TechnoLawyer

Regarding the two formal reviews of Adobe Acrobat 7 in TechnoFeature, and the many informal reviews in Fat Friday, TechnoLawyer member William Yates writes: "I purchased and installed version 7 about three-four months ago. I discovered that it did not integrate well with PaperPort, and it appears to have not updated the registry, because I have to keep "right clicking" and specify "open with" in order to get a PDF files to open. The previously installed programs do not recognize that I have the new version and try to open the PDF files with the old Acrobat, which is no longer on my computer. Once I realized the problem, I've been able to "work around it." Has anyone else encountered this problem?

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Mark Lieb has helped many law firms with litigation support projects over the years. Now, those who cannot consult with Mark personally can still take advantage of his experience thanks to his new book and accompanying CD, Litigation Support Department.

According to Mark, "This book outlines standard operating procedures for running your litigation support department as a business. It does not matter if the department bills for goods and services. What matters is that it provide the legal team, firm, and third parties with a consistent experience of the highest quality."

TechnoLawyer members have already weighed in on Mark's book.

CaseSoft CEO Greg Krehel writes: "Mark has distilled his extensive real-world case management experience into a set of standards that make it easy for law firms to organize the litigation support function and shows us how to use technology to tame case complexity. Very impressive stuff!"

LexThink co-founder and e-discovery consultant Dennis Kennedy writes: "It's a thorough, hands-on roadmap of how to set up a litigation support department and how to make an existing department better, written by someone with actual experience in creating a successful lit support department. In short, it's exactly what you would like to have at hand when building a lit support department. It includes checklists, useful files on CDs and a detailed roadmap of the steps in the litigation process where lit support personnel can be employed effectively. If you have the task of creating, building or managing a lit support department, get a copy of this book as your starting guide. It'll take you a long way."

Read the Preface.

Review the Table of Contents.

Read an excerpt.

About Member News
TechnoLawyer members are among the most gifted and prominent in the legal profession. In the Member News section of TechnoLawyer Blog, we report on their latest accomplishments and success stories — everything from court victories to articles and books to new partner announcements — and much more. If you're a newsmaker, but not yet a member, join TechnoLawyer now, and then contact our newsdesk.

Coming November 21, 2005 to IP Memes: You'll learn about a revision to the Copyright Act that recently went into effect, a current lawsuit involving a well-known glass sculptor and a couple of con-artists, how the government saved itself from having to give up its "CrackBerry" addiction, and why Subway almost took another sandwich shop to court for trademark infringement.

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.

Regarding the recent reviews of WordPerfect 12 in Fat Friday, TechnoLawyer member Peter Pike writes: "Yes, but the only problem is that all of our clients use Word, send us e-mail documents in Word and expect us to return them documents in Word. I hate it. The program is awful, but, everyone outside of the legal world uses it. Converting back and forth between the two formats works the first couple of times. After that, so much formatting gets lost or mixed up that I have found it is just not worth it." In related news, TechnoLawyer member John Gordon responds to Barron Henley's recent rant in defense of Microsoft Word as follows: "I could not agree more with every thing Mr. Henley says. I want to thank him for taking the time to get it off my chest." Wow, what a great line — gotta remember that one!

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Below you'll find one of the five articles from today's edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire:

Way Beyond PDF
By Jill Bauerle
Before you can begin the process of analyzing your case with litigation support tools, you must first transform paper into bits. The same goes for creating a paperless office via your document management system. DATAssimilate's DATAssimilator 4.0 facilitates this first step and exports to a wide variety of tools commonly used by law firms. Talk about a product that lives up to its name — DATAssimilator enables you to scan, code, PDF, OCR, bates stamp, search, print, and much more. Used by litigation support firms, DATAssimilator can process thousand of documents in real-time. Its friendly interface makes it accessible for any law firm that wishes to handle smaller cases internally or create a paperless office. DATAssimilator's scanning component supports virtually all scanners (including duplex), and enables you to scan individually or in batches in black and white, grayscale, or color at any dpi setting. The branding component enables you to add Bates stamps and endorse captions. The PDF component converts to PDF image only or with embedded searchable text thanks to the built-in OCR component. The reporting component tracks all your work, and enables you to assign time or dollar values for each task you've performed. Although you can export the documents you process to other programs, DATAssimilator has its own robust search tools, which support Boolean, pick lists, phrases, wild cards, and sorting. You can even search within searches, and save your searches. The coding component enables you to not just code documents fast, but track who coded what and find documents with incomplete coding. Each component of DATAssimilator sells for $495; the entire suite sells for $2,995. Learn more about DATAssimilator.

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.

Recently, AOL acquired Weblogs Inc., a Mark Cuban-financed startup company that operates dozens of enthusiast blogs, but which is best-known for Engadget.

Those of us in the online media business read MediaPost's Just an Online Minute, an e-mail newsletter about our little world. Naturally, the newsletter covered this deal, writing:

"America Online's decision to purchase Weblogs for $25 million is the latest example of the if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em attitude that, these days, established media companies exhibit toward consumer-generated sites.... These moves also suggest that the dichotomy between mainstream media ands [sic] user-generated content is breaking down. Perhaps the large corporate media companies are no longer as wary as in the past of giving citizen journalists and other consumers a platform."

The above characterization of Weblogs Inc.'s content as "user-generated content" (what we call "peer-written content" here at TechnoLawyer) is not correct. Weblogs Inc.'s pays freelance writers to write its blogs. That's not user-generated content, it's traditional content. The content just happens to reside in a blog with fewer layers of editing (or perhaps no editing). The only user-generated content Weblogs Inc. publishes consists of the reader comments below each article — no different than what you'd find in a mainstream media publication.

By contrast, here at TechnoLawyer, we not only publish user-generated content, we place it in the spotlight. For example, our Answers to Questions and Fat Friday newsletters consist of your contributions. If we have anything to say, we place our comments BELOW your Post, not above. Perhaps an even better example, our TechnoFeature newsletter consists of an article written by an expert in the subject matter, not by someone who earns their living writing.

Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing Weblogs Inc. We ourselves publish a newsletter — TechnoLawyer NewsWire — written by a freelance journalist. I've always felt that you need a mix of the two. Instead, I'm just pointing out an error in the use of the term "user-generated content." I have requested that MediaPost publish a correction, but it has not yet done so.

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.

Chris Cardell has published an insightful article entitled Destroy Your Business in Five Easy Steps, which certainly applies to law firms. The five steps?

• Not communicating effectively with your existing customers.

• Relying on just one or two main forms of marketing.

• Running ineffective advertising.

• Failing to focus on the benefits that your product or service offers your customers and clients.

• Not using e-mail marketing effectively.

Read the article.

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 November 18, 2005 to Fat Friday: Gregory Deatz pens an extensive guide to e-mail etiquette (followed by a few wisecracks from our publisher), Ian Manning reviews the Motorola Razr V3 cell phone while Douglas Folk does the same while pining for the Slivr's "candy bar" phone, Nerino Petro reviews his old Motorola StarTac phone and explains why he finally switched to a Treo 650, and Harry Styron shares his experience having a fluorescein angiogram (or at least what he thought was a fluorescein angiogram) — a photographic study of the retina commonly performed on diabetics. 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 November 21, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Daniel Schultz reviews the Dell Inspiron 600m laptop as well as his experience with Dell's tech support, Joanne Frasca explains how she dealt with e-mail instability issues in Time Matters, Clint Pullin discusses how to prevent unauthorized use of your firm's PCs and laptops, Sandy Hagman explains how to use Word for document comparison, and Stephen Hayes offers an essential tip to those about to Bates stamp PDF documents. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a thrice 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 November 17, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Stephen C. Carpenter shares the results of his recent research on computer accessories for disabled lawyers (and others), Michael Eubanks reminisces about his experiences with Dell's products and tech support, Veronica Hurless reviews Kyocera multi-function copiers, Stephen Miller suggests a program for automated filing of scanned documents, and Frederic Wolfram explains why you should OCR PDFs before Bates stamping. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a thrice 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.