TechnoLawyer: Email/Messaging/Telephony

Coming July 25, 2006 to TechnoFeature: When document management systems (DMS) first became available on the market, nothing compelled law firms to implement them. After years of improvements, DMS now provide tight integration with e-mail systems for efficient e-mail management. In this article, technology consultant David Moon discusses how to make use of this new feature. Will he persuade you to get you down off that fence and embrace DMS? Read on to find out.

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In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a service that can prove the sending, receipt, and content of an e-mail message, an online backup and document management tool, and an e-mail add-on that can convert attachments into secure PDF files. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Proving You Sent that E-Mail Message
By Dennis Kennedy
"But I never got your e-mail!" "That's not what your e-mail said!" "You never gave me that advice!" With today's overly-aggressive spam filters — not to mention less than honest adversaries and even clients — you need a simple and secure way to confirm and archive legal advice and other information sent via e-mail.

In technical terms, law firms realize they may need to show proof of sending, proof of delivery, and even proof of content (it's easy to edit an e-mail message after receipt) for important e-mail messages to prevent disputes.

The Registered E-mail® System available from BlumbergExcelsior offers a solution to protect senders of email, and it works whether or not the recipient has enrolled in the System. The service generates and returns a "Registered Receipt™" to the sender. All information necessary to verify the Registered Receipt™ and to reconstruct its original content is embedded within the receipt itself.

Each receipt contains an audit trail of information, including recipients and their email addresses as well as their e-mail servers and client programs. Receipts also contain a "digital fingerprint" — the time delivered, received, and opened, a copy of the original message with any attachments, and other information about the transmittal. These Registered Receipts conform to statutory requirements and prove both delivery and content. The Registered E-mail® System does not store any e-mail with a third party, making it truly secure.

You buy the service on a per use basis (starting at 79 cents per use) with stamp-like package plans available in which you can pre-pay for a pack of Registered E-mail® units for use by anyone within your firm. A free trial enables you to send 10 e-mail messages at no charge.

Learn more about the Registered E-mail® System.

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.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a low-cost online emporium for printer labels, a speakerphone for your PC, and and a USB 2 WiFi adapter. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Label This One a "Bargain"
By Dennis Kennedy
No matter how far we might have come on the road to the electronic office, the fact remains that law firms use a lot of labels — for mailing, shipping, filing and many other purposes. In fact, a trip to a law firm's supply room can give you an education in the many varieties of labels available today and a historical tour of the firm's past labels. The cost of all those labels add up to real dollars. And finding the labels you want at a big box office supply store can prove difficult.

Worldlabel.com enables you to shop online for the labels you need and save a lot of money and time in the process. Worldlabel.com is a label manufacturer that eliminates the middleman's mark-up and ships directly to the user. Bargains anyone? Its Web site claims savings ranging from 25% to 90% over the big box stores.

Worldlabel.com offers more than 50 sizes of labels for laser and inkjet printing, available in 18 different materials and several colors. Need Avery labels? Check Wordlabel.com's handy Avery cross reference chart. As a manufacturer, it can also make custom labels for you.

Law firms often want to use label templates. Worldlabel.com offers free downloads of label templates in Word and PDF formats. It also recently published a collection of label templates in the Opendocument format, which has obtained ISO approval and is gaining acceptance around the world.

Worldlabel.com also has a customer support team with experience in inkjet and laser printers to answer your specific questions. 

Learn more about Worldlabel.com.

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.

Like many tech-savvy lawyers, Joshua Stein, a partner at Latham & Watkins, has had to rethink the way he works with his assistant in recent years. In an article published in ALI-ABA's The Practical Lawyer, he discusses a clever method for quickly delegating items in his e-mail inbox. Specifically, Joshua forwards action-oriented e-mail messages to his assistant with a one letter code in the subject line. For example, "N" means add the person to his Outlook contacts. Read the article.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming June 22, 2006 to Answers to Questions: David Ventker reviews WORLDOX and its role in his firm's paperless office, Brad Jensen reviews his experience using Skype in a business setting, Alan Kassan reviews Copernic Desktop Search while offering up some PDF searching tips, Kurt Schoettler responds to the open WiFi network debate, and Frank Brancato dispels a common WordPerfect myth. 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.

You don't have time to track 100 business and technology magazines and blogs. We do. Below you'll find our latest discoveries.

Assessing the Importance of Voice Mail in Discovery

Data Mining on the Internet with Google

How Many Hours Would Elihu Root Bill?

And Your Favorite Blog Is ... Huh?

Is Your Firm Really Marketing?

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a legal accounting/billing program with powerful compensation allocation technology, an e-mail marketing tool that integrates with Outlook, and a financial news and mortgage supersite. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Kiss Your Compensation Spreadsheets Goodbye
By Jill Bauerle
Given lawyers' reputation for hating math, why do so many firms devise complex compensation formulas? Maybe lawyers actually like numbers. Whatever the case, the folks at Software Technology have addressed a long unmet need with Tabs3 Version 14, the latest version of its popular accounting/time-billing software. Specifically, Software Technology redesigned its Receipt Allocation technology, which now features powerful Compensation Rules. While these Compensation Rules enable you to allocate fees among lawyers using simple percentages, you can also use complex formulas that include multiple timekeepers, date ranges, and amount limits. And apportioned billable hours. If you can think it, Tabs3 can handle it. Once you set up your compensation rules, you can generate a Fee Compensation Rules report by client or timekeeper. And with the new Payment Allocation feature, you can review automated payments and make manual payments. Also new is improved handling of duplicate statement numbers as well as the ability to credit multiple accounts with a single journal entry (e.g., fee income, costs advanced, reimbursable expenses, etc.). Naturally, you can restrict access rights to these and other sensitive areas of the software. Tabs3 also features a number of redesigned and new reports, including Cash Receipts, Client Analysis, Receipt Allocation, Timekeeper Analysis, Timekeeper Realization, and Unallocated Payments. Apart from these new features, Tabs3 retains everything that has made it so popular — accounts payable, billing, general ledger, trust accounting, and integration with PracticeMaster (a free copy of which comes bundled with Tabs3), Palm devices, and more. Tabs3 is designed for solo to mid-sized firms. Solo pricing starts at $295. Learn more about Tabs3 Version 14.

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 8, 2006 to Answers to Questions: David Hudgens reviews the pro and cons of PCLaw and Time Matters, Robert Lee suggests a way to easily convert a PDF file to Word, H R Kloppenburg reviews his experience using ISYS search software, Frank Feilmeyer shares some open source options for secure instant messaging, and David Silverman suggests a few ways to improve Timeslips performance (while also declaring his love for a certain spyware utility). 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, 2006 to TechnoFeature: First came the e-mail revolution, and then the information-sharing phenomenon known as the World Wide Web. Soon your teenagers found new ways to gab about their latest crush with instant messaging and chat rooms. Now, lawyers and their clients increasingly use such tools for telephone calls and videoconferences on the cheap. In this article, legal technology consultant Adriana Linares and attorney Ernie Svenson discuss the latest communications services, all of which fall within the quirky and goofy sounding acronym: VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Find out if one of these services will work for you.

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 11, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens compares Windows Desktop Search to Google Desktop Search and reviews an Outlook archival utility, William Burt reviews Xerox Documate scanners in a law office, Alan Press reviews his Fujitsu ScanScap, Sandra Adams reviews QuickBooks for legal billing and accounts receivable, and Carol Bratt discusses her free document assembly system. 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.