TechnoLawyer

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a new time-billing and accounting package with a user-friendly interface, a service that enables you to add search capabilities to your Web site, and a Web-based suite of collaboration and project management tools. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Your New Friend in Accounting
By Dennis Kennedy
Lawyers live in the front office. Most don't like to deal with back office issues. They often feel that operating the business of a law practice gets in the way of practicing law. From handling trust accounts to editing pre-bills, lawyers dread nearly every back office operation.

Help is on the way. Gavel & Gown, the company behind the ever-popular Amicus Attorney, now offers Amicus Accounting, a time-billing and accounting package designed specifically for law firms. Amicus Accounting builds on the reputation of Amicus Attorney for simplicity and ease of use.

For example, Amicus Accounting enables you to handle time-billing and accounting in a single package. When used with Amicus Attorney, you benefit from a truly integrated front and back office — the so-called holy grail of law office technology.

Amicus Accounting uses the familiar graphical interface of Amicus Attorney 7, which emphasizes common workflows. It handles all of the back office chores in a law office: timekeeping, expenses, bill generation, receivables management, payables, check writing, general ledger, trust accounting, report creation, and a variety of client matter details and inquiries, including the ability to track transactions by client and matter.

With Amicus Accounting, you can track billable and non-billable hours with multiple rates per timekeeper, issue checks and allocate expenses to matters in one step, prevent trust account overdrafts, process hourly, split and flat fee billing, implement UTBMS task-based billing codes, customize billing templates, process 1099s, support three accounting methods (cash, modified cash and accrual), generate more than 50 reports, access all client data and account information in one location (you can even drill down for more granular information), and much more.

Amicus Accounting sells for $249 per user. Learn more about Amicus Accounting.

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 September 19, 2006 to TechnoFeature: Think you can do without the latest and greatest in technology? Got everything you need to get by and keep your practice running smoothly? Attorney Joe Hartley thought so too. In this article, Joe shares his eye-opening experience with a recent hardware malfunction in his law firm. Although he still staunchly believes that lawyers should use technology in moderation, Joe has made some important changes to ensure his firm can sail through future meltdowns without incident. Can your firm say the same?

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 September 22, 2006 to Fat Friday: Robert Fleming reviews the hidden benefits of a swivel monitor (or two), Yvonne Renfrew reviews the Intake Interview Jumpstart feature in CaseMap 6, Brooks Miller reviews a password and login management utility, and Charles Beans shares his feelings on public cell phone use . 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 September 21, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Katrina Curfiss explores whether your firm should build its own software (for litigation support, document management, practice management, etc.) or buy off the shelf, Pam Rolph shares some quick fixes for Amicus Attorney scheduling problems, Allen Hardon offers a word of caution to those looking to fix Timeslips issues on their own, Mike Savory, Senior Product Manager for Sage Software, responds to Timeslips criticism, and Kurt Schoettler explains how to use Acrobat 7 for OCR batch processing. 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.

In July, we reported that Reed Smith had fired prominent blogger and TechnoLawyer member Denise Howell (she coined the word "blawg"). I'm pleased to report that Denise has a new gig — several actually. ZDNet has hired her to pen the legal blog Lawgarithms, and Leo Laporte of TechTV and TWIT fame has hired her to create a podcast called TWIL (This Week in Law). In addition, Denise continues to write her personal blog and record the Sound Policy podcast at IT Conversations.

Longtime TechnoLawyer member Lewis Kinard has assumed the title of CEO and General Counsel of Practice Manager Group, developer of Practice Manager, a soup-to-nuts case management solution. Kinard previously served as the company's COO. Kinard's story is similar to that of Victor Kiam — he liked the product so much, he joined the company.

Finally, TechnoLawyer member and law firm trainer extraordinaire Carole Levitt of Internet for Lawyers has published the latest edition of Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet, which explains how to use the Internet to investigate just about anything — from digging up dirt to impeaching someone's credibility to finding missing people, property records, political party affiliations, unlisted phone numbers, cell phone numbers, and much more. Read it before your adversary does!

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 the late 1990s, entrepreneur Josh Harris set up a Web site at weliveinpublic.com, and set out to do exactly that. It proved a short-lived experiment — and he lost his girlfriend in the process. It just goes to show that a toilet cam is not a good idea on so many levels.

Earlier this month, Law Office of Perry Zivley, a husband and wife law firm in Houston, embarked on a similarly public experiment — taking their firm from the stone ages to the 21st century in 30 days — including a blog.

Marketing and technology consultant Jamie Parks has set up a blog to report on the progress, and has posted the first of what looks to be several video interviews on YouTube. He has also uploaded the recording of a marketing strategy meeting in which he discusses online marketing with the Zivleys.

So far this experiment is more interesting in theory than in practice. Nonetheless, listening to the strategy meeting is something of a guilty "fly on the wall" pleasure. Let's hope Jamie takes this work in progress to the next level in the next few weeks (and let's hope he tells the Zivleys about TechnoLawyer). Take a peep.

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.

Today, most Americans will think for at least a moment about 9-11. Those of us who work in New York's financial district think about it more often thanks to constant reminders — most notably Ground Zero and the security checkpoints. Rather than wait for the official memorial in 2012, I encourage those of you who visit New York to take a look at Ground Zero as well as the temporary memorial in Battery Park.

This being TechnoLawyer, did 9-11 teach us any managerial or technology lessons? Yes. These five in particular:

• When telephone networks get jammed, don't panic. Instead, use e-mail, instant messaging, and the Web to communicate. On 9-11, we published a brief newsletter suggesting that TechnoLawyer members experiencing telephone problems try using the Internet. Many TechnoLawyer members thanked us, admitting that they had not considered the Internet. Nowadays, perhaps no one would need such a reminder, but people still have an inclination to reach for the phone during emergencies, which ties up the lines.

• At the very least, keep a radio with batteries and several flashlights at the office. It also couldn't hurt to have a spare battery for your laptop. A cell phone with e-mail capabilities would enable you communicate on the go with a large group of people — provided your network stays up.

• Store your firm's e-mail, computer files, and other electronic data offsite on at least a weekly basis. Replacing computers and even software is relatively easy. Not so data. For data, many solutions exist — from dedicated online backup services to using your own hosted FTP server. For e-mail, you can choose from a growing number of providers. TechnoLawyer sponsor NTT America recently published a white paper about e-mail archiving entitled Hosted Archiving for Peace of Mind.

• Create an emergency plan for your firm. Even a simple one is better than none at all. For example, set up an e-mail list using an easy-to-remember address (everyone@yourdomain.com) so that employees can easily reach everyone at the firm. Maintain a firmwide address book, including contact information for a spouse or other family member to contact in the event you cannot reach a colleague.

• Educate your staff about where they work. On 9-11, the subways stopped running. Those who knew about alternative forms of egress from the financial district (back streets, bridges, ferries, etc.) had an advantage.

Let's hope none of us will ever need to put our emergency plans into motion.

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 September 12, 2006 to TechnoFeature: HotDocs 2006. You've heard about it. You've thought about it. But you still haven't upgraded. In this article, attorney, technology consultant, and document assembly guru Marc Lauritsen reviews the latest version of HotDocs, providing pros, cons, a wish list for the next version, and an overall TechnoScore.

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 September 15, 2006 to Fat Friday: Miriam Jacobson shares the best advice she has received regarding her legal career, Bryan Keenan discusses acceptable and unacceptable cell phone use, Stephen Cole discusses the role multiple monitors play at his law firm's new office (including details on which programs lawyers and staff use on each screen), and Alex Simpson reviews his experience using a Tumi briefcase. In addition, this issue features links to 3 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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 September 14, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens reviews Tabs3 and compares it to Timeslips for law firm accounting and time-billing, Debbie Westwood reviews Lotus Notes for document collaboration, Nancy Merreot explains how to archive e-mail using PST files and Adobe Acrobat 7, Nikki Rodeman discusses the bar code scanning system she discovered (and we provide tips on using bar codes for trial exhibits), and John Keller reviews Skype for outgoing calls. In addition, this issue features links to 5 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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.