Dennis Kennedy

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March 06, 2008

Competitive Intelligence Roundtable Article

Just posted on the online version of the ABA's Law Practice Magazine is one of the best articles I've ever been a part of. It's called "Competitive Intelligence Roundtable: CI Tactics, Tools and Lessons to Be Learned."

I asked a who's who of experts on competitive intelligence in the practice of law (Mark Beese, David Bowerman, Cynthia Cheng Correia, Ann Lee Gibson, Mark Greene, Sabrina Pacifici and Meredith Williams) to participate in a roundtable discussion of the basics, practical tips and lessons learned about the use of competitive intelligence. To my delight, they all agreed to participate and the result is one heck of an article from which I learned a ton of things and so will you. I'm the article's moderator and a quasi-participant.

In the same issue is Ann Lee Gibson's How to Create and Use Competitive Intelligence: 45 Tips for Law Firms, a helpful CI primer to read as an intro to the roundtable article.

If you are familiar with CI, you'll benefit from the wisdom of this group. If you don't know anything about CI, these article will get you up and running. IF CI wa not on your radar, after you read these articles, it will be.

Highly recommended.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Debuting at the 2008 ABA TECHSHOW: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell.

Technorati tags: competitive intelligence roundtable law pracitce ABA TECHSHOW

Posted by dmk at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2008

Is It Time for Lawyers to Encrypt Data?

Has the time arrived for lawyers to begin routinely encrypting data, especially data carried on laptop computers and USB drives?

I take a look at some of the practical questions involving data encryption and the state of encryption in 2008 in my latest legal technology column in the ABA Journal called "Hidden Assets." I focus on recent developments in the area of disk encryption.

The money quote:

When you balance the risks of loss or exposure of sensitive data against the costs and effort in encrypting data and drives, it’s becoming clear that we’ll see many lawyers moving to disk encryption in the very near future.

Disk encryption looks to be a simple, effective way to address some, but not all, data security concerns. Have you tried it? Is it working for you? Have you become less comfortable with not encrypting data in the past year?

Here's the article. Your feedback is appreciated.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Coming in March from ABA Publishing - The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell

Technorati tags: legal technology aba journal encryption

Posted by dmk at 04:18 PM | Comments (3)

September 18, 2007

Legal Talk Radio on Demand: Podcasting for Lawyers

The latest issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine has a great article called "Legal Talk Radio on Demand: Podcasting for Lawyers." It's a roundtable article about lawyers using the podcasting medium and includes a stellar cast of podcasters - Bob Ambrogi, Evan Brown, Jim Calloway, Denise Howell, Tom Mighell, and Sharon Nelson, with me thrown in as organizer and, since I was unable to resist joining in, as a contributor too.

If you have any interest at all in podcasting, you will find valuable, practical information and tips from lawyers who have been podcasting for a long time and have some of the best-known legal podcasts.

The money quote (one of many possible candidates) is from Bob Ambrogi, host of one of the longest-running, best-known and most-listened-to lawyer podcasts:

Podcasting is a powerful marketing tool, particularly if your practice relates to technology or media. Podcasting distinguishes you as someone who is innovative and on the cutting edge. It allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and to provide a more personal view of yourself than potential clients could glean from a simple Web site. You will reach audiences you never imagined -- we've mapped the IP addresses of our listeners and found that they come from virtually every country in the world, even China and Russia. All this, and the cost of entry is minimal.

The article includes links to the author's podcasts, links to other podcasts and podcast resources, and podcast recommendations from the authors.

I'm proud of this article, very pleased at how it turned out, and invite you to put it on your reading list. And, yes, we all appreciate the irony of an article by podcasters about podcasting that is not available as a podcast. This article is a good example of how you can use the Google Docs online word processing tool to create collaborative articles, something that the Law Practice Today webzine has pioneered and used frequently with great results.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Get your legal technology information by audio. Check out The Kennedy-Mighell Report Podcast.

Technorati tags: legal technology podcast podcasting roundtable

Posted by dmk at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2007

Previously on Document Assembly

My last two posts have been on document assembly, so I thought it might be a good idea to follow the rule of threes and post again on document assembly.

So, I went back into the archives and pulled out the second article I ever wrote on legal technology. It appeared in Lawyers Weekly USA in November, 1996. The subject was document assembly, and I now blush at my level of enthusiasm and how stunningly wrong my predictions and sense of urgency about document assembly were, in retrospect. I actually burst out laughing today when I reread the last two sentences of the article.

OK, so I'm a true believer in document assembly. I admit it. I also believe that you might enjoy this article as a primer to my way of thinking about document assembly. I have not edited or updated it. I would, however, enjoy reminiscing with any other ShortWork users who might read this post.

The money quote:

Document assembly can greatly increase your productivity and efficiency in document preparation while also allowing you to incorporate lessons that you have learned and custom language for individual clients into your standard forms.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN 1996.

Document Assembly Saves Clients Money

A document assembly program is a software program that "automates" the preparation of legal documents. In simplest terms, a document assembly program allows a user to answer a series of questions which appear on the user's computer screen and then uses those answers in a transparent fashion to create a completed draft of a document in the user's word processing program.

Document assembly programs can be seen as a third stage in the evolution of document drafting, coming after the development of the typewriter and word processing programs. These programs run the range from Capsoft's $99 Hotdocs program to $500,000 custom software.

My experience with document assembly began five years ago with a program called ShortWork which I used to create a set of estate planning applications which I use on a daily basis. I am now beginning an upgrade of those applications which will involve a conversion to another document assembly program, Caps Personal.

I have noticed three significant changes over the last five years in document assembly programs. First, the development of and focus on Windows-based programs. Second, better and more seamless integration with standard word processing programs. Third, much greater emphasis on ease of use and improved user interfaces.

Document assembly can greatly increase your productivity and efficiency in document preparation while also allowing you to incorporate lessons that you have learned and custom language for individual clients into your standard forms. Instead of trying to remember the name of the client whose trust contained your language on S Corporation stock, you can now answer the question "does the client own S Corporation stock?" on your computer screen and all the relevant language will be added to the appropriate places in your first draft.

The prospect of drafting finished documents in a matter of minutes is a realistic one. A year ago I demonstrated the Caps program at a firm meeting with the goal of producing a completed draft of a simple standard lease in less than a minute. I was successful.

I work in the area of estate planning. Estate planners have been among the pioneers in the use of document assembly packages. Estate planning documents such as wills, trusts and powers of attorney lend themselves well to document assembly in that they are standardized but also customized depending on the choices a client makes.

You should not, however, conclude that the value of document assembly is limited to this category of practice. Applications can be designed in many areas of practice: leases, bankruptcy applications, interrogatories, preparation of standard petitions, and real estate closing documents. The software developers will be happy to show you many examples.

There are two basic approaches to document assembly programs: (1) a program which allows you to automate your existing forms, and (2) a program that includes its own forms, but allows you to modify its forms so that they can be more like your own. There are pluses and minuses of each approach. Based on my experience, a wholesale conversion of your forms will take significantly more time than simply using or making adjustments to supplied forms.

That brings us to the real questions about document assembly, which is not which package to use, because there are a number of good choices. Who will implement the package? Who will maintain the document assembly forms? Who will be the person or persons using the package? Since I have five years experience, let me share a few of the lessons that I've learned.

The key to document assembly is advance planning. All of the time that you spend on thinking about which forms you want to convert, how you use and maintain your existing forms, how you see the document assembly package being used, what efficiencies you hope to maintain and similar questions is going to be time that is very well spent. Your planning process will help you choose a program that is well suited to what you want to accomplish and will help you focus on how you will implement the process.

My advice is to start small and build off of your successes. I started with a durable power of attorney which is a relatively simple document to automate. In that way, I could learn programming functions in a simple and straight-forward way. I used that knowledge to move on to a simple will. From the simple will, the next step was to move to more complicated wills with trusts and a variety of other options.

Another important piece of advice is to be sure to block out a period of time where you can work on implementing the document assembly package uninterrupted. While it doesn't take a lot of time, perhaps 10 to 20 hours, to become comfortable with basic document assembly techniques, the process is highly logical and involves many steps. It is easy to get lost if you get distracted. If you work in a series of starts and stops, you will get easily frustrated. Remember: start small.

Document assembly is an excellent illustration of the "80/20" rule. The first 20% of the time you spend working on the project will get you 80% of the way to completion. Finishing the final 20% will take 80% of your total time. On the other hand, the 80/20 rule helps you think about how far you want to go in designing your application.

The goal of document assembly is to produce a draft of a document. Your goal should not be to produce a final version of each document for each client on the first attempt. If you can use document assembly to produce a good draft of a document in five minutes or less and then do a minor amount of clean up, you will be better off than you were without document assembly. Based on my observations, after implementing a document assembly package, I have seen decreases in total drafting time of about two-thirds over our previous method.

How do you pick a system? Decide on the level of sophistication you want in the package. Decide whether you want the package that comes with its own forms. Read reviews and articles, although be sure to note that a number of articles on document assembly are written by people involved with document assembly software companies. Talk to others who are using document assembly programs. Finally, the ABA's Law Practice Management Section is an excellent resource.

Document assembly raises some important cost recovery and billing issues. If you are going to spend several weeks, a month or more on implementing a document assembly package, how will you recover that lost income? Second, if you are billing on an hourly basis for time spent preparing documents, how will you now bill for a document that takes you only one-third of the time that it used to take?

Three approaches to recover start up costs are (1) develop your system as you work on documents for clients and bill those clients; (2) surcharge your clients for a period to recover the start up costs; or (3) make no effort to recover the start up cost, instead assume that the system will pay for itself over time during increased productivity and the opportunity to do higher volume or higher-level work.

On the second question, use of document assembly requires that you consider moving to a value billing system. In other words, it may become more appropriate to charge a fixed price for documents rather bill on the basis of time actually spent on the production of those documents. There is no single answer. The answer for you will depend on your client base and your practice, and the implementation of document assembly may give you a good opportunity to examine your existing billing practices and make appropriate changes.

The document assembly software companies have found that lawyers prepare documents in a wide variety of ways. There is no standard approach to document preparation and software companies have begun to concentrate on the user: flexibility, user interface and ease of programming. This is one benefit of waiting until now to look at document assembly.

I would not, however, wait much longer to consider document assembly. Document assembly offers real productivity gains that cannot be ignored. The environment for lawyers and law firms has become increasingly competitive. Competition has, in many cases, become based on price, and document assembly offers you a way to cut your costs.

My best practical tips? Devote substantial time to planning. Think about the $99 HotDocs program as an easy way to get your feet wet. Think hard about the packages that include forms. Give serious thought to how you will update forms once the system is in place. And, if you are not the right person to do this project, or there is no one at your firm who can or will do it, consider hiring a second year law student to take on the job. There is no time like the present to get started on document assembly. Your competitors have.

A version of this article first appeared in the November 4, 1996 issue of Lawyers Weekly USA.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

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Posted by dmk at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

Dennis Kennedy's Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007 on LLRX.com

Regular readers will remember my experiment last week of publishing a long version (really somewhat more than a first draft) of my annual legal technology trends article as a series of blog posts on this blog. I ended the series by posting a final, short version that I cut to roughly 1,000 words.

In the editing process, my first attempt at reducing the size of the article left me a version that was roughly 2,500 words. In the Goldilocks and the Three Bears fashion, I ended up liking this middle-sized version best of all.

I also mentioned in those posts that my favorite place to publish new articles is Sabrina Pacifici's excellent LLRX.com site. Fortunately, Sabrina also liked this article and it now appears as part of this month's issue of LLRX.com: "Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007: Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practices." It's a small part of another powerhouse issue of LLRX and I encourage you to check out the other articles.

Completists are more than welcome to read all three versions, but the one on LLRX.com is my favorite. Your feedback is always appreciated.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's legal technology consulting services, featuring RSS and blogging consulting, technology audit, strategic planning and technology committee coaching packages especially for medium-sized law firms (15 - 100 lawyers) and corporate legal departments. More information on the "Second Pair of Eyes" packages for legal technology audits and strategic planning may be found here (PDF).

Technorati tags: legal technology predictions 2007 Law2.0

Posted by dmk at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2007

Wikis for Lawyers, Email Vaults, and Legal Tech Trends in the UK

A few pointers to some of my new articles and a link to a fascinating response to my recent legal tech trends series from Tim Travers.

First, Tom Mighell and I have an article called "Wikis for the Legal Profession in the new issue of the ABA webzine Law Practice Today. It's designed to be an introduction to the notion of wikis, with lots of links to great resources and some suggestions on how the legal profession is using and might better use these collaboration tools. As usual, there are plenty of great articles in this issue of Law Practice Today, but let me single out an article called "How to be More User-Friendly" by my friend and fellow St. Louisan Wendy Werner.

Second, I occasionally get asked why I don't write about new products very often on this blog anymore. Well, it's because I'm writing about new products in the TechnoLawyer Newswire. The latest issue covers Symantec's Enterprise Vault (an interesting email archiving tool) and two other products that will interest lawyers. The NewsWire is free to registered subscribers. I encourage you to join up.

Third, I really enjoyed the point-by-point response UK blogger Tim Travers made to my recent legal technology trends for 2007 series, and the subsequent email exchange Tim and I had. I recommend Tim's post, not because he agrees with much of what I said, but because he brings a new perspective and relates these issues to the UK legal technology world in a way that I cannot. Everything is global as I'm constantly reminded, and it's great to have this kind of interplay on these issues. Tim is a relatively new blogger, and I encourage you to check out his blog.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology wiki technolawyer collaboration tools trends

Posted by dmk at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2007

Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Trends for 2007 (Short Version)

[Note: For those of you following this series (see previous posts), I present the short (just slightly more than 1,000 word) version of my 2007 legal technology trends article. If you've read the long version, you'll see how dramatically the piece got changed in order to the meet the "keep it short" requirements most people like today. The versions to me are different - they serve different purposes and one is not necessarily "better" than the other. However, I will mention that I cheated a little bit in this experiment. My first edit took the article to roughly 2,500 words and that might be the best version. You probably will see that version published somewhere soon.

I welcome your comments and look forward to the discussion the posts might engender. I also hope that someof you find them an instructive look into my writing process. Also, note the disclosure statement at the end, which applies to all parts of the series. I'm interested in developing a good disclosure statement that will work both now and in the future and would appreciate feedback on what I've tried here.]

Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007 - Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practice

By the end of 2007, we will be talking about a clear and growing digital divide between technology-forward and technology-backward lawyers and firms and a subtle restructuring of the practice of law.

The uncertainty and confusion over new Microsoft versions and electronic discovery will create a a lull in legal technology. Some will take advantage of that lull to re-evaluate and refocus, but many will not. There will be many opportunities to increase your competitive advantage, especially for lawyers, firms, and technology committees who keep their focus on the following seven trends.

1. Reacting to Microsoft.

With a new Windows release and a new Office release, Microsoft will be the center of attention in 2007. Deciding how to react to Microsoft issues will top most agendas.

A. Upgrading to New Microsoft Versions.

Windows Vista has a welcome emphasis on security and Office 2007 has a new interface and document format. Vista will probably require hardware upgrades. The decisions won't be easy, but they can't be avoided and will dictate other choices.

B. Macintosh and Linux.

One reasonable reaction to Microsoft is to consider non-Windows operating systems. The Intel-based Macintoshes have changed the thinking of many lawyers about Macintosh. Linux has an excellent track record, especially for servers.

C. Open Source, Freeware/Shareware, and Web 2.0.

There are often cheaper alternatives to Microsoft applications. Low-cost programs and web-based services have become realistic options, especially for small firms and solos.

2. E-Discovery - Evolution, Not Revolution.

Less will happen in e-discovery than most people expect. Lawyers will try to delay the day of reckoning, but the tectonic shift to e-discovery is underway.

A. Tools for Everyday Cases.

Most litigation matters involve only a small number of electronic documents and email. For everyday cases, lawyer-oriented litigation applications like CaseLogistix, all-in-one "EDD appliances," and the use of Adobe Acrobat 8 with the new CaseMap 7 will draw much attention.

B. Litigation Support Managers.

Law firms need a skilled person at the intersection of litigation and technology. The growth and professionalization of litigation support managers will be the most important EDD trend in 2007.

C. “Big Iron” for Big E-Discovery.

Most law firms will decide that they cannot host huge amounts of data. Much will happen with data repositories.

3. Making Sound Business Decisions about Technology.

The best firms will apply business principles to make sound decisions about legal technology past, present and future.

A. Audits and Cost Savings Efforts.

Too many firms have little idea of what they have, how much they spend, and what they are getting for their money. Now is the time to inventory, measure and assess what you have, and then save some money.

B. Applying Honest-to-Goodness Business Principles.

Business principles actually do apply to the practice of law. Traditional business approaches and tools now used in other professions will increasingly be applied to technology decisions.

C. Outsourcing Revisited.

Should all of the technology services your firm provides be handled internally? Answers will vary, but outsourcing will pick up momentum.

4. The Security and Disaster Recovery Combination.

The nature of security has changed, for the worse. Security and disaster recovery require continuing attention and are inextricably related.

A. Recent Redefinition of Disasters.

Expect to see some new twists on what “disaster” means in 2007. Test your assumptions. More planning is definitely better than less planning.

B. Applying Recent Learning to Setting Priorities.

Learn some lessons from recent events and take some actions based on what you learned. A good disaster recovery plan is always being rewritten.

C. The Combo Disaster.

Are you prepared for disasters or security threats coming at you in combinations? A security compromise can cause a spiraling set of technical and other problems, especially if confidential data is exposed or stolen.

5. Portability Becomes a Priority.

Lawyers need access to the Internet, their offices and other resources on a constant basis, and others need similar access to them. Portability will become a significant factor in every legal technology decision.

A. Movement to Laptops.

Expect to see more lawyers than ever carrying notebook computers, and we'll definitely see more lawyers with Macintosh notebooks.

B. The Decline of the Blackberry?

A number of forces at work - WiFi, the need to read attachments, spam - suggest the high point of Blackberry use by lawyers might be behind us.

C. Encryption Arrives.

Portable devices of all kinds can get lost, stolen or damaged. The move to data and drive encryption will pick up momentum in 2007.

6. The Internet is Back.

The Internet never really left, but it will be getting more attention from lawyers.

A. Yellow Pages and Local Search.

There has been a dramatic movement from yellow pages to search engines to find local products and services. Lawyers will need to re-evaluate how best to use the Internet to reach the target audience.

B. Creating a Meaningful Web Presence.

Have you looked at your firm's website lately? Law firms will be sprucing up and revamping their websites, with blogs, podcasts and video integrated into existing sites.

C. Email Alternatives.

Perhaps 90% of email sent over the Internet is now spam. Expect to see movement to email alternatives like RSS feeds, instant messages, extranets, shared workspaces and other options.

7. Collaborative Tools and Toolboxes.

People work together. We will see the move toward collaborative tools and toolboxes.

A. Document Tools.

Especially for transactional lawyers, there is a new set of skills for document preparation, editing, sharing, and even signing that must be mastered.

B. Let’s Conference.

Expect to see strong growth in the surprisingly affordable alternatives to the traditional office meeting, from conference call services to videoconferencing.

C. Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 refers to a set of lightweight Internet applications that let you share information and work with others. Of these tools, lawyers will gravitate to blogging, RSS feeds, and possibly wikis (see, for example, Wikipedia).

Conclusion.

It will be easy and even prudent for law firms to move slowly on technology issues in 2007. At the same time, however, some law firms and legal departments will modernize the practice of law, improve client service, and creative a competitive and technological gap between themselves and most other lawyers, firms and law departments. On what side of the gap will you be?

+++++++++++++

Dennis Kennedy (dmk@denniskennedy.com) is a well-known legal technology expert and computer lawyer based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author and a frequent speaker, he was named the 2001 TechnoLawyer of the Year by TechnoLawyer.com for his role in promoting the use of technology in the practice of law. His blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/) and web page, (http://www.denniskennedy.com/) are highly regarded resources on technology law and legal technology topics.

[DISCLOSURE: I have, have had, and might in the future have modest financial relationships with some of the companies mentioned in this article. I don't think that any of these relationships have an impact on my judgments, but you might, and I encourage you to do your own research on products and services, whether mentioned by me or anyone else. There is no more important skill we can have than the ability to read critically.]

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology trends predictions! 2007 dennis kennedy law 2.0 collaboration

Posted by dmk at 03:30 PM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2006

The Growing Role for Legal Administrators in Legal Technology - Article

[ Note: This is another in a continuing series in which I am reposting some of my original drafts of published articles.]

I wrote this article earlier this year for the ALA's Legal Management Magazine. It's a short report on my trip to the 2006 LegalTech New York conference. It takes the point of view of the legal administrator and highlights some key trends and developments in legal technology that would especially interest legal administrators. There are a few insights in the article for lawyers and legal tech vendors as well. Enjoy.

The Growing Role for Legal Administrators in Legal Technology - A Report from LegalTech New York 2006

The annual LegalTech New York conference has been unveiling new products, services and trends in legal technology for the last twenty-five years. The 2006 event was a well-attended, even crowded, gathering of more than three hundred exhibitors and thousands of attendees.

There are many lessons that legal administrators can draw from this event. The biggest one may be that IT decisions in law firms will have an increasing impact on legal administrators. This article will give you some of the highlights and stress some of the trends and developments you need to know to help you do your job better.

1. Electronic Discovery Everywhere. By some counts, there are around five thousand vendors today who describe themselves as being in the electronic discovery business. Perhaps one hundred of them exhibited at LegalTech. There is no area of legal technology that is likely to have a bigger impact on law firms in 2006 than electronic discovery will have.

Although electronic discovery may seem to be the realm of your IT and litigation departments, it will have serious implications for legal administrators.

First, sorting through electronic discovery vendors is no easy task. Expect to see vendor research projects, request for proposal (RFP) processes and tech committee or management committee involvement in electronic discovery decisions.

Second, the electronic discovery process is becoming so complicated that it is inevitable that outside vendors, consultants and other providers will be involved in the process. From readjusting budgets to simply handling requests for identification badges for outside providers coming to your office, watch for the impact of electronic discovery on your day-to-day work.

Third, even firms that have had little experience with electronic discovery may be forced into action this year. Watch for staffing changes and the introduction of new positions for employees who focus on electronic discovery and litigation technology issues. Keep an eye on the growing trend of firms hiring litigation support managers.

Fourth, look for some of the techniques and requirements learned in electronic discovery to flow over into law firm administration – email management and policies, archiving and related issues.

2. Security and Disaster Recovery Issues Did Not Go Away. Concern about security and disaster recovery seems to ebb and flow. The 2005 hurricanes brought disaster recovery to the forefront and moved security concerns to the back burner. As time passes, we see security concerns getting more attention. However, neither issue ever goes away.

At LegalTech, you could find both sessions and vendors focused on these issues. A trend to watch is a growing sense that handling security and disaster recovery internally may no longer be realistic. Law firms in New Orleans, for example, learned about the value of keeping data and backup systems in another part of the country. Some firms report that their IT departments are spending more than half of their time on security issues, leaving limited time for new projects.

Legal administrators are invariably involved in both of these issues. Expect a bigger role for outside vendors in both of these areas. One interesting product/service to watch is Network Box (www.network-box.com), which allows you to get state-of-the-art security outsourcing for a reasonable monthly fee.

3. It's a PDF World. PDF is becoming the standard format for electronic filing, scanning and electronic discovery. Recent stories about embarrassing revelations of "metadata" (hidden data associated with Microsoft Word and other files) have also focused attention on PDF as the preferred way to send documents outside firms without the same metadata concerns.

Many firms think of PDF only in terms of creating and reading PDF files. Adobe Acrobat 7 (www.adobe.com) provides a wealth of other tools – security, collaboration, search and document management. Some legal programs, such as CaseMap (www.casesoft.com), let you integrate seamlessly with Adobe Acrobat and create PDF files as well.

Use of the PDF format makes sense in the area of dealing with metadata. Litera's Change-Pro (www.litera.com) is a suite of tools to help you work with PDFs and handle metadata.

PDF makes sense in many areas of law firm administration, especially external communications and for any documents that the recipients should not edit.

4. Outsourcing Becomes an Option in Almost Every Technology Decision. The sheer number of vendors and options can be overwhelming. It raises questions that many law firms are beginning to ask: what is our core business and do we need to handle every technology function inside the firm?

From evaluating products and services to hiring qualified people, the technology questions inside law firms are getting more difficult. Add in the pressure from clients wanting firms to provide technologies like extranets and we see technology issues moving outside the IT department and into management committees and the realm of legal administrators.

In even the most basic technologies, you will find in a law firm, you could see vendors at LegalTech that will provide the same services on an outsourcing basis. For example, companies like Pitney Bowes (www.pb.com), Merrill (www.merrillcorp.com) and others, will provide a variety of services, including handling your entire mailroom function.

5. Document Assembly in Nontraditional Ways. Some technologies shown at LegalTech may make sense for uses beyond what lawyers have traditionally considered.

Consider the example of document assembly. In a document assembly application, a user simply answers a series of questions on the computer screen and, as if by magic, the software generates a custom document based on the answers. Most law firms see it as a way to general legal documents.

However, with today's tools from companies like Ixio (www.ixio.com), Microsystems (www.microsystems.com), (www.exari.com) and DealBuilder (http://www.business-integrity.com/document-assembly.html), you might generate many of your standard administrative and other documents with these tools, saving time and effort and generating tailored documents. If you want to explore one technology for yourself in 2006, document assembly would be the one I would suggest.

Conclusion.

Of the thousands of people at LegalTech, lawyers made up only a small percentage. With so much happening in legal technology, especially in the area of electronic discovery, you will want to focus on more training for lawyers and getting some of them out from behind their desks to investigate and make decisions about the technologies that are changing the practice of law and the way law firms work. The time is right for legal administrators to play an even bigger part in the legal technology process. This article will give you a few places to get started.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology electronic discovery

Posted by dmk at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2006

Lawyer Blogging Basics - How to Use Blogging Software Without Becoming a "Blogger"

[Note: This is another in a continuing series in which I am reposting some of my original drafts of published articles.]

Like many others, I was sad to hear about the very recent decision to cease the publication of Law Office Computing. The magazine was always a great resource on legal technology and published quite a few of my articles. I'm honored that the last issue to be published has an article of mine as a feature, and includes an illustration that uses the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's album cover with my face pasted on Paul McCartney.

I rarely write about blogging anymore. It's not that it's all been said, but Jerry Lawson pointed out that I first wrote about blogging for lawyers more than five years ago. I'm not being critical of others writing about blogging now, because it is important to bring this material to a new audience, but I regularly see new articles on blogging, especially blogging for lawyers, that contain points that were made several years ago presented as if they were fresh insights. However, I'll quickly note that I am not the audience for those articles. I do wish that current articles were a bit more generous in mentioning earlier source materials (e.g., The Internet Roundtable #37).

LOC's excellent editor, Amanda Flatten, asked me if I could come up with a fresh angle on lawyers and blogging. I initially did not think that I could, but, after sounding out the other blogging old-timers at the Between Lawyers blog, I decided that the freshest approach was to cut through all the "hype" about blogging and being a "blogger" and to focus on the humble element of blogging software and why it is so effective at what it does and how it simply, invisibly and effectively creates the magic associated with blogs. As I've said for many years, content is what matters.

I had also gotten tired about reading about blogging and how it was a panacea for marketing. Many articles on blogging these days are quite proscriptive and attempt to mandate what "true blogs"b should and should not do. For my taste, there's too much focus on bloggers and the personalities of bloggers and the mythos of blogging these days. To me, you stand or falll on what you write, what you actually do with your blog, and your authenticity.

My reference to "blogomania" in the article, therefore, is an ironic one, especially when it comes to blawgs. Just as the Beatles were about the music, blogging is about the content that creative people produce. Blogging software places simple tools in the hands of creative people and allows them to create art, rather than just learn how to use the tools. If you want to know the magic of blogging, there it is.

I really like the way this article turned out and hope you enjoy it. Much of whatever "wisdom," if any, I've gained over the years of operating a website and a blog is distilled and set out as simply as I can in this article. If even a few people read this, act on it and create something new and cool, express something real and true, or help us see the world, legal or otherwise, with new eyes, then I'll be quite pleased.

This blogging stuff ain't that hard - get out there and try it. As I've long said, let a thousand blogs bloom.

How to Use Blogging Software Profitably - Without Becoming a "Blogger"

I missed the whole Beatlemania thing, but there are days lately when I see so many articles and so much hype about blogging, especially blogging for lawyers, that I wonder if we are in a period of blogomania.

Law-related blogs are often cited as good examples of how a profession adopted the use of blogs. Lawyer blogging pioneer Denise Howell playfully coined the term "blawg" for law-related blogs a few years ago and the word has become widely-used. I see articles on a daily basis insisting, with increasing urgency, that all businesses, including law firms, must have blogs. Can this really be true?

As a longtime blogger, I regularly get questions from lawyers about blogging and whether they "need" to have a blog. One of the common reservations I hear is that someone does not want to be a "blogger." They feel that don't have the time or the inclination to maintain a blog on a regular basis with multiple daily posts, thought-provoking content, breaking news stories and doing the other things we read about bloggers that bloggers wish were true.

You might be surprised to learn that you can get some great benefits from using blogging software and blogging techniques without any need to become a "blogger." Most people will not even realize that you are using blogging software. The benefits you will find are a greatly improved Internet presence, better content, more traffic, easy maintenance and, most likely, reduced cost. If you can achieve that, who really cares whether you are known as a "blogger" or not?

Starting Point - What is a Blog?

Let's get everyone on the same page. "Blog" has been defined in the online encyclopedia called the Wikipedia as "a website in which items are posted and displayed with the newest at the top." I have often described a blog as "an online newspaper or magazine column without the newspaper or magazine." The simplest definition today might well be a type of website produced and maintained with blogging software.

For our purposes, let's think of a blog as a type of website in which new content is regularly added in the form of individual items (or "posts") that are displayed in reverse chronological order on a set of pages that are generated into a template. Blogs have a number of standard features and, even if you have never seen one before, after you look at a few blogs, you will recognize the common characteristics.

The reason that the simple idea of blogging has taken off is that blogging makes it extraordinarily easy to publish content without needing to know HTML or other Internet technologies.

A Key Concept -b Internet Presence.

In our increasingly Googleized and online world, you have an "Internet presence" whether or not you have a website. Do a search on Google on your name or your firm's name. To many people, that is your Internet presence. To an increasing number of people, that is also the basis on which they make decisions about you.

The best way to present and maintain a positive Internet presence is to have a good website. Unfortunately, many lawyers and law firms have websites that are lackluster at best or even create negative images. Problems include lack of interesting content, out of date information and general uninterestingness.

What Works on the Web.

Over the years, people have recognized that a number of standard techniques consistently make for a successful website. The biggest point is captured by the oft-repeated phrase, "content is king."

People using the Internet are looking for helpful sites that help them answer specific questions or solve specific problems by providing the type of information that is useful to them at that time.

A successful website will provide helpful information geared to its audience that is fresh, updated regularly and added to consistently. A website of this kind gives people a reason to return on a regular basis. When people return to your website on a regular basis, they become more likely to call you when they need your services or to recommend you to others who may need your services.

In addition to solid content, users also like to see a professional-looking site and some indication of your personality. Do you show something in common with them so that they might like to work with you?

Common Barriers for Lawyers.

Lawyers can get bogged down at several points in the process of creating a website, but no more so that in maintaining and regularly updating a website with good content. The primary reason is that there are some technical hurdles after you write the content.

Before blogging software, a lawyer might write a new item for his or her website – for example, a checklist of when to hire a lawyer for a certain issue. While it would be perfect content for the website, it was not ready to go up on the website. It would have to be coded into an HTML format that matched the rest of the website design, then uploaded to the website. While the concept is easy, the process is laborious and requires specialized knowledge. Adding one page might require that you make changes to several other pages and it is easy to make mistakes or even "break" your website in the process.

Your other choice would be to pay your web designer to upload your content, a process that has its own challenges. Often, updating your content will be about #4,667 on your web designer's to-do list.

As a result, it is relatively rare to see law firm web sites that have a lot of fresh new content on a regular basis, with two key exceptions.

The first is websites where one or more lawyers regularly write and publish articles in other publications and then republish them or link to them on their websites. These lawyers have a steady stream of content and establish a standard procedure for getting those articles on the website.

The second is websites of firms who list press releases, recent developments or "in the news" items. They will often have a page, or a place on the home page, that lists these recent developments in reverse chronological order. A visitor gets the sense that there is ongoing activity, updates and has a reason to return to see fresh content.

The perceptive reader will note that both exceptions have a "blogging" feel to them.

How Blogging Software Overcomes these Barriers.

As someone who has had a website for more than ten years, I can tell you that my wish list before blogging software would have looked something like the following. I wanted the ability to:

- Write the content with minimal need to know or use HTML or other coding.

- Publish my content into a template that looked like the other pages on my website.

- "Publish once" and have changes appear on every page where needed.

- Create archives and implement search tools.

- Republish quickly and easily to fix errors and make other simple changes.

Blogging software lets me do all of that and more.

There are two ways to look at blogging software, depending on your Internet experience. It is instructive to consider both of them.

Those of us who have had websites for a long time see the value of blogging software as a simple, powerful, lightweight content management system for a website. I can write my content and publish it into a template. The software automatically formats my post, displays it and refreshes the other parts of my website to reflect the new content. I don't have to painstakingly get the HTML right and make lots of other changes to my website.

For people who have never worked on a website in HTML, they simply avoid the learning process and move into a system in which they can write a post in something that looks and works like a simple word processor and then "publish" the new content on their website (usually by simply clicking on a button that says "publish"). A good number of bloggers say that they would not be blogging if they had to learn HTML. The key for them is that they can write and publish so easily.

In either case, the blog approach overcomes the most common barriers for lawyers on putting new content on their websites.

Software Choices.

One good thing about blogging software is that there are relatively few choices. It is reasonably easy to make a decision about what to use.

Your first choice is whether to install blogging software yourself on your web server or use a hosted service. If you do not even know what a web server is or if you have one, the choice gets very easy.

If you use a hosted service, you will pay a modest monthly fee. You will get a user name and password. You have a "dashboard" from which you can make selections about your blog. You can choose among a number of nicely-done design templates, include features like comments, set up categories for posts and much more. You can have a great-looking, full-featured blog in a few minutes for $10 to $15 a month.

If you want to do more customization and have more control, you will want to consider buying blogging software and installing on your web server. The good news is that your ISP should now be familiar with this process and be able to help you with the installation or install it for you. Take it from me, the initial installation can be tricky and time-consuming, but the software, once it is up and running, seems to be very stable. You can then choose a design template (or have a custom one created for you) and configure your features and you are off and running. Expect the software to range from free to approximately $200.

The majority of blogs have gravitated to two blogging software platforms – Movable Type ($199) and WordPress (free). Most law-related blogs seem to be on the Movable Type platform these days. Other choices exist, but there is little reason not to use one of these two packages.

If you choose the hosted services approach, you will find that the majority of law-related blogs are hosted on TypePad.com. I have personally used TypePad, WordPress.com and SquareSpace.com. You will also see blogs on Blogger.com, MySpace.com and other providers. I suggest starting w ith TypePad (a hosted version of Movable Type), but take a look at the others to compare services and features in light of your needs.

What Blogging Software Does – A Short Tour.

Your user experience will be very similar whether you install blogging software or use a hosted service. TypePad is really just a massive installation of Movable Type.

You will go to your own login page and enter your user name and password. You will be taken to a console page that lets you administer your blog and gives you information about it.

Most of the time, you will simply be adding new content. In the world of blogging software, new content is created on an item-by-item basis. The unit of blogging is an individual entry call a "post."

Let me walk you through the process of how I create a post.

I click on a button or menu choice to create a new entry. I see a template that allows me to give the post a title and to select a category for the post. There's a text box into which I can then type my content or post. Clicking on little icons allow me to bold, italicize or underline, to add hyperlinks, and to block quote or do other formatting, all without knowing HTML. The required HTML code is inserted for me.

I can type my entry into this box or copy it from another document. When I'm done, I can preview what the entry will look like when it is formatted, check for typos and make other revisions. When it is ready, I click on a button that says "publish" or "save" and the post is published on my website.

Here's where the magic happens. My post is now added to the main page of my blog, at the top, in reverse chronological order, within the design template for my blog. The post is also placed in the appropriate archives, shown on the calendar, and categorized and made available in the search engine on the blog. As I'll discuss later, the post is also sent out via my RSS feed. All of this happens automatically.

By the way, once you understand this process and see it in action, you will understand why most bloggers will say that writing for your blog takes much less time than most people imagine.

If I want to make a change to my post or add to it later, I simply go to the post in the blogging software, make the change and republish the revised post.

Why Blogging Software is so Appealing.

Blogging software allows you, especially you the busy lawyer, to concentrate on writing and producing content without worrying about the coding, the technology, the delays and other drawbacks that get in your way. In other words, it slashes away most of your excuses to procrastinate on producing content.

Do I Need a Separate Blog?

The beauty of blogging software is in its simplicity. If you look at my website (www.denniskennedy.com), you will see that my blog appears to be another part of my website. If you look closer, you will see that my blog is a Movable Type blog that is separate from my website, but, because of the common design template, appears to be integrated with my website.

Blogs take advantage of a web design technique involving templates and "cascading style sheets" (CSS). This technique separates the content elements and the design elements. The CSS is "applied" to the template and dictates how your browser displays the page. If you change the CSS, you can change the entire look and feel of the blog without changing the content whatsoever. In fact, some blogs allow you to click on a button and instantly change the look and feel of a blog.

Web designers today tend to create websites, or redesign old ones, using the template and CSS approach. You can then incorporate, as I do, a blog and a website into a unified design.

However, the key lesson I have for you is that you don't need to "have a blog" or "be a blogger." Instead, you can use the blogging software to create content for your website without even thinking about it as a separate blog.

For example, you could use the blogging software to generate a "what's new on this site" section of your website. If you posted a new article, it would appear on the "what's new" page, just like a blog post, but it would also be put into category archives. A visitor could then go to an "articles" section of your website, find the article and never be the wiser that the "articles" section was simply the "article category" archive page for your "blog."

Some people have even used blogging software to create what appears to be a standard website by creatively using the features of the software. In other words, their blogs appear to be standard websites. If you think of blogs as simply a form of websites, and blogging software as a lightweight content management system, you will have an idea of how this can be done.

Why Should Blogging Software Appeal to Non-bloggers?

The biggest reason most people don't want to be "bloggers" comes down to a question of time and priorities. Most people do not want to commit to the daily posting regimen that many bloggers seem to follow.

If truth be told, most bloggers, especially me, do not post on a daily basis. However, there is no question that an approach that time stamps posts and puts them in reverse chronological order will reveal how often you post and how long it has been since the last post.

If you forget about being a "blogger" and concentrate instead on how blogging software can help you improve your Internet presence, you will see how many elements of a successful website it helps you achieve and how easy it makes it to do so.

Blogging software gives you the ability to:

- Easily create and publish new content on a regular

- Avoid learning HTML and other technical elements

- Automatically organize and archive information

- Concentrate on your writing and personalize and target it to your audience

- Have a professional-looking design at very small cost

The end result is that you have the tools in your hands to create a website with exactly the elements that have proven to be successful in websites over the years. Blogging software more or less automatically and effortlessly pushes you into a disciplined approach that incorporates the most-effective website techniques.

Closing the Deal - RSS and Search Engines.

There are two other benefits of using blogs and blogging software to consider.

The first is search engine optimization. Because Google and other search engines currently place a high value on link popularity and other factors commonly present in blogs, blogs tend to rank very high in search engine results. This is not because of anything inherent in the blogging software. It is largely because blogging software helps you focus on content in ways that enhance your search engine rankings and, coincidentally, appeal to your target audience and make visitors want to return.

The second is RSS, which stands for "Really Simple Syndication." Think of it as a newsfeed. RSS allows people to subscribe to your blog through a news aggregator program or service and automatically receive your posts as you make them without ever needing to return to your blog. In essence, it creates a new information channel for your content. For example, when I "publish" a blog post, the item is also published in my RSS feed and subscribers receive it in a matter of seconds. You can do the same thing on your website, but would probably have to do that by hand. Blogging software does that automatically.

Conclusion.

Although I am one of those bloggers that you read about, like you, I'm not convinced that blogs are for everyone or that everyone needs to be or is suited to be a "blogger." I am convinced, however, that, more than ever, having a great Internet presence and website is vital for lawyers and law firms. If look behind the "blogging phenomenon" to see what is really happening, you will see ways that blogs and, especially, blogging software can help you create successful websites in an easy and inexpensive way. You can be a "blogger" or not - there are many great things about blogging - but you will definitely want explore the ways you can benefit from using blogging software to improve your existing website and enhance your Internet presence.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Like what you are reading? Check out the other blogs where I post - Between Lawyers (feed) and the LexThink Blog (feed).

Technorati tags: legal technology blawg blogging software blogomania

Posted by dmk at 12:31 PM | Comments (2)

June 28, 2006

Bridging the Widening Communications Gap Between Lawyers and IT Departments - Article

[Note: This is another in a continuing series in which I am reposting some of my original drafts of published articles.]

Over past couple of years, I've found that the parts of my presentations that get the most response and generate the most questions are the parts where I talk about ways that lawyers and IT staff can better talk with each other. I've gotten the clear impression that there is a lot of pain and misunderstanding out there. The following article addresses the IT/lawyer communication divide from the point of view of the legal administrator and focuses on the role legal administrators might play in improving this dynamic. The article originally appeared in the March/April 2006 issue of the ALA's Legal Management magazine.

Bridging the Widening Communications Gap Between Lawyers and IT Departments: Some Simple Starting Strategies

We are finding that moving technology projects forward in law firms is not as much about hardware and software as it is about trying to get lawyers and IT departments to communicate in ways they can each understand.

Lawyers and IT people will universally agree that there is a wide communication gap between them. As firms try to bridge that gap, they may well find that the key to getting lawyers and IT departments together in the role legal administrators can play in the process because they have learned, sometimes painfully, to communicate with both groups.

A Question of Language?

The gap between lawyers and IT people is based on language. Both groups are known for using jargon excessively. More precisely, both will lapse into jargon when unsure of themselves or nervous. Lawyers speak in jargon, but use words precisely, both in their work and in general conversation. IT people also speak in jargon, but are not as precise with words in general conversation. However, IT people are quite precise with words within their discipline.

In both cases, the imprecise use of words may lead to statements and conversations that do not make sense. This annoys both lawyers and IT people, and members of both groups tend to get frustrated quickly. Things go downhill from there.

Lawyers with the most helpful and effective secretaries and the best relations with other staff members invariably have one thing in common. They spend time explaining the whys and providing the bigger context to others. I cannot count the number of IT people who have told me that they wished they knew more about what lawyers did so they could implement the most useful technology for them.

What Are the Hurdles?

There are three traits most lawyers share that make solving the communications problems difficult.

1. Lawyers really do work hard. The law is a high stress profession that places huge demands on lawyers. Every lawyer has developed techniques to deal with these demands. If a new technology project doesn’t work well, they get further behind the eight-ball, and you may have disrupted their coping mechanism, putting even more stress on them.

2. Although all lawyers are certainly capable of learning technology, the fear of technology is common among lawyers. Although lawyers do not like to look bad or foolish, there is also a genuine fear of technology out there.

3. Lawyers, by training, are critical and, at the same time, they are comfortable working with drafts. Even if they like something, their natural reaction is to find some flaws and comment only on negative aspects. They will change their minds as they see ways to improve the final project and often will criticize exactly what they told you to do earlier, because they see it as a draft in progress.

Strategies and Tactics for Bridging the Gap.

Legal administrators play a unique role in this process for a number of reasons. First, they have already had years of experience bridging the gap between lawyers and staff and, probably, between IT departments and staff. Second, based on my experience, legal administrators have the ability to schedule mandatory meetings that lawyers actually had to attend. Third, legal administrators know how to make meetings work, even if it's just seeing that there is food there.

Here are my best tips on helping this process:

1. The Communication that Matters Most is Lawyer to IT Staff. The best thing a firm can do is to help the IT department understand the business of the law firm and the nature of the practice and work that lawyers do. Part of this process is to make it clear that lawyers in the same firm may do very different work. IT people can be surprised to learn that not all lawyers try cases. Set up a series of lunches where lawyers talk about and answer questions about their work.

2. Do Some Project Reviews. The military evaluates engagements in detail after they occur to see what lessons can be learned about what went right and wrong. Law firms rarely do that with IT projects. Schedule some review sessions after completing IT projects to get lawyers and IT people talking about what worked, what didn't and how the next project might be improved, in an objective, rather than a crisis, setting.

3. Encourage Regular Conversations at Times Other than Crises. Consider this example. A lawyer waits until the last minute before printing 5,000 pages of documents due in two hours. An IT staffer simply calculates that, at ten pages per minute, it will take at least nine hours, and tells the lawyer it cannot be done. An argument ensues until someone intervenes and figures out a work-around. Both lawyer and IT staffer form low opinions of each other and vow never to speak to each other again. Getting conversations to happen outside of crisis settings must be a priority.

4. Take Advantage of the Natural Go-betweens. There are lawyers, usually young lawyers, who really "get" technology and can talk easily with IT people. There can also be IT staffers who talk easily with lawyers. Those people should be encouraged to be go-betweens and to survey and communicate the wishes and concerns of each group.

5. Use Food as Bait. I am hesitant to draw general conclusions about groups of people, but my experience with lawyers and IT people is that both groups cannot pass by a conference room with free food on a table. A spread of coffee, juice, bagels and donuts to start a day will work wonders at bridging the gap between lawyers and IT departments and getting the ball rolling.

Conclusion.

There should be no higher priority in legal technology at law firms today than getting lawyers and IT staff talking with each other on a regular, meaningful basis. Legal administrators have the best shot of being able to talk in the language of both groups and bringing them together. The job is not an easy one. I recommend looking for small victories based on the ideas in this article and your own experience, and then building on them. It is an effort that is well worth making.

+++

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology communication

Posted by dmk at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2006

Is There a Digital Dashboard in Your Future? - Article

[Note: This is another in a continuing series in which I am reposting some of my original drafts of published articles.]

You see a lot of discussion these days about digital dashboards and their potential. For examples in the legal profession, see the stories here, here and here. Another good overview is here. It's not a complicated idea.

Anyway, I mention the dashboard concept because back in 2000, Microsoft was talking about a Digital Dashboard approach that excited me as much as any technology innovation I had seen to that point. And I wasn't the only one. I wrote the following column, one of my favorites, back in May 2000. It was even reprinted on the Microsoft website for a time. Then, Microsoft dropped the initiative. I mean, it all but disappeared off the face of the earth.

I still like the article. With the idea of dashboards making a comeback (and justifiably so), I thought I'd reprint the article, even though the references are out of date. The concepts are still valid, and it's a window, if you will, on an interestiing approach to technology that once burned bright, then faded away, and seems to be reappearing.The title question is still a valid one. I also think that today's approach to using Outlook interfaces in law firms confirms my prescience about that issue, even if I was 5 or 6 years ahead of time.

Is There A Digital Dashboard in Your Future?

[NOTE: This article was originally written in 2000 and the specific product discussed in the article no longer exists.]

Microsoft's Digital Dashboard points to the use of Outlook as a major development tool in the integrated Microsoft environment. And, in some ways, Digital Dashboard gives a glimpse of how Outlook might be used in the case management context using custom programming.

That said, there are two issues worth noting. First, Digital Dashboard is a high-end, sophisticated technique (although the actual dashboards can, if well-executed, be both powerful and simple, a combination that always attracts my attention) and requires the newest versions and most likely outside consultants. Second, there are the security issues that have been plaguing Outlook lately, which have to be addressed.

On the other hand, for those of you who live in your e-mail program, this approach, rather than the browser-based intranet, may be especially appealing because it recognizes that e-mail is the killer application of the Internet rather than "surfing." As I say in the article, Digital Dashboard may give you a chance to get your own personal view of your information realm. By the way, for those of you who have programmed yourself to hate everything Microsoft, think in terms of the PIM or e-mail program you use rather than Outlook and see if the idea has any traction for you. I’m really intrigued by it.

A few months ago, I saw a demo of an application that gave me a glimpse of the computer desktop of the future, one in which incorporation of the Internet, personalization, integration of applications, and knowledge management appear at our fingertips. More important, at least to me, it showed a way to get some control over the tidal wave of information that seems to wash over us every day

The application is called "Digital Dashboard" from Microsoft.

In simplest terms, a Digital Dashboard is an entry screen or starting page built into Microsoft’s Outlook 2000, the e-mail and personal information manager that comes with Office 2000. Many people are using Outlook these days for e-mail, address books and calendars. If you are one of them and you are familiar with the "Outlook Today" screen, you will quickly understand the Digital Dashboard concept. For the rest of you, here’s a little background.

For several years, people have talked about intranets. Intranets are web sites accessible by members of a single organization. Intranet advocates have long championed intranets as a way to use the browser interface (typically Internet Explorer or Netscape’s Navigator) to provide easy access to information within an organization. Especially as people got used to full-time access of the Internet, the thinking went, the browser would be the program that people used most frequently and, therefore, the browser would become the primary tool to access all information.

A funny thing has happened on the way to this intranet vision: e-mail. It is not uncommon these days for attorneys to receive over 100 e-mails a day. Increasingly, the program we "live" in everyday is our e-mail program, especially when, as in the case of Outlook, it also contains our calendar and address book. The last several versions of Outlook have contained a feature called Outlook Today, a simple start page that gives you summary information about and access to your e-mail inbox, a week’s view of your calendar and a list of today’s tasks. Generally, the reaction of Outlook Today users is positive, but they wish it could do more.

Digital Dashboard takes the Outlook Today concept to the next level. You can think of a Digital Dashboard as an infinitely customizable version of Outlook Today or you can see it as the "dashboard" that gives you a view of and control over your information domain.

Here’s the trick Rather than use the browser as your primary access tool, Digital Dashboard uses Outlook and takes advantage of Internet functionality and features as well as the programming and integration underlying Outlook.

Digital Dashboards allow you to do two important things. The first is that they allow you to customize and personalize your view of "your" information, whether locally or on the Internet. The second is that they also allow you to pull key information out of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, databases and other applications and make that information available to you at your fingertips.

Think of your Digital Dashboard as your own personal web site (like http://my.findlaw.com - a site every lawyer should know). But it’s better than a web site because it also gives you access to your inbox, calendar and contacts, as well as every other feature of Outlook, including the powerful "public folders" for collaborative efforts. You can set up the views of those features you like and size them and move them where you want. You can add links to favorite Internet sites, stock or news tickers and even audio or video (a current camera view of your commute anyone?)

In addition, you can pull information from other applications, such as spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides and database reports, and make them available from your Digital Dashboard. Even better, you can place a chart tied to a spreadsheet or database on your Digital Dashboard and have the chart adjust to reflect the current figures in the underlying program. If using, for example, a time and billing program that is compliant with standards Microsoft uses, a managing partner could track at a glance work in progress, accounts receivable and the status of collections in the form of a chart that is always viewable right on the Digital Dashboard.

Each Digital Dashboard may be customized and personalized for each individual or you might roll out a firm-wide template. I have only touched the surface of the possibilities of Digital Dashboards, but I see a lot of potential.

The drawbacks? A Digital Dashboard is a high-end application that probably makes the most sense in large and medium-sized firms, although it certainly can be used by a small firm looking for an edge in technology. It is a strictly Microsoft application and requires Outlook 2000 and Office 2000. Powerful desktop computers and full-time high-speed Internet access are a must, but these are increasingly commonplace. Outlook users must also pay attention to outstanding security issues.

Although Digital Dashboards are based on HTML and other common web programming techniques, I think it will be rare where you will not want bring in an outside Digital Dashboard developer. The good news, though, is that I’ve talked with a number of Microsoft developers who like the potential of Digital Dashboards and can’t wait to get to work on development projects.

Are Digital Dashboards the solution for you? Those of you on an up-to-date Microsoft platform or planning to move there should take a hard look at the Digital Dashboard. You can get more information and examples at [Note: Link has been dead for many years].

The Digital Dashboard is an idea that had an immediate appeal to me and one that has stayed with me and become increasingly interesting. I like the idea of a development that focuses on the primary screen I live in everyday in a way that makes it more organized and more useful while giving me access at my fingertips to the information I need to use. And that is where the promise of Digital Dashboard lies.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology digital dashboard dashboard

Posted by dmk at 07:09 PM

June 21, 2006

Using Technology to Increase Profitability: Moving into Alternative Billing Via Technology - Article

[Note: This is another in a continuing series in which I am reposting some of my original drafts of published articles.]

In a recent post on the Between Lawyers blog, I linked to a post on the subject of value billing and the post seemed to generate a bit of discussion about the topic. It also reminded me that I wrote an article that includes my most extensive writing about the subject of value billing in an article that was originally published in the April/May 2006 issue of Law Office Computing magazine. Not surprisingly, I focused on the impact that technology might and should have in the area of alternative billing. Sharp readers will note that my real topic was profitability and not so much alternative or value billing, which was a bit of a side issue in the article. Nonetheless, I thought I'd republish my original draft of the article (that means there may be a few typos) on my blog and see if people think that it adds anything to the discussion. I really liked the way this article turned out and it contained some original ideas and approaches that I hadn't seen elsewhere. I hope you enjoy the article.

Using Technology to Increase Profitability: Moving into Alternative Billing Via Technology

Better. Faster. Cheaper. These three words have long made up the mantra for the benefits of legal technology, at least for those trying to sell new technologies to lawyers.

However, these three words, even if proven, have never been quite enough to close the sale with many lawyers, especially for technologies that promise to change the nature of the practice or substantially alter the ways legal services are delivered.

The final barrier is often concern about the impact of technology in a system where fees are based solely on the number of billable hours worked. Simply put, if you can use technology to do what is now a twenty-hour project in four hours, haven't you just cut your earnings by eighty percent?

This article is not going to be another manifesto about how lawyers need to end the tyranny of the billable hours system. However, I do want to make you think critically about your current approach to pricing your services.

This article, in fact, is about supplying the missing part of the legal technology equation: how will new technologies or better uses of technology improve profitability, client satisfaction and make your life better? In other words, how does the mantra of better, faster and cheaper actually help you make good decisions about alternative billing methods?

The Billable Hours Dilemma.

Let’s assume that your practice includes drafting a legal document that takes you six hours to produce a solid draft, and that you draft one hundred of these documents a year. You find that you can implement a document assembly application that will reduce the time to create that solid draft to six minutes per document.

Forget about the cost of the software and developing the document assembly application. What have you done to your practice? In a billable hours system, you have reduced six hundred billable (and collectable) hours down to ten hours! In addition to software and development costs, you have lost 590 hours of earnings. However, you definitely have achieved the goal of better, faster and cheaper with your technology.

Of course, this simple analysis is just the starting point. Perhaps not all of the hours are "lost." You might be routinely writing off some of this time. You might "replace" the hours with higher value hours doing something else.

When you implement any technology, you must rethink your approach to the use of your time and how you bill your clients.

I chose this example for two reasons. First, it is a great example of a place technology has a negative impact in an hourly billing approach and almost drives you to consider an alternative billing model. Second, clients increasingly think that lawyers have these capabilities.

In today's world of computerized forms, what does a client think if they see that you spent six hours producing a first draft of a will? Your client will believe that you chose the method that maximizes your billable hours.

Here's one of my favorite analogies. You contract with a builder to build you a new house on an hourly billing basis. The workers show up with no power tools, only hand tools. How do you react?

That brings us to the great billable hours dilemma. If there are strong pressures from clients to reduce the number of hours spent on projects and strong resistance to rate increases, what will the impact be on your practice? In general, the answer will be that you simply have to go out and find more hours (new clients and new projects) each year.

Alternative Billing Primer.

For a growing number of lawyers, technology is one of the drivers toward alternative billing methods. There is a list of good resources for learning about alternative billing in the sidebar.

For our purposes, I want to divide alternative billing into three categories: (1) value billing, (2) enhanced or blended hourly billing, and (3) other innovative approaches.

Think of value billing as flat fee billing. You and the client agree in advance to a fee for the project based on the perceived value of the work to the client. Implementing the document assembly application I mentioned earlier definitely makes sense here.

There are many examples of enhanced or blended billing approaches. You might have one rate for drafting and a higher rate for tax planning, for example. The document assembly application might make sense if your clients pay you more for you tax planning time.

We are also seeing a large number of innovative approaches, Bonus pools and incentives for meeting budget targets are examples in this category. Typically, these are used by large corporations or where there is a high volume of work. Technology might enhance your profitability in these settings.

Billable Hours Not Going Away - Ethics and Other Concerns.

Experts have been predicting the death of the billable hours system for many years. It's still going strong. In many cases, both clients and lawyers are comfortable with the approach and believe it achieves fair results. Changing your existing billing approaches may take time and negotiation and involve changing systems. There is also a vocal group who believe that any type of billing other than hourly billing is unethical, and innovative billing approaches can raise issues under applicable ethical rules.

You will find both a growing momentum for alternative billing approaches and receptivity on the part of clients to these approaches. If you want to see what lawyers really think of hourly billing, watch a lawyer's reaction when any other service provider suggests hourly billing.

For purposes of this article, I am going to assume that hourly billing remains the dominant approach to billing, with a small, but increasing, number of alternative experiments going on in many law practices.

My first rule is that you must think carefully about how technology might help make any alternative billing approach more profitable.

My second rule, which I will now turn to, is that, whatever your billing method, you must always consider the impact of technology on profitability. The vendors may be telling you better, faster, cheaper, but your response should be to ask about and understand the impact on profitability.

Profitability – The Key Measure.

Profitability is the key factor in technology decisions today. I had two recent conversations that brought home this point to me. First, I talked with a partner at a large law firm that is looking at its practice, staffing, technology and much else all in the context of how each item contributes to profits per partner. Second, I spoke with a lawyer in a small firm who made a large commitment to modernizing technology, with the result of a 50% increase in profit on the same annual revenues as the prior year.

Profit, classically, is the result of subtracting costs from revenues. In the short term, we can increase profits by decreasing costs and/or increasing revenues. In the long term, improving customer service also plays a key role in keeping profits strong.

I often find that lawyers underestimate the role technology can play in cutting costs, increasing revenue and improving customer services. Let's look at each of them in turn.

Using Technology to Cut Costs – The Cheaper of Better, Faster, Cheaper.

My wife's brother, Kevin Ford, started a solo law practice with a notebook computer, speech recognition software and no secretary. His calculation was that the technology would cost him $4,000. A good secretary would cost him $4,000 per month and need to be paid before he earned anything. His belief was that the technology investment would help him become profitable more quickly and that the savings each month would accrue to his benefit until he determined whether he needed a full-time secretary.

He was able to wait nine months before hiring a secretary. He saw the technology had a real-world payoff of $32,000. However, more importantly, it had a profound impact on the profitability (and cash flow) of his practice and helped him get his practice off the ground.

Here's another example. Lately, there has been much interest in Internet telephony or Voice over IP (VoIP). It's sold as a way to save money on your telephone bills. Annual call savings might be hard to calculate, but, if as a consultant recently told me, it would cost a law firm that was moving offices more to move the PBX and phones to the new office than to switch to VoIP, then I can easily see the bottom-line benefits.

I recommend taking a much more careful look at real cost savings as part of making your technology decisions. Notice that "better, faster, cheaper" benefits of technology may well offer you cost cutting opportunities. Some of these can be subtle and require that you think about your business model.

For example, outsourced technology services and even hosted software services may help you avoid large investments in hardware and software, reduce staffing needs and provide other savings. Similarly, you might use technology to let you hire part-time employees rather than full-time employees.

There are almost no end to the ways you can look at new technologies as potentially cost-cutters. Keeping documents in electronic form will save you on paper and printer ink or toner costs. Making documents available to clients on secure, private websites might save you postage and overnight shipping costs.

Cost-cutting uses of technology will work for you no matter whether you use hourly billing or alternative approaches. If you are realistic and think carefully about the economics, using technology will help you increase your profit margins on projects and run your office more cheaply, and that's a recipe for having a better year than last year.

Improved Revenues – the Faster of "Better, Faster, Cheaper."

Many variables come into play in determining a law firm's revenues. Projections involve assumptions that may or may not prove true. However, let's cautiously take a look at how technology might improve revenues in both hourly billing and alternative billing settings.

As a general matter, the case for technology improving revenues is easiest to make in the alternative billing approach. Client happily agrees to a price of $1,000 for a will. Rather than taking you ten hours at $100 an hour, you use document assembly to reduce the amount of time you spend to four hours. Assuming you do the same number of wills in the year and use the six hours you "saved" in other fee-generating work, you will increase revenues for the years. By comparison, in the billable hours world, you simply have reduced your fee for the will to $400.

While this example shows how technology can lead you to alternative billing, it's important to see that alternative billing models may not be realistic without the use of technology.

What is the biggest untapped information source in any law practice? It's the time records.

If you start to process and analyze those records, you will learn many important things, not the least of which is how to price flat-fee projects. If you don't know how long it takes you, on average, to do projects, how can you set a flat-fee that works for you? You've been forced to enter your time every day; why not use that information for something that benefits you?

In hourly billing, one of the hidden problems is time write-offs. Let's go back to my example of the document that takes six hours to draft. If you routinely write off half of that time for clients on every bill, then you are not making an accurate calculation of the economics of the impact of technology. Any process where you consistently write off time is an invitation to consider technology alternatives.

The biggest area to consider using technology to improve revenues is to improve your staffing. If using speech recognition allows you to avoid hiring a full-time secretary and hire a paralegal instead, or other technologies allow a secretary to do paralegal work, you've turned a cost into a revenue producer.

Another good area from increasing revenues through technology is to see whether you can automate documentation or other processes to create fees for "annual corporate maintenance" or other legal support or service packages as annual subscriptions.

Client Satisfaction – The Better of "Better, Faster, Cheaper."

The notion of "better" rarely resonates with lawyers. In most cases, the "better" is something that benefits clients more than lawyers. Although you might perceive few immediate benefits, the benefits over the long term can be substantial.

Let me give you two examples of ways to use technology to improve client satisfaction.

First, after developing a document assembly application to generate first drafts of complex estate planning documents, I realized that the same process could routinely generate document summaries and charts of the estate plan for clients with little additional time or effort. For almost no additional cost, clients received a package that helped them really understand the contents of complex legal documents.

Second, with just a couple of mouse clicks, the ReportBooks feature of CaseMap 5 generates a handy client summary of the main facts, issues and cast of characters in a litigation matter, along with an assessment of some of the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence. That's something that clients will appreciate and will keep them coming back to you.

In each example, you are looking to use some aspect of technology, small or large, to improve your client's experience in working with you. It might be as simple as using a color printer or enlarging the font size for elderly clients.

You want to look at technology with an eye for how it might improve client service, which will help tie your clients to you for the long-term. Study after study shows that it is better and easier to land new business from existing clients than it is to go out and land new clients.

Making the Turn to Alternative Billing.

Better use of technology will help you build an environment where alternate billing approaches make sense and may even thrive. I am not, however, trying to convince you, that you must switch to alternative billing methods. I do want to suggest that experimenting with alternative billing is advisable. You can expect to see it from your competitors and be asked about it by clients.

Five essentials for using technology to move toward better billing practices and enhanced profitability are:

1. Understand the Facts and Do Not Rely on Assumptions. If a project takes ten hours of time at $100 an hour, then charging a $500 flat fee will never make economic sense. Similarly, if you do not know the costs per page of printers and copiers, you can't evaluate whether it makes sense to buy a new one. Knowing the total costs of hiring an employee is essential when evaluating outsourcing or technology alternatives.

2. Use Your Facts, Not Anyone Else's Facts. People always give me examples of cost savings from technology for a litigation practice. I do not have a litigation practice. The examples simply do not apply to me. Keep the focus directly on you and what's going on at your firm.

3. Cheaper Will Help You the Most Now, But Faster Will Be the Key in Alternative Billing. Keep your eye on profitability. The benefit of technology today is in how you can use it creatively to cut costs. Cutting costs will help you increase profits, which will give you the flexibility and capital to try new technologies and new approaches to billing. However, cutting costs is only one step. Almost every alternative billing approach makes the most sense when you reduce the time it takes to perform services and become more productive.

4. Look for Billing Inefficiencies as Indicators Where to Experiment with Alternative Billing. I'd be surprised if you cannot use your existing software to analyze your time, billing and collection records to generate useful business information. Are you doing that? You should be. Do some analysis with those programs or a spreadsheet and then use the information. Tasks that are consistently written off, expenses that are not billed and similar facts may show you areas where technology can help you or provide fertile ground for alternative billing experiments.

5. Look for Happy Clients You Can Make Happier. My informal surveys suggest that lawyers often use new clients to test alternative billing approaches. I suggest that you might get better results and feedback by approaching your happy clients. If you've used technology in the past to improve client service, they may be even more receptive.

Conclusion.

It will be a while before we see a massive shift away from hourly billing. However, do not make the assumption that productivity gains from technology are always at odds with the hourly billing system. Instead, focus on the contributions that technology can make to improving profitability – cutting costs, increasing revenues and improving client service – and then use a hard-headed realistic approach to looking at whether your technology helps you in these areas. Then, apply some of the ideas I discuss in this article to begin to experiment with alternative billing models where they make sense for you.

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Useful Resources on Alternative Billing Methods

Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell, Alternative Billing Requires Alternative Resources, Law Practice Today, September 2004 (http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/slc09041.html).

Jim Calloway and Mark Robertson, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590311175/Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour, 2nd Edition: Strategies That Work, ABA Publishing.

Ron Baker, Professional's Guide To Value Pricing, CCH.

Alan Weiss, Value-Based Fees: How to Charge—and Get—What You're Worth, Pfeiffer.

The [Non]billable Hour Blog – http://www.nonbillablehour.com

Other Helpful Books on Value Billing

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[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page. More information on the "Second Pair of Eyes" packages for legal technology audits and strategic planning may be found here (PDF).

Technorati tags: legal technology alternative billing value billing document assembly

Posted by dmk at 07:57 PM | Comments (2)

May 22, 2006

Honoring the Tradition of Training: Ten Tips for Running a Summer Program

Denise Howell's recent post mentioning summer programs in law firms made me think back to the first article I ever wrote for publication, just over ten years ago. The article was called "Honoring the Tradition of Training: Ten Tips for Running a Summer Program." It was published in the ABA's Law Practice Management Magazine and I'll always be grateful to John Tredennick for deciding to publish the article.

I scoured my hard drive and found a copy of the article, which might be the original draft. I decided to republish it on my blog without making any changes to it.

This is the time of year that law students start summer jobs and law firms try to find ways to give law students a good summer associate experience. I know that there is still not a lot of material to help lawyers who run summer programs, so I hope that making this article available online will help some people.

I didn't re-read the whole article today. I did notice that it had some of the characteristics of what has become my writing "style" and I noticed that the paragraphs are so lo-o-o-ong, reminding me how writing styles have changed during the Internet era to reflect the way readers prefer to scan shorter paragraphs.

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Honoring the Tradition of Training: Ten Tips for Running a Summer Program

"How would you like to be in charge of our summer program?" So begins one of the most rewarding roles a younger attorney can have in the administration of a law firm.

You should take a momentary pleasure in the vote of confidence being so selected represents. The increased workload and time commitment, however, may seem a bit daunting. You probably know what you liked, and what you didn't like, about your own summer experiences. You have undoubtedly had some involvement with your firm's summer program and may even be a graduate of your firm's summer program. And you probably had at least an inkling that you would be asked to take on the leadership of the summer program. Where do you find help? What are the best sources?

I've just finished a four-year tour of duty in charge of the summer program at my firm. I was somewhat surprised to find that there are few articles and other materials available to help design and administer summer programs. Some of the more useful articles and sources may be found in the bibliography at the end of this article. Even better is to take over a well-designed program with a predecessor who will serve as an ongoing source of wise counsel and sage advice. That, however, may not always be the case.

This article lists my ten best tips for running a summer program. My firm has a relatively small summer program, but I have chosen the tips which have the most universal relevance. I have tried to combine both the practical and the philosophical and to place the role of running a summer program squarely within the tradition of training that is an integral part of the profession.

1. Involve Yourself in the Hiring Process. You have probably been interviewing law students for a number of years. Being part of the interview process allows you to develop relationships with summer associates early in the process and gives you an opportunity to evaluate potential recruits. When you are put in charge of summer program, you should become more than a mere participant in interviewing and hiring process. Becoming a member of the hiring committee or at least having significant involvement and input in the decision-making process is vital to the success of your summer program.

I tried to interview every candidate that we brought back to the office for a second interview and did a number of our on-campus interviews as well. This approach requires a significant time commitment and may not be practical in your situation. By interviewing each candidate, I could provide consistent answers to questions about our summer program and use my enthusiasm about the program to help sell the firm and the summer program. As time went on, I found that my experiences with summer program helped me identify potential candidates more easily and see potential problem areas with various candidates. I also found the interview process very helpful for getting feedback from students about what aspects of our summer program appealed to them and for getting responses to new ideas that I was considering for the next summer.

Because I saw a large part of my role as an interviewer to be providing information about the summer program, my interview techniques became friendlier and less-threatening. This approach pays dividends in helping you build an early relationship with offerees and allows you to be more active in actual recruiting of individuals. This early relationship also makes early and consistent contacts after a person accepts an offer a more natural process.
Being involved with your firm's hiring committee is useful for at least two other reasons. First, you will learn why offer decisions are made and what factors the other members of the hiring committee feel are important. This learning process will teach you many things about your firm, its culture and its mission. Second, after a couple of summers, you will have had the opportunity to field-test the results of those decisions and the assumptions on which they are based. Your observations become very important feedback to the hiring committee and should help to improve the hiring process.

2. Early Preparation Pays Off. It is difficult to exaggerate the time and energy commitment which is required to run a summer program. When the interviewing component of the job is included, running a summer program requires a significant amount of attention on a year-round basis. After the summer associates leave in August, you will find yourself writing memos to Managing Partners about the summer program, making your own notes about what worked and didn't work and deciding what might be new ideas to try the next summer.

It hardly seems that the summer associates have left (and sometimes they haven't) when you start interviewing law students for the next summer. You will be helping recruit your former associates who received offers and giving references for others. There might be 1-L interviews in December and January. In St. Louis, there is a Minority Clerkship Program which involves additional preparation and interviewing in the spring. By April I felt that I had to focus on the summer program and get set up for the arrival of new summer associates in May.

I also liked to incorporate new ideas in the summer program each year. I spent time looking for new articles and talking to others with the same job in other firms in the "off-season." I also talked to a number of people in the firm after the summer was over to help decide what went right and what went wrong. Also, there were always a number of people in the firm who sought me out to tell me what went right and what went wrong. I am afraid to add up all the hours that I spent in conversations with people about the summer program. As I suggested earlier, you learn many things about the culture, philosophy and mission of your firm by running its summer program.

You must have early and continuing contact with each person who accepts an offer with your firm. It can be as simple as a congratulatory note upon acceptance of the offer, a note to say good luck with finals at the beginning of December, a note to touch base with some information about the program in February and then a note every few weeks from April to the starting date. The worst mistake you can make is to have one of your summer associates call you up to confirm that he or she does, in fact, still have a job with you for the summer.

I also highly recommend some form of written manual and taking the time to do a comprehensive orientation on the first day a summer associate arrives. A manual can take many forms. I simply adapted our firm's staff manual into what I called a "guidebook" to help avoid any potential "official employee manual" employment issues. The guidebook contained a description of firm policies, phone numbers, computer, mail, copier and fax information, maps and biographies and secretarial arrangements. While I touched on much of the information covered in the guidebook during the orientation, the guidebook contained the type of material that will not be remembered after one listening. Our summer associates found it useful to have a written source to turn to for answers to basics questions. Never underestimate the importance of accurate office maps to your summer associates. In addition to the manual, I gave each summer associate and information packet with samples of written work and time sheets, an updated firm resume and telephone list, and articles useful to someone starting his or her legal career.

I have never liked to put someone right to work on his or her first morning on the job, but most summer associates arrive ready and raring to go. My compromise was to spend a few hours in the morning doing an orientation, touring the offices and introducing the summer associates to attorneys, taking them and their "buddies" to lunch, and then letting them get started on a project or two in the afternoon. It is unrealistic to expect that summer associates will hear and digest everything that you tell them in an orientation, but there are a number of items that they need to hear on a number of occasions and it is good to start immediately. I generally began with an introduction to the firm and its history, clients and structure. I proceeded to talk about matters specific to the summer program and then covered a broad range of practical details. I always took the approach that summer associates had not worked in a law firm before and stressed the practical while incorporating a few of my philosophical points about the program. I gave people practical tips about handling their first assignments and soliciting feedback, but I did not feel that walking through a sample assignment was useful. I also experiment with involving other people - managing partner, hiring partner, office manager, librarian - in the orientation itself. Involving others may make sense in your situation and it may even be part of your firm's culture, but I decided that it was best to keep the orientation focused and personal and, except for library tours, everything was covered by me.

The importance of early preparation for administrative matters - offices, secretarial arrangements, network setup, phone numbers, parking - goes without saying. It is good to get on top of this by April so that everyone is thinking along the same lines. If there is a problem with office space or number of secretaries, you can get it worked out much more easily over a six-week period than you can, say, over a six-day period.

Confidentiality and ethics issues involving summer associates have become far more significant in the last few years. There