TechnoLawyer

Coming today to Fat Friday: Leonard Johnson discusses Software as a Service (SaaS), Geoff Ormrod reviews Drobo and DroboShare, Tom Rowe continues the debate on music subscription services, Mary Bellusci comments on a recent SmallLaw column about speaking opportunities for lawyers, and Stephen Asbel explains why the typewriter still has a place in the law office. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to Answers to Questions: Michael Gibney reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Gary Garland reviews Vista Ultimate BitLocker and TrueCrypt, and Philip Franckel reviews MozyPro. Don't miss this issue.

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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.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Joe Dipierro compares Copernic Desktop Search with Windows XP's built-in indexing service, Gail Hill reviews Microsoft Word's mail merge function, and Mark Slate shares his thoughts on the perfect practice management software (which doesn't yet exist but may soon). Don't miss this issue.

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.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an online Flash-based office suite (see article below), software for comparing Excel spreadsheets, document management software, software for accessing your firm's litigation docket via Outlook, and a gadget that transforms your iPhone into a universal infrared remote control. Don't miss the next issue.

Not Your Father's Office

You can't swing a pair of "7" skinny jeans in New York City's East Village without hitting a trendy restaurant featuring exposed brick walls, servers with nose rings, deconstructed dishes, and cocktails that require an ingredients search on your smartphone. It's fun to be hip, but hip doesn't work so well when it comes to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. As a result, most law firms have eschewed hip online suites such as Google Docs, preferring to stick with dowdy but feature-rich and reliable Microsoft Office (think Cheesecake Factory). But a newcomer to the world of online office suites claims to have the functionality law firms need.

Live Documents … in One Sentence
InstaColl's Live Documents is an online Flash-based office suite consisting of Live Writer, Live Spreadsheets, and Live Presentations.

The Killer Feature
Unless every organization with which you work switches to Live Documents, you'll still have to deal with Microsoft Office files. And even if that happens, what about all your existing Office files?

Live Documents features what it calls non-lossy Microsoft Office round tripping, which offers two benefits. First, you can import Office documents without losing any existing formatting. Similarly, you can export to Office formats.

Second, if an Office document contains a component that Live Documents does not support such as a macro, Live Documents will preserve the functionality of that element throughout the importing and exporting process.

Other Notable Features
Each of the applications in the suite include collaboration tools. For example, multiple people can work on a document simultaneously. Changes appear instantly. You can also review every change made to a document, including who made each change and when. Your clients do not need a Live Documents subscription of their own. You can either export and email them a Word file, or send them a password-protected link for reviewing the document online. You can specify permissions such as view only.

Live Documents also offers document management. You can tag documents with a client/matter number and keywords, and organize documents using workspaces — similar in concept to folders but with more flexibility. For example, you might place a brief in two workspaces — one for the matter to which it pertains and another for model briefs.

But what about document creation? InstaColl claims that its applications offer the most critical features. For example, the word processing application Live Writer supports rich text, lists, tables (including rules and shading), images, charts, and comments. Also, what you see is what you get in terms of printing (you need not export to print your documents).

What Else Should You Know?
Live Documents works in any Web browser that can run Adobe Flash Player 10. You can use Live Documents for free if you can stay within the limits imposed — 60 documents and 100 MB of storage. Otherwise, Live Documents Premium costs $13.99/month per author (people who can create new documents). An unlimited number of people can edit and review documents. Alternatively, you can host Live Documents on your own server at a customized price depending on your needs. Learn more about Live Documents.

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.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: Many reasons exist for creating a "green" law office even if you could care less about global warming, climate change, nuclear power, wind, coal, CAFE auto mileage standards, wind farms, blah, blah, blah. In this article, Edward Zohn explains why a "green" law office presents special challenges yet offers significant financial advantages. Edward offers strategies for using no more of the Earth's resources than you must — and saving money in the process.

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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.

Watch the Video

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

In today's YouLaw, we look at Tennessee trial lawyer Rob McKinney who gives viewers an overview of what they need to ask when looking for the best DUI attorney. The video is 3:25 long, and at times appears drawn out. However, Attorney McKinney offers great content for viewer trying to figure out who they should hire. Experience is the obvious first answer. He talks about how important it is for the attorney to have a mastery in the science of a field sobriety test, the breath test, and the blood alcohol test.

He points out, almost as if it's a struggle to list these items, that an attorney must have the training needed to understand the field sobriety test. He then goes on to describe the various tests a police officer uses to evaluate a DUI suspect. He recommends asking prospective lawyers about how much coursework they have taken in this area. He then tells you that if they haven't taken those classes to instead show you their manual that describes the procedures police officers use to evaluate a DUI suspect.

I give him five points for useful video content. I like the placement of his Web site address and phone number that appears constantly throughout the video as a lower-third graphic at the bottom of the video screen. I personally am not thrilled with his choice of backgrounds -- a plant sitting on a shelf. Nor does the background color complement the attorney.

He has a strong harsh light that appears on the left side of his face. I assume there is also some type of light directly in front of him, although I can't be certain. Sound quality is fine. His chair seems to be offset to the right side rather than placed center, but again this is a personal preference. I like that he looks directly into the camera, and it is clearly evident that he has experience handling these DUI cases. He's knowledgeable but seems tired.

I deduct one full point for these production issues.

Tip #1: Speed It Up

To improve this video I would have edited out a minute of content to cut it down to about 2.5 minutes in length. Also, I find that viewers process more information when an attorney talks a little bit faster. A tighter more concise video tends to hold the viewer's attention longer.

Tip #2: The Sidebar Is Your Friend

You've got to put relevant information in the YouTube sidebar for your video to get properly indexed for searches (search engine optimization). Attorney McKinney included everything needed except the town and state in which he practices.

Tip #3: Smile — It Makes a Big Difference

Countless studies show how consumers and customers react to different photographs when they walk into a store. There's a tremendous difference between walking into a brightly lit store with music pounding in the background compared to a sedate store. When the person helping you has a dour look, your mood changes appreciably and may alter your buying experience.

Don't create a reason for prospective clients to stop watching your video. Make the extra effort to smile at the appropriate times such as when you introduce yourself and when you thank viewers for watching your video. Don't be so serious all the time. Show that you are human and that you have a range of emotions to which potential clients can relate. People do business with people they like. They don't do business with faceless corporations or law firms that hide behind corporate logos. Humanize yourself just as you would with any client you represent.

Till next time, see you on video!

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "Very informative, but very boring. I would make use of exhibits. A talking head only gets you about 10 seconds of attention and then I forget his face and name. Otherwise, not so bad."

Lawyer, journalist, and legal media consultant Robert Ambrogi says: "I suspect this video was scripted by the Department of Redundancy Department. It is too long and Mr. McKinney repeatedly repeats himself. In addition to a good script doctor, the video could use some variety in its visuals. Between the length and the static camera angle, this is painful to sit through."

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "Rob McKinney offers helpful information on how to select a lawyer for a DUI case, but he could have done it in half the time, plus he fails to close the deal by promoting his firm and suggesting that viewers contact him."

About YouLaw
YouTube offers law firms a free advertising platform with tens of millions of potential clients. But a poor video can hurt more than help. In this column, lawyer and online video expert Gerry Oginski reviews and rates the latest law firm videos. A panel of fellow experts (The Back Bench) add to Gerry's reviews with pithy remarks. We link to each new YouLaw column and all other noteworthy law firm marketing articles in our weekly BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

About Gerry Oginski
New York trial lawyer Gerry Oginski has created more than 230 informational online videos for his medical malpractice and personal injury practice. Realizing that most video producers don't have a deep understanding of the practice of law and what potential clients look for, Gerry launched The Lawyers' Video Studio, which provides free tutorials and video production services. If you need help producing a video, please contact Gerry now.

Contact Gerry:
T: (516) 487-8207
E: lawmed10@yahoo.com

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 75 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

What Will Legal Technology Do to the Cravath System?

Security Issues Causing Some Law Firms to Ban iPhone Use

The Office Coffee Is More Important Than it Seems

Link Building vs. Link Marketing: What's The Difference?

This issue also contains links to every article in the March 2010 issue of Law Technology News. 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 March 8, 2010 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

Hailed by law firms and cursed by their clients, the billable hour remains the lifeblood of the legal profession. With primacy comes the risk of abuse. Risk? Actually, fact. Padding hours is a dirty little secret of the large firm world. How does it occur? Can it be stopped? Let's take a look.

Falsifying billable time occurs in several ways. On a micro level, attorneys can work slowly on assignments to rack up time or they can pad their time entries with extra hours. And on a macro level, while no law firms pad their attorneys' hours outright (or at least have been caught), most have fee arrangements and attorney compensation and advancement policies that don't exactly discourage their associates from overbilling. Addressing this problem requires more than just eliminating the billable hour fee arrangement.

Bill Padding Under the Traditional BigLaw Model

In the traditional model, the billable hour fee arrangement works in tandem with firm's compensation practices to create the perfect storm of perverse incentives to overbill. Take, for example, a typical law firm that pays its lawyers bonuses based on billable hours. The promise of bigger bonuses entices attorneys to inflate their hours, and the lure of higher revenue motives the firm to accept the bloated time records at face value and pass them onto clients unchecked.

Paying lockstep compensation doesn't thwart overbilling either since attorney evaluations, class advancement, raises, and job security remain tied to billables. Internal rankings for possible future partners also use this metric. Yet worst of all, neither the firm nor its attorneys have any incentive to tackle the hour-padding problem since the client is the only that pays for it — both literally and figuratively.

Merit Based Compensation Won't Solve the Problem

Though the traditional model still dominates, fixed-fee arrangements and merit-based compensation for attorneys have grown increasingly popular over the past few years. Unfortunately, these new models in their current incarnations have had little impact on the bill-padding phenomenon.

For example, firms that have migrated to merit-based compensation such as Howrey and Foley & Lardner continue to consider billable hours when determining associate compensation, which means that associates still have incentive to inflate their hours.

Fixed-fee arrangements provide the proper incentives for law firms to work efficiently and control client cost. But as long as attorney compensation and evaluations remain tied to billable hours, individual attorneys still have reason to embellish their diaries. As a result, flat fees simply shift the hour-padding burden from clients (who no longer receive bloated bills) to the firms themselves, which lose man-hours because of inefficient lawyers while paying them higher bonuses for their fabricated time.

The Solution to Bill Padding Has Its Own Perils

It's tough to imagine a world in which law firms don't use the billable hour either as a fee structure or a yardstick for evaluating and paying associates. But a legal world free of the billable hour is precisely what we need to eradicate the hour-padding problem and all of its moral and financial hazards.

If firms adopt both flat fees (or similar alternative fee arrangements) and true merit-based compensation systems that emphasize work product quality, client service, and other factors long used in the corporate world instead of relying on billable hours, attorneys will have virtually no incentive to overstate their time and firms will work efficiently on projects and send clients predictable invoices.

However, law firms that adopt such a system must resist directly pegging compensation to "efficiency," as emphasizing fast work may create the reverse incentive among attorneys — "underbilling" by cutting corners, which could result in loss of clients for reasons having nothing to do with sticker shock not to mention greater risk of malpractice claims and bad publicity.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw goes deep undercover inside some of the country's biggest law firms. But we don't just dish up the dirt. We also mine it for best and worst practices and other nuggets of knowledge. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on March 1, 2010 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

When disasters like the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile strike, many lawyers want to offer assistance, but don't know how to put their skills to use. Given the complex problems that exist in the developing world, writing a mean summary judgment motion may not seem like a particularly transferable skill. Since 2001, the New York City Bar Association's Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice has offered lawyers in New York and around the country an opportunity to get involved in pro bono work on international legal issues.

The Vance Center, which is named for former United States Secretary of State (and New York City Bar president) Cyrus R. Vance, seeks to "give continuing substance to [Vance's] conviction that lawyers have an ethical obligation to play an active role in the promotion of peace, democracy, and social justice." Explains Elise Colomer Grimaldi, an Associate Director at the Center and the Director of its Latin America Program and Clearinghouse, the Vance Center "tries to engage lawyers, in the U.S. and abroad, in human rights work," in order to expand access to justice in young democracies and developing economies. Law firms, Colomer Grimaldi says, are an essential part of the Center's work.

The Center's efforts focus on human rights issues in Latin America and Africa. But, while the Center's partners in the private bar include law firms with practices in these regions, a foreign presence is not prerequisite to any firm's involvement. Rather, Colomer Grimaldi explains, one of the primary assets that law firms bring to the table is knowledge.

"Law firms have a lot to offer in the form of 'know-how' — in terms of legal issues, but perhaps more importantly, with respect to the variety of technical issues involved in implementing a pro bono program, and the nuts and bolts of getting pro bono work done," says Colomer Grimaldi. "Law firms and practitioners here in the U.S. may not have experience working on the actual legal problems that affect Latin America and Africa, but they have a great deal of experience running pro bono cases and programs — from knowing how to use FOIA requests effectively in certain kinds of litigation to understanding how to create groups of lawyers who can work with non-governmental organizations or other human rights advocates."

"The 'transfer of knowledge,' from law firms is invaluable," she adds. "The ability of U.S. lawyers to share that knowledge — about how pro bono programs are structured, how to create opportunities for pro bono work outside of typical business relationships, and how to get young lawyers engaged in pro bono work — is tremendously important to the lawyers we work with in Latin America and Africa." In 2008, the Center and its partners (in the private bar and in Latin America) introduced the Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas, which represented the "first collaborative effort in the Americas to articulate the professional responsibility of lawyers to promote access to justice and provide pro bono legal assistance to those in need."

Law firms bring another important asset to the table: reputation. "U.S. law firms bring clout and credibility to projects and pro bono efforts elsewhere," Colomer Grimaldi explains. "Because U.S. firms are seen as the 'law firm of the 21st century,' they confer legitimacy on their foreign counterparts, which want to be perceived as having the same best practices, and the same value to contribute to social justice efforts."

Some may wonder whether pro bono work and helping to build pro bono networks in other countries is a luxury limited to large firms with ample resources? Not at all, according to Colomer Grimaldi. The Center relies on firms of all sizes for research, "knowledge transfer," and for the assistance they can offer in the virtual realm, through VanceNet, its "Web-facilitated network of lawyers, scholars and advocates working to enhance access to justice and public interest law in their countries and regions."

Through VanceNet, she says, lawyers from small to midsize firms can contribute in a variety of ways, from providing "specific expertise to talking to their foreign counterparts about how to balance the need to make a profit with their legal and social responsibilities to the community." In other words, the Vance Center helps even the most local practitioners find a way to act globally.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw goes deep undercover inside some of the country's biggest law firms. But we don't just dish up the dirt. We also mine it for best and worst practices and other nuggets of knowledge. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Fat Friday: William Shilling responds to a recent SmallLaw column about going solo, Larry Sullivan discusses music subscription services, Andrew Weltchek reviews syncing his BlackBerry with Clio, Bobby Abrams reviews his experience using Timeslips 2008 and Windows 7 64-bit, and Ronald Cappuccio discusses the lawyer's role in the public health care debate. Don't miss this issue.

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.