ABA TECHSHOW.blog

Is There a Tablet War? (Or has Apple taken control of the Tablet / Pad Market?)

Marc Matheny — Monday, 6 February 2012 08:00:00 GMT

I recently joined the iPad revolution, and have been thoroughly infatuated with my iPad2 since I started using it. Not a day goes by that I'm not looking for some new use for my iPad. I was reading a history book on early 20th Century Europe on my reader. Then, I began to wonder, is this an iPad revolution, or has Apple stormed the gates and taken control of the palace, so to speak.

Five Tips for Starting Your Own Blog

Bob Ambrogi — Thursday, 12 January 2012 08:00:00 GMT

If you're planning to launch a blog, you can take either of two routes to get there. One is to pay someone to start it for you. The other is to be a skinflint like me and do it yourself. The do-it-yourself route is surprisingly easy and can result in a blog every bit as professional as the toll route.

Five Tips for Starting Your Own Blog

Bob Ambrogi — Thursday, 12 January 2012 08:00:00 GMT

2012: The Year of the 7 Inch Tablet?

Robert Ambrogi — Thursday, 29 December 2011 08:00:00 GMT

If 2011 was the year tablet computing gained wide acceptance among legal professionals, will 2012 be the year we downsize our tablets to 7 inches?

Can I Really Collaborate From Anywhere Without Paying a Fortune?

Donna Neff — Tuesday, 20 December 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Yes! You can collaborate from anywhere there's an internet connection, if you have a laptop and some basic, free or low-cost software tools.

A Simple Trick to Improve Your Search Rankings

Robert Ambrogi — Friday, 16 December 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Your browser knows what text to display there because of a hidden bit of text contained within the Web page called a title tag. It is part of the HTML coding of every Web page.

How to Become an ABA TECHSHOW Junkie

Natalie Kelly — Wednesday, 14 December 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Why in the world, especially this day and age of reality television touting help for the impaired, would a person want to develop an addiction? Simple. It's an addiction that's good for you and your law practice.

Don't Ask Me How Your Blog is Doing

Robert Ambrogi — Wednesday, 7 December 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Not long ago, the managing partner of a law firm asked me how I thought his firm's blog was doing. This struck me as an odd question. After all, wouldn't he know this better than I? So I put the question back to him.

Email Marketing

Erik Mazzone and Lee Rosen — Monsday, 5 December 2011 08:00:00 GMT

My brother-in-law, who is smarter than me and has an MBA from a fancy school to prove it, has a dream. (Brace yourself, this is not one of those altruistic social good dreams, as I said, he has an MBA.) His dream is about living life funded by passive income.

Evernote for Project Management

Erik Mazzone — Wednesday, 30 November 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I've been an Evernote premium user for a couple of years now. I've loved Evernote since I first started messing around with it and month over month, year over year it just continues to improve.

ABA TECHSHOW Has Changed the Way I Run My Office

Marc W. Matheny — Monday, 28 November 2011 08:00:00 GMT

I am a solo attorney in an office sharing arrangement with several other attorneys. When my secretary of many years left to join a big firm for lots of money, I was left in a lurch, "buying time" from the other attorneys in our group for their secretarial time, which always left me on the short end of time and availability in the office. At my first ABA TECHSHOW I discovered the technological answer to my problems – digital dictation!

Creating Your Preferred Future with ABA TECHSHOW 2012

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Since it began over 25 years ago, ABA TECHSHOW has always been about bringing lawyers and technology together. But now--more than ever-- it is about creating your preferred future.

It's Already Time for ABA TECHSHOW 2012!

Monday, 09 May 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Believe it or not, planning for ABA TECHSHOW 2012 begins later this week. The ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board will meet for two full days to review the evaluations provided by 2011 attendees and begin the process of crafting the 2012 edition of our profession's premier technology conference.

Farewell, Reflect and Challenge Yourself … from ABA TECHSHOW 2011 Chair, Paul Unger

Friday, 22 Apr 2011 14:00:00 GMT

It's hard to believe that the ABA TECHSHOW 2011 is over. The energy and buzz this year was AMAZING!! As we all return to our "normal" lives, I can't help but continue to reflect on the amazing four days of CLE and celebration. I have always believed that ABA TECHSHOW is truly the home of innovation when it comes to legal technology.

Silver in the Windy City – ABA TECHSHOW Turns 25

Thursday, 7 Apr 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Next week marks the 25th Birthday/Silver Anniversary of the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago which runs from April 11- April 13 at the Chicago Hilton. TECHSHOW (www.techshow.com) is sponsored by the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management (LPM) section. Having gone to the show for about the past 10 years, I have to say this particular event is always one of the highlights of my year. Read the complete article at www.legalitprofessionals.com/Christy-Burke/silver-in-the-windy-city-aba-techshow-turns-25-next-week.html

Love Your Blackberry? Out of the Office Often?

Thursday, 7 Apr 2011 16:00:00 GMT

More and more, attorneys are being asked to take their practices out of the traditional bricks and mortar law office. In this new era, mobility is the name of the game. Let Dan Pinnington (PracticePro) and I show you how to stay ahead of the game by downloading a few choice apps to transform your BlackBerry into a well-equipped office-to-go. Join us on April 13, 2011 at the 25th anniversary edition of the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago as we explore all things BlackBerry in our Blackberry Love session. Here are some apps you will want to add to your mobile lawyer toolkit: * Blacktrack: This low-cost app provides time-tracking ability while on the go. The software provides reports (daily, weekly and/or monthly) of your time-spent (phone, email, SMS, etc.) with optional notes thus enabling you to reduce your lost time and recover costs. * Beam Explorer: This free file management solution offers convenient and intuitive access to the content on your BlackBerry. This must-have app works much like Windows Explorer and includes features such as multiple file selection (shift + scroll the trackball to select contiguous files; Alt + press trackball to select multiple individual files which are not contiguous). * PDF Scanner: Melon Mobile (www.melonmobile.com) offers a PDF scanner for the Blackberry. It offers an array of features including BlackBerry camera image conversion to PDF and the ability to e-mail PDF files straight from the app. * Repligo Reader: This app is dedicated to all things PDF and can be compared to Adobe Reader. It opens and displays PDF files natively and provides high quality viewing of PDF files and attachments on your BlackBerry. To explore these and other exciting BlackBerry apps that you won't want to live without and to learn tips and tricks to take your BlackBerry to the next level, plan to attend our Blackberry Love on Wednesday, April 13 2011 at the ABA TECHSHOW. Donna Neff, Neff Law Office Professional Corporation, Ottawa, Canada

"Safe Flying in the Clouds" – Lawyers, Ethics, and Cloud Computing

Thursday, 7 Apr 2011 9:00:00 GMT

One of the primary goals of the ABA TECHSHOW is to answer the top technology questions that lawyers are asking. And one of hottest questions today is if lawyers can safely and ethically use cloud-based services in their practice. That question will be addressed next week at the 2011 ABA TECHSHOW in a session entitled "Safe Flying in the Clouds" presented by Sharon Nelson [http://www.senseient.com/about/corporate_officers.asp], Brett Burney [http://www.burneyconsultants.com], and Dan Siegal [http://www.danieljsiegel.com/]. While the general business and consumer worlds have embraced the "cloud," legal professionals have understandably been hesitant because of the ethical obligations entrusted to us by clients. But what are the real risks? Are lawyers legitimately fearful that data will be compromised? Does the "cloud" pose more risk for confidential client information than paper stored in a filing cabinet? Erik Mazzone provides an excellent perspective on the "fear of flying" [http://www.lawpracticematters.com/blog/2011/3/31/assessing-risk-and-the-fear-of-flying.html] on his Law Practice Matters blog. Erik advocates seeking a balance between speculative fear and tangible practicality. Brett, Sharon, and Dan will be discussing the pros and cons of cloud services, followed by a survey of the existing (and proposed) ethics opinions on the topic so far. They will also discuss the recent comments [http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/2011_build/ethics_2020/20110124.pdf] on the topic sent to the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20. If you have questions about practicing in the cloud, don't miss this important session at the ABA TECHSHOW next week.

Tweet about ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago!

Wednesday, 6 Apr 2011 9:00:00 GMT

We invite you to "Tweet" about ABA TECHSHOW. Why? To stay informed about what is going on, networking opportunities, social events, etc. Conference organizers, speakers, and attendees will be tweeting this year's conference – and we want you to join us. Here's how: * On Twitter, type in your thoughts on the conference – experiences you enjoyed, information you learned, new people you've met, … anything. * At the end of your tweet, type in #ABATECHSHOW – that's our hash tag. * If you want to see all the tweets about the conference, do a search on Twitter for #ABATECHSHOW and they'll all come up. You can even start tweeting about it now (I have). To see what's been tweeted already just go to www.twitter.com and do a search for #ABATECHSHOW.

Keynoter, Professor Larry Lessig, to Sign Books at ABA TECHSHOW 2011

Tuesday, 5 Apr 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Following his keynote address, Code Is Law, on Monday, April 11 at the Hilton Chicago, we are very excited to announce that Larry Lessig will be available for a book signing at the ABA Law Practice Management Section Booth in the ABA TECHSHOW EXPO Hall, #200, from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. His book entitled, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, examines the blurring lines of copyright law in a digital age and will be available for purchase throughout the conference. Larry Lessig is the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He has devoted much of his career to issues of law and technology and has become a nationally recognized speaker with appearances on numerous news programs, including The Colbert Report.

Never Eat Lunch Alone

Monday, 4 Apr 2011 9:00:00 GMT

That’s the sage advice from Keith Ferrazzi, the nationally-known expert on networking and business relationship building. You already know that ABA TECHSHOW features more than 60 legal technology sessions taught by expert speakers from across the country and around the world that will cover everything from where to begin with cloud computing to tips and tricks for accounting and billing. What you might not have known is that in addition to all these sessions, on Monday, April 11, 2011, there will also be a line-up of lunch and learn sessions. Here are a few: * LexisNexis * Amicus Premium Billing * HP Professional Innovations * Westlaw Solutions When you are at ABA TECHSHOW – take Keith’s advice and join some colleagues for one of these great lunch and learn sessions.

Would You Describe Your Document Creation Skills as Basic at Best?

Wednesday, 30 Mar 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Do you know what your word processing software can really do? Don’t settle for mediocrity and low productivity. Join Laura Calloway (Practice Management Assistance Program, Alabama State Bar Association) and I on Monday morning, April 11 2011 at the 25th anniversary edition of the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago as we help you ‘jumpstart’ your skills to the next level. Word processing software isn’t just for typing - become a master of your software and take advantage of the powerful features it offers like document assembly. Take the time to learn this essential skill and increase your productivity dramatically. In every practice area, there are numerous documents that are produced on a regular, possibly even daily, basis. Examine your practice and determine what documents should be automated. The ones to target first are those that you and your staff produce most often. Review each document and determine what information changes each time you produce it (date, client name, and so on). Each piece of changeable information is referred to in document assembly language as a ‘variable’. Develop a list of common variables that occur in many of your documents so that you can create a plan to determine the common variables and interrelationship of the documents with each other . This will help when determining the collection of variable information that you will ultimately require and the order of that collection. The next step is to determine which document assembly tool will meet your needs. Word processing software (Word and WordPerfect) include some basic document assembly functions such as auto-text, quick parts, macros and similar features. These can be used to provide some basic document assembly and are worth taking the time to explore. However, for serious document assembly, you’ll need to look at products such as HotDocs or Pythagoras which provide functionality beyond what a word processor can do. To learn more about this topic and other essential technology skills for attorneys, plan to attend ‘Jumpstart Technology: Skills Every Attorney Should Possess’ on Monday, April 11, 2011 at the ABA TECHSHOW. Donna Neff, Neff Law Office Professional Corporation, Ottawa, Canada

Feel Like You’re Stuck in a Technological Rut?

Monday, 28 Mar 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Presenters Laura Calloway and Donna Neff will inspire you to ‘jumpstart’ your technological skills to new and exciting levels. They will explore seven key areas of legal technology critical to every law practice including document creation and management, practice management, mobility, and virtual offices. These technology enthusiasts will describe some of the capabilities of the hardware and software that you may already own and then explore some of the latest technology must-haves to get you out of your rut. Mark your calendars and plan to attend ‘Jumpstart Technology: Skills Every Attorney Should Possess’ on Monday, April 11 at 8:30am. Would you describe your document creation skills as basic at best? Don’t settle for mediocrity. Let presenters Laura Calloway and Donna Neff inspire you to ‘jumpstart’ your skills to the next level. Don’t use your word processing software just for typing - become a master of your software and take advantage of the myriad features it offers. You will then be ready to pre-fab your documents and explore the exciting world of document assembly. To learn more about this topic and other essential technology skills for attorneys, plan to attend ‘Jumpstart Technology: Skills Every Attorney Should Possess’ on Monday, April 11 at 8:30am.

25 Years of Legal Technology in 25 Minutes at the Silver Jubilee Reception

Tuesday, 22 Mar 2011 9:00:00 GMT

If you’re like me, then you enjoy laughing at your past. I can still remember my first cell phone that resembled a gold block and used only for emergencies or the two dozen floppy disks that stored my important files. Now, I text more than talk and store my life on one flash drive. Oh, how times have changed! The registrants of ABA TECHSHOW are invited to attend the 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Reception on Monday, April 11 starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Chicago. This is a great opportunity to enjoy refreshments and network with others from across North America. The Jubilee will also feature 25 Years of Legal Technology in 25 Minutes, a fun and interesting retrospective of technology in the legal profession and ABA TECHSHOW. Several former ABA TECHSHOW Chairs and expert legal technologists will share their perspectives on the past and future of legal technology. As an added bonus, visit the ABA TECHSHOW museum during the jubilee to play with computers and gadgets that were once leading edge technology. You won’t want to miss the fun! The special multimedia presentation 25 Years of Legal Technology in 25 Minutes will be led by Simon Chester, Chair of the 1991 edition of ABA TECHSHOW, with panelists Storm Evans (13-time ABA TECHSHOW presenter), Jim Calloway, Chair 2005, and Phil Shuey, Chair in 1990-1991 and Co-Chair in 1992, 1995 and 1997.

Maximizing Popular Applications for Legal & ABA TECHSHOW 2011 Preview

Tuesday, 8 Mar 2011 9:00:00 GMT

How important is it for lawyers to stay on top of technological developments? Very. On the Legal ToolKit, host Jared Correia, Law Practice Management Advisor with Mass. LOMAP, welcomes Paul J. Unger, an attorney and partner with Affinity Consulting Group and the Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2011, to talk about how attorneys can get the most out of some popular computer applications and to do a quick preview of the upcoming ABA TECHSHOW 2011. Legal ToolKit is brought to you by Catuogno Court Reporting.

The Digital Edge - ABA TECHSHOW, 25th Anniversary

Thursday, 3 Mar 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Join two past Chairs of ABA TECHSHOW, Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson, as they welcome Paul Unger, Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2011 for a preview of the exciting 25th anniversary of bringing lawyers and technology together. Get the inside scoop from three insiders as they talk about all the exciting highlights and why every attorney can benefit from this conference.

iPad for Lawyers

Tuesday, 1 Mar 2011 9:00:00 GMT

People are absolutely crazed about iPads!! And for good reason…consumers purchased hundreds of thousands of iPads in 2010. A large number of those consumers were business users, including lawyers. The best learning resource for lawyers who use iPads is attending legal technology conferences. I discovered this while attending and watching my esteemed colleague, Brett Burney, present at the Ohio State Bar Association Solo and Small Firm Technology Conference in December of last year. I learned a ton not only from the seminars, but also by talking to dozens and dozens (and potentially hundreds) of other iPad users to get their tips, tricks and apps. Perhaps the best opportunity this year to learn about using the iPad in a legal environment will be at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago April 11th through 13th. It is the 25th year anniversary of ABA TECHSHOW, so it is going to be a big year!! I am the chair, so admittedly, I am a bit biased. Nonetheless, we are going to have a great deal of iPad and iPhone content that you will love. Here are just ways you can learn about the iPad at ABA TECHSHOW: * The substantive sessions: * 60 iPhone and iPad Tips in 60 Minutes * Meet the Author - iPad for Lawyers in One Hour * Slate Shootout * Smartphone Shootout * Taste of ABA TECHSHOW dinner, which is a Dutch style dinner at a local Chicago restaurant with approximately 10 other attendees that you can sign up for (first-come, first serve) that is dedicated to iPad. It is a perfect forum t* exchange notes with other users. * Conference Concierge Desk is a highly interactive "Ask the Doctor" style area setup in the heart all the action at ABA TECHSHOW that will be staffed with speakers during all hours of the conference. This is another opportunity to talk to iPad experts. * Tom Mighell, is the author of iPad for Lawyers in One Hour, and will be speaking on the iPad. He is also expected to debut his new book at ABA TECHSHOW. The early bird deadline for ABA TECHSHOW was February 25th, but is being extended until this Friday, March 4th.

Do You Have the Skills to Make the Best Use of Your Technology?

Tuesday, 22 Feb 2011 9:00:00 GMT

It happens to all of us. We get comfortable with the technology that we are currently using and, although we know there are features we’re not using or upgrades we should be considering, we’re so busy – keeping up with the ever changing law, dealing with clients, and getting the work done by deadline – that we just don’t feel like we can afford to also devote time and energy to fully exploring the hardware or software in which we’ve invested. And, so, we don’t. It’s so much easier to stay within our technological “comfort zone” although we may recognize at some level that we’re not making the best possible use of our investment. Unfortunately, we can’t continue in this way if we want to remain in the forefront of our profession, or even simply keep up with the rest of the heard. Technology is changing at a lightening pace. Our clients expect us to communicate with them in the ways they prefer and, just as the costs for many other things continues to fall, they expect us to make the best possible use of available technology to provide them quality legal services, more quickly and at a lower price. We simply cannot do this if we don’t understand the tools that are available to us, and how to best utilize them. And, if we don’t the competition very likely will. Join Laura Calloway and Donna Neff at our TECHSHOW 2011 session, “JumpStart Technology: Skills Every Attorney Should Possess” as we explore key features of technology that you may already own and explore some of the latest technology must-haves that can help you move out of your comfort zone with ease and confidence – to jumpstart your technology skills to speak. We know the pay-off will be well worth the investment of both time and money. We will explore seven key areas of legal technology which we think are critical to every law practice: * document creation * document management * practice management * spreadsheets * digital dictation * mobility * virtual office See you in Chicago at TECHSHOW 2011!

Here is a Great Recording Device Tip

Wednesday, 16 Feb 2011 9:00:00 GMT

I recently discovered a fantastic portable microphone that has significantly increased audio quality when talking online via Skype, recording lectures, meetings, etc. via OneNote, or dictating for voice recognition software. The product is Go Mic by Samson. It is USB powered and has fantastic features that are typically found in pro-level devices such as wind screens on both sides, a nice heavy rotating stand, small carrying case, 3.5 mm headphone output and Cakewalk Pyro LE software. There is also a switch that allows you to pick whichever pattern is more appropriate for your specific situation. Use the tightly focused cardioid pickup pattern when recording a podcast, acoustic guitar or vocals. Alternatively, use the omnidirectional pattern to capture the entire room such as webcasting with a group or conducting an online meeting with multiple people. Learn more about online meeting technology with speakers Natalie Kelly and Bruce Olsen, and voice recognition software with speakers Britt Lorish and Nerino Petro at the 25th Year Anniversary of ABA TECHSHOW, April 11 – 13 in Chicago, IL. Visit www.techshow.com.

“Mind Mapping” a Productivity Enhancer for Your Firm

Thursday, 10 Feb 2011 9:00:00 GMT

How can mind mapping fit into your practice? If you are not familiar with the concept of mind mapping, it is a productivity enhancing method of managing one’s thoughts, tasks and projects. This year’s 2011 ABA TECHSHOW will feature a “Mind Mapping” demonstrative session with speakers Britt Lorish and Richard Serpe. Join this session Tue. April 12th 2011 at 3:15 p.m. and see how to implement the critical method of organizing ideas, tasks and activities in a visual manner that allows you to see the big picture as well as the details. Learn how you can manage your tasks and projects faster and more effectively with the full integration of your Outlook calendar, tasks, and e-mail. This year’s session on mind mapping will prove to be a productivity enhancer for your firm with a minimal investment of time and money.

Right to an Attorney...or an Attorney with an iPad?

Thursday, 3 Feb 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Whenever I think about new technology in the courtroom, I always wonder what that technology would have been like in a famous trial. When I think of famous trials, I always think of the Clarence Gideon trial (Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) 372 U.S. 335), which expanded our Constitutional right to an attorney in a criminal matter. What if Mr. Gideon’s attorney, Fred Turner, had an iPad?! It’s a bit odd to think about, especially since most of the TV world was still black and white in 1963, but in the year 2011, it is a reality. I just finished reviewing some of the latest and greatest trial presentation tools, and I have to admit that after a few years of things being a bit stagnant, I am excited about what is hitting the legal market this year. The first thing that I am impressed with is Sanction (www.sanction.com) and Trial Director (www.indata.com), the two competing giants in the trial presentation world. For a decade now, these two have gone toe to toe in this market. You have to love competition! If it weren’t for these two products, technology in the courtroom would be years behind what it is. The new interface and presentation effects are fantastic. The second area that I am impressed with is the rapid emergence of tablet computing, which is a very hot topic at ABA TECHSHOW this year (www.techshow.com). Somewhat to my surprise, tablet/mobile computing has surfaced in the trial presentation world. That’s right, … there is an App for nearly everything, including one for trial presentation. It is called TrialPad (http://www.trialpad.com/). Being a bit of a trial presentation snob, I admittedly was skeptical about this. However, after trying it out, I found it to be pretty good. TrialPad imports PDFs from a folder structure stored in Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com/). This allows you to organize exhibits on your computer and import multiple files into TrialPad, keeping the folder structure intact. Files can also be imported from email, GoodReader, and obviously iTunes. Using a VGA adapter that I bought at the local Apple store, I was able to hook up my iPad to a projector and display documents. I did experience a little quirkiness with the video from time to time, but nothing I couldn’t navigate through. Cons: (1) no video support yet and (2) knowing there are many flavors of PDFs (not all PDFs are created equal), I would be sure to give it a good test with your exhibits ahead of time. In conclusion, while the iPad wasn’t really designed for this type of application, that can be said about many technologies and developments. The reality is that the iPad can be used for small hearings and cases, and at a minimum, TrialPad and the iPad could be used as a “paperless file” for the countless pre-trial and motion hearings that we have day in and day out … unlike all the trials that settle or get continued.

Getting the Most From Speech Recognition Software

Tuesday, 1 Feb 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Are you a fan of speech recognition software and want to take your usage of it to the next level? Prior ABA TECHSHOWs have introduced you to this amazing technology, but this year’s session on “Getting the Most from Speech Recognition Software” will explore more advanced features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and similar products. Kicking off the Small Firm/Solo track on Monday, April 11, 2011, at 8:30 a.m. speakers Britt Lorish and Nerino Petro will present a demonstrative session on how to use more than just the basics. Learn how to setup time saving custom commands that act like “voice macros” for commonly used tasks. See how you can use Dragon not just for dictating, but actually full navigation of your PC, including instant web searches. Discover how products like Dragon can be used in specialty software such as time & billing, and practice management applications. The truth is that most users only harness 10% or less of a software product’s capabilities. Increase your percentages by attending this and other great sessions at ABA TECHSHOW 2011. Register today at www.techshow.com/register.

Google Tools for Lawyers

Friday, 28 Jan 2011 9:00:00 GMT

Google continues to develop a wide array of productivity tools that go beyond its famous search functionality--almost all of these are free to users. From news alerts to language translators, from word processing to marketing tools, knowing where to find these tools and how to use them can help you more efficiently and effectively deliver legal services to your clients. Our Google experts, Mark Rosch (www.netforlawyers.com) and Dan Pinnington, showcased the best Google tools available for lawyers and what you need to know to practice safely and profitably when using them! Register at www.techshow.com/register | Download the paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2011_Google_Tools_for_Lawyers.pdf)

Voice Over Internet For the Solo and Small Firm Practitioner

Wednesday, 25 Jan 2011 9:00:00 GMT

For years, only clients of large firms benefitted from VoIP technology. However, VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Phone Systems are not just for large law firms. There are many affordable systems available for the small law office. VoIP Phone systems, cell phones, voice mail, and software like Skype and Google Voice create a converging host of opportunities to improve your practice performance, profitability, and the service to your clients while unifying communications. VoIP experts Nerino Petro (http://www.compujurist.com) and Lincoln Mead detailed how VoIP systems can save you money and improve your workflow through integration with existing software such as billing and practice management systems and MS Outlook.

Google’s Free Online Apps and What You Need to Know About 11.1

Tuesday, 25 Jan 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Every week I get asked by attorneys what I think about using Google’s free online Apps software to run their practice. My response is: “11.1”. They stare at me blankly so elaborate. ”Have you read their terms of service, particularly section 11.1?” Of course they haven’t. Let’s read it together: 11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services. You give Google a perpetual, irrevocable…license to reproduce…publish…publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit? Any lawyers in the room really want to agree to that? Next question.

Introduction to "Cloud" Computing

Friday, 21 Jan 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Cloud computing has emerged as a force in the technology marketplace, but few lawyers really know what it is or how it can impact the delivery of legal services to clients. In this introductory session, David Bilinsky (www.thoughtfullaw.com) and Matt Kesner walked the audience through the basics (without being too technical) and helped them understand how it differs from traditional software applications, what types of tools are offered via cloud computing, and well as the advantages and disadvantages of using the cloud to serve your clients. Today, popular cloud tools include on-line back-ups, document processing, and virtual meetings, but how safe and reliable is this new delivery method? Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2010_Introduction_to_Cloud_Computing.pdf).

Document Management on a Dime

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Do you want to take your office paperless but don't want or can't afford an expensive DMS solution? In this session, Reid Trautz and Donna Neff explored low-cost options for organizing your Windows folder structure, how to name, store, scan, search and retrieve your client files, emails, firm documents and more. They discussed how to make use of what you already own and about the low-cost and/or free powerful software that is available on the market today that will help you get your arms around out-of-control email inboxes and overflowing paper to create a customized DMS system that works the way you do! Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2010_Document_Management_on_a_Dime.pdf).

Appy New Year!

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

By now, we’ve all grown accustomed to the world of “apps” -- those small software programs that turn our iPhones and mobile devices from fun gadgets into productivity-enhancing machines (or, depending on the apps you choose, really fun gadgets). No longer satisfied with being confined to the tiny screens of our mobile devices, in 2011 apps are making a break for the big time -- your computer. Users of Google’s Chrome web browser (and if you are not using Chrome, you should give it a look-see) now have access to the Chrome Web Store -- a place they can go to install apps that run right in the web browser. Most users of modern web browsers have been accustomed to personalizing their web browsers with themes and extensions for some time, but the emergence of browser apps signals a sea change in how we will use our browsers and buy our software going forward. If you haven’t yet had a chance to check out Chrome apps, make some time to do so. I’ll be presenting on this and other browser tips and tricks with Jim Calloway at ABA TECHSHOW this year. If you’ve never been (or if it’s been a while since you attended), register at www.techshow.com/register and come on out for the conference. Hope to see you there!

New ABA TECHSHOW anniversary video now online

Tuesday, 18 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

The team of ABA TECHSHOW produced a video, which is a fun take on the past 25 years of technology. Available at www.techshow.com, this brief and comical video features the current Chair, past Chairs, faculty members and attendees alike in a montage sure to get you geared up for ABA TECHSHOW 2011, taking place April 11-13. If you haven't already, be sure to register at www.techshow.com/register to take advantage of the early-bird pricing -- expiring in February.

E-Discovery in Small Cases

Thursday, 13 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

As E-Discovery expands into more areas of litigation, counsel's responsibility to identify, process, and produce electronically stored information (ESI) even in smaller cases looms large. Knowing the requirements and basic techniques of E-Discovery could mean the difference between winning your client's case or facing a malpractice action for botched E-Discovery! This session featured Bruce Olson (www.onlawtec.com), Tom O'Connor (www.gulfltc.org), and The Honorable Judge David J. Waxse of Kansas who covered practical and productive E-Discovery strategies for smaller-scale cases. Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2010_E-Discovery_in_Small_Cases.pdf).

Using Technology for Settlement and Decision Making

Wednesday, 12 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

How can technology support settlement, mediation, and other litigation-related decision-making contexts? In this session, David Sparks (www.macsparky.com) and Mark Lauritsen (www.capstonepractice.com) discussed custom negotiation spreadsheets, emerging online dispute resolution techniques, risk analysis software, and related technologies, and showed how presentation software and related media can be used to further and enhance your settlement opportunities. This session provided clear proof that Information systems can help both lawyers and clients make better choices. Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2010_Using_Technology_for_Settlement_and_Decision_Making.pdf).

Call for Nominations

Friday, 07 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

The ABA Law Practice Management Section is asking for nominations for the James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering, to be presented at ABA TECHSHOW 2011. There are exciting initiatives underway now that deserve attention by all lawyers – present and future. While admittedly just a subset of the vast legal technology world, eLawyering and its lawyer-less analogs present fundamental challenges for our profession. Visit www.techshow.com/award for more information about nominating someone for the Award or to download a nomination form.

Free Enterprise-Level Protection For Your iPhone & iPad

Thursday, 06 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

If you use an iPhone or iPad in your practice, you should sign up for the FREE Find My iPhone http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/find-my-iphone.html service now available from Apple. The Find My iPhone service has been around for quite a while, but it was only available as part of the $99/year MobileMe offered by Apple. In an extraordinary move in late November, Apple announced http://www.apple.com/mobileme/news/2010/11/find-my-iphone-now-available-free-with-ipad-iphone-4-and-ipod-touch.html that the Find My iPhone service would now be free for anyone that uses an iPad, iPhone 4 or 4th generation iPod touch that runs iOS 4.2. http://www.apple.com/ios/ The Find My iPhone service allows you to locate a lost or stolen iPad or iPhone on a map by simply logging on to www.me.com/find www.me.com/find on a computer. To sign on to the service, you'll need to use your free Apple ID http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_ID, which you already have if you've purchased an app or music from iTunes. You will also need to set up a MobileMe account on each iPhone or iPad to enable the service (I've posted additional instructions http://www.macsinlaw.com/find-my-iphone-free-security/ on the Macs in Law blog). Once you locate a lost or stolen device, you can 1) make the device play an alarm and display a message, 2) remotely lock the device so that it requires a passcode, or 3) remotely "wipe" the device so that it deletes all data and restores the device to factory settings. These are security features regularly found in enterprise-grade mobile systems that require expensive servers and full-time IT professionals. Here, Apple provides the service free of charge for anyone that owns an iPad or iPhone. Any legal professional that uses an iPad or iPhone should sign up for this service immediately. It's another layer of protection for the gobs of confidential and personal information that we all carry around with us on these devices. Even more, Apple also now offers a free Find My iPhone App http://itunes.apple.com/app/find-my-iphone/id376101648 for the iPhone and iPad which you can use to locate other iPhones and iPads. So, for example, if you have multiple iPhones in the family, make sure you download and install the free App for each device so that you can use one device to find another when necessary.

Complete ABA TECHSHOW 2011 Schedule Now Available

Wednesday, 05 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

The complete ABA TECHSHOW 2011 schedule is now available at www.techshow.com/schedule. This year's conference and EXPO will feature exciting and relevant new tracks such as Emerging Technology and two tracks dedicated entirely to SmartPhones/Mobility. Plus, ABA TECHSHOW will again offer popular tracks including Mac, Paperless, and Meet the Author/Face-to-Face. To lead the must-attend sessions of each track, ABA TECHSHOW is pleased to welcome faculty members -- both new and returning speakers alike -- who are all experts in their fields. Check out the full schedule at www.techshow.com/schedule, and register today (http://www.techshow.com/register) to get the best pricing for ABA TECHSHOW 2011!

For the Love of BlackBerries

Tuesday, 04 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Are you completely and utterly in love with your BlackBerry and can’t imagine your life without it? Don’t worry, you are not alone. At this year’s ABA TECHSHOW, April 11-13, 2011, speakers Dan Pinnington and Donna Neff will present an exciting session celebrating all things BlackBerry. Whether you have just begun your love affair with BlackBerry or have already made a long-term commitment, this session will have something to offer everyone. Did you know . . . That BlackBerry accounts for nearly 15% of worldwide smartphone sales; Webster's New World College Dictionary named "crackberry" the "New Word of the Year for 2006"; and, Marketing experts have estimated President Obama’s avid use of a Blackberry or "celebrity endorsement" to be worth between $25 and $50 million. For all the latest Blackberry ‘tips and tricks’, this will be a session you won’t want to miss!! Register today at www.techshow.com/register.

Digital Workflow: Developing the Paperless Habit

Thursday, 30 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Transitioning to a paperless office involves more than just scanning incoming documents; it requires a strategic approach and sustained commitment. You need to develop good 'digital habits' to insure that the transition to a paperless workflow is successful. In this session, Ernie Svenson (www.pdfforlawyers.com) and Nerino Petro (www.compujurist.com) offered practical practical approaches to scanning, digital file organization, digital workflow, elimination of unnecessary printing (e.g. electronic faxing and use of digital signatures), and discussed electronic document review, bates numbering and more. Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2010_Digital_Workflow_Developing_the_Paperless_Habit.pdf).

Running Windows on a Mac

Tuesday, 28 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Most Mac-using lawyers will boldly proclaim that Mac is superior to Windows, but there are many situations where they will still need to use Windows for one reason or another. For example, there may be a piece of software important to their practice that only runs on Windows. The great news is that today's Macs can run Windows too! In this session, Brett Burney (www.macsinlaw.com) and Dave Bilinsky (www.thoughtfullaw.com) explored the options available for for running Windows on a Mac (Boot Camp, VMware Fusion, Parallels, etc.) and the best tips for juggling both operating systems. Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2010_Running_Windows_on_a_Mac.pdf).

Document Management Software: The Electronic File Butler for the Law

Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Once you convert your paper to electronic format, what do you do with it? In this session, Richard Serpe (http://www.serpefirm.com/) and Steve Best (http://affinityconsulting.com/) discussed how the major legal DMS vendors (Worldox, NetDocuments, Autonomy, and OpenText) could help your law office streamline your paperless efforts and workflow to deliver efficient and high quality legal services to your clients. Richard and Steve walked through the major DMS software choices, including Software as a Service (Saas) solutions and how these technologies can help manage out-of-control email in-boxes, documents, PDFs, multi-media files and discovery. They also discussed how DMS helps manage security, versions and document relationships. Learn more about managing your documents at the upcoming ABA TECHSHOW 2011 on April 11-13, 2011. Registration details (www.techshow.com/register). View paper (http://new.abanet.org/calendar/TECHSHOW/Documents/bestofabatechshow/ABA_TECHSHOW_2011_Document_Management_Software_The_Electronic_File_Butler_for_the_Law_Office.pdf).

Scanning and Paper Reduction in the Law Office 101

Monday, 20 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

How do your clients like to receive information? Are paper files getting lost? Is your law office buried in paper files and you are never able to find anything? Many lawyers have considered buying a scanner, but what models and features are the best fit for a law office? What software is best to use for scanning? Should you create an OCR’d MS Word document or text-searchable PDF? How should you scan to archive closed files? Get answers to all of these questions and more from our paperless law office experts. Learn the nuts and bolts essentials to convert paper to digital.

Managing Your Online Presence: The Care and Feeding of the Online YOU

Friday, 17 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

More and more clients "meet" you online before even deciding to meet you face-to-face. In this session, Matt Homann http://thenonbillablehour.typepad.com/ and Nikki Black http://nylawblog.typepad.com/ instructed the crowd how to build and grow a sustainable online presence. A successful online presence enables potential clients to find you and existing clients to access more helpful information provided by you. Topics covered included: 1) Choosing (and using) a blog or website as your online "home base"; 2) utilizing social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to connect with clients and build your professional footprint; 3) magnifying your online presence by distributing your existing content seamlessly to multiple places online; 4) Monitoring and managing your online reputation. Managing your online presence keeps your existing clients more informed and your prospective clients more impressed. Learn much more about blogging, tweeting, and social networking at ABA TECHSHOW 2011 on April 11-13, 2011.

Document Management System to Control, Store and Find Mission Critical Data Now

Thursday, 16 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Law firms create a great deal of highly valuable content, mostly documents and accumulated data, everyday which, unfortunately, often is lost from sight upon creation and its initial use. Therefore, the long-term value of the document does not become part of the firm’s intellectual assets. To achieve the highest degree of value from the creation of these documents the firm must ensure that the documents remain easily accessible to anyone who needs it and that should be allowed to see it. For the content to remain easily accessible it must be stored in a known location, where access and changes are controlled and it must be easily found. A document management system is a system to organize your electronic files to ensure easy access to critical information. From solo to large firm, every attorney believes that they have a system in place. Some work really well and some barely work. The real test of any system is how it works when there is more than one person using the system. Systems that survive this test usually have some common features. These successful systems require compliance with a strict set of filing rules, integrates all documents, including emails, and allow users easy access to the documents from anywhere. For many small firms compliance is dependent upon each individual following a common formal or informal naming convention and filing convention. On occasion, this naming and filing convention will be supplemented by a desktop search engine. However, I find that these simple and often informal systems completely stop working when there are changes in staffing. A systemic breakdown of the document management can be prevented by implementing a document management software program which will require compliance with established rules when saving the document and the document can be found easily within the system. The upcoming ABA TECHSHOW 2011 will include excellent presentations on document management software solutions, best practices for implementation and demonstrate how firms save time and make more money using these systems.

The Lone Mac in a Windows Law Firm

Wednesday, 15 Dec 2010 12:00:00 GMT

You can be a Mac lawyer in a PC firm. This session featured Mac-using lawyers David Sparks (www.macsparky.com) and Finis Price (www.technoesq.com) discussing how they integrate their Mac-based practice into an office full of Windows computers. David and Finis discussed connecting to Microsoft Exchange and various Mac software for remote access, file sharing, calendaring, and other tools that allow them to run circles around their Windows colleagues while still seamlessly supporting their clients. Look for another full day of the "Mac Track" at ABA TECHSHOW 2011, April 11-13, 2011.

Protecting Your Clients Means Protecting…your Copy Machine?

Wednesday, 10 Nov 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Did you know that your copier could have gigabytes worth of client confidential information stored on its internal hard drive? Well, it's true … and that means that attorneys must dispose of them properly! Model Rule 1.6 imposes a duty that we act competently and take reasonable steps to protect client information and confidences; however, most companies simply turn in their copiers or sell them without taking any steps to scrub the data stored on them. The reality is that with today’s copy technology, that would be like returning file cabinets to the store – with all your files still in them! Today’s copiers are not just a one-trick pony – they can scan, fax and handle multiple jobs and guess what, they need a hard drive to accomplish all this work. A modern-day copier will first scan the image to a hard drive, and then will print copies. This means that inside your copier, a computer image has been created of every document ever copied – and if someone else accesses that hard drive, they’ve got your data. That's right … medical records, confidential papers, documents subject to protective orders, everything. In February of this year, CBS News and an investigator went to a warehouse in New Jersey to see how hard it would be to buy a used copier loaded with data left on hard drives. They selected four machines copiers based on price and the number of pages printed. In a matter of hours, the copiers were purchases, packed and loaded onto a truck for approximately $300 each. One of the machines had documents still on the copier glass from a major U.S. City’s Police Sex Crimes Division. It took 30 minutes to pull the hard drives out of the machines and then using a forensic software program available for free on the Internet, they found tens of thousands of documents. The results were frightening … documents from the sex crimes unit … detailed domestic violence complaints … a list of targets in a major drug raid … 95 pages of pay stubs with names, addresses and social security numbers … $40,000 in copied checks ... 300 pages of individual medical records, including everything from drug prescriptions, to blood test results, to a cancer diagnosis. See: http://tinyurl.com/LegalCopierSecurity So when it comes time to get rid of a copier in your office, make sure you protect yourself and your clients by considering the following steps: ·Investigate capabilities of your copier – some brands (i.e. Canon and Xerox) have protective settings that can encrypt or erase data on your machine. Talk to your copier vendor and make sure they are familiar with and setup these features. ·Before turning your leased copier back in to your vendor or otherwise disposing of it, “scrub” the hard drive. Manufacturers sell this as a service and/or it may be part of the service contract. ·Remove the hard drive and keep it with you, or find a private copier service company to scrub the hard drive and provide you written verification of the same. Ultimately, protecting your clients’ data and yourself is paramount, and your photocopiers are not excluded when it comes to data security concerns. Find an experienced copier vendor that can help you ensure that data that goes through your equipment is always under your control, even when the equipment is long gone. Paul J. Unger, Esq. is currently serving as Chair of the 2011 ABA TECHSHOW and is a founding partner of Affinity Consulting Group and HMU Consulting, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. He specializes in trial presentation & litigation technology consulting, document and case management software, paperless office strategies, and legal-specific software training.

ABA TECHSHOW Chair, Paul Unger, Announces Keynote Speaker Lawrence Lessig

Monday, 8 Nov 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I am thrilled to announce the keynote speaker for the 25th Anniversary of the ABA TECHSHOW: Lawrence Lessig is currently the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Lessig is an accomplished speaker with a unique presentation style (sometimes referred to as the "Lessig Method"). Lessig's presentations have been featured on TED and TEDx. Much of Lessig's career has focused on law and technology, especially how technology affects the institution of copyright. Lessig has been very active in the Free Software Foundation and Creative Commons. Lessig has served as lead counsel in a number of important cases marking the boundaries of copyright law in a digital age, including Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Lessig has authored several books on the intersection of law and technology, including The Future of Ideas (2001), Free Culture (2004), Code v2 (2006), Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008). Do not miss Lawrence Lessig's keynote presentation at the 25th Anniversary of the ABA TECHSHOW on Monday, April 11th, 2011.

ABA TECHSHOW 2011 Chair, Paul Unger, Announces Registration Now Open

Tuesday, 2 Nov 2010 12:00:00 GMT

We are excited to announce that ABA TECHSHOW 2011 conference and EXPO are now open for registration -- www.techshow.com/register! Celebrating its 25th anniversary of bringing lawyers and technology together, the 2011 conference and EXPO takes place April 11 - 13, at the Chicago Hilton. What can you expect at the silver anniversary? In addition to the nearly 20 educational tracks, networking possibilities, and opportunities to interact with legal technology experts from all over the country, ABA TECHSHOW is excited to welcome our keynote speaker, Larry Lessig. As the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Larry Lessig has focused much of his academic career on law and technology. His dynamic speaking style and enthusiasm is contagious. To celebrate this special year for ABA TECHSHOW, we felt Professor Lessig was the perfect choice for our keynote speaker as we reflect on the importance of technology in the legal industry. We’re thrilled to have him at ABA TECHSHOW and are sure attendees will enjoy the experience of his engaging presentation. Additionally, join us for our Welcome Reception on the evening of Sunday, April 10, and our 25th anniversary celebration reception on Monday evening, Taste of ABA TECHSHOW dinners with expert speakers, an amazing EXPO hall featuring all the latest technology, and another exciting year of Ignite Law are sure to heighten your ABA TECHSHOW experience. Be sure to register for ABA TECHSHOW 2011 now at www.techshow.com/register, and join us in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the best legal technology conference and EXPO of the year.

Farewell from ABA TECHSHOW 2010 Chair, Debbie Foster

Tuesday, 30 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

It has been an honor to serve on the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board for the last 4 years, and an even greater honor to be Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2010. Words cannot describe how grateful I am to each and every person who made the conference and EXPO such a HUGE success. To those who have had the White Ribbon - those were some awfully big shoes to fill, and I hope that each and every one of you know that the mark you left on ABA TECHSHOW was evident. ABA TECHSHOW is what it is today because of your leadership through the years. I am proud to be a Black Ribbon Holder To the Planning Board of 2010 – Paul Unger, Reid Trautz, Herbert Dixon, Ben Schorr, Browning Marean, Dominic Jaar, Britt Knuttgen and Brett Burney - you all are amazing. Truly dedicated professionals with an unmatched passion for legal technology and the drive to bring the best conference and EXPO ever to lawyers all around the world. I could not have asked for a better group of supporters and hard workers. To the LPM Staff – you are the wizards behind the curtain. Without you, the show would not go on. I am forever grateful for your words, your creativity, your design skills, your attention to detail and your organization. My hat is off to you! To our Speakers – WOW. Each year, it just gets better and better and the bar goes higher and higher. You all outdid yourselves. Our new speakers were fantastic, and really showed some dedication to making their presentations valuable. Our returning speakers hit it out of the park. The attendees were absolutely raving about how great the sessions were. Thank you is not enough. To our Exhibitors and Sponsors – Thank you for your support and for continuing to make the NEW thing. Our attendees want to see what you have to offer, and we work hard to fill that floor for you. The buzz in the EXPO Hall was palpable, and our attendees had nothing but good things to say about your participation in the show. You all make it easy to pull off a show like this. And last, but far from least, to our attendees. We do this all for you…each person involved in ABA TECHSHOW has a burning passion to see lawyers and legal professionals embrace technology, and when you come to TECHSHOW, we feel such a sense of accomplishment. Many of you approached me and emailed me to tell me about your great experience, and I cannot tell you how much that means to me, the board and the staff. At the end of ABA TECHSHOW, we want to be able to raise a glass, and say “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,” and this year, we were able to do just that. I hope that you will join us next year in Chicago to Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of ABA TECHSHOW at the Chicago Hilton, April 11th – 13th, 2011 (www.techshow.com/2011).

What you missed at TECHSHOW 2009 - don't let it happen in 2010

Tuesday, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The ABA TECHSHOW (www.techshow.com) is one of the absolute best values for legal technology education, networking, and information. If you missed TECHSHOW last year, you missed an incredible keynote and numerous educational opportunities. To get a flavor for last year's TECHSHOW, you can read my review of TECHSHOW 2009 entitled "The End of Lawyers on the Heels of Technology" (http://bit.ly/techshow2009). Some key quotes: "...[The] ABA TECHSHOW [2009] held a whiff of anxiety that wafted among the attendees and vendors. Concerns about the economy prompted fears of low turnout, but an amazing number of first-time attendees and virtuosic veterans alike made the annual trek to Chicago. ...The setting was perfect for Richard Susskind's keynote address. His remarks spoke directly to the unspoken apprehension prevalent at the conference. Most lawyers, Susskind contended, are concentrating on keeping their heads down during the current downturn, and looking forward to the day when they can "return to normal." Susskind declared, however, that this is not just a temporary "blip" in the legal landscape, but a vehicle for information technology to permanently alter the efficiencies of delivering legal services. ...To demonstrate, Susskind distinguished between automation and innovation. He stated that many of us think of automation when we consider technology in the legal profession -- the application of technology to mechanize and streamline a process that already exists. ...Susskind argued, however, that technology is better utilized when it is used for innovation. He offered the ATM as an example. One could argue that the ATM simply automated the disbursement of money, but the ATM was innovative and downright revolutionary in that customers could receive money at 2 a.m. in the morning. They had access to cold, hard cash 24 hours a day from multiple locations. While banks had always disbursed money, there was no precedent for 24 hour access. The ATM was a technological innovation that significantly transformed the banking industry. ...In 1996, Susskind boldly asserted that e-mail would become the dominant method of communication between lawyers and their clients. That statement sounds trivial today, but Susskind commented that 13 years ago he was verbally flogged by lawyers who insisted he lacked a fundamental understanding of client confidentiality and security -- no 'serious' and upstanding lawyer would ever use electronic mail to communicate with their client." For extra credit, you can also read my review (http://bit.ly/techshow2008) of ABA TECHSHOW 2008 on Law.com. Don't miss out on ABA TECHSHOW 2010 – more details at www.techshow.com.

Staying in touch before and during ABA TECHSHOW

Thursday, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

ABA TECHSHOW (www.techshow.com) has provided a number of ways for attendees and speakers to communicate before and during the conference and EXPO. One of the most popular ways is the use of Twitter. You can follow and tweet on ABA TECHSHOW’s Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/ABATECHSHOW, and you will also notice that tweets appear right on the ABA TECHSHOW Web site! Similar to last year, there will also be a large flat screen TV near the Conference Concierge desk. Tweets will be broadcast on that screen throughout ABA TECHSHOW, so you will be in the know about what other attendees are doing and thinking. Have a question or advice to other attendees and speakers? Post it on Twitter for all to see. Are you more of a Facebook or LinkedIn guru? Be sure to check out ABA TECHSHOW’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=51010033338) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1738267&trk=anetsrch_name&goback=%2Egdr_1265837826545_1) pages, too. Attendees will receive e-mail updates, each day, to help remind them of important news and events at ABA TECHSHOW. With so much to do and see at ABA TECHSHOW, these fun and easy-to-use communication channels will make sure you don’t miss the things that matter to you.

Taste of ABA TECHSHOW now available for two days

Tuesday, 09 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Due to overwhelming popularity, the Taste of ABA TECHSHOW is now available on both Thursday, March 25, and Friday, March 26, nights! Attendees can meet the speakers of ABA TECHSHOW and fellow attendees during this Dutch-treat experience. Reservations have already been made at several Chicago restaurants. Once you are at ABA TECHSHOW, simply stop by the Conference Concierge to sign up and view the list of restaurants and hosts of each dinner. Some of the great restaurants lined up include: · The Berghoff (www.berghoff.com/Berghoff/home2.html) · Catch 35 (www.catch35.com) · Rosebud on Rush (www.rosebudrestaurants.com) Join us, for one or both nights, for great food and even better conversation!

The New Big Bang: The Convergence of Technology and Marketing

Thursday, 04 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Something big has happened – new technologies are exploding in the world of marketing and communications. This year’s keynote speaker is Ari Kaplan, a lawyer and seasoned marketing and technology author. During his presentation on Thursday, March 25, Mr. Kaplan will discuss why the convergence of technology and marketing matters and how legal professionals can use these powerful new tools to bust through a cluttered and competitive marketplace. Drawing from a wide variety of social media, he will show how to develop cutting edge marketing strategies to take advantage of technology and the power of the Internet. Mr. Kaplan has practiced law with large firms in New York City for nearly 9 years and currently trains law firm administrators, legal assistants, law students/summer associates, associates and partners on the mechanics of getting published, effective communication and dynamic networking. The New York Law Journal called Mr. Kaplan’s book The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development “[a] must-have treasure box of marketing ideas.” Mr. Kaplan earned his J.D. from George Washington University Law School and his B.A. magna cum laude, from Boston University. Join us for the Keynote Address and Lunch, and be sure to visit ABA TECHSHOW’s Web site (www.techshow.com) to see all that the conference and EXPO have to offer!

Ignite your ABA TECHSHOW experience on Wednesday, March 24

Tuesday, 02 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

LexThink and InsideLegal have teamed up to host Ignite Law 2010 on the eve of ABA TECHSHOW (www.techshow.com) – Wednesday, March 24, at 7:00 p.m. If you haven’t attended an Ignite session before, you can expect a high-energy presentation in which speakers are given 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, giving each speaker 6 minutes and 40 seconds to speak. As one of the first topic-specific Ignite events, Ignite Law will ask each presenter to share his or her vision of the future of law practice during the 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame. This event is free to join and will be a great way to meet some of the speakers and attendees of ABA TECHSHOW in a fun and relaxed atmosphere before the conference and EXPO begin. To sign up, simply visit www.ignitelaw.com. Try not to burn the midnight oil so that you are sure to get a full night of sleep and are ready to tackle the first full day of ABA TECHSHOW!

ABA TECHSHOW - simply the best legal technology CLE available

Thursday, 25 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Don’t miss out on the great learning resources available to ABA TECHSHOW (www.techshow.com) attendees!. ABA TECHSHOW always showcases some of the best legal technology publications written by speakers and other experts in the profession, and this year attendees will be introduced to a record number of new books packed with the latest information on legal technology. On Thursday, March 25, a dedicated “Meet the Author” track allows ABA TECHSHOW attendees to interact directly with some of the authors featured at the conference and EXPO. One such book, The 2010 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide, is being highlighted in a brand new podcast. Click here (www.abanet.org/abastore/books/podcast/audio/2010-Solo-Small-Firm-Guide-to-Tech.mp3) to listen to the podcast with authors Sharon Nelson and John Simek, and don’t forget to register for ABA TECHSHOW to learn about all of the latest legal technology available to help you and your practice. REMINDER: ABA TECHSHOW early bird discount ends tomorrow. Save as much as $300 by registering today (www.techshow.com/register)!

Early bird deadline extended!

Tuesday, 23 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Did you miss the great savings of the ABA TECHSHOW early bird discount? There’s good news – the discount has been extended until February 26! With a full registration, you can save as much as $300. Also, the guaranteed group rate at the host hotel, Hilton Chicago, ends tomorrow (February 24). After that, you may not get the favorable rate offered exclusively to ABA TECHSHOW attendees. (Visit www.techshow.com for complete details.) What makes ABA TECHSHOW the best bang for your legal technology buck? Here are a few things: Two-day EXPO featuring over 100 vendors Face-to-face events with speakers and authors Two nights of networking at the Taste of ABA TECHSHOW Multiple discounts on LPM books Product demonstration sessions Free flash drive with program materials Be sure to register (www.techshow.com/register) today to get the best rate available, and take advantage of all ABA TECHSHOW has to offer!

Don’t just watch the PowerPoint, ask questions at ABA TECHSHOW

Thursday, 18 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

ABA TECHSHOW is simply one of the best legal technology events of the year. One of the things that makes ABA TECHSHOW such a great value to attendees is that they have the opportunity interact directly with presenters to ask the questions that matter most to their roles in the legal profession. Both Thursday, March 25, and Friday, March 26, offer tracks filled entirely with roundtable-style sessions in which attendees are encouraged engage in a dialogue with ABA TECHSHOW faculty and other attendees. “Meet the Author,” on Friday, gathers some accomplished authors to discuss the contents of their books that made them so well received by the legal profession. Get inside information from these experts that you may not find in the pages of their books. “Face-to-Face,” on Saturday, was designed as a forum to tackle some hot topics in the legal profession today. “Taking Your Law Firm Mac” and “Practical Use of SmartPhones” are just two of the sessions guaranteed to stir some great discussion. Visit www.techshow.com/schedule for complete information about these tracks. REMINDER: The early bird discount ends tomorrow. Register at www.techshow.com/register today to save!

New at ABA TECHSHOW 2010 -- Smartphones

Tuesday, 16 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Chances are you probably have a smartphone that you use to help you keep up with e-mails, appointments, and contacts. While smartphones have greatly increased the mobility and organization of 1egal professionals, often times smartphone users aren’t taking advantage of all of the features their wireless assistant has to offer. To help you get the most out of your smartphone, ABA TECHSHOW is bringing you a “SmartPhones” track devoted to two of the most popular products being used today – BlackBerries and iPhones. Join ABA TECHSHOW’s smartphone gurus on Saturday, March 27, for “iPhone Tips for Lawyers” and “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Crackberries.” Both sessions are packed with easy-to-understand information presented to help you use your device to better organize and manage your role as a legal professional. Visit www.techshow.com/schedule for complete information about these must-attend sessions for anyone who uses a smartphone. REMINDER: The early bird discount ends in three days. Register at www.techshow.com/register today to save!

Don't Miss the ABA TECHSHOW Early Bird Discount

Thursday, 11 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The early bird discount for ABA TECHSHOW expires on February 19. You can save as much as $200 off of your full registration by taking advantage of this discount. And what a great value: TECHSHOW features legal technology experts from all over North America bringing you the latest technology information, all under one roof. Of course, ABA TECHSHOW isn’t just about learning: the networking you'll find at TECHSHOW is unparalleled for legal technology conferences. You can dine with speakers and fellow attendees during the popular Taste of ABA TECHSHOW Dutch-treat style dinners, sip drinks and mingle during the opening night Cocktail Reception, and engage with attendees and exhibitors at one of our Lunch ‘N Learn Sessions. ABA TECHSHOW offers you a fantastic opportunity to learn about legal technology and network with legal professionals just like you. Be sure to register today at www.techshow.com/register to get the best deal on registration!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Hardcore Scanning for Law Offices of ANY Size

Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Lawyers are afloat in a sea of paper presenting challenges in both short term and long term storage, being able to find information quickly and reducing malpractice risks from handling all of this paper. As firms move more and more to a paperless environment (or at least a reduced paper environment), scanning has become an integral piece of accomplishing these goals. In this session, attorney Nerino Petro and legal technology consultant Britt Lorish Knuttgen help guide you through the maze of scanners available, including desktop scanners, multi-function machines, flatbeds and portable scanners, giving you practical application examples for each. They also focus on having internal scanning policies and standards, and enforcing those for consistency within your firm. Also included in the discussion are software products to accompany scanners for maximum benefit. These products include OCR (optical character recognition) software, as well as document management systems and PDF software. The importance of scanning to searchable PDF is also explained and highlighted. The standing room only crowd was treated to a number of product demonstrations during this presentation, and left with a better understanding of how to implement a scanning workflow for better paperless practices. Both Nerino and Britt will be speaking again at ABA TECHSHOW 2010, and Britt is currently a member of the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Britt and Nerino's papers!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Capturing Quicksilver: Records Management for All That Other Stuff

Tuesday, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

In this “Best of ABA TECHSHOW” post, we are pleased to bring you the written materials which supported last year’s popular e-discovery session:”Capturing Quicksilver: Records Management for All That Other Stuff.” This session was presented by Sharon Nelson and Peg Duncan, who took a close look at the world of Web 2.0 data which may or may not constitute a “record” for the purposes of records management – and E-Discovery. Sharon and Peg offer their thoughts on what constitutes a corporate record, from wikis to blogs to social networking postings to tweets. There is much to give a records manager heartburn in these materials. In the end, Sharon and Peg agree that the format of the data is not the point – the content is. So if company information is created, it is probably a record. Even if it isn’t a record, it certainly is subject to being discovered in litigation. This also means that records managers must have a way to capture this “quicksilver” when under a litigation hold. The implications of this new world are profound. Reading these materials will bring you quickly up to speed on a subject which didn’t exist just a short time ago. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Peg's and Sharon's papers!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: E-Discovery Ethics: An Ounce of Prevention ...

Thursday, 14 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The legal press and court opinions continue to be filled with incidents of E-Discovery misconduct and sanctions. One survey found that in 2008, 25% of all reported E-Discovery cases involved sanctions. Attorneys caught up in these cases face court sanctions, malpractice claims, and disciplinary proceedings, as well as dissatisfied clients. Protect yourself and your clients by following the core ethics requirements for E-Discovery - Competence, Confidentiality, Communication, Candor, Cooperation, and Diligence. This session was presented at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 by Judge Herbert Dixon, Ralph Losey and Dave Ries. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Ralph's and David's papers!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Research on a Dime: Effective Authoritative Sources for the Budget-Minded

Tuesday, 05 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Keep Your Research Costs Down Catherine Sanders Reach & David Whelan Today’s economic troubles make our 2009 ABA Techshow presentation, “Research on a Dime”, as relevant as it was when we first put it together. Well ahead of Google Legal Scholar, our presentation covered a number of ways that you can use free, or free-to-you, legal and business information resources to keep down your research overhead costs. For a short list of tips, check out the related article, 10 Ways to Stretch Your Research Dollar, from the March 2009 Law Practice magazine. The financial woes of lawyers have also been felt by the legal publishers. They are caught between the dropping off of print subscriptions and increased demand for comprehensive online resources. But free online resources, subsidized by bar associations or even from the publishers themselves, give lawyers choices. What can you do? The rules are pretty much the same as ever: 1. Monitor your electronic licenses. If you are licensing both Westlaw and LexisNexis content, and they overlap, consider dropping one or cutting back coverage. Use free resources, when you can and they are reliable, to supplement your fee-based resources. 2. Curb your print enthusiasm. Stick to single volume softbound books, like those put out by ABA Publishing and sections. Avoid looseleaf services wherever possible, because the updating and annual increases are highest in these types of binder sets. 3. Get expert at using your tools. Know how to find information quickly. Don’t forget to start your research in the commentary, and then dig in to the statutes and cases. Know how to search your online services. 4. Negotiate your costs. Know what’s free and what you need to license electronically. Then get the legal publishers with the applicable content to compete on price. Legal research is no different from a new kitchen – get quotes and know what you’re getting for your money. 5. Make the system work for you. Use RSS and e-mail alerts to help you stay on top of changes in your practice areas. The legal publishers are providing this as part of your license. Getting updates on changing law can have a huge impact on your ability to practice competently. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Catherine and David's paper!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Taking the Leap Essential Technology for the New Law Practice

Tuesday, 22 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

There are few milestones in a lawyer's career that provide excitement and terror in such equal parts as the decision to open your own law firm. Not only do you need to be a subject area expert in your chosen field of practice, but you also need to become well-versed (if not expert) in the entrepreneurial art of starting and running a business. Suddenly, phone systems, marketing campaigns, and smart phones don't just magically appear in your hand courtesy of an IT staff or legal administrator; instead, each new undertaking is a new world to be explored and mastered. It is against this backdrop that we were so pleased to be asked to present at ABA TECHSHOW last year on Essential Technology for the New Law Practice. We dug in and really tried to evaluate the options that we thought provided a start up law firm the most bang for the buck and least outlay of that most valuable of commodities: time. It is worth noting again here, as we did in our manuscript and presentation, that in preparation for the session we leaned heavily on the excellent book by Sharon Nelson and John Simek, The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide. There is no more convenient, practical and up-to-the-minute resource available to the lawyer starting out and trying to make sense of her new firm's technology needs. We commend that book (as well as a trip to this year's ABA TECHSHOW) to set you and your new law practice off on the right foot. We hope you find the materials valuable and wish you a successful 2010! Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Bruce and Erik's paper!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Telecommuting 101 - Take the First Step

Friday, 18 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Telecommuting and remote access use many of the same technologies, but that’s about where the similarities end. While it’s great to have remote access anywhere and anytime, that’s typically meant for those who only need access for a short amount of time. Telecommuting, on the other hand, is a ‘hole ‘nother way of working. There can be lots of reasons why people want to telecommute, but it typically boils down to the individual situation. If you don’t need to have face-to-face meetings, then telecommuting may be an easier argument to push. Face it, with today’s technologies like video conferencing, web cameras, and free Skype services, there are less reasons for mandatory face-to-face meetings. I know many lawyers as well as staff who prefer to telecommute and their law firms have found ways to make it happen, mainly because they didn’t want to lose that valuable individual. The downside to telecommuting is that the telecommuter becomes isolated and may miss out on the interoffice conversations and camaraderie. But that may not be a problem for many telecommuters – they simply find ways to communicate. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Andy and Ben's paper!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Defining the Bottom Line

Tuesday, 08 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Are Lawyers TRULY in touch with profitability and their bottom-line … or "Accidentally Successful"? Historically, lawyers tend to think they are great businesspeople because they are able to write nice checks to themselves and their employees every month. Not so much for many law firms in today’s economy. Still, as lawyers, we indeed tend to just focus on substantive law … on being good lawyers and not managing the law firm finances. I don’t know many lawyers in small firms who know how to generate their own income statement and balance sheet, let alone read the one that their accountant or bookkeeper gave them. What about the difference between Accrual, Cash or Modified Cash Accounting and how that affects advanced expenses to clients? Do we as lawyers properly analyze how profitable our lawyers are … or know how to run a report showing billed amounts vs. collected amounts? Unfortunately, not enough of us know. ABA TECHSHOW 2009 seminar paper Defining the Bottom Line states that in most cases, law firm salaries are the largest expense, and unless you are overstaffed, making a dent in reduction of non-salary expenses is normally not going to happen. However, most law firms spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how to cut marketing, office supplies, and other non-salary expenses. Defining the Bottom Line by Debbie Foster (ABA TECHSHOW 2010 Chair) and Steven Best discuss practical ways to make an impact on the bottom line. Their paper and presentation provides a fantastic nuts and bolts primer on law office accounting. Every attorney should be REQUIRED to read this seminar paper from ABA TECHSHOW 2009. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Steven and Debbie's paper!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: What You Need to Know NOW!

Wednesday, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

In this “Best of ABA TECHSHOW” post, we are pleased to bring you the written materials which supported last year’s popular e-discovery session: “E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: What You Need to Know NOW!” This session was presented by Sharon Nelson and Dominic Jar, who took a close look at the garden variety e-discovery cases handled often by solo and small firm attorneys. Can you really handle a small case for under $10,000? Sure, it’s done all the time. Sharon and Dominic present tips for cost containment in electronic discovery, including: 1) Go after the low hanging fruit first 2) Identify key players and time frames to narrow the scope of the data 3) In many cases, you only need active (non-deleted) data – and that’s much cheaper 4) If you need deleted data, get a report by letter or phone from your computer forensics technologist unless you need a full scale forensics report for court 5) Native format is cheaper! 6) Utilize lower cost review tools and do-it-yourself Brew a cup of coffee and read some very practical advice that can save you and your client a lot of money and time! Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Sharon's and Dominic's papers!

Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Software as a Service: Can You Say Goodbye to Upgrade Headaches with SaaS?

Monday, 30 Nov 2009 9:30:00 GMT

Can Software as a Service (SaaS) alleviate upgrade headaches in your law firm? The short answer is yes, but that’s only part of the story. You have to decide whether SaaS is right for you – how you work, your acceptable level of risk, your budget – before you can get to the benefits of using it. If you use SaaS, you should find that you can eliminate upgrade headaches as more and more of your work occurs within your Web browser. Our paper takes you through a number of SaaS products that lawyers use and discusses the issues around free and “freemium” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium) consumer applications like Google Docs and Yahoo! Mail. SaaS products are not all created the same, even when you get past cost issues. Forrester Research has a SaaS maturity model that plots out where products are, based on how they serve their customers. Many of the current SaaS legal applications are in the level 3 and 4 range. Online legal research is in most cases at, and likely to remain at, Level 3. As new practice management products emerge, however, they are likely to move up that maturity scale. It’s been nearly 9 months since we spoke at ABA Techshow 2009 and the SaaS landscape for lawyers continues to evolve. Concerns are raised about lawyers using online-only tools to store and work with client private and confidential data. On the other hand, SaaS applications for lawyers are maturing (http://blogs.msdn.com/architectsrule/archive/2008/08/18/saas-maturity-model-according-to-forrester.aspx) and part of this process of growing up is the ability of SaaS providers to answer some of these difficult issues. Lawyers have bet on small software companies in the past in order to become more efficient practitioners. Many are already making the choice for cost and convenience issues. SaaS is likely to become a larger part of solo and small firm law practice, just as it grows in importance for mainstream business. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Catherine and David's paper!

The Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Supercharge Your Referrals With Technology

Tuesday, 10 Nov 2009 17:36:26 GMT

Swing your mouse around legal sites on the Internet these days, and it's hard not to hit a story, Tweet or blog post about how to use technology to develop new business. While these articles and how-tos are undeniably useful, they often leave out an important reality: that it's easier to get new work from existing clients than find brand new clients. Surely technology can help lawyers market to their past and current clients as well? The answer, according to Steve Matthews (www.stemlegal.com) and Reid Trautz http://reidtrautz.typepad.com), is a definite yes. At ABA TECHSHOW 2009, they showed attendees how to stay in contact with clients, through use of newsletters, blogs, and social media, among other marketing tools. This is just one example of the great presentations you'll see at ABA TECHSHOW, which next takes place March 25-27 in Chicago, Illinois. To learn more about the conference, visit the ABA TECHSHOW Web site at www.techshow.com. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read Steve and Reid's paper!

The Best of ABA TECHSHOW: Got Apple Envy? Practicing Law with a Mac

Tuesday, 03 Nov 2009 17:36:26 GMT

It used to be the only apples found in the law office were in lunch bags. No longer: the resurgence of the Apple Macintosh platform has led to many attorneys now practicing law on their Macs. Popular Mac attorneys and bloggers Ben Stevens (www.themaclawyer.com) and David Sparks (www.macsparky.com) discussed the Macintosh platform at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 in their session "Got Apple Envy? Practicing Law with a Mac." David and Ben provided a convincing argument about why using a Mac for the practice of law makes sense, and also shared strategies and recommendations on the best hardware and software solutions for a Mac attorney. Finally, they explained how to successfully drive a Mac in a PC firm with recommendations for networking and file sharing. The attendees enjoyed an entertaining and educational session. Ben and David will both be back presenting at ABA TECHSHOW 2010. Visit www.techshow.com/bestofabatechshow to read David and Ben's paper!

The Best of ABA TECHSHOW: E-mail Archiving: So, What's Wrong With Saving Everything?

Tuesday, 27 Oct 2009 8:36:26 GMT

We are proud to announce ABA TECHSHOW is opening its archive to bring you the best papers and presentations that have been prepared for past educational sessions of ABA TECHSHOW! Every week, past speakers will blog about a session they presented at ABA TECHSHOW over the past years AND will provide you with a complimentary copy of their material. If you don’t see something in the blog posts you want to learn about, or if you see a blog post that piqued your curiosity and you want to know more, we invite you to contact us and let us know about topics or presentations of interest to you so that we may invite the speakers to share their expertise and material in a future blog post. In our first “Best of ABA TECHSHOW” blog post, we are proud to present: “E-mail Archiving: So, What's Wrong With Saving Everything?” This session was originally presented by Peg Duncan and Jason R. Baron at ABA TECHSHOW 2009, and took a practical look at the issues pertaining to e-mail management and why e-mail is such a problem for information management in general and for litigation in particular. Turns out it isn’t just the volume that makes e-mail challenging! It’s the way people use it, the way people manage it (or DON’T manage it!), and the way other people exploit it. We take our day-to-day use of e-mail for granted. No surprise, then, that it has become the single most “interesting” source of evidence in litigation! Tips regarding the following are offered in this excellent piece: - Why it is NOT wise to save all e-mail - Alternatives to e-mail Do you have any comments about this blog post? Do you have personal experiences to share that may help other readers? If so, please feel free to share your comments and experiences with us at techshow@staff.abanet.org! Stay tuned for next week’s “Best of ABA TECHSHOW” post!"

ABA TECHSHOW Registration Opens in Two Days!

Tuesday, 22 Sep 2009 8:36:26 GMT

Registration for ABA TECHSHOW 2010 opens on Thursday, October 1! Be sure to visit www.techshow.com to register today in order to receive the early-bird discount -- as much as $200. ABA Law Practice Management Section has presented ABA TECHSHOW, the world's premier legal CLE technology Conference and Expo, for 24 great years. Join us March 25 - 27, 2010, at Chicago's historic Hilton Chicago, and enjoy more than 60 educational sessions moderated by professionals who are experts in their fields.

Who's Been Viewing your Gmail?

Laura Calloway | Alabama State Bar Practice Management Assistance Program — Tuesday, 22 Sep 2009 8:36:26 GMT

There's been a lot of buzz lately about G-mail flaws and hacks. If you're curious about whether someone has been able to gain access to your account without your knowledge, G-mail has a feature which can help you find out. Once you're signed in, at the bottom of the page you'll find a lot of fine print. Beneath where it indicates how much of your allotted storage space you're currently using, you'll see a line that gives the time and IP address of your last account activity. Click on the "Details" link, and you'll be taken to a window showing the last several times anyone signed in to your account, how (Browser, mobile, POP3, etc.), the IP address, and the time. It will also tell you whether there is concurrent activity. There's also a button to allow you to close any concurrent sessions and link to allow you to change your password immediately. Whether or not your account has been compromised, isn't it time to change to a strong password now?

IT Employees May Be Reading Your E-mails and Copying

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Tuesday, 15 Sep 2009 23:50:26 GMT

On June 11th, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that a global survey has found that the number of information-technology (IT) employees who admitted to accessing corporate information has risen from 33% to 35% in just a year. Additionally, the survey demonstrated that the number of individuals who stated that they would take company financial reports and merger and acquisition plans has increased over six-times from a year ago, to approximately 47% of IT staff surveyed. Many believe that the recent economic turmoil and layoff fears contribute to some of the behavior revealed in the study. Adding to this problem, 74% of IT workers said they could get past the controls currently in place for protecting confidential information. Also, a downsized company may now employ a smaller staff which makes monitoring access that much harder. The security-software company that administered the survey emphasized that companies must realize that IT administrators have access to anonymous accounts which do not leave footprints showing who is logging in and accessing the information. A copy of the survey results can be found at http://www.cyber-ark.com/news-events/pr_20090610.asp

5 Great Feature Enhancements to Expect in PowerPoint 2010

Tuesday, 08 Sep 2009 14:50:26 GMT

Microsoft is hard at work on its Office 2010 product. We've started to see features of the updated productivity applications, and here are some of the great feature enhancements to expect in PowerPoint 2010: 1. Screenshot Tool. You can now easily capture screenshots and add them to your PowerPoint presentations without having to use the antiquated Print Screen method or purchasing a third-party product. This is fantastic for capturing and zooming in on paragraphs in legal documents or displaying sections of graphics photographs. 2. Video Editing Tool. Microsoft has embedded basic video editing capabilities in the new version, so you do not have to invest in a third party program to make many basic edits. Using the Trim Video feature, you can trim the start time and end time from a video. You can also use the slider tool to make these adjustments. Bonus: Once edited, you can also compress the video. 3. Add a Video from an Online Site. From the Video button bar, there is now an option to insert Video from an online video source such as YouTube. This will automate the process of inserting a hyperlink to the video into your presentation. Note, however, you will still need an internet connection during your presentation. TIP: An alternative to this is to convert the online video to an MPEG or AVI and save it locally on your computer. This can be done with a free download utility like Vixy Video Converter or online converter such as Zamzar.com. 4. New Slide Transitions. Microsoft has many added new professional-looking slide transitions to give presentations a little more oomph. 5. Save PowerPoint to Video. PowerPoint shows can now be saved as popular video formats, such as AVI, WMV, MPEG, MOV, MP4, and FLV. This is a great option for letting non-PowerPoint users review a show, or if the audience wants to view it on a DVD player.

Smartphones and Security

Ben Schorr | ABA TECHSHOW 2010 Planning Board; Roland, Schorr and Tower — Tuesday, 01 Sep 2009 14:50:26 GMT

An increasing number of lawyers and firms are adopting iPhones - a trend evidenced by the increasing interest in the devices at TECHSHOW. But before you rush off to find an app for that you might want to pause to consider what you're going to use that iPhone for. In recent weeks security researchers have discovered or announced a number of serious security flaws in the iPhone. One of those flaws, the SMS bug that affects a number of mobile devices including the iPhone, has apparently been patched in the most recent version of the operating system. However a serious vulnerability that could allow someone to bypass the iPhone's encryption and access the data from the phone (which might include contact information, e-mails, even documents in some circumstances) is apparently still an open issue. For more details on this issue read John Simek's article at: http://ridethelightning.senseient.com/2009/07/iphone-security-a-complete-misnomer.html. Whatever mobile device you choose you need to exercise caution about what data, including e-mails and attachments, you allow on the device. Losing your phone is bad enough. Losing your client's confidential work product (and the other things you might lose as a result) is even worse.

Even Free Speech Needs a Traffic Cop Sometimes

Laura Calloway | Alabama State Bar Practice Management Assistance Program — Tuesday, 25 Aug 2009 17:30:26 GMT

As more and more people begin to adopt social media, many businesses,including law firms - both internally and on behalf of their clients - are struggling with creating policies that will allow employees to show off their expertise in a given field without causing the company to come down with a bad case of "foot-in-mouth" disease. This topic recently came up on the PMA circuit, and led to a search for a good form or other starting point for drafting a social media use policy within a business organization, bar association or law firm. We came across a great article, How to Write a Twitter Use Policy for your Employees (http://www.cio.com/article/499049/Twitter_Tips_How_to_Write_a_Twitter_Policy_for_Your_Employees?source=CIONLE_nlt_web20_2009-08-11), by C. G. Lynch at CIO.com (www.cio.com) which lists 4 easy steps for crafting your own policy. And the website of Sun Microsystems provides their Guidelines for Public Discourse (http://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp), which is a great starting point for drafting a policy of your own.

Paper Evidence Can Still be Persuasive

Hon. Christina Habas | State of Colorado, Second Judicial District — Tuesday, 18 Aug 2009 17:30:26 GMT

People v. Ashonti Hall: 07CR10342. July 14, 2009. This is a murder trial arising from a shooting that occurred in a church parking lot. The People are presenting a diagram to the jury which includes markings for shell casings, bullet fragments, and other evidence to show locations in the parking lot. They have shown this to the jury by way of a document camera. Moral? Sometimes there is no substitute for a piece of good old-fashioned paper. The jurors are straining to see the very small markings on the diagram. The People also present more than 50 photographs depicting that evidence. If each juror had their own color copy of the diagram, it would have made it easier for them to understand the evidentiary value of this evidence. Think about the most effective way, not necessarily the most technologically advanced way, to present evidence.

Originally Posted at Compujurist on July 15, 2009

Nerino Petro | Law Office Management Assistance Program, State Bar of Wisconsin — Tuesday, 11 Aug 2009 17:30:26 GMT

Converting images into files that can be used by your word processor is a technology that has been maturing since the early 1990’s. The cost of the software and equipment to perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on scanned images has steadily dropped. However, there are still a large number of lawyers who don’t have OCR software in their offices. Rick Broida, a PCWorld blogger, recently posted about free online OCR from Free OCR in his Problem Solvers: Banish Errors, Save Form Data, and More post. Even though many lawyers don’t have OCR software, they may have the ability to create images of scanned documents using their office digital copy centers. What’s lacking is the capability to take advantage of OCR for converting these images into usable text that can be brought into their word processor. For these lawyers and their staff, Free OCR Free OCR can provide basic OCR functionality at no cost. The service is web based and easy to use. You browse your hard drive from the Free OCR site to select a PDF, JPG, TIFF, GIF or BMP image. Select the language and click the Send file button. Processing was relatively fast with the recognized text displayed in a scrollable box at the bottom of the page. Copy this text and past it into your word processor. Unlike stand alone OCR programs such as OmniPage Pro or Abbyy FineReader, Free OCR doesn’t keep formatting attributes such as italics and bold or formatting such as columns, tables and quotes. I also verified the quirk that Rick encountered in that Free OCR only converts the first page of a PDF (although according to his column this is to be remedied shortly). Other restrictions according to the Free OCR site: The only restriction is that the images must not be larger than 2MB, no wider or higher than 5000 pixels and there is a limit of 10 image uploads per hour. For those of us using robust OCR software, Free OCR will be of little use in most instances. However, for lawyers that don’t have OCR capabilities in their office or for lawyers on the road who need OCR capability and don’t have it on their laptop, Free OCR is worth bookmarking as a handy tool.

JUDGE NO-NOS: FRIENDING A LAWYER AND GOOGLING A LITIGANT

John Simek | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Tuesday, 4 Aug 2009 17:30:26 GMT

On June 1st, 2009, the ABA Journal reported that a North Carolina judge, B. Carlton Terry Jr., has been reprimanded for using the social website, Facebook, to contact and converse with a lawyer in a pending case as well as accessing the website of a party during the pendency of litigation. According to the opinion, Judge Terry, Jr. “friended” the lawyer, discussed court proceedings on the site, and referenced a poem found on a party’s website during court. At the request of the non-friended counsel, the judge disqualified himself from the trial. During the subsequent judicial standards commission hearing, the commission stated that the ex parte communications and the independent gathering of information indicated a disregard of the principles of judicial conduct. As such, Judge Terry, Jr. was publicly reprimanded and agreed that he would never repeat such conduct in the future. The opinion can be found online at http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/jsc/publicreprimands/jsc08-234.pdf

FIVE LAWYERS INVOLVED IN TEXT MESSAGE SCANDAL FACE ETHICS CHARGES

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Tuesday, 28 Jul 2009 23:02:26 GMT

On May 21st, 2009, The National Law Journal reported that five lawyers who allegedly engaged in a text message scandal involving former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick face ethics violation charges. The main thrust of the allegations is that the lawyers either knew about, or took part in a secret lawsuit settlement to hide text messages that demonstrated the mayor had lied under oath about an affair with a former aide, a revelation leading to perjury and obstruction of justice charges as well as the mayor’s resignation. The lawyers’ conduct has raised serious questions about the attorneys’ behavior, specifically whether the lawyers knew perjury had been committed and failed to notify the court as well as whether a newspaper Freedom of Information Act request for the actual text messages was properly handled. Hearings have been set for the second week in July, and if convicted, the lawyers face possible suspension or revocation of their law licenses. For more information, the story may be found at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202430879282

Why I like My iPhone

Greg Siskind | Siskind Susser (www.visalaw.com) — Tuesday, 21 Jul 2009 10:24:20 GMT

After years of using a Dell Axim for my PDA, earlier this year I chucked it and moved to the iPhone. And now I’m totally devoted to the product especially with the 3.0 operating system upgrades which I just downloaded to my 3G version of the phone. There are about 100 new features on this version of the iPhone and two in particular are making a big difference in my daily productivity. First, Apple has finally added a copy, cut and paste feature. Second, I can finally work on emails in landscape mode and, hence, have a larger keyboard to work with when typing messages. There are also a couple of new apps that I am finding really helpful. First, NewsAddict is great if you like to read news on your iPhone. The app combines over 20 news sources – including the big ones like the New York Times, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal – in an easy to view format. The $1 price tag is obviously great and once you’ve set this application up, you can skip the separate apps the individual publications provide as well as well as viewing the sites on Safari. Amazon has also produced a Kindle app that allows you to read books available in the Kindle format on your iPhone. I’ve been reading books on my PDA for more than five years and love the format. First, I like a bright screen and the iPhone meets that test. Second, the iPhone allows you to flip pages quickly with just a slide of your finger across the screen. The iPhone also has a key advantage over the Kindle device – it’s always with you. I read books just about everywhere I have a few spare moments and look at waiting on lines as an opportunity to get a little reading in. There are other book apps as well that are pretty good including eReader and Stanza. Another app that is helping me a lot is TripIt which aggregates all of your travel details for a particular trip in an easy to read itinerary. The kicker is that you just forward your trip’s email receipts to plans@tripit.com and it recognizes your email address and puts all of the details in your itinerary for you so that you don’t need to retype all of that information. This is a huge time saver. And finally, my favorite new app is the NY Times crossword puzzle which is now up each day in an easy to use format. And the Times has an archive available if you like to feel good about yourself and do only the easier Monday puzzles.

Document Camera v. Real Exhibit

Hon. Christina Habas | State of Colorado, Second Judicial District — Wednesday, 15 Jul 2009 10:24:20 GMT

People v. Charles Dean, Case No. 08CR10323: 4/20/09 This case involves allegations of First Degree Murder, and the facts involve a claimed arson that was intended to cover up the homicide. The Defendant was contacted the evening after the fire, and he was found to have a lighter in his pocket. The plastic casing on the top of the lighter had melted. The District Attorney is using the document camera to show the jurors the lighter. The lighter is contained in a sealed plastic bag. Some of the jurors are having difficulty (along with the Court) seeing the lighter. The Court suggests that the lighter simply be passed along to the jurors for their view during testimony. Although document cameras have their place, and indeed they are effective generally at showing the exhibit to the jurors simultaneously, in order to point out something important about the exhibit, often we forget the notion of “self-persuasion”. If the exhibit is in a state that allows it to be handled directly by each juror, giving them time to examine it, look carefully at the important part of the exhibit to see for themselves, this is an effective step in self-persuasion of those jurors. If a person is allowed to examine an object on their own, making their own conclusions, then those conclusions will be far more effective in how they view the case than any conclusion that is spoon-fed to them by the attorneys in the case. It further involves them in the case itself, since a camera is no real substitute for the real thing. Request that the Court pass the exhibit amongst the jurors, and do not delay the trial for this view – simply continue with questions that will highlight that exhibit while the jury is viewing it.

ABA TECHSHOW is Back To Work!

Debbie Foster | ABA TECHSHOW 2009 Chair | InTouch Legal (www.intouchlegal.com) — Monday, 06 Jul 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Just a couple months back, we celebrated a successful ABA TECHSHOW 2009, with Laura Calloway at the helm of the ship. I am very grateful to Laura for all of her hard work over the last year and all of the sacrifices she made to ensure that the show was a huge success. I am honored to take the reins from her for ABA TECHSHOW 2010. Laura leaves behind her contributions to ABA TECHSHOW just like the Chairs of TECHSHOW past have done. Collectively, they leave VERY large shoes to fill, so I will do my best with ABA TECHSHOW 2010. The planning for 2010 has already begun! The board met in New Orleans in May for 2 days to get started, and we have a big planning meeting coming up in July in Chicago. We have a great board this year – you can read all about the fantastic team that has been assembled at http://www.abanet.org/techshow/board/. As we begin to plan tracks, sessions, speakers, social events and the keynote, our ears are open! If you have any suggestions for any of those things, please send them on to me at Debbie@intouchlegal.com. And don’t forget to bookmark the blog. We have lots of good stuff coming!

TECHSHOW 2009: It’s Been a Lovely Cruise

Laura Calloway | ABA TECHSHOW 2009 Chair | Alabama State Bar (www.alabar.org) — Monday, 06 Apr 2009 10:24:20 GMT

There’s an old Jimmy Buffet tune that expresses well my feelings about ABA TECHSHOW 2009. “I’m sorry it’s ending, it’s sad but it’s true. It’s been a lovely cruise.” As I wait for my flight home to Alabama, my mind runs back over all the great events of the last few days. I had intended to post to this blog during the show, but there was just too much to see and do to stop to write about it all. ABA TECHSHOW is truly a collaborative effort. I’ve received lots of kind messages about the success of this year’s show, but I can’t take credit for it. It’s the result of all of the hard work that the great planning board of ABA TECHSHOW 2009 has put in over the last year, and the contributions made by all of our fantastic speakers. ABA TECHSHOW really is the legal technology conference by lawyers for lawyers. If ABA TECHSHOW is about anything, though, it’s about the enduring friendships you develop when you attend. I’ve built so many great friendships at TECHSHOW over the last 12 years. So as my year as Chair winds down to a close, and I sail off into the sunset with the other past chairs, I’d like to say a final thank you to the LPM Staff, Shelby Meyer, the TECHSHOW 2009 board and all the fine speakers who donated their time to make ABA TECHSHOW 2009 a huge success. Great job, everyone! Now, mark your calendars for ABA TECHSHOW 2010 March 25-27, and I hope to see you all again next year!

OHIO SUPREME COURT ORDERS PUBLIC BOARD TO PAY TO RECOVER ITS DELETED E-MAILS

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Monday, 06 Apr 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On December 9th, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Seneca County Board of Commissioners to pay for forensic recovery of its deleted e-mails. The case stemmed from a records request from the Toledo Blade for e-mails concerning the Board’s decision to demolish the county courthouse. The Board could not produce the e-mails because the e-mails were deleted, and the Blade filed a writ of mandamus to compel the Board to forensically restore the e-mail. The court granted the writ, finding that the Board deleted e-mail in violation of its own retention policy. The Blade produced sufficient evidence to show that the e-mails still existed on the Board’s computers even though they were deleted, and that the e-mails had significant value to the litigation. The court considered shifting the cost of the forensic analysis to the Blade, but decided against it because the requesters of information under the Ohio statute are not required to pay for the costs of their requests. The story may be found at http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=302497e7-9406-4c72-b18b-4278dc846c36

FAKE LINKEDIN PROFILES LINK TO MALWARE

John Simek | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Friday, 03 Apr 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On January 5th, the Trend Micro Malware Blog reported that fake LinkedIn profiles were linking to malware. The fake profiles took celebrity names including Victoria Beckham, Christina Ricci, Kirsten Dunst, Salma Hayek, and Kate Hudson, and created profiles such as “Beyonce Knowles Nude.” Once users were lured to the website, the links contained malware that if clicked on would install Trojan software. Cybercriminals buy and sell pre-registered profiles on social networks to launch attacks. Previously, the attacks were limited to social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace, but cybercriminals branched out to professional networking sites. The story may be found at http://blog.trendmicro.com/bogus-linkedin-profiles-harbor-malicious-content/

PULL BACK E-MAILS WITH GMAIL'S "UNSEND" FEATURE: BUT YOU MUST ACT QUICKLY

Mark Rosch | Internet for Lawyers (www.netforlawyers.com) — Tuesday, 31 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Who among us hasn't regretted sending an e-mail? Maybe you were too hasty hitting the Send button on an angry tirade. Or maybe you were too quick to accept a suggested name from our contact list? You know the situation - there are three "Roberts" in your address book. One's a client. One's a vendor. One's a law school buddy who you share e-mail jokes with. Gmail now offers an option for everyone who has ever wanted to "unsend" an e-mail as soon as they've sent it. Unfortunately, the option only available briefly. To enable the new feature, Gmail users should click the Settings link and then click on the Labs tab. This will display a list of optional features you can add to your Gmail Inbox. Scroll down to Undo Send and click the Enable radio button. Once enabled, this feature adds two new functions to your Gmail Inbox. The first is the addition of a Cancel link next to the Sending notification that appears on screen while the email is being sent. Clicking Cancel stops the sending process and returns you to the composing screen so you can edit the e-mail's contents or the recipient's e-mail address, subject line, etc. The second addition is an Undo link that appears next the Your message has been sent notification that appears after the sending process is complete. It's important to note that this Undo link appears for only about 5-6 seconds then it's gone and there's no way to retrieve the message. This makes its use pretty limited but if you've ever had that pang of regret, or dread, after you've hit the send button, this offers some option if ever so brief. It's also important to note that you have even less time to hit the Cancel link. In a number of test messages where I clicked the Cancel link, I apparently did not click it fast enough, because the message still went through to the recipient. Unless you see a Sending was canceled message and are returned to the composition screen, the message is still being delivered. You¹ll still have 5-6 seconds to hit the Undo link though. Other useful Labs features for Gmail include Offline (which makes your Inbox available when you're not connected to the Internet) and Email Addict (which lets you block access to your Inbox for 15 minute intervals so you can concentrate on other tasks).

TEXT MESSAGES HELP CATCH CARJACKERS

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Tuesday, 31 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On January 7th, Alan Heuss was sitting in his car at night with the engine running when a man with a gun approached him and took his car, cell phone, and some cash. Heuss and his friends filed a police report and then came up with their own scheme to outsmart the carjackers. His friends suggested they try to contact the carjackers via Huess’s stolen cell phone. They sent text messages saying that they had “hot chicks and drugs,” with an address to report to. Stupidly, the carjackers went to the address in the stolen car and were met by police. The local news report may be found at http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2009/01/09/story_carjacking_text.html?sid=102

JUDGES TAKE DIFFERENT VIEWS ON WHETHER SEARCH OF HANDHELD DEVICE DURING ARREST IS LEGAL

John Simek | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Monday, 30 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Two recent court decisions by the Southern District of Georgia and the Southern District of Florida came to two different conclusions on whether police should be able to search handheld devices such as mobile phones as an incident of arrest. The issue came down to whether handheld devices should be treated as traditional “containers” under the law. On December 22nd, U.S. District Judge William Zloch ruled in a case involving a drug bust where a DEA agent examined the defendant’s two cell phones during the booking process. The Southern District of Florida judge found that the evidence obtained from the search should be suppressed because the search was not incident to lawful arrest, as it took place during booking. Judge Zloch also found that the DEA agent lied when he said that he conducted the search to ensure the text messages would not expire, as the real reason was to find incriminating evidence. The search required a warrant because “searching through information stores on a cell phone is analogous to a search of a sealed letter, which requires a warrant.” But Judge B. Avant Edenfield of the Southern District of Georgia disagreed in a similar case decided on January 5th. In that case, police responded to a call about a parked car and scrolled through the photos on the cell phone of the driver and found images of what appeared to be a fourteen-year-old girl in lewd poses. The driver was charged with possession of child pornography. Judge Edenfield ruled that the evidence was admissible, because the cell phone was a container found on the driver’s person, as part of a search incident to lawful arrest. The split highlights the issue of whether cell phones are like physical containers or are entitled to more protection because of the uniquely personal nature of the contents. The story initially reported by Cnet may be found at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10140373-38.html

Judicial Admonishments are Being Revised in the Age of Facebook and Twitter

Friday, 27 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Two recent articles, "As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials are Popping Up," (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18juries.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&hp) and "The One Simple Rule when Jurors go Online (http://jurylaw.typepad.com/deliberations/2009/03/the-one-simple-rule.html), are timely reminders that Web 2.0 is changing the way we conduct jury trials. I routinely tell jurors not to investigate the case using Google, or talk about the case to anyone, including friends and relatives, but now I need to add Twitter, Wikipedia and Facebook to that admonition. This is another real world example proving that judges and lawyers need to keep up with the technology that is being used in everyday life.

Are you the HR Manager at your solo or small firm? Do you know about web resources that can help?

Donna Neff | Neff Law Offices www.nefflawoffices.com — Thursday, 26 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Several companies accessible over the internet (and through more traditional means) provide payroll services at a very reasonable cost. Even a small firm with only one or two employees can find a payroll service that will take them on. Using a payroll service means that someone else keeps on top of government regulations and tax compliance issues, tracks payroll deductions and issues appropriate tax slips to employees in a timely manner. For all that a payroll service provider does, the fees are reasonable and the peace of mind is priceless. Another web resource that may prove helpful are virtual assistants (VA) -- individuals that you may never meet but who can perform a multitude of tasks for you at a reasonable cost. Consider using such a service during a period when the firm's workload has increased temporarily or to give you time to advertise, interview, test and hire the right permanent person. For as little as $7 per hour, an off-shore VA can be hired to perform administrative tasks that require nothing more than a telephone, fax, computer and access to the internet. North-American based VA services are generally more expensive but offer local knowledge and understanding that an off-shore VA will not have. Join me and Ellen Freedman at the ABA TechShow on April 3 to learn more about these ideas and others. We'll share information about tools and resources that can reduce the time and cost demanded by HR management responsibilities and maybe even increase the enjoyment factor!

FACEBOOK CAN'T CATCH A BREAK - Settlement Details Revealed Due to Improper Redaction

Mark Rosch | Internet for Lawyers (www.netforlawyers.com) — Wednesday, 25 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Just days after the amount of Facebook's preliminary, confidential settlement with ConnectU were trumpeted in a marketing piece by former ConnectU law firm Quinn Emanuel, (and widely reported by Law.com ) Facebook is dealt another blow. San Francisco-based, Associated Press technology reporter Michael Liedtke was able to extract a more precise breakdown of the reported $65 million dollar settlement Facebook reached with Connect U from a PDF of the proceedings' transcript "unsealed and [improperly] redacted by the court." (comment added) Liedtke reported that even though,"Large portions of that hearing are redacted in a transcript of the June hearing, but The Associated Press was able to readthe blacked-out portions by copying from an electronic version of the document and pasting the results into another document." The transcript, as posted by the court, is available via Justia.com . That document shows large portions of blank space where text has apparently been deleted with a simple "[REDACTED]" notation. It appears that whoever "redacted" the document simply removed "the visible text" from the image layer of the document, but not the "invisible" information in "text" layer. (The availability of the separate text layer is what makes certain PDFs searchable.) It's that invisible information in the text layer that the reporter would have been able to highlight, copy, and paste into another document to reveal the redacted details. This is avoidable with Adobe Acrobat Professional's Redaction tool (available in version 8 and newer). The redaction tool not only covers the visible text with a black box, it also deletes the "invisible" information in the text layer - making it non-retrievable. Learn more tips and tricks for handling and safeguarding electronic documents in TechShow 2009's Paperless Practice Track.

Persuasive Summaries People v. Charles Porter, Case No. 08CR2351: 3/12/09

Judge Christina Habas | 2nd Judicial District Court Judge, Denver, Colorado — Tuesday, 24 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

This case involves allegations of First Degree Assault against a police officer. Several police officers were on scene at the time a suspect was taken into custody. The suspect eventually landed in the Intensive Care Unit, with a lacerated liver and ruptured kidney, among other less serious injuries. There is a central question as to who inflicted those injuries. The defense theory is that two of the officers on scene concocted a story to place blame upon a third officer, and that they conspired during several telephone conversations following the incident to “get their stories straight”. A summary exhibit of several pages of cell phone records is submitted to the jury by way of a large poster board. While the pages of records are also submitted, there is a question of whether a summary exhibit will be accepted by the jury as accurate, and whether they will take the time to compare the summary to the records themselves. How could technology add to the persuasion of this exhibit? Consider preparing the summary right before the jurors’ eyes. Several software programs allow lawyers to load the exhibit itself, and then to capture certain entries in each exhibit for copying and pasting into a demonstrative, summary exhibit. Preparing the summary in this fashion allows the jury to actually see that the information used for the summary is completely accurate, giving the summary exhibit far more credibility. This method might also allow the presenting lawyer to illustrate the examination in a more interesting way than to put the cell phone records on a document camera. Jurors are often skeptical of everything a lawyer puts before them – using technology in this way may well add to your own credibility, while making the summary itself more believable, and therefore, more persuasive.

WHITE HOUSE ORDERED TO MAKE LAST MINUTE ATTEMPT TO SAVE E-MAILS

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Monday, 23 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On January 14th, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy issued an emergency order requiring the White House to search staff workstations, personal storage table files, and to turn over any media devices such as CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, or external hard drives that may have e-mails from the period from March 2003 to October 2005. The order was in connection with a lawsuit filed in September 2007 by the National Security Archive to compel the White House to preserve its e-mails. The Archive was concerned that the Bush e-mails will be lost when the Obama Administration takes over. The order was issued in response to a hearing at which the White House admitted that it had done little to nothing to recover e-mail files from computer workstations and external media devices. But the White House lawyers also stated at the hearing that they located about fourteen million missing e-mails and that a major restoration project was underway to recover missing e-mail from backup tapes. On January 15th, Magistrate Judge John Facciola, who is overseeing the White House e-mail litigation, enforced Judge Kennedy’s emergency order. The Archive press release, with links to the orders may be found at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20090115/index.htm

FISA APPEALS COURT SAYS WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING OK

John Simek | Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Friday, 20 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On January 15th, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review released a redacted opinion of an August 2008 decision that ruled that federal agencies could conduct warrantless surveillance for national security purposes. The case arose after a telecommunications company filed suit challenging the surveillance law. The court dealt with whether the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures applied to intelligence agencies compelling telecommunications companies to open their networks for surveillance purposes. The court found that the Fourth Amendment was no bar as long as the executive branch had safeguards in place to protect individuals against unwarranted surveillance. The court also stated that courts should not frustrate executive branch efforts to protect national security. The redacted opinion may be found at http://www.uscourts.gov/newsroom/2009/FISCR_Opinion.pdf

Do You Know Where Your Documents Are?

Thursday, 19 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Document management and retention are very hot topics as eDiscovery sweeps across the legal landscape. Firms far and wide are implementing document lifecycle policies to try to control where and how long documents exist in your system; expiring or archiving old documents as necessary and keeping an accurate index and inventory of existing documents so that in the event of an eDiscovery request the appropriate materials (no more or less) can be quickly, accurately and inexpensively produced. But are your employees subverting your policies? Documents are like rabbits – they tend to multiply when left unchecked. Here are a couple of scenarios that you may not have considered that might impact your document retention policy (or that of your clients): Paralegal needs to do some more work on a key document but also doesn’t want to spend all weekend at the office. For security reasons the firm doesn’t provide the ability for paralegals to access and edit documents remotely so the paralegal e-mails the document to himself at his Gmail account. Gmail has multiple gigabytes of storage space and the paralegal just never thinks to go back and delete that file later – it lives in his e-mail archive indefinitely. Draft of a document is e-mailed to a client who receives it on their Blackberry. They download and save a copy of the attachment to the memory card in the Blackberry so they can read it – and there it stays, long forgotten. Associate working on a document does a Save As and saves a copy to the local hard drive on her laptop so that she can work on the document during tomorrow’s flight. She eventually e-mails her final draft to the billing partner on the matter for review, but never deletes the earlier draft from her My Documents folder on the hard drive. …the document attachment is still in her Sent Items folder too. …until AutoArchive moves it to a mostly forgotten PST file on a network share. …where it gets swept up into the monthly backup of that share. There are plenty more scenarios where a document can be replicated or stored in manners that are contrary to the best interests of your document retention policy (don’t even get me started on flash drives). In many of these cases you might not even know you have multiple and/or old copies of the document lingering around. You may think you expired and purged those documents months ago, only to get the unpleasant surprise that, in fact, there are still one or more copies hovering around. Now is a good time to review your document retention policies, take a good look at how your staff REALLY works (do they copy documents to their home computers to work on weekends?) and have a good talk about why it’s important to keep key documents and information on a short leash.

Software-as-a-Service: Reshaping the legal software landscape

Wednesday, 18 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

A buzzword that has been gaining increasing attention over the past year is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). With the SaaS model, software is delivered via the Internet, and is paid for by a monthly subscription; there is no need to install or configure desktop or server-based programs. For example, in my own practice, Ledgit Consulting , I have been using a new web-based practice management system called Clio . I became a subscriber immediately after they launched back in October 2008, and thus far I have been very impressed with the program's scope of functionality and ease-of-use. With the Software-as-a-Service delivery model, I don't have to purchase, install and continually upgrade software or servers, which helps to keep my firm's technology-related overhead at a minimum. Also, since the software is web-based, I can get to my practice's data securely from wherever I am - a major benefit for a regular traveler such as myself. Given the ease of deployment, anywhere accessibility, and outsourced security/backup benefits of SaaS, I predict products such as Clio are going to change the way lawyers, especially solos and small firms, look at software. We started to hear rumblings of SaaS at TECHSHOW 2008 - expect it to be a major topic of discussion at TECHSHOW 2009.

All Atwitter over TECHSHOW

Tuesday, 17 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

If you follow Dennis Kennedy on Twitter you've already seen this, but if you don't and you're planning to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2009, you really should check out Chris Brogan's 27 Things to Do Before A Conference (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/27-things-to-do-before-a-conference/). Chris blogs on social media, and his recent post has some great suggestions on how to use technology before a conference to make sure you get the most from it, and the networking opportunities it offers, once you arrive. There are some super ideas about using Twitter to make sure you meet the people you want to meet, and also some useful ideas on how to maximize your exposure on your own blog or through Twitter as you comment on the conference, maximizing your ROI on the cost of admission. And to help you tweet throughout TECHSHOW, we've just added a roundtable session titled All Atwitter: What's the Buzz About Microblogging, to be led by Tom Mighell, Dominic Jaar and Catherine Reach, at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Novice users of Twitter will learn how to follow all their favorite speakers and not miss a bit of the content or fun, and those who are experienced tweeters are welcome to come and share their secrets. We're less than 3 weeks away from the opening day of ABA TECHSHOW 2009 now, and I'm really looking forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones. I could not be prouder of the job our great planning board has done this year in putting together a must-attend conference. See you soon in Chicago!

BLOGGING. TEXTING. TWEETING. COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU?: COLORADO COURT OKAYS TEXTING, COMPUTERS, AND REALTIME BLOGGING DURING TRIAL

Mark Rosch | Internet for Lawyers (www.netforlawyers.com) — Friday, 13 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

Boulder, CO Judge Lael Montgomery ruled that cell phones and computers would be allowed in the courtroom during a local man's child abuse trial. Both sides argued against the real-time blogging that had been allowed during the trial of the man's wife - which had been held previously. (She was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in prison.) In published reports, defense attorney Paul McCormick went so far as to warn that the practice could, "contaminat[e] our jury in some way." In approving access, a report quoted the judge as saying, "I think there are other manageable options and less restrictive options than shutting down the flow of information during the trial." The report also noted that she would "give clear instructions to the jury to refrain from reading or viewing any media accounts of the case," etc. For more information about this case see The Boulder Daily Camera http://tinyurl.com/96gzeh.

Going Paperless – Is It Worth the Hassle? You be the judge!

Donna Neff | Neff Law Office (www.nefflawoffice.com) — Thursday, 12 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

It has been 2 ½ years since I took the plunge into the paperless office. Before deciding to go paperless, I had considerable concern about what it would cost, the technical knowledge that might be required, and whether my staff would support or resist the idea. Would the potential benefits be worth the time and expense? Having gone paperless I have to say it was one of the best practice management decisions I have ever made and has been worth it on every level. The benefits for me have been numerous – no more wasted time searching for documents, dramatically reduced need for storage space and the associated costs, reduced salary cost in part due to the efficiencies of reduced paper handling (when one staff member resigned, I didn't replace her), the ability to access documents from anywhere. Going paperless is also an environmentally smart thing to do. To learn how I did it, join me and Nancy Duhon at our ABA TECHSHOW session on April 2. I am excited about attending ABA TechShow and sharing my thoughts and ideas with you about going paperless. Like me, you can do it!

TERRORISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE: TECHNOLOGY UTILIZED IN MUMBAI ATTACKS

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Wednesday, 11 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On December 2nd, the Washington Post reported terrorists in the recent Mumbai attacks utilized technology to carry out the attacks. The attackers used GPS devices and high resolution maps to sail to India from Pakistan. Indian investigators also found that attackers used BlackBerrys and cell phones with switchable SIM cards to make tracking more difficult. But technology is a two-way street, as victims kept the outside world updated through text messages and Twitter updates to friends and relatives. The technology is also being used to trace the attacks to Pakistan, as an e-mail sent by the organization claiming responsibility for the attacks was traced from a computer server in Moscow and to Pakistan. The attacks show the increasing role of technology in our daily lives, and how it can be utilized in disconcerting ways. The story may be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120203519_pf.html

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL APPEALS SPAM CASE TO U.S. SUPREME COURT

John Simek | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Monday, 9 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

On December 11th, Virginia Attorney General Bob McConnell appealed the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision overturning the first felony spam conviction in the country to the U.S. Supreme Court. McConnell asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the spam law, which the Virginia Supreme Court struck down on First Amendment grounds. In doing so, the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the conviction of one of the worlds’ worst spammers, Jeremy Jaynes. The Virginia law was held overbroad because it was not limited to commercial e-mails, and could include political or religious messages. McConnell claimed that the situation where an imaginary spammer is prosecuted for sending religious e-mails is rare to nonexistent. Jayne’s lawyer said it was unlikely that the Supreme Court would hear the case, and if it did, the decision would likely be upheld. McConnell’s press release may be found at http://www.oag.state.va.us/PRESS_RELEASES/NewsArchive/121108_Spam_Supreme_Court.html

Cover Your Assets: Affordable IT Support for Small Practices

Nerino Petro | Compujurist (http://compujurist.com) — Tuesday, 3 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

How do you give or receive computer help when you or someone else needs need it? It seems the folks at CrossLoop think that they have your solution. According to the Company: CrossLoop is redefining the tech support category for consumers and small businesses by providing immediate, low-cost access to qualified help anytime and anywhere. Through its easy-to-use desktop sharing software and Help Marketplace, CrossLoop connects computer users with trusted, qualified service providers and tech-savvy friends who can provide the support they need immediately. Consumers and small businesses lose productivity due to lack of accessible, knowledgeable tech support resources. CrossLoop makes finding and working with tech support professionals fast, friendly and affordable. Available in 21 languages and used by individuals and businesses in over 190 countries, CrossLoop serves over 1 million unique users and has enabled more than 65 million “help minutes” to provide technical support, training and collaboration around the globe. CrossLoop is backed by El Dorado Ventures (www.eldorado.com) and Venrock (www.venrock.com). So what’s so novel about this approach? Traditionally, getting or giving remote technical support involved using the telephone, but this is often difficult as it is often hard to walk someone through a fix without actually seeing their screen. With wider adoption of broadband internet, technical support providers and even sophisticated law firms can use paid services such as GoToAssist or LogMeIn Rescue, but these are pretty pricey for most folks. If you have a GoToMyPC or LogMeIn account, you can give others access, but then you are giving others access to at least the first level of your account and need to create one time passwords for use. For the DIYers with good technical knowledge and skills, you can use free products such as UltraVNC or TightVNC to setup remote access for troubleshooting and support but these products can be challenging to install and configure especially behind firewalls and proxy servers. This is where a pre-packaged solution such as CrossLoop can be of assistance and has created a solution for this problem that works for both individuals and tech support folks. The CrossLoop solution consists of two parts: a free desktop sharing software that users install on their computers and a service that “…connects computer users with trusted, qualified service providers and friends who can provide the support they need quickly and conveniently.” What is unique is that the CrossLoop desktop sharing software is free for both personal and commercial use and can be used not just for connecting with technical support personnel, but can also be used between individuals. Another unique feature of this software is that the end user (i.e. the person getting the help) is the one who controls access to their desktop: the support person is provided with a randomly generated 12 digit access code by the end user. A new access code is generated each time the software is run. CrossLoop users can also transfer files during a CrossLoop session as well as switching control thereby changing the role of the two computers. You can receive assistance from people who have registered as a “Helper” with CrossLoop and see their profiles and reviews before selecting them to assist you. CrossLoop handles the payment via credit card or PayPal and provides a 48-Hour Money Back Guarantee. To take advantage of CrossLoop or other remote service solutions you will need a reliable broadband internet connection and it will not work from behind certain types of proxy connections and you may be asked by your firewall to allow a connection to CrossLoop which you must do to use it. Full details can be found in the CrossLoop Troubleshooting connection page. You can get more information on remote computer support solutions from myself and Bruce Dorner in our Cover Your Assets: Affordable IT Support for Small Practices session on Friday April 3, 2009 during the 2009 ABA TECHSHOW April 2-4, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.

Twitter and ABA TECHSHOW

David Bilinsky | www.thoughfullaw.com — Tuesday, 3 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

A home page was all you really needed To seem like a success but not a geek As long as you updated semi-annually And checked your email once or twice a week Technology was moving rather quickly And the next thing you needed was a blog With intimate and detailed press releases And now and then a photo of your dog... ... You’re no one if you’re not on Twitter And if you aren’t there already you’ve missed it If you haven’t been bookmarked, retweeted and blogged You might as well not have existed... Lyrics and Music by Ben Walker (http://www.ihatemornings.com/twittersong/). Oh how the world has changed! Now when we are in or giving a presentation, we need to be aware of how the audience is twittering about the presentation. Certainly at TS2008 the Twittersphere was just starting to catch fire and people were posting Tweets during the presentations. This year I fully expect that the audience and the presenters will be all linked together in real time, asking questions and providing commentary as the presentations unfold. So it was only time before someone posted an article on “How to Present while People are Twittering” (http://pistachioconsulting.com/twitter-presentations/). This is a wonderful article for both attendees and presenters alike. It offers great tips on how to make the most of any presentation while using Twitter. It will be a handy guide for Techshow attendees to gain the best value at the Show. In the meantime, don't forget to watch the Twitter video and listen to the song: http://www.youtube.com/v/dYP-wBaqQAI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1 I will be looking for you on Twitter at TS 2009 and certainly Tweet during my presentations: My twitter address: david_bilinsky And whether you're attending ABA TECHSHOW or not, be sure to visit the TECHSHOW Buzz page (www.techshow.com/buzz) -- it will contain the latest Twitter updates, blog posts, pictures on Flickr, and more!

Don’t Miss Out! Early Bird Deadline Extended!

Laura Calloway | ABA TECHSHOW 2009, Chair — Tuesday, 3 Mar 2009 10:24:20 GMT

ABA TECHSHOW is right around the corner, and we don’t want you to miss it, so we’ve extended the Early Bird registration deadline, along with the hotel group rate registration deadline, by one week only – to Friday, March 6th. Take advantage of the lower registration fee and hotel costs, along with currently discounted air fares, so that you can experience one of the best legal technology CLE programs in the world, not to mention an extensive legal expo with all the latest technology products and services for the law office. We know that budgets are tight right now, but our programming will help you make the most of the technology you currently have and make the best, and most affordable, choices for any new technology you need to implement. You really can’t afford not to attend. I’ll be looking for you at ABA TECHSHOW.

Using Windows on Your Mac

Monday, 2 Mar 2009 14:58:40 GMT

As a Mac-using attorney, I often raise eyebrows when people look over my shoulder to see Windows XP. Recently I attended a seminar for Casesoft’s excellent relational database application, Casemap. Casemap does not support Apple OS X so when my computer’s Apple logo began glowing amidst a sea of Dells, I got a variety of responses ranging from curiosity to denial. Yes, you can run Windows on a Mac. In 2006, Apple moved the entire Macintosh line to Intel processors. Now Apple and PC clones are all using compatible hardware. Almost immediately, Apple and third party software developers found ways to run Windows on Apple hardware. There are currently three primary ways to accomplish this. Apple Boot Camp -- Boot Camp is Apple’s own virtualization application built into every new Macintosh computer. It allows you to partition your hard drive for both a Windows and OS X install. Once you enable boot camp, you are presented a choice when you boot up your Mac, Windows or Apple OS X? You simply click the desired operating system and away it goes. If you choose Windows, your installed Windows partition will load no differently than if it were a Dell or Lenovo. You can run any windows application your hardware will support. If you click the button for Apple OS X, your computer boots into the Macintosh operating system. This, in essence, gives you two computers in one. The only downside to this usage is that you can not load both operating systems at the same time. This leads to the second method, third party virtualization solutions. Third Party Virtualization -- While Boot Camp provides a free and easy solution to run Windows on your Mac, some users prefer to run both Windows and OS X at the same time. Using virtualization applications such as Parallels (http://www.parallels.com) or VMWare Fusion (http://vmware.com/products/fusion), both of which cost $70, you can install Windows (or Linux) to run as its own OS X application. These applications support any version of Windows from Windows 95 up through the recently released Windows 7 beta. For instance, I use Casemap in a Parallels installation of Windows XP. However, I do my presentation work and word processing in OS X applications. Using virtualization software, I am able to run Casemap right next to my Apple word processing application. There are several additional benefits to using virtual machines. They are simply a disk image on your hard drive so they are easy to back up or restore. Taking advantage of this portability, I’ve installed a version of Windows beta 7 on my Mac. Because it is a virtual machine, I am immune from the perils often associated with running a beta operating system. Virtual Windows without the Windows -- Using Boot Camp, VMWare, or Parallels all require installation of the Windows operating system. If you are going to run Windows, it stands to reason you would need the software and a licensse. Another Mac software product, Crossover Mac (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac) ($70), allows you to run certain Windows software natively in OS X without installing Windows. This application installs its own compatibility layer on your Mac and translates the programming calls for Windows resources into their compatible OS X equivalents. This does not work for all Windows software but does work for many of the standard business applications, such as Microsoft Office. The good news is that now you don’t have to choose between Apple OS X and Windows. You can easily run both taking advantage of the best applications in both operating systems.

Analyze Your Law Firm as a Business

Steve Best | Best Law Firm Solutions, Inc. (www.bestlawfirm.com) — Friday, 27 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

Whether you practice law by billing by the hour, flat rate bill or live and breathe by contingency fees, it is important to capture your "day" as doing so provides important analysis into how your firm is performing as a business. Businesses that sell goods and/or operate in the retail sector "do" inventory to capture sales and performance information. Our inventory as lawyers is our time. How are you spending your time? How are your staff members spending time and what output are you receiving? Of the "time" that is captured, how much turns into attorneys fees and how much is written off? This, whether you believe it our not, is CRITICAL information for the long haul and success of your business (firm). While cash is king, "cash flow" is the more important item as your business continues. An integral part of cash flow is being able to analyze anticipated revenue as well as anticipated expenses. And, time that should become attorneys fees (anticipated revenue) vs. time that is discarded (perhaps due to lack of productivity) should be regularly analyzed and adjustments should be made so that your firm can operate effectively. This is espcially true as hard economic times fall on some of us. As my good friend and colleague Debbie Foster often says, you want to be successful, not accidentally successful, as the latter may lead to business failure.

Data Projectors That Fit into Your Pocket

Mark Rosch | Internet or Lawyers (www.netforlawyers.com) — Tuesday, 24 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

One of the more amazing things I saw at this year’s CES was a new(er) class of data projectors - pico projectors. These tiny projectors could change the way we think about sharing presentations, video, images, etc. Smaller than some of last year’s smart phones and easily fitting into the palm of your hand or pocket, they are a lot easier to travel with than the “portable” LCD projectors we’re all used to seeing. I say “could” and not “will” because like any first generation technology, they have some limitations. In the case of the pico projectors it’s image resolution, brightness and battery life. There are about a half-dozen companies making the devices, including 3M, Aiptek and Optoma. Samsung has even integrated one into a phone (launched in Korea in January – not yet available in North America). The devices utilize Texas Instruments’ DLP technology to produce their images. In most settings you would need to turn the room lights down – if not off entirely – to project a usable image. Most of these projectors have a brightness in the single digits (lumens), whereas even low-cost portable projectors available at office superstores are in the 1000-2000 lumen range. Image resolution is generally 640 x 480 pixels – the de facto standard in 1996. Battery life ranges from 2 -3 hours. Prices range from about $300- $400. Expect to see higher resolutions and longer battery life in future generations of the product. For now though, these can be handy for client or co-counsel presentations, mediations, arbitrations, or anywhere you want to share information with more people than can comfortably gather around your laptop screen.

Successful Training? Offer Happy Hour

Adriana Linares | LawTech Partners (www.lawtechpartners.com) — Friday, 20 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

TGIF! Do you have a favorite bar you'll be visiting this afternoon? Yep, me too. Take a sec and think about what makes it your favorite bar. ...giving you time to think... Did you come up with things like great atmosphere, good music, love the bartender? I bet many of you, like me, rank a bar based on the bartender(s). Bartenders are fascinating characters in our society. They become our best friends, our confidants, our counselors and sometimes even our mates (Whatever. Don't act like I'm the only one who's been there.). Even an ugly bartender can become attractive and keep you coming back as long as other important "bartender elements" are in place. In our world of law firms and legal tech, the person you allow to interface between technology and the people is often a trainer, or a help desk attendant. They ARE your firm's bartenders. Used wisely, they can be the most valuable weapon in your technology arsenal. As a free-lancing trainer, I'm often asked by clients what they should be looking for in a full-time trainer. The answer is quite simple: they, like bartenders, must be likable. A really good trainer is first and foremost naturally likable and liked by everyone - by partners, associates, word processors, staff, even by outside vendors. Think about this...you have to find (or be) a person who an attorney is willing to trade-in a billable hour for. Second, they need to be trainable. They should have a broad knowledge base that can easily and willingly be expanded and connected. Every mixologist graduates with the same skill-set. But based on the bar, region, holiday, clientele, etc, they are constantly learning and perfecting new concoctions. They are not afraid to say. "Never heard of that one! How's it go?" They need to love learning and experimenting as much as they do teaching. I worked at a firm once where the other trainer couldn't accept work outside her training scope. She truly believed that she was "just a trainer". That meant, not sitting at the help desk or participating in roll-outs. Can you imagine? Everything I know is from doing just those things. Guess you better not hire any prima donna's. They also need to be incredibly perceptive. They need to be able to hear, smell and touch thirsty. Good story for you: After a 3 hour training session with a group of secretaries, a trainer came out and said to me, "What a great class! They were so good, they were really fast learners. This upgrade is going to be a breeze." Well, upon further investigation (we simply asked), we found that the trainees weren't getting it, weren't following along and found her patronizing and annoying. She couldn't tell. She was terrible and so was her training. The situation was remedied (she was let go and they were offered extra deskside training) but it wasn't without some pain. So keep in mind, your bar is only as good as your bartender. How's that saying go about customers...if they like it they'll tell one person but if they hate it they'll tell ten? Get it as right as you can, because as with customers, with attorneys and support staff you only get one chance.

Records Retention and the Financial Crisis

John Montana | The PelliGroup, Inc. (www.pelligroup.com) — Wednesday, 18 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

A recent article in Computerworld discussed how the Wall Street crisis brings lax e-discovery law enforcement to light (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9125962). In summary, a number of experts are noting that lax enforcement of records and data retention laws, combined with inadequate oversight, is a factor in the recent meltdown of the financial services industry, and predicting, as I have predicted, that Congress is likely to respond with additional laws that may not be well-thought out or well-crafted. I might observe also that financial institutions in any way involved in the sub-prime mortgage mess, derivative securities issues or credit default swaps are likely to find the adequacy of their records management and retention programs (as well as their ability to conduct e-discovery) severely tested in coming months by litigation. There will be a tsunami of lawsuits seeking to untangle things, and I’ll go on record as predicting that many organizations will not be up to the test due to deficient records and information management programs and practices.

Thinking Ahead

Judge Christina Habas | District Court Judge, Colorado Second District — Friday, 13 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

LaHonya Ortega v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Case No. 07CV11177: 12/2/08 This is a Uninsured Motorist case involving policy limits of $25,000.00. Plaintiff claims that she was forced off the highway in snowy conditions by a tractor trailer driver, who veered into her lane, causing her to run off the road. Based upon the potential recovery, counsel has worked to reduce costs, and presents testimony of the main orthopedic surgeon by video deposition. The deposition was submitted to the Court the Wednesday before trial (the day before Thanksgiving). The Court ruled on the objections the first morning of trial, redacting answers to three questions. As the video is played for the jury, counsel stands by and turns the sound level down during the excluded testimony. The jurors are fairly confused, despite instructions from the Court, and at times, they laugh. There is also a lengthy statement by the witness in which he speculates about the effects of insurance, Medicaid and other issues on potential payment for surgery. This is not called to the attention of the Court, despite the Court ruling on an objection excluding this same information earlier in the deposition. Moral? Think ahead, especially if you are asking the Court to rule on objections. It is imperative that you give the Court, and yourself, adequate time to properly redact any video before presenting it to the jury. It takes very little time to prepare for this, but the impact on your credibility to the jury (by looking unprepared) is permanent.

COMPUTER VIRUS IS OUT OF THIS WORLD

Sharon Nelson | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Friday, 06 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

On August 27th, news sources reported that a computer virus was found on a laptop in the International Space Station. The virus was a W32.Gammima.AG worm, which is malware that steals login names and passwords from popular Internet games. NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries explained that the virus was detected through virus protection software, and did not pose a threat to the ISS computer systems. NASA was conducting an investigation to determine how the virus got aboard the space station. On website SpaceRef it was suggested that a flash drive brought aboard by an astronaut was the source of the virus. The story may be found at http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/antivirus/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210201099

BRAD PITT AND OTHER CELEBRITIES LURE USERS TO MALWARE

John Simek | Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Friday, 06 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

On September 16th, McAfee released its report on the riskiest celebrities to search for on the Internet. This year, the list was topped by Brad Pitt, as 18% of searches for downloads about him could result in the placing of malware or other online threats on your computer. The rest of the top ten, in order, included Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Heidi Montag, Mariah Carey, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz, George Clooney, and Rihanna. McAfee Senior Vice President of McAfee’s Product Development & Avert Labs explained that cybercriminals take advantage of American interest in celebrity gossip. He warned that capitalizing on celebrities was common, and to beware of any downloads after doing your celebrity searches. The McAfee press release, with more information about the threats for each celebrity, may be found at http://www.mcafee.com/us/about/press/corporate/2008/20080916_120000_y.html

A Tip for PowerPoint Presentations

Jim Calloway | Oklahoma Bar Association (www.okbar.org) — Tuesday, 03 Feb 2009 14:58:40 GMT

(Originally posted at Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog) If I am doing a CLE program, I'll generally try to submit written materials and not just print the PowerPoint slides for my materials. (There are exceptions.) But if I have submitted written materials in advance that are not the same as my PowerPoint slides, I would often be interrupted at the beginning of the presentation with "I don't have the slides here in the materials! Where can I get slides? Will you send me the slides?" So here's the solution. The day before the program (or the hour before if I'm being bad,) I print the PowerPoint slides to a PDF file; 2 or 3 slides per page depending on the images used. Then I use YouSendIt (http://www.yousendit.com) to "send" that file to my assistant or another of my e-mail accounts. I then copy the URL on the YouSendit download page and run it through Tinyurl.com (http://www.tinyurl.com) to make it smaller. Then I go back to my original PowerPoint and paste that tiny URL into the second page of the presentation in a very big font. It takes less than five minutes and now the second page of thePowerPointsays "Don't get writer's cramp. Download a PDF of this PowerPoint at http:TinyUrlWhatever." (Remember a big font on the URL.) Without becoming a paying subscriber, YouSendIt only allows 100 downloads, so if it is a really big audience, a simple workaround is do the above twice and have two links on the slide, with one link for last names A - L and one for M - Z. But realistically only 10% will ever download it anyway. Of course I also have to warn them that the link will only be active for 30 days, but I actually think there are more downloads of the file when there is a deadline. Most importantly, when I finish the presentation, I don't have an assignment afterwards to e-mail something to an attendee.

The Joys and Pains of Social Networks

Friday, 30 Jan 2009 06:58:40 GMT

They seem to have exploded around us: those new profile-housing, connection building, relationship highlighting, social and business on-line networks, such as LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com), Legally-Minded (http://www.legallyminded.com), Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com), and others. They are now hard to ignore. Many of us receive multiple invitations almost daily to join these networks. The evolution is often the same: first we ignore the invitations and the world of social networking. But after we receive more invitations, then our curiosity is piqued. So we create an account with one network (often LinkedIn), fill in the basic profile, accept a few invitations, then ignore it. But after accepting a few more invitations we decide maybe there is something to this new social networking thing, so we add more to our profile and attempt to add to our out-bound connections. Next thing we know, we are spending several hours a week tweaking or expanding our on-line social presence. The time consumed becomes greater and greater, but to what end? Where is this all headed? What return will I get on my investment of time and energy? What will happen if I don't adapt now? As businesspeople, we need to learn to manage our on-line networks so they work for us and not waste our time. We have to learn to understand the potential and limits of this new technology that may significantly change the way we interact and communicate with colleagues, clients, and potential clients. There are tools to help, such as Ping.fm (http://www.ping.fm) and TwitterFeed (http://www.twitterfeed.com), which make it easier to "write once/update many", but it takes time to learn the benefits and pitfalls of social networking. Be sure to join us at TECHSHOW 2009 (http://www.techshow.com) to learn more about social networking and other new technologies to enhance your business presence and increase the flow of new clients into your firm.

30+ Legal Tech/Practice Management Predictions for 2009

Ross Kodner | Microlaw (www.microlaw.com) — Wednesday, 28 Jan 2009 11:58:40 GMT

(Originally posted on Ross Ipsa Loquitur at 1205AM 1/1/09 at http://rossipsa.com/?p=264) It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without predictions, would it? Powered by a wonderful champagne just a few minutes ago, here are the short version of mine: 1) At LEAST 10% of the AmLaw 100 law firms will fold by the end of 2009 - the era of the megafirm is over. Heller Ehrman and Thelen are history. Who’s next? (Take a look at these websites - it’s positively chilling - when Goliath falls, he falls HARD!) 2) The rise of BigSolos - not sure what else to call them - these are emigrants/escapees/laid off/downsized lawyers from megafirms who decide to go the SSF route. I’m working with several helping them make the transition from megaoffice and being used to an army of bodies to help them to . . . being on their own. Watch for my upcoming SmallLaw column on Technolawyer this month on this very topic! 3) SaaS products start to make serious inroad in legal technology areas including practice management and billing systems. 4) Twittering will get more press than blawging as the “hot” approach to leveraging web technology to market one’s practice. 5) Windows Vista will quietly disappear from the scene, more than a year earlier than scheduled, to be replaced by Windows 7 - and we’ll all hold our collective breath hoping that it sucks a whole lot less. I suspect Microsoft shareholders will also be breathless waiting to see what happens. 6) Macs will finally get the attention of mainstream legal software publishers - who will at LEAST offer tech support for their Windows apps running on Macs under virtual machine setups such as those offered by Parallels and VM Fusion. 7) Personally, I suspect that I will migrate my primary laptop to be the 2.4 ghz Macbook I recently acquired - so I can have the best of both worlds using both Leopard and Windows XP Pro (not Vista - duh - that would be too cruel to do to any Mac), including a chance to relive my DOS days by getting to play at the OS X Terminal with command line fun. 8) Netbooks will continue to proliferate and aside from Windows XP Home and domain connectivity issues, will make inroads onto many lawyer’s desktops with universal USB port replicators for docking . . . this will spell the death for super-pricey “ultralights” which don’t offer enough functional difference to justify $1500-$2500 more than $400 netbooks. 9) Hoping more than predicting, 2009 just might be the year of practice management systems - breaking out of the 10-20% market share in part by embracing much tighter interaction with their collective ultimate arch-rival, Outlook and by finally looking better than other arch-rival: doing nothing - sticking with the status quo. Watch STI’s PracticeMaster to continue its Tabs 3-fueled rise in market share and reputation. 10) Another hope for 2009 - that more firms will get a clue about data backup and restoration - and learn that online backup alone is NOT adequate. 11) Firms will connect with each other, with clients and with courts ever more electronically, leveraging the explosive growth of Web 2.0 products such as Skype, Webconferencing with Webex / GoToMeeting and freebies like PowWowNow.com, PC Faxing will entirely replace traditional fax products and of course, Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Plaxo and other social connection / networking tools will become entirely mainstreamed as “standard” elements of law firm business development plans. Expect Citrix to be rediscovered as a powerful remote access tool that can drive a PDF-centric virtual/telecommuting law practice that has virtualized based on Paper LESS Case File technology. 12) Smaller corporate legal departments, fed up with the high cost of mainstream corporate matter management systems will repurpose private-firm oriented case management systems such as PracticeMaster, TimeMatters, Client Profiles, etc. to use them as matter managers … at a fraction of the cost at a time when legal department IT budgets will be slashed to the bone. 13) Many SSFs will seriously consider going virtual, cutting overhead by entirely eliminating a physical office space. 14) Virtual practice, made possible by a combination of “virtual officing” such as the services offered by companies like Regus will rise in popularity, especially among solos who maximize their profitability and flexibility by working primarily from home offices. 15) Legal applications will appear for the iPhone - including portable legal research capability. 16) Fastcase and Casemaker will make serious inroads into the primary legal research marketplace owned traditionally by Lexis and Westlaw. 17) Smart megafirm lawyers will take their entire practice groups private as boutique spin-offs, and devour their BigLaw competitors by offering identical expertise at MUCH lower costs. 18) The new economy will finally drive value billing and much more flat fee / project fee work in areas where such billing approaches haven’t been the norm. This will come as a reactionary response to intense pressure from commercial clients who will be unable and unauthorized to fund traditional hourly billing - they simply can’t afford it and its unpredictability any more. Firms that don’t comply will be replaced, longstanding relationships aside. 19) Microsoft will foolishly muck around with its success with interface redesign as seen in Office 2007, releasing Office 2009 with a “back to the bloat” approach. This will cause more and more firms to seriously consider: (a) OpenOffice with its no-cost distribution mode, (b) Google Apps and even (c) a small resurgence in Corel WordPerfect . . . with the rationale being that as long as firms are adopting a “PDF First” approach to electronic document exchange, who cares what word processor was used to generate the PDF. 20) CLE on legal technology will be better attended, as firms scramble to harness technology and finally integrate it into their workflow and case-handling processes. This will not be driven by a proactive desire to be more productive. Rather, it will be driven by reactivity, fueled by economic fears and a desire to absolutely minimize non-billable administrative time by maximizing billable/saleable time. Look at firms finally seeing practice management system-powered document assembly systems as a realistic way to accomplish this. 21) Practice management companies will finally wake up and realize that “automatable workflow” is the missing link that will drive sales finally into the 25-30% of the market range. I predict that SaaS products will be the first to offer workflow as a standard part of the practice management feature set, in part as a way to differentiate themselves from traditional products, and in part because they are so intensely innovation driven and can execute on new functions rapidly v. traditional coding. 22) The economy will suck for at least four years. Thanks George Bush for leaving us in such an extraordinary mess. The effort required to maintain a glass half-full, “make lemons out of lemonade” mindset will drive a significant increase in the prescription rates for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications. 23) Macs, as they continue to increase in marketshare, will get more and more unwanted attention from the criminal black-hat hacker element and organized digital crime, who will see opportunity in exploiting Mac security just as they do now with Windows systems. Many Mac users will be caught unprotected and unaware, leading to serious compromises of personal information at the individual and institutional levels. 24) Green will transition from being environmentally sound as the motivating element to being driven by a desire to cut costs and maximize profitability. Finally getting really serious about Paper LESS Offices, using less electricity printing/copying, less environmentally unfriendly toner/consumables - translates to more billable time and less cost - both Tightwad Technology-friendly approaches, as well as being thoroughly green. 25) Someone will find a way for Barack Obama to continue to use his Blackberry in a way that is secure enough to pass top-secret muster. It’s bad enough that he’s trying to quit smoking - but it’s not in the national and international interest to take away his ability to be constantly connected. Apple may come to the rescue with a super-secure “Presidential Edition” iPhone. 26) Metadata issues will finally be taken seriously in 2009 - driven by more reported “metadata disasters” that embarass corporations, government entities and law firms. This will drive sales of the top metadata removal product, Metadata Assistant to a very high percentage of all computer seats in all law practices. There will be rapid adoption of new ethics rules and issuances of ethics opinions related to metadata responsibilities in at least 50% of North American jurisdictions by year-end (I hope - what the heck are the states with zero guidance waiting for - get a clue people and guide your practitioners!) 27) Lawyers, desperate for business, will experiment with auctioning their services on eBay. 28) My son Jordan, who will be a freshman at Penn this Fall, majoring in Historical Linguistics and Latin, will ultimately chair either of those two departments . . . at Penn. Accordingly, I will be visiting Philly regularly. Pat’s and Jim’s cheesesteaks watch out – here I come. 29) My next car, to be acquired when my lease expires in November, will be a BMW diesel, getting more than 30 mpg - and will be among a flood of advance clean diesel cars coming to the U.S. market. 30) My dear techno.pal Bruce Dorner will leave the practice of law and become a Practice Management Advisor in a warm, southern state - a state smart enough to recognize his incredible value to its Bar membership. 31) The ABA’s Solosez listserve’s membership will balloon to 5000 members, with its ranks swelled by more and more “BigSolos” who are scrambling for practical advice about law practice on their own, without an army of staff to help them. 32) Social networking’s rise and fall - sure, we’re all Linkedin, Plaxo-ing, TXT-ing, IM-ing, Naymz-ing, Facebooking, and Twittering each other at a frenetic pace . . . now. Add in all our iPhoning and Blackberrying and human contact goes out the window. Human social skills - the kind you need when you’re actually shaking another person’s hand with a firm, determinedly professional grip, while looking them straight in the eye becomes a lost art. We spend so much time digitally connecting with each other, including spouses emailing each other . . . while both in the same bed, that a backlash ensues. I predict that within five years, there will be a return to a “novel” and “new” (for some) form of communication called “live networking.” Yes, meeting actual humans at social events, business / networking mixers, attending live CLE seminars to seek out camaraderie and companionship. Humans crave other humans and eventually, once the sheen of online social networking fades a bit, we’ll want to actually be around other people again. The truly savvy among us will NEVER lose this live human connection and will be seen as prescient masters of the previously “lost” art. No, I’m not saying digital communication will disappear. What I’m saying is that we’ll regain a sense of balance between live human interaction in our businesses and personal lives, with a rational and reasonable amount of digitalk. To get a sense of how I see this being so out of balance now, rent a film from ‘82 called “Koyaanisqatsi.” This art film, set to a haunting Philip Glass score, illustrates the Navajo concept represented by the film’s title, which apparently means “crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living.” Koyaanisqatsi is what we are experiencing now. It can’t and shouldn’t stay that way - it’s just not healthy. Of course, I could be completely wrong :-) Oh, and no. 33. I will finally finish my book called “A Paper LESS Life: Less Paper, More Time, More Money and a Happier Planet.” It’s been a long time coming. Regardless, 2009 will be interesting, to say the least. Let’s all hope.

Take Advantage of Discount Air Fares -- and ABA TECHSHOW!

Monday, 26 Jan 2009 9:58:40 GMT

Airline sales in January are not unusual, but right now many major carriers are not only offering sales but allowing you to extend travel until April, May or even June, according to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-mon-airline-fares-0112-jan12,0,7171116.story. So why not take advantage of these low fares and make plans to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2009? If the current uncertain economy has got you down, come learn to better use the technology you already have to improve the delivery of client services, while boosting your bottom line. And if you register before February 28th, you will receive a $200 Early Bird discount. With discounted air fare and admission, how can you afford not to attend? New tracks this year include E-Discovery Boot Camp, Tech for Client Development, Tech for Finance, A Day in the (Techno) Life and Virtual Office. And some favorites such as Trial Skills, Enterprise IT, Internet, I'm a Mac and two concurrent Solo & Small Firm Tracks on Friday make TECHSHOW one of the best CLE bargains around. You can check out all session titles, descriptions and speakers, which are now available on the TECHSHOW website.

Wireless Mouse or Wireless Keyboard Suddenly not Working?

Posted by Donna Neff | Neff Law Office (www.nefflawoffice.com) — Tuesday, 20 Jan 2009 19:58:40 GMT

Any other wireless devices nearby? That could be the problem. I work at home a fair bit and enjoy the convenience of a wireless mouse and keyboard when curled up on the sofa with two monitors set-up (my law practice is paperless, hence the two monitors!) and my Tablet snapped into its docking station. From time to time for no apparent reason, the keyboard and/or mouse stop working. I tried unplugging the USB wireless connector (the piece that plugs into one of the Tablet's USB ports to allow the keyboard and mouse to 'talk to' the Tablet) and moving it to another USB port. Sometimes that worked. I've also tried re-booting with mixed results. I've also checked that the batteries in the keyboard and in the mouse are OK. Recently, during a telemeeting with Dan Pinnington, I experienced the same old problem – the wireless mouse and keyboard stopped working when they had been working fine just moments before. Our telemeeting was delayed while I waited for my Tablet to re-boot. When I mentioned to Dan why I was in the midst of re-booting, he asked if a mobile phone was anywhere nearby. Sure enough, I had set my mobile phone down within a foot or two of the Tablet. Dan suggested that the mobile phone and wireless keyboard and mouse devices could be interfering with each other's signals and might be the cause of the problem. My husband, a hardware engineer, later confirmed that Dan was right. He also pointed out that my mobile phone could also be interfering with the indoor/outdoor thermometer that communicates wirelessly with the sensor located outdoors. My husband suggested that a good distance to separate the mobile phone from other wireless devices is at least three feet. Problem solved!

ABA TECHSHOW is on the Road....in Boston on February 11

Posted by Adriana Linares | LawTech Partners (www.lawtechpartners.com) — Friday, 16 Jan 2009 17:58:40 GMT

As the Chair of the Tech Core Group of the ABA's Law Practice Management Section (http://www.lawpractice.org) I'm happy to tell you about the very first ABA TECHSHOW Road Show. It's being held at the Massachusetts Bar Association on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - read the announcement here (http://www.massbar.org/for-attorneys/publications/e-journal/2009/january/01-08/aba). We have really exciting sessions being delivered by REALLY exciting speakers...check this out: The Mobile Office: Take Your Desktop in Your Pocket by Paul Unger (http://www.hmuconsulting.com/about-us/our-people/34-paul-j-unger-esq) and Debbie Foster (http://intouchlegal.com/debbie_foster) New Resources and Personal Knowledge Management by Catherine Sanders Reach (http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/about.html) and Adriana Linares (http://www.lawtechpartners.com/) Shock and Awe: PowerPoint for Opening Statements and Closing Arguments by Paul Unger and Catherine Sanders Reach Turbocharge Your Practice With Affordable Technology with Alan Klevan (http://www.massbar.org/for-attorneys/sections/law-practice-management) and Rodney Dowell (http://masslomap.blogspot.com/) PDF-ing for Lawyers by Debbie Foster and Adriana Linares Look Who’s Talking! What Lawyers Need to Know about Digital Dictation and Speech Recognition by Jim Calloway (http://jimcalloway.typepad.com/) and Dave Bilinsky (http://thoughtfullaw.com/) The Lawyer’s Guide to Managing Client and Case Information with Outlook by Debbie Foster and Adriana Linares Accidentally Successful: How to Tell if You and Your Firm are Making Money by Jim Calloway and Dave Bilinsky Two separate but simultaneous lunch sessions will feature 60 Tips and 60 Sites in 60 minutes. Get more details and register here (http://www.massbar.org/about-the-mba/mba-calendar/other-mba-events/aba-techshow-road-show). Hope to see you there. And don't forget to register for the BIG SHOW...ABA TECHSHOW (http://www.techshow.com/) in Chicago April 2-4.

Really Use Your Calendar to Manage Your Work

Posted by Laura Calloway | Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2009 | Alabama Bar Association — Tuesday, 13 Jan 2009 17:58:40 GMT

Here's a recycled tip I offered during ABA TECHSHOW 2005's 60 Tips in 60 Minutes. I think it's just as useful today as it was then. If every file on your desk is on fire, and it feels like your practice is approaching meltdown, how do you know where to start to put the fires out? Let common technology you probably already have help you. First, start by making a single TO DO list containing everything that you can think of that needs to be done. Don't try to organize tasks or arrange them by priority. Just list them. Second, once you have the list made, go over it carefully to break it into two lists - one for yourself and one for your secretary or legal assistant. Your list should contain just things that only you (a lawyer) can do. Everything else should be on the other list. If the other list looks humanly impossible, you probably need more help. Third, go over these two lists again, and divide each into two more lists, one high priority list for the things which must be done today and a second one for everything else. Revise the lists each afternoon before you leave or each morning as soon as you arrive at the office. Let the priority list guide your work during the day, but use the second list to add less pressing tasks as they come up. This way you can stay focused on what's most important, because you won't have to worry about forgetting something else. It's all on the list. Once you've done triage on your TO Do lists, here's where the technology part comes in. Let your calendar help you manage your time. In addition to noting the final due date of important events such as statutes of limitations, filing deadlines, and hearing and trial dates, whenever an item is placed on the calendar the responsible party should also calendar at least three advance reminders of the event. Then, use your calendar to better manage your work by not just creating ticklers for a particular day, but by actually scheduling appointments with your files on a specific day, at a specific time, for a specific length of time in order to make sure that the work actually gets done. If you take these appointments with your client files as seriously as you would take an appointment with the client, you are much less likely to allow yourself to be interrupted while you are doing the work. And if you set up two of these work appointments, with sufficient blocks of time to actually do the work, you're much more likely to complete it on time and without stress, even if it turns out to be more complicated that you anticipated. Actually scheduling appropriate blocks of time on the calendar to do work gives you a much idea of how busy you really are, and scheduling two sessions for doing the work also helps you avoid the time crunches that unexpected emergencies for other clients can otherwise cause.

There's No Cure for Stupid -- How Failing to Back Up Killed Journal Space (originally posted on Nerino Petro's Compujurist (http://compujurist.com) on January 2, 2009)

Posted by Nerino Petro | Practice Management Advisor, State Bar of Wisconsin — Friday, 9 Jan 2009 17:58:40 GMT

I and other legal bloggers like Ross Kodner constantly push the need for proper backups using a layered approach involving multiple points of data redundancy and backup. For a refresher check out one of my many posts on backups, including Don't Be an Idiot- Backup Your Data (http://compujurist.com/2007/10/25/don%E2%80%99t-be-an-idiot-backup-your-data/) or Ross' Great Truths About Data Backup (http://rossipsa.com/?p=162#more-162). Part of that backup strategy is to use hardware RAID (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html) to prevent against hardware failure. However, RAID itself isn't sufficient to safeguard against catastrophic loss or damage such as a fire, tornado, flood or someone inadvertently or deliberately overwriting your data. Seems the folks at JournalSpace, the popular blog hosting site, failed to pay attention to common backup strategies and best practices and didn't have ANY BACKUPS. That's right folks, none, nada, zip, zilch. Instead, they relied on a set of drives mirrored (RAID 1) on a server running OS X server. Somehow - they're not sure how exactly- their data was overwritten and its gone. Just like that, the data for everyone that had a blog with JournalSpace is out of luck unless they somehow made their own backups. There's a line from the movie Forest Gump -- "Stupid is as Stupid Does" -- that I think is appropriate in this instance. I say this because of the actions of the JournalSpace folks. If you look to what this line might mean, I agree with the following description from Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=392986): Forrest's version of the saying means that stupidity is not just a surface thing derived from a person's appearance. Stupidity is a matter of deeds, not looks. Like the other versions, it comes down to this: judge people by what they do, not by how they appear. If we judge JournalSpace by what they did, they were stupid. It's one thing if you lose your own data, but it's something else entirely when you lose other peoples' data that they have entrusted to you. You can read JournalSpace's take on things here (http://journalspace.com/this_is_the_way_the_world_ends/not_with_a_bang_but_a_whimper.html) in what I would describe as their obituary. I don't mean to make light of their loss, but this is something so basic and easy to prevent that it's hard not to wonder exactly where their heads were at when they decided to simply rely on mirrored drives to safeguard all of their data. As we start a new year, let their loss serve to reinforce your resolve to ensure that you have regular and tested backups of all of your critical data and information.

CHARGE INTEREST IN 2009

Steven J. Best | Best Law Firm Solutions (http://www.bestlawfirm.com/) — Tuesday, 6 Jan 2009 17:58:40 GMT

Many firms shy away from the idea of charging interest as being unprofessional or somehow underhanded. However, it is these firms that typically have the longest receivables period. Unless you charge interest, what incentive does your client have to pay you in a timely fashion, other than the risk that you may withdraw from their case? Hmmm… pay the attorney or go to Disney World? And as economic times continue to be forecast as gloomy, clients may put your bills aside and take even longer to pay you for legal services. And, a delinquent client, whose outstanding bills are accruing interest may call and seek some payment term or forgiveness – consider forgiving interest if they pay the principal due sooner rather than later. Yes, interest can be a bargaining chip to not only ensure on time payments, but also persuade a late paying client to catch up on his/her payments to your firm! Having said this, before you begin to charge interest, you should be proactive and ensure that whatever interest rate you charge is within the guidelines of your state or provincial bar rules and regulations, within the guidelines of statutory laws in your state/province and, most importantly, you should advise your client in engagement agreements and on each and every invoice that you send out that unpaid balances are subject to interest at xx rate. Thus, charging interest will certainly make your clients take interest in putting your bills in the pile of bills they intend to timely pay.

Ten Future Tech Shocks!

Tuesday, 30 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

Respected technology webzine, InfoWorld (http://www.infoworld.com/index.html), is out with their article, 10 Future Shocks for the Next 10 Years (http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/23/39FE-future-shock_1.html). It is a look forward as well as a look back at technology over the past 30 years that InfoWorld has been around (first in print; now digital). Fascinating stuff. Where will society be in 10 years; where will the legal profession be in 10 years? The ABA TECHSHOW (http://www.abanet.org/techshow/), celebrating its 23 year as both a part of the history and future of our profession, is pleased to welcome futurist, Richard Susskind, as the keynote speaker for the 2009 ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago. Known for his books, The Future of Law and The End of Lawyers, Mr. Susskind’s keynote address is sure to be thought-provoking and informative as lawyers continue to meet the needs of a technologically-driven flattening world.

McCain Campaign Sells Blackberry With Confidential Data

Dave Ries | Thorp, Reed & Armstrong (www.thorpreed.com) — Tuesday, 23 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

A news reporter recently purchased a Blackberry for $20 during a fire sale of McCain campaign equipment. The Blackberry was not wiped before the sale and the reporter was able to access confidential data including emails and contact information. 70% of data breaches reportedly involve laptops, PDAs, and portable media. Security is critical for these kinds of portable technology. This includes secure deletion of information before sale, reuse, or disposal. For information on this incident and security tips, see Computerworld - McCain campaign BlackBerry yields sensitive data and Computerworld - 5 ways to secure your Blackberry. For a more detailed discussion on mobile security, see Law Practice Today : “Securing Your Clients' Data While On the Road” (October 2008).

Payment of Technologists at Trial

Judge Christina Habas, District Court Judge, Colorado Second District — Friday, 19 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

Film/Video Equipment Service, Inc. v. Janice Kay Baker, etc., Case No. 07CV11123: 11/18/08 This is a business damages case brought by a company against its former Vice President of Sales. This is a document-heavy case, based upon emails and other documents. Despite the Court’s urging in Pretrial Conferences, there was no agreement by counsel to share the cost of the Technologist who is presenting exhibits during trial. Not surprisingly, one counsel asks in the heat of trial to utilize the Technologist’s services. There is an objection by opposing counsel because of his attempts to obtain agreement to share those costs. Not surprisingly, the court allows counsel to use those services, but advises that the court will allocate costs following litigation accordingly. Moral? It is almost unthinkable that counsel will not want to use technology to present exhibits at a trial involving business claims. A failure (even if based upon direction by the client as a cost-saving tool) impacts counsel’s credibility with the court, unnecessarily expands the time required for trial and forces the court to make rulings during trial on extraneous issues. Either have a back-up plan to efficiently present exhibits without technology, or agree to allocate costs according to the amount of time you take. Don’t burn your personal credibility with the court for lack of a plan on this issue.

JUDGE CRITICIZES CEO FOR FAILURE TO PRESERVE E-MAILS

Sharon Nelson, Sensei Enterprises http://www.senseient.com — Tuesday, 16 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

On September 2nd, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston imposed an adverse inference instruction against Oracle in its shareholder lawsuit because Oracle failed to preserve e-mail. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison failed to preserve e-mails and interview materials related to a book on Oracle. During discovery, Oracle produced only 15 e-mails from Ellison’s files, but produced over 1,600 Ellison e-mails from other employees – thus indicating that there were other e-mails in existence that were never produced. The book materials also were never produced because the book’s author disposed of a laptop containing the materials in 2006 or 2007. Since the destroyed evidence was relevant to the claim that Oracle knew about problems with its suite 11i, effects of the economy on Oracle’s business, and problems with Oracle’s forecasting model, the adverse inference instruction will tell the jury to infer that the missing e-mails and materials might show this knowledge. The ruling may be found at http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/ellison.pdf

Don't Overlook Simple Marketing Tools

Laura Calloway, Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2009 | Alabama Bar Association — Friday, 12 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

I read an interesting, and inspiring, article the other day. Entitled "The Real Road Less Traveled," the article by Dan Kennedy succinctly opined that success in the real world comes not to the most talented or best qualified people. It comes, instead, to those who just never give up. So what does this have to do with marketing and legal technology? Everything. Use the technology you already have in your law office to help you stick like glue to your marketing efforts. You don't need fancy, and expensive, CRM applications to keep up with your clients' likes and dislikes, whether it's regarding communication methods, billing cycles or anything else. Use the space for notes within an Outlook contact torecord important information about your clients' preferences and then refer to it often and share it with other staff members to provide customized client service. Make an "appointment" with yourself every week to keep in touch with one former client or have lunch with a current or potential referral source, and set a reminder. Don't dismiss it until you've followed through with sending an email or setting up a lunch date. If you really want more and better clients, the technology you already have can help you follow through on the efforts needed to bring them in. You just need to use it.

AIRPORTS LOSING MORE THAN 12,000 LAPTOPS PER WEEK

John Simek, Sensei Enterprises — Tuesday, 9 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

On June 30th, a Ponemon Institute study sponsored by Dell entitled “Airport Insecurity: The Case of Missing & Lost Laptops” was released. The study indicated that business travelers are losing more than 12,000 laptops per week at major U.S. airports, with only one third of the laptops reclaimed. The study also polled business travelers, and discovered that 53% of respondents said their laptop contained confidential or sensitive information, with 65% of those respondents not taking steps to secure their laptops. The results were disturbing, because the loss of these laptops could result in data breaches for many companies. The airports with the highest number of lost, missing or stolen laptops included Los Angeles International, Miami International, Kennedy International, and Chicago O’Hare. The busiest airport in the United States, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, ended up tied for eighth place with Washington’s Reagan National. The study may be found at http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/services/dell_lost_laptop_study.pdf

When You Don't Have Time to Talk...

Greg Siskind — Friday, 5 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

Don’t you sometimes just want to speak to someone’s voice mail rather than actually talking to the person? I’m not going judge your motives here, but am assuming that your goal is to keep your bill low by just getting the clients the information they need and not billing for a moment longer. Now you can bypass that conversation – with Slydial. Call 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425) and at the voice prompt, enter the US mobile phone number of the person you’re trying NOT to reach. You’ll then be directly connected to their voicemail. And, voila, you’re done.

The British Zubulake?

Browning Marean — Tuesday, 2 Dec 2008 17:58:40 GMT

For those of you who are interested in how the UK is approaching electronic discovery (aka disclosure), the following case is an excellent primer: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2008/2522.html. It makes for a most interesting and educational read

YouTube and the Changing Legal Profession

Reid Trautz — Wednesday, 26 Nov 2008 17:58:40 GMT

Recently, I attended a conference of law firm managing partners, practice management advisors, law firm CIOs and CMOs, law professors, and other legal management experts from the U.S., Canada, Scotland, England, and Australia. Professor Michael Wesch's YouTube videos came to my attention as we discussed the impact of Web 2.0 in the legal world. In June, Wesch, an anthropology professor at Kansas University, spoke before the Library of Congress about the cultural changes in the world highlighted by YouTube. (You may have already seen Professor Wesch's video, "The Machine is Using Us") I recommend you watch this presentation he gave to the Library of Congress: An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. This second video is almost an hour, but worth the time. It is food for thought as the legal profession evolves within a flattening world, as we adapt to the ideas of younger lawyers, and compete to survive and thrive in that evolving world. Keep track of your ideas as you watch . . .

Use of Highlights and Callouts on Exhibits

Judge Christina Habas — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:58:40 GMT

Film/Video Equipment Service, Inc. v. Janice Kay Baker, etc., Case No. 07CV11123: 11/18/08 This is a business damages case brought by a company against its former Vice President of Sales. Exhibits in this case are primarily made up of various email communications between Defendant and clients, vendors and other contacts of the business. Many exhibits are made up from email strings, including several different authors, recipients and dates. Before the court and jury are able to read the emails, the attorney highlights and does call-outs of portions of the emails. Moral Juries (and sometimes the court) are naturally cynical about highlights. They want to know what the exhibit contains before you tell them (through highlighting) that only portions of the exhibit are important. This helps your personal credibility and is not truly a waste of time. Use highlights and call-outs in a way that does not appear to prevent the jury and the court from understanding the context of the exhibit. You won’t look like you are trying to gloss over other information and impact your own credibility.

Safe Surfing – More than Just Your Browser

Catherine Sanders Reach: ABA Legal Technology Resource Center — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:27:46 GMT

Internet Explorer, still the most popular web-browser today, has long been derided for its susceptibility to security exploits. Along came Firefox to challenge the dominant Windows browser, promising a more secure environment. Both browsers have now been revamping, issuing new versions and making sure to let end users know that security and privacy are top of mind in the development process. Because IE is part of the Windows operating system those running Windows must keep Internet Explorer up-to-date and patched – even if it is not their primary browser. And, just because they do not seem susceptible to the high number of security holes, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome and others must kept patched and up-to-date. What’s more, when was the last time you updated your various browser plugins, add-ons and co-dependent applications? According to PC Mag's Security Watch end users do not keep add-ins up to date. For instance, Adobe Systems browser add-in Flash, that plays video and other types of multimedia, has been exploited several times. Adobe's free and widely available Reader application, which is called up by browsers to read PDF files, is constantly being updated with security patches. Other software that is called by the browser, like QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player must also be kept up to date. Also, keep in mind other plugins and addons, as these may put an otherwise secure browser at risk. Remember to only download applications and applets from reliable sources (preferably the vendor) and turn on automatic notification of updates if available.

Survey Finds Litigation Too Costly Because of E-Discovery

Sharon Nelson :: Sensei Enterprises — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:26:48 GMT

On September 9th, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) and the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) Task Force on Discovery released the results of a survey of trial lawyers from across the country. The survey called electronic discovery a “morass,” with 87% of lawyers stating that e-discovery is too costly. The survey also found that the excessive cost of discovery is forcing settlements, instead having settlements take place on the merits. Lawyers also believe that judges do not do enough to control excessive discovery, especially with costly e-discovery, with 89% of lawyers saying judges needed to assume a greater leadership role. The ABA Journal article on the survey, including a link to the report, may be found at http://www.abajournal.com/news/litigation_too_costly_e_discovery_a_morass_trial_lawyers_say/print/

Let New Software Guide Your Practice to Success

Laura Calloway :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2009 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:21:00 GMT

A business plan is your roadmap to the financial future. A well thought-out business plan demonstrates that you have done the homework necessary to launch your practice or to move forward to the next level. Business plans can be as simple or as detailed as you wish, but they always contain four essential elements: a general description of your practice, including the legal services you intend to provide and the markets you intend to serve; your financial plan, including a budget detailing anticipated revenues and expenses; your management plan, with a description of how you will set up your office and support the delivery of your legal services; and your marketing plan, showing how you intend to keep existing clients and reach new ones. For help in drafting a business plan that will move your practice forward, take a look at The Lawyer's Guide to Creating a Business Plan, A Step-By-Step Software Package, 2008 Version, by Linda Pinson. Based on her award-winning Automating Your Business Plan, this software package has been designed specifically for lawyers so they can make the right decisions for a successful and profitable business future. The step by step program assumes that you know nothing about writing a business plan and leads you through the process while it uses spreadsheets to do the calculations for you. It also comes with a PDF version of the book Anatomy of a Business Plan, and is available from LPM Publishing through the ABA's webstore . The LPM Member price is $149.95. Non-Member Price is $179.95. Item code is 511-0528. A bargain at any price.

New Search Site Can Help Collect Information About People

Mark Rosch :: Internet for Lawyers — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:06:05 GMT

123People.com is a meta-search site devoted to locating information about people from multiple publicly available sources on the Internet like social networking sites (e.g. Linked In, Facebook), news outlets, blogs, and individual Web sites. A name search returns information including: Street addresses E-mail addresses Phone numbers Images Biographies The site had previously only been available in Europe during its public trial period. Rivals include: pipl.com, wink.com, spock.com, peekyou.com, yoname.com, and to a lesser degree ZabaSearach (which only provides address and phone number results).

Call for Nominations for James I. Keane Memorial Award

Sheila Blackford :: Practice Management Advisor, OSB Professional Liability Fund — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:57:24 GMT

Attention innovators – are you delivering legal services over the Internet? Get recognized! Get to TECHSHOW! Get nominated for the James I. Keane Memorial Award for Excellence in eLawyering! The James I. Keane Memorial Award is named for James I. Keane, the founding Chair of the ABA eLawyering Task Force created in 2000 to carry out a presidential initiative of ABA President William G. Paul, of Oklahoma City, to examine ways that lawyers could use the Internet and other electronic resources to deliver legal services to people of moderate means more efficiently and effectively. Thus, the focus of the James I. Keane Memorial Award is the innovative delivery of personal legal services, with special attention given to firms and entities that serve both moderate income individuals and the broad middle class. For nomination materials and more information, visit the James I. Keane Memorial Award webpage http://www.abanet.org/lpm/award/jimkeane/. Nominations must be mailed by January 15, 2009, and will be reviewed by an impartial jury. Winners will be notified by February 15, 2009, and will be honored at a special ceremony at the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago in April, 2009.

ALSP Educational Event in Chicago

Tom Mighell :: Fios, Inc. — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:27:24 GMT

The Association of Litigation Support Professionals — the only organization whose members comprise the full range of individuals involved with litigation support — will host its first educational event. The 2008 ALSP Fall Forum: Education Through Collaboration, 13 – 14 November in Chicago, features two educational tracks designed for various professional levels, an executive workshop specifically for litigation support managers, a networking reception and ample opportunity for attendees to talk one-on-one with top solution providers. ALSP promotes peer-to-peer learning by providing top-notch sessions presented by your colleagues in the legal industry. Come away with helpful resources including checklists and industry best practices that you can use for quality control, client satisfaction and efficiency improvement. Visit www.alsponline.org/2008fallforum for additional information and to register. Questions? Contact info@alsponline.org or 800.430.6651.

The Most Boring Topic in Legal Technology . . . Will Save Your Practice One Day

Ross Kodner : MICROLAW — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:35:38 GMT

Yes, it’s the “B” word again: “backup” . . . the perpetually challenging question of how to effectively and practically backup your practice’s systems, client and firm information so you can restore it when the digital chips are down. I continually refer people to the article/post I wrote last November (still very current since it’s mostly procedural and conceptual) called “Ross’ Great Truths About Data Backup” (http://rossipsa.com/?p=162) This article includes the 16 key steps to a successful backup process. I would IMPLORE EVERYONE to read this and be certain your practice is following most, if not all these guidelines. Your livelihood depends on it. Frankly, it may also be the best way to avoid a malpractice claim for “failing to adequately protect electronic client and case information necessary for competent representation.” In my CLE programs on data backup, I’ve always exhorted my clients and audiences to memorize the two mantras of backup: 1. We don’t backup for the sake of backing up. We backup only so we can restore when the chips are down. 2. If you are doing ANYTHING in your backup process that could stand in the way of quickly and fully restoring your system, STOP IT NOW! The latest on this topic comes from a post I made on the gazillionth backup thread I’ve been involved with on various law practice management listserves (in this case from the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Practice411 list), as follows in a thread where a small firm lawyer asked: “What is the best computer backup system and why?” Long-time Wisconsin lawyer and technology authority Rex Ewald responded: “We have used Double Image since 2004 and have been completely satisfied with its performance. We backup on a robust schedule [separate cycled daily, weekly and monthly uncompressed backups – 23 in all]. Backups run automatically from the built-in scheduler.” I then responded: “Rex, you’re using this for server backup, correct? As I point out in my article, it’s VERY important to use server/network specific backup software for network servers v. software for backing up PCs that are not servers – two different animals. When I posted about the article last night – I was on my Blackberry at the Minneapolis airport so I could get to the article link. It’s called “Ross’ Great Truths About Data Backup. I have not specifically had experience with the Double Image software Rex mentioned, but I trust his experience with it. The best known server backup software (for Windows Server in its various iterations) is the Backup Exec series, now from Symantec. There are versions for both the Small Business Server version of Windows Server software and “regular” Windows Server. There are also editions that can allow “Disaster Recovery” which means the ability to not only restore from backups in the event of a complete server failure (when a FULL restore is required) (which would mean normally having to reinstall the network operating system, then install the backup software, then finally restore files – all of which takes time), you can literally pop in the Disaster Recovery CD (or DVD) created by the software, have it install enough of the network software and itself to allow much faster restoration – a real plus. Server-oriented backup software also is adept at doing things like backing up successfully even when there are “open” files (usually via something called an “open file agent”), backing up Microsoft Exchange Server databases, etc. Then there is backup software to backup regular PCs – PCs that are NOT network servers running a network operating system (standalone desktops and laptops, or desktops being used as “quasi-servers” in peer to peer network structures. There are a number of very capable standalone backup software products – I mention my favorites in the article. My current favorites are Acronis True Image Home 11, NTI Backup Now 5, Second Copy 7, and Genie Backup Manager Pro 8. PCMag.com did a round-up review of standalone backup systems – a really useful article. They actually rated the Genie product as their “Editor’s

Adobe's PDF Becomes an International Standard

John Simek :: Sensei Enterprises, Inc — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:43:48 GMT

On July 2nd, the International Standards Organization (ISO) announced that Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is a new international standard. Because PDF is a national standard, Adobe must turn over PDF to the ISO. The ISO will now be in charge of publishing specifications for the current 1.7 version, and for updating and developing future versions. The standard sold by the ISO will contain all the essential information for developers with a price tag of about $360. The ISO praised PDF in a press release for preserving the format of the original documents, something other software programs have struggled with. The full press release may be found at http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1141

How Shiny Is the Chrome?

Ben Schorr: Roland, Schorr and Tower — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:48:09 GMT

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from folks who are interested in Google’s new browser, dubbed “Chrome”. They want to know if it’s better, faster, taller, cures cancer…and if they should convert their firms over to it. The answer to those questions is: Sort of, yes, no, definitely not and….probably not. Chrome is very fast and it uses some interesting new (and open source, so expect them to become more commonplace) technologies to speed up the web experience. It also has a new javascript engine which speeds up the way some web applications (including, not-surprisingly, Google’s) will load and run. Chrome has some interesting technical features around how it handles multiple tabs to help make them faster (on multi-core machines), more stable and more secure. Chrome’s “Omnibox” blurs the line between web addresses and web searches. Chrome’s Application shortcuts isn’t exactly revolutionary but does let websites pretend to be local applications; at least in appearance if not in performance. However, Chrome still falls short on a couple of points. First of all some websites are still written for Internet Explorer and won’t work in Chrome. Firefox users can get around this by installing the IETab add-in (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419) which will render the site in IE, even though you’re using Firefox. But no such fix exists for Chrome just yet. Basically Chrome uses the same web rendering engine that Apple’s Safari does and so sites that don’t render properly in Safari aren’t going to work in Chrome either. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, there’s no way to secure your saved passwords in Chrome and there are already utilities coming along to take advantage of that. If you’ve got Chrome installed and you’ve saved any passwords in it go to the Wrench (Tools), select Options and go to the “Minor Tweaks” tab. Click “Show Saved Passwords” and…well, it will. In plain text. The results may be a bit shocking, especially if you’ve done any online banking in Chrome. Now I know what you’re thinking (O.K., I don’t, but it reads better this way) “But Ben, doesn’t Firefox do the same thing? I can go to Tools, Options, Security, click the Saved Passwords button and see all my saved passwords in clear text!” Yes. But in Firefox, on the same screen, you can also check that box that says “Use a master password” which lets you password protect them. Check that box (and you should) and anybody sitting at your computer (or walking off with it) who tries to access your saved passwords will be asked to provide one first. Chrome doesn’t offer that rather important safeguard. At least not yet. Conclusion? Chrome has some nice shiny bits. It’s quick, it’s lean, it has some interesting innovations – most of which will likely find their way into the competing products in the not-too-distant future thanks to Google making it largely open-source. It also has some significant limitations like being sort of lean on features, not as extensible as some of its competitors and a little free with displaying your stored passwords.

National Economic Research Associates v. Evans

John Montana : The Pelligroup — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:12:00 GMT

Nat’l Economic Research Assocs., Inc. v. Evans, LECG Corp., 21 Mass. L. Rptr. 337 (Mass. Super. Ct. Aug. 3, 2006). Services such as Yahoo mail make a screen shot of your activity in a temp file, such that password- protected e-mail you access is accessible later in the form of the temp file screen shot. In this case, the employer sought access to otherwise privileged attorney/client e-mail from a private, password-protected account (stored on an employuer-owned computer as a temp file) based upon a theory that a reasonable person would have known of the screen shot temp file and that these would be accessible to a forensic expert; and that privilege was thereby waived. The court rejected this argument, stating that: “This Court does not agree that any reasonable person would have known this information. Certainly, until this motion, this Court did not know of the routine storing of “screen shots” from private Internet e-mail accounts on a computer’s hard disk.” The court then concluded that: “The bottom line is that, if an employer wishes to read an employee’s attorney-client communications unintentionally stored in a temporary file on a company-owned computer that were made via a private, password-protected e-mail account accessed through the Internet, not the company’s Intranet, the employer must plainly communicate to the employee that: 1. all such e-mails are stored on the hard disk of the company’s computer in a “screen shot” temporary file; and 2. the company expressly reserves the right to retrieve those temporary files and read them. Only after receiving such clear guidance can employees fairly be expected to understand that their reasonable expectation in the privacy of these attorney-client communications has been compromised by the employer.” This is one of a series of recent cases potentially limiting the scope of employer policies granting the employer unlimited access to data on employer-owned computers. The usual rule of thumb that employer access to data is virtually unlimited if stated in a policy may need re-visiting, or at least employers may have to draft such policies with considerably more care and in more detail in the future.

ABA Recommends States Not Require Computer Forensics Technologists to Have Private Investigator Licenses

Sharon Nelson : Sensei Enterprises, Inc. — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:20:26 GMT

In late August, the American Bar Association approved a resolution by the Section for Science and Technology law recommending that states should not require those performing computer forensics services to procure a private investigator license. The recommendation includes computer forensics services involving the review of computer information, whether it is for court purposes or providing expert testimony, and the testing and securing of computer networks. The recommendation also supports establishing a separate set of professional standards for the computer forensics industry. The report lays out reasons for the recommendations, most notably that computer forensics is distinctly different than what most private investigators do, and that most private investigators do not possess the science and technology background that is necessary to conduct computer forensic examinations. Further, many computer forensic experts would be excluded from the trial process because they are not licensed as private investigators, though the computer forensic experts have many other professional certifications that make them qualified to testify in court. The report also notes that licensing requirements are not one of the factors laid out by the Supreme Court in determining the reliability of evidence. The recommendation and report may be found at http://www.abanet.org/leadership/2008/annual/recommendations/ThreeHundredOne.doc

Mac Lawyers Forum Reaches 800+ Members; Open to All Lawyers

Reid Trautz :: American Immigration Lawyers Association — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:26:31 GMT

Mac Lawyer blogger, Ben Stevens, recently noted the Mac in the Law Office (MILO ) forum is now over 800 members strong with over 10,000 informative posts covering a wide range of Mac issues and solutions in a law office. Membership is limited to the legal profession; however, membership is free. The growth of Macs and iPhones in law offices is impressive, and will be covered more thoroughly than ever at TECHSHOW 2009. Watch this space for more TECHSHOW program information coming soon!

Vasilios Haralampopoulos v. Jason Kelly, et al. 9/16/08 (PowerPoint)

Judge Christina Habas :: District Court Judge, State of Coloragdo — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:25:52 GMT

This medical malpractice action is being tried to a jury. We are in the midst of the final Defendant’s Opening Statement, and all Defendant’s counsel have used PowerPoint. The first lawyer is having difficulties with slides advancing very quickly – apparently nerves are causing her to hit the button multiple times. In frustration, she puts down the remote and asks her technology specialist to navigate for her. A different lawyer experiences a similar problem when the screen goes to white and she is unable to bring up the presentation. Frustration is apparent for both lawyers. Moral? Learn all of the required commands and full use of the remote. A lawyer’s frustration over a PowerPoint presentation working differently than the lawyer had planned is nothing compared to juror frustration over the delays it causes. Further, it is rarely the technology’s fault. Educate yourself. Completely. Learn how to start, stop, go back, go forward, skip around and go from blank screen to a slide. PRACTICE. Then practice some more.

The Challenge of Proportionality

Browning Marean :: DLA Piper — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:31:12 GMT

The last sentence of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 1 requires that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ‘shall be construed to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.’ As I approach the curmudgeon years of my legal practice, I fear that this mandate has been overlooked, ignored and abandoned. The threat comes from the considerable challenges of electronic discovery, its excessive costs, and the gamesmanship possible with electronic data. I don't pretend to have all or any of the answers. There is a paradigm shift underway from the pure adversary system to one in which considerable cooperation is demanded at the inception of the case. There is a real tension between zealous advocacy and the disclosures required under federal and state rules. Since I don't have the answers, I would be interested in initiating a dialogue where readers of this blog might contribute their thoughts on what can be done and what should be done to confront the challenges of electronic discovery. If we'll are unable to develop an effective modus operandi for electronic discovery, I fear that civil litigation will be foreclosed for many of us. Please send your opinions to me at b.marean@gmail.com and I'll summarize them in an upcoming post.

Last Call for Breathalyzer?

Laura Calloway :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2009 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:07:02 GMT

Every couple of days I try to scan the items in All Things Digital. There are lots of them and they mostly cover products and news that's of interest to people heavily involved in the technology industry, but every once in a while I run across something that, in my view, at least, should be very interesting to practicing lawyers, too. My most recent "legal find" there was a link to a piece by Nate Anderson, associate editor of Ars Technica, reporting on some DUI cases in Minnesota which had been thrown out by the courts. Defense attorneys had requested that the manufacturer produce the source code from the computers which run the Intoxilyzer 5000EN so that the accuracy of the machine's readings could be investigated and challenged. Given the number of items with onboard computers with which people interact every day, the possibilities for lawyers to challenge results which we used to accept at face value boggle the mind.

Controlling the Office Ribbon

Catherine Sanders Reach :: ABA Legal Technology Resource Center — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:59:56 GMT

MS Office 2007 provides some improvement over MS Office 2003, as well as overall changes in appearance. One of the biggest changes to the appearance in such applications as MS Word and MS PowerPoint is how the menu items are displayed, called "The Ribbon". While the Ribbon helps by grouping similar tasks together under headers that may make more sense to the average user (or not), it takes up a good bit of screen real estate. Once you've learned your way around the Ribbon you may no longer want, or need, to see it in full effect as you are using the application. Users can turn off the Ribbon by going to "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" at the very top of the screen (unless you moved it below the Ribbon) and checking "Minimize the Ribbon". However, this option removes the Ribbon until you uncheck the option again. However, the Ribbon can float in and out only when you need it, with a few mouse-clicks. To create a “smart” Ribbon view follow these steps: To hide the Ribbon click four times in quick succession (2 double clicks) on the Ribbon tab title (example, in MS Word the tab for “References” or “Review”). The Ribbon will disappear. To see the Ribbon options again for that tab simply click once on the tab and the Ribbon will appear again. Select your option, resume work, and the Ribbon disappears again. To have the Ribbon again show permanently clicks on any Ribbon tab again 4 times in rapid succession (2 double clicks). Get back some of your screen real estate with this tip!

iPhone May Be Best Smartphone for Lawyers

Jeff Richardson :: Adams and Reese, LLP — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:58:17 GMT

Apple released a software update for all iPhones, version 2.1. With this latest update, a strong case can be made that the iPhone is the best smartphone for lawyers. When the original iPhone was released in 2007, it was a breakthrough product because it was both one of the most advanced smartphones ever created and also the easiest to use. But it had some limitations that were critical for many lawyers. Most importantly, it lacked integration with Microsoft Exchange, a feature that lawyers with Blackberries, Windows Mobile and Treos running Goodlink have depended upon for years. When a lawyer doesn’t have full access to his or her law firm e-mail, a smartphone just isn’t that smart. The original iPhone also lacked 3G, which made web browsing slow when you were away from WiFi, and lacked the ability to add third party software (unless you hacked it). The original iPhone was still a marvel of design and amazingly stable for a 1.0 release, but the missing features caused many lawyers -- like me -- to wait on the sidelines. On July 11, 2008, Apple released the new 3G iPhone and updated the software to version 2.0. This hardware and software update added what lawyers need: excellent integration with Microsoft Exchange, the speedy 3G AT&T network, and the ability to easily download third party software using Apple’s App Store. But unfortunately, there were some shortcomings with the 2.0 software that took away from the iPhone experience. Battery life was limited (a problem that, to be fair, exists on all 3G phones), syncing to a computer was sometimes painfully slow, callers in some areas of the country had problems with dropped calls, etc. And unlike the very solid first generation iPhone, the 3G iPhone with the 2.0 software had many bugs and would often crash. The crashes were very graceful -- there were no “blue screens of death;” you simply return to the home screen -- but bugs are always annoying, no matter how small or well handled. So as a result, the iPhone 3G gave lawyers the features that they wanted, but the bugs, battery life issues and other problems detracted from the experience. On September 12th, Apple released a software update for all iPhones, bringing the software to version 2.1. This is a major update. As Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs said a few days before the update was released: “The 2.1 software update is a big update. It fixes lots of bugs. You’ll get fewer call drops. You will get significantly improved battery life for most customers. We have fixed a lot of bugs where if you have a lot of apps on the phone, you’re not going to get some of the crashes and other things that we’ve seen. Backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster … and there’s some great new performance enhancements as well. So 2.1 software update is a big one for the iPhone.” As he spoke, you could almost see the thought bubble over Steve Jobs’ head with the words “…and this is the version that I wish we had shipped on July 11th.” The update has now been out for just over a week, and by most reports, the update delivers what Steve Jobs promised. For me, syncing has been dramatically faster (before the update it sometimes took over an hour; now it takes a very reasonable minute or two and sometimes just a few seconds), the phone is far more stable, and battery life is much better. With version 2.1 of the software, I now believe that the iPhone 3G is the very best smartphone for lawyers. Much has been written about the unique advantages of the iPhone and I won’t try to capture it all here. For example, there is an excellent and comprehensive series of articles on AppleInsider written by Daniel Eran Dilger of RoughlyDrafted magazine (here are links to parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) and also good are the reviews by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and iLounge. But here are a few of my favorite things on the iPhone 3G. First, the iPhone gives me great access to my Exchange e-mails. The large display with excellent use of graphics and fonts makes e-mail far easier to read and manage than on any other smartphone. Second, the web access

Will Lawyers Soon Be Obsolete?

Laura Calloway : Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:23:58 GMT

Professor Richard Susskind, renowned legal technology specialist from London, England, will answer this and other questions of pressing interest to practicing lawyers when he joins us at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 as keynote speaker. Professor Susskind has specialized in legal technology for 25 years. During his keynote presentation on Thursday, April 2, he will discuss topics from his latest book, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (OUP, 2008). This book examines the effect of advances in information technology on legal practice, analyzing anticipated developments in the next decade. Can the role of the traditional lawyer be sustained in the face of the challenging trends in the legal market and new techniques and technologies for the delivery of services? The answer is important to your future. An independent adviser to major professional firms and to national governments, Professor Susskind lectures internationally and has been invited to speak in over 40 countries. He has written and edited numerous books, including Expert Systems in Law (OUP, 1987), The Future of Law (OUP, 1996) , Transforming the Law (OUP, 2000) and The Susskind Interviews: Legal Experts in Changing Times (Sweet & Maxwell, 2005) and is a law columnist for T he Times (of London). Professor Susskind has advised on numerous government inquiries and, since 1998, has been IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England. In 2003, he was appointed by the Cabinet Office as Chair of the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information. He holds law professorships at Gresham College in London and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Professor Susskind has a first class honors degree in law from the University of Glasgow and a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society, and was awarded an OBE in the Millennium New Year's Honours List for services to IT in the Law and to the Administration of Justice. The insights into the future of your legal practice this phenomenal keynote speaker will bring is just one more reason to mark April 2-4, 2009 on your calendar and start making plans now to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2009.

Getting the Most from Excel 2007

Nerino Petro : State Bar of Wisconsin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:23:41 GMT

Excel is one of those programs that has a thousand and one uses in a law office, but getting the most out of it can sometime be a challenge. I am always on the lookout for ways to do more, easier with Excel and came across this post titled Hidden Gems in Excel 2007 at Office Online in the Office Hours section. More Office Hour articles can be found at the Office Hours Home Page. Originally posted on Compujurist (http://compujurist.com )

Report Finds Blogger Arrests Increasing Around the Globe

John Simek :: Sensei Enterprises, Inc. — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:54:54 GMT

On June 8th, the World Information Access released its "Blogger Arrest Report," which indicated that 64 people around the globe have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog since 2003. The arrests were for blogging about various things, such as government corruption, human rights abuses, or criticizing public policies or officials. Many of the bloggers arrested were put in jail, with the average jail time being 15 months and the longest jail time 8 years. Over half of the arrests were made in China, Egypt and Iran. The report credits the increased importance and popularity in blogging for the increase, and predicts that the number of bloggers arrested would increase from the 36 arrests in 2007. The full story may be found at http://www.wiareport.org/index.php/56/blogger-arrests

Quon et al v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. et al, 07-55282 (9th cir.)

John Montana :: The Pelligroup, Inc. — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:00:29 GMT

In this decision from the Ninth Circuit, the plaintiff was a police officer in Ontario California. He used a text messaging device provided by the city. The city had an e-mail and internet policy stating that there was no expectation of privacy on city-owned systems and that information on them was city property, but a superior had previously verbally stated that messaged would not be reviewed as long as long as overage charges were paid by the employee using the device. The city decided to investigate excess usage of the devices, and examined messages on, among others, the plaintiff’s device. Plaintiff sued, alleging a violation of the Stored Communications Act and the 4th amendment. The 9th Circuit concluded that because of the verbal statements by the superior, the plaintiff had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and therefore the city could have and should have used a less intrusive means of investigating excess usage than reading the messages. This case is significant for a couple of reasons: most businesses have a computer and e-mail policy similar to the one at issue, and the general rule is that a policy of this sort is reasonable and enforceable. The case calls into question the viability of any such policy in the 9th Circuit, and may force multi-state employers into having two policies: one for the 9th Circuit states,and one for the rest of the country. Further, it encourages draconian enforcement of any such policy, at least in the 9th Circuit, since any lenient enforcement or lack of enforcement may give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy and in effect invalidate the policy.

Google Chrome -- A New Browser in Town

Nerino Petro:: State Bar of Wisconsin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:12:21 GMT

The current struggle for internet browser supremacy has primarily been a fight between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla, with secondary roles by Opera Software’s Opera web browser and Apple’s Safari web browser. The battle lines haven’t changed a great deal in the past several years, although Internet Explorer has slowly been losing ground to Firefox. The future of the browser war looked to continue in much the same fashion until Monday September 1, 2008. Google, the internet search company, announced that it would release a new, open source web browser called Chrome on Tuesday September 2, 2008. This move may have a serious impact on the current struggle for browser supremacy and could possibly be the beginning of the end for internet browsers as we know them. For more information and links on this news, check out my post on Compujurist at http://compujurist.com/2008/09/02/google-chrome-takes-on-microsoft-and-mozilla/

Duplicate Exhibits at Trial

Judge Christina Habas — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:23:54 GMT

Colorado Catastrophe and Restoration, et al. v. Ted and Dorothy Newman: 7/14/08: This Breach of Contract case arising from reconstruction of a home residence after a fire is being tried to the court. Several “duplicate” exhibits are offered, including the original Work Authorization; Scope of Work Estimate; City Building Inspection Report; and email communications between the parties. Each time a lawyer refers to an exhibit designation for a document that has previously been admitted under a different exhibit designation, it raises questions about why there is more than one version of the document being used. In most cases, there is no reason for this, other than the lawyers have not compared exhibit lists and worked to avoid duplication. Upon direct questioning by the court as to any differences between the exhibits, the lawyers are uncertain as to why more than one version has been offered. Moral? Use of duplicate exhibits may cause confusion or lead to questions even where none previously existed. Lawyers should carefully review any exhibit that appears to be a duplicate, and either remove a true copy, or quickly and specifically draw the court’s attention to any differences between the apparent duplicates. Sometimes, technology will be the most efficient way to identify these differences (scanning the documents and making a page-by-page comparison is a start) – although good, old-fashioned eyeballing may be required. Otherwise, the court is left to wonder why – this consequence is even more troublesome with jurors, as a juror with an unanswered question may be distracted by this “non-issue” during questioning that the lawyer deems important.

Judge Rules Privilege Waived on Disclosed Electronic Documents

Sharon Nelson :: Sensei Enterprises, Inc. — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:02:57 GMT

On May 29th, Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that privilege was waived when defendants disclosed 165 electronic documents to the plaintiff. The case was a copyright infringement suit, and defendants turned over the documents as part of discovery after using keyword searches to identify privileged documents. The court found that because defendants did not demonstrate that their search was reasonable, defendants had waived privilege by disclosing the documents. The court stated that defendants could have showed reasonableness if they had stated why certain keywords were chosen, what the search was supposed to accomplish, and how the search protected against disclosure of privileged materials. In his opinion, Grimm emphasized the problems with keyword searches, including the risk of under-inclusive or over-inclusive terms resulting in privileged information being disclosed, and non-privileged information not being disclosed. These problems demonstrated why the party performing the search needs to present a rationale for the method chosen, show that the search was appropriate for the task, and show that it was properly implemented. The court also explained how to adequately assert privilege under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Grimm explained that the reasons for claiming privilege must be laid out in a privilege log, and that disputes would be settled by an in-camera review of the documents by the courts. The case is Victor Stanley Inc., v. Creative Pipe Inc., and the full opinion may be found here.

Marching Towards ABA TECHSHOW 2009

Tom Mighell :: Cowles & Thompson, P.C. — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:50:54 GMT

We're back! We took off some time after a very successful ABA TECHSHOW 2008, but the TECHSHOW blog is back in business. We'll be providing updates on the planning of the conference, tease you a bit with some of the new things we have in mind for next year's show, and as always provide timely and useful technology information to our readers. Stay tuned!

It’s All Over But The Shouting!

Laura Calloway :: Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2009 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:07:52 GMT

That’s what we say down here in Alabama when the game is over but the fun goes on. Which is exactly where we are with ABA TECHSHOW 2008. There is still a little more packing up and putting away to be done before we can finally put TECHSHOW 2008 to bed, including tabulating the results of all the evaluations and making note of all the good suggestions we received for ways to improve your ABA TECHSHOW experience next year. Final versions of all PowerPoint presentations have been collected, and attendees can expect to receive an email blast with the link to them by next week at the latest. Nevertheless, we’re already busy at work planning for ABA TECHSHOW 2009! ABA TECHSHOW 2009 will take place April 2-4, 2009, once again at the Hilton Chicago, and Tom Mighell will be a tough act to follow! Fortunately, he has agreed to hang around a while longer and act as our director of interactive media for 2009, to make sure our attendees keep blogging, Flickring, and Twittering their way through the show. I am also fortunate to have an extremely capable planning board for next year’s show, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them publicly for agreeing to serve. Returning planning board members include Debbie Foster, who will be serving as vice-chair, Catherine Sanders Reach, Judge Herbert Dixon and Paul Unger. New board members for TECHSHOW 2009 are Reid Trautz, Dominic Jaar, Browning Marean and Ben Schorr. Please mark your calendars for April 2-4 2009, sign up for the ABA TECHSHOW blog feed, visit our web site frequently, and plan NOW to join us next year in Chicago for the world’s premier legal technology continuing legal education conference and expo!

It's a Wrap!

Tom Mighell :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:02:48 GMT

Well, it's over -- last week ABA TECHSHOW 2008 saw more than 2,000 attendees, 120 vendors, and 60+ legal technologists presenting more than 50 educational sessions, and from what I've heard so far a good time was had by all. Here are some of the highlights: Keynoter Marc Rotenberg gave a timely and well-received presentation on "The Anatomy of the Eliot Spitzer Investigation," then sat down with me for a lively discussion on privacy issues and how they affect us all. ABA TECHSHOW After Dark was a terrific success, with attendees, speakers, and exhibitors mingling together with food, drink, and the sounds of the Empty Can Band. We were honored to present Cowell Taradash, P.C., the founders of IllinoisDivorce.com, with the first annual Jim I. Keane Award for Excellence in E-Lawyering, at a luncheon that was well attended by our conference registrants. Once again the Taste of ABA TECHSHOW Dinners on Friday night were the place to be, with over 130 of our attendees and faculty dining and discussing technology topics at restaurants around Chicago. As usual, the educational content reigned supreme. Every attendee that spoke to me mentioned the consistently high quality of our ABA TECHSHOW speakers. If you're weren't able to attend, check out the ABA TECHSHOW Buzz, where you can still find blog postings and photos from the conference. We'll be keeping the Buzz going all year long, so that you can keep up on the latest that's going on with ABA TECHSHOW -- just subscribe to the feed! It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2008, but now it's time to turn things over to the new team. I am pleased to announce that Laura Calloway, Director of the Alabama State Bar's Law Office Management Assistance Program, will serve as Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2009. You'll be hearing from her on the TECHSHOW Blog very soon!

ABA TECHSHOW Buzz Is Live!

Tom Mighell :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:46:16 GMT

A few weeks ago I mentioned that ABA TECHSHOW 2008 is experimenting with several new tools that make it easier for our attendees (as well as those who couldn't make it) keep up with what's going on at the conference. Well, this afternoon we launched the ABA TECHSHOW Buzz at www.techshow.com/buzz -- it's the place where all the action will occur once the conference gets started! Here's what you'll see there: -- An aggregated feed of blog posts authored by our ABA TECHSHOW attendees, faculty, and even exhibitors. -- A stream of photos taken at ABA TECHSHOW -- A Twitter stream, with conference updates as well as personal messages from our attendees and others -- A Del.icio.us feed, where you can find links to some of the great sites that are mentioned during ABA TECHSHOW You can see everything on the Buzz page, but if you want it to come to you, we've created RSS feeds you can easily add to your favorite newreader. If you want to participate in creating Buzz for ABA TECHSHOW, or if some of these tools are brand new to you, we've posted a Buzz Cheat Sheet (http://www.abanet.org/techshow/docs/2008/buzzcheat.pdf), with instructions on how to use each of the four services. The only rule that we have is: play nice. We reserve the right to remove content that we deem inappropriate for the ABA TECHSHOW audience. Jump right in -- we're ready to start!

Photographs are Not Always the Best Option

Judge Christina Habas — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:27:14 GMT

This is a case involving a collision between an ambulance (running with emergency lights and siren) and a light rail train, which caused the train to derail and collide into a building. The lawyers are using many photographs of the area and the vehicles, taken right after the accident, as well as several dates thereafter. The intersection where the collision occurred was in the midst of significant construction at the time of the collision, and has changed quite a bit since that time. One of the central issues in the case is the visibility of certain things at the scene: whether the ambulance driver could see the light rail train, and vice-versa, as well as the vantage points of various witnesses. Although the lawyers are inundating the jury with photographs, none of the photographs adequately depict the line of sight at critical points in the action. Witnesses are almost always saying that the photographs do not accurately set out what they could, or could not, see. Moral? Think about whether the photographs you have are sufficient to show the jury what you want them to see, or whether their use confuses the jury. Photographs carry with them a great amount of authenticity and credibility, but only if they are not confusing. Lawyers do not always have the luxury of having photographs taken at their direction immediately after an event – instead, we rely on law enforcement or investigators to take sufficient photographs for their needs. Don’t try to force a photograph to be more than it is – thus adding confusion to the trial. If a photograph doesn’t do the trick, consider using drawings based upon testimony, and explain why no photograph shows that unique vantage point. Or better yet, consider using a technology such as Trial Director or Case Map, and asking witnesses to draw on the photograph to enhance the accuracy and applicability to your case. Do not simply use a large number of photographs that do not clarify the witness’ testimony – use a visual aid, but make it the correct visual aid.

ABA TECHSHOW Tips Extravaganza – Helping You Succeed In The Practice Of Law

Dan Pinnington :: Editor, Law Practice Today Webzine — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:55:11 GMT

Year after year, without fail, the best-attended and most highly rated presentations at ABA TECHSHOW® are the "60 Tips in 60 Minutes" sessions. These fast-paced presentations are packed with practical bite-size nuggets of information. For those that aren’t familiar with this format, these are fast-paced presentations in which 3 or 4 of our best ABA TECHSHOW presenters actually run through 60 or more slides in 60 minutes. A tip might show you a simple way to improve client service, manage your time or avoid an ethics trap. Or it might tell you of a really useful Web site, an underused but essential feature of a software program, or a simple and effective way to market yourself. Whatever it’s about, you listen and you get it—and you go back to work and put the tip to use the very next day. Now, I will admit I get more exited about tips than most (OK, more than everyone), but few if any presentations pack more information and education into 60 minutes. It is a guarantee that everyone walks out of an ABA TECHSHOW tips presentation with at least a few nuggets. Exclamations of "wow – I didn’t know you could do that" are frequently heard. Each year at least a few attendees tell us "that was the best presentation I have ever seen". Well, for all those that can’t make it to TECHSHOW, we thought, why not take the same approach for the ABA TECHSHOW issue of Law Practice? So we’ve tapped some ABA TECHSHOW speakers and favorite writers for their best tips on using technology to tune up your practice. They’ve covered some hot trends and topics for your reading pleasure. Read them here. Squeezing Your Office into the Palm of Your Hand Impressing (Not Annoying) Judges Going Paperless Pleasing Clients with Top-Notch Communications Taming Voice Recognition Software Leveraging Google Tools Hot New Web Sites Billing More Time Enjoy the tips! And, if you really like them, please consider coming to see us at TECHSHOW next year. PS: Do You Have Tech Tips to share? We want to hear from you – share your wisdom with your fellow LawPracticeToday e-zine readers. Send your best practical and helpful tips to LawPracticeMagazine@gmail.com. The best will be published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. —Dan Pinnington, Guest Editor Law Practice Magazine, April 2008 Issue Dan Pinnington writes the Tips & Tricks column for Law Practice, is Editor of Law Practice Today webzine, and is a past chair of ABA TECHSHOW.

Loss or Theft of Laptops and Mobile Devices is a Great Security Risk

Dave Ries :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Planning Board — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:09:04 GMT

Mobile technology is a necessity for most attorneys today. While it provides great benefits, it also presents great risk. Laptops, mobile devices and portable media can be easily lost, stolen or compromised. An August 2007 survey reports that 70% of data breaches result from the loss or theft of off-network equipment. The most common devices involved are laptops and PDAs, followed closely by USB drives. Important first steps are understanding t he risksand then paying constant attention to them. Some additional steps are storing only necessary information, strong authentication, use of encryption, not leaving them visible in cars, and use of security devices, like cable locks. These and other critical security measures will be explored at TECHSHOW on Saturday morning in Securing Your Clients’ Data While on the Road.

Special ABA TECHSHOW Programming for Solo/Small Firm Lawyers

Tom Mighell :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:24:34 GMT

If you’re a solo or small firm lawyer in the Chicago area or close enough for a day trip, why not spend next Friday with ABA TECHSHOW? We’re offering two tracks specifically dedicated to solo and small firm lawyers – the 7 must-have technologies for your law practice, how to factor technology into your thinking when hanging out your own shingle, the benefits of voice recognition software, and even e-discovery for the small firm. Single-day passes are available, not only for Friday but for our Thursday and Saturday sessions as well.

Free Ways to Take Advantage of ABA TECHSHOW 2008

Tom Mighell :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:33:39 GMT

If you're in the Chicago and you haven't already registered for ABA TECHSHOW 2008, there are two great free ways to get involved. First, if you're a law student (whether you're in the Chicago area or not), did you know that you can attend the entire conference for free? That's 3 days of great legal technology education, all free of charge. There's no better show than ABA TECHSHOW for those who want to learn more about the technology that's available to lawyers, how to better use the technology you already have, and what to expect in the world of legal technology once you graduate from law school. (The only caveat is that the freebies we give out to our attendees are subject to availability -- they go to paid attendees first). The other great way to experience ABA TECHSHOW 2008 is through our free Expo Hall pass. This year we're featuring more than 110 legal technology vendors, all eager to show you the latest in software, hardware, and legal technology services. If you don't have time to attend the whole conference, take an hour or two and walk over to the Hilton Chicago to wander through the Expo Hall. You'll learn a lot there, too! The free Expo Hall pass will be available on the ABA TECHSHOW website on Friday for you to print out and download. Online registration will close Friday, March 7 -- so if you're still planning on attending ABA TECHSHOW, you'll have to register onsite. See you there!

Sears Facing Class Action Lawsuit For Data Breach

John Simek :: Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (www.senseient.com) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:18:06 GMT

On January 4th, a complaint was filed against Sears, Roebuck and Co. for posting customers’ data online in violation of its privacy policy. On the website, Manage My Home, there was a feature that allowed shoppers to look up past purchases, which could be used to look up the purchase history for any customer, in violation of Sears’s privacy policy. The lawsuit was filed in Illinois on a class action basis for all of the customers damaged. To remedy the breach, the lawsuit is asking for damages along with an accounting by Sears to determine whether the website was misused by criminals. One rumored threat would be a criminal using the information to pretend to be a Sears repair person to get into someone’s house. A copy of the full complaint may be found at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/sears%20complaint.pdf

ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Blog Feed – Call for Live Bloggers

Tom Mighell :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:14:50 GMT

For ABA TECHSHOW 2008, we’re creating a master conference RSS feed that will stream all of the blog buzz going on during the show. If you’re attending ABA TECHSHOW and you plan on live blogging (or just plain blogging) from the conference, please send an email to Tom Mighell at tmighell(at)cowlesthompson(dot)com – he’ll get back to you with more details.

More on Security Patch Management

Dave Ries :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Planning Board — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:05:17 GMT

As discussed in the November 11, 2007 blog post, it is critical to apply security patches for all software, both Microsoft and non-Microsoft. The importance of patch management is demonstrated by a recent report by Secunia, a leading security vendor, which reported that, in a 24 hour period, 81% of Windows users were affected by security vulnerabilities in Sun, Adobe, Apple, and Skype software. Last year, Secunia found that 1 in 3 computers in corporate networks were missing critical security patches. The Secunia Personal Software Inspector (Release Candidate 1) scans computers to identify missing security updates. It is free for personal use. Secunia and other security vendors also sell vulnerability scanners for use on networks.

ABA TECHSHOW Tip: Jim I. Keane Memorial Award

Tim Mighell :: Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:29:22 GMT

On Friday during ABA TECHSHOW, we’ll be presenting the first annual Jim I. Keane Memorial Award, for excellence in e-lawyering. The award will be presented to a lawyer or law firm that has demonstrated innovation in the delivery of legal services over the Internet. We’ll be having a special plated luncheon for this event, which is included in the price of registration for our attendees. Don’t miss it!

Don’t Let Sleeping Laptops Lie

Reid Trautz :: American Immigration Lawyers Association (www.aila.org) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:24:10 GMT

Just when it seemed safe to leave your laptop computer in "sleep" or "hibernation" mode, comes a startling report that a computer left in such a mode is extremely vulnerable to confidentiality breaches. A research team that includes researchers from Princeton University and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have found a security flaw in disk encryption technology used in many PCs and Apple computers, allowing unauthorized access to the data. According to the EFF report, "[l]aptops are particularly vulnerable to this attack, especially when they are turned on but locked, or in a "sleep" or "hibernation" mode entered when the laptop's cover is shut. Even though the machines require a password to unlock the screen, the encryption keys are already located in the RAM, which provides an opportunity for attackers with malicious intent." The research paper characterizes this new discovery as a major security flaw because it goes to the fundamental architechual features that disk encryption products have in common. This flaw can be easily exploited on laptops, but servers with encrypted hard drives are also vulnerable. The world of mobile computer security continues to evolve, and lawyers must stay abreast of these developments or face the consequences imposed by Rule 1.6 of our Rules of Professional Conduct. Join us at Techshow on Saturday, March 15 at 9:45 am for Securing Your Client's Data While on the Road to help reduce the risks and improve your productivity while you are working away from your office.

Pocket Guide to ESI For Federal Judges Urges Proactivity

Sharon Nelson :: Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:20:31 GMT

In January 2008, the Federal Judicial Center published Managing Discovery of Electronic Information: A Pocket Guide for Judges. The primary author is Judge Barbara Rothstein, Director of the Federal Judicial Center, along with Judge Ronald J. Hedges (a former Magistrate Judge in New Jersey, now an e-discovery lawyer with Nixon Peabody), and assisted by Elizabeth C. Wiggins, who often educates federal judges and serves as a Project Director and Senior Research Associate at the Federal Judicial Center. The Guide really emphasizes something that is seen all too rarely, federal judges being more proactive in the management of e-discovery, specifically raising ESI points to consider rather than waiting for the parties to identify and argue over matters. Come and hear about other current development in ED at TECHSHOW during the session entitled Report from the Front Lines: E-Discovery After the New Federal Rules.

Integrate Fedex Shipments Into Outlook With Quickship

Greg Siskind :: Siskind Susser Bland (www.visalaw.com — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:07:50 GMT

f you ship a lot of Federal Express packages, you might find this free download helpful. The big benefit is being able to generate a shipping label from your contacts without having to manually enter the address. You can also track packages, look up rates, schedule pickups and find the nearest Fedex location from within Outlook. These are functions you can handle right now in a web browser so if you don’t want to clutter up Outlook, you might not want this plug in. But if you spend lots of time creating shipping labels or otherwise working with Fedex, you may like this software.

Attendee Tip: ABA TECHSHOW After Dark

Tom Mighell :: ABA TECHSHOW Chair — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:05:55 GMT

For those of you attending ABA TECHSHOW, we’ve got lots of opportunities for you to have fun and get to know your fellow attendees, TECHSHOW faculty, and exhibitor representatives. Our first event takes place on Thursday night, March 13, in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Chicago. The first-ever ABA TECHSHOW After Dark promises to a great way to end your first day at the conference with a live band, food and drink, and some great door prizes. Whatever you end up doing in Chicago Thursday night, make sure your plans include spending some time with us at ABA TECHSHOW After Dark!

Use the 80:20 Rule to Set Information Security Priorities

Dave Ries :: Thorp Reed Armstrong, LLP (http://www.thorpreed.com) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:06:03 GMT

The 80:20 Rule is a rule of thumb for setting information security priorities. It says that implementation of 20% of the key technical security steps will address 80% of the risk. While it has been stated in different ways, Symantec, a leading security vendor, includes in the 20% of technical steps: removing unneeded services, patch management, and enforcing strong passwords. The 80:20 Rule helps to identify priorities, but it is important to address all key information security steps, including people, procedures and technology. This year’s TECHSHOW will include the following sessions which will cover various areas of information security: Securing Your Clients’ Data While on the Road (basic), Anatomy of a Law Firm Data Breach (advanced), and Authentication, Encryption and Log Management (advanced).

Surveillance Recordings

Judge Christina Habas — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:53:00 GMT

10/18/2007: Bockar v. Tartler d/b/a Rocky Mountain Limousine This is a personal injury case involving a car accident. Plaintiff, a radiologist, is claiming significant money damages for his loss of income, claiming that he can no longer work or do any physically demanding activities. Defendant has performed surveillance over a period of three years, and the video shows the Plaintiff doing yardwork, loading various items into cars and walking. Defendant’s attorney has prepared DVD’s with the “highlights” of the hours of video that he plays during Plaintiff’s cross examination. During the examination, many jurors ask questions out of frustration, including, “is that supposed to be the Plaintiff?” During questioning prompted by the jurors’ questions, the Plaintiff testifies that he isn’t sure that the subject of the video is him, as the images presented at the time of that question were not clear. Later in the examination, the video clearly shows the Plaintiff, but because of the earlier confusion, the presentation is confusing and the impact lost. Moral: Obtain sufficient identification and authentication information for any surveillance tapes well in advance of trial. This may be that rare case where written discovery, such as Requests for Admission, can actually assist a trial lawyer. It is generally not the case that surveillance video has greater impact if it is “sprung” on opposing counsel at trial. Set the video up during the party’s deposition by asking specific questions about their physical abilities, obtaining their denial that they are capable of doing those activities, and then use the authentication from Requests for Admission to set up the video so that it can be presented smoothly, without confusion.

Overcoming Barriers to Implementing Technology in Your Practice

Carolyn Elefant :: Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant (www.myshingle.com) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:53:00 GMT

More often than not, I find that I am the greatest impediment to implementing new technology in my practice. Even where a new technology promises to speed up efficiency or reduce costs for clients, I realize that there's always a short term cost - the time required for me to come up to speed. For example, personal resistance accounted for my reluctance to switch back to using a Mac even though I wasted at least an hour a day waiting for my balky Windows machine to reboot. (in case you're curious, I did make the jump, which I described here - http://gdgrifflaw.typepad.com/home_office_lawyer/2007/03/carolyn_elefant.html) In my case, I'm lucky in a way. Since I run a true solo shop (outsourcing to temps where needed), I only need to convince myself to take a new approach. But what about lawyers practicing in larger firms? How do they overcome not just their own resistance but that of the other lawyers who - let's face it - can be a bit on the stodgy side. The Rosen Law Firm in North Carolina had one novel approach - as I wrote here (http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2008/02/law-firm-starts.html), the firm bribed lawyers and staff to use its new wiki by offering a $1000 prize. Each time staff added to the wiki, they'd gain another chance to win the cash. By coming to ABA TECHSHOW, we have an incredible opportunity to learn about technologies that can help improve our practice. But attending the show and learning about new technology represents just part of the journey. We need to keep in mind what comes after. I'm going to give some thought to some ideas for post-TECHSHOW implementation which I hope to share in a follow up post.

CIA Not A Role Model For Evidence Preservation

John Simek :: Sensei Enterprises (http://www.senseient.com) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:02:30 GMT

On December 6th, the CIA admitted that it had destroyed videotaped evidence of detainee interrogations. The taped interrogations occurred in 2002, and the tapes were destroyed in 2005, allegedly after they were of no value to the CIA and were not needed for investigations. PC World writes that though the CIA is a government agency and not subject to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, private companies engaging in the same actions could be subject to severe sanctions for destruction of evidence. The Federal Rules require companies to keep electronic records when faced with a lawsuit or the possibility of a lawsuit. There also can be punishment for failure to keep required electronic records. The CIA press release can be found at https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-arc hive-2007/taping-of-early-detainee-interrogations.html and the PC World article at http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/140594/cia_not_a_role_model_for_corporate_cios.html

Keeping up with the Buzz from ABA TECHSHOW

Tom Mighell :: Chair :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:04:24 GMT

The Internet continues to roll out some fun tools that are great at keeping people connected and talking about a conference, whether they're attending the conference or not. At ABA TECHSHOW 2008 we plan on making use of some of these tools, and we're really excited about the possibilities. Here are some of the things we're working on for the show: -- A blog feed that will aggregate all of the live-blogging at ABA TECHSHOW, as well as any other blog posts regarding the show. -- A Twitter feed will update conference attendees about upcoming sessions, events, and other fun stuff, via text message or on the Web. -- Got a camera? Bring it to ABA TECHSHOW, 'cause we're working on a Flickr feed that will show all the photos taken at the conference all in one place. -- During the conference our speakers will discuss useful and interesting websites for lawyers and legal professionals. Our del.icio.us feed will allow attendees to create a page of links from some of the sites they learn about. You won't have to be an ABA TECHSHOW attendee to see what's going on during the conference. But if we do this thing right, you'll wish you were :-) If you're attending the show, look for more information in upcoming email blasts or blog posts on how to participate.

No need for a computer: Blackberry rules!

Dominic Jaar :: Bell Canada (www.bell.ca) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:29:43 GMT

All you crackberries out there know exactly what I mean! But for anyone that hasn't yet drank the BlackBerry Kool-Aid, you should know that OS 4.5 is on its way and it will offer just about everything your heavy laptop can offer! Thanks to PC Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2255033,00.asp)we now know what's in store for us! Without reviewing model by model and server by server, lets take a look at some of the great new features offered by the new operating system: • Spell check -- I have a Blackberry 8830 and I hope it is an improved version of the spell check software already available. • BlackBerry Maps with Points of Interest -- With the free Google Maps for PDA, the points will have to be of the utmost interest! • Improved media player with playlist support and automatic playlist generation -- This is a good plus since, for the moment, the best playlist I can create is an Album or Random. • Voice note recording-- This is a big plus! I installed VR+ to use my Blackberry as a dictaphone or to reply verbally to the emails I receive. Having this feature built into the new models is a treat for Voice recognition software users. • Streaming support for YouTube and Sling Player -- Wow! We'll be able to watch our favorite movies and tv shows while commuting to work or waiting at the airport! • Bluetooth stereo music -- Another nice plus since, for the moment, we must use wired headsets to benefit from stereo. • Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo -- This is the grand revolution in my book, but I'm anxious to see if we will need an annual/monthly plan or if RIM got into an agreement with DTG to provide their solution for free. For the moment, I am using eOffice which would be satisfactory if it had delivered all the functionalities it represented. Unfortunately, it does not and the customer support it offers is poor, to say the least. • Native format attachment downloading -- I look forward to seeing the number and types of supported formats. Zip would be nice to open large attachments. Furthermore, it is one thing to download an attachment; it is another to be able to edit them and I will rely a lot on DTG for that task! • HTML e-mails -- Nice to have it bundled, but unless it offers the possibility to turn e-mails into calendar events or notes I don't plan to move away from $20 Bbsmart. • Over-the-air device upgrades -- That is a plus which will definitely help our BlackBerries to stay up to date even while on the road without a computer and a USB connection. • Free/busy calendar lookup -- This will likely be a useful addition, particularly if it is as well done as many of the Windows Mobile software programs. • Searching the server for old e-mail messages -- Due to my high "information hygiene" and the fact that my inbox is purged daily, I can't see any use for myself but I can definitely see the benefit for many (most) people who use their inbox as a document management system. Thanks to RIM for encouraging users to help e-discovery vendors to make a few extra bucks! • Video recording on Curve models -- My BlackBerry 8830 is not equipped with a camera but I could definitely see myself at the last Rush concert filming Neal Pearl during his drum solo. I am sure this is exactly what RIM had in mind. :-) To learn more about the present, past and future of your new best friend (sorry for your dog!), join Brett Burney and I on the Mobile Track at ABA TECHSHOW. We will discuss and review an array of third party software to make your life easier and provide you with tips and how-to's for your preferred mobile platform (Windows mobile, Palm, iPhone, etc.). Bring your PDA with you!

NY Court Rules No Attorney-Client Privilege For E-mail Sent On Employer's Server

Sharon Nelson :: Sensei Enterprises (www.senseient.com) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:56:51 GMT

On October 17th, 2007, the Supreme Court of New York County ruled that a doctor’s e-mails, sent on his employer hospital’s system, were not privileged. The hospital located the e-mails during discovery, did not read them, and notified the doctor of their existence. The doctor moved to suppress the e-mails, claiming they were privileged. The hospital claimed the doctor waived his right to privilege because hospital policy prohibited personal e-mailing while on the job, and the policy included the right to access the e-mails without notice. The doctor argued that he was protected by New York Civil Practice Law 4548, which states that no communication shall lose its privileged character just because it is transmitted electronically. The court applied a four-part test used in a bankruptcy case with similar issues to determine whether the attorney-client privilege would apply to personal e-mails exchanged by an employee with an attorney over a company-controlled communications system. The test states the privilege would not apply where (1) the company maintains a policy that bans personal or other objectionable use; (2) the company monitors employee use of computers or e-mail; (3) third parties other than the employee have a right to access the computer and the employee's e-mail; and (4) the company notifies the employee of its use and monitoring policies. The court concluded that the hospital had met all four requirements in this case, and denied the doctor’s motion to suppress. The full opinion can be found at http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2007/2007_27429.htm I will be discussing this case as well as other new developments in e-discovery with Judge John Facciola and Browning Marean in “Report from the Front Lines: E-Discovery After the New Federal Rules,” on the E-Discovery track March 14 at ABA TECHSHOW.

ABA TECHSHOW Early Bird Registration Extended!

Tom Mighell :: Chair :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:26:44 GMT

That's right -- we're extending our early bird registration deadline to this Friday, February 8, so that you can take advantage of up to $300 in savings over the regular registration price for ABA TECHSHOW. Just head over to the Conference Registration Page (http://www.abanet.org/techshow/register/) and register today!

Missing Personal Information

Laura Calloway :: Alabama State Bar (www.alabar.org) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:47:52 GMT

Numerous news sources began reporting on January 18th that data storage service Iron Mountain had lost a stored backup tape belonging to GE Money. Although there was no record that the tape had been checked out, Iron Mountain discovered it was missing when GE Money requested it in October. It took GE Money almost two months to reconstruct what data the tape had contained, after which they began notifying almost 230 national and regional retailers that the tape contained personal information on around 650,000 of their credit card customers. One hundred fifty thousand of those customers' social security numbers were also reported to be on the tape. Both Iron Mountain and GE Money state that there is no evidence that the tape was stolen or that any of the information has been accessed. One of the reports stated that the tape was unencrypted, however other reports have quoted Iron Mountain officials as saying that "We also understand the tape was created in such a manner to make unauthorized access extremely unlikely and difficult, even for experts with specialized knowledge and technology." Bob Moss, Catherine Sanders Reach and I will discuss issues related to on-line backup and storage of digital information for the law office at our Solo & Small Firm Track session Open Sesame: Ali Baba or the 40 Thieves on Friday, March 14th.

Use Technology To Anticipate Problems

Judge Christina Habas — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:19:52 GMT

10/16/07: Bockar v. Tartler d/b/a Rocky Mountain Limousine: 10/16/07

This is a personal injury case involving a car accident. At the start of the case, pursuant to custom, I read a list of witnesses to the jury panel to determine if they know anyone. No jurors raise their hand to indicate that they know any of the witnesses. During trial, as one witness was walking to the witness stand, a juror indicated that she knew the witness, but knew her from her name before marriage.

Lesson? Use technology to help avoid problems in trial. Presenting not only a list of witnesses, but also photographs of them would go a long way toward anticipating this kind of problem. Trials have become extremely expensive: guard against unnecessary expense by anticipating.

About the ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Keynote Speaker

Tom Mighell :: Chair :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:27:10 GMT

We are honored to announce that Marc Rotenberg, the Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.epic.org), will serve as the keynote speaker at ABA TECHSHOW 2008. Our tentative title for the speech is "Who's Watching You? A Conversation About Privacy on the Internet," and we think it's a timely topic for lawyers these days. As the practice of law moves more and more towards using the Internet, huge amounts of confidential information are exchanged, communicated, or stored online. Some of the new online services promise greater efficiencies, better client service, and a more productive practice -- but are there privacy concerns? In addition to his work with EPIC, Mr. Rotenberg teaches information privacy law at Georgetown University Law Center, and has testified before Congress on many issues, including access to information, encryption policy, consumer protection, computer security, and communications privacy. He also serves as the Chair of the ABA Committee on Privacy and Information Protection. We are thrilled that Marc will be our keynote speaker, and we hope you can join us in welcoming him to ABA TECHSHOW 2008. For information on registering for ABA TECHSHOW, visit the website (www.techshow.com).

Persuasive Use of Timelines at Trial

Judge Christina Habas — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:41:55 GMT

9/11/07: People v. Davis, Courtroom 8, Denver District Court This is a complicated case brought under Colorado’s version of RICO, the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act. The case involves allegations of a conspiracy among numerous inmates at various correctional facilities over a span of some 15 years. The People have prepared timelines showing inmate’s assignments and movement among these facilities. There are so many different versions of timelines, however, that they have become nearly useless. Each inmate has a timeline, and each of these timelines takes 3 or 4 pages, making it cumbersome for jurors to review the information. MORAL OF THE STORY: The use of timelines can be far more complicating than helpful. Careful selection of different methods to identify events, people and dates, and allowing them to be compared, is crucial. Use of color, or whittling down the number of items to include in timelines, will often lead to a more useful exhibit. Because the timelines in this case were intended to show when various inmates were housed in the same facility, use of color and less use of words to allow the jurors to easily compare these facts would have made the exhibits far more persuasive and useful.

Widgets are back!

Dominic Jaar :: Bell Canada — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:01:49 GMT

No, I won’t take you back to this 1990s animated television series. I am referring to Web widgets, A.K.A. modules, capsules, snippets, gadgets, badges, minis or flakes. Those of you who use iGoogle or Google Desktop, Flickr, YouTube, etc. are probably aware of what widgets are. Even the new Windows Vista Sidebar includes widgets. However, even amongst these users, I suspect many are not aware of how they work and what they can be used for.

Basically, a widget is a portable snippet of code that can be embedded within most web pages in order to provide non-static information. Early examples of widgets were the infamous counters you still see at the bottom of a webpage where you are told you are the 10 000th person to view the page (and you just won 1M$!). However, the most used widget is obviously the advertising banner you see on many sites.

Personally, I use widgets on my iGoogle page to gain access to my Gmail account, to be informed about Law.com news, to access my Bloglines account and to see my new favorites on Del.icio.us. However, what I prefer is to embed within my blog contents from other websites that I think might be of interest to my readers.

For example, I have created this ABA Techshow widget. To place the ABA TECHSHOW blog widget on your blog or website, just insert this code:

Such a widget can act more or less as an RSS feed, i.e. instead of visiting the website every day to see what is new, you could add it to your person

ABA TECHSHOW Registration Open!

Tom Mighell :: Chair :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:06:50 GMT

Registration is now open for ABA TECHSHOW 2008 on the ABA TECHSHOW website. Be sure to register soon, to take advantage of our special Early Bird pricing. This pricing will only be available until February 1, 2008.

We're also pleased to announce that the ABA TECHSHOW 2008 program schedule is now online. You can view the educational sessions by track or from the day-by-day grid. We'll be posting biographical information about our speakers shortly.

Honoring Jim Keane and Excellence in eLawyering

Marc Lauritson :: Capstone Practice Systems (http://www.capstonepractice.com) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:35:46 GMT

Nominations are being accepted for the James I. Keane Memorial Award For Excellence in eLawyering. See http://www.abanet.org/lpm/award/jimkeane/ for details. The awardee will receive a free registration and be recognized at a special luncheon at ABA TECHSHOW. If you or anyone you know is involved in innovative delivery of legal services over the Web, please consider a nomination. Submissions are due by December 31, 2007.

Apple Sued Over iPhone Bricking

John Simek :: Sensei Enterprises (http://www.senseient.com) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:05:42 GMT

On October 5, 2007, California resident Timothy Smith filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the iPhone maker violated the state's antitrust law. The suit was filed in California state court on behalf of Smith by Damian Fernandez, an attorney who has been seeking plaintiffs for a class-action case against Apple over iPhone bricking. Specifically, Smith claims that Apple is violating the Cartwright Act, because the company prohibits iPhone consumers from using and purchasing a cell phone service other than AT&T. The suit also asserts that cell phone unlocking is completely legal, citing traditional copyright law as well as the more recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In addition, Smith's suit claims that as a result of Apple's unlawful and anti-competitive conduct, consumers continue to pay artificially inflated prices for the iPhone and AT&T's cell phone service. The suit is asking the court to issue an injunction against Apple, which would prevent it from selling the iPhone with any software lock. It also asks that Apple be enjoined from denying warranty service to users of unlocked iPhones and from requiring iPhone users to get their phone service through AT&T. The complaint does not ask for a specific amount in monetary damages, rather the complaint alleges that the plaintiffs are seeking an amount according to proof at trial. At this point, Fernandez is still recruiting plaintiffs, so the size of the suit is undetermined, but the complaint does point out that there are an estimated 1.28 million iPhone owners who are potential plaintiffs. The complaint may be found here.

Plan for Future Discovery – Think Small…

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:43:59 GMT

The gluttony of today's society for more storage has a new warning on it – higher discovery cost. Businesses are imposing stricter adherence to retention policies for backups and making attempts to "clean house" on server storage. Who is thinking about controlling sizes of the networked PC local hard drive that are often requested to be forensically imaged in litigation?

With the potential need to make forensic copies of hard drives and costs involved with such, consideration should be made for the purchase of networked computers for users with smaller local hard drives. Although most manufacturers today do not make a drive smaller than 40 GB, there is still stock available for the 20 – 40 GB drives.

Adobe Gets Into Word Processing?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:14:11 GMT

Adobe Systems announced their acquisition of Virtual Ubiquity at the Adobe Max conference on October 2nd. Virtual Ubiquity produces Buzzwords, an online word processing application. According to the "buzz" this is a feature-rich word processor, with some very slick real-time online collaboration built in. They are only allowing a limited number of people to preview Buzzwords, so you will have to put your name in the hat like everyone else.

Lately Microsoft has been finding real competition within the word processing arena, with the announcement of both software and online word processing applications, including Zoho, Google Docs, Lotus Symphony, Zimbra, plus nods to the standbys such as WordPerfect, OpenOffice, StarOffice, and Page 08 for Mac. Don't let it be said that there isn't a choice for word processing programs. However, making a choice will become more complex as the deciding factors will be cost, compatibility, and collaboration, in addition to feature set.

"Say what?" How about some plain English security warnings, please.

Sheila Blackford :: OSB Professional Liability Fund — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:15:14 GMT

I'm feeling syntactically clueless here. I don't know about you, but when I read about the RC4 stream cipher at the heart of the WEP protocol that encrypts packets of my information in a 24-bit initialization vector (IV to those of you who care) which is then "concatenated with the secret 104-bit RC4 common key to form the 128-bit per packet or session key" I get that English-major-sick-to-my-stomach-oh-no-Geekspeak-not-spoken-here feeling. There, I'm feeling better now, honest.

Seriously, I'd like to get "with-it." I'd even like to know why I should be aware of "aircrack-twp which uses the aircrack-ng toolkit" which I'm told is "readily available on the Web as a key recovery tool." Alas, I feel somewhat ambivalent about spending the time to find out what all this means since I suspect it will all be outdated by the time I figure out what I'm reading. Well, those of you who need a little hand-holding from an English major lost in Geeksville, here's what you need to know:

Beware. If you have a wireless set-up on your computer - wireless local area network (WLAN) -- especially if someone else installed it for you, check to see if the network is set up with a WEP protocol - look in your manual. The problem may be that the device still has the out-of-the-box default settings: username "admin" with no password. Yikes. This is as safe as hiding the key to your house under the doormat at your front door. Ok, get it out of there.

As to your WEP problem, change the username and use a strong password which is at least 8 digits and combines numbers, letters, and symbols. "Password" happens to be a "key-under-the-doormat" password and is most often taped in the bottom of your top right drawer of your desk. Ok, you've got to change that, too. Don't feel too bad about the WEP business. A security survey found that only 49% of wireless access point operators in New York City have upgraded from WEP to the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Oh, and that aircrack-twp, it can recover a 104-bit WEP key in less than 60 seconds, which may not be a fair speed record because I suspect the WEP key is probably "Password" anyway.

Remember To Apply Non-Microsoft Security Updates

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:09:48 GMT

Most Windows users know the importance of applying Microsoft security updates for Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office products. The second Tuesday of the month is "Patch Tuesday," when Microsoft regularly releases its updates. Microsoft's Security Central web page includes links to the latest security updates and other security information. It is equally important to promptly install security updates for other operating systems, browsers and application software. For example, Adobe recently released a security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat. According to the Security Bulletin, it addresses critical vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to take control of an affected computer when these products are used with Windows XP and Internet Explored 7. The exploit could be installed when a user opens a malicious PDF file. Apple, Mozilla, and Skype have also recently released security updates. It is critical to address everything installed on a computer.

Phrase Express: Autocorrect on Speed

Greg Siskind :: Siskind Susser Bland (http://www.visalaw.com/) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:13:22 GMT

Here's a handy free tool from Bartels Media. Turn off AutoCorrect in Word and let PhraseExpress store your stock phrases and addresses and have them pop up whenever you type pre-set hotkeys and codewords.

Adding a Large Number of Photographs into PowerPoint 2007: Stop Inserting Photos One at a Time!

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:20:42 GMT

You do not have to insert one photograph and resize them one at a time! PowerPoint 2007 makes it pretty easy, especially if you are not using Sanction, Verdical or Trial Director.

Click on the Insert tab.
Click on the Photo Album button.

Click on the Insert picture from: File/Disk… button and browse out to select the photographs that you would like to include and select Insert.

Arrange the order by selecting the image and clicking on the up or down order buttons. You can also rotate and adjust the contrast and brightness.

Select the Picture Layout drop-down to specify how many pictures per slide and the default size. Fit to slide will resize every photo to fit the entire length and width of the slide.

Finally, select Create.

TIP: This feature is found under the Insert menu bar option in previous versions of PowerPoint .

Plaintiffs (Unsuccessfully) Sue Defendant's Attorneys for Copyright Infringement

Sharon Nelson :: Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (http://www.senseient.com) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:40:24 GMT

On July 20, 2007, the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed a case accusing a former defendant’s attorneys of copyright infringement and seeking spoliation sanctions. Healthcare Advocates was the plaintiff in an earlier lawsuit that asserted claims for trademark infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets against a competitor. The Harding firm represented the defendants in that lawsuit, which was dismissed on summary judgment. After losing the first infringement suit, Healthcare Advocates turned their attention to the defendant’s attorneys. Healthcare Advocates claimed that, during the discovery phase of the previous suit, the Harding firm infringed on its copyright rights by viewing and printing copies of the archived images of the Healthcare Advocates' web pages. The Harding firm used a website operated by the Internet Archive to view archived screenshots of Healthcare Advocates' website via a tool called the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine allowed the Harding firm to see what Healthcare Advocates' public website looked like prior to the date the complaint was filed. The Harding firm printed copies of each archived screenshot and used the images during the course of the underlying litigation. However, the Harding firm did not actively save any of the screenshots they viewed onto their computer hard drives. Healthcare Advocates claimed that the firm’s use of the screenshots constituted copyright infringement. The court disagreed and granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the Harding firm’s infringing use was excusable under the fair use doctrine. The court further rejected Healthcare Advocates’ request for spoliation sanctions. Specifically, Healthcare Advocates had argued that, since the Harding firm did not save the images directly to their hard drives, the firm had a duty to save the temporary or cache files that a computer automatically stores. Healthcare Advocates argued that if these temporary cache files had been preserved, they would have been able to determine if the Harding firm used the archived images for any purpose other than what had been alleged or admitted. Healthcare Advocates argued it was prejudiced without this evidence, and that the loss of these temporary files entitled it to a spoliation inference at trial. The court found that the Harding firm had no reason to anticipate that using a public website to view images of another public website would subject them to a civil lawsuit containing allegations of infringement, or that temporary cache files would be sought. The court found that very little fault could be attributed to the Harding firm for the loss of these temporary cache files. The court also found that Healthcare Advocates had not suffered significant prejudice from not being able to look at these temporary files, and concluded that sanctions were not appropriate. The full opinion of the court may be found here .

Apple Increases Market Share

Laura Calloway :: Alabama State Bar Practice Management Assistance Program — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:24:54 GMT

Looks like 2008 will be a great year for a Mac Track at ABA TECHSHOW. The New York Times reported in its October 21st edition that Apple will move into third place in the US computer market behind HP and Dell when it announces product shipments for the final quarter of 2007. While Apple's share of the market is still not huge, it's recent sales surge represents growth of 37% as many people have decided to try a Mac after purchasing an iPod or iPhone. Industry watchers believe that the introduction of the new Leopard version of the Mac OS X operating system will continue to drive a shift to Macs, particularly the iBook. 2007 is the first year that laptops made up more than 50% of all computers sold, however, two thirds of all Apple computers sold are laptops.

Tech as Metadata Policy Enforcement

Toby Brown — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:20:33 GMT

Recently I've taken a position with a large firm based in Houston, Texas. Of course large firms bring challenges along with opportunities when it comes to legal technology. One of the more encouraging pieces of technology I've seen here in my first few weeks is called iScrub from Esquire Innovations. In addition to being a worthy metadata removal tool, I have come to appreciate our firm's implementation of the product.

Its integration with Outlook enables policy enforcement, to a greater degree. Any out-going emails that contain Word (or other predefined attachments) receive a pop-up prompting the user to select one of three options. These options are: 1) Full metadata removal, 2) Partial removal, or 3) No removal at all. The third option is primarily for documents sent internally. There is even an option to view the metadata prior to its removal.

Having given countless presentations on the dangers of metadata (most recently to disciplinary counsel), I have come to appreciate the significant lack of knowledge by many lawyers on the issue. Having lawyers aware of the issue is merely step one. Getting them to acquire and use good metadata management tools is step too. Having them create good policies and use technology to enforce those is a big step to step three. So I was pleasantly surprised to see our firm already on step three. Whether you use iScrub or another product, I highly encourage this thoughtful approach to using technology as a policy enabling tool.

Court of Appeals Says Vote-Swapping Sites Are Legal

Sharon Nelson :: Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (http://www.senseient.com) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:27:45 GMT

After seven years of litigation, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion on August 6, 2007 vindicating the creators of vote-swapping websites that let Al Gore and Ralph Nader fans support their chosen candidates in the 2000 presidential election. The purpose of the sites, which included the now-defunct voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com, was to let a Nader supporter in a state where George Bush might win "swap" his vote with a Gore supporter in a state like Texas where Republican victory was practically assured. There was no actual way to enforce the swap. However, some government officials were not amused and came up with the bizarre claim that operating a vote-swap site was a criminal act. California Secretary of State Bill Jones even threatened to prosecute voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com. Both websites immediately shut their virtual doors in response to the threat of prosecution, but the fight did not end there. Site operators Alan Porter, Patrick Kerr, Steven Lewis, and William Cody decided to take the state of California to court. After a protracted battle, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the websites’ "vote-swapping mechanisms as well as the communication and vote swaps they enabled were constitutionally protected" and that California’s threats violated the First Amendment. The court noted that the efforts of these websites, while controversial, were conducted honestly and without money changing hands. Neither website has announced whether or not it will reopen its doors for the 2008 election, but the court’s ruling may prompt others to exercise their constitutionally protected right to swap votes. The court’s opinion may be found here.

ABA TECHSHOW Tip of the Week

Greg Siskind :: Siskind Susser Bland (http://www.visalaw.com) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:58:55 GMT

Turn any airplane headphone jack into an outlet for your gadgets with this new device. It won't power a notebook, but you can certainly run your iPod or PDA with it.

Previewing PDFs in Outlook 2007

Steve Nipper :: Dykas, Shaver & Nipper, LLP (http://www.dykaslaw.com) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:47:17 GMT

Did you know that if you install the new version of Adobe Reader (8.1), built in is a PDF handler (previewer) for PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files? Installing Reader 8.1 thus lets you view PDF files right in Outlook 2007. The instructions for doing it can be found here.

Trustworthiness of Online Legal Resources in Question

Judge Herbert Dixon :: ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Planning Board Member — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:45:26 GMT

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has released a very comprehensive study entitled State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources. The study finds that state online legal resources are not authenticated and do not afford ready authentication by standard methods. Additionally, the AALL reports that only three of the state survey respondents expressed special concerns about authentication. According to the study's conclusion, state online primary legal resources are not sufficiently trustworthy and the public may reasonably doubt their authority and should approach such resources critically. The AALL study is a timely wake-up call for work that needs to be done to ensure the integrity and trustworthiness of electronically transmitted and maintained legal documents and information. The study is available online at http://www.aallnet.org/aallwash/authen_rprt/AuthenFinalReport.pdf .

Making Sense of Records Management

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:00:56 GMT

Efficiently managing large amounts of information is a constant struggle for lawyers around the country, whether they're practicing in the largest law firm or the smallest governmental office. To address this information overflow, organizations implement records management strategies that take a variety of records – from a paper contract to an email saved on a smartphone – and ensure that the information in those records is accessible and accurate.

The ABA Law Practice Management Section has information about records management, including a book "The Lawyer's Guide to Records Management and Retention" by George Cunningham and John Montana. The 2007 ABA TECHSHOW also had a track on records management, and will continue that tradition in 2008.

Another great resource for records management information and technologies is ARMA, an international association of records management. Their conference is coming up in October in Baltimore, Maryland. Running from October 7th-10th, the conference will highlight topics ranging from e-discovery, records retention, and compliance to a "mini" Sedona Conference.

RAM Data E-discoverable?

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:15:58 GMT

Court date scheduled in case involving access to information in computer RAM for e-discovery. eWeek reports that the U.S. District Court in Central California will hear an appeal of a magistrate's ruling requiring search engines to "create and store all logs" for future possible electronic discovery. Attorneys interviewed for the article discussed possible applicability of ruling to Voice over IP (VOIP) and whether, even if ruling is narrowly tailored, it won't cause other companies to adopt it as a preventive measure.

Use a Passphrase Instead of a Password For Security and Ease of Use

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:12:09 GMT

A strong password should be at least 8 characters long and include a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Such a password, however can be difficult to remember. The problem is compounded when a user needs multiple passwords for different accounts. A passphrase can be as secure or more secure (if longer) and is much easier to remember. For example, "I Love TECHSHOW 2008!" is 21 characters long, with a good combination of characters. It is much easier to remember than a random password of the same length. (Adapted from a SANS Institute "Tip of the Day.") The SANS Institute is a great resource on information security.

Smart App that Helps Adding Contact Data to Outlook

Greg Siskind -- Siskin Susser Bland (http://www.visalaw.com) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:58:47 GMT

A hat tip to Reid Trautz for turning me on to Anagram. This little application saves tons of time by allowing you to highlight the signature block in an email, right click, and then have an Outlook contact screen pop up fully populated with the data from the signature block. The software is really smart in figuring out what data should go in what field. The software is cheap ($29.95) and can be downloaded on the web at http://www.getanagram.com.

New Electronic Discovery Blog: Ride the Lightning

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:34:51 GMT

Ride the Lightning is the name of the new blog from Sharon Nelson. Sharon is President of Sensei Enteprises, Inc., an electronic discovery and computer forensics firm. Their firm is nationally known as experts in computer forensics and her husband, John Simek, Vice President of the firm, is maybe the most capable computer technologist I've ever met. This blog will no doubt become a "go to" site on forensics and discovery.

More important (to me anyway) is that she and John have become really my good friends over the years. Sharon and I served on ABA TECHSHOW board together and she followed me as chair of TECHSHOW. This summer she and I launched the podcast The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology. Watch her blog. Although it attacks some pretty technical topics, I don't think it will ever be boring.

Help Us Plan ABA TECHSHOW 2008

Tom Mighell -- Chair, ABA TECHSHOW 2008 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:51:18 GMT

The ABA TECHSHOW 2008 Planning Board is hard at work putting together our next conference, and we'd like to get you involved. Help us choose the roundtable sessions that will be presented during TECHSHOW. Our popular roundtable sessions are designed to give attendees the opportunity to speak one-on-one with our legal technology experts, in a more conversational setting. To make sure we choose the topics that matter to you, please take this Roundtable Track Poll and vote for your favorite eight (8) topics. Thanks in advance for being a part of the ABA TECHSHOW planning process!

Paperless 2.0

Toby Brown -- LegalSpan (http://www.legalspan.com) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:48:37 GMT

Going paperless is a new mantra among many lawyers. With litigators proving out the cost savings of going paperless with discovery document collections, more and more lawyers are taking the dive and implementing paperless systems. The obvious cost savings are touted frequently. These include: 1) Scan once versus copy many times. 2) Less rent on file room space. 3) File room staffing costs. And 4) Copiers, toner and other hard costs of copying.

But getting rid of paper is only a partial step in making the most out of a paperless office. Electronic information provides benefits that paper doesn’t. However, some steps need to be taken to gain those benefits. First and foremost, you need to index the information as it is created or scanned. This indexing effort will provide many returns throughout the life of the information.

Un-indexed information is information that is hard (a.k.a. expensive) to find and retrieve. IDC discovered that the average knowledge worker (e.g. most people in a law firm, but especially lawyers) spends 2.5 hours a day looking for un-indexed information . Applying their analysis, a lawyer loses 130 billable hours per year or $19,500 in revenue (with a $150/hour rate) looking for un-indexed information. This number may seem high, but consider the additional costs of staff time and time spent re-creating information or securing it from other sources and the number becomes much more reasonable. So spending some time up-front to properly index electronic information pays off well in the long run.

Going paperless presents a number of challenges. If you are going to spend the time and money to make this effort, do it as smartly as you can. Creating useful indexes of your electronic information will go a long ways towards that goal.

DC Court Orders Restoration of Back-up Tapes in WMATA Disability Rights Case

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:50:14 GMT

In the District Court for the District of Columbia, disabled plaintiffs claimed that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) failed to provide adequate services to people with disabilities. Discovery was heavily litigated, and in an opinion dated June 1, 2007, Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola addressed several discovery issues including the production of e-mail from backup tapes. Plaintiffs sought production of backup tapes of certain electronic documents written and received since the filing of the lawsuit. Plaintiffs argued that WMATA should pay to restore the backup tapes since it failed to properly instruct employees to retain potentially responsive electronic documents. Although WMATA presented testimony that its e-mail system was programmed with an automatic deletion feature that deleted any e-mail after it had been in existence for sixty days, the court found WMATA’s failure to suspend the automatic deletion feature indefensible. Plaintiffs proposed that the backup tapes be restored so that, once rendered searchable, their contents could be searched by a keyword analysis to find the e-mails of several persons they had identified by name. Plaintiffs requested that, once the e-mails were found, they be converted into TIFF format, and that production be done on a rolling basis. WMATA objected on the grounds of burden and expense, insisting that the backup tapes were not reasonably accessible and that there was little reason to suppose that they would produce relevant information. The court rejected WMATA’s argument citing the newly amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B) which makes clear that a court may order discovery from sources that are not reasonably accessible upon a showing of good cause and after considering the limitations of Rule 26(b)(2)(C). The court found that in this instance the application of these factors made for an overwhelming case for production of the backup tapes. The court’s opinion may be found here .

Outlook on Your Desktop

Greg Siskind -- Siskind Susser Bland (www.visalaw.com) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:16:24 GMT

I've just discovered a neat little application that I've loaded on the computer. Outlook on the Desktop is exactly what it sounds like. The free program (a donation is requested if you like the application) loads your Outlook calendar as a transparent background image on your desktop of your computer so you can always see what's on your agenda even if you don't have Outlook open. You can download the software here.

Low Tech Deserves Attention

Judge Christina Habas — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:10:38 GMT

Carleo v. King is a case involving a claim by one lawyer against another lawyer for breach of a verbal contract. Plaintiff claimed that he represented certain clients in an employment matter, and that case was taken over by the Defendants. Plaintiff claimed that the second lawyer (King) agreed to pay fees for work performed by the first lawyer (plaintiff). Needless to say, this case was document intensive, including thousands of pages of the attorneys' respective files, pleadings and other materials. Because of the large amount of materials, the Court ordered the parties to limit the exhibits in the Juror's Notebooks to 50 pages each side, and to use technology to present any other documents.

The lawyer using technology did a great job of using the exhibits on a large screen, his assistant was able to highlight certain portions of those exhibits on the fly, making those exhibits much more understandable. The problem? The paper versions of the exhibits (both those contained in the Juror's Notebooks and the Court's Notebook) were not tabbed, and in many cases, pages were missing. Moral? Good use of technology does not forgive poor planning of paper exhibits. Think about the use of all exhibits in all forms.

Do Police Need a Search Warrant for a Cell Phone?

Sharon Nelson -- Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (http://www.senseient.com) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:13:59 GMT

On May 23, 2007, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of California ruled that warrantless searches of three defendants’ cellular phones violated their Fourth Amendment rights. In 2004, the three defendants, Edward Park, Brian Ly, and David Lee, were arrested during the raid of a marijuana hothouse. After they were taken to the San Francisco Police Department, the defendants’ belongings were inventoried including their cell phones. However, before the phones were placed in property bags, SFPD Inspector David Martinovich searched defendant Lee’s cell phone and instructed other inspectors to do the same with the other defendant’s phones. Martinovich admitted to perusing the defendant’s phone and writing down the contacts list before turning it over to the property clerk but claimed that the search was a permissible booking search. When the defendants filed a motion to suppress evidence found on their phones, the prosecution defended the search by likening it to the search of an arrestee’s wallet which is permissible. However, the court disagreed with the government’s analogy and found that a warrantless search of a cell phone goes far beyond the rationale for searches incident to arrest. The judge concluded that there was no basis for an immediate search of the phones such as to prevent concealment or destruction of evidence, and therefore, the police had time to obtain a proper search warrant. Although in this particular case the court ruled the searches unconstitutional, the judge noted that the Fifth Circuit handed down a contrary ruling and that neither the Ninth Circuit nor the Supreme Court had addressed the issue. The defendants’ motion may be found here and the government’s reply may be found here. The full opinion may be accessed by those with Westlaw accounts using the following citation: 2007 WL 1521573.

Certified E-mail Gains Popularity with Internet Providers

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:14:41 GMT

On June 7, 2007, Goodmail Systems announced that four more Internet Service Providers will start charging banks, e-commerce sites and other large e-mail senders for guaranteed delivery. Goodmail Systems is expanding its CertifiedEmail program to Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable's Road Runner and Verizon Communications. Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL became inaugural participants last year. Individuals, businesses and organizations will be able to continue sending messages for free, but they risk finding those missives caught in increasingly aggressive spam filters. With Goodmail, a company can pay a quarter of a penny per message to bypass those filters and reach inboxes directly. Recipients see a blue seal verifying that the message is legitimate; senders get confirmations and can resend messages lost in transit. Non-profit groups can participate, too, at about a tenth of the commercial rates. CertifiedEmail is a trusted-class delivery option offered only to qualifying, legitimate commercial and non-profit e-mailers for messages to existing customers and users who have specifically opted in to receive such communications. Once accredited by Goodmail, these senders’ e-mail messages are encrypted and can be detected by participating ISPs. CertifiedEmail messages are labeled with a unique blue ribbon icon in the e-mail program, enabling consumers to immediately distinguish the legitimate messages they want to receive from messages of unknown authenticity or safety. Users of participating ISPs need do nothing extra to receive CertifiedEmail. Their existing webmail programs that they currently use to read e-mail will simply show a new icon, a blue ribbon envelope, which means a message is a CertifiedEmail. The icon appears in both the inbox list view and in a special pane above the message when opened. The blue ribbon icon is universal across all ISPs and mailbox providers supporting CertifiedEmail. The service is designed to certify credit card statements, e-commerce receipts and other communications with existing customers. Although it is a service targeted at larger corporations and groups that can afford the charge, their messages are the ones most likely to be mischaracterized as junk. The announcement made by Goodmail may be found here.

"Round-tripping" and Document Assembly

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:17:51 GMT

One of the longstanding wouldn't-it-be-greats of legal document automation has been the ability to assemble a draft from an intelligent model, hand-edit it to reflect nuances of a transaction or results of negotiation, and then re-assemble it using stored answers to reflect an intervening change of basic deal terms (like parties or financial details) ... without losing those hand edits. Sounds reasonable; turns out to be very tricky.

As mentioned in a paper on current frontiers of document automation that I presented at the recent international conference on artificial intelligence and law, several vendors have achieved aspects of this over the years. One of the latest to claim victory is Exari. Check out their new RoundTrip features. I'll discuss this and related developments in future posts.

The New ABAJournal.com - Legal News Now

Posted by Edward Adams -- Editor, ABA Journal (http://www.abajournal.com) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:25:15 GMT

The ABA Journal, which is read by more than half the nation's 1.1 million lawyers every month, has radically revamped its website. It aggregates and filters breaking news from the nation's best legal journalists and daily analysis from lawyers who are experts in their fields. It's a place where the legal community can comment about today's developments, and learn from each other.

The revamped site has three major components:

Law News Now: The home page features the latest legal news stories, hand selected by our lawyer-journalists. It's updated continuously every business day with 25-50 summaries of and links to the most sophisticated legal reporting from around the web. A quick glance at the top of our home page will tell you the most important legal stories right now, whether it's today's Supreme Court decision, this morning's developments in high-profile trials, yesterday's law firm mega-merger, or Paris Hilton's latest scrape with the law. If you only want to see the news about your practice area or state, we've created dozens of topic pages (www.abajournal.com/topics) that take you directly to the news you need.

The Blawg Directory: We've indexed more than 1,000 blogs written by lawyers who are experts in their practice areas, with more being added daily. We tell you about the author, what they cover, and include excerpts from their 10 latest posts. You can sort the directory by subject, who writes the blog (partners, associates, judges, law professors, etc.), or by the state or court they blog about. We even have a list of blogs written by students and professors at more than 130 law schools. Know of a blog we haven't included? Tell us about it.

The Magazine: The award-winning Journal's deep analysis of legal trends makes it the nation's most-read and most-respected legal affairs magazine. We've posted every story from every issue back through 2005; issues from previous years will be posted soon. New issues will go online the day they are published, and they'll be augmented with Web-only exclusives like court opinions, white papers and interview transcripts that add depth to the printed stories.

The site also has all the tools you'd expect:

Visitors can comment on every story.
The list of most-read stories, appearing on almost every page, shows what the legal community is reading right now.
You can e-mail any story to friends and colleagues.
Too busy to visit the site? It will deliver the news to you with our free daily and weekly e-mail newsletters.
Add our news feeds to your RSS feed reader.
Keep up with the latest news on your Internet-capable cell phone or BlackBerry with our mobile edition.

Hacking Your Law Practice

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:07:33 GMT

The July 2007 issue of the ABA Journal contains an article entitled "Law Hacks: 101 Tips, Tricks and Tools to Make You a More Productive, Less Stressed-Out Lawyer" written by Jason Krause. Jason scoured such sites as the ABA TECHSHOW 60 Sites Hall of Fame, ABA Site-tation, and LifeHack.org, as well as interviewed experts from 2008 ABA TECHSHOW Chair Tom Mighell to Gina Trapani, author of Lifehacker. Tips are categorized and cover everything from email to time management to phones to your money. This issue is a keeper!

It's Almost Like Being at ABA TECHSHOW

Posted by Tom Mighell -- 2008 TECHSHOW Chair; Cowles & Thompson, P.C. — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:36:01 GMT

If you couldn't make it to ABA TECHSHOW this year, despair not: we're now making much of the fantastic content available to you for purchase and/or download online. Visit the ABA TECHSHOW Products Page , where you can purchase a copy of the TECHSHOW 2007 CD, with over 50 terrific articles and handouts from this year's conference. In addition, you'll find links to audio recordings of sessions from both 2007 (eight topics) and 2006 (ten sessions) for purchase through ABA CLE. And two of our great 2007 sessions are available for free download -- the Keynote address by Judge Shira Sheindlin, and "Approaching the Edge: Is the World Flat for Legal Technology?" Check it out now!

Past ABA TECHSHOW Chairs Launch New Podcast on Use of Technology in Law Practice

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:42:03 GMT

A new podcast about lawyer's use of technology has been released by two past ABA TECHSHOW chairs. The first edition of The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology is titled “Electronic Marketing: Harnessing the Web's Whizbang” and is scheduled to be a monthly feature of the ABA Law Practice Management Section’s e-zine, Law Technology Today.

Sharon Nelson (Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2006) and Jim Calloway (Chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2005) are the co-hosts. Sharon Nelson is president of Sensei Enterprises, a Fairfax, Va., computer forensics and legal technology company. Jim Calloway is Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Management Assistance program and publisher of the weblog Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips. Both are frequent speakers and writers on various legal technology and practice management topics and both have co-authored books for the ABA Law Practice Management Section.

This initial podcast is about 33 minutes in length. It is intended that a wide variety of legal technology topics will be covered in future editions, from specialized law office software to the lawyer's use of the Internet.

An iPod or MP3 player is not required to listen to a podcast. It may be played on a personal computer on the link listed above. The link about also includes a link to various other resources and several different ways to subscribe to the podcast so one will be notified when each new program is released.

ABA TECHSHOW 2007 a Smashing Success

Dan Pinnington — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:36:47 GMT

By all accounts ABA TECHSHOW 2007 was a smashing success. The numbers speak for themselves: Over 2000 registrants. 845 CLE program attendees, including almost 100 people for our new Solo and Small Firm Day at TECHSHOW. The TECHSHOW Vendor Expo Hall was sold out – 140 booths with 500 vendor reps, and over 700 people took advantage of the Free Expo Hall pass to visit with the exhibitors.

The reviews and comments I got from attendees were all very complimentary: "The best CLE program I have ever attended". "I am really not a technology person and I found the sessions were motivating and inspirational". "I just can't believe how much I am learning". "I will be changing the way I practice".

ABA TECHSHOW requires its speakers to do papers for each session they speak on, and CLE program attendees took home a CD packed with materials – something for every session.

Thanks to our amazing faculty for all their work. Some of these papers will be featured in the Best of TECHSHOW column in LawPracticeToday, the LPM Section's free e-zine www.lawpracticetoday.org.

The keynote presentation, a review of the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by Justice Shira Scheindlin (the judge that wrote the landmark decisions in Zubulake vs. UBS Warburg), followed by a discussion of e-discovery FAQs moderated by John Jessen of Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc., was one of the best attended sessions of the show. One attendee said "the keynote was worth the price of admission," A free podcast of the TECHSHOW keynote presentation will be available shortly on the TECHSHOW site.

A number of the sessions at TECHSHOW were recorded, and will be available on the ABA CLE site shortly.

Attendees raved about the new "Taste of TECHSHOW" dinners. These Dutch-treat dinners were hosted by program faculty and featured discussions on popular topics. Clearly attendees really appreciated the chance to meet like-minded people for discussions on topics of interest. "Taste of TECHSHOW" will be back next year with even more dinners and topic choices.

Attendees also snapped up a record number of the amazing books published by the Law Practice Management Section. Find LPM books atwww.abanet.org/lpm/publications.shtml

A personal thanks to all that contributed to the success of the show – my amazing board; the ABA LPM section staff, our top-notch faculty, and all our exhibitors.

Thanks to everyone that came to the show. If you missed it this year, mark your calendars now – ABA TECHSHOW 2008 is at the Hilton in Chicago on March 13-15, 2008. Watch www.techshow.com for more info.

Get Yer Expo Passes, Hot off the Press!

Dan Pinnington — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:18:07 GMT

Are you a Chicago-area legal professional with a couple of hours to kill on March 22-23? Looking for the latest in legal technology products? Then take advantage of the free ABA TECHSHOW Expo Pass -- you'll receive free access to ABA TECHSHOW's Exhibit Hall, where more than 100 legal technology vendors are waiting to demonstrate their products for you! To download your free pass, just click here, or visit the ABA TECHSHOW Registration Page and click on the PDF file under Exhibit Hall Only Pricing.

ABA TECHSHOW 2007 Salutes its Sponsors

Dan Pinnington — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:40:01 GMT

ABA TECHSHOW 2007 is proud to spotlight the following companies, who are sponsors of this year's conference:

LexisNexis (www.lexisnexis.com) -- Gold Sponsor

Dell, Inc. (www.dell.com) -- Silver Sponsor

Intercall (www.intercall.com) -- Bronze Sponsor

Kroll Ontrack (www.krollontrack.com) -- Bronze Sponsor

ABA TECHSHOW thanks these sponsors, and salutes them for their continuing commitment to legal technology education.

Reminder: A Whole Day of Programming for Solo/Small Firm Lawyers

Dan Pinnington — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:48:40 GMT

This year, ABA TECHSHOW offers not one, but two full tracks of educational programming for solo and small firm lawyers. In conjunction with the ABA's GP|Solo Division, ABA TECHSHOW will present Solo & Small Firm Day on Friday, March 23. After this special programming, all attendees are invited to the always-popular "Best of Law Practice Management Tips" plenary session. Special pricing for Solo & Small Firm Day is available, so don't miss out on this great offer!

Word Outline to PowerPoint Presentation

LeAnn Davidson — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:23:15 GMT

If you have an outline in Word, you can easily transfer the information to PowerPoint to create a quick presentation. More...

FCC Renews Push For Broadband Over Power Lines

John Simek — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:53:28 GMT

On August 4th, the Federal Communications Commission renewed its push for broadband over power lines, specifically concerned about areas where broadband has been limited to DSL or cable modems. If broadband over power lines, known as BPL, takes off, then more Americans, particularly in rural and underserved areas, will be able to plug into high-speed Internet access, and markets dominated by cable and DSL (digital subscriber line) should be forced to lower consumers' bills, according to FCC regulators. More...

Mollifying the Muse with Google

Craig Ball — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:01:27 GMT

I've always got half a dozen articles, columns or documents in process, spread over several computers, my Treo, Gmail and the web. Until today, when I got an idea, I e-mailed it to myself or started a Word document. The e-mail formatting left much to be desired and the Word document was always on the other system. But now I can e-mail whatever document I'm massaging to my personal Google Documents upload address and it's waiting for me, securely and online, with all the formatting bells and whistles I need. More...

Don't Be Tempted To Use Technology Unless It Makes Your Presentation Clear

Judge Christina Habas — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:31:41 GMT

8.30.06: People v. Eric Delgado, Denver, CO -- Beware of playing tape recordings for a jury. Criminal cases often include audio- or video-taped interviews. Many times, these recordings are not clear – either because of the quality of sound, the presence of static or interference, or even the size of the courtroom making listening difficult. I am watching a capable prosecutor try to punctuate his Closing Argument in a Sexual Assault on a Child case by playing portions of the Defendant's audio-taped statement, using his own words against him. My courtroom is a large cave – sound is often muffled and unintelligible. The prosecutor is frustrated in his playing of the tape, although he has taken great care to transfer the portions of the statement to his computer. Unfortunately, the speakers, the corruption of the sound recording, and the size of the courtroom have made it impossible for the jury to hear clearly, thus having little impact. Perhaps the prosecutor should have simply read a transcript of the Defendant's words to the jury to illustrate his point . More...

Court OK's Use of Text Message in Drug Case

Sharon Nelson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:21:47 GMT

On August 10th, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ruled that text messages handed over by an ISP to police could be used as evidence. On October 24, 2005, federal police raided a home on Potomac Drive in Fort Washington, Maryland. They allegedly seized approximately 213 pounds of cocaine and 6.5 pounds of crack cocaine. Antoine Jones and four other men were caught in the raid. More...

Backdoors in PDF

John Simek — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:15:27 GMT

A British penetration testing expert has release proof-of-concept code and sample PDF files to demonstrate how the Adobe Reader can be used to launch attacks without any user action. More...

Hello? Can I Order a Human for Pick Up, Please?

Reid Trautz — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:21:03 GMT

I always get very practical tips from the education seminars at ABA TECHSHOW®, but there is one in particular that has come in very handy. Like most consumers, I am very tired of getting the voice-mail runaround from "customer service" at many corporations. From health insurers to cell phone companies and more, they all seem to send me off into voice-mail hell before I can find a human to help resolve my problem. More...

New this year: Solo and Small Firm Day at ABA TECHSHOW, co-sponsored by ABA GP|Solo Division

Dan Pinnington — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:32:40 GMT

Friday, March 23, 2007 is Solo and Small Firm Day at ABA TECHSHOW. For the amazing price of only $245 (before the Feb. 16 early bird registration date; $295 afterwards), solo and small firm lawyers can experience all that ABA TECHSHOW has to offer. On that day there are eight sessions in two parallel tracks covering topics specifically geared to solo and small firm attorneys. They include:

Solo Small Firm Day attendees can also attend any of the other 16 ABA TECHSHOW CLE sessions and other events offered on Friday, will get a complimentary lunch, visit over 100 legal technology vendors in the expo hall, and can finish the day by attending the always popular "60 Tips in 60 Minutes" plenary session.

Register for Solo and Small Firm Day before the February 16 earlybird deadline to save $50.

View From the Bench: Have a Purpose for your Exhibits

Judge Christina Habas — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:02:04 GMT

8.24.06: People v. Alfred Damian, Denver, CO -- Prosecutors in my courtroom use aerial photographs of the location of a crime in each and every case. At times, these photographs are useful, and other times they are downright confusing – confusing to the witnesses, the jury and the court. More...

PDA’s And Smart Phones Retain Data When Discarded

John Simek — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:43:34 GMT

On August 30th, security software company Trust Digital released the results of a sampling of data found on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones sold on eBay. By simply purchasing 10 mobile devices on eBay, Trust Digital retrieved nearly 27,000 pages of sensitive data. More...

Eastern District of Virginia Gets Ready for E-Filing. The Discussion: Each Judge Has a Right to Require Hard Courtesy Copies to Chambers

Judge Gerald Bruce Lee — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:57:13 GMT

A few weeks ago I attended our judges meeting where we discussed our pending migration to electronic filing set for March 2007. Without great fanfare, we are getting ready to join federal courts in America with electronic filing. This is a major leap into the 21st century for the Rocket Docket. More...

The Early Bird Gets the Discount

Tom Mighell — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:20:56 GMT

The ABA TECHSHOW registration deadline is approaching fast, but it's still not too late to save on your early bird registration. Members of the ABA Law Practice Management Section can save $200 off the regular price, and everyone who registers by February 9 saves $100! To take advantage of this great offer, simply visit the online registration page.

Software Pirate Gets Record Sentence

Sharon Nelson — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:08:54 GMT

On September 8th, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced the owner and operator of iBackups.net to 87 months in prison, the longest sentence ever given for software piracy, according to the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). More...

Three Scary Letters: H M O

Toby Brown — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:57:12 GMT

This week I had my annual physical. To presumably distract me from my somewhat exposed condition, my doctor started asking me questions about the legal profession. He expressed a common frustration with the way lawyers bill their services. A relative of his had recently gone through a divorce and he was appalled at not only the cost, but also with the billable hour approach. He asked me why lawyers can't fixed fee bill the way doctors do. I suggested they could, but that they are resistant to change. As we talked through the advantages of fixed fee billing (easier on clients and lawyers), I turned the question around on him and asked what it took to get doctors to move to fees based on defined services. "Oh," he said, "that's easy to answer. We let the insurance companies take over our profession." He also went on to explain how technology is now a necessity in the medical profession as a result of this shift. With fixed fee pricing, there is a tremendous push to use technology to automate and control costs. More...

LinkedIn: A Popular Professional Networking Website Offers Useful Contact Management Tools

Adriana Linares — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:16:57 GMT

LinkedIn is a seemingly popular and self-proclaimed "professional" networking site. If you're an Outlook user, you might be interested in its add-on tools. More...

Still trying to decide whether to attend ABA TECHSHOW 2007?

Dan Pinnington — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:10:40 GMT

Maybe you're already registered, but want to learn more about what to expect at this year's conference. Don't look any further -- check out Looking Ahead to ABA TECHSHOW 2007 in this month's Law Practice Today, for a quick look at the best ABA TECHSHOW has to offer.

Acrobat 8 Tip: Use the Examine Document Feature to Remove Hidden Text and Metadata

Rick Borstein — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 22:24:43 GMT

Attorneys often ask how they can remove OCR text from a PDF. For example, you are about to send some PDFs to opposing counsel. Why give them the benefit of your OCR? More...

Judge Rules Against File Sharing Company Morpheus

John Simek — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:38:20 GMT

On September 28th, U. S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled in Los Angeles that StreamCast Networks, the distributor of Morpheus, had contributed to massive copyright infringement because it had constructed a business model that relied on massive copyright infringement and did not attempt to block the trading of copyrighted materials. In 2005, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the Grokster case, ruling that some technology firms could be held liable for distributing software used to violate copyrights. More...

Security Breaches of Consumer Data Reach the 100 Million Records Mark

David Ries — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 23:15:10 GMT

Reported security breaches, which have compromised personal information about individuals, reached the 100 million records mark on December 12, after disclosures that hackers had gained access to a database at UCLA and the theft of a Boeing laptop. The UCLA database contained personal information on approximately 800,000 present and former students, parents, faculty and staff. The laptop, stolen from a Boeing employee’s car, contained personal information on 382,000 current and former employees. The Privacy Rights Clearing House has maintained a Chronology of these breaches, which now shows records on over 100 million persons exposed, starting with the ChoicePoint data breach in February, 2005. More...

View from the Bench: Details for Details-Sake Don’t Give a "Picture" to the Jury

Judge Christina Habas — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:25:04 GMT

People v. Guy Lucero, Sr./Guy Lucero, Jr., Denver, CO -- Use of photographs of a crime scene: The DA just went through the trouble of admitting 73 photographs of the scene of a drive-by shooting. He also admitted a diagram of the crime scene, with various markers (showing pieces of evidence) identified on the diagram. He is now going through each photograph on a large-screen, in numerical order. More ...

North Carolina Court Addresses Production of E-Mails from Backup Tapes

David Ries — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:17:49 GMT

The new Federal Rules E-Discovery Amendments, which became effective on December 1 of this year, require a showing of "good cause" by the requesting party in order to obtain electronically stored information which is "not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost." Backup tapes will often be in this category. A North Carolina state court recently addressed this issue under state law when it ordered the restoration of e-mails from backup tapes, with the parties splitting the costs. Analog Devices, Inc. v. Michalski, 2006 WL 3287382 (N.C. Super. Ct., 11/1/06). More...

ABA TECHSHOW Announces Keynote Speaker

Tom Mighell — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 15:15:16 GMT

The Honorable Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, will give the ABA TECHSHOW 2007 Keynote Presentation on Thursday, March 22. Judge Scheindlin is renowned for a series of landmark decisions in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg. More...

ABA TECHSHOW Program Schedule Announced

Tom Mighell — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:11:55 GMT

The ABA TECHSHOW 2007 program schedule has been posted at http://www.techshow.com/program/grid.html. The 2007 conference features 60 sessions in 16 different tracks, with more than 50 leading legal technology speakers. Be sure to register soon, to take advantage of our early bird and other discounts!

Treo Hat Trick

Blair Janis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:19:23 GMT

Here are three tips to help you improve your relationship with your Treo. More...

Sirius Satellite Radio's First True Portable

Debbie Foster — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:53:44 GMT

If you spend any significant time in your car, consider satellite radio. Whether it is a long commute or regular trips to court or client meetings, satellite radio is so much better than the repetitious garbage that masquerades as radio today (with the exception of a few public and community radio stations). More...

A Trio of Tips for your Blackberry

Blair Janis — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:19:16 GMT

Becoming an expert with your Blackberry (or any Smartphone) can really make your more efficient throughout the day. Here are three tips to get you started. More...

Universal Web Email Service

Debbie Foster — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:28:17 GMT

If you use Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird or another email program to retrieve your messages on your home computer or notebook PC, you may not be familiar with where or how you log into your email provider's Web mail service. More...

Your Email Address--It Means More Than You Think

Adriana Linares — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:08:04 GMT

Whether you like it or not and whether it's a true reflection of you or not, your digital data says more about you than you think. From a professional perspective, your email address should reflect your name and the name of your firm. More...

New Treo 680 Announced by Palm

Debbie Foster — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:25:03 GMT

Palm announced its latest Treo smart phone. It is the Treo 680, which sports a smaller and slimmer form factor than the Treo 600, 650 and 700 series smart phones. It is the first Palm Treo to have an internal antenna, eliminating the antenna nub on the top left that is characteristic of the other Palm Treo smart phones. More...

U.S. Department of Commerce Reports Over 1,100 Laptops Lost or Stolen

David Ries — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:35:52 GMT

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that 1,137 of its laptops had been lost or stolen since 2001, including Census Bureau laptops which contained personal information. The report was in response to a request by the House Committee on Government Reform that asked federal agencies to report on lost and stolen laptops. The Committee request followed the high profile incident last spring in which a Department of Veterans Affairs laptop, which contained personal information on over 26 million veterans, was stolen from an employee's home. More...

Beware the Wireless Imposter Network

Tom Mighell — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:00:38 GMT

Security Software developer Authentium reports that the wireless network you try to access at the airport may not be legit. As quoted in this article:

Recent tests at Chicago's O'Hare airport revealed that more than 90% of wireless networks available within the passenger terminals were ad-hoc, or peer-to-peer, connections, and more than 80% of these were advertising "free" Wi-Fi access. Many also displayed fake or misleading MAC addresses." More...

Replace Your Electric Typewriter with Acrobat Typewriter

Mark Rosch — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:51:21 GMT

Just about everyone has had the experience of finding the exact government or court form they need online as a PDF, but once it was downloaded, they discovered that it was not "interactive." They could not fill the form in electronically. They still had to print it out, and then look for a real typewriter or worse yet, fill the form in by hand. More...

AOL Offers Free Service to Broadband Users

John Simek — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:38:12 GMT

On August 2nd, America Online announced that it will provide its basic service for free to anybody with Internet access, giving up its long experiment in building a gated community online. More...

Another Day, Another Zero Day Exploit

Catherine Sanders Reach — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:05:54 GMT

Eweek announced last week "Spyware, Bots, Rootkits Flooding Through Unpatched IE Hole". A zero-day exploit is one that takes advantage of a security vulnerability on the same day as the vulnerability becomes known. More...

Ready or Not, Here Comes IE7!

Laura Calloway — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:48:23 GMT

A new version of Internet Explorer is available for download and testing from Microsoft. Not only is it supposed to be safer, but it is s aid to be chock full of fun stuff like tabbed browsing (if you can't beat Firefox, join 'em), a feature that will automatically shrink text to improve printing, improved searching and RSS newsfeeds handling, and more.
More...

Service Turns Camera Phone into Scanner/Copier/Fax Machine...For Free

Mark Rosch — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 20:15:12 GMT

ScanR turns any higher-resolution digital camera, or camera-equipped cell phone into a scanner/copier/fax machine. Users simply have to take a clear photo of the document they wish to capture and e-mail it to ScanR (if using a conventional digital camera) or send it as an image message (from a camera phone). More...

VA CIO Resigns: More Breaches Revealed

John Simek — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:23:16 GMT

On June 30th, federal legislators said they learned of two more breaches at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) after the department had recovered the laptop containing the personal data of millions of veterans. More...

The "Best of TECHSHOW" at Law Practice Today

Tom Mighell — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 21:59:09 GMT

Interested in attending ABA TECHSHOW, but want to learn more about the educational programming before you commit? Over at Law Practice Today, we're making some of that great content available to you each month in our "Best of Techshow" segment.

Is Wi-Fi Opening You Up to Hackers?

Mark Rosch — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 22:54:27 GMT

At the recent Black Hat Briefings computer security conference in Las Vegas, two researcher/hackers demonstrated what was described as "gaping flaws in wireless (connection) drivers shipped on both Mac and Windows Systems." More...

Judge Dismisses Google Ranking Suit

John Simek — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:16:49 GMT

On July 13th, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel for the Northern District in San Jose dismissed the lawsuit by KinderStart against Google over its fall in Google’s search index but left the door open for the suit to be amended and refiled. More...

The Law Tail

Marc Lauritsen — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:14:11 GMT

Chris Anderson's The Long Tail (2006) is one of those must-read books, like Tom Friedman's The World is Flat and Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point. It doesn't quite live up to the breathless 'advance praise' on the back cover, but it's quickly digested, and full of provocative ideas. More...

Sent Versus Received E-mail

Toby Brown — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:01:25 GMT

As lawyers rely more and more on e-mail as a client communications tool, they should start thinking more about the differences between mail and e-mail. Although the two names sound alike, they function very differently. One interesting legal, and potentially ethical, issue comes about due to this difference. With US postal mail, the act of sending creates a presumption of receipt (in many cases). More...

ABA TECHSHOW 2007 Begins to Take Shape

Tom Mighell — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:01:12 GMT

The ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board is hard at work putting together the agenda for the TECHSHOW 2007, and our session tracks are almost in place. This year TECHSHOW will offer fourteen tracks of educational programming. In addition to the tracks that are always popular — E-Discovery, Litigation, Solo/Small Firm -- here are just a few of the exciting new tracks we'll be featuring at next year's conference:

Show Me — demonstrations of some of the legal technology products you use every day
Adobe, PDF, and the Paperless Office — an entire track devoted to this popular topic
Going Mobile — the latest in mobile technology and security while on the road
The Office — sessions on making the best use of the MS Office suite

Stay tuned for the full list of tracks!

AT&T Attorneys Leak Redacted Info in Brief

John Simek — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 22:38:39 GMT

Ah, the perils of technology. Yet again, attorneys have inadvertently leaked sensitive information about a client, in this case AT&T, which is charged in a lawsuit with facilitating a federal wiretapping program. The 25-page legal brief filed in the case was striped with thick black lines that were intended to obscure portions of three pages and render them unreadable. More...

VoIP Choice

Ben Schorr — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:38:09 GMT

A lot of firms are looking to upgrade their phone systems and almost all of them are at least considering Voice over IP (VoIP) as a possible solution. Before you get seduced by the promise of free (or at least cheap) phone calls and the other great features of VoIP bear in mind that there can be considerable expense in deploying VoIP. More...

Metadata is "Old" News

Toby Brown — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:31:29 GMT

Back in May I presented on Law Practice Management to a group of attorneys, mostly from solo/small firm practices. I brought up metadata, just in case some in the group were not yet aware of it and the ethical dangers it presents. More...

PA Supreme Court Rules on Use of Computer Generated Animation at Trial

John Simek — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:57:13 GMT

On April 25th, 2006, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania tackled the issue of using computer-generated animation (CGA) in court. In the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Serge, the defendant was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, who had been shot three times and killed inside their house. More...

Encrypt Your CD-ROMs

Mark Rosch — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:51:34 GMT

Now there's no excuse for losing discs with sensitive data that's easily-accessible. Ricoh and Kano Technologies recently announced the availability of Ricoh's EncryptEase recordable CD-ROM discs with built-in encryption capabilities. More...

Word Processing Tip: Keeping Text Together

Adriana Linares — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:12:36 GMT

A non-breaking space is a special character you can insert between text you don't want split on two lines. For instance, when writing a date – February 19, 2006 – you wouldn't want "February" to land on one line and the digits on another. You can avoid any word-processing acrobatics when working trying to keep a date, a name or a special phrase on the same line. Here's how:

Word: Ctrl + Shift keys as you press the Spacebar
WordPerfect and OpenOffice: Ctrl as you press the Spacebar
MacOS: Option as you press the Spacebar

Publisher of Computer Books Offers 22 Step-by-Step Titles as Free Downloads

Mark Rosch — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 21:18:50 GMT

Computer book publisher Visibooks is offering all 22 titles in it's In Pictures series free to the public, as downloadable PDF files at http://inpics.net/ until August 1, 2006. Users need the Adobe Acrobat reader, version 5 or newer, to open the files. More...

ABA using the Cutting Edge to Help Members Meet CLE Requirements

Blair Janis — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:03:14 GMT

Listen to ABA-CLE programming at your convenience by downloading MP3 files to your computer. Or take CLE home with you by transferring the MP3 file to your portable MP3 player, giving you even more freedom to learn on your time, where you like. More....

A Must Have Tech Tool for an Attorney on the Go

The Utah State Bar Technology Department — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:38:05 GMT

This day and age portability is key to unchaining yourself from the office. A device that can help take your files and data with you is a personal encrypted (that means safe and secure!) hard drive. More...

Collaborative Document-Centric Watercoolers for Lawyers

John Mayer — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 22:34:15 GMT

Hello folks. I am delighted to be a periodic guest blogger here on the ABA TECHSHOW Blog. My angle is technology, learning and legal education and I will use these opportunities to stretch that into law practice. After all, law school is just like law practice, right? (Hah!) More...

Return of the Hurricanes

Catherine Sanders Reach — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 17:03:14 GMT

June 1 launched this years hurricane season and within a week, Alberto was tumbling around in the Gulf. In the wake of Katrina, the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center (http://www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/) compiled a list of resources that include disaster preparedness and recovery resources (http://www.abanet.org/katrina/technology.html) - check it out and be sure you are prepared for the unexpected.

Mind Your Metadata

by Ben Schorr — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:46:05 GMT

Metadata is a hot topic in law firms these days as lawyers start to get chilling ideas about what kinds of things they may be inadvertently revealing to outside parties including opposing counsel or even their own clients. More...

Upcoming Teleconference and Live Audio Webcast on Overcoming E-Mail Overload

Adriana Linares — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 21:30:30 GMT

Join some of your favorite legal technology personalities for an educational and enlightening CLE session that we can all use! Overcoming E-Mail Overload: Techniques and Tips for Avoiding Malpractice, Streamlining, and Improving Effectiveness on Thursday, July 20, 2006. Find details and registration information at http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/t06eth1.html.

ABA TECHSHOW Welcomes New Planning Board Members

Tom Mighell — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:10:18 GMT

ABA TECHSHOW Welcomes New Planning Board Members In preparation for the upcoming ABA TECHSHOW 2007, the TECHSHOW Planning Board is pleased to announced the appointment of three new board members. More...

WiFi vs Cellular Access

The Law Practice Management Section's Practice Management Advisor's Committee — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 22:51:37 GMT

There is a lot of hype about the availability of WiFi but the fact is that there is not enough coverage, free or otherwise, to count on it being there in a pinch. More...

Where’s the Money Honey?

The Law Practice Management Section's Practice Management Advisor's Committee — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:27:17 GMT

Once a month lawyers should take a financial snapshot of their practice. The main purpose of is to give lawyers a clear picture, on a monthly basis, of where the money is. More...

FBI Survey: 90% of Companies Had Sucurity Incident in 2005

Sharon D. Nelson — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:33:23 GMT

According to the 2005 FBI Computer Crime Survey, nine out of ten companies had a computer security incident in 2005. In a survey of over 2,000 businesses, one out of five reported being the victim of 20 or more attacks. More...

ABA TECHSHOW 2007 -- Save The Date

Tom Mighell — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:06:20 GMT

It's official -- ABA TECHSHOW 2007 will be held March 22 through 24, 2007, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. Mark your calendars now, and check back here regularly for updates and new information about the show.

Google's Desktop 3 Raises Privacy Concerns

Sharon D. Nelson — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:02:55 GMT

On February 9th, search engine giant Google unveiled a new desktop search tool that accesses more private records than ever for those who choose to use it. Google Desktop 3, the latest version of software that helps users find files on personal computers, has a new feature that can track data from multiple PCs. More...

Businesses Not Negligent for Bypassing Encryption

Sharon D. Nelson — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 22:57:14 GMT

On February 8th, Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kyle dismissed a suit filed by Stacy Lawton Guin, a customer of Brazos Higher Education Service, who had sued the corporation on the grounds that encryption should be used as a routine security precaution. The judge found that Brazos had a written security policy and other "proper safeguards" for customers' information and that it acted with reasonable care even without encrypting the database. The case arose as a result of a burglary at the Maryland home of John Wright, a Brazos financial analyst who worked remotely and analyzed loan portfolios. More...

United States Supreme Court Approves Electronic Discovery Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

John Simek — Thu, 25 May 2006 22:45:33 GMT

On April 12, 2006 the United States Supreme Court approved the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. These rules concern the discovery of "electronically stored information" (ESI). These rule changes affect Rules 16, 26, 33, 34, 37, 45 and Form 35. More...

Purchase Your PC With Windows Vista Requirements In Mind

Ellen Freedman — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:43:55 GMT

Just in case you've been hiding under a rock, you need to know that Microsoft is on the cusp of releasing a major new operating system. Originally code-named Longhorn, the new operating system will be out probably before the end of 2006, and will be called Vista. I was recently contacted by an attorney who asked whether I agreed with his decision to wait to purchase his new computer in order to get one with Vista. More...

It's a Wrap

Tom Mighell — Tue, 02 May 2006 15:52:30 GMT

ABA TECHSHOW 2006 is now history, and by all accounts it was a terrific conference. We had more first-time attendees than ever before, and the quality of our speakers and their presentations was just outstanding. I could go on and on, but why should I, when I can let other bloggers do it for me? Check out ABA TECHSHOW: Wrap-Up (http://www.inter-alia.net/comments.php?id=P3537_0_1_0) for the thoughts of TECHSHOW attendees and speakers. Although TECHSHOW 2006 is behind us, we plan to keep on bringing you the best in legal technology information year round here at the TECHSHOW Blog. And we hope to see you at ABA TECHSHOW 2007, which will take place March 22-24, 2007 in Chicago!

Return Receipts for E-mails

Law Practice Management Section's Practice Management Advisor's Committee — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:16:26 GMT

Many lawyers never use return receipts for e-mails because they generally are not that useful as evidence in court. But when you are e-mailing important time-sensitive documents to clients or other lawyers, it is often helpful for you to know they received the document. Spam filters are one of many reasons an e-mail may not be received, but no "bounce message" is returned to you. Show your clients you care that they received a document and save yourself the agrevation of calling someone just to see if they got your e-mail by using the return receipt option. It is located under View, then Options in our version of Microsoft Outlook and can be located using the Help files if you use a different e-mail client.

Look out for Vista

Laura Calloway — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:50:09 GMT

A word of caution if you plan to purchase a new computer, laptop or desktop, in the near future. Microsoft has recently announced http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-21WindowsVistaDeliveryPR.mspx that, contrary to expectations, their new operating system, Vista, will not be ready for consumer release in time for the Christmas 2006 shopping season. Things have been running so smoothly for those of us who have already upgraded to Windows XP Professional and gotten past the hurdle of SP2, that PC based technologists may have been lulled into forgetting that Microsoft must drag us kicking and screaming to upgrade to a new operating system periodically if Bill Gates is to continue to be the world’s richest man. On the bright side, Vista does promise to offer some substantial gains in exchange for the pains of upgrading, but, as is always the case, a new, more powerful operating system will demand more computing power. If, like most lawyers, you need a new computer NOW and you intend to squeeze every possible drop (and day, month and year) of use out of any computer that you purchase between now and the end of 2006, you should go ahead and get one with Windows XP Professional, but make sure your hardware is selected with Vista’s requirements in mind. Ellen Freedman, the practice management advisor for the Pennsylvania Bar Association has written an excellent blog post that covers the RAM, throughput and graphics card requirements for Vista at http://www.pa-lawpracticemanagement.com/?p=139 so I won’t repeat them. You can also take a look at the Windows Vista page to see Microsoft's hardware requirements listing at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/versions/default.mspx

NSA Publishes Report on Removing Sensitive Data

Sharon Nelson — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 19:58:46 GMT

On January 24th, it was announced that the National Security Agency (NSA) had released a 13 page paper called "Redacting with confidence: How to safely publish sanitized reports converted from Word to PDF." Following several incidents in which sensitive data was unintentionally included in computer documents and subsequently revealed, NSA is at pains to make sure that users understand that information hidden or covered in an electronic document can almost always be recovered. NSA stresses the importance of actually removing the sensitive information, rejecting all thoughts of covering texts or graphics with black images or highlighting. The paper also deals with the removal of metadata from documents, giving step-by-step instructions on how to strip a Microsoft Word document of confidential information and then convert it to an Adobe Systems PDF file. The paper notes: "As numerous people have learned to their chagrin, merely converting an MS Word document to PDF does not remove all metadata automatically." The paper may be found at http://www.nsa.gov/snac/vtechrep/I333-TR-015R-2005.PDF

FTC Settles Major Data Breach Cases

David Ries — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 17:10:29 GMT

During the past 2 months, the Federal Trade Commission has announced settlements of 2 major enforcement actions arising from last year’s high profile data breach cases. Information about over 50 million consumers was exposed in these and a number of other data breaches. In February, the FTC announced the settlement (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/02/cardsystems_r.htm) of an administrative enforcement action against CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a credit and debit card processor. Hackers reportedly gained access to stored information about millions of cards, resulting in millions of dollars of fraudulent purchases. The FTC alleged that CardSystems failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security. The settlement requires CardSystems to implement a comprehensive information security program, with audits by an independent information security professional every other year for 20 years. In January, the FTC announced the settlement (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/01/choicepoint.htm) of a court enforcement action against ChoicePoint, Inc., a personal information data broker. The FTC alleged that ChoicePoint did not have reasonable procedures to screen prospective subscribers. Criminals posed as legitimate customers and purchased information about over 163,000 individuals and used it to commit identity theft. The settlement included a $10 million civil penalty and a $5 million fund for consumer redress. It also requires ChoicePoint to implement procedures to ensure that access to consumer reports is limited to those with a permissible purpose and to establish a comprehensive information security program, with audits by a third-party security professional every 2 years until 2026. These actions are part of a new enforcement approach which the FTC adopted in 2005. Until then, FTC enforcement actions in data breach cases were based on 2 legal theories, (1) breaches of express requirements for information safeguards under laws like Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Childrens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, and (2) false promises of security, as “deceptive trade practices” under the Federal Trade Commission Act. The new approach is that inadequate security for consumer information, by itself, is an “unfair trade practice,” in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, even where there is no legal safeguard requirement and no false security promise. The ChoicePoint action also involved alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Data breaches and the legal issues relating to them , as well as other hot topics in technology law, will be explored at “Law and Technology: The Year in Review and the Year Ahead” http://www.abanet.org/techshow/sessions/ht.html) at this year’s ABA TECHSHOW.

Market yourself with your e-mail signature

Dan Pinnington — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 22:43:06 GMT

Don't miss out on an excellent opportunity to market yourself in the hundreds of e-mails you send out each year. Most e-mail programs have a “signature” feature which automatically adds text to the end of every message you send. In Outlook you create a signature by clicking on Tools, selecting Options, clicking on Mail Format and clicking on the Signature button. This will open up a window that will give you a box for entering the text that will appear in a signature, and options for configuring it. After you have created a signature, it will appear automatically in every new e-mail message that you create. Your e-mail signature should include your name, job title, and phone and fax numbers (including area codes). Don't forget to include your e-mail address (it may not appear properly in a printed or forwarded copy of the message), your firm website URL, and any other relevant contact information. Include a divider bar to separate the signature from your message. And include two or three blank spaces above the divider bar so you can type your messages without having to move your signature down every time. If you do “sign” the end or your messages with your name, you can include it in your signature to so you don’t have to re-type it every time Most importantly, take advantage of this opportunity to market yourself. Include a reference to an upcoming event you are speaking at, or a link to an article on your website. Here is a sample e-mail signature: Dan + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + Dan Pinnington dan.pinnington@lawpro.zzz Director, practicePRO Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO) (416) 598-5863 or 1 (800) 410-1013 (Fax) 416 599 8341 www.practicepro.ca and www.lawpro.ca On our new LAWPRO Magazine Archives page every article from every past issue is just one click away. See it at www.lawpro.ca/magazinearchives This is an excerpt from the Managing a better professional services firm booklet, ( www.practicepro.ca/servicesbooklet), published by the Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company (www.lawpro.ca). __________________________________________

Use of Prior Statements: Inconsistencies and Comparisons

Hon. Christina Habas — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:38:48 GMT

Problem: A very good witness is on the stand. Defense counsel cross-examines at great length as to differences between three statements. By the third occasion, the witness is hopelessly confused, and the jury as well (as well as the judge). Solution: Counsel’s notes should be indexed to specific portions of each statement, and a direct comparison of these segments should be prepared into a single demonstrative exhibit. Lesson: Visual comparisons are far more clear than verbal.

Courts Rein in FBI on Cellular Surveillance

Sharon Nelson — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:31:49 GMT

Two federal judges recently ruled that the FBI may not track the locations of cell phone users without showing evidence that a crime occurred or is in progress, saying that to do so would violate long-established privacy protections. Judges in Texas and New York denied FBI requests for court orders that would have forced wireless carriers to continuously reveal the location of a suspect's cell phone as part of an ongoing investigation. Other judges have allowed the practice in other jurisdictions, but the recent rulings could change that. Depending on a wireless phone's capabilities, carriers can determine either precise or rough locations of users when they make or receive calls, a feature primarily used for emergencies. In the New York and Texas cases, the courts approved FBI requests for other information from the wireless carriers, including logs of numbers a cell phone user called and received calls from. But the FBI also sought cell-site locations, which the courts said amounted to the ability to monitor someone's movements. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and Magistrate Judge Stephen William Smith from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that such information requires law enforcement to show probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. Opinions in both cases may be found at http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/USA_v_PenRegister/.

Become Staff Independent By Using Your Technology

Ellen Freedman — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 23:58:32 GMT

Every single attorney in the firm should know enough about the firm’s software and hardware to be able to do the following. If you can click the mouse, use two fingers on the keyboard, and/or dictate, you can accomplish these tasks. But you will need training assistance to get to this point: - locate, open, edit, print, save and close a document - produce a simple letter from scratch using templates, styles and copy/paste - fax a document - copy a document - scan a document -open, save, create, and send an attachment to an email -create and respond to email - effectively use the basic telephone system features of forward, retrieving and leaving voice mail messages, and conferencing

Ladies and Gents, In this Corner, Microsoft and in this Corner, Google

Jim Calloway — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:01:55 GMT

It's been a busy month so far for roll-outs and rumors of new online services. We are seeing the early rounds of an escalating battle between Google and Microsoft to become the dominant online user service provider. But don't expect Yahoo or AOL to sit this one out on the sidelines. Microsoft launched its new search engine at live.com (http://www.live.com/). Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of information services at MSN, predicted people's reaction (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_INTERNET_SEARCH?SITE=NYPOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT): "They're going to say, 'Holy cow, I had no idea that search could get this much better!' " Google search is pretty good, so we'll see if the immediate bovine exclamations prove to be warranted. Google leaked (allegedly by accident) its plan for offering consumers infinite online storage.(http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOOGLE_STORAGE?SITE=NYPOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-03-08-20-29-35) "The online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy," Google's notes said, with the original information kept on a user's PC essentially serving as a backup. But there's more than meets the eye to both these disclosures. Regular readers have seen my comments on Web 2.0 applications. If not, review here (http://www.okbar.org/members/map/articles/2006/011406.htm). Microsoft wants to grab headlines by touting a better search engine than Google. But check out Windows Live (TM) Ideas (http://ideas.live.com/) for the real scope of their plans. The laundry list includes an improved webmail service, automated computer maintenance, custom domains, traveling favorites, Microsoft Office Live on the web and a whole lot more. Then check out the newly released Microsoft Gadgets (http://microsoftgadgets.com/) feature. Microsoft says "Gadgets are a new category of mini-application designed to provide information, useful lookup, or enhance an application or service on your Windows PC or the Web." There are lots of interesting Gadgets available on day one, including many simple games, information presenters, applications that enhance current Microsoft services and even all sorts of Gadgets that work with Google (http://microsoftgadgets.com/Tags/Google)or iTunes.(http://microsoftgadgets.com/Tags/iTunes) Then they've made it easy for developers and hobbyists to design and publish their own Gadgets. It almost looks like Microsoft is promoting an open source movement or a return to the early days of computing when independent developers released all sorts of applications from the silly to the sublime. But this is all under Microsoft's live.com umbrella. So every new Gadget (and there will be many) adds to Microsoft's empire. The concept from Google is no less breathtaking in its scope when you think about it. Online storage has been around for a long time. Google's Gmail (http://mail.google.com/) invites massive online storage of e-mail archives at no cost. But the concept of online storage is gaining more attention for typical, non-expert computer users. I was summoned to a friend's house a few weeks ago to look at a computer that had been in service for too long and was obviously nearing the end of its lifespan. The computer was too old to upgrade or send out for repairs. So I noted that the most important step was to copy off onto CD's or a thumbdrive any important documents and other data while the computer still lived. I made a casual comment that the family's large collection of digital pictures of their children growing up was likely the most valuable part of the computer and if they hadn't been burning copies onto CD's, that was the first priority. The wife mulled over my remarks for a few hours after I left. My friend later advised me that by the next day my comments about computer data triage had become not just their first priority in data management, but their primary focus in life. Happily all of the pictures were saved- in duplicate - with a set now stored off-site. But I'm,sure the idea of online backup would not seem unreasonable to this couple. So what?

Quickly Zooming Fonts for Easier Reading

Law Practice Management Section's Practice Management Advisor's Committee — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:52:46 GMT

When you are reading a document or a webpage and the font is a bit too small to comfortably read, here's a quick solution. Hold down the control key and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to easily enlarge the text, zooming in. This doesn't work with everything. But since it works with True Type fonts, it will work most of the time.

How Not To Show Exhibits at Trial

Hon. Christina Habas — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:43:11 GMT

From a November, 2005 trial: Prosecution’s first witness, a police officer. Using ELMO to show photos and diagrams. He keeps using (not well) the zoom feature (to distraction). The lesson here: CHOREOGRAPH your use of exhibits. Have a clear goal in mind about what and why you use any tech feature. Too much movement on the screen distracts jurors. Next up? Photographs of every room in the house where the crime occurred. Next lesson: simply because you have pictures of a room doesn’t require you to use ALL of them – make sure they show something jurors care about. Final lesson: an ELMO is terrible for photos – it just makes everyone dizzy, and the jurors end up turning away.

Old "ASP" Wine - Shiny New "On Demand" Bottles

Toby Brown — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:27:51 GMT

Recently Forbes ran an article entitled "Your Business on Demand" (http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/08/sap-oracle-salesforce_cx_tt_0208straightup.html?partner=ecommerce_newsletter). This article is interesting because it is a reflection of hosted applications moving into the mainstream. Hosted Applications (formerly known as Application Service Providers) have been around for some time. The basic concept is moving software applications on to the Internet. Then instead of loading, configuring, supporting, maintaining and upgrading an application, you just access the application online with a browser. All of the application support issues are handled by the provider. Lawyers have been hesitant to use hosted applications, since they are concerned about having client data on hardware outside their offices. The Forbes article points out that both large companies and their software providers are moving in this direction. It also points out that the market for online applications is expected to grow to $3.6 billion by 2008. What this means is that clients are moving their mission critical data online. As a long time advocate of hosted apps, I've always felt moving data into a secure data center versus having it onsite makes much more sense. In fact the Utah State Bar's ( www.utahbar.org) database (as of last May) is in a hosted application located in a Tier One data center. Lawyers would do well to educate themselves on the hosted application model and watch for ways to adopt it. This will move client data to more secure locations; it will decrease technology burdens for lawyers and it will provide better client service tools that allow online client interaction.

Poor e-Discovery Deciding Case Outcomes?

Posted by Toby Brown — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 23:37:21 GMT

Recently I spent some time with a Kroll forensic expert who is speaking for the Utah State Bar today. We talked about various trends in e-discovery and agreed we were both seeing three noteworthy trends. 1) Poor/Sloppy/Lazy e-discovery practices by lawyers are determining case outcomes. Traditionally discovery practices have always impacted case outcomes, but given the complexity of electronic information, the impacts of poor practices are becoming dramatic. A simple notice to preserve evidence can lead to catastrophic client consequences. 2) Most lawyers are focused on defending e-discovery requests right now. In an e-discovery seminar last week in Utah a presenter asked how many lawyers in attendance were there to learn about defending (vs. attacking) - every hand went up. This means instead of assertively representing clients via effective e-discovery, lawyers are playing catch-up and CYA on the issue. Lawyers appear to be afraid to assertively go after electronic evidence, because they know they can't defend the same requests. 3) The amount of available electronic information in discovery is so voluminous; humans can't possibly review it all. This means lawyers need to learn how technology can help them screen and review electronic information. What has happened in some recent circumstances is that lawyers release privileged information to opposing client under protective agreements, meant to preserve privilege. Although this may work in the short run and for a specific case, in the long run it may well waive privilege for other matters or in other circumstances. We concluded in our conversation that lawyers really need to get up to speed on e-discovery issues (with the help of their bar associations). Failure to understand this critical issue could mean harm to clients and ultimately their practices.

Blogger's Identity Protected

Sharon Nelson — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 23:29:25 GMT

Last October, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that, if any elected official claims he has been defamed by an anonymous blogger, he cannot use a lawsuit to discover the blogger’s identity unless he has substantial evidence to prove his claim. That standard, the court said, “will more appropriately protect against the chilling effect on anonymous First Amendment Internet speech that can arise when plaintiffs bring trivial defamation lawsuits primarily to harass or unmask their critics.” At issue was a defamation lawsuit filed in 2004 by Patrick Cahill, a councilman in Smyrna, Delaware. Cahill said he needed the identity of a blogger who, in a September 2004 posting, praised the mayor but said Cahill was divisive and had “an obvious mental deterioration.” In a second posting, the blogger wrote that Cahill “is as paranoid as everyone in the town thinks he is.” Using a court order, Cahill learned from the publisher of the blog, Independent Newspapers, that the Web address of the blogger belonged to a customer of Comcast. When Cahill demanded the person's identity, Comcast notified the blogger, as required by law. The blogger filed for a protective order. A lower court judge denied the request, and the blogger appealed. In a 33-page opinion, the five justices reversed the lower court, saying the judge used a standard that was incorrect because it was not stringent enough. The court said, “The Internet provides a means of communication where a person wronged by statements of an anonymous poster can respond instantly, can respond to the alleged defamatory statements on the same site or blog, and thus, can, almost contemporaneously, respond to the same audience that initially read the allegedly defamatory statements.” The court said its decision was the first time any state or federal Supreme Court had ruled on the rights of anonymous bloggers. The decision in the case may be found at http://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/(g54xyg45d4uboc55kbouth45)/download.aspx?ID=67130.

New from Google

Craig Ball — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 20:31:47 GMT

Whenever I need a tech tip, I go see what Sergey and Larry are doing out in the garage at Google. Now they're giving away and selling video clips at Google Video (http://video.google.com/). If you got a video Ipod for Christmas, Hanukah or as a kickback from Jack Abramoff, you'll find a bunch of free content. For those with a Sony PSP handheld entertainment platform, video will download in the PSP's video format, too. And, of course, you can watch it on any computer. Did I say Google is selling video? Yup, Google is letting everyone from the big dogs (e.g., CBS, NFL) to bored teens sell clips for $.99 to $4.99 a pop. It's still in beta, so not all comers can charge for content. Which reminds me that porn content is prohibited. Presumably, someone culls porn submissions in Mountain View. There's a job that'll suck the romance out of life ("How was your day, dear?"). As to current content, the descriptive is "funky." It ranged from home video of a fellow lighting a candle via flatulence to Charlie Rose (Yes, I could tell them apart). If you enjoy "Asian Girl Licking a Glass," they need to start showing your photo to the school crossing guards. But there's "CSI" and "I Love Lucy," too. The copyright issues will be a nightmare for Google, especially as it's taking a share of the proceeds. Even if the video is homemade, the soundtracks tend to be commercial recordings. Case in point: a creative pairing of video game warriors and the ditty, "The Internet is for Porn" from the wonderful Broadway show, "Avenue Q." Can you say "deep pocket defendant?" I think you can. Google morphing into the eBay of short video troubled me less that its other latest development, the "Google Pack" (http://pack.google.com/), a selection of free, "essential" software. The basic Google Pack includes Google Desktop, Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE. Great! But it also includes Google Pack Screensaver, Picasa and Google Earth. Still pretty great, but hardly essential. Then it gets troubling. The pack tacks on the Mozilla Firefox web browser (Why was it I downloaded the toolbar for Internet Explorer?) and Norton Antivirus, soon to nag you to subscribe to its services. Worse, if you're not careful, a stray click adds RealPlayer, GalleryPlayer, Trillian and GoogleTalk. If you've ever had RealPlayer insinuate itself as the default viewer for every format on your machine and then kvetch that you haven't purchased the premium edition, you know why that stray click is a problem. I love Google. More importantly, I trust Google. But the bloatware called Google Pack gives me pause. Probably best just to get what you need from http://www.google.com/downloads/ and leave the Pack behind.

Employee Training: Guaranteed to Be One of Your Firm’s Best Investments

Ellen Freedman — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 23:50:44 GMT

A Technolawyer exchange late last year prompted this writing. The exchange started out with a post regarding case management software. It morphed into a diatribe regarding the complexity of CMS and various other kinds of software. Ultimately, one attorney pronounced that in his opinion well written and designed software should be usable without need of any training. Yeah, right. He went on to say he would not buy or keep software which did not meet this benchmark. I sure hope he enjoys using that quill pen. In 1986 a law firm asked me to figure out why it’s staggering investment in a state-of-the-art word processing system had not resulted in increased productivity or reduced staffing levels. It took me very little time to determine that lack of training was the problem. Staff were using the equipment and software like electronic typewriters. And in many cases, the lack of training actually caused people to produce work slower than they would have on an actual typewriter. The investment was more a liability than asset. In fact, I theorized that the firm’s staggering 67% employee turnover rate was in some part directly attributable to the technology implementation. The managing partner and executive committee were not convinced. From their perspective, people were busily producing work on the equipment provided. Moreover, they felt that having state-of-the-art technology would draw and keep people at the firm. Nonetheless, I was given a free hand, albeit non-existent budget, to devise and implement a training program. The training program included specific task-related software training. By that I mean that the people being trained were asked to provide input on what tasks they needed to perform with the software on a regular basis, and the training was specifically designed to address those tasks. Regular feedback and additional discussion with staff revealed a whole host of related areas–procedures and other equipment–which required codification and more training. The training program expanded over time to include not just the word processing system, but copiers, fax machines, telephone and vmail, cost control equipment, time & billing and accounting procedures, file opening and closing procedures, and so forth. Current employees began to participate in the training and orientation of new employees. And in doing so, they both improved their skills further, and made additional suggestions on how to improve the program. New employees were surveyed at the end of their 90 day introductory period to determine how effective the training and orientation program was, and how it might be improved. Continual tweaking fine tuned the process. The impact of the training and orientation program became quickly apparent. Turnover dropped dramatically. In one year it fell from 67% to around 35%. In another year turnover was further reduced to 17%. By the end of the third year turnover was under 5%, which was lower than the average for the geographic region. As turnover reduced, morale improved for both staff and attorneys. Unexpectedly, the attorney turnover rate started to drop as well. Profitability improved significantly. During the same time, productivity increased dramatically, and staffing ratios began to morph. The firm was able to migrate from an attorney/secretary ratio of 1:1 to a 1.5:1 ratio by the end of the second year. After almost four years the ratio was mostly 2:1. This further enhanced profitability. There is no doubt that training and productivity are strongly related concepts. They go hand in hand. But it goes much further than that. Effective training performs a dual function: it educates people and it motivates them to work harder and better. There is a reward that organizations reap when they pay attention to people and show them the organization is concerned about them. In simpler terms, we know that people spend such a large portion of their daily lives at work that they need to have a sense of belonging, of being a vital part of a team. When they do, they produce better. It’s simple motivation: pus