Oct 22 2009
I have arrived at the ISBA Solo and Small Firm Conference. I have already ran into some friendly faces and am excited about the upcoming programs. I am speaking on both Friday and Saturday, but I have today free to enjoy the conference, attend some sessions and visit with friends that I rarely get to see.
I hope to see you at the conference.
Oct 21 2009
A couple of days ago, I posted about why you should own your own domain and not use a free email service for your professional emails. 3 Geeks and a Law Blog has published a couple of posts on the ethical dangers of using a free email address. In the first, after reviewing the terms of service for Google and Yahoo, the author concludes:
So beyond the security concerns, it appears that the use of popular, free email services for client communications is a violation of ethics rules since lawyers are revealing client information to a third party.
If you didn’t have enough reasons for moving to a secure email address on a domain you own, you can now add “getting a letter from Discipline Counsel” to the list.
In a more recent post, the author concludes with:
The legal profession holds itself out as having higher duties of care when it comes to securing client information. I suggest that using free email services with a TOS like Googles’ runs counter to this professional responsibility.
I think he has an excellent point.
Oct 20 2009
A recent Bruce Schneier post highlights the pitfalls that can accompany social media. I am not a social media hater. I have a Twitter feed, a Linked In page, etc. However, that does not mean that I just randomly add information to my page. Further, I do not add every contact that tries to add me. I think that, just as in all other walks of life, it makes sense to think about what information to make available. I think my internal policies are reasonable and server me well.
If I were a fugitive from justice, however, I would probably have more stringent policies, such as not belonging to any social media sites.. Fortunately for the the US Department of Justice, not all fugitives, follow my advice. guardian.co.uk reports that the DOJ was looking for a criminal named Maxi Sopo. The DOJ believed he was hiding in Mexico, but could not find him.
Several months later, a secret service agent, Seth Reeg, checked Facebook again and up popped MaxiSopo. His photo showed him partying in front of a backdrop featuring logos of BMW and Courvoisier cognac, sporting a black jacket adorned with a not-so-subtle white lion.
Although Sopo’s profile was set to private, his list of friends was not. Scoville started combing through it and was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the justice department. He sent a message requesting a phone call.
“We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet,” Scoville said.
Proving the 2.0 adage that a friend on Facebook is rarely a friend indeed, the former official said he had met Sopo in Cancun’s nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and passed that information back to Scoville, who provided it to Mexican authorities. They arrested Sopo last month.
It’s easy to say “so dumb,” and it would be true, but what’s interesting is how people just don’t think through the privacy implications of putting their information on the Internet. Facebook is how we interact with friends, and we think of it in the frame of interacting with friends. We don’t think that our employers might be looking — they’re not our friends! — that the information will be around forever, or that it might be abused. Privacy isn’t salient; chatting with friends is.
How right he is.
Oct 19 2009
Legal Technologist (and all around great guy) Nerino Petro recently a posted about the benefits of owning your own domain. Nerino points out two good reasons to own your own domain. First, it is a great branding technique. As Nerino points out, you don’t even have to have a website to own the domain and have an email account associated with it. Second, it provides you with a professional email address to provide to your clients.
Check out Nerino’s entire post. In the post he includes links to several additional posts that point out the benefits of owning your own domain.
Oct 16 2009
The ABA Techshow Blog had a great GMail tip a couple of weeks ago. The post explains how you can tell if someone is accessing your GMail account from another location:
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.
I know that most people have a GMail account that they use for some purpose. Doesn’t it make sense to check this every once in a while to make sure someone else isn’t accessing your account?
Oct 12 2009
I know that this has nothing to do with anything legal, however, this weekend I was finally able to see Jonathan Coulton in concert. For a good description of the concert, check out this review. The short version is as follows:
Paul & Storm opened and did a fantastic job. They are hilarious and I would love to see them do a full show.
They took a short intermission and then Coulton came out with Paul and Storm and performed the entire They Might Be Giants Flood album. For an explanation of why, see Jonathan’s blog here.
After that, Jonathan went into his own stuff and played a really enjoyable set. The audience clearly loved songs such as Code Monkey, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Skullcrusher Mountain, and Re Your Brains. The only songs I really missed that he did not play were Chiron Beats Prime and The Presidents.
The concert started at 8 and didn’t end until about 11:15. Although there was a brief intermission, it was still basically 3 hours of musical goodness.
If you like Coulton at all and you are anywhere near where he is performing, I can’t recommend him highly enough.
Also, I would recommend the venue where we saw the concert: Park West. This was a great venue with good seating (we sat in a booth) and an attentive, but not overbearing, wait staff. After looking around, I am not sure that there is a bad seat in the house.
Oct 07 2009
Just a note to let people know where I will be speaking in the near future.
Tomorrow, October 8, 2009, I will be speaking on Setting up your Practice: Equipment and Systems for the ISBA at a CLE on the Business Side of the Criminal Law Practice. Tomorrow’s CLE is at the Chicago Regional Office of the ISBA. A week later, I am doing the same presentation in Bloomington.
Later in the month, the ISBA is presenting the 5th Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference. There I will be presenting on Technology and Services that Every Lawyer Needs to Run the Office and The Hidden Danger: How Failing to Understand Metadata and Redaction in Electronic Documents can Ruin your Day.
I encourage you to attend the Solo Small Firm. I have been there every and have enjoyed it every time. You still have time to register. Just click here.
