TechnoLawyer

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Al Menzy shares his firm's cost analysis of Interwoven, NetDocuments, and Worldox, Craig Bayer reviews SharePoint and BrainKeeper for knowledge management, Andrew Willinger explains how to connect a USB scanner to a wireless network, Tom Trottier provides a solution for archiving Outlook email, and Jesse Farr reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: You may throw a mean left hook in court, but with an email address like rocky1946@aol.com, your words may lack gravitas when communicating with and on behalf of your clients online. The requirement that lawyers look professional extends beyond your clothing and briefcase. In this TechnoFeature article, lawyer Edward Zohn discusses his firm's transition to a Hosted Microsoft Exchange system. You'll find a review of Apptix, his firm's provider, as well tips about how to harness Exchange to provide synchronized calendars, contacts, and tasks in addition to email across all your PCs and smartphones.

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Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 62 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Free Legal Research by Google and What It Means

San Francisco: There's an App for That

Are Best Practices Really Best?

Why Proskauer Rose is the No. 1 Marketer in the Profession

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In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire we take a break from our typical coverage to bring you our 2009 holiday gift guide. Don't miss the next issue when we return to covering the hottest new legal technology.

Scroogenomics author and Wharton professor Joel Waldfogel counsels against holiday gift giving because of the value gap — what you pay for a gift versus the typically lower value the recipient places on your gift.

Professor Waldfogel's analysis suggests to me that we simply don't put enough thought into gift giving. After all, we like receiving gifts — right up until we rip off the wrapping paper to reveal yet another shirt or whatever else we don't want or need.

Below you'll find our 2009 TechnoLawyer Holiday Gift Guide for technophiles. The list is short, but it features items for people with discerning taste. Also, I personally use and recommend all three products.

Never Let a Loved One Get Lost: Magellan Maestro 4700

In ten years, GPS personal navigation devices (PNDs) may disappear, squeezed out by dashboard GPS systems and smartphone apps. For now, we're in one of those in-between stages in which the standalone devices still have advantages over both factory-installed systems (newer technology) and smartphone apps (larger screens and more powerful receivers).

I recently purchased Magellan's top-of-the-line Maestro 4700, which I recommend. Why Magellan? Garmin offers better graphics and TomTom offers celebrity voices, but as a Hertz customer, I grew to like Magellan's proprietary features such as the gong sound when you're supposed to take action, and the QuickSpell technology for entering addresses (similar to TiVo).

Furthermore, the Maestro 4700 has a unique form factor that I find perfect — a 4.7 inch screen. Most competing units have a significantly smaller 4.3 inch screen. Garmin's nuvi 1490T has a 5 inch screen, which seems too large for my small car (it would probably work well in an SUV or truck).

The Maestro 4700 pretty much matches any Garmin feature for feature (e.g., lane assist), but without the premium price. It costs about $230 at Amazon (the price fluctuates).

Earlier this week, Magellan released the Magellan RoadMate App for the iPhone at an introductory price of $80. I couldn't resist and bought a copy. How do I rationalize having two GPS devices? Not easily but bear with me.

First, the iPhone app provides a backup. Second, I like traveling light. On a recent trip, I left my Maestro in my glovebox and paid extra for a rental car with a GPS unit. On my next trip, I can use my iPhone. Third, I never used Magellan's nifty Find My Car feature because I don't want to carry the Maestro with me. Again, because I take my iPhone everywhere, I'll never again roam aimlessly around a parking lot. Finally, the iPhone app may come in handy for walking directions.

My advice? Buy the Maestro 4700 — it's a solid GPS PND at a great price. Consider bundling the iPhone app along with it if warranted. Plus I also recommend and use ProClip car mounts.

Big Sound in a Tiny Package: Ultimate Ears 700

About a year ago I praised the Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 vi earphones, which I still use as my primary earphones. But with a list price of $420 (I paid $371), I cannot recommend them for a holiday gift, especially this year. I can, however, recommend the less expensive Ultimate Ears 700.

Disclosure: As a beta tester, I received my Ultimate Ears 700 earphones for free. I would have purchased a pair. They sell for $200.

The Ultimate Ears 700 do not sound as good as the triple.fi 10 vi, but they sound very good and they're also a fraction of the size. In fact, they're the smallest dual driver earphones in the world (last time I checked). As a result, they virtually disappear in your ear canal. You can lay sideways on a pillow while wearing them.

My advice? Buy the Ultimate Ears 700 for music lovers, especially those who don't want to sacrifice quality while exercising, travel frequently, enjoy listening to music while laying down, or don't want to look like a nerd.

Decent Sound in a Slick Package: Yamaha PDX-30 Speakers

Repeat after me — "I understand that I cannot get concert hall sound from speakers the size of a grapefruit." Speaker manufacturers should require customers to sign this disclaimer.

Now that we've taken care of expectations, I recommend Yamaha's PDX-30 Portable Player Dock for iPod and iPhone.

Mine sits on a nightstand in my bedroom. While a $125,000 Sonicweld Pulserod speaker system would sound a lot better, bedrooms require more practicality than other rooms. For example, we all need alarms. The Yamaha PDX-30 does not include an alarm, but every iPod and iPhone does — and you can find many third-party alarm apps in Apple's App Store. The Yamaha PDX-30 costs $200.

I searched fruitlessly for a long time for a speaker system with the Yamaha PDX-30's feature set — genuine iPhone compatibility (no nag screen, no speaker buzzing), small footprint, a color other than black (you can choose from black, blue, pink, or gray — I got the latter), and a remote control with full iPod navigation.

The remote control does not have a screen. You must still look at the iPhone, but you don't have to touch it — a big plus because it's awkward to use an iPhone while docked.

My advice? Buy the Yamaha PDX-30 for the iPod- or iPhone-lover on your list who needs a small speaker system that sounds good for its size.

The Holidays: There's an App for That

Professor Waldfogel suggests that if you give gifts, go with gift cards because they provide the most economic value. Here's a suggestion to make gift cards more heartfelt — house it in a homemade card with suggested items from the store. Use screen capture software to take snapshots of merchandise to use in your card.

Given that we all have company-issued iPhones here at TechnoLawyer, I asked around the office for app suggestions in the event you buy someone an iTunes gift card:

Air Sharing Pro — WiFi file transfer.
Scrabble — the classic word game.
WordJong — another word puzzle game.
Ranch Rush — farming fun.
Police Radio — the next-gen police blotter.
OmniFocus — a task manager for busy people.
HarborMaster — dock incoming cargo ships.
Homerun Battle 3D — swing for the fences.
Doom Resurrection — don't play with the lights off.
Skyscrapers — think Tetris with buildings.

Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays from TechnoLawyer!

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If a car jumps the median into your lane, you need to act instantly to avoid a life-threatening collision.

Many legal marketing gurus would have you believe that you must act just as quickly to embrace Twitter, the leading micro-blogging platform. Don't believe them. Your law firm won't disappear tomorrow if you don't start tweeting today.

While I don't recommend taking a few years to think about how to incorporate Twitter into your marketing plan, giving it some serious thought before diving in will benefit rather than hurt you.

Below you'll find three ways to get started with Twitter, none of which require a serious investment of time or pose any risk. I also point out a few pitfalls to avoid.

1. Search for Real-Time Competitive Intelligence (Spying)

People can't help themselves — especially those who grew up with instant messaging (IM). Twitter is a lot like IM except that it's public (you can create a private account but most people don't).

Before you read another sentence, bookmark Twitter Search.

Start searching it on behalf of yourself and your clients to monitor people, companies, and other keywords you care about. At the very least, you'll find it interesting plus you may hit the jackpot and learn about a competitor's strategies or possible legal work for existing clients (e.g., infringement). You may even find someone seeking legal services in your field. Using Twitter Search for spying monitoring keywords doesn't require an account.

Unfortunately, Twitter does not make its complete archive searchable. In fact, it only goes back a day or so. However, Google archives Twitter — sort of. If you save your Twitter searches as RSS feeds, and then place those feeds in Google Reader, you can build your own archive of tweets that never disappear.

If you start tweeting someday, don't make the same mistake many others do. Think twice before tweeting about your personal life or your law firm's finances, strategic planning, etc.

2. Start Tweeting With Direct (Private) Messages

When you start searching Twitter, you'll find a lot of "replies to nowhere." Much like that famous bridge to nowhere, which stood to benefit just a few dozen people, these replies are essentially directed at one person or at most a small group of people so they don't make much sense to anyone else. It's like hearing the punch line of a joke without hearing the setup.

Inevitably, you'll come across a tweet and want to reply to the author. Try replying to these tweets privately rather than publicly to prevent cluttering up your stream with replies to nowhere, especially if you have not yet started publicly tweeting or if your reply is unrelated to the topics you typically tweet about.

To contact someone privately, use a Direct Message as opposed to a public @reply. However, you can only send a direct message to someone who follows you — a spam prevention measure that creates a catch-22.

But don't despair. Unless you're trying to contact a celebrity, if you follow the person you want to contact they will usually return the favor and follow you, after which you can direct message them. If they don't reciprocate, try searching Google, LinkedIn, etc. for their email address. If all else fails, you can use an @reply, and later delete it once you've established a dialogue.

3. Tweet Your Blog Posts and Retweet Related Tweets

Because the foregoing activities don't involve public tweets, they pose no risk. If you want to start posting publicly so that you can attract followers and network on a larger scale, the tips below will safely get you started.

If your firm publishes a blog, you can start tweeting immediately. Most blog platforms integrate with Twitter (see, e.g., TypePad, which we use). Once configured, every time you publish a new article in your blog, you can automatically post the title and corresponding link to your Twitter stream. In other words, you can tweet and generate traffic to your blog with zero effort.

You should also consider Retweets — reprinting relevant tweets by other Twitter users. Originally created by Twitter users through a simple copy and paste preceded by the letters RT and the original author's Twitter name, retweeting has become such a phenomenon that Twitter recently unveiled its official retweeting tool.

Retweeting dovetails nicely with searching Twitter for keywords, and tends to attract followers. For example, suppose you want to focus on trademark issues. Every day, you search Twitter for "trademark" and other related keywords. Invariably, you'll find some interesting tweets, perhaps pointing an article somewhere on the Web. Rather than tweet about that same article yourself, you could quickly retweet it instead.

Publishers such as AllTop and Huffington Post have amassed large audiences aggregating the related content of others into one convenient location. Aggregation works just as well on Twitter

Twitter has not (yet) addressed the copyright issues surrounding retweets in its terms of service, but given that an official tool now exists, I suspect Twitter will require all users to permit retweets (Twitter enables you to block the retweets of those you follow, but you cannot prevent people from retweeting your tweets).

Beyond these two starting points, treat your Twitter stream as you would any publication — stick to a theme. This disciplined approach will not only attract a larger audience than a random stream of non-sequiturs, but also attract the kind of people with whom you want to connect. Also, you can still have fun and showcase your personality. Most topics have their lighter side, plus your tweets will hopefully spark some lively debates. Just stay away from listing what you ate for dinner. Few people care about that stuff — unless perhaps you dined with Jennifer Aniston and Ashton Kutcher at Per Se.

Follow Up

You now know a lot more about Twitter than you did a few minutes ago — enough to get started. You may also want to read Twitter 101, Twitter's guide for businesses. Just one more thing. While we welcome you to follow us, we encourage you to join us.

Originally published October 26, 2009. Updated to include Twitter's new retweet tool.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to lawyers, law office administrators, and others in the legal profession. We link to each new TechnoEditorial and much more in our BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on November 16, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

TechnoLawyer asked me to reflect on a year of blogging about law firm management, and choose my top five tips for small firms. You'll find them below. Please reply if you have employed any of these suggestions in 2009, or if you have tips of your own to share.

Know the Source of Your Best Clients

Instead of making assumptions about where your clients come from, keep track of the statistics and take the time to think about your ideal client and how your existing clients compare with that ideal. Determine who refers business to you, and whether they refer the business you want. Armed with this information, you can improve your marketing and business development efforts.

See Do You Know Where Your Clients Come From?

Make It Easy for Clients to Hire You

Law is a profession, but lawyers must still think like businesspeople and act strategically to attract the right clients. Make it easy for your clients to hire you. Publish useful legal information so that prospective clients can find you. Don't forget to list your contact information.

Nowadays, you can share your knowledge using low cost platforms such as blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), and online videos (see YouLaw for tips). Also directing readers to additional information on the same topic may send them away momentarily, but they'll remember the source.

See How Easy Is it to Hire You?

Manage Email Effectively

To be productive, you need to manage the daily deluge of email. First, eliminate unnecessary email. Enter appointments into your planner/calendar immediately and delete the email. Drag and drop email into your calendar to preserve the details.

Purge alerts, advertisements, and newsletters from your inbox. If you haven't read it after a week, delete it or save it to a designated folder. When you need the information, use desktop search programs to locate it.

Unless you frequently receive urgent email don't review your email first thing in the morning or review it constantly throughout the day. Create folders and set up rules and filters to automatically route email to the correct folder.

See Email Management Tips for Lawyers

Consider Practice and Document Management Software

Practice management and document management software provide many advantages for solo and small firm lawyers. Document management software enables you to categorize and easily search for and retrieve documents.

Practice management software can link clients, matters, and documents, making file review and client communication easier. Practice management software also is a huge time saver when a client's information changes — change it once, in one location, and it's done.

Practice management programs integrated with time and billing programs can help you create and assemble documents with oft-used information and can help you track and bill your time for those activities as they're being performed.

Must you buy these tools? Probably not, but the productivity and efficiency you gain make them a worthwhile investment.

See Do Lawyers Really Need Practice Management Software?

Prevent Client Dissatisfaction

All lawyers encounter difficult clients and scenarios. Conflicts with clients often arise because clients feel you don't understand their point of view. To you, it may be just another case. But to the client, it's their life or livelihood.

Mirror the client's concerns. After the client explains the issue, reflect it back to them so that the client knows you're listening, and and that you understand the issues.

Confrontations can also arise when the unexpected occurs. You can prevent difficult client situations through preparation and by setting boundaries at the outset of the engagement.

See Effectively Dealing With Difficult Client Situations

Written by Allison C. Shields, Esq. of Legal Ease Consulting.

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Coming today to Fat Friday: Gerard Stubbert reviews his Sony Vaio Z21MN laptop, Paul Mansfield discusses data conversion in relation to switching practice management systems, Dominic Jaar shares some tips for choosing the right online repository for discovery documents, Craig Bayer explains why SaaS is safer than traditional software, and Stephen Hayes shares his experience using Timeslips and Dragon NaturallySpeaking on a 64-bit Windows PC. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to Answers to Questions: Doug Koenig reviews Zotero, SnagIt, GoodSync, and SugarSync, Theodore Borrego reviews Time Matters' performance and support, Frank Tesseyman reviews TrustFax, Laura Hills explains how she archives case-related email in Outlook, and George Allen reviews CiteLink (now West CiteAdvisor) for creating Tables of Authorities in WordPerfect. Don't miss this issue.

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: There's a new kid in town — software as a service (SaaS), aka cloud computing. Many early adopter law firms have embraced SaaS, but should you? In this issue, lawyer and free thinker Jeff Allen lays down the law on SaaS. In a refreshing and unbiased look at this technology, Jeff explores the benefits and risks, and explains how to evaluate vendors and their SaaS offerings. Jeff's advice won't just save you time and money.

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Originally published on November 16, 2009 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

"Make the client happy" has long been a law firm battle cry. Traditionally, that meant 24/7 availability, lavish steak dinners, and box seats at sports games. Grueling hours and expense accounts remain part of the happiness recipe, but today reduced legal bills are the surest route to a client's heart. However, we live in a zero sum world. Some associates learn that so-called cost-cutting initiatives come at their own expense — literally.

Going Somewhere? Didn't Think So.

In January 2009, Christine, a third year private equity associate at a large firm, booked a two week vacation for August with her husband. When a partner in her practice group staffed her on a fast-track deal in August, she sent an email reminding him of her upcoming absence. The partner advised against going.

"The official reason, stated in the email, was that this was an important client and it was an all-hands-on-deck situation," says Christine. "The undertone was that I should be grateful to have my job at all in light of the layoffs everywhere."

Up to this point, Christine's story sounds fairly typical — associate cancels trip because of work. But when Christine submitted her credit card statement for the cancelled hotel and flight for client reimbursement, the partner refused to sign it.

"He said that he never officially okayed the trip in the first place, which meant that the client did not have to reimburse me under firm policy. But it was just an excuse to get me to eat $6,700 and spare the client. This partner never okays trips because he never wants the client to be on the hook for cancellations," she laments.

You Are What You Eat

Keith, a first year litigation associate at another large firm, shares a less dramatic but no less troubling example of a refusal to reimburse.

Keith ordered a small lunch spread for a client getting deposed at noon. The deposition got cancelled through no fault of the client's, and, as usual, Keith charged the food to the client. When Keith submitted the bill for approval, the supervising partner circled the charge and wrote "personal." The firm's billing system prohibits associates from charging food services to the general office account, so Keith had two choices: ask the partner to fork over his personal charge number or pay out of pocket. We know how this story ends.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Large firm associates already "pay" for their jobs in so many ways — slavish hours, an unpredictable schedule, and a constant fear of unemployment. But as Christine and Keith can attest, when associates incur legitimate work-related expenses, they rightfully expect the client or the firm to make them whole. They do not expect to pay out of pocket.

Saving the client money is a worthy goal, but shifting the burden of reimbursement to associates creates illusory savings. Firms that require associates to pay out of pocket for work-related late night cabs, food spreads, and cancelled vacations save face with clients but abuse their bargaining power with associates and destroy firm morale.

Firms that do not seek expense reimbursement from clients should allow associates to charge appropriate expenses from the general office account or clearly communicate to associates the firm's reimbursement policy in advance. Cutting client costs by shunting them to associates is not a fair solution.

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