Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an alternative word processor, a utility designed to automate the formatting of legal documents, and software that automates time capture (see article below). Don't miss the next issue.
Stop Tracking Your Time and Start Capturing It Instead
By Peter R. Olson
As a lawyer, you may not love living your life in painstakingly quantified six minute time increments, but until some of the so-called "alternate billing" options become mainstream, the billable hour (more like the billable one-tenth of an hour) remains your meal ticket. So instead of wasting your time (money) complaining, how about automating your time capture as much as possible?
IntApp's Time Builder 2.2 is a time capture solution that tracks your time keeping by directly monitoring email, smartphones, phone systems, calendars, and document management systems. Time Builder aims to reduce the time spent entering time.
Rather than scribbling down your time notes for later entry into a separate accounting or billing program, Time Builder provides you and your colleagues with a "journal" of all your billable activity. From this report, you can quickly create time entries in your billing software.
Using Time Builder's Web-based configuration interface, your administrator chooses specific applications for continuously monitored time tracking. Time Builder can email everyone's journal daily, weekly, or not at all (your choice) with your time breakdown. Time Builder enables you to exclude peripheral activities like personal email messages and phone calls.
By presenting this information directly within your existing time entry applications, Time Builder makes it easy for lawyers or their secretaries to review, edit, and then approve billing entries. You can configure Time Builder to send journal reports via email or to present information directly into your existing time entry application so you can review, edit and submit entries through a single, consolidated interface that you already know how to use.
Time Builder's time monitoring integrates with Microsoft Exchange, BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile phones, Avaya and Cisco VoIP phone systems, Interwoven, Open Text/Hummingbird, Lexis InterAction, Elite WebView, Advanced Productivity Software's DTE, Sage Carpe Diem, and Aderant CMS. Learn more about Time Builder.
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Popular items such as Peanut M&Ms disappear in a day or two after a refill yet the company that "manages" (I use that term loosely) the machine inserts the same number of packages each time rather than devoting an extra row or two.
What's worse, the vending machine often sits half empty for weeks before being replenished.
Yes, half empty as in half full. I think the Almond M&Ms date back to the Eisenhower administration.
So what can a poorly managed vending machine teach you about managing a law firm?
1. Capitalize on Definitive Trends: When a fad becomes a trend, jump on it. The earlier, the better though the greater the risk. Timing is everything.
Example: Twitter URLs may become as important as domain names, and generate trademark-related work.
2. Meet Deadlines:Obviously, you already meet court deadlines, but meet self-imposed deadlines as well — even something as simple as a promised phone call. When you announce a deadline and meet it, you foster trust, which results in more opportunities.
3. Walk a Mile: Try to view the world from your client's perspective. Don't offer what you want, but instead figure out what your clients want. They may not know so asking them may not help. At least, not directly.
Example: Lots of firms mail boring memos about new laws to their clients. Instead of writing a legal analysis, write the memo from the point of view of your clients, especially the non-lawyers. Work with a graphic designer on a layout that enhances comprehension. A better understanding of a legal issue by your clients may trigger a heretofore unknown legal need.
One last tip. Lay off the Sunkist orange soda. I recently noticed that it doesn't contain any orange juice.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
Coming May 29, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Wendy Parker reviews ExpressScribe and ExpressDictate from NCH, Michael Campbell reviews LexisNexis and Westlaw (and shares an insider's tip regarding Lexis' adhesion contract), Kurt Schoettler explains how to copy and paste from Word to WordPerfect without any formatting, Lawrence King reviews Ergotron's dual monitor stands, and Morris Tabush explains how to set up a wireless scanner. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
Coming May 30, 2008 to Fat Friday: Harry Steinmetz responds to the continuing biglaw associate salary thread, John Pierce reviews eGroupware as an open source alternative for shared calendars, contacts, and more, Tom Rowe defends his position on legal cross-selling and upselling, Mary Brooksby reviews using Bluetooth headsets and Amicus Attorney with her Palm Treo 680, and Peter Pike suggests another rule for modern day email etiquette. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
Coming May 27, 2008 to TechnoFeature: The Killer Legal App can place all your documents at your fingertips and at the fingertips of your colleagues. And not just word processing documents, but all documents, including email, faxes, scanned records, etc. And it can also boost the fees you collect. Of course, no such app exists. Or does it? In this provocative TechnoFeature article, Ross Kodner wonders whether the killer legal app already exists and has existed for more than 20 years. Can you spot the elephant in the server room?
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an appliance and accompanying software for finding evidence on backup tapes during discovery or for compliance purposes (see article below), a practice management suite with a document assembly engine for law firms in high-volume practice areas (e.g., personal injury, real estate, etc.), and deposition and trial presentation software that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Don't miss the next issue.
Nixon's Not the Only One With Secrets on Tape
By Peter Olson
Remember backup tapes? Thank goodness hard drives have largely replaced them. Or so you thought. Lots of backup tapes still exist, many created with backup software that no longer exists. If you haven't yet received backup tapes from your clients during discovery, give it time. It's bound to happen sooner or later.
Index Engines' Tape Engine 2.5 aims to take the time and hassle out of retrieving backed-up data by searching offline tape data locked in unsupported, old back-up formats. Tape Engine unlocks the data contained on backup tapes, making individual files and email easily accessible, whether for discovery purposes or regulatory compliance.
A hardware appliance with proprietary software, Tape Engine indexes tapes and makes the data immediately searchable. Importantly, you need not restore the backup tape using the original backup software. In other words, no need to hunt for old software (and a computer to run it) on eBay.
The scanning operation begins when a backup tape is mounted into a tape drive connected to Tape Engine. Tape Engine also works with virtual tape libraries. The indexing software reads through the contents of the tape, and creates full content and metadata indexes for files, email, and other electronic documents.
Tape Engine supports many backup formats, including CA ArcServe, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec, and EMC NetWorker. Indexing occurs at tape speed (there's no getting around the laws of physics), but the footprint of the index is just 5-8% of the size of the original data, which translates into speedy searches.
Each Tape Engine can scale to 200 million files or email messages with clustered configurations available for larger environments. It supports common unstructured file types such as documents, spreadsheets, text, HTML, and PDF files, as well as Microsoft Exchange and other email systems.
Tape Engine uses a Google-like search interface that returns queries in one second or less. Dynamic de-duplication means that every file listed is unique. You can search specific parameters such as name, date, email address, etc. Once you find what you need, you can extract only those files. Learn more about Tape Engine.
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
Coming May 23, 2008 to Fat Friday: Heather Hoganson shares her thoughts on CLE courses, Brent Blanchard explains why he thinks Microsoft is guilty of restraint of trade practices, Edward Schoenecker walks through the steps for importing an IPRO file into TrialDirector, Yvonne Renfrew reminisces about CaseMap co-founder Greg Krehel, and James MacMillan discusses his experience ordering from Dell. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
Coming May 22, 2008 to Answers to Questions: John Starkweather reviews MasterFile litigation support software, Miriam Jacobson explains how she set up her scanner on a wireless network, Kendra Kleber shares the details of her office furniture setup and why it works for her, Douglas Folk provides a simple solution to keep power fluctuations from affecting legal software (and damaging hardware), and Andrew Willinger reviews Yahoo Calendar for law firms. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
Coming May 20, 2008 to TechnoFeature: Almost every litigation matter involves email nowadays, so having a tool that can expeditiously and accurately search for relevant messages is a litigator's dream. In this article, legal technology consultant Brett Burney reviews Discovery Attender from Sherpa Software. The software aims to guide IT professionals through mountains of email, empowering them to filter out messages by keywords, date ranges, or specific addresses. Brett walks you through how the software works, and shares what he found helpful and what left him wanting more. Does Discovery Attender deserve a place in your litigation arsenal? Read Brett's review to find out.
How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.
TechnoScore: 4.4
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score www.hecklerdesign.com
Depending on whom you believe, 80-97% of New Year's resolutions fall by the wayside unfulfilled. I don't profess to know why so few resolutions succeed, but thanks to a small company in California I should have no trouble achieving my resolution this year.
For 2008, I resolved to become a minimalist. Or as the rapper Snoop Dogg once sang, "Never have a want, never have a need." Of course, that's an impossible ideal. Instead, I seek to become the antithesis of a pack-rat and possess only the bare minimum. I don't want anything I don't use, including desk space.
Thus, when I recently moved, I replaced my bulky Anthro desk with Heckler Design's sleek OneLessDesk.
It All Started With an Advertisement ...
I first encountered Heckler Design's OneLessDesk in an online advertisement on MacRumors in January. I immediately began an email dialog with Dean Heckler, the man behind the desk. Our discussions resulted in a special edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire in which we covered OneLessDesk and four other unique desks. Measured by clicks, this issue was our most popular ever.
I also had a personal interest in OneLessDesk, having just moved into a new apartment. It seemed to perfectly address my new minimalist bent and my lack of space, but I had a few reservations. Dean eventually won me over and I placed an order.
Heckler Design limited the first production run of OneLessDesk to 100 units at $899 plus $100 shipping. I was among the early adopters, and for once it paid off. OneLessDesk now sells for $1,199 (including domestic shipping). The price has risen because the price of steel has risen. Dean is exploring other metals for a lower-priced version, but has not yet made any announcements.
The Skinny on OneLessDesk ...
OneLessDesk consists of two brushed steel desks that together take up about half the space of a traditional desk. The upper desk has a usable surface area of 33.5x12 inches, and a height of 30.5 inches. The lower desk has a usable surface area of 30.5x12 inches and a height of 25.5 inches.
The upper desk also contains a hidden shelf that opens at the back of the desk. Designed for accessories like hard drives, USB hubs, and the like, this shelf also features a cable management system in which you can wrap unused cord so that you don't end up with the usual nest of cables on your floor.
Both desks use two white plastic glides for feet, which enables you to slide the lower desk underneath the upper desk. The glides slide easily on my wood floor. I don't know how well they work on carpeting. Unfortunately, OneLessDesk does not have levelers so if your floor is uneven you may need to use a shim to prevent it from wobbling. I suspect this issue arises only on hard flooring, not carpeting.
OneLessDesk arrives in one box. If you open the box correctly (I didn't), the two desks will be standing upright ready for you to grab and move to their location. You'll need to install the glides. Each requires one countersunk Torx 20 screw.
Heckler Design provides everything you need, including a disposable Torx wrench, but I ended up using my own screwdriver for more control. You can watch a video tutorial of the entire unboxing process, including installation of the glides.
My box also contained a personal handwritten card from Dean, a nice touch that I hope he continues, and a package of Pledge stainless steel wipes. Because the desk arrives straight from the factory, you'll need these wipes to remove the grime.
Customer support is first rate. You always tend to receive the best service from the founder of the company. The real test lies ahead when Dean needs to hire employees to carry out this function.
My One Month Test Drive ...
I've now had OneLessDesk in my living room for one month and like it a lot. But I would not recommend it for everyone.
OneLessDesk looks striking. Having also just invested in two brushed steel barstools, I don't think anything compares to brushed steel if you seek a modern, urban look.
OneLessDesk has an inner beauty as well. Its bi-level design means that you can comfortably mouse and type with your feet firmly planted on the floor, minimizing the risk of carpel tunnel syndrome and other disorders. Those under 6 feet tall will especially appreciate the height of the lower desk.
So, should you buy one for your office? Probably not.
I'm about as paperless as it gets, but I have several paper reports on my desk at work at all times. Plus I like having an L-shaped desk at work for eating lunch, meeting with someone, or even power napping.
Most lawyers I know handle more paper and need more desk space than I do. Although OneLessDesk can hold letter-sized paper, it can do so only on one plane. There's no room to spread out.
What about for your home? Bingo.
OneLessDesk is best suited for home use — especially if you prefer modern design (think Design Within Reach), don't want your computer desk to overwhelm the room, and mostly use your home computer for paperless activities.
OneMoreDesk Please ...
My wish list for OneLessDesk is modest, especially for a version 1.0 product. I would like to see a more affordable version that parents could justify buying for their children. I also hope Dean designs glides with a leveler for use on uneven floors.
And finally, I would like to see other OneLess designs or at least the ability to buy OneLessDesk a la carte. For example, I could use another lower desk to hold an iPod speaker system in my bedroom.
Given the sameness in the furniture industry, it's refreshing to see something different like OneLessDesk — especially when it provides greater comfort than existing designs.
OneLessDesk will not only become a conversation piece in your home, but will provide you and your family with many hours of comfortable computer use thanks to its ergonomic bi-level design. It's not just for minimalists like me, but for anyone who seeks style and substance.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
