Coming April 18, 2008 to Fat Friday: Barron Henley clarifies some misconceptions about lawyers and word processors, Kerry Hubick reviews Laplink's PCmover for migrating files from an old computer to a new one, James Atkins shares how he improved his remote access speeds when working at home, Roger Jones discusses the many benefits of left-hand mousing, and David Estes reviews the Treo 700p. Don't miss this issue.
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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 April 17, 2008 to Answers to Questions: David Hudgens explains how to use dual monitors with a laptop and discusses whether a bigger monitor trumps dual monitors, Leslie Shear discusses fax-to-email security, Francis Jackson shares his thoughts on de-duplication technology (or the lack thereof) and a promising vendor entering this arena, Aaron Craft reviews Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition, Amicus Accounting, and QuickBooks, and W. David Case reviews AirSet for online calendaring. Don't miss this issue.
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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 April 15, 2008 to TechnoFeature: There are some things in life you can't choose — your birthday, your shoe size, who your daughter marries ... But when it comes to trial presentation software, the choice is up to you. Gulp. Trial consultant Timothy Piganelli understands that this choice can seem daunting so we asked him to provide his top ten tips for choosing trial presentation software. From features to stability to learning curve, learn what the modern litigator should know before taking the trial presentation software plunge.
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 online application for managing your firm's relationships with car services, technology that enables your firm to pursue new business and lateral hires even when ethical conflicts arise (see article below), and a new wireless keyboard and mouse. Don't miss the next issue.
Good Walls Make Happy Clients By Neil J. Squillante
Raise your hand if this scenario occurs at your firm. A large public company wants to hire your firm. To ensure that no conflicts exist, everyone at the firm has to fill out a questionnaire about that company — stock holdings, previous employment, etc. If a conflict arises, you have to figure out a way to reassure the company that you can still handle the matter and safeguard confidential work product from the tainted few.
The problem is that every employee can access your document management system, including contract lawyers. You don't have real safeguards, just an ad hoc honor system. Sorry, but that won't cut it nowadays in these highly regulated times. Sarbanes-Oxley anyone?
Enter IntApp's Wall Builder 3.2, a Web-based application that enables you create ethical walls to isolate certain people from certain information, enabling your firm to take on new cases and even pursue lateral hires.
Wall Builder's wizard-driven interface enables you to construct and configure these walls. It also creates an audit trail so that you can prove (if necessary) that so and so never had access to such and such.
Wall Builder integrates with Interwoven and Open Text/Hummingbird so that you can restrict access to documents. It similarly integrates with other applications with sensitive data such as accounting, billing, CRM, records, search, portals, etc.
Wall Builder doesn't just do what you tell it to do. It also "learns" in a manner of speaking. For example, if you handle matters for two adverse clients and you work on a document for one of these clients, Wall Builder will prevent you from accessing the other client's files.
As you might imagine, Wall Builder has layers of security, enabling your firm to delegate wall creation to certain members of your staff with oversight by more senior management. Wall Builder can scale to accommodate up to 150,000 client records and 700,000 matter records. If you need more coverage than that, God bless you. Learn more about Wall Builder 3.2.
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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 April 11, 2008 to Fat Friday: Debra Bruce lists five reasons why general counsel choose big law firms (plus she offers suggestions for reducing attrition rates at large firms), Barbara Norris reviews Spector Software for billing your time (it's surveillance software), Colleen O'Donnell shares her wish list for future legal technology trade shows, Michael Schwartz responds to a recent TechnoFeature about hiring a legal assistant, and Nathaniel Barber challenges the claim that WordPerfect is a "Rosetta Stone." 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 April 7, 2008 to Answers to Questions: John Starkweather reviews several online calendaring and project management solutions, James Keuning reviews RoboForm and suggests a clever (and free) way to create strong passwords, Bruce Brightwell explains why lawyers shouldn't worry about legal research service adhesion contracts, David Herdman discusses the benefits of learning both Word and WordPerfect, and Harry Dreier shares his LexisNexis search results for "out of title" cases. 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 April 10, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Bill Baldwin suggests several different ways to archive Web page information on any budget, Steven J. Best explains why using QuickBooks can get you disbarred, Rob Howard reviews the StartStop Universal Transcription System with Olympus DS-4000, David Hudgens reviews PCLaw and ponders its future integration with Time Matters (and LexisNexis responds), and Jack Futoran weighs in on the Word versus WordPerfect debate from a technical perspective. 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 April 8, 2008 to TechnoFeature: Apple's iPod has infiltrated so many aspects of our lives (music, videos, movies, television), so it comes as no surprise that it has recently crept into litigation practices nationwide. In this article, litigation consultant David Mykel walks you through the various ways in which you can turn an iPod into an effective ally in your litigation practice. He'll teach you how you can view exhibits, watch video deposition testimony, record voice notes, and even transfer files. If you've always wondered how you could write off an iPod as a business expense, this TechnoFeature article has the answer.
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 a new 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor with a built-in Webcam, software that enables you to create virtual desktops, and an online multilevel marketing service that promises to drive desirable traffic to your blawg (see article below). Don't miss the next issue.
Boost Your Blog
By Neil J. Squillante
Congratulations! You launched your blog. Now, please fork over $50,000 to a public relations firm to get it from 0 to 50,000 readers in one month. What's that? You didn't realize marketing was the biggest expense? Well, if you don't want to pay, you'll have to build your audience slowly.
Then again, you could try BlogRush, a new service that promises to "drive a flood of targeted readers to your blog." You simply add a bit of code to your blog template, which places a widget to your blog.
The widget lists five blog posts from other blogs that publish material similar to yours. When a reader clicks on a link that blog opens in a new browser window. For each page view on your blog, your blog will show up that many times in a BlogRush widget on other related blogs in the BlogRush network.
At the bottom of your widget lies a small BlogRush logo. Those who click the logo and sign up for BlogRush become your referrals. You then begin receiving credit for their page views as well. For example, if your blog has 100 pages views and your referral blogs 1,000 page views, BlogRush will list your posts in BlogRush widgets 1,100 times that day. It's like that old Faberge Organics TV commercial ("And I told two friends ...").
This referral system works for 10 generations, which means you'll receive exposure credits for page views on blogs that don't even know you exist. The BlogRush dashboard shows you exactly how much exposure you're receiving.
If you have multiple blogs, you can add them to one account and set up rules for the distribution of your exposure credits. If you're concerned about posts by competitors showing up in your widget, you can try to block them by prohibiting certain keywords that you designate. BlogRush is free. Learn more about BlogRush.
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.
In Abraham's video, Commercial Litigation Lawyer/Attorney in Texas — Overview, partner Randall Owen Sorrels discusses his firm's experience helping the little guy take on large corporations. The video alternates between takes of Sorrels looking like he's being interviewed and some Ken Burns-style photos.
I admire any law firm that uses YouTube as a marketing channel because so few law firms do. That said, this video has several flaws.
The director should have used more than one camera angle when filming Sorrels. Since we don't sense the presence of an interviewer, perhaps Sorrels should have faced the camera like a news anchor. Also, I find the photos used for the B-roll segments lackluster. Perhaps the director should have used video footage of Houston and the law firm.
Sorrels makes some important points, but his script sounds like an ad (it shouldn't), including platitudes that we have all heard a zillion times. Instead, why not take advantage of YouTube's longer format to discuss a recent case with a successful outcome?
The video's best segment occurs when Sorrels describes litigation as being bad for business and his firm's attempt to minimize such disruption by resolving disputes as efficiently as possible. Also, he provides a link back to the firm's Web site in the About This Video section.
Finally, I understand the importance of search engine optimization, but videos should have real titles since they presumably tell stories. Besides, you can kill two birds with one stone. For example, Abraham's could have used something like: How to Find a Lawyer to Handle Your Commercial Litigation in Texas.
In the video, Oginski discusses why there is no such thing as a question to never ask. He explains why you need to learn about all the facts before trial, including those damaging to your case. Oginski provides real information here! He also scores points by facing the camera and addressing the audience.
On the downside, the video features some cheesy music at the beginning and the end. I wouldn't have a problem with it except it drowns him out at the end. His editor should have used a more gradual fade-in. Also, inexplicably for such a savvy online lawyer, Oginski fails to link to his site in the About This Video section.
The winner? Oginski by director's verdict. Case closed.
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.
