TechnoLawyer

Two weeks ago, we announced free one year TechnoLawyer Archive subscriptions for all 35,000 members of the Canadian Bar Association.

Today, we're bringing this benefit home to the USA! The TechnoLawyer Archive is now free for all active members of these bar associations:

• State Bar of Texas: 75,000 lawyers
• Oklahoma Bar Association: 15,000 lawyers
• Cincinnati Bar Association: 4,000 lawyers
• Washoe County Bar Association: 1,300 lawyers

The first bar association executive I spoke to this year was Jim Calloway, Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association's Management Assistance Program. Thanks to Jim's enthusiasm, he won the approval of his colleagues just in time for the Oklahoma Bar Association's annual meeting this week.

Not long after I met Jim, Charles Awalt of the State Bar of Texas' GP Solo & Small Firm section and Jeffrey Lisson of the Computer & Technology Section inquired separately about free TechnoLawyer Archive access for their members. I suggested that we open it up to all Texas lawyers, and contacted John Sirman. Don't ask me how he did it, but John along with Patricia Moore, the State Bar of Texas' General Counsel, managed to secure approval in record time, which just goes to show that large bar associations can move quickly to serve their members.

Meanwhile, at this year's annual meeting for the National Association of Bar Executives, Peggy Gruenke, Director of Membership at the Cincinnati Bar Association, served on a panel about member benefits. Therefore, it's only natural that Peggy arranged for free TechnoLawyer Archive for Cincinnati Bar Association members.

Christine Cendagorta, the Executive Director of the Washoe County Bar Association, is also a big fan of member benefits. Plus, she's a power user when it comes to technology thanks to her tricked out Power Mac G5. She too jumped at the chance to secure free TechnoLawyer Archive for members of the Washoe County Bar Association.

I've truly enjoyed working with Jim, John, Patricia, Peggy, and Christine, and look forward to continuing to work with them now that the launch is officially underway!

More Announcements Soon. In The Meantime ...

If you belong to both TechnoLawyer and one of the above bar associations, just visit your bar association's Web site, and follow the link to TechnoLawyer for instructions on how to obtain your free TechnoLawyer Archive subscription.

If you would like your bar association to offer this benefit, please ask the executive in charge of member benefits to contact me (the bottom of every page on our site has a contact link).

Recently, my out-of-warranty PowerBook stopped working properly. I suspected a dying hard drive. I performed a final series of backups and immediately began looking for an overnight repair service.

First, I tried to visit PowerBookResQ, which has received rave reviews among users over the years. I say "tried" because the Web site was down. So I called instead and left a voice-mail message.

Second, I ran a Google search and found TechRestore. I clicked on the ad to find a poorly-designed Web site that didn't answer all of my questions. So I called and left another voice-mail message.

Third, I visited some Mac Web sites and found an ad for a company called MacService. Finally, a well-designed Web site! However, I couldn't find any user reviews on the Internet so I decided to call. A human being — strike that — a knowledgeable human being actually answered the phone and answered all my questions.

At this point, PowerBookResQ returned my call, but it was too late — MacService had me at "Hello." I placed an order on MacService's Web site and dropped off my PowerBook at FedEx. (TechRestore also returned my call, but not the same day I left my message.)

The next day, MacService e-mailed me to let me know that the hard drive was indeed the culprit. The day after that, I received my PowerBook with a new hard drive. MacService also cleaned the exterior of my PowerBook — it looked like new. My PowerBook has worked well ever since.

This Post is not just about overnight laptop repair services. It's about marketing and service, and how they must work together. You can provide the greatest service on Earth, but it won't matter if prospects cannot find you on the Internet. Likewise, you can have the world's most pervasive advertising campaign, but if your service doesn't measure up, word of mouth from disgruntled clients will eventually catch up to you.

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.

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

Depositions, Lies and Videotape
By Jill Bauerle
How important is body language and tone of voice in a deposition? To a jury, extremely important. Recently, using video clips created from synchronized video courtesy of VideoSynching.com to impeach witnesses, a Cleveland law firm won a $43 million dollar verdict for an insurance company in a non-compete lawsuit. VideoSynching.com synchronizes a court reporter's transcript with the deposition video and places both on a CD. Unlike other services, VideoSynching.com works directly with law firms. By cutting out the middleman (i.e., court reporters, videographers, etc.), it can offer lower prices. How does it work? You send VideoSynching.com an ASCII transcript and video (VHS, DVD, etc.), and it will create your synchronized video CD and ship it to you within 3-4 days. You can also rush an order for next-day or two-day turnaround. The online order form takes just a few minutes to complete. The resulting CD comes bundled with DVTDiscovery — software that shows both the transcript and video together on a split screen. The keyword-searchable CD enables your team to quickly jump to key sections in the deposition and create standalone clips of the deposition to present during the trial. You can also import the synchronized video into other litigation software, including CaseMap, Summation, LiveNote, RealLegal Binder, Sanction, TrialDirector, and more. Use it for opening and closing arguments, impeaching witnesses, expert preparation, settlement videos, or PowerPoint presentations. VideoSynching.com supports Windows PCs. The service costs $70 per tape plus an additional $30 for digitization if necessary and $12 for shipping. VideoSynching.com provides toll-free tech support as well. Learn more about VideoSynching.com.

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.

A few months ago, we took some flack among bloggers (despite being bloggers ourselves) for publishing a TechnoFeature article entitled A Contrarian View of Legal Blogs.

Now comes a Forbes cover story entitled Attack of the Blogs that has generated a storm of controversy. The article discusses bloggers who try to sabotage companies, products, and people.

Fine, but just as many if not more bloggers also praise companies, products, and people without disclosing their financial ties in the same — an equally serious problem.

Transparency is always the best policy. That's what we aim for here in TechnoLawyer. Shills sometimes elude our "doesn't smell right" detectors, but we squelch most such attempts.

When it comes to blogs, no one can screen them for you so keep this advice in mind — if you cannot ascertain the identity of the blogger, don't trust what you read without corroboration from a trusted source. Common sense goes a long way whether you're reading a blog, newsletter, newspaper, prospectus, etc.

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.

About 100 legal vendors recently participated in a survey of ours. In one of the questions, we asked them to rank TechnoLawyer and 4 other legal technology publications with regard to power and influence. Although Law Technology News received a few more first place votes than TechnoLawyer, we ended up with a higher overall rank. This got me to thinking — if we're now the first or second most influential legal technology publication, why is it that Microsoft never reaches out to us as it does to Law Technology News?

Sure enough, a few days later, I received a call from Weber Shandwick, Microsoft's public relations firm. From my conversation, I learned that Microsoft wants to get the word out among lawyers about OneNote, its outlining/notetaking application. During the course of our conversation, I learned some interesting information.

First and foremost, I had always assumed that OneNote works only on a Tablet PC, but in fact it works on all PCs. My assumption stemmed from the digital ink feature, but it turns out that you can use any pen-input device, not just those that come with Tablet PCs. You can also use OneNote without digital ink.

I also learned some other interesting tidbits. With OneNote, you can start by just entering freeform ideas, and then later convert those ideas into an outline within OneNote or into any other Office document (Word document, PowerPoint presentation, etc.). Also, OneNote accommodates real-time collaboration through simple file sharing (or via SharePoint). And OneNote supports drag and drop from other applications, such as your browser. Thus, you could use it to organize legal research.

Finally, David Allen fans will like the fact that you can designate items in your OneNote documents to show up as tasks in Outlook. Well, I guess public relations works. OneNote sells for $99. Learn more.

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 7, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens reviews must-have plug-ins for Google Desktop Search, Erik Gellatly suggests some tips for those having trouble with Hummingbird DM 5, Robert Johnson reviews a cordless headset and microphone combination by Shure (especially for voice recognition), Douglas Gibran offers electronic discovery advice when confronted with GroupWise e-mail, and Gibson Gahan discusses the ethics (and legality) of using an open WiFi network for Internet access. 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 4, 2005 to Fat Friday: John Hall pens a little pep rally for Amicus Attorney users, Charles Awalt vents about the three most prominent problems with technology today, Lester Proctor discusses how he used a three-monitor setup as a solo practitioner (Lester passed away shortly after contributing this Post), Rick Crowsey follows-up on a previous Post to explain the method behind his madness of freezing his laptop hard drive, and David Caracappa reviews the Time Matters AIC Listserver. 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 3, 2005 to Answers to Questions: William Brown discuss how to create a variety of different PDF files (everything from letterhead to discovery documents), Frank Roberts reviews Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0, Tom Trigg reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking and essential add-ons, Tara Harwood reviews a free remote access tool, and Helen Cordell reviews an inexpensive alternative to Windows Explorer for document management. 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 2, 2005 to TechnoLawyer NewsWire: In this issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about a service that synchronizes deposition videos with their accompanying transcripts, software that efficiently handles metadata and document security issues, a handy device that routes your calls over your landline or broadband connection depending on the circumstances, an e-mail backup service that kicks in when your mail server kicks the bucket, and an amazing gadget that scans text and translates it into the language of your choice.

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 November 2, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Clayton Straughan reviews his experience using PCLaw for trust accounting and P&L reports (he has used PCLaw for 18 years), Jon Kurtz reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking plus add-ons to make it work effectively, Martin Dean serves up some thoughts regarding online legal data storage, Josh Stockwell reviews a free alternative to Google Desktop Search, and Steven Kaplan also reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking and how it helped put the "tech" back in TechnoLawyer for him. 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.