TechnoLawyer: Practice Management/Calendars

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a practice management application for Windows Mobile devices (see article below), software that enables law firms to offer financing to their clients, and a Web-based billing application. Don't miss the next issue.

Your Practice in Your Pocket
By Peter R. Olson

The problem with being out of your office is being out of your office. Despite significant advances in smartphones and PDAs, their bundled applications lack the legal-specific functions of case management software. Gavel & Gown has responded to this problem with Amicus Mobile, an add-on to Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition, its desktop case management software.

Amicus Mobile runs on Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. It offers two significant innovations — push synchronization and time capture.

It's hard to believe that synchronizing your smartphone with your PC using a cable once seemed revolutionary. Nowadays, it's a chore right up there with taking out the trash and doing laundry. Amicus Mobile eliminates the need for you to manually sync. Instead, it synchronizes automatically, instantaneously, and wirelessly over your carrier's cell phone network with your Amicus Attorney 2008 server.

For example, as soon as you record a time entry, enter a contact, write a note, create an appointment, etc. that same information appears in Amicus Attorney back in your office. Similarly, any changes made back in the office such as a corrected phone number appears instantly in Amicus Mobile on your Windows Mobile device.

Amicus Mobile also addresses another chore — time entry. Instead of making a phone call and then manually entering the time afterwards, Amicus Mobile asks you after each call if you would like to create a record of the call and optionally a time entry. Just click Yes or No, add a note if you wish, and you're done. Amicus Mobile already knows its duration and enters that information. You can exclude personal contacts such as your kids from these prompts, and all captured call records can later be reviewed and converted into time entries.

Amicus Mobile pretty much mirrors its desktop counterpart. You can access, modify, and create contacts, appointments, notes, tasks, call records, stickies, and time entries. You can even access your file index and basic file details. With stickies, you can exchange text messages with your staff and bypass the charges associated with SMS. Because Amicus Mobile uses ActiveSync, it also synchronizes with Outlook if you use that program (and who doesn't these days).

In addition to Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition, Amicus Mobile requires Windows Mobile 5 or higher and Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 or higher. Amicus Mobile costs $149 per license. Learn more about Amicus Mobile.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 12, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Robert Rice reviews Amicus Attorney's conflicts checking abilities, Philip Franckel shares his thoughts on adhesion contracts and reviews Loislaw, Robert Fleming discusses Time Matters' stability, 30-year word processing veteran Stephen Silverberg compares Word to WordPerfect, and Deb Hoffmann reviews Google's Grand Central. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 30, 2008 to Fat Friday: Harry Steinmetz responds to the continuing biglaw associate salary thread, John Pierce reviews eGroupware as an open source alternative for shared calendars, contacts, and more, Tom Rowe defends his position on legal cross-selling and upselling, Mary Brooksby reviews using Bluetooth headsets and Amicus Attorney with her Palm Treo 680, and Peter Pike suggests another rule for modern day email etiquette. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an appliance and accompanying software for finding evidence on backup tapes during discovery or for compliance purposes (see article below), a practice management suite with a document assembly engine for law firms in high-volume practice areas (e.g., personal injury, real estate, etc.), and deposition and trial presentation software that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Don't miss the next issue.

Nixon's Not the Only One With Secrets on Tape
By Peter Olson

Remember backup tapes? Thank goodness hard drives have largely replaced them. Or so you thought. Lots of backup tapes still exist, many created with backup software that no longer exists. If you haven't yet received backup tapes from your clients during discovery, give it time. It's bound to happen sooner or later.

Index Engines' Tape Engine 2.5 aims to take the time and hassle out of retrieving backed-up data by searching offline tape data locked in unsupported, old back-up formats. Tape Engine unlocks the data contained on backup tapes, making individual files and email easily accessible, whether for discovery purposes or regulatory compliance.

A hardware appliance with proprietary software, Tape Engine indexes tapes and makes the data immediately searchable. Importantly, you need not restore the backup tape using the original backup software. In other words, no need to hunt for old software (and a computer to run it) on eBay.

The scanning operation begins when a backup tape is mounted into a tape drive connected to Tape Engine. Tape Engine also works with virtual tape libraries. The indexing software reads through the contents of the tape, and creates full content and metadata indexes for files, email, and other electronic documents.

Tape Engine supports many backup formats, including CA ArcServe, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec, and EMC NetWorker. Indexing occurs at tape speed (there's no getting around the laws of physics), but the footprint of the index is just 5-8% of the size of the original data, which translates into speedy searches.

Each Tape Engine can scale to 200 million files or email messages with clustered configurations available for larger environments. It supports common unstructured file types such as documents, spreadsheets, text, HTML, and PDF files, as well as Microsoft Exchange and other email systems.

Tape Engine uses a Google-like search interface that returns queries in one second or less. Dynamic de-duplication means that every file listed is unique. You can search specific parameters such as name, date, email address, etc. Once you find what you need, you can extract only those files. Learn more about Tape Engine.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 15, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Charles T. Lester Jr. suggests three sure-fire ways to cleanly copy and paste from Word to WordPerfect, Stephen Hayes shares his tips for a more comfortable, productive office setup, James Zuffoletto shares his thoughts on using dual monitors and the option of multiple monitors in one stand, David Hudgens reviews Time Matters and PCLaw, and Michael Murray discusses the future of Macs in the legal profession. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 14, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens clarifies his position regarding practice management software installation and consultants, Robert McNeill shares several ways to research practice management solutions plus he reviews the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510, and Dean Birch reviews Xerox's DocuMate 262 scanner. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 16, 2008 to Fat Friday: Stephen Seldin discusses software design in the context of Microsoft Word using Apple as a counterbalance, Karen McCormick reviews Time Matters 8, Harold Burstyn shares his thoughts on associate tenure at large firms and how patent law firms differ, Steve Loewy reviews the BlackBerry Curve versus the Palm Treo 650, and Troy Harber seeks practical Word tips that he can apply to OpenOffice (and we deliver dozens). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 8, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Ed Detlie suggests a few case management software options for a workers compensation practice plus he reviews the ScanSnap s510, David Adamski reviews Loislaw for legal research and comments on adhesion contracts, Edward Zohn explains how his firm archives its Exchange/Outlook-based email, Harry Steinmetz reviews Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition and Amicus Accounting, and Thomas Hutto reviews Backpack and Google calendar for shared calendaring. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 6, 2008 to TechnoFeature: Choosing practice management software is challenging, but it's actually a small part of the bigger puzzle. Once you have decided on the software, what do you do with it?  In this article, legal technology consultant Katrina Hubbard walks you through the implementation process. In doing so, she provides ten helpful tips designed to get you from the pre-purchase stage all the way to becoming a well-oiled practice management machine. Whether you're just dipping a toe into the practice management waters or have already taken the plunge with a particular software package, Katrina will show you how to maximize your investment.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 2, 2008 to Fat Friday: David Giuffrida reviews Carbonite in conjunction with WinZip Pro for comprehensive online backup, Thomas Parker discusses where small firms fit in a general counsel's outside counsel strategy, David Long suggests a more accurate way to open WordPerfect documents in Word, Hugh Roberts reviews Wrike for email-related task management, and Ido Ilan reviews his Treo 680 and Agendus. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.