TechnoLawyer

Coming August 1, 2006 to TechnoFeature: So excited about your office move that you have focused more on the wall color than Internet access? Or has planning to move your firm proven so overwhelming that you don't even know where to begin? In this article, legal coach and consultant Edward Poll takes you step by step through the moving process and offers up some important factors to consider. Whether you just need help prioritizing or you've just begun contemplating a new space, Ed will lead the way.

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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 July 31, 2006 to IP Memes: Steve, Doug, and Matt cover the following memes: the controversy over patenting tax advice, overseas trademark-squatting, the use of Wikipedia by the USPTO, and YouTube's copyright troubles.

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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.

Thanks to you, TechnoLawyer was among the first publishers to identify Dell's customer service problems, which have contributed to the company's woes. Dell has even launched a blog to address concerns and keep customers apprised of its restructuring efforts.

But Dell has another problem. For consumers and small businesses, computers are once again being perceived as cool — a word few people would use to describe Dell's product line. By contrast, Apple and HP have unveiled stylish computers this year with slick TV ads to match. HP even lets you create your own version of its ads. Dell recently acquired Alienware, but those high-end machines have a limited audience.

If Dell shores up service and remains competitive on price, will that be enough? Or must it also start designing PCs with sex appeal across its entire product line?

Update: It looks my crystal ball was crystal clear for a change. On July 27, 2006, BusinessWeek published an article entitled Microsoft, Design Guru about how a group within Microsoft is trying to persuade PC manufacturers to build sleeker, sexier PCs.

From the article: "The Windows Vista Industrial Design Toolkit, hand-delivered to about 70 designers, contains everything a PC maker needs — color palette, suggested materials, even graphics for icons and power buttons — to create computers, laptops, and peripherals that hew to Vista's look. A separate booklet exhorts hardware makers to eschew drab, utilitarian boxes. Microsoft is providing the toolkit for free and vows not to strong-arm any company into incorporating the concepts."

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 electronic signature service and repository geared at corporate counsel, a comprehensive suite of e-discovery tools, and a service that digitally certifies transcripts. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Electronic Agreements Deserve Electronic Signatures
By Dennis Kennedy
Going in-house was supposed to improve your quality of life, but thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley era in which we now live, your compliance workflow has kicked into overdrive.

For example, you need your worldwide salesforce to sign a compensation agreement with your new commission structure — and track who signed it and when. Similarly, you need to have your technical staff execute assignments of invention, again with archiving and tracking not to mention approval by their counsel. Many other headaches, er examples, abound, including the deployment of nondisclosure agreements by non-legal staff.

If only you could manage this workflow electronically. For several years now, electronic signature laws have permitted the use of electronic signatures, but the adoption of electronic signatures has not occurred because no one bothered to build a suite of tools to make it easier than using paper.

EchoSign's eponymous service may finally help usher in the revolution. EchoSign is a secure Web site for sending, signing, tracking, and storing documents — everything from retainers to nondisclosure agreements to assignments of inventions to deal documents. Instead of e-mailing a file, you just upload it to EchoSign.

To start, you set up a secure EchoSign account using any browser. There is nothing to install and no downloads. Even better, EchoSign's signature service is free.

EchoSign converts Word and other document formats to PDF, and then delivers the file to recipients with signature instructions. Recipients can either electronically sign the document or print and sign it the old-fashioned way. Even when they sign it on paper, the document remains within EchoSign thanks to a special fax number to which recipients return signed documents. No need to wait for these executed documents to arrive in the mail.

When you use EchoSign for signatures, you automatically create a repository of all of your signed documents. You can annotate, search for, review, share, and print them at anytime. With EchoSign, everyone on your team will know which documents were signed and when.

EchoSign's free signature service includes storage for your last 20 documents. To store more documents, you can choose from two plans — $12.95 per month for up to 1,000 documents (Pro) or $20 per user per month for unlimited documents (Enterprise). The Enterprise plan also includes a branded site and other extranet-like features.

Learn more about EchoSign.

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.

Earlier this year I proclaimed 2006 the year of mobile video. Well, uhm, I think was off by about five years. Maybe ten. Instead, I should have proclaimed it the year of YouTube, the site that finally delivered on the promise of online video — for both filmmakers and their audience. One aspect of my prediction has come to pass, however — lawyers using online video as a marketing tool. For example, Allison Margolin, a criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, created a 3:35 minute film about her work and uploaded it to YouTube. So far it has garnered 1,751 views.

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 July 25, 2006 to TechnoFeature: When document management systems (DMS) first became available on the market, nothing compelled law firms to implement them. After years of improvements, DMS now provide tight integration with e-mail systems for efficient e-mail management. In this article, technology consultant David Moon discusses how to make use of this new feature. Will he persuade you to get you down off that fence and embrace DMS? Read on 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.

Most lawyers wouldn't admit getting fired to their friends much less blog about it, but that's exactly what Denise Howell (former IP Memes contributor) did last week after being fired from Reed Smith. Her Post in her Bag & Baggage blog has sparked a flurry of supportive Posts from fellow bloggers. Notwithstanding this publicity, the facts remain a mystery — and may never see the light of day. Will this event become a turning point in the way law firms handle sensitive personnel issues? Only time will tell.

Read Denise Howell's Post, Have Aeron, Will Travel. Read what other bloggers have had to say.

And speaking of large firm antics, two weeks ago we reviewed Billable Hours, an amusing spoof about partners in large law firms. About 1,000 of you got to see the film before it was yanked from YouTube for reasons we don't know. Fortunately, we found another copy of the film. Watch it while you still can.

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 July 28, 2006 to Fat Friday: Steve Bondy discusses the risks involved in hiring amateurs, Bob Walsh reviews how his firms uses multiple monitors and FileCenter to achieve a paperless office, and Miriam Jacobson shares her thoughts on age discrimination in the legal profession. 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 July 27, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Richard Hutchins compares the HP LaserJet 3015 multi-function printer and its recent replacement (3050) against the Xerox Documate 510, Sandip Sett reviews his fifteen years using QuickBooks (plus the importance of upgrading), Michael Cone reviews Dragon Naturally Speaking Standard for lawyers, Dan Marcum discusses outline numbering in Word and offers up several helpful resources for those who want to learn more, and Corey Rich reviews his HP LaserJet 1012s and shares his stance on used versus new printers. 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 today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a powerful cost recovery system, a budget PDF creation tool, and a document management system for solos and other individual users. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Teach Your Accounting System How to Count
By Dennis Kennedy
Since Lex Systems introduced The Count cost recovery system in the early 1980s, it claims that it has found only three firms in which the staff kept accurate manual records for more than 33% of the copies made for clients. If you work at a firm that charges for photocopies, faxes, prints, telephone calls, etc., that statistic should give you pause about what costs you don't recover.

The Count interfaces with your current accounting system, capturing and transferring the usage data and transaction records you specify. It also provides reports to help you manage the process. The Count works on any available PC and your existing network so you need not purchase any proprietary equipment.

Lex Systems customizes The Count to conform with your firm's procedures and security requirements, making it easy to set up. Even better, Lex Systems guarantees that The Count will earn your firm a profit.

If you change equipment, procedures, or software, Lex Systems takes care of the necessary upgrades, usually at no extra cost.

The Count has successfully integrated with virtually every legal accounting program, including Juris, Tabs3, Timeslips, Thomson Elite and Omega Legal to name a few.

Lex Systems creates your system the way you specify. Everything, including customization, installation, support, and certain equipment, is included in a single annual license fee based upon usage. Costs are based on your individual requirements. If Lex Systems does not successfully implement The Count for you, your firm owes Lex Systems nothing.

Learn more about The Count.

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.