009.

Click here to read Steven and Debbie's paper.

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11/30/2009

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: What You Need to Know NOW!

In this “Best of ABA TECHSHOW” post, we are pleased to bring you the written materials which supported last year’s popular e-discovery session: “E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: What You Need to Know NOW!”

This session was presented by Sharon Nelson and Dominic Jar, who took a close look at the garden variety e-discovery cases handled often by solo and small firm attorneys. Can you really handle a small case for under $10,000? Sure, it’s done all the time.

Sharon and Dominic present tips for cost containment in electronic discovery, including:

Go after the low hanging fruit first
Identify key players and time frames to narrow the scope of the data
In many cases, you only need active (non-deleted) data – and that’s much cheaper
If you need deleted data, get a report by letter or phone from your computer forensics technologist unless you need a full scale forensics report for court
Native format is cheaper!
Utilize lower cost review tools and do-it-yourself

Brew a cup of coffee and read some very practical advice that can save you and your client a lot of money and time!

Click here to download Sharon's paper, and click here to download Dominic's.

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11/24/2009

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Software as a Service: Can You Say Goodbye to Upgrade Headaches with SaaS?

Can Software as a Service (SaaS) alleviate upgrade headaches in your law firm? The short answer is yes, but that’s only part of the story. You have to decide whether SaaS is right for you – how you work, your acceptable level of risk, your budget – before you can get to the benefits of using it. If you use SaaS, you should find that you can eliminate upgrade headaches as more and more of your work occurs within your Web browser. Our paper takes you through a number of SaaS products that lawyers use and discusses the issues around free and “freemium” consumer applications like Google Docs and Yahoo! Mail.

SaaS products are not all created the same, even when you get past cost issues. Forrester Research has a SaaS maturity model that plots out where products are, based on how they serve their customers. Many of the current SaaS legal applications are in the level 3 and 4 range. Online legal research is in most cases at, and likely to remain at, Level 3. As new practice management products emerge, however, they are likely to move up that maturity scale.

It’s been nearly 9 months since we spoke at ABA Techshow 2009 and the SaaS landscape for lawyers continues to evolve. Concerns are raised about lawyers using online-only tools to store and work with client private and confidential data. On the other hand, SaaS applications for lawyers are maturing and part of this process of growing up is the ability of SaaS providers to answer some of these difficult issues.

Lawyers have bet on small software companies in the past in order to become more efficient practitioners. Many are already making the choice for cost and convenience issues. SaaS is likely to become a larger part of solo and small firm law practice, just as it grows in importance for mainstream business.

Read Software as a Service: Can You Say Goodbye to Upgrade Headaches with SaaS?.

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11/10/2009

The Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Supercharge Your Referrals With Technology

Swing your mouse around legal sites on the Internet these days, and it's hard not to hit a story, Tweet or blog post about how to use technology to develop new business. While these articles and how-tos are undeniably useful, they often leave out an important reality: that it's easier to get new work from existing clients than find brand new clients. Surely technology can help lawyers market to their past and current clients as well?

The answer, according to Steve Matthews and Reid Trautz, is a definite yes. At ABA TECHSHOW 2009, they showed attendees how to stay in contact with clients, through use of newsletters, blogs, and social media, among other marketing tools. This is just one example of the great presentations you'll see at ABA TECHSHOW, which next takes place March 25-27 in Chicago, Illinois. To learn more about the conference, visit the ABA TECHSHOW Web site.

Read Supercharge Your Referrals With Technology.

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