TechnoLawyer

Coming today to TechnoFeature: Ever since the financial crisis, a growing chorus of "experts" have admonished law firms to switch from the time-tested billable hour to some alternative (i.e., untested) business model. Ironically, even the brave few law firms that have switched still typically track their time for productivity benchmarking and other purposes. In other words, tracking your time still matters big time. In this TechnoFeature article, intellectual property lawyer Kevin Grierson reviews Chrometa, which tracks how you spend time on one or more computers (Mac and Windows), and provides access to that data along with various tools via a secure Web site. Kevin spent some serious time tracking his time with Chrometa for this timely review. Find out if Chrometa can help you better manage and, yes, bill more of your time.

How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Fred Kruck, a Lawyer's Take on Traditional Legal Software Versus Web Applications

Barron Henley, Review: Webex v. GoToMeeting

Molly Maloney, Review: Timesolv

Theo Rand, The Real Reason Law Firms Resist Technology

Question Of The Week: Got a Shredder Recommendation?

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.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

Fred Kruck, Review: Hasler: The Postage Machine No One Knows About

Pam Haidenger-Bains, Tip: Document Management For Email Within Outlook

Thomas F. McDow, Review: CaseMap

Janis Cross, Review: Samsung Moment (Android)

Theodore Borrego, My Dual Monitor Setup (Document Nerds Take Note)

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

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, 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 Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

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

How to Make Email the Sunshine of Your Law Practice

In yesterday's issue of TechnoFeature, Mazyar Hedayat joked that affectations like eye contact and firm handshakes would become historical relics in another 20 years. However, it's no joke. And it won't take 20 years. A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece praised email for dramatically reducing one of the most annoying aspects of life — telephone calls. A legal technology guru once marveled in his podcast that even if he took several weeks to reply to someone's email message, they didn't seem to mind. Just as teens once plastered London with "Clapton Is God" graffiti, many of us feel the same way about email. It's the killer app of all killer apps — and a far larger social network than Facebook (it's completely open too). But email can get out of control. Those of you who use Outlook listen up.

ClearContext Professional 5 … in One Sentence
ClearContext Professional 5 is an Outlook add-on for email management.

The Killer Feature
Outlook contains many useful features, but in true Microsoft fashion most people don't use them because they're too difficult to figure out and in some cases even find. Take rules, please — clearly built by programmers for programmers, not normal people.

ClearContext Professional provides the functionality of rules without having to create any. For example, it can file email from automated senders such as online stores into a folder for later review. ClearContext Professional can also learn from you. File a message from a client once, and the software will file all future messages automatically

Other Notable Features
The new version of ClearContext Professional goes beyond rules. You can defer email messages with one click. They disappear from your inbox and return later at a designated time. You can receive a reminder if you send an important message but don't receive a reply.

ClearContext Professional also performs an electronic alchemy of sorts — it can convert email messages into appointments or tasks. In fact, it includes a Task Organizer that accommodates David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system. Even better, you can delegate email to those unfortunate enough to report to you and track their progress.

What Else Should You Know?
ClearContext Professional works with Outlook 2003 and later. It costs $89.95. Learn more about ClearContext Professional 5.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on April 12, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

TechnoScore: 4.0
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

ExhibitView Solutions' ExhibitView 4.0 is a trial presentation program for the rest of us. It's effective for displaying and annotating exhibits at trial, and can be mastered in well under an hour. In this respect, ExhibitView is far more user-friendly than programs such as Sanction and TrialDirector, which while excellent, and with more bells and whistles, require far more intensive (and expensive) training, and are less useable when you're conducting a trial alone without assistance. For this issue of SmallLaw, I put ExhibitView on trial at a trial.

PowerPoint and Projects

ExhibitView is well integrated with (shudder) PowerPoint, so that all of you PowerPoint addicts should now be pleased as punch, while non PowerPoint addicts can simply ignore this aspect of ExhibitView's capabilities. Thus, ExhibitView has much to recommend it — especially in the context of trials with relatively few exhibits. As a bonus, ExhibitView Solutions provides outstanding support, is extremely responsive to user needs and comments, and seems driven by a genuine desire to produce the best possible product.

Some shortcomings and glitches exist in the version of the program I used, but the company responds quickly to feedback.

My first small complaint concerns opening Projects. If you do not select as an option "Show Project Wizard at Startup," ExhibitView automatically starts up by loading the "Sample Project" that comes with the software (something you probably want to keep for future reference, but do not want to greet you every time you use the software).

If, on the other hand, you select the option to "Show Project Wizard at Startup," be prepared for a small disappointment. You will be shown a splash screen with a list of recently worked on Projects (and the Sample Project). If you (intuitively) highlight the Project you want, and then click on "Open Project," the highlighted Project will not open. Instead you will be presented with Windows Explorer in which you must navigate your way to the directory location of the desired Project.

The only way to open the Project you want is to double-click on the desired Project in the Project list. Obviously, the program should automatically open (or should at least give you a "Preference" option to open) the most recently used Project.

ExhibitView Solutions has since addressed this issue.

Displaying Your Exhibits

In principal operation, the software presents two screens — one for you and one for your audience. Your screen contains not only a large "Display" area, but also various working elements invisible to your audience. The audience sees only items in the "Display" area, and then only when you have decided to project them.

To the left of your Display area you will find on your screen a sidebar with thumbnails of all Exhibits you imported into the Project, grouped into Slides, Documents (most ordinary Exhibits), Images, Audio/Visual and Web Pages. Above your Display you'll find icons for indicating how you wish to use the Display area (e.g., full screen, divided screen for displaying two documents side-by-side, etc.). You can dynamically change the layout on the fly.

Also above your Display area are straightforward markup tools with which you can annotate, highlight, and zoom in on all or portions of an exhibit in the Display area. You can use these tools in advance of the live presentation, and then capture the result as an image for later use.

Finally, above the Display area is a "Projector" switch that controls when to send items in your "Display" area to the projector, and hence to the audience. From a reliability and ease of use standpoint, this control is the best I have seen in any presentation program — a point of considerable importance since when the Judge says "kill the image," you had better do so pronto.

Below the Exhibit sidebar is a "Find" box with which you can search for the particular exhibit you want to display — assuming you have a naming convention that permits you to rapidly recall at least the first several characters of the file or alias name (probably the exhibit number). Under the "Find" box are two buttons — one to "Display" the "found" exhibit, and one to "Preview" that exhibit.

In theory at least, you can display exhibits in one of two ways: (1) physically drag and drop the thumbnail of the exhibit from the sidebar onto the Display area, or (2) use the "Find" box to locate the exhibit you seek, and then click on the "Display" button located just under the "Find" box. The "drag and drop" method is tried, true, and always works. Navigating to the correct exhibit using the sidebar, however, becomes cumbersome and impractical when working with a large number of Exhibits. In such circumstances, the utility and usability of the "Find" box is of considerably greater importance.

A War Story From My Use of ExhibitView in Trial

I ran into a problem with ExhibitView's search box at trial. It worked fine for the first exhibit search, but thereafter the search box held onto the original search name so that the only way to search for a second or subsequent exhibit was to physically select and clear the text previously entered into the search box so that the next exhibit's identifier could be entered. Obviously this workaround is not conducive to the rapid access to exhibits required at trial.

Amazingly, when I contacted ExhibitView Solutions mid-trial on a Friday to complain about this problem, it immediately got to work and managed to provide me with a new installation file containing the proposed "fix" just after 4 am on the next court day (Monday). The responsiveness of the company, and its genuine eagerness to improve its product is pretty much unparalleled in my experience.

Unfortunately, however, this emergency "fix" was not a complete fix. Although ExhibitView solved the problem of more quickly clearing the "Find" box after an initial search, the entry of a new and different exhibit number into the now-empty "Find" box did not move the focus to the sidebar thumbnail of the "new" exhibit so as to permit you to easily locate and drag that exhibit to the display area. Furthermore, even though the identifier of the "new" exhibit is now in the "Find" box, clicking the "Display" button will not display the newly designated exhibit to your audience.

You can, however, bring the "new" exhibit up as a "Preview" by clicking on the "Preview" button, but this does little more than highlight a still further problem with the software, which is that once an exhibit is in "Preview," there is no obvious way effectively to change its status from "Preview" to "Display." In fact, I will go out on a limb here and say that in this build of the software after the first "Find" there was no way — other than physical drag and drop — to "Display" any exhibit located through a second or subsequent "Find" operation. And even the "drag and drop" option was made difficult by the fact that second and subsequent "Find" operations do not shift the focus to highlight the thumbnail for the second or subsequently found exhibit.

ExhibitView Solutions has continued to work on its "Find" technology, which now works better than it did during my trial.

An Effective Trial Presentation Tool That Will Improve

Don't make too much of ExhibitView's shortcomings. In cases with fewer than 100 exhibits, its problems are not deal-breakers. Also, thanks to your intrepid SmallLaw columnist, ExhibitView Solutions has already made many of the issues in this review non-issues. You can try ExhibitView for free and take advantage of free weekly training on the Web. The software currently retails for $749.

Written by Yvonne M. Renfrew of Renfrew Law.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 123 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Bandwidth Issues With Cloud Computing Backups

Note-Taking in the Cloud: Onenote v. Evernote

Top 10 Tablets of 2011: The New Leaderboard

You Need an Alternative Firm, Not Alternative Fees

The 20 Best Law Firm Slogans

This issue also contains links to every article in the May/June 2011 issue of Law Practice. Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on April 12, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

If you take away one lesson from all of my BigLaw columns, let it be this: appearances matter. I don't just mean looking hot — though that's important too. I mean maintaining the right image at your firm. Any old associate or counsel can bill hours or write memos, but not everyone can play the part. And in large law firms, it's not the work you do, but the work partners think you do that counts.

During the recession, plenty of hardworking, talented associates got laid off, while some of their mediocre peers kept their jobs. That's because instead of producing quality work and praying that somebody on the executive committee would notice, the mediocre associates focused on broadcasting their work first, and then producing it … fifth. Just like the proverbial tree that falls in the forest with no one to hear it, lawyers who work hard but don't brag about it don't reap the fruits of their labor.

In this issue of BigLaw, I share five secrets about a topic near and dear to my heart — how to succeed in a large law firm without really trying. When you finish reading this column, you'll have all the necessary tools to stop working and get busy slacking.

1. Pull a Christian Bale

Playing the role of a dedicated associate starts with method acting. Nobody's going to believe that you're pulling long hours and closing deals if you look like a million bucks.

To start looking the part, you have to emulate Christian Bale's habits. Stop exercising and start eating only processed foods. Set your alarm to wake you up every four hours (or just don't sleep at all). Stay dressed in your work clothes for a few days and speckle your rumpled garb with balsamic vinaigrette stains. Shower infrequently and put parmesan cheese in your hair to simulate dandruff.

If you're a guy, shave, but not too often, and occasionally nick yourself and show up to work with bloody scraps of toilet paper stuck to your face. If people start asking if everything is okay, you're on the right track.

2. Prepare Your Office

What kind of faux-hardworking associate has time to clean his office? Not you. Create the right stench by letting old delivery food fester in your garbage can, and then print some email messages and throw them on the floor.

Since personal lives are for associates and counsel who aren't committed to their jobs, remove any photographs of family and friends from your desk and replace them with deal toys purchased from eBay. Line your bookshelves with blank Xerox paper bound into closing sets and label them on the spine with important deal names, such as "Project Evergreen."

Now you're beginning to look like you bill some serious hours!

3. Give Them a Show

Standing out from the pack takes more than just poor personal hygiene and a disgusting office. You also have to demonstrate to partners that you're working around the clock by putting on a show.

If you work in a business casual office, wear a suit once a week for no reason to make it look like you went to court or had a client meeting. Better yet, stuff a litigation bag with Styrofoam popcorn and drag it with you everywhere. Sure, litigation has gone paperless but the baby boomer partners who run the firm don't know that.

When at your desk, give the impression that you're working by keeping a document open on your screen and highlighting leisure reading materials printed from the Web.

4. Leave a Paper Trail

Big Brother is always watching, so it's important to leave an electronic trail that corroborates your sham work performance. You're a TechnoLawyer subscriber so you should have no problem setting up Outlook to deploy emails at ungodly hours.

Some other gimmes to beat the system include:

• Checking out a bunch of documents at a time and making inconsequential edits to them so people think you're working on them.

• Swiping in to work on the weekends with your building ID card while en route to brunch, the gym, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.

• Sending around a vacation memo to a bunch of partners and then noisily cancelling your fake vacation last minute because of work.

• Submitting constant requests for more business cards.

• Responding to "volunteers needed" email messages hours or even days after they are sent.

Advanced-level slackers may also want to join the firm's intramural volleyball team and then cancel before each game via email to the entire distribution list.

5. When You Absolutely, Positively Must Work

Even master slackers eventually have to perform the occasional task to justify their salaries. Fortunately, shortcuts exist around most assignments.

For example, litigators needn't get bogged down by legal research on LexisNexis or Westlaw when cheap labor in India can handle it for you. Just ask Tim Ferriss. And transactional associates can turn documents faster by bracketing language and dropping footnotes that state "to discuss."

Don't Just Stand There. Start Slacking!

Nobody ever said success without trying was easy. But the benefits you'll reap by being a "squeaky wheel" make working hard at hardly working well worth the limited effort.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: What happens when three of the legal industry's premier event planners team up and invite a dozen of the most dynamic lawyers and legal technologists to discuss innovation in law practice? You get an explosive TED-like event called Ignite Law 2011. With each speaker limited to six minutes, the presentations have a high signal-to-noise ratio (Ignite ain't your father's legal conference). In this TechnoFeature, Will County, Illinois lawyer and SmallLaw columnist Mazyar Hedayat summarizes each of the 12 presentations. Even better, he links to the video of each presentation so that you can virtually attend Ignite. Fasten your seatbelt and prepare for a thought-provoking 72-minute ride to the future of the legal profession.

How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

Tom Schoolcraft, Top Three Benefits of Document Assembly Software

Andrew Weltchek, Review: Credenza, QuickBooks, and Time Tracker Plus Bill4Time, Clio, and Rocket Matter

Bill Baldwin, How to Create Image Only PDF Files From Word Documents

Kate Murphy, Review: CaseMap

Spencer Stromberg, Review: pdfdownload for Saving Web Pages

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

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, 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 Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on April 5, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Watch the Video

TechnoScore: 2.0
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

Attorney Steven Jesser starts by referring to himself in the third person. He then proceeds to list every type of legal issue his law firm handles. The list is endless. Not only that, but he's personally licensed in 10 different states. He's also available for consultation every day and on weekends.

Here's a partial list of the types of clients he helps and practice areas he handles: physicians, dentists, nurses, clinics, small to large business, health law and insurance litigation problems, health care contracting, business contracting, litigation, civil and criminal appellate practice, governmental and prosecution practice, major law firm practice, corporate practice, etc. He's also a court certified mediator in four state and federal courts. I couldn't type fast enough to list every single practice area he handles.

Production-wise, the video is not in focus. It is uploaded in the lowest possible setting (240p), which means the quality of the video itself is not ideal, especially when the standard today is high definition video (720p). The lighting is poor and the background is dark.

On the positive side, Jesser smiles and appears friendly. He dresses well and he certainly can tick off all the legal practice areas he handles.

In my opinion, the video tries to accomplish too many things. It tries to appeal to people who might fit into one of many and varied categories his law firm handles. I can't see a person in need of legal services sitting through a lengthy litany of practice areas hoping that the lawyer will mention their particular problem area.

It's almost like being stuck in voice jail where you have to listen to the automated robotron tell you about your 10 choices before you're allowed to press "0" for the operator.

In the description box, he lists six different phone numbers along with his other contact information. He also loads up on keywords (over 30).

Tip #1: Narrow Your Focus

Someone searching for a lawyer who handles a specific problem will not find you if you use a scattershot approach and claim to handle everything under the sun. If you identify one or two areas in which you practice, you stand a much better chance of someone finding you.

As internet marketing guru Frank Kern says, "Nichefy" to stand out.

Tip #2: Use a High-Definition Video Camera

Virtually all video cameras nowadays use hi-definition video. That means you get a 16x9 rectangular aspect ratio and you can shoot in 720p or 1080p. These settings are remarkably superior to anything you'd get shooting with standard definition video at 240p or 480p.

Even the Flip camera, Kodak Zi8, and iPhone 4 shoot in hi-def.

Tip #3: Educate the Consumer

Before ever shooting video, ask yourself why you're creating the video? Is it a sales pitch? Are you going to push your credentials? Are you going to give your online viewer information they need to know? If you cannot answer this question immediately, you have a problem and need to figure out why before ever pressing "Record."

A video that talks about your law firm does nothing to educate their potential clients. You lose the opportunity to educate. Other than telling people what areas of law you practice in, how has Attorney Jesser's video helped a potential client who has a legal problem and is now in search and compare mode?

Consumers and potential clients go online because they need a lawyer and don't know any. They are searching and comparing Web sites and videos to see which law firm is right for them. The lawyers who educate will rule the day. Why? Simple. Online shoppers are sophisticated. They want information. Give them what they want. Just make sure you don't give them legal advice.

How can this Jesser improve his video? Simple. Create several videos and focus on one practice area per video. "Nichefy" to get noticed.

Till next time, see you on video!

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "This video needs a lot of help. It is filmed in a minimalist manner — white wall, second-hand microphone. There is absolutely nothing that stands out about Mr. Jesser or his firm. There is no information on the video — so clients cannot reach out to him if they find him on YouTube. Here are the absolute three rules of a good video: (1) Captivate, (2) Inform, and (3) Close the Deal. Number 3 is very hard to do in video setting. Mr. Jesser flunks all three."

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "Steven Jesser lists about a zillion or so different legal issues that his law firm can handle — so many that I can't recall any of them by the end of the video. Steven, buddy, you need to focus — and don't refer to yourself in the third person."

Written by Gerry Oginski of The Lawyers' Video Studio.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.