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Friday PMA Blog Roundup - 11/20/09

Another great week's worth of posts from the law practice management advisors:

You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.

Introducing ABA TechEZ: Tech-Savvy Savings for ABA Members

The ABA has launched ABA TechEZ, www.abanet.org/techez, a directory of technology-related discounts for ABA members. Discounted products and services are divided into a wide range of categories including smartphones, encryption, website design, practice management, internet fax, online backup and much more. In addition, the directory links visitors to ABA resources such as articles, comparison charts, presentations, books and CLE to supply information on how to make smart technology purchasing decisions.

 

ABA TechEZ is a collaborative effort of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center and ABA Member Benefits. It was developed to serve an educational purpose as well as provide special pricing on legal software for ABA members — particularly those in solo practice or small firms who work without the benefit of in-house IT staff. Look for more additions to the directory, and special opportunities to learn how these products fit into law practice to gain efficiencies and help provide excellent client services, coming soon!

Google Scholar Legal Opinion and Journal Search, ABA LTRC Free Full-Text Law Review/Law Journal Search

Google officially announced adding legal opinion and journal search features to Google Scholar this week, following the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center's announcement of the release of a free full-text online law review/law journal search engine created using Google Custom Search.  What are some differences between the two search engines? 

 

Google Scholar legal searches often return a large number of fee-based journal sites and cannot currently be limited to searching free sources only; the LTRC search engine is designed to search free full-text sites.  Google Scholar legal searches often return a mix of legal opinions and journal articles and cannot currently be limited to searching journals only; the LTRC search engine is designed to search only law review, law journal, and related article sites. 

 

Google Scholar's options for searching legal opinions are more developed than those for searching legal journals.  Searches can be limited to legal opinions and by jurisdiction through the Google Scholar Advanced Search interface. The legal opinions linked to in the search results are free full-text and include pagination.  Google Scholar includes a citator feature for legal opinions: clicking on a "How cited" link appearing next to an opinion in the search results leads to a page which displays text snippets from citing paragraphs in citing opinions (no editorial analysis such as treatment is given). "Cited by" and "Related documents" links display lists of citing and related opinions and articles.

 

Information regarding coverage of Google Scholar's legal opinion database can be found at http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html under the heading "Which court opinions do you include?"   

 

For more legal opinion-related information on the web, also see the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements' new Media Alerts on Federal Courts of Appeals website, which features case summaries and information on selected Federal Courts of Appeals cases.

 

Other resources:

 

Internet for Lawyers:

Google Makes Free Caselaw Search Available in Scholar

 

The Supreme Court of Texas Blog

Google wades into free legal research (for Texas, too!)

 

The Official Google Blog

Finding the Laws that Govern Us

 

ABA Site-tation

Free Full-text Online Law Review/Law Journal Search Engine

 

ABA Journal

Goal of New ABA Web Effort: All the Federal Decisions that Are Fit to Print

Be Careful! Twitter Phishing Catches Lawyers, Too

Twitter, the well known microblogging/social media tool, has become popular with lawyers over the past year. It's used to build professional networks, to share ideas and articles, to expand conference experiences, and according to some, it's even used to find clients. But Twitter's casual atmosphere and relative ease-of-use has led to dangerous (if inevitable) phenomena: Twitter phishing and Twitter spam.

According to a recent MSNBC.com article, the current Twitter scams begin with phishing: innocent users are tricked into entering their Twitter account information into a fake Twitter log in page, effectively handing control of their account to a malicious third party. The usurper then uses the innocent individual's account to send out spam, malware, and more phishing attempts via Twitter's "direct message" (DM) feature.

Unfortunately, many lawyers are falling victim to the scam. In the last few weeks, for example, the LTRC Twitter account (@ltrc) has received dozens of DM spam/phishing messages from lawyers, legal technology vendors, and even major law firms. For lawyers attempting to use Twitter in a professional or client development capacity, the results can be embarrassing and potentially damaging. Colleagues and potential clients won't be thrilled to see your Twitter name flooding their inboxes with spam, and they'll be even less happy if spam from your account leads to compromised security on their end.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

  • Be wary of general, impersonal direct messages. Is someone telling you to check out their website, a funny link, or to take a quiz? Does it say something like: "OMG, is this you?" or "I think you're on here"? These are all common signs of a phishing/spam message -- exercise extreme caution.

  • Watch the login page! Most accounts are compromised as a result of phishing - fake login pages that trick you into giving up your account information. Be wary of any link that takes you to a page asking for your account name/password. Doest he URL look right? Were you already logged into Twitter? When in doubt, close the page and open the Twitter home page (www.twitter.com) in a new window. Log in there.

  • Don't use the same login/password for every website. If your login and password are the same for Twitter and your online bank, having your Twitter account compromised can lead to much bigger problems.

  • When in doubt, take it off Twitter. If you aren't sure if a DM is real, ask the sender to contact you via e-mail or phone. That should give you a better opportunity to evaluate the situation.

  • Be careful who you follow. It's tempting to follow everyone in sight, but the better you know the person you're following the more likely you are to identify a DM that's out of character or unusual.

  • If you do fall victim to phishing and your account is used maliciously, change your password immediately and then Tweet a warning to your followers. Try to help others avoid your mistake.
Free Full-text Online Law Review/Law Journal Search Engine

 The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center has created a free full-text online law review/law journal search engine that searches the free full-text of over 300 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories hosting academic papers and related publications such as Congressional Research Service reports. 

 

The search engine, created using Google Custom Search, is designed to make it easier for people to find substantive legal analysis available on the Internet.   Coverage may vary; for more complete coverage visit your local law library and fee-based online legal research services. Please contact the LTRC to suggest additional full-text law reviews/journals and related sites that you think should be added to the search engine.

Friday PMA Blog Roundup - 11/13/09

No PMA blog roundup last week, so this covers two weeks of great posts from the law practice management advisors:

You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.

Sticks and Stones – More about online reputation management

When people are searching for information they are most likely to be using Google.  According to Experian Hitwise, a global online competitive intelligence service, Google accounted for 71.08 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in September 2009.  Therefore, Google's Reputation Management Advice carries considerable weight.

 

A lawyer’s reputation is his or her stock in trade; making this topic particularly relevant to the legal profession.  Following is a collection of resources for lawyers regarding online reputation management.

 

·         Online Reputation Management: First Rule is to Avoid Self-Inflicted Wounds – Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Blog

·         "Online Reputation Management" - Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast

·         Is Bad Publicity Better Than No Publicity? Not Necessarily in an Internet Age - Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg,

·         Debate rages over anonymous blogs – The Lawyers Weekly

 

Additional Resources:

·         Google's Reputation Management Advice

·         Control Your Online Reputation: Google Profiles

·         The Many Uses of Online Reputation Management for Lawyers

·         Managing Your Online Persona - A Success Story

·         Online reputation management

·         Protecting Your Reputation

SaaS and Cloud Computing Data Portability--Bulk Export from Google Docs Now Available

 

In August we wrote about the importance of data portability and the efforts of some companies to allow users of Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing services to easily download their data, for purposes such as keeping local backups and transferring the data to other services.  

 

Google has finally enabled a feature that has been long awaited for their Google Docs application--the new "Convert, Zip, and Download" feature allows  users to select some or all of their documents and download all of them in a single zip file, whereas previously documents could only be downloaded one at a time. 

 

If you are using or considering using any SaaS and cloud computing services, whether webmail, online collaboration, or online legal case and practice management software, be sure to investigate their data portability features to ensure that you can keep your data safe and easily available.

 

Here are other resources on data portability issues:

 

ABA LTRC

Data Portability: Google Data Liberation Front and Legal SaaS

Avoiding Rain in "the Cloud": Ensuring Access to Your Online Information

FYI: Software as a Service (SaaS) for Lawyers

FYI: E-mail Backup (You've Got Mail! - And Lots Of It)

 

Compujurist.com

Red Gorilla Redux? Why you need to select your online storage company carefully

There’s No Cure for Stupid – How Failing to Backup Killed JournalSpace

 

The Economist.com

Unlocking the Cloud

 

InformationWeek.com

Google Data Liberation Front Fights 'Evil' Lock-In

Friday PMA Blog Roundup - 10/30/09

Another busy week of blogging for the law practice management advisors, and a new blog joins the list:

You can stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts from practice management advisors by subscribing to our PMA Pipe RSS Feed.

In Case of Emergency – Disaster Recovery Resources

September was National Preparedness Month which emphasizes the responsibility of individuals, families, and communities -- including the private and nonprofit sectors -- to do their part before an emergency.  While September is behind us, the potential for disaster is ever present.

 

The ABA Disaster Law Resources  consist of a collection of resources for disaster survivors and lawyers about disaster preparedness and recovery.  For Lawyers and Law Firms there are resources that are specific to your practice area as well as helping disaster survivors.  Additionally, The ABA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has created the Disaster Legal Assistance Program to provide pro bono disaster related legal services to low-income victims of a federally-declared disaster when asked to do so by FEMA.

 

The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC) can help you and your firm in preparing for digital disasters. Contact LTRC directly at 312.988.5465 or ltrc@abanet.org with your questions regarding the use of technology in the practice of law.  Following is a selection of LTRC resources that can help minimize the impact of unexpected downtime.

 

·         Securing Your Tech: More Than Just Data - September 2009 ABA Section of Family Law eNewsletter (Scroll down to the bottom to the Tech Corner Column)

·         Protect yourself: Tips on using online passwords and password recovery system security - Your ABA eNewsletter, August 2009

·         Avoid Loss of Law Firm Data and Business Downtime by Keeping Software Updated - July 2009 ABA Section of Family Law eNewsletter

·         Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst: Protecting Your Firm from Disaster - September 2008 ABA Section of Family Law eNewsletter

·         It Could Happen to You: Disaster Preparedness - ABA Site-tation

·         Three Internet scams and solutions lawyers should know about Your ABA eNewsletter, November 2008

·         To catch a thief—tips and tools to protect your computer investment - Your ABA eNewsletter, June 2008

·         FYI: Data Backup - ABA LTRC Resource

·         FYI: The Ethics of Online Backup Systems - ABA LTRC Resource

·         FYI: Playing it Safe With Encryption - ABA LTRC Resource

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