TechLawyerBlog

My Mac Experience - so far

I have never owned a Mac, but curious about what all of the fuss was about, I finally broke down and purchased a MacBook Pro 13" with an i7 processor.  Actually, I purchased it for my 15 year old sons, but I think they will let me use it some. Being a Mac neophite, I also purchased the "one to one" service so I could learn how it works.  My first experience has not made a Mac converrt out of me yet.  iMovie, the supposedly easy to use video program that comes with the Mac, says when I open it to drag a video to the screen, so I do, but it won't stay.  The file is in apple's .mov format, so I assume it is compatable with apple's iMovie, but it does not seem to work.  So, I went to sign up for a 1 to 1 lesson on how to use the program, only to discover that I can't log on using the number on my ID card.  So, I contact tech support who said I had to contact my local store in Ridgeland and they could help me.  They tell me that if I come into the store, they can help me with my login there, but can't help me over the phone.  So, I must make a 40 mile round trip drive to a store to get the info needed to log into a site so that I can then schedule a future appointment at the store for training on a program that is not nearly as intuitive as I was lead to belive.  So far 'It just works" has not been my experience. 

Free iPads for clients!

A firm in Phoenix, AZ has started providing iPads to clients who retain the firm for personal injury cases.  The firm uses it as a method of communicating with their persona injury clients, who may not have access to a computer as readily as some other types of clients do.  Upon conclusion of the case, the iPads are returned.  The full story is found here.  The lawyers, Marc Lamber and James Goodnow, liken the iPad to giving their clients the hotline to the firm, so clients can stay in communication and stay informed about their case.  In addition to email, the clients will have access to Scipe on the iPads.  While the article didn't say, the technology is there to give clients access to a secure cloud based site, such as PBWorks, to view case documents.  The firm is seen as tech-savey and dedicated to communicating with clients.  Brilliant use of technology. 

Best Email Tip Ever

I attended Steve Riley's practice management conference a couple of weeks ago offered by ElderCounsel where attendees explored drains on their productivity, energy, and efficiency. One of the suggestions was to NOT check email first thing in the morning, and to turn off the auto-alert for new emails.  What a great idea!  Eliminating email first thing has allowed me take control of my schedule rather than having my agenda become dictated by someone else.  I now limit email to twice daily, once after lunch, and then at the end of the day.  What a difference it has made.  Sometimes the best use of technology is to use less technology. 

Ross Kodner is Coming

The Mississippi Bar's Technology Committee is hosting its bi-annual technology seminar.  This year we are pleased to have invited Ross Kodner back to present on "Using Technology to Help Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times."   More info here. 

Zoom

Online provider of legal services LegalZoom has been sued in a class action lawsuit for the unauthorized practice of law in Missouri.  As an ironic, or perhapse confident, result of online automation, their ad appears next to the lawsuit.   

 

 

MiFi and iPad

I recently reported on my recent purchase of an iPad on a recent trip. Not knowing whether I would like it I did not spring for the 3G version. Instead I bought a virgin mobile mifi device. The mifi lets me use the device with my up to 5 computers including the iPad. Cost was $150 and data is purchased only as needed, $40 for 1 month unlimited service. So far it has worked great. Only down side that I see is the shorter battery life of the device and thelonger boot up time required for the mifi but the ability to use with other computers is worth the trade off to me.

One Lawyer's Experience with the iPad

On a recent trip to a seminar in Chicago, after having lugged my laptop around for a couple of days at a conference, I made an impulse buy at the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue and acquired an iPad.  I wanted to see if I could take notes from presentations on the iPad with a stylus.  The program materials were available on a jump drive, so it was no problem to upload those to my PC, then upload them to my cloud drive at moblie.me.  Once there, I was able to crank up my iPad and pull the PDF's down from mobile.me, to then follow along to take notes.  No native application for note taking comes on the iPad, so I searched the app store while in the similar and found iAnnotate PDF.  While I was able to write some notes and highlight through various presentations, sadly the stylus was too cumbersome to be very effective for anything other than the occasional underline, circle, or couple of word phrases.  In order to work on the iPad, the stylus has to have this sponge-like wide squishy tip, which is very difficult to write with.  On top of that, if you rest the edge of your hand on the iPad to write, the iPad will not register the pen, making note taking not very effective at all, especially compared to my tablet PC.  While these limitations are ok for note taking and annotations during a conference, they would not be acceptable for taking notes during a client meeting, which was the primary use I hoped to get out of the iPad. On the positive side, the iPad is lighter, has a much longer battery power, and instantly turns on, as compared to the clunkyness of the tablet PC that must boot up.  My hope for the iPad was to be able to take notes during client meetings and to do estate plan drawings on it for my clients.  Sadly, the above limitations do not make the iPad a good tool for this purpose.  But, its weight and size make it a perfect travel, and indeed, carry everywhere, companion.  The other great use I get from my iPad is my ability to carry it into courthouses.  We have several judges in Mississippi that have barred phones from the courthouse.   Since my synchronized calendar resides on my iPhone, this makes scheduling hearings with the court administrator difficult.  Because the iPad does not have a camera, I can carry it into the courthouse, which enables me to check my calendar and view my emails while waiting on my turn before the judge.   

One Note and the Tablet Lawyer

I have been a Tablet PC user for a couple of years now, being first promted to do such by James Province, the TabletLawyer.  The best piece of software for the tablet has to be Microsoft OneNote.  James gave an excellent seminar on using OneNote for lawyers last week, and the recording of the seminar is located at https://swrt.worktankseattle.com/webcast/5296/signup.aspx.   

Goodby Westlaw

A recent blog post here is consistent with my Thomson-West and Weslaw experience.   The writer reached the same conclusion I did a few months ago when I canceled my Westlaw subscription.  West's model for decades was to charge a premium for material in the public domain (cases and statutes), be creating the only way to locate relevant information within those materials (key numbers).  In the information age, those public domain materials are readily available cheaply or free from many other sources, like thelaw.net, Casemaker, Google, and others, not to mention from the issuing court itself.  In response to cheap and free competition, West and Lexis started trying to offer value added services and expand the footprint of what they did, by adding lawyer directories, website services, case management, billing, and practice management software to their offerings, all offered at a premium monthly subscription price.  Their pricing model, in my view, is geared toward the big firm model, who can pass large research costs on to clients.  Their secondary sources are good, but again are too expensive.  While the initial purchase may be reasonable, the automatic update, which is usually nothing more than adding editorial comment from the most recent additions to their digest, are way overpriced.  The majority of lawyers in this country do not practice in the big firm model, however, and West, as nearly as I can tell, has abandoned the solo and small firm practitioner.  Also, more and more lawyers are seeing the wisdom of the flat fee model or other alternatives to the billable hour, making research cost even that much more important, since any incremental costs come right off the bottom line.  Then, to top it all off, they offer these premium services at premium rates that far exceed the value they represent, and bill them from multiple billing sources that make it difficult if not impossible to determine what is being charged.  I dropped my remaining West services several months ago, have not missed them, and have not regretted the decision. 

Law Practice Manaement for Free

One of the presenters at TechShow 2010 revealed that the archives of the ABA Law Practice Management magazine is now available online for free.  The magazine is an excellent resource for small firm lawyers, and free archives make it available to everyone.