TechnoLawyer

It happens to all of us all the time. You're just about to pay for an online purchase when you learn that adding $5 more will qualify you for free shipping (by pony express). You really don't need another copy of that R.E.M. album, but what the heck — the newly remastered version has bonus tracks and it sure beats spending your money on shipping fees. So did you just fall prey to a marketing gimmick or save yourself some money? It depends on your perspective. In this special holiday edition of TechnoFeature, reporter Jill Bauerle explores the big business behind free shipping offers. Her investigation takes her from the Wharton School of Business to two online retailers that buck the trend by offering "truly free shipping" with no strings attached.

I've read the Harvard Business Review for years. Rarely have I come across articles applicable to legal practice. So imagine my surprise when I picked up the December 2006 issue and found two articles worthy of your attention.

In Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek, Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce discuss a new breed of knowledge worker who enjoys working 70-100 hours/week. Lawyers among them, these people are well compensated, but claim that the challenge is more alluring than the money. Apparently, that old saying about how no one on their death bed ever wishes they had spent more time in the office might not be true.

Read the article ($6).

Listen to the podcast (free)

In Lift Outs: How to Acquire a High-Functioning Team, Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams explain how to increase your bottom line through "lift outs" — hiring a team of professionals (such as lawyers) from another firm. Lift outs are less complex than mergers, but have perils of their own. The article discusses the four steps of a successful lift out.

Read the article ($6).

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.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an online repository with Google-like search speed, PDF creation software for thrifty law firms, and a plug-and-play Microsoft Exchange appliance that promises 99.99% uptime for your firm's e-mail. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Finding Needles in E-Discovery Haystacks Very Quickly
By Dennis Kennedy
As electronic discovery becomes a fixture in complex litigation, both law firms and clients seek better ways to handle large volumes of documents. Increasingly, they seem to choose online repositories. Security, features, and other factors play important roles in the selection process. However, speed may be the biggest consideration. Do you really want to enter a complex search through millions of documents and wait minutes rather than milliseconds for your results?

Catalyst Secure's Catalyst CR 6.0 (Grid Edition) attacks the issue of speed directly. The first grid-based document review and litigation support platform, CR 6.0 delivers sub-second response times for complex searches. In audited benchmark testing, CR brought back search results in less than a second in the vast majority of queries even for queries with 750 search terms and 15 million documents.

CR 6.0 uses an innovative grid-based computing system that efficiently uses a large number of servers to generate fast results. The grid runs the well-known FAST search engine, optimized for the types of searches used in electronic discovery.

You can locate the documents you want swiftly using keyword, full-text, date-range, proximity, concept and even bates-number searches. CR 6.0 supports native review of Office documents, e-mail, and hundreds of other file formats, and has been optimized for PDF files. CR 6.0 uses a simple interface for searching designed to give you both flexibility and power. You can save searches, tag results, and manage workflow.

Once you locate documents, you and your team can review, redact, and prepare them for production, especially under tight deadlines. Every party in a case can securely use the CR 6.0 repository.

CR 6.0 provides a secure platform that can scale as your repository grows, but the speed will likely impress you and your team the most.

Contact Catalyst Secure for information about pricing, which depends on the size of the repository.  Learn more about Catalyst CR 6.0.

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.

TechnoLawyer attracts people from around the world who work in law firms of all sizes. However, most hail from North America — 86.6% from the United States and 5.5% from Canada. As for firm size, the distribution is more even:

22.9%: 1 lawyer/firm (solo)
28.0%: 2-9 lawyers/firm (small firm)
14.4%: 10-49 lawyers/firm (midsize firm)
16.7%: 50-1,000+ lawyers/firm (large firm)
10.8%: Work in the legal profession, but not in a law firm.
  7.2%: Do not work in the legal profession.

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.

In every issue of TechnoGuide, we try to bring you a hot new online video related to legal practice. Fittingly, in this last issue of the year, we bring you the best video of the year — a music video parody entitled "I'm Billing Time."

Sung to Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," it feature lyrics such as:

If you come to my office or call my phone,
I'm billing time.
If you stop me at parties to whine and moan,
I'm billing time.
If I think of you when I am all alone,
I'm billing time.
If you're late for appointments,
I will be waiting and billing time.

You must watch this video! (Click here if you don't see the video below.)

Vickie Pynchon, founder of Settle it Now and the author of its eponymous blog, created this video to showcase this song, which was performed by the Bar & Grill Singers, a group of lawyers in Austin, Texas who create and sing parodies to raise money for public interest legal services.

The next video we bring you will put even this one to shame. Stay tuned. Until then, warm holiday wishes from all of us at TechnoLawyer, and a very happy and successful 2007 full of technology goodness!

PS: We'll publish the last TechnoLawyer newsletter of the year on Friday. Publishing resumes in 2007 on January 8th.

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 December 19, 2006 to TechnoFeature: Exhibits, witnesses, depositions ... a three-ring binder just won't cut it when it comes to organizing and preparing for trial. Luckily, we have technology at our fingertips. In this article, trial and technology consultant Ted Brooks takes a look under the hood of TrialDirector 5, the latest release from inData. Ted tells you what to expect from this robust program — pros, cons, and even some tips for maximizing the benefits. Whether you're new to litigation support software or a veteran TrialDirector user, you'll find something to like in Ted's comprehensive review.

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.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a suite of security utilities for your laptop, an online personal finance tool that taps into Metcalfe's Law, and a network appliance that enables everyone at your law firm to securely send and receive large attachments. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Transfer Large Files Securely Without Attachment Limits
By Dennis Kennedy
In the old days, sending a large document meant using a FedEx Pak instead of a FedEx Envelope. Nowadays, sending large electronic files poses more of a challenge than simply choosing the next size up in packaging. Notwithstanding multi-gigabyte mailboxes, many e-mail servers (including Gmail) impose limits on the size of file attachments. Plus, e-mail servers are notoriously lacking in security (by design actually). Free file transfer sites can handle large files, but also lack sufficient security. So what's a law firm to do? Dust off its FedEx number and send CDs and DVDs?

No way! Accellion's Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance (SFTA) Version 5.0 provides law firms with a secure option for sending and receiving large files both internally and externally. Accellion has a history of providing secure file transfer solutions on a global basis to enterprises of all sizes. As a dedicated appliance for business file transfers, SFTA requires minimal IT administration and support.

When you use SFTA to send files to third parties, they receive a secure download link. To send or receive a file, all you need is a Web browser. Your firm can set up accounts for its employees and clients in minutes. Accellion claims that some firms may witness an 80% reduction in e-mail load.

New in version 5 is the ability to send and receive entire folders, thus preserving a directory structure (especially useful for your client's discovery documents). Version 5 can handle files and folders up to 10GB in size.

New administrative tools enable you to control usage throughout your firm. Like previous versions, SFTA simply plugs into your network and starts working. SFTA uses the SSL standard, and generates an audit trail. Much easier to use than even FTP and SFTP, which require software on both ends, SFTA works with your existing network and software. Optional plug-ins exist for integration with Outlook and Lotus Notes, which enable you to use your e-mail program instead of a browser.

SFTA comes in a wide array of configurations, starting at $3,500. You can start small and add capabilities as needed.  Learn more about Accellion Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance (SFTA) Version 5.0.

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 December 14, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Gerald Pinzino suggests six simple tips for keeping your wireless office network secure and weighs in on the WiFi analogy debate, Craig Humphrey discusses new integrated desktop and enterprise search tools, Norton Townsley offers up a solution to keep formatting and fonts in a PDF file, Katrina Curfiss reviews PracticeMaster for civil case management, and Craig Bayer reviews PCLaw for time-billing. 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 December 12, 2006 to TechnoFeature: Someone hacks into your network and destroys all your case files. A Katrina-like hurricane devastates your area. Your office building burns down. The chances may seem slim, but these things can and do happen. Will you be ready? In this article, legal coach and consultant Edward Poll shares his top ten tips for securing your law firm's network before disaster strikes. Learn how to prepare so that if something goes wrong, you won't miss a beat.

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.

Coming December 11, 2006 to IP Memes: Steve, Doug, and Matt cover the following memes: the new Nintendo Wii's infringement woes, why the makers of the BlackBerry have Samsung's newest cell phone in their sights, the trademark infringement battle brewing between a major pop star and another kind of "entertainer," and a sneak peek at a new online service for patent case law. Plus a note from our publisher and from the authors about IP Memes.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Mondays, IP Memes is a biweekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or "memes" as we call them. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.