Sep 02 2010
How to Solve a Computer Problem
The Reasonably Prudent Law Student linked to this recently on her Facebook page. I find it so true.
Sep 01 2010
A Plug for Google Scholar
After court today, I visited the law library in the courthouse. Given that I do most of my research online, I don’t spend much time in the law library. However, today, I wanted to take a look at a treatise. I then decided that the library would be a good place for me to work on the response brief I was drafting.
I had my laptop with me, so I went to work.
As I was writing, I discovered that I needed a case to support a particular position. Because the library has wi-fi, I was able to log on to my WestlawNext Account and search for what I needed. During the search, I came across a case from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. I wanted to see if the case was useful, but I knew that it was outside of my plan.
Not wanting to give up, I decided to see if Google Scholar had the case. I put the inf0rmation into Google and in a few seconds I was reading the case (and realizing that it was of no use to me). The thing I love about the process was that pulling the case up was no more difficult than typing its name into my Google Search bar.
So, if you are looking for a case that it outside your subscription plan, give Google Scholar a try.
Now, for the embarrassing part of the story. It was only after I was done and leaving the library that I realized I could have just pulled the reporter from shelf. I was in a law library for heaven’s sake. However, the though of pulling the physical book never even crossed my mind.
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Aug 19 2010
Email Importance
I, like most other people I know, preform email triage. When I review the message in my inbox, I know which ones I need to respond to immediately and those that can wait. One of the things I have learned is that if I send an email regarding something that must occur by a particular time, I put, in the text of the email, the deadline that I need to hear back form the person as well as an explanation as to the deadline if necessary.
I don’t think my behavior is unusual. In fact, it seems in line with most of the people I deal with.
However, I have some clients who, every time they send me an email, they mark it as highest priority. This drives me nuts. Let’s be honest, not every email they send me is actually of highest priority. Further, I am not sure what they hope to accomplish by doing this. Turning the priority flag on certainly does not cause me to address the email any faster. Further, unless it is accompanied by some explanation in the email (which it never is) the fact that it is flagged as high priority really doesn’t tell my anything.
The other day the following comic showed up on my desk calendar. I think it perfectly encapsulates how I feel about this issue.
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Aug 12 2010
Register for the ISBA Solo & Small Firm Conference
Don’t forget to register for the ISBA Solo & Small Firm Conference. It is in Springfield again, although not at the same hotel as last year. This time the conference will be at the Hilton. I have attended every ISBA Solo & Small Firm Conference and I think it has gotten better every year.
Register by August 27, 2010 to receive the early bird discount. After that, the registration price increases.
You can download the complete schedule here.
I will be speaking at two sessions. One titled Your Secret Weapon in the War Against Paper: Adobe Acrobat and PDF. The second is titled Your Bottom Line: What You Need to Know about IOLTA and Firm Accounting, Time and Billing.
In addition we will also have the following presentations on the Tech Track:
- Email Bankruptcy: How to Deal with Email Overload
- Integrating Technology into the Modern Law Office to Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness Without Spending a Bundle
- Practicing in the Cloud: Pros and Cons of Software as a Service (SaaS), Online Document Repository and Virtual Law Practice
- Document Management for the Law Office: Buy It or Build It?
- The Ethics and Security of Cloud Computing
- Trial Tech: Taking the Mystery out of Litigation Support Software and Trial Technology Without Breaking the Bank
- The Barbarians are at the Gate: Securing Your Technology and Your Network
- Mac in the Law Office: Running a Mac in a Windows World
- I Have the Power: Using Advanced Legal Features in MS Word
In addition to these programs, the Substantive and the Effective and Ethical Practices Tracks have a variety of excellent programming as well.
You can register for the program here.
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Jul 20 2010
Avoiding Ethical Pitfalls with Redaction
I recently noted that I had co-authored an article on metadata. The second part of that article has now been published by the State Bar of Wisconsin. This portion focuses on redaction. You can find links to both parts of the article here. I wantto give a big thanks to my co-author Nerino Petro for making sure that this article got published.
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Jun 16 2010
I Co-Authored an Article on Metadata
The State Bar of Wisconsin recently published an article on metadata that I co-authored with Wisconsin Practice Management Advisor Nerino Petro. Nerino and I have spoken on this topic before on a couple of occasions. This is a topic that far too many attorneys remain in the dark about.
If you are not sure what metadata is or how to manage it, I encourage you to go read the article.
You can find it here.
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Jun 14 2010
My Review of Chrometa
Last week Technolawyer published my review of Chrometa. You can download a copy of my review from my Files page or download it directly here.
If you are not familiar with Chrometa, it is a utility that keeps track of active windows that you are working in and how much time you spend in each window. This is a great resource for those of us who bill by the hour. I loved this program and recommend it to anyone who has to keep track of their time. The conclusion of my article says:
If your practice involves hourly billing at all, you will benefit from Chrometa. In short, Chrometa works well, increases your revenue, and includes helpful and friendly support from its creators. I have no doubt that Chrometa will pay for itself in the first week that you own it, if not the first day.
Disclaimer
Please note that I received a free copy of the program.
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May 12 2010
Trust but Verify
I am fascinated by this story in which a person managed to persuade at least five television stations to put him on the air to demonstrate his prowess as a yo-yo champion. I understand that producers for morning shows have to fill their air time and I understand the desire to fill that air time with a yo-yo champion. That is something unusual and could be entertaining.
However, I am baffled by the fact that these stations apparently did no research before letting this guy go on live television. Obviously, this did not work out well for the stations. In one instance:
At WISC in Madison, Strasser was booked and ready to go on “News 3 This Morning.” But things took a strange turn when Strasser said on the air, “Do you want to hear a scary story?”
Colin Benedict, the station’s news director, said the anchors were confused. They thought a yo-yo champion was supposed to be on.
Instead, Strasser started talking about his personal story of alcohol and drugs.
And the yo-yo tricks? Benedict said Strasser tried one but the yo-yo fell apart and onto the studio floor.
That was enough for WISC. The anchors took over and Strasser was off the air.
What did this guy do to get on the air? He sent the stations an email:
In each case, producers at the television stations received an e-mail from Joe Guehrke, saying he represented Strasser and ZimZam Yo-Yo, “the world’s first ‘green’ ” nonprofit toymaker.
Guehrke told the stations that Strasser, whom he called a “master yo-yo artist,” would be in their area to bring his environmental message and “zany sense of humor” to kids.
Guehrke wrote in one e-mail to a TV station that Strasser was a dynamic talk-show guest who comes “equipped with a roster of amazing yo-yo tricks, juggling and fun tips about how kids and adults alike can take small steps to make the world a greener place.”
The e-mail solicitation stated that Strasser was a runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 1995, grand champion at the Pensacola Regional and was nominated for the Walt Greenberg Award in 2000.
There is no Walt Greenberg Award in yo-yo, and there is no evidence Pensacola ever hosted a yo-yo tournament or that Strasser won a rookie of the year award.
Maybe I am strange, but when I am contacted by someone or some company that I have never heard of before, the first thing I do is Google that person.
According to the information in the news story, it appears that a reasonable web search would have revealed that this guy was not who or what he claimed to be. If you can’t find a reference to the Walt Greenberg Award anywhere, that should be a pretty good clue that it does not exist.
The internet is a powerful tool and it is good for things other than legal research and Twitter. Keep that in mind. There is nothing wrong with listening to what people have to say. However, it is someone that you have never dealt with before, take the two minutes required to run a Google search and see if the information you find (or do not find) supports what the person is telling you.
Remember STFW. (If you don’t know what that means, Google it).
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May 11 2010
Multiple Monitors Does Not Mean Multitasking
I am a big proponent of using multiple monitors. Given this, you might be surprised that I agreed with much of what John Heckman had to say in his recent post Dual Monitors and Multitasking–A Contrarian View. John explains:
I recently reorganized my office and wound up with an extra monitor. Since “everybody” swears by dual monitors (or more) I thought I’d give it a shot. Much to my surprise I found the extra monitor distracting and somewhat annoying. After using the second monitor for a couple of weeks to see if it would grow on me, I finally dumped it.
This will probably stir up vigorous protests, but in thinking about it, I realized that dual monitors is a special case of multi-tasking. While I can see certain cases where it would be useful, in general I think people are kidding themselves if they think they are being more productive when multi-tasking. Some exceptions include things like sending emails on your Blackberry during boring meetings (which by definition aren’t very productive anyway), or having multiple documents displayed side by side when you are trying to consolidate them.
John then goes on to talk about a Stanford study that shows that humans are not good at multitasking. And that what we often think of as multitasking is really just dividing our attention between multiple things for short periods of time.
The fact of the matter is that “multitasking” in a real sense (or as a computer would understand it) does not really exist. What multitasking really amounts to is that you divide up your time into more or less small “slices” and simply switch rapidly from one “slice” to another. You are still doing one thing at a time, but switching back and forth in rapid succession. So if you “multitask” by doing four things in twelve minutes, you actually focus (for example) on each one of them three times in one minute “slices.” For better or worse, human beings simply do not have quad core (or even dual core) brains.
I agree with everything that he has to say here. Multitasking for humans just means we do more things less well. However, that is not a reason to abandon a multiple monitor set up. Now, if you are using your multiple monitors to monitor Twitter, constantly check your email, follow your Facebook friends, watch the stock ticker, and monitor the score in your favorite game, you are likely not increasing your productivity at all. In fact, I feel pretty comfortable that your productivity is abysmal.
However, I do believe that multiple monitors can benefit many attorneys. An example of this how I use multiple monitors in my practice. At my office, I work with a three monitor set up. I have my laptop monitor along with two external monitors. the external monitors are the same size and resolution.
The external monitors provide more space to work on and they are my primary working monitors. On my laptop, I keep open my time and billing program, thus helping to ensure that I do not forget to keep track of my time. I also use this monitor to stash any programs or documents that I have open that I am not using at the moment.
I use the monitor in the middle as my main working monitor. In my experience, when I am working on something, I am almost always looking at something else. Sometimes it’s other pleadings, sometimes it’s discovery documents, other times its legal research. Regardless, it is usually something. This something, is what I have on the left monitor.
Thus, I regularly use multiple monitors, however, I am not using it for multitasking, I am using it to keep the information I need to do my job in the best position for me to work with it.
Obviously, my set up will not work for everyone. However, I think it is something to consider.
Note: I believe that John acknowledged these benefits in his post.
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May 05 2010
What Going Paperless Means to Me
One of the problems that I have when describing my paperless practice to others is the fact that my practice is not really paperless. I use plenty of paper. In fact, a couple of days ago, I mailed out close to 100 pages of paper in court filings and courtesy copies. Because of this, I have, at times, had trouble explaining exactly what I am talking about.
Fortunately for me, I have found the answer I have been looking for. I recently checked out the About Page on the Going Paperless blog by Molly DiBianca. In that About Page, she explains:
Although there seems to be a whole lot of chatter about what exactly a “paperless office” is, exactly, I’d suggest it’s not so complicated. Certainly, I still use paper. And plenty of it, truth be told. The “paperless” part is not that paper is not used–it’s that paper is irrelevant. In a paperless office (at least as I’ve defined it), there is no reliance on a paper file. Everything (and I mean everything) is filed electronically using a document-management system.
This system didn’t come together overnight. It took practice and tweaking. It also took dedication to build the trust in the system that is necessary before abandoning paper files altogether. But it does work and, honestly, it’s really easy to use.
I think this encapsulates the idea of a paperless office perfectly. Yes, I have and go through plenty of paper in my office. However, that is because the systems of third parties make me do so. For me, however, the paper is irrelevant.
The more I think about the concept of a paperless office, the more I am starting to believe that it is a state of mind much more than a process. Sure, you have to implement proper processes to make sure that it is working properly. However, a paperless office must first start in your mind.
You must convince yourself that you do not need the paper version of a document to work with it. Once you start down this path, I believe that you will quickly discover that it is, in fact, more efficient to work with an electronic copy of a document than with a paper copy. However, you will never reach that discovery if you do not first shift your state of mind to an understanding that you need not rely on the paper files.
