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3/12/2010ABA TECHSHOW is just a couple weeks away and many of the PMAs are gearing up to attend or speak, but they still found time to blog:
You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.
3/11/2010
The popularity of smart phones has skyrocketed in the last few years, and lawyers have rapidly incorporated them into their law practices. With smart phone models and features evolving at a quick pace, it can be hard to determine what distinguishes one from another. Here are some differentiating factors to consider when shopping for a smart phone. [Read more]
Expand Your Reach with a Virtual PBX A virtual PBX or phone system provides big firm phone functionality for the small firm budget. Virtual phone services offer professional quality voice communications at an affordable price while sparing you the expense and overhead of maintaining a phone system or a phone lease. You should be able to manage the service in a Web browser, view usage reports and add additional extensions and features as needed. Most virtual phone services also provide an automated attendant, call forwarding, and voicemail. [Read more]
Technology trends for 2010 Undoubtedly, we will remember 2009 for widespread economic difficulty. Lawyers, law students and legal professionals alike faced tremendous challenges as clients cut back on legal services, billable hours fell and jobs disappeared. But 2009 was also a year of rapid technological change within the legal profession, fueled in part by economic pressure. More than ever, lawyers embraced social media, experimented with online data storage and online applications, and used technology to increase their mobility. As we move into 2010, technology will continue as a major tool for lawyers looking to overcome an economic environment fraught with uncertainty. Used carefully, technology can help lawyers become more effective and efficient. [Read more]
Smartphone Voice Recognition, Dictation, and Transcription Software Smartphones are increasingly gaining the ability to perform many tasks that laptop and desktop computers are capable of, enabling users to: search the Internet; view and send e-mail; create and edit documents; and take advantage of a wide variety of applications ("apps") with other functions. However, the small size of smartphone keyboards can hamper users' efficiency in typing, especially for those unaccustomed to using on-screen virtual keyboards on phones without physical keyboards. Fortunately, there are several voice recognition, dictation, and transcription software applications available that enable you to operate smartphones and input text just by using your voice. [Read more]
Windows 7 Primer: Time to Upgrade? Few would argue that Windows Vista was anything other than a disaster. Released on January 30, 2007, Vista was hampered by a series of problems including high technical requirements, complicated security features, and software incompatibility. Critical reception to Windows 7 has been far more favorable than Vista, and early reports suggest that Windows 7 adoption is easily outpacing Vista. But is Windows 7 right for your law firm? Here are a few factors to consider. [Read more]
Visit the LTRC articles page for these technology articles and more. 3/10/2010Data security has become a constant concern for attorneys as client files and daily work product has moved almost entirely to digital format. Ensuring confidentiality and safeguarding client files now often means securing a hard drive rather than a physical file drawer.
But while attorneys dedicate much of their data security energy and dollars towards protecting current data -- that is, the data they use and access for ongoing or recent cases -- attention must also be given to the data that is no longer needed.
Whether the data is contained on an old computer that's being replaced, a backup system being upgraded, or a removable device like a USB thumb drive that's simply used to shuttle files around, it's vital that appropriate steps be taken to ensure that the data not fall into unintended hands.
Along those lines, Gizmodo recently published very detailed guide to wiping electronic data, addressing multiple methods and multiple devices, and why simply "erasing" the drive may not be enough:
Leave No Trace: How to Completely Erase Your Hard Drives, SSDs and Thumb Drives (Gizmodo)
One additional method not detailed in the guide, though it is mentioned in the comments, is physical destruction. Many commercial shredding companies now offer hard drive and other non-document shredding services that can be used to completely and permanently destroy all manner of data storage devices. 3/5/2010Another great week of blogging from the law practice management advisors. Here are some of the highlights:
You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.
2/26/2010The law practice management advisors had another busy week. Here's what they had to say on their blogs:
You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.
The intersection of technology and ethics is one of the more popular topics of ongoing discussion within the legal community. Rapid and continuing developments in technology have run up against long-established rules and practices. The result has been uncertainty and confusion for many lawyers. But technology and ethics are part of a broader discussion about the future of the legal profession and the ways that lawyers can and should practice law in a rapidly changing world.
The discussion has taken place in many forums, from ethics opinions to commissions to blogging and social networking. But it's also taking place in law journals around the country, and many of the thoroughly researched and well argued journal articles are easily accessible on the Social Science Research Network (or "SSRN"). Here is a sampling of a few recent articles posted on SSRN:
- Communications and the Internet: Facebook, E-Mail, and Beyond, David C. Hricik
Mercer University - Walter F. George School of Law Hricik runs through the major ethics topics related to communications over the Internet, including social networking, misdirected and unsolicited e-mail, and more.
- The Last Days of the American Lawyer, Thomas D. Morgan
George Washington University Law School Morgan discusses the transformation of the American legal profession, partly as a result of breakthroughs in technology. The article is based on Morgan's book, The Vanishing American Lawyer (Oxford 2010).
- How Should Lawyers Handle the Unintended Disclosure of Possibly Privileged Information, James Fischer
Southwestern University School of Law Fischer writes about responding to unintended disclosure, an all-too-common occurrence in an era where communication and collaboration technology has made it easier to transmit documents and information than ever before.
These are just a few of the many legal profession, ethics, and technology articles available. Search SSRN or the ABA's free full-text online law journal search engine to find more. 2/19/2010Here's what the law practice management advisors were blogging about this week:
You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.
2/18/2010
Last week Google introduced a new social media feature to its Gmail e-mail service called Google Buzz. Google Buzz combines aspects of social networking and microblogging directly into users' Gmail accounts, allowing users to "follow" and be followed by other Gmail users, and publish and view other users' streams of updates including Google Buzz text updates and shared Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Blogger, and Google Reader items.
Shortly after its release Google changed several aspects of Google Buzz due to fierce criticism over the privacy implications of several features. Google Buzz initially automatically set up users to follow the people they e-mailed and chatted with the most via Gmail. If the users had public Google Profiles, the list of who they were automatically selected to follow could be viewed by anyone on the Internet, essentially exposing parts of users' Gmail contact lists. Troubling scenarios which could be envisioned include that the identity of insider sources a journalist e-mails often, or the identity of clients a lawyer e-mails most often could be publicly revealed via automatically-created Google Buzz follower/following lists displayed by default on public Google Profile pages.
Due to feedback over privacy concerns Google placed a checkbox with the text "Show the list of people I'm following and the list of people following me on my public profile" in a more prominent position than before to draw attention to the fact that users can hide their follower/following lists. However, the checkbox was checked by default, which some users could overlook, and users were made to automatically follow other users. In response to further critical feedback, Google dropped the auto-follow model and switched to an auto-suggest model, where users are now presented with a list of other users that Google Buzz calculates a user might be interested in following, instead of automatically following them with no user input involved. Another privacy change is that whereas Google Buzz previously automatically displayed users' shared Google Reader and Picasa items, users now have to opt-in to sharing such items in Google Buzz.
According to the 2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, 4% of respondents' primary work e-mail addresses are from standard web-based e-mail services provided by companies such as Yahoo, AOL, or Google (Gmail). Lawyers using Gmail should carefully examine their Google Buzz and Google Profile settings. Clicking on the "Turn off Buzz" link at the bottom of the screen in Gmail will only hide Buzz in Gmail, and will not affect the display of follower/following information on public Google Profiles; other steps will need to be taken to disable Google Buzz if desired.
Lawyers will want to keep in mind that e-mail is traditionally considered a private medium, whereas messages typed in Google Buzz can be chosen to be publicly accessible to anyone else on the Internet through web searches. Lawyers will want to consider the extent to which they would like to keep their business and social spheres separate online; for example, LinkedIn is predominantly used for professional networking, while many users limit their use of Facebook for communicating with family and personal friends. Google Buzz can blur these lines between social and business, and public and private, by introducing various social networking and microblogging features into users' Gmail e-mail accounts.
Other resources:
The Official Gmail Blog
A new Buzz start-up experience based on your feedback
Gmail Help
Google Buzz
Google Help Forum
Google Buzz and Contacts Help Forum
Cnet.com
Google Buzz: Privacy nightmare
Buzz off: Disabling Google Buzz
Silicon Alley Insider
WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw
ABA Site-tation
Control Your Online Reputation: Google Profiles
Smarter Social Networking
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