TechnoLawyer

Coming today to BigLaw: Approximately 500 law firms have 100 or more lawyers. The actions of one or two law firms does not a trend make even though they may get press. What matters is what's happening among large numbers of large firms. For this issue of BigLaw, lawyer and freelance journalist Liz Kurtz combed through everything published over the past year to identify the five most important business trends in the large firm world. Also, don't miss the BigLaw Pick of the Week for a new study on the elusive financial benefits of lateral hiring.

How to Receive BigLaw
Large and midsize law firms have achieved unprecedented success yet they still have tremendous growth potential. Written by insiders, corporate counsel, and other industry experts, BigLaw unearths best practices in leadership, marketing, strategy, and technology, and features detailed product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. BigLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to insightful articles (and podcasts and videos) about large and midsize law firms, as well as notable press releases issued by the world's largest law firms. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to SmallLaw: The aspect of law practice that generates the most revenue for most law firms is also its least glamorous — document drafting. In this issue of SmallLaw, law firm technology consultant Ben Schorr explains how three Microsoft Word technologies — AutoCorrect, Building Blocks, and Templates — can make document creation more efficient. As always, Ben provides step-by-step instructions. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week for tips on creating an email signature that will help rather than hurt you.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to helpful articles (and podcasts and videos) about solo practices and small law firms. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Bryce Schmidt, Review: Ting MVNO; Page Plus Cellular

Bryan Rannigan, Review: Acronis True Image (Plus Other Backup Solutions)

Calhoun Thomas, How I Send Redlines to Clients

Caren Schwartz, Converting From Time Matters to PCLaw and Other Tips

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

SHARING IS THE POINT OF DOCUMENT AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

Traditional practice management systems limit access to those who work at your law firm. This results in using email to send documents to clients and others. Email suffers from several problems such as the risk of misaddressing your message, the inability to track receipt and activity by recipients, and limits on attachment size. Instead of using email or implementing a separate solution such as SharePoint, practice management systems should have built-in collaboration tools.

Legal Hub by PBworks … in One Sentence

PBworks' Legal Hub is a document and practice management system and client portal for managing matters and documents, and securely collaborating with clients, co-counsel, and others.

The Killer Feature

Legal Hub has catered to large law firms for years. The new version released this month caters to solos and small law firms as well. Some solos and small law firms may find that they never need to pay for LegalHub. That's because it's free for up to 15 internal users, up to five external users, up to five clients and matters, and up to 50 MB of storage. This free plan also includes email technical support. You need not provide a credit card to get started.

"For years, leading law firms from the AmLaw 100 to solo practitioners have used Legal Hub to manage key client relationships and matters," PBworks CEO Jim Groff told us. "Now any law firm can sign up and try it for free."

Other Notable Features

Legal Hub describes itself as a SharePoint alternative built specifically for law firms. Because Legal Hub is a cloud application, law firms need not contend with SharePoint's complexity and hardware requirements.

You begin by setting up your clients and their respective matters, and then granting access rights to the matters you create. Each Matter has a summary page listing the Matter Number, status, the internal team, key external contacts, etc. From this page, you can drill down to access related documents, email, meetings, notes, and tasks. Legal Hub features a system-wide Google-style search so that you quickly find anything across all clients and matters.

You add documents and email messages to a matter using drag and drop. One-click sharing enables you to give clients and others access to select documents such as a draft agreement, pleadings, discovery documents, etc. You can see when someone accesses what you share and receive a notification via email (you can receive notifications for virtually any activity in Legal Hub).

Within each matter, you can focus on specific projects such as an upcoming closing or deposition. Each matter "workspace" contains relevant documents and email as well as tasks and deadlines. You can assign tasks to others and track their progress using a variety of reports.

Given the sensitivity of client-related information, Legal Hub uses enterprise-level encryption and security. Access rights extend all the way down to specific documents. Audit tracking logs all activity with date and time stamps.

What Else Should You Know?

If your firm exceeds the limits of the free version of Legal Hub, you can upgrade to unlimited clients and matters, as well as 100 GB of storage, for $40 per user per month. PBworks offers volume discounts beginning as 20 users. Learn more about Legal Hub.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

AUTOMATION MEETS PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

Many law firms have more than enough work but not enough profits to show for it. Two solutions exist. You could raise rates and receive push back from clients. Alternatively, you can use technology to improve automation, enabling your firm to handle more work without raising rates (not to mention headcount).

Synergy Matters … in One Sentence

Launched this week, Legal Matters Software's Synergy Matters is a practice management system with an emphasis on automation thanks to tools for time capture, cost recovery, document management, and faxing.

The Killer Feature

Synergy Matters contains a number of technologies to prevent lost billable time. For example, it automatically tracks the time you spend on a matter (e.g., drafting documents, writing email messages, etc.). This eliminates the need to use timers and other manual time-tracking methods. A review window lists all your captured time by matter with a corresponding description. After editing (if required), you can post these time entries to any accounting system.

Similarly, Synergy Matters, automatically tracks your scans, faxes, and prints. If you charge for costs, Synergy Matters can automatically post these to your accounting system. If you don't, you can use this data to adjust your rates to make sure your disbursements don't eat into your profits.

"Synergy Matters is the result of eight years working with law firms and refining our software to produce the easiest-to-use tool to enhance productivity in a law firm environment", Vice President of Sales John Ryan told us.

Other Notable Features

When you create a new document or email message from within a matter, Synergy Matter automatically saves it there. Thanks to an integration with Outlook, you can save incoming email to a matter with one click.

Synergy Matters works with a number of scanners, enabling you to scan directly to a matter in PDF format. Built-in OCR software makes all scanned PDF documents searchable. You'll also find tools for converting Word documents into PDF format, combining multiple documents into a single PDF document, and Bates stamping PDF documents.

The document management system features collaborative tools and preservation of revisions. You can share a document with anyone by clicking the "For Review" button, which creates a link to the original document. Synergy matters automatically saves changes others make as a new version of the document, thus preserving all previous versions.

What Else Should You Know?

Synergy Matters offers fax server functionality when connected to the optional Synergy Fax Appliance. This enables everyone to send faxes from their PC. Synergy Matters automatically saves a copy of each fax with proof of delivery in the corresponding matter. You can route incoming faxes to individuals, groups, your records department, etc. Synergy Matters can automatically bill for all incoming and outgoing faxes. Learn more about Synergy Matters.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to SmallLaw: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 52 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our SmallLaw Pick of the Week.

A Former Boxer Becomes a Legal Heavyweight

Money Won't Keep the "Poachers" Away

Analyzing My Daily Blogging Experiment

Avoid This Terrible Public Speaking Advice

Congratulations to Lee Rosen of Divorce Discourse on winning our SmallLaw Pick of the Week award: How I Solved My Greatest Weakness as a Law Firm Founder

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small law firm, big dreams. Written by successful small-firm founders, managing partners, administrators, and legal technology and practice management experts, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in solo practices and small law firms. Additionally, SmallLaw features comprehensive reviews of legal products with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to helpful articles, podcasts, and videos about solo practices and small law firms. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 76 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

Glossy v. Matte Monitors

Microsoft Office on iPad Coming Soon

Review: Reader 7 for iPad

ReInvent Law Implores Lawyers to Change

Congratulations to Paul Thurrott of Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: What the Heck Is Happening to Our Beloved Windows?

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of both legal technology and mainstream technology of interest to the legal profession (e.g., monitors, smartphones, scanners, the iPad, and more). But not the only coverage. BlawgWorld enables you to stay on top of all the noteworthy legal and mainstream technology articles (and podcasts and videos) published elsewhere without having to hire a research assistant. Even when you're busy, you won't want to miss each issue's Pick of the Week. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to LitigationWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 80 articles from the past two weeks worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week.

Stop Asking Jurors This Impossible Question

Ediscovery Breaks the $100 Barrier

How to Combine Oral and Visual Presentations

Key Ediscovery Cases in January 2014

Congratulations to Ken Lopez of The Litigation Consulting Report on winning our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award: 16 Mind-Blowing PowerPoint Litigation Graphics

How to Receive LitigationWorld
All practice areas evolve, but none faster than litigation. Written by successful litigators and other litigation experts, LitigationWorld provides you with practical tips related to electronic discovery, depositions, litigation strategy, litigation technology, and trial presentations. You'll also receive in-depth litigation product reviews as well as links to the most noteworthy articles in other online litigation publications so that you'll never miss anything. The LitigationWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to LitigationWorld: There's no better way to evaluate a document review application than with the Burney-LitigationWorld Discovery Dataset, which provides for an apples-to-apples comparison to competing products. In this issue of LitigationWorld, Brett Burney, the ediscovery consultant who created this dataset, reviews Lexbe Online. Brett walks you through Lexbe Online's interface, document import capabilities, search technology and document review tools, other features such as case analysis, and document production wizard. After this exhaustive analysis, Brett gives Lexbe Online a TechnoScore. Also, don't miss the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week for a review of DkT, a new PACER app for iOS.

How to Receive LitigationWorld
All practice areas evolve, but none faster than litigation. Written by successful litigators and other litigation experts, LitigationWorld provides you with practical tips related to electronic discovery, depositions, litigation strategy, litigation technology, and trial presentations. LitigationWorld also features in-depth litigation product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings, as well as links to the most noteworthy litigation articles in other publications so that you'll never miss anything. The LitigationWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Neil Squillante, Thinking Different About Composing Email on Your iPad

Kent Davis, Examples of XpressDox in Action in Law Firms

David Roper, Review: Scrivener and OmniOutliner

Andrew J. Zuckerman, This Article on Word Explains Why I Use WordPerfect

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.