TechnoLawyer

Coming today to Fat Friday: Edward Zohn offers some tips on using RAID for data storage, Tom Trottier provides five tips to prevent your laptop from overheating, Peter Conway reviews PCLaw's Outlook and smartphone synchronization, Stephen Cohen reviews the Acer Aspire One and shares an upgrade tip, and Philip Franckel offers his thoughts on the public option for health care. 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.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Michael Bauchan explains why and how his firm accepts credit cards, Victoria Pitt reviews Time Matters, Fredric Gruder reviews Acrobat and QuickFile4Outlook for archiving email, Stephen Hayes reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows 64 and Nuance technical support, and Simon Laurent discusses his firm's fax-to-email solution. 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.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Paul Purdue explains what lawyers should consider when accepting credit cards, Todd Schlossberg reviews Stamps.com and explains how to obtain a secret low price, Product Director for Amicus Attorney Dale Wainwright answers a question about exporting time entries from Amicus Attorney, John Kennedy reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and A.J. Levy shares his tips for automatically updating cross references in Word and WordPerfect. 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.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: Have you ever wondered how some lawyers go from simply practicing law to appearing in countless articles and even television shows as a noted expert? Public relations makes this transformation possible — but only if properly implemented. In this TechnoFeature article, legal public relations expert Paramjit Mahli explains how to put together an efficient and successful public relations campaign that can establish you as a leading expert in your field.

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.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 63 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Moving to the Latest Windows OS Can Be a Major Step

The Intersection of Confidentiality and iPhone Security

Lawyers and Legal Professionals Look Ahead to 2010

Marketing a Law Firm on Facebook

This issue also contains links to every article in the December 2009 issue of GP|Solo. 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.

Please Note: The Vote for TechnoLawyer Sweepstakes has ended. We'll hold the drawing and announce the winners soon. Thank you to everyone who participated.

An unexpected windfall of $500 to close out 2009 won't get you much closer to retirement, but you could probably put it to good use. That's how much you could win in the Vote for TechnoLawyer Sweepstakes, which takes less than five minutes to enter. But you need to act now because this sweepstakes ends on December 31, 2009.

Vote For TechnoLawyer Blog, Send Us an Email Message, and Win One of Seven Cash Prizes …

Last year, your support helped us win big in the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 competition. TechnoLawyer Blog racked up 1,499 votes.

This year, we face a more crowded field of 13 legal technology blogs. Additionally, the ABA has changed the rules. We can no longer see how many votes we have. Even worse, the ABA now requires registration. Groan.

So to get out the vote we're holding a sweepstakes. Here's how to enter:

1. If you do not yet have an ABA Journal account, please create one. You may want to use a Gmail, Yahoo, etc. address to register.

2. After confirming your registration and logging in, visit the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 voting page, and vote for TechnoLawyer Blog.

3. After voting, send an email message listing your full name, city, state, telephone number, and email address to: sweepstakes1209@peerviews.com

That's it. If you win, you'll need to sign a declaration indicating that you voted for TechnoLawyer Blog.

Seven of you will win. Two first prize winners will each receive $500, and five second prize winners will each receive $100.

Voting ends on December 31, 2009 at 6 pm EST so don't delay. Please vote for TechnoLawyer Blog now!

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1. ELIGIBILITY: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Vote for TechnoLawyer Sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who have reached the age of majority in their state of residence as of the date of entry and who vote for TechnoLawyer Blog in the ABA Journal Blawg 100. Employees and directors of PeerViews Inc., as well as immediate family members (spouses, children, parents, siblings) and those living in the same household as employees and directors, are not eligible to participate. Eligibility will be determined in the sole discretion of Sponsor. By entering, you agree to these Official Rules and to all decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding. Vote for TechnoLawyer Sweepstakes is sponsored by PeerViews Inc., 100 Church Street, Eighth Floor, New York, NY 10007 ("Sponsor").

2. TO ENTER: To enter, vote for TechnoLawyer Blog on the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 Technology Web page. If you have not previously registered with the ABA Journal you must do so first and confirm your registration. Registration with the ABA Journal is free. After voting, send an email message to sweepstakes1209@peerviews.com with your full name, city, state, telephone number, and email address. Email entries must be received by Sponsor's server no later than 11:59:59 p.m. ET on December 31, 2009. Limit of one (1) entry per person. Incomplete or garbled entries and entries without the requisite contact information will be disqualified. Entries generated by a script, macro or other automated means are not eligible.

3. DRAWING and PRIZES: Two (2) First Prize winners and five (5) Second Prize winners will be selected in a random drawing from among all eligible entries held on or about January 15, 2010. First Prize winners will each receive $500. Second Prize winners will each receive $100. Odds of winning a prize depend on the number of eligible entries received. Potential winners will be notified by email within five (5) business days after the drawing and must claim the prize by signing and returning a declaration of eligibility and liability/publicity release within five (5) business days of notification. If a potential winner cannot be reached within five (5) business days after the first attempt to contact such potential winner, or if potential winner does not timely return the signed claim forms, that potential winner will be disqualified and an alternate entrant will be selected in at random from among all remaining eligible entries. Any applicable taxes or fees on prizes are the sole responsibility of winners. Limit one prize per person. Prizes will be mailed in the form of a check to each winner within four to six weeks after the drawing date. No substitution of prize. Prizes are non-transferable prior to award. Sponsor is not responsible for actions after delivery.

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Originally published on December 14, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Continuing with the theme of my last two columns, let's explore another enormously useful Acrobat feature — email archiving. Who isn't awash in an endless swirling sea of email that conspires to digitally drown you daily? Yes, that's clearly a rhetorical question because the answer is: all of us.

How often have you heard that shrill siren call emanating from your IT people: "Delete old email — you're taking up too much space — or we'll do it for you!" Microsoft Outlook users have never had a particularly useful or satisfying way to cull email. Outlook's archiving functions are effectively brain-dead. Either auto-delete or manually delete your messages. Or "archive" them, a seemingly pointless process that moves older email into an "archives" email folder structure, which serves only to make the email less accessible and less convenient, doing nothing to reduce the size of the stored data Outlook and its Exchange Server engine must track.

How to Archive Outlook Email Using Adobe Acrobat

Forget archiving in Outlook. Instead, look to the potent abilities of Acrobat and the PDF format as the panacea for your email pain.

Adobe Acrobat offers a special portfolio that includes Microsoft Outlook email and your attachments. A surprising number of people seem unaware of this powerhouse feature's existence. In some respects, you may find the ability to efficiently archive Outlook email and attachments even more powerful than Acrobat's core PDF making capabilities.

Adobe Acrobat adds a a PDFMaker ribbon or toolbar to Microsoft Outlook that features two useful buttons:

1. Create Adobe PDF from Selected Messages
2. Create Adobe PDF from Selected Folders

Let's assume you want to archive the contents of an Outlook "matter" folder you've created for "ABC Trucking v. Smith Corp." Select the Outlook folder in the folder pane, and then click the second Acrobat button. Let's further assume that the "matter" folder contains more than 200 email messages, many with one or more attachments. A progress indicator will appear as Acrobat "processes" all the email in the folder. The end result is a PDF Portfolio containing all the email within the matter folder.

When the process is complete, the PDF Portfolio consisting of all 200+ email messages and their attachments via live links appears. The Acrobat Bookmark panel shows each email message listed, sortable by subject, sender and date. Each email message maintains its live attachment links — the attachments also reside the PDF Portfolio. Click on an attachment "link" in an included email and the file will appear — a Word document loads in Word, etc.

This method is far superior to saving 200+ email messages and perhaps as many individual attachments. No one would ever be dedicated enough, or for that matter, have a long enough attention span, to torture themselves with those manual saves.

You can save the PDF Portfolio containing the Outlook matter folder's email and attachments in the regular folder location containing the rest of the matter's documents. As part of an initiative to build complete and contiguous electronic case files, there is no more effective way to incorporate email from Outlook in a fully searchable format. If you wish, you can delete the contents of the email folder in Outlook, thereby keeping Outlook lean and efficient.

Overall, Adobe Acrobat's PDF Portfolios offers a clever streamlined approach to email archiving. The best approach for small law firms that use Microsoft Outlook? For now, the answer is an emphatic yes.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

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.

Originally published on November 23, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

I recently caught a rerun of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, a brilliant film that asks whether people would heed a warning from the future about the future. Apparently the answer is no. In the film, psychiatrists diagnose a messenger from the future as a sociopath and lock him away. There's a message in this movie for small law firms.

If someone told you that everything you took for granted would soon change or be swept away altogether, would you believe them? I didn't think so. Besides, we small firm lawyers are too busy running our offices, connecting with clients, staying current, doing research, keeping pace with technology, and trying in vain to have a personal life to look ahead more than a few years.

When your day revolves around deadlines, to-do items, calendar events, and meetings, you have no choice but to focus on the present at the expense of the future. And if it ain't broke, why fix it anyway? Whether it's a dated piece of hardware, a 10 year-old chair, Windows 95, or a Compaq gathering dust in the corner, the devil we know is better than the devil we don't.

2001: A Web Odyssey

Even those of us wedded to our traditions would probably jump at the chance to make our professional life easier, right? At least that's what I thought when I created a Web site to gather the body of legal information and programs slowly building on the Internet in the late 90's.

In 2001 I introduced eLawCentral at the ABA Tech Show as the first interactive Web portal for lawyers. Back then most people used Yahoo if they were online at all. eLawCentral was built on the theory that as knowledge-workers, lawyers would want to save time and money by using and sharing resources online. Despite some initial curiosity however, interest dropped off fast.

It seemed as if the vast majority of lawyers simply could not figure out how the Web could help them, much less why they should spend time on the site. We limped along for another year but after the dot-com bust in 2001 I closed shop, returned to lawyering full-time, and channeled my enthusiasm back into law practice … for a while.

2004: Kicking It Old School

Despite my efforts to remain focused, by 2004 I was on the lookout for Web innovations again. This time I found blogging. The first blogs I developed were for the bar association committees that I chaired. That year I also began giving seminars about the future of law practice, contributing to discussion groups, and doing whatever I could to share my vision.

What was that vision? Home pages for every lawyer and judge, downloadable decisions with embedded hyperlinks, oral arguments as podcasts, RSS feeds for every courtroom, etc. I saw it all as if those innovations already existed — because most of them did. It's just that nobody wanted to use the tools.

Local attorneys who read my blogs were tepid about the suggestions at first, and then declared angrily that they had gotten by fine without the Internet, and eventually stopped reading my posts altogether. But the more they ignored my warnings the more emphatic and provocative my writing became. Ultimately, it was no use. Lawyers circa 2004 had not acclimated to the Internet and nothing could change that but time.

As for the judges, they were not as polite. The bench was openly hostile to the Internet and considered it a source of misinformation, depravity, or worse. Maybe they resented having to learn how to use a computer, preferring to thumb through books in a library, or did not care whether they had all pertinent information before reaching a decision. Maybe they were simply creatures of habit.

Whatever the reason, I got the message loud and clear at the annual bench-bar conference in 2004. As I stood before the gathered judges and bar leaders I reeled off the reasons why they should incorporate the Web into their research, embed hyperlinks in their opinions, create homepages with RSS feeds, publish their decisions online, and all the rest of it. I was shouted down before I got to the end of my speech, but it was probably for the best. The court was no more prepared to accept the future than my peers.

2005: Pinging Me Softly

By 2005 the legal Web was showing signs of developing real traction. For several years, lawyer-bloggers like Dennis Kennedy and Bob Ambrogi, as well as lawyer-entrepreneurs like Tim Stanley and Richard Granat, had demonstrated that technology could liberate consumers of legal services (including lawyers and judges).

By then the Web had become integral to my practice. In the decade since law school it had enabled me to leverage information, compete with better-funded rivals, establish a virtual office, secure bigger clients, and work with people from around the country. The forces in motion by then would inevitably change the profession whether that change was welcomed or not.

Most of the innovations brought about by the Web involved sharing information. Large firms eclipsed small firms in the adoption of these technologies, perhaps at the behest of their clients. Only now, five years later, have small firms begun to catch up.

Back to the (Future) Drawing Board

So what about the future? Frankly I'm not sure. I don't live there anymore. I decided that being timely was better than being ahead of my time — or at least less bruising to my ego. But I'm hopeful.

Although the profession took its sweet time incorporating the Internet, it seems to be making up for lost time. Scarcely a day goes by that I don't find another innovation designed for lawyers: Basecamp, Bill4Time, Clio, DocStoc, JDSupra, LegalMatch, etc. The Web has become a commodity like electricity and running water.

The biggest surge of creativity in this space may lie ahead of us. Maybe the End of Lawyers isn't around the corner after all. But given my experiences, I refuse to make any predictions. Instead, I'll get back to you in a few years.

Written by Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.

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.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a utility that links Microsoft Word to Google Docs (see article below), a Webbook, an online application for reviewing discovery documents, an online marketing research service, and an iPhone app for your postage needs. Don't miss the next issue.

Force Google and Microsoft to Kiss and Make Up

Microsoft Word excels at document creation. But when you need to collaborate on a document with someone or access a document from another computer life becomes difficult. By contrast, Google Docs excels at collaboration because only one version of each document exists accessible from any computer. But try to actually write in a Google Docs document and your mood will quickly sour. Even selecting text is a chore. Too bad you can't use the best attributes of each word processor.

OffiSync … in One Sentence
OffiSync links Microsoft Word documents to Google Docs when you need to collaborate with others.

The Killer Feature
Some people think the Internet works best as a conduit rather than a destination. For example, would iTunes offer as good a shopping experience if it was a Web site rather than an Internet-enabled application?

With OffiSync, you work within Microsoft Office even when using Google Docs. You can save documents to Google Docs in Word format. You can even create folders and move documents around on Google Docs without ever using your Web browser. Similarly, you can share documents with others through Google Docs using your Outlook address book.

Other Notable Features
OffiSync enables you to set permissions for viewing and editing documents. If you share more than just the occasional document, you can also use OffiSync in conjunction with Google Sites, an extranet-like application with more flexibility than Google Docs. For example, Google Sites offers virtual file cabinets that you can use for a specific matter. You can apply the same security settings to every document stored in the cabinet.

Other features include the ability to search your Google Docs account, integration with Google Web and Image Search, and document comparison and change management.

What Else Should You Know?
OffiSync works with Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007. You can choose from two versions — Standard or Premium. OffiSync Standard, which is free, lacks native file support and Google Sites integration. OffiSync Premium costs $12/year or a one-time fee of $30. Learn more about OffiSync.

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 December 14, 2009 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

With all the advice out there about online social media — Refine Your Use of LinkedIn, Have LinkedIn Groups Lost Their Appeal?, The Value of Twitter, What About the Twitter Naysayers? — to name just a few recent articles, it's hard to know which to follow. To complicate matters, most large law firms have not yet adopted social media policies. That leaves proper use of social networking within the discretion of associates.

Having work-inappropriate content in your profiles — or in the Google search results for your name — can cause embarrassment or worse at work. And for unemployed law school graduates and former associates, an unsavory online footprint can inhibit job prospects. You may not think so, but BigLaw is watching. The tips below can help associates and would-be associates draw the online shades.

1. Monitor All Your Social Media Accounts

In your zest to put up a new profile, don't forget to make it private. Keep whatever profile information visible to others in Google searches conservative. Avoid featuring alcohol, suggestive clothing, or guns in your primary picture and review your "fan of" settings with a critical eye.

Also, remember to link all your profiles to email addresses that you check regularly so you can monitor information posted by others to your account (such as tagged photos, @username replies or comments).

If you use Facebook, take note. Two weeks ago, the world's largest social network made it easy to publicly disclose formerly private information. Carefully review the new privacy settings in your account.

2. Keep Your Friends Close and Your Co-Workers Further

Don't add partners or counsel as friends on Facebook or Twitter unless you intend to keep your profiles G-rated and business only. You should also think twice before adding co-workers who may not have your best interests at heart as friends or giving them full access to your profiles.

If you've already added colleagues that you wish you hadn't, put them on limited profile view settings retrospectively or even block or de-friend them. Most people have so many friends that when the "lose" a friend online, they can't easily determine the offender's identity.

3. If Your Firm Has a Group on Facebook, Don't Join It

Both officially sanctioned and rogue law firm Facebook groups are monitored by human resources and media relations. Your mere presence in the group alerts co-workers and the powers that be to your Facebook profile and reminds them of your greater online activity.

4. Think Twice Before Posting Under Your Real Name

Many associates have interests outside of law that they hope to keep invisible to partners and clients. Unfortunately, Google can't create multiple search results for your name. Once you publish an article on bird-watching, your colleagues may soon know about your avian hobby. So before you publish anything, decide whether you care if firm colleagues discover it. If yes, consider using a unifying pseudonym for your outside interests. That way you can build a separate trail (and a resume) for your "alter ego" without tampering with your name's Google search results.

5. Manage Negative Search Results

Unfortunately, you can't delete negative Google results for your name query (short of asking the webmasters of the offending sites to remove your personal information). However, profiles registered under your name on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other high ranking Google sites can help bury negative results that originate from lower ranked sites.

Creating a Google Profile can further help you combat negative information with positive information that you add, but it won't drive down negative results because it appears on the bottom of search pages.

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.