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DISCLAIMER: The posts and opinions expressed on this blog and this website are solely the personal opinions of Dennis Kennedy. They do not represent or reflect (nor are they intended to represent or reflect) the positions, opinions, viewpoints, policies and/or statements of my employer or any other entity in which I have any ownership interest, with which I have any contractual or other legal relationship, or which is, was or might be my client or customer.

REQUIRED STATEMENTS UNDER MISSOURI SUPREME COURT RULES IF THIS WEBSITE OR ANY PORTION OF IT IS DEEMED TO BE AN ADVERTISEMENT OR SOLICITATION. This website is not intended to be an advertisement or solicitation for my legal services. However, under recent changes in Missouri Rules, it may be deemed to be so, despite my intention. Therefore, the following statements may be required on this website and I have included them in order to be in full compliance with these rules. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Disregard this solicitation if you have already engaged a lawyer in connection with the legal matter referred to in this solicitation. You may wish to consult your lawyer or another lawyer instead of me. The exact nature of your legal situation will depend on many facts not known to me at this time. You should understand that the advice and information in this solicitation is general and that your own situation may vary. This statement is required by rule of the Supreme Court of Missouri.

March 15, 2010

Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets - New Article

My friend Wendy Werner recently talked me into writing an article on "succession planning" for computer systems, online materials and digital assets for the newly-released issue of the Law Practice Today webzine. Wendy edited the issue and it is an excellent look at succession planning for lawyers and law firms that I highly recommend you take a look at the entire issue.

I’m happy to have contributed an article to the issue. The article is called "Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets."

I’m been thinking about writing an article on this topic for many years. What had stopped me was the complexity of the topic and how many difficult issues arise out of this topic.

However, nothing focuses the writing mind like a pressing deadline and I’m quite pleased with the results, which represent my attempt to put together a practical primer about these issues.

I tried to consolidate my suggested approach into 5 basic steps and that section makes up the core of the article:

A Simple Five-Step Plan to Manage Your Digital Estate
Step 1. Inventory Your Digital Assets.

Step 2. Identify Appropriate Help.

Step 3. Provide for Access.

Step 4. Provide Instructions.

Step 5. Give Appropriate Authority.

Based on my research for this article, there either is not much information on this subject available or it is far too difficult to find by searching in Google.

I also think that anyone with a significant Internet presence has concerns about what happen to that Internet presence in the event of their death or disability. However, almost everyone today has a growing number of "digital assets" and questions posed by them.

I’ve already gotten a very positive response to this article and hope that you find it helpful. I welcome your suggestions for other approaches that might work well for people trying to deal with their growing digital estates.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog. Follow me - @denniskennedy

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

Technorati tags: legal profession diversity law practice inclusion articles

Posted by dmk at 10:23 PM | Comments (1)

March 04, 2010

Saving Face: A Simple Facebook Privacy and Security Primer

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Saving Face: 5 tips to better security on Facebook ."

For a while, I've been concerned about the cavalier approach that many people, especially lawyers, have taken to privacy and security on Facebook. As Facebook approaches 400 million users, there's little question that most of us need to address these concerns. As Facebook and other social media platforms continue to make changes to their privacy approaches and default settings, security and privacy has moved out of the realm of "set and forget" to something that you need to revisit on a regular basis.

I've wanted to write something simple and basic about how to understand and deal with these issues - or at least to make a good start - and point people in the right direction.

This column was my opportunity to do that. I've been gratified by the requests for reprints and the numerous comments to the article already. I recommend reading the comments because there some good insights and tips in the comments.

I went for a simple five-step approach. Not too many and just enough to make it easy to get started and make a difference,

The five steps:

1. Use a strong password and change it on a regular basis.
2. Review and make appropriate changes to your privacy settings.

3. Be discriminating in your use of Facebook apps.

4. Take control of what others can put on your page.

5. Consider using “friend lists.”

To make myself clear: This is serious stuff and you had better pay attention to what's going on and what the implications are when you venture into the world of social media. A few basic steps will make a world of difference.

The money quote:

And I cannot stress too much the need to always use good judgment when using social media.

For more detailed advice and instructions, I like Leah Pearlman's and Carolyn Abram's Facebook For Dummies^® (updated in November 2009) - an inexpensive way to protect yourself against embarrassment at the least and real serious damage at the worst.

Tom Mighell and I also talk about this and related topics in our new podcast, "Social Media Common Sense."

Check out my new column. Let's all be more careful out there.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy.

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Technorati tags: legal technology facebook privacy security column

Posted by dmk at 08:52 PM | Comments (1)

February 09, 2010

My Latest ABA Journal Technology Column Introduces the Mobile Platform

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Going Mobile: Your future work platform is on the phone " and it takes a practical look at what is starting to seem like a smartphone revolution.

My goal in this column was to provide a simple introduction and primer to what Tom Mighell and I have been calling the "mobile platform" on our podcast. We are moving to a world where smartphones are commonplace, where smartphones run applications and give us anywhere, anytime Internet access, and, as a result, the everyday world of technology use seems to be moving us to working on our smartphones.

In the column, I offer a gentle introduction to world of iPhone and other mobile apps, the implications of anytime, anywhere access, and how expectations are changing and will continue to change. The idea is that you need to start looking at your smartphone to do more than handle email and make calls.

I highlight three key developments:

1. New expectations of availability.
2. Moving from synchronization to realtime access.

3. The "apps" phenomenon -using a smartphone to perform computer-like functions.

I end with four simple and gentle suggestions to get started on the mobile platform. None of this will be big news for heavy smartphone users, but it's meant to be a primary for the many lawyers who are upgrading or moving for the first time to smartphones rather than standard cellphones. On the other hand, it might give you an outline for making the argument why you need a new-generation smartphone - iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm or other platform. I do hope you'll like the column more than the first commenter, who seemed to be a little underwhelmed.

The money quote:

Mobile is an area of technology where you don’t realize that you have a need until you understand what’s out there. Even a simple application for timekeeping can have great benefit if it helps you contemporaneously track time that you might otherwise forget.

Check out my new column. I also recommend a podcast on the mobile platform that Tom Mighell and I recorded a few months ago.

+++++++++

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy.

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Technorati tags: legal technology mobile platform apps iphone column

Posted by dmk at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2009

Windows 7 for the Legal Profession - My New ABA Journal Tech Column

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Lucky No. 7?" and it takes a practical look about how to think about moving to Windows 7. Or not.

I leave the work of writing an actual software review of Windows 7 to others. I'm more interested in helping people get prepared and make a good decision about what they will want to do.

One of the most interesting developments in legal technology over the past few years is the way law firms decided to stay with Windows XP and not upgrade to Windows Vista. Even though Vista was Microsoft's most controversial operating system release, the refusal of most lawyers to move away from Windows XP has left them in the interesting positon of considering leap-frogging Windows Vista and moving directly to Windows 7. As the column points out, this "skip" upgrade is the most difficult one to make.

In the column, I outline my approach to moving to new operating systems. In a nutshell, I don't like to upgrade the OS of computers I use on a regular basis - I definitely prefer to move to a new OS by buying a new computer with it pre-loaded. There are lots of good reasons for that, and that's my best advice for moving to Windows 7.

I offer in the column some useful resources, tips and suggestions. My conclusion is that, probably sooner than later, you'll be moving to WIndows 7, which really does seem to be having a smooth rollout, if you stay in the Windows world. This is especially true if you are in the market for a new computer.

The money quote:

My perspective on operating systems is that they are simply platforms for running what I really care about—applications. The more transparent and unobtrusive the operating system is, the better I like it. And Microsoft seems to have succeeded in making Windows a more transparent operating system than ever before.
Also, the release of Windows 7 has raised the question of whether we are seeing the last major desktop operating system release. As people use the Internet for more applications, as in “software as a service” or cloud computing, the browser becomes the most important software on a computer. And browsers run on any operating system. Meanwhile, smartphones have also become an important computing platform.

I actually wrote the column a few months ago, and I'm pleased that events since I wrote the article have more or less confirmed what I wrote at the time. I was a little nervous about that.

If you are thiniking about Windows 7 for yourself or your firm, I recommend that you check out my new column as a starting point. I can also recommend a podcast on WIndows 7 that Tom Mighell and I recorded a few months ago.

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REMEMBER: It's "By Request December" at DennisKennedy.Blog. I'll be answering reader questions all month about legal technology, blogging, social media or whatever topics interest you. Send me your questions. I'll be starting to answer them soon.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy.

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Technorati tags: legal technology windows 7 windows upgrade column

Posted by dmk at 08:04 PM | Comments (1)

December 01, 2009

Creating a Mobile-ready Version of Your Website or Blog

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Mobilization" and it focuses on whether and how you should create a "mobile-ready" version of your website or blog.

The premise of the column is that, increasingly, people are using browsers on their mobile phones to access websites and blogs. Unfortunately, most websites and blogs are not optimized for mobile phones (think small screens) and often contain design elements and features that do not translate well to the mobile phone screen. Even if you have few visitors using mobile phones to access your pages today, that number will be increasing.

The question becomes: do you really want to provide those mobile viewers with a bad (even unreadable) experience? Is it possible to optimize your website or blog for mobile phones and/or to create alternate versions of pages for mobile phone users?

The column provides you with an overview of a couple of routes you can take and shows how quickly and easily you can create a mobile-ready version of your blog or webpage. As an example, I created this mobile version of my blog in literally a few minutes using a free Mofuse service for blogs.

Have you tried viewing your webiste or blog via a mobile browser? It might be a good idea to try it and check out the column for an overview of the options you have to cater to the new mobile audience.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy.

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network. Twitter: @tkmreport

Technorati tags: legal technology google search alternatives column

Posted by dmk at 09:55 PM | Comments (2)

October 25, 2009

Broadening Search: Is Google Enough?

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Broadening Search" and it focuses on shortcomings people are finding with an over-reliance on Google search and covers some alternatives to Google for certain types of searching.

As I like to say, "The next generation of search is arriving, if you know where to find it."

In the column, I recommend that you assemble a toolbox of search tools and then choose the best tool for the job at hand.

I introduce you to tools you might want to learn more about: from Bing to Twitter Search to specialized search tools to Rollyo to Dogpile to Mahalo to Sensebot. I wanted to sketch out how broad the search landscape really is.

As I say in the article, "I worry, as should you, that a total reliance on Google will give you a limited or distorted view of the Web. You want to choose the best tools for the job at hand. It’s a new generation. Try out a few new search tools today and compare the results."

The details about the tipsse tools are in the article, of course, which you should now check out here.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network.

Technorati tags: legal technology google search alternatives column

Posted by dmk at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2009

Fighting Flabby Files - Reducing the Size of Files You Send

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Fighting Flabby Files" and it focuses on the growing (pun intended) problem of people sending large files as email attachments.

I show how some low-cost and free alternatives can alleviate daily hassles large files can cause.

With corporate inbox caps, ISP limits and more people receiving email on mobile devices, large attachments can result in difficulties for your recipients.

I focus on two simple approaches - reducing the size of the files you send and sending large files outside the email system.

The article includes some tips on shrink large files, especially PDF files. Effective use of PDFs can really help address the large attachment problem.

I also point out some free file transfer sites that allow you to upload your file, send an email that contains a link to the file, and let your recipient download the file from the Internet with almost no burden on the email system.

Simple tips, simple approaches and great results that will reduce your email burdens.

As I say in the article, "It’s a great example of small, simple technology improvements that have a big impact on the daily practice of law."

The details about the tips are in the article, of course, which you should now check out here.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network.

Technorati tags: legal technology email files column

Posted by dmk at 09:07 PM | Comments (4)

July 26, 2009

Working in the Cloud - Lawyers and SaaS

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Working in the Cloud" and it focuses on the area now known as Software as a Service (SaaS) or hosted services or cloud computing. In fact, it's my effort to make the concept of cloud computing accessible and understandable to the average lawyer. It's probably well-known than I've long been a fan of the SaaS approach, but this column is intended to provide a balanced discussion of the concept.

After sketching out some history, I cover the general benefits and concerns about the SaaS approach and give some suggested tips when considering this approach:

1. Ask “compared to what?”

2. Do your due diligence.

3. Know your SLAs.

4. Deal with confidentiality.

5. Plan for transition,

6. Start small.

The details about the tips are in the article, of course, which you should now check out here.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network.

Technorati tags: legal technology saas cloud column

Posted by dmk at 07:46 PM | Comments (1)

July 20, 2009

A Crowdsourcing Experiment: Help Me with Topics for Upcoming ABA Journal Columns

I find it much easier to write columns than it is to come up with topics for columns. My usual trick is to brainstorm a bunch of topics and then put together a calendar of topics for several months in advance.

It's that time again for my technology column in the ABA Journal (latest column here).

However, this time I'd like to try an experiment in "crowdsourcing."

I'm inviting you, as a reader of this blog post, to join in an experiment in helping me put together a list of future topics.

The idea of the column is to cover technology topics of general interest to the practicing lawyer. Topics should not be too specific or too tied to a single product. I don't write reviews.

Here's an example. The last column I wrote (which is not yet published) talks about ways lawyers can avoid sending huge attachments by email. More than likely, my next column will be a look at "next-generation search" and alternatives lawyers might consider to Google.

If you'd like to participate (and part of this experiment is simply to see if anyone will), you can do so in several different ways:

1. Post a comment to this post with your suggested topic(s).

2. Email your suggested topic(s) to me at denniskennedyblog @ gmail . com.

3. Tweet your suggested topic on Twitter and include either @dkennedyblog or @denniskennedy in the text of the tweet.

Thanks for your help.

I also have another "crowdsourcing" opportunity. Tom Mighell and I have a segment in our podcast, The Kennedy-Mighell Report on the Legal Talk Network, in which we answer questions about legal technology submitted by our audience, You can also use the methods above to send me questions that we might use in that segment of future episodes.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network.

Technorati tags: legal technology column topics crowdsourcing

Posted by dmk at 08:12 PM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2009

"Lean Legal Technology" - Making Lemons out of Lemonade

Let me add my "me too" to the many accolades for the new issue of the Law Practice Today webzine with its focus on tips for "suddenly solo" lawyers. "Suddenly solo" is a phrase that refers to lawyers (increasingly these days long-time law firm partners) who find, often with little warning, that their law firm no longer needs or wants their services. In today's economy, these lawyers frequently find that rather than moving to another law firm and a comparable position, their only option is to start up their own solo practice.

The issue has many useful articles and I expect it to receive many pointers as the "go to" resource on the topic.

The article includes a new article from me called "Lemons, Lemonade and Lean Legal Technology - A Shoestring Approach to Legal Technology for the Suddenly Solo Lawyer." My friend Wendy Werner, who is doing a great job as editor-in-chief of Law Practice Today, called me one day and ignored my protests that I had no time to write an article for this issue and planted the seed for a topic that intrigued me.

The idea behind the article is to try to scope out how little a lawyers who finds himself or herself suddenly solo might actually need (as opposed to want) in order to get a new practice off the ground.

I offer a list of twelve steps to consider:

1. Take a Deep Breath. Really.

2. Take an Inventory of What You Already Have.

3. Go on a Treasure Hunt.

4. Identify Your Software.

5. Take a Hard Look at What You Really Need to Do Your Work and Manage Your Practice.

6. Match What You Have to What You Need.

7. Make Lemonade Out of Lemons.

8. Free is Good, Especially for Software.

9. Turning Technology into a Utility Cost.

10. Find Internet Bargains.

11. Develop Your Internet Presence.

12. Think About Technology Selection as a Process.

Interestingly, when I thought of using the term "lean legal technology," I did a quick search on Google to see how the term might have been used before. Apparently, it hadn't been used before, at least accrding to Google, so maybe I coined a term as part of the article.

Anyway, the articles represents a fresh approach to some of these legal tech topics and I hope the article is helpful to some lawyers trying to make it through a tough period.

Read the article and let me know what you think.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network

Technorati tags: legal technology suddenly solo lean lean legal technology

Posted by dmk at 09:15 PM | Comments (1)

July 13, 2009

Using Technology Audits to Save Money in Law Firms

My latest technology column for the ABA Journal is out. It's called "Countdown to Savings" and it focuses on ways that law firms can use technology audits, from the simple to the complex, to get information that they can use to make good business decisions about technology.

The idea is that too often law firms make guesses about technology needs, Even a simple counting can give you a numerical / factual basis for making better technology decisions. As I commonly do, I wanted to focus on the business side of legal tech more so than on the purely technical side.

My sense for the value of tech audits stems in no small part from my own experience one day at a former law firm. Our one-person IT department left without warning and I spent the day with a consultant brought in on an emergency basis struggling to answer basic questions like: how many PCs on your network? what version of the network software do you use? how many users do you have?

It's a lot easier when you have the numbers upon which to base your decisions. Here are two examples.

First, note how your decision-making changes when asked to approve a purchase of a new scanner when you know that you have two aging scanners versus learning that you have six of them scattered around your office. Your decision might move from whether to purchase to whether to move locations and better deploy to match workflow.

Second, note how your decision on who gets to use a software program for which you have 50 licenses changes when you know that you have 24 users as compared to 48 users.

I like the way tech audits can be used to gather "actionable intelligence" to help you make real-world decisions. The column sets out the wide range of technology audits you can use - from the simplest (running a free tool to find out the hardware and software on your computer or walking around and counting PCs) to the most complex (sophisticated network audits or security audits run by outside experts).

The decisions that I think tech audits can really help you make are those that save you money. And that's a good thing these days.

The response to this column surprised me. I had a larger than usual number of emails, all quite positive. Yet, if you visit the article (and I hope you will), you'll see a couple of quite negative comments.

I note these comments because they surprised me. In fact, I had to re-read the article (in part because I actually wrote it several months ago and my columns usually get edited for space reasons) after I read the comments. Substantively, I have no problem with the comments although I do think they take me to task for a postion I did not and would not take - they emphasize that there are definitely audits that lawyers will want either their IT department or outside technology consultants to run. I think my article actually makes that point, but the comments provide some good emphasis. No, what surprised me was the condescending tone of the comments, from people apparently so new to the legal profession. I know that I still have a lot to learn, so it's interesting to see the level of confidence the commenters already have and the tone and attitude they are willing to take at this point in their careers. I'll let you be the judge. I'll probably write a response to the comments at some point.

The comments seem to take the position that lawyers should never do anykind of tech audit and that all audits be left to tech professionals. I'm not sure that I can agree that it makes sense for a small firm to hire an outside expert to count the number of scanners it has or do other simple counts. Perhaps I used the word "audit" too imprecisely, but I think there are many ways we all can obtain the types of actionable numbers we need to make business decisions about technology.

Check out the column and see what you think.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Listen to The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network.

Technorati tags: legal technology audit columnhave

Posted by dmk at 08:33 PM | Comments (1)

June 23, 2009

A Blogging Guide for St. Louis (and Other) Lawyers (and Others)

With the help of my St. Louis blogging pals, Matt Homann, George Lenard and Evan Schaeffer, I recently put together a roundtable article on "blogging for lawyers" for the St. Louis Lawyer magazine. The article is now out in print, but I believe it's only available in print to members of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis in its final form. I liked the way the article turned out so much, and the information in it is so good, that I couldn't stand the idea that the article wasn't widely available. So, I dug up our unedited draft of the article and post it below. As longtime law-related bloggers know, St. Louis has long been referred to as "Blawg City USA," and this is the first time Matt, George, Evan and I have shared in one place our recollections, observations and practical pointers about blogging. Hope you enjoy reading the article as much as we enjoyed writing it. Let us know what you think about the article.

A Blogging Guide for St. Louis Lawyers

Having a website has been a requirement for lawyers and law firms for many years. As people continue to migrate to the Internet as the place to find information, the return on investment from advertising in traditional print outlets for legal marketing, especially in the yellow pages, has been called into question. There's probably not a lawyer reading this article who hasn't been told recently that he or she should have a blog. Does a blog really make sense for you or your firm?

St. Louis is the home of four of the earliest and best-known lawyer bloggers. We brought them together to get their insights and reflections on blogging for lawyers in 2009.

In this article, you'll hear about blogging from Matt Homann (The NonBillable Hour), Dennis Kennedy (DennisKennedy.Blog), George Lenard (George's Employment Blawg), and Evan Schaeffer (Trial Practice Tips and The Legal Underground), who have combined for more than 20 years of blogging experience.

1. When and why did you start blogging?

Dennis Kennedy (DK): I started my blog as a birthday present to myself in February 2003. My friend Jerry Lawson likes to point out that I wrote an article in 2001 where I recommended that lawyers consider blogging and then didn't start my own blog for almost another two years. The funny thing was that at the time I started the blog I really felt like the whole blogging thing had already passed me by. My idea was that my blog would create a new audience for my writing and give me more visibility while I experimented with a new Internet technology.

Evan Schaeffer (ES): I started my blogs in January, 2004, after having tried and failed in 2001. My failed blogs were updates on class-action news for the lawyers I worked with at the time. The blog concept was new then, and the technological aspect was more difficult. I also had trouble getting my legal colleagues to remember to read. When I started again in 2004, I tried to reach for a broader audience outside my own circle of co-workers. I also lightened up my tone. By that time, blogging platforms were much more reliable and I found it easier to make my blogs look just right. I had two other reasons for trying again. One, I liked the idea that I could instantly publish my writings to a wide audience of readers. Two, I was hoping that if I was engaging enough, it might bring some new attention to my law firm. This is in fact what happened.

George Lenard (GL): I read about some of the early blogging lawyers in an article in the ABA Journal and began blogging a few months later, in May 2003. My original purpose was knowledge management. As I put it in my first post: "Most days I read recent cases and materials on labor and employment law. But too often, by the time I need to cite a case or whatever, I’ve forgotten what I read and can’t find it. So one purpose of this is to have my own personal archive. While I’m at it, why not share it with the world?" (OK, to be honest, I was not unaware of the possible marketing benefit -- but I was skeptical enough about that to not make it a primary objective or expectation.)

Matt Homann (MH): Like Evan, I began my blog in January of 2004. For me, it was place to collect and share the things I found interesting with the handful of other lawyers who felt the same way I did about hourly billing, client service and law practice innovation. It also gained me entry into the then-small community of legal bloggers -- many of whom I knew and admired.

2. What is a blog?

MH: It's funny, but this is a question you don't hear much any more now that blogs have gone mainstream in our profession and others. When all of us first began blogging, it was a far different story. People thought blogs were diaries then, and had a hard time understanding the value they could add to a professional's practice. I used to tell people that my blog was simply a place online where I put things that people who thought like I did would find interesting or valuable, with the newest "stuff" featured on the top of the page.

ES: I began blogging when most people didn't understand the word "blog," so I often just described my weblog as a "website." That's a concept that everybody could understand, and it still works--a weblog is nothing more than website that is updated weekly, daily, sometimes even hourly. I still call my blog a "website."

DK: I like to describe a blog as an online newspaper or magazine column without the newspaper or magazine. There are a lot of ways to define blogs. In general, I'd call a blog a form of website where content is delivered in the form of individual "posts" in reverse chronological order. You also use a blogging software tool that makes it easy to write for your blog without the need to know any HTML or other coding that you must know when updating a traditional web page.

GL: Dennis certainly has the conventional definition down. I would add that with current blogging software it is possible -- and not too difficult -- to create an entire, very attractive website, with the blog page as one component. One could call the blog page something else, such as "news briefs," with the blog software making it much easier to ensure freshness of the "news." On the other hand, with blogs all the rage now, it might be better to label it "blog." So the blog home page, with the reverse chronological entries, can now be viewed as simply part of a website. Another equally valid vision of the blog is as a series of individual web pages that are likely to be quite attractive to search engines. That is because in addition to maintaining the blog entries in conventional journal style, the software creates a unique "permalink" web address for each "post," and if done correctly, search engines will "crawl" and index each page as a separate item to match up with searches. Although I do have a decent audience of somewhat regular readers, the fact is that nearly 90% of my traffic is one-time visitors from search engines (mainly Google) who land not on the home page, but on a particular permalink page that correlates with their search.

3. Why should a lawyer have a blog today?

DK: I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian here. I don't think that every lawyer should have a blog. In fact, for many lawyers, having a blog will be a bad idea. Blogging works best for lawyers who can write regularly for a general audience. However, if a blog is right for you, it gives you an easy way to update your web presence with regular new content, attract a returning audience, and improve your search engine rankings.

GL: I agree with Dennis that it's not for everyone. In my experience, blogging tends to become compulsive, if not addictive, with a desire to update regularly and corresponding guilt at failure to do so, which could make it a big distraction and source of additional stress for many lawyers. I would add that a lawyer should have a blog only if they feel they will have something relatively unique to say. The flood of online content has become a tsunami. If you're just going to contribute to the world's information overload by rehashing news stories or what other bloggers say -- please don't.

ES: Probably everyone on this panel agrees with Dennis. Many lawyers shouldn't have a weblog at all. You have to be committed to putting up new content, which takes some time week after week. You also have to be willing to share your knowledge and insights, which some lawyers prefer to keep to themselves, thinking that otherwise, their competitors might get a leg up on them. Neither of these points are problems for me. I've always had a writing habit. I also don't have any illusions that I'm giving away legal knowledge so valuable that some opposing counsel will be able to use it against me. When I was a young lawyer working at a large defense firm, there were always a few friendly lawyers that I could go to for tips and advice. With my weblogs, I try to emulate that attitude and in this way, give back something to the legal profession.

4. What do you write and how do you decide what to write about?

GL: My writing has meandered quite far from the original employment law focus, though I still return to it regularly. Several years ago, I began monitoring my traffic (great tools are available to learn many details about one's traffic). I learned from such monitoring that regardless of who I wanted my audience to be (employers and their lawyers), I had little control over that. Google was sending me an awful lot of people who -- judging from what posts they found and what key words they searched -- were employees, especially job seekers. Particularly given the current economy, I added a significant dimension of jobseeking advice, catering more to the growing audience I realized I had. As to my source of topics, this varies a good deal. I try to emphasize originality and quality over quantity and frequency. I should add that I could now write very many blog posts without any effort at thinking of topics, because I get one or more PR or press release emails daily suggesting topics, books to review, etc. (way more than I can handle).

MH: I focus on innovative, creative or just crazy ways lawyers can become better at what they do. Whether it's an innovative billing model, unique marketing idea or an off-the-wall client service tip, I've always tried to share ideas from other businesses or industries that lawyers can adopt for their own practices. Recently, I've begun writing a series of "10 Rules of ..." posts that have become quite popular.

ES: My blog Trial Practice Tips is self-explanatory. My other blog, The Legal Underground, has over the years been a repository for my more whimsical writings, such as "The Trial Lawyer's Prayer" or "An Introduction to Lawyers for Those Who Have Not Yet Have the Pleasure of Being Introduced." On Legal Underground, I don't hesitate to write about anything at all: in addition to humor, there's serious critiques of class-action or mass-tort law, travel writings from Prague, Mexico, and Argentina, round-ups of law-student weblogs, and more. I've designed The Legal Underground to be a vessel into which I can pour just about anything.

DK: I was writing regular columns and articles about legal technology long before I started my blog. In many ways, my blog is another outlet for writing on those topics. I look for topics to write about that interest me and that I think will interest my audience. In general, I try to stay "on topic," but I'm probably known among lawyer bloggers as one who is willing to write about almost anything. That said, most bloggers get the ideas for their posts from news stories, other blog posts and current developments in their subject area. I always recommend that someone starting a new blog sketch out a plan for the first 20 - 30 posts for their blog.

5. Is it still a good time to start a blog?

MH: Absolutely.

ES: Some might think that the legal world is already too crowded with lawyers who have blogs--that it will be impossible to be heard over the din. But that's not true, since you can easily insure that other bloggers notice you by commenting directly on what they are saying and providing a link back to their blogs. They may in turn link back to you, bringing you more readers. In addition, since the search engines pick up blogs so efficiently, you will also get readers by writing about a niche that you know well, then waiting for others to search for information on that topic. It will definitely happen, sooner than you'd think.

DK: There's still plenty of space for new blogs and new lawyer blogs coming online everyday. The blogging tools are better than ever. There are still very few St. Louis legal blogs. It's a great time to start a legal blog with a local focus.

GL: It is still a good time to start a blog. I think for most lawyers the best approach would be to target a very specific niche, in terms of locale and/or legal sub-specialty. I think "Missouri DUI Defense Blog" is still open, for example, and would probably allow an attorney to get on Google page one for "Missouri DUI Defense" with relatively little difficulty.

6. How would someone get started in blogging?

DK: First and foremost, take some time and read a lot of blogs, both law-related blogs and other blogs on other topics that interest you. You want to get a good sense of what's out there and what you like and don't like before you jump in. Most people today use a hosted blogging service that allows you to have your own domain name. TypePad (www.typepad.com) and WordPress.com (www.wordpress.com) are common choices. Kevin O'Keefe at LexBlog has created a business around developing and hosting blogs for lawyers and law firms. You definitely need to look into what he's doing. My latest blog (www.lawyersguidetocollaboration.com) is a LexBlog blog. Some law firms will host their own blogs.

MH: I concur. Learning how to blog is less important than understanding why to blog -- and the best way to get the "why" is to read lots of other blogs. The legal blogging community is still a very congenial one, so reach out to others blogging in your area of interest and ask them why they blog. You'll not only get valuable advice, but you may find yourself a blogging mentor.

ES: A working knowledge of other law-related weblogs is very helpful in getting started yourself. If you don't have any RSS reader like Google Reader already, set one up (it's free), and populate it with feeds from law-related blogs. This is the easiest way to stay abreast of a large number of blogs in the least amount of time. Next, find a hosting service like Typepad or Squarespace and just dive in. The technological aspect is now very simple. Once you familiarize yourself with the blogging software, posting to a blog is no more difficult than sending an email.

GL: I highly recommend WordPress, as it is open source software for which a huge community of users are constantly writing cool tools ("plugins") and templates ("themes"). It is highly advisable to buy your own domain name and use an independent hosting company, rather than Blogspot.com or Wordpress.com. This is a bit more costly, but allows easier portability and a more professional-sounding domain name. Despite the relative ease of use compared to creating a website from scratch, some geekiness or a geeky friend or consultant is still advisable. Therefore the LexBlog option (or a competitor) for a premier service with all technical details professionally handled is definitely worth considering.

7. What are the best benefits of blogging?

ES: When I started my blogs in 2004, I hoped it would bring a little boost to my business, but that's not the sole reason I blogged. I would have done it in either case. As it turned out, my blogs have led directly to business opportunities, justifying the time and expense I put into them. But this benefit is certainly not a guarantee. Even absent a direct business benefit, however, a well-written weblog will raise your profile as a lawyer. In the years before blogging, I used to write Op-Eds, and published quite a few in some big-name newspapers. These would seem to disappear without a trace. With blogs, my writing has a much longer--indeed, an indefinite--shelf life, and readers are continually drawn back to it by the magic of search engines. I have had press coverage of my legal views, for example, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the New York Times, and the Economist, among many other publications. My trial-practice blog also led directly to book deal with James Publishing--now I'm the author of a book about depositions.

DK: You'll hear a lot of talk about ROI (return on investment), search engine optimization, attracting new clients and the like. A good blog is likely to produce those things, and requests to be quoted in articles as an expert in your field. In fact, Matt often talks about the "instant expertise" a blog can give you. However, I'm going to say that the best benefit of blog is gaining access to the community of bloggers and the blogging audience. It's definitely the friendships and relationships, especially with other bloggers, that's been the highlight for me. If not for blogging, I'd guess that the four of us would not even have met, let alone become good friends.

MH: The thing about blogging that's most fascinating to me is that your readers won't judge you based upon your years in practice, the schools you attended, or the firms on your resume. Instead, your measured by the quality of your writing and the value of your information to your audience. This is the "instant expertise" that Dennis mentions and doesn't take years to earn. I also feel that, for me, blogging has given me the confidence to leave law practice and make legal innovation my business.

GL: I agree with Dennis and Matt. I have certainly experienced the phenomenon of instant expertise -- leading to speaking opportunities, interviews with journalists, and even an opportunity to co-author a book. Directly obtaining legal business is certainly a possibility, but in my view it depends very much on the focus of your practice and your blog. Newer bloggers that begin with the benefit of years of accumulated search engine optimization and Internet marketing advice and carefully tailor their blogs as marketing tools will perhaps have more success generating legal business than the earlier bloggers like us who wrote in considerable part out of enjoyment of the freedom and opportunity to write whatever we pleased and have it magically appear on the Internet with a single mouse click. The community and connections aspect has definitely been great. When blogging is coupled with social networks, one has the opportunity to build a very valuable network and actively use it through a network such as LinkedIn. Most of my LinkedIn connections came about in some way as a result of my blog.

8. How do the ethical rules affect blogging?

ES: I'm no expert in this area, but I've always behaved as if everything I already knew about being an ethical lawyer applied to blogs. Be truthful, don't reveal client confidences, etc.
GL: I think it will depend a lot on the nature of the blog's content and the extent to which the content and overall impression created by the blog causes it to appear to be more like "advertising" or "legal advice" than like the educational information we might present in a public seminar or webinar.

MH: Evan's right on here -- and remember that what you say and do on your blog will live online forever.

DK: I've been quoted before saying the ethical rules on Internet marketing are "impossibly confusing." One of the reasons I stopped writing about legal topics or my law practice on my blog several years ago was that I couldn't get comfortable with the changes in Missouri's advertising rules a few years ago. I've studied the ethical rules on lawyers using the Internet for many years. In general, I think that because blogs are simply a form of website, the same principles should apply, and probably do. However, when you try to apply the literal meaning of the rules to blogs, it becomes difficult to be certain that you in compliance with the rules. It helps a lot that the tradition of lawyer blogging since the beginning has been to focus on education and explaining legal concepts and developments. If you like clear, precise, black-and-white answers, you won't find them in the rules on using the Internet for marketing.

9. Are there "best ethical practices" for lawyers who blog?

GL: Write a good disclaimer. Use cautious qualifying words like "generally," "may," "likely," etc. to avoid appearing to make hard-and-fast statements when what you are really presenting is simplified statements for general public education concerning complex legal issues. Avoid excessive self-promotion. Let the blog content and a standard "About" page speak for themselves regarding your qualifications and abilities.

MH: Since my blog is about the business of law practice, I've never written anything that could remotely qualify as legal advice. That said, know that even if your clients don't hire you because of your blog, many of them will ultimately find and read it.

DK: Use good judgment. Some bloggers have said that the best advice is "don't be stupid." I always recommend that lawyers have a good sense of the lines between education, advertising and solicitation, especially the last two. Although I'm not convinced that lawyers blogs are necessarily "advertising," I do think it's best to treat your blog as if it is and use all of the required disclaimers. You definitely want to make it clear who the author of your blog is and where you are licensed to practice. Take special care if you get near the line between advertising and solicitation. In Missouri, you definitely want to use the great resource of Sara Rittman, our Ethics Counsel, who will answer questions on an informal basis.

ES: Again, I think the "best ethical practices" are those that apply to lawyers generally. The others on this panel also make some extremely good points.

10. What is the future of blogging?

MH: I think we'll see the continued adoption of blogs by legal professionals as much by choice as necessity. The next generation of law firm clients have lived their entire lives online, interact with Twitter and Facebook constantly, and read blogs everyday. They may have never used the Yellow Pages, and instead look to the web before making any major purchasing decision. They'll expect a robust online presence from the professionals they hire, and a blog is one of the easiest and most effective ways to build that presence.

GL: Integration with the surviving remnants of mainstream media into enriched, customized streams of information in manageable chunks for busy readers, plus continuing contributions to the wealth of information available to web users through ever-more-sophisticated search technologies. I was recently told by a web-content distribution company that my posts now have the potential of appearing in a news stream on the Wall Street Journal's law pages amidst conventional sources such as the ABA Journal, if they match the WSJ search criteria, with no distinction in appearance that would suggest that my content is in any way inferior or less professional than that written by professional journalists.

ES: I don't have any predictions about the future of blogging. If you think of blogging as merely a means of publishing one's writing, which it is, you don't have to be too worried about the future. Get into the habit of writing, and if you like it, you can always migrate to the next technological platform, if and when there is one.

DK: Among bloggers, Twitter and microblogging is all the rage. That will continue to affect blogging, but blogging still has great potential, especially to cover niche topics. I remain bullish on blogging. As for predicting the future, I still like what Ernest "Ernie the Attorney" Svenson said in an article on the future of blogging from four years ago in Law Practice Magazine (http://www.abanet.org/lpm/magazine/articles/v31is5an4.html): "Perhaps the biggest question that remains is: How quickly will law firms move to develop blogs? It depends on a lot of internal and external factors. But the clock is certainly ticking. For some firms that sound is just loud and annoying, while for others it is stirring and prompting them to act. So when will your firm create a blog? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick . . . ."

Our Panel:
Dennis Kennedy is an inhouse counsel for MasterCard Worldwide in O'Fallon, Missouri, the author of the technology column for the ABA Journal, a co-host of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast on the Legal Talk Network (www.legaltalknetwork.com), and the co-author, with Tom Mighell, of the book "The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together." His blog, DennisKennedy.Blog, is found at http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/.

George Lenard is managing partner of Harris Dowell Fisher & Harris, L.C., a management employment law firm in Chesterfield, Missouri. His legal interests include sexual harassment, employment of the disabled, the recruiting and staffing industries, noncompetition agreements, use of Internet information in employment decisions, and employment consequences of new technologies, including blogging and social networks. His blog, George's Employment Blawg, is at www.employmentblawg.com, and is always seeking guest posts on a wide variety of employment and career topics from aspiring or established bloggers, subject-matter experts, business leaders, and others.

Evan Schaeffer is a class action and mass torts lawyer based in the St. Louis metropolitan area. His firm is Schaeffer & Lamere, P.C. Schaeffer's weblogs are Trial Practice Tips at http://www.trialpracticetips.comabout and The Legal Underground at http://www.legalunderground.com. Schaeffer is the author of Deposition Checklists and Strategies (James Publishing).

Matthew Homann is the founder of LexThink LLC, a legal innovation consultancy (www.LexThink.com). He's also the author of the [non]billable hour blog (www.nonbillablehour.comtheir ), where he shares innovative billing strategies, creative marketing techniques, proven customer-service principles, and cutting-edge ideas from other industries and professions with lawyers to help them tap into their own creative reserves and make dramatic improvements in their businesses and their lives. He lives in St. Louis with his daughter Grace.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog. Follow me - @denniskennedy

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Posted by dmk at 09:43 PM | Comments (2)

May 19, 2009

2009 Legal Technology Trends Article in Law Practice Today Webzine

Let me recommend the new issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine. Wendy Werner has put together another great issue and I'm sure you'll find several articles that will make your visit to the webzine worth your while.

This issue also contains my article, "Legal Technology Trends for 2009: The Year of Hunkering Down.

Readers of this blog will know that the legal tech trends article is annual tradition of mine. I also like to do what I did this year and post the first draft of the article on my blog before the article gets published elsewhere. If you are interested in my writing process, you can see how the article evolved a bit before it was published in Law Practice Today.

The article has nine sections:

1. Technology Budgets Get Decimated.
2. Making Do with What You Have or Doing More with Less.
3. The Mobile Phone as Platform.
4. Looking to the Cloud.
5. Using Tech to Get the Word Out and the Money In.
6. Focus on Client-focused Technology.
7. E-Discovery in Still Waters.
8. The Perfect Storm for Collaboration Tools.
9. A Potpourri of Predictions .

I'd enjoy hearing your reactions to the article. Also, we're collecting questions for the audience Q&A segment of the upcoming episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast. If you have a question about one of the legal tech trends in the article or any other legal tech question you'd like us to try to answer on the podcast, let me know.

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

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Posted by dmk at 09:04 PM | Comments (1)

January 28, 2009

Client Technology Surveys - A Powerful Little Tool

Client technology surveys are an easy and inexpensive way to improve your use of technology and make it easier for your clients to work with you. In my latest ABA Journal tech column, A Powerful Little Tool You Must Use, I talk about the basics, benefits and best tips for using client technology surveys.

To summarize:

"It’s a great time to focus on client technology surveys. They are simple, surprisingly effective, can fit on a single page and can be used as a script on a phone call."

I prefer a short and simple approach and suggest five types of questions to use. Tom Mighell and I also have a sample client tech survey in our book because these surveys can really help you pick the right collaboration tools to use with your clients. It's also worthwhile checking with Adriana Linares for her latest suggestions about client tech surveys.

I also suggest some good times to use a survey and how it can be a way to create a positive "touch" of your best clients, an especially good idea in tough economic times.

I invite you to read the whole article and let me know your thoughts on the topic.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Technorati tags: legal technology client technology survey Law2.0 collaboration

Posted by dmk at 08:32 PM | Comments (2)

January 04, 2009

DennisKennedy.Blog: The Year 2008 in Review: Part 1: Articles

This is part 1 of a 3-part retrospective on the year 2008 on DennisKennedy.Blog.

The big news in 2008 at DennisKennedy.Blog was the publication of the book The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technology: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Tom Mighell and me. We're delighted by the response to the book, especially the excellent reviews it has gotten.

However, I can definitely tell you that writing a book takes a tool on your other writing efforts, especially the quantity of blog posts. I'm hoping that 2009 will see a return to a more traditional pace of posts on this blog. In addition to resting after writing the book, I also launched the Twitter-based "microblog" companion to this blog at http://twitter.com/dkennedyblog (or @dkennedyblog in Twitterese).

As I looked back at this blog and my 2008 posts, I noticed that there were three types of post and so I decided to do a three-part retrospective on 2008. Today, I'll cover the first kind of post: posts about other articles I wrote. Part two will cover the other posts I wrote. Part three might be the most interesting: posts I planned to write but never got written.

1. My ABA Journal Column. I write the technology column for the American Bar Association Journal. Probably the best way to find them all is to use this link.

Over the year, I found that enjoyed writing the blog posts about each column as much as I enjoyed writing the columns.

Here are the columns, with links to my post about each and a link to the actual column.

It’s Time to Talk Audio/Video - December 2008 - Rethink the text-based world and thinking seriously about ways to use audio and video delivered over the Internet. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/its_time_to_talk_audio_video/

Get the (Instant) Message, Dude! - November 2008 - Maybe my favorite column on the year, on ways lawyers can use instant messaging. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/get_the_instant_message_dude/

Go Green, Save Green - October 2008 - My most thorough discussion to-date of green legal technology -
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/go_green_save_green/

Master Your Disasters - September 2008 - Basics of backup and disaster recovery -
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/master_your_disasters/

Learning 3G-Speak - August 2008 - A primer of the language of mobile communications.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/learning_3g_speak/

Become a Google Master - July 2008 - Some of my best tips for Google users.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/become_a_google_master/

SharePoint: A Legal Killer App? - June 2008 - Maybe the most popular of my columns focused on Microsoft SharePoint as a collaboration platform. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/sharepoint_a_legal_killer_app/

Really Simple Competitive Intelligence - March 2008 - Some really simple approaches to getting useful competitive intelligence. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/really_simple_competitive_intelligence/

Hiding Assets - February 2008 - Encryption and methods to protect confidential information.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/hiding_assets/

Tech Greats for ‘08 - January 2008 - I must admit that I still don't understand the title they chose for this column, but the column was a list of New Year's resolutions for lawyers using technology.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/tech_greats_for_08/

2. Roundtable Articles. I was also involved in two roundtable articles, which exceeded my highest expectations and I recommend most highly.

Competitive Intelligence Roundtable Article. The ABA's Law Practice magazine published an article called "CI Tactics, Tools and Lessons to Be Learned," which featured a who's who of experts on the use of competitive intelligence in the legal profession.

Law Practice in a Time of Great Economic Turmoil - Roundtable Discussion - A stellar cast of experts take a practical look at the impact of the current economic crisis on the legal profession in the Law Practice Today webzine - "What Should You Do Now? A Roundtable Discussion on Law Practice in a Time of Great Economic Turmoil." Highly recommended.

3. Collaboration Tools Articles.

Tom and I found some time to start a new companion blogsite for our book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com (a big thank you to LexBlog where we'll both be posting on topics related to collaboration and the book (follow @collabtools on Twitter for regular updates on the topic of collaboration).

We also wrote a couple of articles on collaboration tools:

Collaborative Technologies: Working with Others Around the Corner or Around the World

Get Smart (starts of page 40 of PDF)

After reading this post, I now realize that I wrote more in 2008 than I thought I had. Hope you enjoy these articles.

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

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Technorati tags: legal technology 2008 Law2.0 collaboration

Posted by dmk at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2008

Beyond Text on a Page: Time for Lawyers to Think About Audio and Video

My latest column in the ABA Journal is called "It's Time to Think About Audio/Video."

Here's the opening:

Lawyers love text on a page. The single-space letter or memo is the lingua franca of our trade. Our PowerPoint slides are usually dense with text, and even the mention of adding a chart, table or graphic to a document causes consternation.
My radical suggestion: It’s time to rethink the text-based world and think seriously about ways to use audio and video delivered over the Internet.

The idea for the article came from my editor, Reg Davis, who wanted to explore the question of whether audio or video might be "better" for lawyers.

My answer, not surprisingly, was a lawyerly, "it depends." The column explores why the answer is "it depends" and offers some practice advice about ways in which lawyers might start using audio and video as both consumers and producers.

I tend to be in the audio camp these days and am a big fan of podcasts, but I also think that the long-term trend is toward video. I'm shorting the prospects for the single-spaced, twelve page letter in Courier type.

The fascinating thing about this column was that after I turned in the article, I had several conversations with lawyers about audio and video and, in every case, I was asked exactly the questions I tried to answer in the column.

A "money quote":

Most lawyers will probably find the greatest short-term benefits from using audio and video as a learning platform. Those large stacks of articles, advance sheets and magazines to be read not only take up space but rarely make it to the “finished reading” category. Audio summaries, audio and video of seminars, podcasts and YouTube videos offer lawyers the same information in more succinct, accessible and portable form. Listening to a short presentation may also be much more effective than reading a 150-page law review article.
The key questions to consider: Where and how do you learn?

What do you think about the use of audio and video? I welcome your comments here or you can join the comment thread already started at the article.

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

Follow my microblog on Twitter - @dkennedyblog; Follow me - @denniskennedy

Technorati tags: legal technology column aba journal audio video lawyers

Posted by dmk at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2008

Law Practice in a Time of Great Economic Turmoil - Roundtable Discussion

The graphic above is a tag cloud from Wordle that I generated from the article, What Should You Do Now? A Roundtable Discussion on Law Practice in a Time of Great Economic Turmoil, which is just one part of an excellent new issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine that you should run, not walk, over to see. Your time spent there will be well-rewarded.

The roundtable article arose from an idea I had to put together a roundtable discussion of some of the most interesting thinkers (and doers) on law practice management issues about the most top-of-mind topic of the day - what should lawyers and law firms (and the profession in general) be doing in this tough economic times?

I wanted to pull together some practical answers to some of the most basic questions that everyone I knew was either grappling with or trying to pretend didn't exist. The latter is more common, while the former is more recommended.

My practical problem was pulling together a group of experts in the face of a very tight deadline. Fortunately, I found a group of eight who were as generous with their time as they were with their expertise and insights.

Frankly, it's a stellar cast: Tom Collins (formerly of the Fabulous More Partner Income blog, who I coaxed out of his novel-writing retirement), Jordan Furlong, Patrick Lamb, Bruce "Adam Smith, Esq." MacEwen, Patrick McKenna, Edward Poll, Allison C. Shields and Merrilyn Astin Tarlton.

And this stellar cast delivers well beyond my high expectations of them. I play the role of moderator and tried to ask the questions that seem to be on most lawyers' minds.

Here's a summary of the piece:

The economic turmoil rumbling through the land has lawyers facing layoffs, uncertainty and flat-out fear. In this roundtable discussion, our panel of law practice management experts share their expertise, wisdom and practical tips about what you need to do right now.

There are six parts to the conversation:

1. The Nature of the Crisis – Uncharted Territory.

2. Tell-tale Signs – When Do You Need to Act?

3. Taking a Prudent Approach – Setting the Right Priorities.

4. What Steps Do Make Sense? Some Practical Advice.

5. Predicting the Future.

6. Best Practical Tips.

There are many, many "money quotes" from this article, but let me give you this one from Merrilyn Astin Tarlton:

Convene a meeting of your firm's decision-makers tomorrow. Agree together to cease hand wringing and start planning. Don't leave the room until you have a short list of things that must be done and the names of the people who will do them - plus a deadline. Hold each other accountable. Switch from saying "What are we going to do?" to "Here's what we're going to do!"

As we say in the article, panic is not a strategy.

I'm proud of this article and highly encourage you to go over to the article and read it from beginning to end. Even better, work your way through the same questions I asked the experts and come up with your own answers to both those questions and the fantastic list of hard questions that Patrick McKenna provides as part of the article.

I put the graphic of the tag cloud at the top of this post for three reasons. First, I'm really intrigued by the visual summary of the article that the tag cloud provides (note that the importance of the word "clients"). Second, the graphic was left off the end of the article, making my last comments in the article quite confusing (at least until it's fixed). Third, to prove that I actually do know the difference between tag clouds and cloud tags, even though I have a tendency to type "cloud tags" (and I hope to get that corrected in the article as well).

Highly, highly recommended. And just one more example of why I love roundtable articles.

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

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Posted by dmk at 05:58 PM | Comments (1)

June 03, 2008

A Quick Intro to SharePoint for Lawyers - My Latest ABA Journal Column

Several years ago, I was at the ILTA conference in Phoenix. I wanted to attend a presentation on Microsoft SharePoint, but found that the room was standing room only and people were standing outside the door to listen to the presentation.

Now, I'm known for being able to spot trends and look at the future of technology in the practice of law, but this was easy to see as a legal tech trend to watch.

In Tom Mighell's and my new book, The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together (see review from Jordan Furlong here), we devoted one of the central chapters of the book to a discussion of SharePoint. Any lawyer, law firm, legal department or other organization considering implementing collaboration tools simply must have SharePoint on the list of tools that they consider. It's a force to reckon with and helps you understand what collaboration tools can do and what the basic collaboration functions are. I don't necessary believe that SharePoint will be the right choice for you, but I do believe that if you compare your other options to it, you will make good decisions about the tools you do choose.

My new ABA column is called SharePoint: A Killer Legal App, and, although I would have preferred that they put a question mark at the end of the title, I use the column to provide a quick intro to SharePoint and how lawyers might use it.

The money quote:

Because they affect our actual day-to-day work so much, I think the two most important areas in emerging technology for lawyers are project management and collaboration. SharePoint addresses both.

I hope you find the column a good starting point to help you understand the growing interest in SharePoint (and other collaboration tools) in the legal profession and elsewhere.

I'll also recommend that you check out the other articles in this issue of the ABA Journal at its excellent and award-winning website.

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

Now Available! The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Join the book's Facebook Group here.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

____________

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

_________

[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).

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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 has been a growing awareness of potential conflicts of interest involving a summer associate who may have worked on the other side of a case at another firm the previous summer. Because summer associates are given small parts of cases, a summer associate may have worked on a case at another firm during the previous summer and have no idea of potential conflicts. A summer associate can get caught in the middle of these types of conflicts checks. The better approach seems to be to initiate contact, probably at an appropriate higher level, between your firm and the prior employer to work out the conflicts check issues and keep the summer associate out of the loop.

A large part of my early preparation went toward promoting interest in the summer program and increase participation by members of the firm. Make sure that people who will be participating in the program as "buddies," speakers, hosts of social events or in other capacities are contacted well in advance of the summer. I sent a memo to all attorneys and staff several weeks before the summer associates arrived describing the summer program, giving starting dates and providing brief biographies of summer associates. The day before a summer associate started an item containing a more detailed biography ran in our daily bulletin. Another item was placed in the daily bulletin on the actual start date and informed the receptionists when summer associates arrived so that they would be expected and warmly greeted. The little details really do matter. I also spoke about the summer program at the firm meeting in the spring. Participation by everyone at the firm is a large component of any successful summer program. Getting the summer program on peoples' minds is a first step toward getting that participation.

3. Make Use of Mentors. The summer program is probably not a place where you want to tough it out and go it alone. Although you are likely to run into a few things that no one else has ever experienced, many of the situations that arise during a summer are ones that arise fairly commonly. You will not have all the answers.
Your predecessors will most likely be tremendous sources of assistance to you. I talked to my predecessor on a regular basis and he was an enormous help to me. This type of regular consultation is a way to check your new ideas. Perhaps your ideas were considered or tried earlier. You should definitely learn where the potential pitfalls are as well as get a good sense of what has worked well before.

I also found the members of the hiring committee and the hiring partner to be good sources. It is good to remind them that the decisions they make have real consequences. People on the hiring committee are very interested in the training of younger attorneys and are often very willing to help you.

Your own mentor in the firm, even though he or she has little or no connection with the summer program, is often the best person to help you with some of the thornier issues or to give you important insights. In fact, tip #8 is a near quote from a comment made to me by my mentor as I lamented last summer that I felt I had the system really worked out, but that I was spending more time on the summer program than I ever had previously.

4. Consider Using a Buddy System. I am a big advocate of using a "buddy" system for your summer program. A "buddy" is a young associate who is paired up with a summer associate for the summer. I thought of them as "designated friends"; the buddies would have preferred the title of "associate advisor." A buddy's role, as with many things, lies somewhere in between. Each summer associate was paired with an associate in the firm with whom I thought he or she would be most compatible. The buddy helped the summer associate learn the culture of the firm and the many subtleties that are difficult to pick up in a short period of time - appropriate dress for casual day, forms to use, where to eat lunch and general information about working with individual attorneys. My notion was to try to have the assignment of a buddy act be a catalyst to a friendship that would be likely to develop over the summer in any event. I was not always successful at that, but I didn't expect to be.

The buddies also helped me by being my "eyes and ears" for potential problems and addressing other concerns before they became problems. For example, many summer associates will say that they can take on work even though they are swamped. A buddy could give me a more accurate assessment of the summer associate's workload and I could make the appropriate adjustment. On a lighter note, another example is the issue of what to wear to the firm picnic. I also found it infinitely preferable to pass off the issue to an appropriately-gendered buddy than try to answer questions about whether what type of swimsuit to wear to a pool party or float trip.

Although the use of buddies can take a good deal of the day-to-day load of running the summer program off of you, use of a buddy program does involve additional time to select buddies, keep them informed about what you want and to listen to their comments on summer associates. There are also tricky issues of confidentiality and objectivity. In my view, a buddy's job is to help the summer associate get an offer to return to the firm. As a general principle, a buddy could not give his or her summer associate a project. A buddy was not asked to give me a yes-no recommendation on the summer associate, although I would ask them for a more general assessment on the issue of "fit" and their opinions on whether a summer associate had a good experience and was likely to accept an offer.

For a buddy system to work well, a summer associate has to be able to feel that he or she can confide in a buddy. I chose to emphasize that aspect of the buddy relationship and respect the confidentiality of the relationship. There are obvious pluses and minuses of this approach and you might decide to take another approach. Disclosure of whatever the buddy's role is in the evaluation and information-gathering process, however, is essential.

Finally, a buddy system can help you handle the friend/evaluator dynamic that is an integral part of running a summer program. On the one hand, you want to have enough distance and objectivity to be an effective evaluator. On the other hand, it is unrealistic to expect that you won't end up liking everyone and rooting for them to get an offer. The buddy system allows you to be a bit stronger in the evaluator role. Because buddies are much nearer in age to the summer associates, a buddy system also helps you avoid looking foolish by trying to act like you are younger and hipper than you are.

5. Involve Attorneys on a Regular, Structured Basis Other Than Simply Giving Assignments. I met with all the summer associates on a regular, weekly basis. We would meet each Friday morning in the same conference room. The meetings had two purposes. First was the business side of the meeting. This part of the meeting lasted above five minutes and allowed me to discuss upcoming events, any problems that had arisen, workload issues and the like. The summer associates then had an opportunity to raise any issues that applied to the group at large (individual matters had to be discussed with me individually). The second purpose of the meeting was to have one of the partners in the firm give a talk to the summer associates. Partners could talk on any subject related to their specialty with only the instruction to make their talks personal rather than institutional. Partners were to talk about how they chose their specialty, what they liked most about their work and what they actually did on a daily basis. Invariably, this approach resulted in a discussion of advice that the attorney would give to a young law student. I followed the talk with a short homily emphasizing a point or two that the speaker made. Parents with children who watch Barney will recognize this approach.

This approach built on some of the things which were already being done in the program and reflected part of my answer to my consistent question: "What would I have liked to see when I worked during the summer?" Although this type of program results in a larger expenditure of time, it is very worthwhile. First, it is a non-threatening way to introduce attorneys to the summer associates and to help break down perceived barriers for the summer associates. After speaking to the group, a partner would be more inclined to take summer associates to lunch, to have them accompany him or her to a deposition or closing or to give out more projects. Summer associates were also more likely to seek the partner out either for projects or to discuss some of the points raised in the talk.

Second, it helps law students learn what lawyers actually do. Many law students simply do not know what an average lawyer does let alone what lawyers do in some of the more esoteric areas. Third, because I usually had eight to ten speakers in the course of a summer, I was able to promote participation from attorneys in various departments. Fourth, I could tailor speakers and, in a few cases, topics, to the particular group that I had for the summer. Some attorneys who I wanted the summer associates to meet might not be able to give projects, but were able to speak to them. I also let the summer associates pick one speaker at the end of each summer, which proved to be a very popular and successful experiment. It is a powerful motivator to tell an attorney that the summer associates have picked him or her as the one person they would most like to hear.

You can also benefit immensely from learning about the firm and its history and culture and, more importantly, about your partners and their history, work and interests. You will certainly benefit from being able to refer potential clients to others in your firm and to cross-sell existing clients as a result of the knowledge you gain about your partners that you might not have otherwise known.

6. Adopt a Structured Approach to Feedback and Evaluations. The two dragons of the summer program are feedback and evaluations. These two areas are largely a function of firm culture and you may be able to do little to change existing practices. To paint a fair picture of life at your firm, you will want to develop a feedback and evaluation system that is not too different from the one that is being used for young associates. I focused on eliminating barriers to feedback and evaluation and tried to minimize the amount of paperwork involved. I developed an explicitly two-tiered approach to feedback.

For feedback on the specifics of a given project, I simply relied on the one-on-one relationship between the assigning attorney and the summer associate. I told the summer associate that I would get involved in project feedback only if asked. Part of what I wanted to do was to push summer associates to seek feedback and to help them recognize feedback when they got it. Learning to get and interpret feedback is an essential skill that must be learned and practiced by young attorneys.

My focus was on the general evaluations rather than on specific project feedback. I gave two evaluations during each summer, one in the middle of the summer and one at the end of the summer. Each attorney with whom a summer associate had worked received an evaluation form and I concentrated on ways to get the highest level of responses. I experimented with different evaluation forms and finally decided to use a simplified form with 4 or 5 rating areas that forced a general conclusion. Attorneys seemed to write more comments when I left little space for comments than when I left large white spaces for comments. I used these evaluation forms as the basis for my own comments to the summer associates and filtered the responses back to the summer associates. This approach was preferable to showing summer associates the individual evaluation forms. Personally soliciting oral evaluations from attorneys may sometimes result in more in-depth evaluations, but the enormous amount of time that can be involved probably does not make this method practical in most firms.

Students generally will tell you that they are most interested in getting a thorough and honest evaluation at the middle of the summer. I put a lot of effort into the mid-summer evaluation. A mid-summer evaluation can be very inaccurate since it tends to highlight the comments on the first few projects done by the summer associate. Nonetheless, it is vital to get summer associates as information as possible by mid-summer.

I preferred a structured format for evaluations. I used the same format for each summer associate. Each summer associate review lasted at least 20 - 30 minutes. I began by explaining how the information was gathered and the potential inaccuracies that might arise during the evaluation process, especially at mid-summer. I then discussed with as many specifics as possible the positive aspects of the evaluations. I then mentioned at least three areas for improvement, again using as many specifics as I could. It is one thing to say that someone is "careless"; it is far better to say that the person needs to pay attention to detail and point to a specific oversight, like leaving out a page of a copy of a memo that was turned in to the assigning attorney. An evaluation of the summer associate's written work was next on my agenda. I tried to read some examples of each summer associate's writing, but I focused on a general set of points I wanted to emphasize during the summer - attention to detail, use of citation, drawing conclusions, considering the audience - and then made a few specific comments on the written work. Finally, I asked the summer associate for a self-assessment and his or her view on how things were going. The summer associate and I then tried to develop a plan for the rest of the summer to address the improvement areas or any other problems and to try to get specific types of work in which the summer associate was interested. The final evaluation followed the same format except that I asked for the self-assessment at the beginning of the meeting before giving my comments and I solicited feedback on the summer program and talked specifically about the summer associate's desire to return to the firm.

I liked this highly structured approach because it allowed for criticisms to be made in a positive framework, it ensured that each evaluation was similar, it made it easy for me to keep notes of each evaluation and to eliminate the complaint that "you never told me there were things I had to improve," and it promoted a two-way flow to the evaluation. It is important to seek information as well as impart it. My approach takes a good deal of time and effort, but it provides good information to the summer associates and it helps eliminate misunderstandings from evaluations which can take endless amounts of time to sort out.

7. Handling Social Events. My least favorite part of running our summer program was organizing and promoting social events. The social events were great, but working around schedule problems, work emergencies and other distractions was extremely difficult. And that was just getting the summer associates together.

My conclusion is that no matter how great a social event may be you are always better off getting summer associates out of the office, and out of the library, to attend trials, depositions, closings or any other work that shows what an attorney actually does. The time spent riding and talking with an attorney in a car to and from a deposition will likely turn out to be a more pivotal experience for the summer than will a night at the opera. Similarly, lunches and small group activities are also preferred by most summer associates.

The key, however, is to be who you are. Social events which fit within the firm culture and which are in line with your own personality as well turn out better than a great new idea that you may have. What you want to achieve is a setting where both attorneys and summer associates are relatively relaxed and comfortable (even though most law schools seem to counsel students never to let down their guard at any time) and the summer associates can get a better sense of what the attorneys in your firm are like outside a work setting.

I did not like to schedule many social events in the first few weeks of the summer. You will want to get a reading of what your summer associates' interests are first. Last year's most successful activity might be a disaster with this year's group. Remember also that a summer associate can get overbooked for the summer. Be sure that you do not plan so many activities that summer associates have little free time on the weekends or begin to see the events as a burden.

I always preferred a realistic approach. If there are twice as many social events in the summer as there are in the rest of year, you probably need to rethink your approach.

Remember that you do not have to do everything with respect to the summer program. Delegation is key. Getting several people, especially the buddies, to take over the planning of social events can be a big help. Another good idea is not to attend every event. Your presence can inhibit summer associates and, if you are not there, they can feel that they are not necessarily being told the party line.

8. It's a People Job, Not a Systems Job. Last summer was my fourth summer of running our summer program. I had all of my systems worked out and running smoothly. But I found that I was spending even more time on the summer program than I ever had before. It was frustrating me until I heard the words: "Well, it's a people job, not a systems job."

The systems that you design can make things flow more easily and smoothly, but running a summer program is a very high-maintenance operation. Many people are involved who need to be given attention on a regular basis. Do you really want to go for a week or more without chatting with each summer associate? Do you want to have regular meetings with buddies? Friday morning meetings may take up another hour or two. Managing workload can take up a good deal of time. Gathering evaluations from attorneys who do not turn in their forms can take a great deal of time. Evaluations take time. During the last few weeks of the summer, people who rarely, if ever, speak to you, will spend a great deal of time asking how summer associates are doing and speculating on offers. It is not uncommon to have at least one day during the summer where you find that it is time to go home and you know that all you have done is deal with summer program issues and you have no idea what they all were.

Because it is a people job, the best skills that you can have are flexibility and adaptability. Part of my enjoyment in running our program was making successful modifications in the way I did things during the course of the summer in reaction to the different people and situations we had. I tried to give the summer associates a high level of input into the way the summer program ran. There was also at least one issue which arose every summer for which I was completely unprepared and which I could not have predicted.

By all means, work on setting up a good system. But remember that any system you design will have to be modified over the course of a summer.

9. Practice Patience. My philosophy was to create an atmosphere where summer associates had a chance to show what they could do and then to let them do it. It is better to let a summer associate adopt the approach that he or she believes best than it is to force them into a mold that you think might be best. I did, however, try to do some steering if it seemed appropriate or necessary.

There are a tremendous number of practical skills that a summer associate has to learn over the course of a summer. Part of the summer experience is learning how to deal with these practical issues: How do I get my work done when my secretary is sick? Or, by "memo", did the assigning attorney mean a two-page action memo like my last assignment or twenty-page "law review" memo like the one before that? Or, how can people say that because the assigning attorney rewrote every sentence of my memo and kept rubbing her temples while talking me I should get the message that I had done a good job?

Most of these lessons should be learned by the summer associate himself or herself. Unless the summer associate is really floundering, it is probably best to resist the urge to jump right in and bail him or her out at the first hint of a problem. The vast majority of problems work themselves out in a fairly short period of time. This is especially true of the problems you hear second-hand. When a summer associate comes to you directly, though, you have to deal with the issue directly.

Some issues that arise during the summer should be delegated appropriately. I did everything possible to stay out of issues involving office furniture, for example. Secretarial and administrative issues should be handled by the summer associate with the office manager. Running the summer program gains you precious little weight at the firm - you do not want to be reminded too often how little - and you will want to choose your battles carefully.

Using a buddy system also gives the summer associate an initial friendly first step for advice on handling some issues. Generally, a summer associate is disinclined to bring every little issue to you. You want to be sure that they understand that you are always available when needed, but that there are often other avenues to try.

10. Don't Be Afraid to Stamp Your Imprint. Everyone runs a summer program in response to his or her own summer experience _ keeping the parts you liked, downplaying or eliminating what you didn't like and adding some of the things that you wished would have been part of your own experience. No matter how structured your summer program is, there will be some opportunities to have the program reflect your personality and your insights. It is wrong to simply be a care-taker of your firm's existing program. Every program can be improved.

I tried something new every year. My particular interest was in using the summer program to provide educational opportunities during the summer. For example, I talked one of my partners into being a writing advisor for summer associates. Once I was comfortable with the general structure of the program (and I inherited a good one), I enjoyed trying new things during the summer. As a result, our summer program had a spontaneous feel that reflected my personality.

What I learned at the end of my fourth year was that the person who runs a summer program, in many ways, the first mentor law students will have. Your philosophy about the profession, your enthusiasm about the practice and your firm, and your approach to the training of young lawyers will probably be passed on to your summer associates. That is at the same time both a sobering and exciting realization. George Leonard, in his book, Mastery, says that in choosing a teacher it is good to know who that teacher's teachers were. As I thought about this statement, I decided to make my last talk to summer associates about my own mentors and teachers. It is fascinating to see your own training as part of a historical tradition of teaching and to realize, as I did, how greatly you have benefited from the instruction you received early in your career. You honor your teachers by continuing their tradition of training.

Conclusion

I don't know whether I decided to stop running our summer program because the summer associates kept calling me "Dad" or because I heard myself saying "what a great group of kids." Running a summer program is and should be a young person's game, for many reasons. But I had a four great years.

The great enjoyment and reward of running a summer program comes largely from the opportunity to know, teach and assist the extremely bright, motivated and interesting law students who will end up working at your firm for a summer or, you hope, much longer. I had four "great groups of kids" who impressed me greatly and from whom I learned many things. I am richer for knowing all of them and hope that I have contributed in some small way to helping them become the excellent lawyers, and people, that they are capable of becoming.

I interviewed a law student this fall who told me a story of working with an older sole practitioner for period of time while she was deciding whether or not to go to law school. He gave her a lot of work, but also took a lot of time to talk to her about law school and the profession. When she told him that she had decided to go to law school, he told her that he had spent all the time with her because when he was young an older attorney had done the same thing for him. And, he told her, if she became a lawyer, she would have the same obligation to another young person in a similar situation. This is part of the tradition of the profession.

Often today you see and hear of an obsession with the "career path" and staying on it and fearing that you might fall even one step behind, that time spent working with young law students is time that might be better spent working on your own specialty, and that no one has any time for anyone other than himself or herself. I strongly believe that there is plenty of time and, if running a summer program is a detour off the fast track, it is a detour well worth making, a detour that has long been part of the tradition of the profession.

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Bibliographic Note: In many ways, the best general reference is Arnold B. Kantner's chapter on summer programs in The Lawyer Hiring Handbook (NALP). A good general article is Daniel F. Hinkel's "Success With Summer Associates" in the April, 1987 ABA Journal at pages 66 -70. An excellent practical article which focuses on orientation is Michele Mainaro's "How to Start Off a Summer Program" in the May 20, 1991 issue of The National Law Journal. You may also have access to seminar materials. The National Association for Law Placement is another source of information. Tapes of sessions relating to summer programs from the NALP annual convention are readily available and can be helpful as would attendance at the seminars.

Written in December, 1995/January, 1996

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

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Technorati tags: summer associate summer program law firm

Posted by dmk at 06:41 PM

January 17, 2006

Do You Have a Single PDF File with All of Your Articles You Republished on Your Blog at the End of Last Year?

Why, yes, I do have one handy PDF file with all forty of my articles I republished by posting them on my blog between October and December 2005. It even has each of the forty articles bookmarked for easy navigation.

Here's the URL: http://www.denniskennedy.com/pdfs/dkblogarticlesarchive.pdf

As you may recall, I posted the articles as a way to put them into my Movable Type blog database and get them into one convenient place.

There are forty articles in the collection. They range from 1997 to 2005 and cover both legal technology and technology law topics. That's not all of my articles, but I wanted to get a generous number of them up on my website and freely available again. I believe that I was able to clean up all of the strange characters that Word introduced into the posts when preparing the PDF file.

For those who don't like PDF files, remember that all of the articles are available in HTML in the articles archive of this blog. See the archive listing in the right-hand column.

This PDF file will let you read them at your leisure or print them out for offline reading. If while reading them, you get the urge to talk to me about hiring me to do some consulting, speaking or writing for you, that'd be great. Please get in touch. I'm also happy to talk with you about reprinting the articles or licensing them for other uses. And, of course, I always enjoy getting feedback on the articles. It was fun (and satisfying) to see some of the articles get a new life with a new audience when I posted them on my blog.

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

Technorati tag: legal technology

Posted by dmk at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2005

Why Lawyers Don't Choose (or Use) Case Management Software - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article was written in 2000. Because I think that there are many experts on case management software, I've rarely written on the topic of case management. This article is one of those occasions. It takes a high-level view of the topic and does not delve into specific programs, because, as I said, other people can do that much better than I can. Today, I'm interested in ASP (application service provider) approaches to case management and the integration of project and workflow management into case management tools.]

Why Lawyers Don't Choose (or Use) Case Management Software

Take a minute and try this exercise: add up the time you spend looking for files, looking for misfiled information, designing filing and calendaring systems and digging through the rubble on your desk in the average day. (As a starting point, the average person spends sixteen minutes a day just looking for lost items.) Multiply that by the number of days you work in a year. Multiply that times your hourly billing rate. Ponder that amount.

Lawyers spend an inordinate amount of time looking for information and attending to administrative details. And, if true is money, lawyers should be adopting ways to decrease the amount of unproductive time they spend.

If there were a way to keep your files constantly accessible to you and your staff, to organize your client information, to reduce paper and clutter, to streamline intake and retrieval of information, to generate reports that give you meaningful information about your practice and to keep information at your fingertips, you would probably stand in line to sign up for it. Case management software offers all these potential benefits, and more.

Yet, after many years, many seminars and many consultants, many lawyers and law firms have not adopted these programs.

Let's consider the reasons that lawyers give for not using case management software.

1. "I Don't Know What It Is." I've been surprised by the number of lawyers who have told me that "Someone told me that I need case management software, but I really don't know what it is." Part of the reason for this is that the term "case management" has a litigation feel to it and non-litigators struggle a bit with the concept. Think of it as "practice management" or, better, "matter management."

Every lawyer has some find of system for dealing with ongoing matters and dormant or closed matters. Typically, that system involves file folders, filing cabinets and papers stacked in piles on their desks and in their offices. Information retrieval typically involves memory, knowledge of an individual filing system, a byzantine numbering system, and lots of scrambling around to find items.

Case management software automates that administrative process. It makes information available to people who do not physically control the file, makes it possible to update and modify information easily, and, most important, makes it easier to find information quickly when you need it. In the more sophisticated programs, you can also integrate timekeeping, billing, accounting and even document management into a single package.

As a result, accessing the case management program when a client or opposing counsel calls can immediately bring to your computer screen the information you need to address the issue at hand.

2. "It Costs Too Much." I've heard this comment from lawyers about programs costing $295 as well as about programs costing thousands of dollars. I'm sympathetic to it because I've noticed that most firms have had at least one horrendous, money-wasting experience with technology in the last ten years and are, for good reason, gun shy.

Focusing solely on the costs of the program, however, is the wrong approach when considering case management software.

Instead, you will want to analyze this software requires on a "return on investment" basis. If you bill on an hourly basis, your income is limited by the number of hours you can bill. If you use value billing, the more efficiently you can work, the more profit you'll make on each transaction. In either model, recovering lost or unproductive hours will bring you a meaningful return.

On a conservative basis, cutting in half the time you spend simply looking for lost documents alone probably recovers $5,000 of time per year for the average lawyer. Case management software also offers other efficiencies and the costs and benefits can be quantified. You can make a meaningful decision based on how long it will take for the software to "pay for itself." In firms of 50, 100 or more lawyers, these economics will involve large, meaningful numbers.

Not surprisingly, lawyers starting a firm clearly see the benefits of a case management solution. If a solo can use case management software to help run a practice and avoid hiring a secretary (or can hire a paralegal who is billable rather than a secretary), those savings alone may make for an easy decision. In larger firms, simply reducing or holding the line of staff hiring may economically justify a move to a case management system.

3. "It's Too Complicated." I recently watched a demonstration of two case management programs for small firms in which the ability to enter information in six different ways was touted as a great feature. Wrong! Giving lawyers too many choices results in a training nightmare. Lawyers want to be able to use a program easily, to access the information they want simply and not be confronted with a computer screen that looks like the controls of an F-18 fighter jet.

Consultants and sales reps are too often guilty of describing an overwhelming vision of case management – all documents scanned, no paper, no filing cabinets, client files appearing on your screen as you pick up the phone. This overemphasis on the "gee-whiz" simply overwhelms many lawyers who see instead a future in which they are constantly trying to learn how to drive the software and never practicing law.

Each lawyer, however, if he or she thinks about it, can identify one to three administrative issues that, if they could be made available or eliminated, would dramatically improve his or her practice. Some examples: having accounting and timekeeping information immediately available when an opposing counsel calls with a settlement offer, having a list of all cases involving the same opposing counsel, judge or arbitrator, having a chronology of all contacts with a client readily available, or having the ability to do a mailing to all clients whose wills are older than two years.

Many case management products produce exactly this result and often give you the ability to enter data about a client or individual once and have it appear in a firm address book, in time, billing and accounting and in case and matter management. You do not need to make changes in 3 or 4 separate programs.

That simple feature really sold me and has sold many others. The point to remember: focus on your needs, not on the bells and whistles. In many cases, less is more and simpler is better. If the program can do the one or two things that you think are most important in a simple enough fashion, you probably won't find the program very complex after all.

4. "It Doesn't Match My Needs." Last year at the ABA's TECHSHOW (2000), I counted 25 vendors who offered some form of case management software. Some were general packages. Some were designed for small firms and some for large firms. Some were designed for specific practice areas or types of firms, such as plaintiff's personal injury firms.

Unless you work in a specific practice area that may be covered by a particular product or two, it is difficult to evaluate choices meaningfully. As I've mentioned the term "case management" lends itself to the work of trial lawyers and you may notice that some programs take that approach. If, for example, you do estate planning, "matters" really won't mean much because every client has the same matter. A demonstration of the software that focuses on the features of the software rather than its benefit to your practice will leave you with the feeling that the software is not for you.

Some case management software allows for a degree of customization. In addition to reading reviews and talking to others who use the product who have a similar practice, the ability to do some customization should be an important factor. If you also do a good job of identifying what the program can do to help you in your practice and insist on finding a program that will do that, I think you'll find programs that do meet your needs.

5. "I'm Too Busy." Time is money, after all. And why are you so busy? If the reason is because you are looking for documents or practicing in an inefficient matter, you may want to make some time to consider case management. For example, do you routinely work ten and twelve hour days that result in six to eight billable hours?

If you are too busy because of workflow, then case management software can really help you in handling that inflow of new work. Because case management information can be accessed remotely or even transferred to a Palm computing device, some lawyers have found that the software can help them avoid going to the office on weekends.

Again, the issue is one of identifying the barriers that keep you from working well and seeing if case management software can help you on those specific issues. Sometimes the simper changes can bring the biggest benefits.

6. "The Software Will Govern My Life." You may have even experienced this at home with Quicken. This reaction is a reasonable one. After all, for better or worse, you have developed a system of organization that's gotten you to where you are today. You want to practice law, not organization.

Sometimes I've found that this reason masks another reason. Lawyers can be embarrassed by their lack of technological savvy, the mayhem that passes for a "system" of organization in their offices or their utter dependence on a secretary who knows the system. In fact, it's interesting to see how the possible loss of a long-time secretary motivates lawyers to consider case management software. You will get your best results if you analyze your current methods as part of introducing case management software.

Another legitimate concern is the amount of time it may take to convert existing systems and transfer data into new case management software. Won't you be running a paper system and a computer system in parallel, at least for a while? Consider these issues in your return on investment analysis.

Finally, the closer a case management software program can mimic or adapt to your existing methods, the better a candidate it is for you. Again, customization may be an important consideration and worth additional expense. Your software should help you practice law better, not make you an expert on using the software.

7. "I'll Lose Money If I'm More Efficient." The villain here is hourly billing practices. What if I become 20 to 40% more efficient? Won't that simply mean that I'll make 20 to 40% less per year? Why would I want to do that?

Clients have not yet started to make lawyers pay for inefficiency. That tide is turning. As we see the rise of non-traditional competition and competition from law firms leveraging technology, there will be increasing downward pressure on the fees charged for standard legal services.

Case management software offers ways to deal with a higher volume, lower margin practice. It also can help you use information you have to strengthen personal relationships with clients (e.g., your software automatically reminds you of a client's birthday or gives you a list of clients you haven't talked with for over 6 months) or to track and identify sources of new clients (e.g., what clients reported that they came to you because of an ad you placed). A decision to use case management software will force you to look at your billing practices and what the alternatives are.

More important, this objection is based on the assumption that the time savings you find will eliminate billable hours. In fact, it's likely to eliminate non-productive time that probably was not being billed anyway. How often do clients get a statement with an entry like: "tore apart office looking for piece of paper that had notes regarding bank accounts; finally found it buried in papers on desk after third try: 3.5 hours"?

Conclusion: There is a grain of truth in most of the common objections to case management software. On closer examination, however, the objections tend to dissolve. If you can focus on your most important needs and the simplest steps that will bring you the most benefits, case management software will bring you meaningful and measurable business results and financial benefits. That's the whole point for bringing technology into your practice. Take a look at the programs out there today and what there capabilities and strengths are. Identify what your needs are. Then look at case management software. Your life may get a little easier.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2005

Outside Counsel / Inside Counsel Partnering Through Technology - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article was written in 2002 in connection with a presentation I did on "client-driven technologies." I became quite intrigued with the DuPont Legal Model and other efforts that I thought would change the nature of the practice of law. This article was written from the perspective of law firms. Today, I'd be more likely to take the point of view of the corporate legal department. Most of the same principles still apply today, although perhaps with a bit more urgency.]

Outside Counsel / Inside Counsel Partnering Through Technology Toward the Virtual Law Firm

Fifty-five percent of corporate legal departments considered firing one or more law firms in 2002, down slightly from 62% in 2001. The leading reason, by a significant margin, was "lack of responsiveness." Add Enron, pressures to cut legal costs on the part of clients, increased rates and demand for billable hours on the part of law firms, and increasing movement of lawyers and law firm mergers to this mix and you get a volatile situation.

Both law firms and corporate legal departments desire stable relationships where work can be done at a high level, responsively and in a way where law firms can be profitable while a corporate legal department can control costs.

There have been a number of significant efforts at "partnering" between corporate legal departments and their core law firms to create these types of stable relationships. The classic example is the famous "DuPont Legal Model" developed by DuPont and its outside law firms beginning in 1992. The DuPont Legal Model grew out DuPont's attempt to reduce the number of law firms it used (then over 300) to manageable number (currently 35) and, in the process, take advantage of a variety of techniques to improve the delivery of legal services.

The core elements of the DuPont Legal Model are (1) a business focus on DuPont's legal issues, (2) an ongoing work process reengineering, (3) a commitment to cutting-edge technology, and (4) a shared culture of efficiency and cost control.

All lawyers who have corporate clients would be well advised to meditate upon these four elements.

Among other things, the DuPont Legal Model has resulted in the creation of the DuPont Primary Law Firm Network, an early form of a "virtual law firm," a collaborative team of law firms and service providers who are willing to and do work together. DuPont believes that the next step beyond simple "partnering" is the collaborative work team and that turning partnering relationships into collaborative work teams offer great value.

Consider this description of a "virtual law firm" (http://www.dupontlegalmodel.com/files/onlinelibrary_detail.aspibid=14) [Note: link no longer works – unable to find new link to white paper):

The virtual law firm connects lawyers electronically and culturally. Through the use of applied technology, such as extranets, integrated case management software, computerized databases, electronic invoicing software, document imaging, cell phones, personal digital assistants, and trial presentation software, team members in different geographical locations can perform legal work efficiently and cost-effectively in a shared environment. But this technology still depends on the human element and on the willingness of committed participants to implement and use it constructively in furtherance of an articulated vision and clear goals. In a virtual law firm, participants must share a common culture.

This description raises many issues and is an excellent basis for your discussion of this topic. I also want to emphasize this comment from DuPont's white paper:

"Without the benefit of sophisticated technology, neither the concept of the virtual law firm nor the DuPont Legal Model could exist."

This article will focus on the technology side of moving to partnering then to collaboration and to virtual law firms and perhaps beyond. There are also very difficult issues raised by taking these steps, competitively, economically, culturally and otherwise that also deserve very serious deliberation. I want to sketch out some key questions for you, some areas worth exploring more and some practical tips for getting started or moving forward.

1. Ask Your Clients. A recent survey indicated that over 90% of corporate general counsel would respond to surveys from their law firms. A tiny fraction of law firms use client surveys. Are there clients with whom you can extend existing relationships by means of technology or current technology cooperation into greater partnerships? Are they aware of initiatives like the DuPont Legal Model? Might they be considering such initiatives without including you in the discussion?

2. Listen to Your Clients. I have heard many stories of companies all but begging their law firms to cooperate on technology. Note that the number one reason law firms get fired is lack of responsiveness. If you survey clients, you must follow up. Find out where they want to go, what their priorities are and what they want to accomplish with their legal services. Of course, you will want to get a clear idea of where you fit into that picture. A very important lesson from the DuPont Legal Model is that clients are not necessarily adversarial with their law firms. Cost cutting may not be the primary concern and companies are willing to explore creative fee arrangements that may be more lucrative for law firms while maintaining a more stable relationship. Don't assume; ask.

3. Learn The Playing Field. You cannot move very far toward implementing client-driven technologies if you do not know what technologies and capabilities your firm has or can obtain. It is rare to find a firm that is using or is even aware of all the capabilities of its software and systems, let alone to find lawyers and firms who have a good understanding of all the new developments in legal technology. In addition, it is vital to understand what software and technologies your clients use for their own work and how they would prefer to interact with you. You might use surveys, meetings with the client or meetings between IS people to compare notes on what software and systems are used.

4. Find Ways to Cut Costs and Improve Profits. How much good will it do you to have your client telling peers and colleagues that his or her lawyer actually came to him or her with a way to cut legal costs? Likely areas of potential include identification of lower level work that can be commoditized or value billed, improved communications, hosting databases or eliminating the need for duplicate systems. Consider the issue of electronic billing. Corporate clients are bemused by law firms' reluctance to move to electronic billing. They see electronic billing as a way to streamline procedures and cut their own costs while at the same time improving the cash flow of their law firms by speeding up the payment cycle. Isn't this win-win? It is certainly worth taking the time to consider fully.

5. Get IS Departments Talking. Exchanging ideas and creating good relationships between your high-level IS people and the comparable client IS people will ultimately be a key to any successful efforts in this area. Do they know each other now? Do they meet with each other? Can you facilitate that in constructive ways? This effort will help resolve existing problems, result in shared knowledge and set the stage for more extensive efforts.

6. The Extranet Family. A key concept in collaboration has been the use of private, shared web sites commonly known as extranets. Extranets can take many forms – information portals, access to files and communication, case monitoring, document libraries and virtual deal rooms. It is important to realize that clients do not need the same features or even a full-blown extranet. A virtual deal room that simply gives access to documents in a case or transaction may be a perfect introduction to the use of technology for both a firm and a client. The time and cost savings of not Fedexing documents can be a measurable means of showing return on investment. Another idea gaining some momentum is the "project portal," an extranet dedicated to the work and resources in connection with a particular project.

7. Apply the 80/20 Rule. The 80/20 rule definitely applies in this area. The idea is that, as a general matter, 20% of your efforts will get you 80% of your results. You want to identify and act on that 20%. Which ideas make the most sense in your current context? From your point of view, which initiatives will best address the common reasons law firms are fired (improving communications to avoid "lack of responsiveness" issues) and hired (how can you show your expertise and understanding of the client's business?)? Do these initiatives cut costs or enable creative billing approaches? Do these approaches connect the client to you and make it harder for the client to leave? Are these approaches useful to other clients? Finally, are they responsive to your client's own list of priorities?

8. Make a Plan. Obviously, these kinds of initiatives cannot be done on a "back of the envelope" basis. Written plans are appropriate. In this case, educating your client is a form of marketing. Implementing the systems may an element of firm survival with a client in addition to solid marketing. The more you show your knowledge of the options, your familiarity with what others have done and the benefits for your client in the form of a well-conceived plan, the better shape you will be in. Part of any plan should be a method of measuring results.

9. Make it Reusable - Think Different. Some of the initiatives you take can be reused. Some aspects might even be licensed as moneymakers for your firm or even sold as products, either by your firm or jointly with a client. Be alert to intellectual property issues and opportunities, as well as reusable methods to implement similar projects for other clients. Databases of knowledge and expertise may also serve you well in the event of departures from your firm.

10. Make it Sticky. Stickiness is a term that is sometimes used in connection with web sites. It refers to a site's ability to keep a visitor on the site for a significant time and to visit multiple pages. By using technology to address key concerns for clients and to make it easy for them to work with you, you can also create a "stickiness" in working with your firms and your systems. As a result, you increase the costs and effort for a firm that wishes to take a client form you.

Conclusion. The DuPont Legal Model began in 1992. More than 10 years later, DuPont and its primary law firms are still working out the model for a virtual law firm. It is not realistic for you to expect that you can jump immediately into a virtual law firm model. For one thing, the cultural and economic issues alone are too complex. But you can definitely take advantage of opportunities to collaborate with clients to put down the technological underpinnings that can lead to such a model and, in the interim, provide significant benefits for both law firms and clients, including, in some cases, allowing your firm to survive and do work for its biggest clients. If you do not address these issues, your clients may dictate the answers for you, and, lately, that may mean that they think about firing you.

Ten Practical Tips for Technology Partnering Initiatives.

1. Educate yourself. My web page at http://www.denniskennedy.com/resources/legal-tech-central/clientdriven.asp is a good starting point. But it takes a lot of work to get up to speed on technology alternatives. Hiring appropriate expertise may be desirable in many cases.

2. Thoroughly understand the DuPont Legal Model. Your clients may approach you about the DuPont Legal Model before you approach them. They are reading about it and hearing about it in seminars. A great resource is http://www.dupontlegalmodel.com.

3. Send a survey. Statistics indicate that the vast majority of clients are willing to respond.

4. Listen to what your clients are already saying to you about technology. Lack of responsiveness is the major reason law firms get fired.

5. Give your clients new ideas to think about. Clients cannot know everything that is available. Give them some great suggestions. Clients appreciate creative solutions. Be the first to mention the ideas.

6. Get the right people involved. Are you the right person for this initiative? Who is? What role will your IS department play in the initial phases? I suggest that a high-level IS person be involved at the earliest opportunity.

7. Facilitate relationships between your IS people and the client's IS people. Here is a simple test. Ask the head of your IS department how many of the heads of clients' IS departments are in his or her contacts list. I bet it is too small a number. Are there ways you can get IS people to get together on a regular basis. Presentations by your IS group to client IS groups may make sense.

8. Find creative ways to control costs. Clients like law firms that are creative. They are also under pressure to control legal costs. Technology may allow you to show you are good at both. Controlling client costs is different from cutting your fees and profits.

9. Use technology initiatives in a way to increase the costs for a competitor to steal your client away.

10. Lead, follow (closely) or get out of the way.

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

Client-driven technology

Posted by dmk at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2005

What Did I Really License? - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article was written in 2003 for Practical Technology Contract Review News email newsletter I used to publish. It was part of a series of articles explaining the various sections of IT agreements and how to think about them. This article is a companion piece to the "5 Ws of License Grants" article I reposted today.]

What Did I Really License?

I want to take a closer look at the fundamental issue of what you are licensing. I'll give you some tips for analyzing whether the contract language you have is adequate, especially as it relates to software. I am constantly surprised at how often the definition and description of software being licensed varies from what both parties intend.

Software companies have a tendency to use old software license forms long after they have outlived their usefulness. These agreements often leave many issues unaddressed and invite problems in the future.

Your mission in negotiating these agreements is to document what you are actually paying for. Many times, that may take more work than you might expect. Here are five items to put on your checklist.

1. Accurate Definitions. What does the definition of "Software" actually say? Is it what you expect? Often, program names turn up in contracts that are different from the program names you expect. Do not assume that the name you see in the contract is correct. An agreement for another program could have been reused for your agreement and may indeed have the wrong programs listed. Are all necessary components or modules listed? Expensive results may occur if key components are left out.

Are there necessary utilities, installers or other programs that should be included? Are you getting the current version, the Windows version or whatever other version you need? Don't be afraid to ask for specific details.

2. Number of Copies. Does the license include the right to make the copies you need. Many licenses are quite specific that you can only make one backup copy of the program. In today's world, that makes no sense. Multiple copies of the software will probably reside on backup tapes. Most organizations today prefer to use installation disks for workstation installations, create disk images and have multiple backup and even disaster recovery operations. I like to specify these normal uses and "copies incidental to the operation of the computer," since the program will be copied into RAM, a browser creates history and temporary Internet files and no one knows how many copies Windows makes of everything and where it stores them.

What about copies for notebook computers and home computers? Does your remote access system "create" another "copy" of the software for the remote user? Perhaps these may seem to be minor issues in the big picture, but the "copies in RAM" issue has been litigated with a finding that the copy in RAM was a reproduction for copyright infringement purposes. Also, why start out under an agreement of which you are in technical violation from the date of installation?

3. Versions, Upgrades, Updates and Similar Creatures. The world of software has a bewildering number of terms, all with slightly different meanings, for modifications to software. There are fixes, patches, updates, modifications, upgrades, point versions (e.g., 3.1, 3.2), versions, and even more. In your agreement, you care about which you have to pay for and which you do not. Try to avoid being silent on this issue. You will not like to be forced to pay for an upgrade that seems to you like an update or a full version that seems like a point version.

Ask the specific questions and memorialize the deal accurately. Deals can fall through on these issues. Also, be sure to know what happens if key features of the software are moved into another package (especially important in the case of a change in ownership) or if the company no longer supports or develops the software. Not complicated enough? What about required upgrades that force you to move to a new version of Windows, for example? Spending a little more time addressing the drafting issues upfront will avoid expensive business issues latter.

4. Source Code and Object Code.The object code of a program is the form of code readable only by machine. The source code is what the programmers write and is, at least in theory, understandable to some humans. Almost all software is licensed in object code. However, if your deal contemplates any modifications or development by you, you must have a license to use and modify the source code. If you are dealing with someone on the other side does not understand this, you must find someone else who does.

Licensing source code raises a number of thorny issues, include whether to have a source code escrow agreement. In your review, you will want to see assurances that the source code is the actual source code, that it is written and documented in a way that programmers can reasonably understand, that it also includes all code and tools to enable the program to operate, and that you continue to get source code for any modifications.

5. Documentation. Don't assume that because you license the software you'll be getting copies of the manuals for all your users. Some license agreements fail to mention documentation. Some license agreements fail to describe it adequately. Some license agreements limit you to a single copy of the manual and documentation. Check the language and then ask that it be changed to reflect what you want.

If you are going to sign a software license, it only makes good sense to make sure that it actually describes what you are getting. Start asking the right questions.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

The 5 Ws of License Grants - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article was written in 2003 for Practical Technology Contract Review News email newsletter I used to publish. It was part of a series of articles explaining the various sections of IT agreements and how to think about them. It really doesn't get any more basic that getting the license language to match what you want in your deal, but you'd be surprised how often that is not done well, especially in the first drafts of contracts.]

The 5 Ws of License Grants

Nearly every technology contract today contains at least one license grant provision. Most commonly, there will be a software licensing clause, but trademark, copyright and even patent licenses have become common in everyday technology contracts.

I have often been surprised when I review a contract prepare by a vendor to find that the license grant is not even close to what is anticipated by the deal, let alone what either the licensor or licensee actually wants. License grants are not "one size fits all" clauses. Because the license is a key to the deal, a license grant provision should never be treated as a stock or off-the-shelf clause. It's one clause that you want to get exactly right because if you don't get the rights you need now, you will probably run into problems later.

Getting a license grant right takes some effort, but simply focusing on the simple five Ws - who, what, when, where and why - that we were taught in school will put you ahead of 95% of people reviewing license grants. These may seem like basic questions, but, believe me, there are no stupid questions when it comes to reviewing license grants. You want to make sure that you understand the language and that it covers what it is supposed to cover.

1. Who? Don't take this question for granted. Who is licensed? Your company and employees? Yes, but is the correct company licensed? What about affiliates and subsidiaries? Employees of affiliates and subsidiaries? Do you use part-time employees or other independent contractors who are technically not "employees"? How about third party consultants who install, maintain or work with the software? Customers? Potential customers you want to allow to demo the software? Other users? I've seen questions come up in each of these categories.

2. What? What exactly is being licensed? Is it just object code of software? Do you want source code as well? How about documentation? Trademarks? Copyrights? Compare what you think you are getting to the license grant language to make sure that you are getting everything you expect.

3. When? Many license grant provisions do not spell out a duration of the license grant, leaving at least three interpretations – the grant is perpetual, the grant is equivalent to the term of the license agreement or the grant is for a "reasonable" period. Nail this question down and save yourself from any later trouble. As a general matter, setting the duration of the license grant equal to the term of the agreement (including renewals) is the most logical approach.

4. Where? I once reviewed a license for a mobile software application that was going to be used by technicians in their cars. Incredibly, the first version of the license grant provision from the vendor included language that the software could only be used at a specific address! Obviously, someone had simply used an old license agreement as a model with no awareness of the consequences. Sadly, I am sure that some licensees simply signed this "standard contract."

Site licenses or machine or location specific licenses were common in the mainframe era and that type of language occasional slips into today's license agreements. In the case of software especially, you want to determine where the software will be used and be sure that the license grant authorizes use in those locations. Will employees be running the program at home or on a laptop? Will they be accessing the program remotely? PDAs and wireless devices also may require modifications to standard license grant language. Be wary whenever you see any type of site license language.

Another "where" issue arises in the case of license grants for particular territories. Check the definition of territory carefully and consider how it may affect e-commerce or web marketing.

5. Why? Why are you obtaining the license? Is it exclusive or non-exclusive? You'll want to proceed with caution any time an exclusive license is involved. Also, it has become fairly common to grant licensees the right to "use" software or other intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, "use" is not one of the exclusive rights granted under the copyright statutes (reproduce, make derivative works and publicly display are a few examples) and it is only one of the rights patent holders have (make, sell and offer to sell are others). It is, therefore, important to spell out exactly what rights you want to license using the precise terms, especially if you want to make derivative works or to grant sublicenses rather than to rely on a court later interpreting the word "use" to include these rights.

The license grant may well be the single most important section of any technology agreement. If you aren't specifically granted the rights, you probably don't have the rights. Why take chances?
By using the simple 5 Ws approach, you can go a long way toward quickly getting a license grant provision in shape. You will not only have better and more accurate language, but you can then use your attorney more effectively to work on more important issues than simply making sure that the language at least covers the deal. As a result, you'll shoot to the top of the class in being able to review license grants.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2005

Seven Dangers in Using "Standard" Forms for Law Firm Technology Use Policies - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article was written in 2004 in connection with a presentation I did on technology use policies for law firms. Although it focuses on the issues that face law firms, the same principles apply in many different contexts. Forms can be quite helpful as long as you know how to use them]

Seven Dangers in Using "Standard" Forms for Law Firm Technology Use Policies

"We need a technology use policy. Why don't you hop on the Internet and grab one that we can use?"

This conversation is all too common. The question asked is meant to be a rhetorical one. You will be better off if you treat it as a real question and think carefully about the answers to that question.
There is almost no limit to the dangers you can run into when you "grab a form" off the Internet. This article talks about seven of the most worrisome dangers.

Danger #1. Forms May Be Used As Something Other than Checklists of Issues. When I was co-teaching a law school course on drafting technology agreements, we started the course with a discussion of the use of forms. Our key point was that you have to consider forms as checklists for issues to consider, provisions to include and points to clarify. They should not be seen a complete in any sense or as covering all possible issues. They definitely should not be seen as something to grab and use. Take a form and think through the application of each section to your situation. Does it apply? Does it reflect the approach you would take? Does it raise other issues? Use a form as a checklist, first and foremost.

Danger #2. Forms May Be Outdated and Wrong. How comfortable would you be using a technology use policy from 1995? If you grab a form on the Internet, how do you know that you are not doing exactly that? Be aware that policies you find might be outdated and not cover issues that now affect you. Even worse, they may reflect an approach based on a misunderstanding of applicable law, a failure to consider applicable law or a misguided approach to relevant issues. Be very careful about assumptions that you are making.

Danger #3. Forms May Not Even Address Your Issues. Law firms have some unique issues because of confidentiality obligations to clients, ethical rules and other issues that affect the legal profession. A standard form that you find on the Internet or in a form book might not even address these issues, let alone address them correctly. The form you find might not cover home computers, blogging, instant messaging or other issues that are important to you. It is too easy to treat a form as being "complete" and, as a result, fail to cover key issues.

Danger #4. Forms May Make Decisions For You without Appropriate Consideration. There is not a single, perfect approach to technology use policies. Each policy reflects a consideration of unique issues and a large number of decisions. Similarly, any form will embody a large number of decisions on issues. Some forms take a middle of the road approach. Some forms, unknown to those who use them, take more radical approaches. Your only guarantee is that it is all but impossible to expect that any form you find will reflect all of the decisions that you would make on each of the underlying issues. Every sentence in any form could be written differently depending on the underlying policy. When an issue later arises, it will not be comforting to keep saying, "But, it was in the form."

Danger #5. Forms May Let You File and Forget. The use of a standard form makes it very easy to file and forget your technology use policy. The whole approach trivializes the importance of the policy. Rather than posting it, publicizing it and training people to follow it, you will likely file it and forget about it. That will come back and haunt you.

Danger #6. Forms May Relate to a Different Regulatory Scheme.b Surprise! The legal profession has its own ethical rules and regulatory issues. Other industries have their own rules and regulations. If you grab a form, you may inadvertently use a form from a company with different requirements while missing rules and regulations that apply to you. Neither result is a good one.

Danger #7. Forms May Allow You to Avoid the Real Work You Must Do. When you grab a form off the Internet, change a few words and announce your new policy, you neglect very important aspects of creating a technology use policy. You do not do the research necessary to understand how people use technology in your firm and what unique issues your firm may have. You ignore the value of putting together a team to put a policy together. You also treat the policy as fundamentally unimportant. You guarantee an unhappy experience in the future.

Conclusion.

The best approach to creating a technology use policy is to do the hard work, make the hard decisions and move to drafting the policy at the point that you are ready to document and memorialize your decisions. A form that you find can serve as a model or as a checklist, but should not be anything more than that. Your policy should be your policy – your policy should not be dictated by someone else's forms.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2005

The Fully Connected Law Firm - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article was written in early 2000 and comes from a presentation I gave based on the draft of a book I was then writing with the working title of "The Fully Connected Law Firm." Unfortunately, my publisher closed up its publishing business before the book was finished. I've lately been toying with the idea of going back to the book draft, so I'm interested in your comments on this article. I think many of these ideas are even more relevant (and possible) now than they were in 1998 - 2000 when I was first working on this material. This article is another favorite of mine – it reads like a bit of a Law 2.0 manifesto and it touches on many of the themes I've found most interesting and important over the years. If you read only one of the many articles I've posted, I suggest that this be the one.]

The Fully Connected Law Firm

Sometimes the best way to think about the future is to take a look at the past. So, rather than look 10 years into the future, I'd like to take us back in time about 550 years.

The year is 1454. The place is Germany. You're in a small medieval village. You look up and see an ox cart on the road leading into your town. The cart has large wooden wheels. A lone driver is hauling a large piece of equipment covered with animal hides. As you wonder whether the stranger brings foreign conquest, a new pestilence, plague or promise, the man jumps off the cart and introduces himself as Johannes Gutenberg.

In his arms, he carries a box of books. He tells you that under the animal hides is his new invention -- the movable type printing press. He regales you with stories of its potential. At the end of his conversation, he presents with three choices: Do you want to buy one of his books? Do you want to buy one of the printing presses? Or, do you want to invest in the pre-IPO stock of his new venture, which he calls Gutenberg.com?

We have the advantage of more than 500 years of hindsight in considering how we might answer this hypothetical Gutenberg's questions. As a result, we know some of the legacies of the invention of the printing press: (1) universal literacy as books became widely available and used in education, (2) portability of information as people were no longer bound by geographic barriers, (3) new forms of communication such as the newspaper and magazines, (4) transformed political and religious structures, including the Protestant reformation and experiment in political democracy known as the United States of America, (5) the development of capitalism (some believe that the owners of printing presses were the first capitalists), and (6) the development of new forms of community, which I will later referred to as communities of interest, no longer based solely on geographic considerations.

But the most important legacy of the printing press was that ideas became as free as the air and, in a real sense, the genie was out of the bottle. And, as Major Anthony Nelson can tell us, once Genie is out of the bottle, it is very difficult to get her back inside.

I will cover (1) three key trends that underlie the development of the Internet and the Internet's likely impact on the legal profession, (2) three practical areas to illustrate the impact the Internet is having and is likely to have on the practice of law, (3) where we are going and some ideas about how you should prepare to get where you're going, and (4) six key points to think about over the next few days and weeks.

As we consider the legacy of Gutenberg and apply what we learn from the printing press to the Internet, you will see why I believe that the Internet is an event of historical dimension.

The Internet, however, has made its dramatic impact within a few short years, not several centuries. For my purposes, Internet history begins in 1995. Although we have recently celebrated the 30th birthday of the technical underpinnings of the Internet, to me, 1995 is the important birthday because it is the year that the Internet forced us to take notice of itself. It is also the year that Bill Gates publicly decided he was wrong about the Internet and turned the great ship of Microsoft toward becoming an Internet company. In January, 1995, somewhere between 8 and 15 law firms had any kind of Internet presence. According to recent surveys, over 90 percent of the largest 200 law firms have web sites and thousands of small firms and solos have web sites.

The demographics of the Internet audience are especially attractive to lawyers. Contrary to popular belief, the average Internet user tends to be older than the teenagers many people picture; less surprising, the average Internet user is more affluent and more educated than the average person. This demographic group is especially attractive for lawyers.

No technology, not the printing press, the telephone, the automobile, or the television, has achieved the level of market penetration in as short a time as the Internet has. The speed of acceptance of the Internet is startling and has yet to slow appreciably.

Along with the rapid rates of acceptance and change, the range of change the Internet has created is sweeping. In a matter of a year, an industry leader can be fighting for its very life. Take the example of Encyclopedia Britannica. New industry segments have grown up in months rather than decades. Billions of dollars of wealth have been created in a matter of year or two.

Let me emphasize that the change that the Internet has brought, and we all have begun to take for granted, has happened in the last five, not 500, years.

Three Key Trends.

There are three key trends to keep in mind about the Internet and its impact. By understanding these three trends you can analyze the impact that the Internet is likely to have on the practice of law and how you can prepare for and take advantage of what is to come. I sometimes think of these trends as the "three big words."

These three key trends are disintermediation, collaboration and innovation.

But First, A Diversion: The Law of Unintended Consequences.

But before I talk about the three trends in detail, let's briefly talk about the law of unintended consequences. The law of unintended consequences simply states that predicting the consequences of technology is extremely difficult, that technology and its consequences are in fact unpredictable, and that often the consequences we expect by not the consequences we get.

One example is the development of mass production techniques for automobiles by Henry Ford in the early 1900s. While it might have been easy to predict the likely effect of automobiles on blacksmiths and horse-drawn carriages, it was more difficult to predict the restructuring of the national economy, the development of roads, the impact of the automobile on railroads, and a variety of consequences that flowed from a widespread use of automobiles. Other effects which may not been intended or predictable include the demise of the family farm and an initial movement from the country to the city and the current movement to suburbs that is currently carving out the downtowns of many urban centers in this country.

At the root of the Internet phenomenon is the unintended consequence and the irony that was originally known as a computing tool has become a communication tool. Computers are fundamentally number crunching machines. The operation of ones and zeros perform a variety of high-speed mathematical calculations. In fact, in the early era of the computer, some experts thought we would not need more than a few computers in the world. Few foresaw the possibility that these number crunching computing tools would be used in their homes and offices. In a sense, most people do not visibly use the number crunching aspects of their computers. They focus instead on the ability to use a computer to communicate with people and, more important, to connect with people

As a result, people have been surprised to find that e-mail has turned into the "killer application" of computing. By killer application, I mean the one application that drives the purchase of computers for most people. People don't really buy computers to do word processing or balance checkbooks. They want to communicate with friends and family and be connected by the Internet to others through e-mail. In the early era of the Internet, e-mail didn't even exist. It came into play when someone got tired of constantly telephoning to connected computers to check if a file had arrived and invented a system to send a simple text message to which the receiving party could reply.

The unintended consequences of technology can be summed up in the notion of "high tech, high touch," a phrase coined by John Naisbitt in his 1982 book, Megatrends. Naisbitt's notion is that the higher the level of technology, the more important the personal element, that is, the "touch," becomes. As he suggests, face-to-face contact becomes extremely important in a highly technical society. I like yet another sense of the term and suggest that the highest forms of technology in fact promote the highest forms of touch. The better the technology, the more it promotes the personal element. Simple tools like e-mail and browsers have allowed us to create communities where people could connect to each other and are excellent examples of creating high tech, high touch.

Disintermediation.

Disintermediation is a big but important word. It simply means eliminating the middleman. I've seen a cartoon that shows the classic scenario of a group of dark suited middle-aged white men surrounding a conference table. One of them says "on the one hand, eliminating the middleman will result in reduced costs, higher sales and greater customer satisfaction; on the other hand, we are the middleman." We are the middlemen. Think about this notion and consider lawyers who perform essentially middlemen functions.

Bill Gates and others have talked about the "frictionless" economy. This is an economy that, using the Internet as a vehicle, tends to eliminate the drag and friction on transactions. In a frictionless economy, it becomes easy for buyers and sellers to transact business. Friction is reduced primarily by eliminating the middlemen who do not add value to transactions. Some examples might include car dealers and stockbrokers.

E-Bay has an online auction company where buyers and sellers exchange goods through an auction bid system. The friction involved with brokers, sellers or other techniques to bring buyers and sellers together can be reduced or eliminated by using the Internet. A true free market is established and value is set by using an auction bid system. E-Bay has implications not just for the obvious reasons, but also as we see auctions used to purchase and sell heavy equipment, commodities and other items not traditionally sold by auction methods.

Sales of cars also have been affected by the Internet. I leased my last car using a web site, Autobytel.com. Autobytel helped me make my deal by allowing me to specify the car that I wanted and the options that I wanted. It then matched me up with a local dealer who could give me the best price. As a result, I did not have to trudge from dealer to dealer and the buying process was relatively painless. Because for so many people the car buying experience is so unpleasant, the notion of frictionless economy has profound implications for the whole car dealer system. It can be argued, and many people do, that the car manufactures would be better off, as would consumers, if consumers could order from the factory exactly the car they wanted and then have it delivered to them within a week or so. That process has profound implications for the whole car dealer network, but car manufacturers are starting to move gingerly to explore this approach.

Stockbrokers have also seemed the competition of the Internet and the frictionless economy. Merrill Lynch recently sent up the white flag of surrender and reduced its brokerage commissions substantially in response to competition from online brokerage firms. The question became why should someone spend two hundred dollars in commissions for the execution of a trade that they can do with an online broker for fewer than ten dollars in less than 60 seconds?

What about lawyers? Lawyers are classic middlemen and, unfortunately, like car dealers and others, they are not held in high regard as middlemen. In fact, many businessmen try to figure out ways to minimize the role of lawyers. Most lawyers are often seen as the friction in transactions. The fact that the Internet tends to route around middlemen and reduce intermediation, and the public is wary of lawyers, an especially deadly combination in the Internet era. Lawyers may be especially vulnerable to the disintermediation process.

The key word to think about is reintermediation. Reintermediation simply means reintroducing a middleman because that middleman provides value to the transaction.
For example, Autobytel can do more than simply find me a local dealer. If it only did that, I might search the web sites of local dealers for low prices myself. In addition, though, Autobytel provides great consumer information, financing calculators and the ability to pair me up with the someone who can give me quotes on insurance policies and many other services necessary for the purchasing of a new car. As a result, you want to involve Autobytel as a middleman because they add value, not friction, to the process.

Lawyers must focus specifically on what value they add to the processes in which they are involved as middleman and concentrate on those areas.

Collaboration.

To me, collaboration means creation of communities of interest. The communities of interests refer to communities not based on the geographic constraints but those based on common interest. These interests can be business interests, hobby interests, academic interests or other interest. They can be temporary or long lasting, for one project for or for ongoing series of projects. In classic sense, a law firm is a community of interest.

An important question to ask a lawyer in a law firm in the Internet era is whether the expert he or she wants is really the person down the hall from him or her. If you can create communities of interest for a project using the Internet, is the real estate expert you need really your real estate partner in your firm or might somebody you met on an e-mail discussion group be better suited to your client and this project?

We will see the rise of the Hollywood production business model in the legal profession. In Hollywood, if we were making a movie, we would get a producer, a director, a crew of skilled people, and the actors we needed to create the movie. These people might be gathered from widely scattered parts of the country. Some may have worked together before. Some may have not. They would assemble for the project for several months, and then they would pack their bags and go their separate ways. Some of them might work on the next project together. Others might not work on projects ever again. The idea is to assemble the best team and the best talent for each project.

As a client, if you were able to assemble a dream team of lawyers and other professional service providers, why would you want to be limited to only particular lawyers solely because they are members of the same firm if they were not the best people for the project? This approach has profound implications for law firms.

In collaboration, all depends on the quality of the conversation. Collaborative efforts should be directed to improving the quality of the conversation of the team that you have involved on your projects. Collaboration can occur through intranets (internal Web sites), extranets (secure, private, limited Web sites) or a variety of other means and processes.

Collaboration in the legal profession will lead to the development of the virtual law firm. Must a law firm have continuing existence or can it form freely on a project basis? Does a law firm have a mortars-and-bricks location? What are the implications for law firms when lawyers from different firms begin to work freely together on projects or are expected to do so by clients?

Innovation.

The third key trend is innovation. Innovation simply means making good responses in a time of changing rules. In the short history of the Internet, we have seen how the Internet changes many of the basic assumptions and rules of many industries and organizations, including government and education. The people who have been successful in the short Internet era are the people who try new things, innovate and make changes.

The best approach is something called "fast prototyping." The people who do well are often the first to market, those who have an idea and implement it quickly. You want to create your business model and try it. See if it works, then adjust, evolve or terminate it depending on the response you get.

There is a danger in a time of innovation of focusing on fighting the last war. History is replete with examples of victorious generals who continue to prepare to fight the last war only to find themselves in a difficult situation at the beginning of the next war when all the rules have changed. In the legal profession, the recent discussion of multidisciplinary practice seems to be an example of gearing up to fight the last war. The Internet has placed emphasis on global efforts, on routing around information gatekeepers, and breaking down barriers to monopolies. The response of lawyers has been to focus on state regulation to reinforce the rules of the legal economic monopoly and to implement barriers to competitors of the legal profession. All these seem to be seen symptoms of fighting last war.

Nicholas Negroponte of MIT has said "incrementalism is the enemy of innovation." Tom Peter, whose book, "The Circle of Innovation" was influential in the preparation of this section of this article, notes that Negroponte says incrementalism is the enemy, not just an impediment. In simplest terms, this means that half steps and partial steps are no better than no steps. The innovative law firm wants to take bold new steps and follow through on them.

In area of innovation, we can learn from the examples of Amazon.com, the classic example of Internet business. Because of the short five-year history of Internet business, it is important to be careful not to draw too many concrete lessons from any example. In the case of Amazon.com, this is especially important since the company has yet to turn a profit on its primary business. Nevertheless, we have seen a few things that are worth noting in the legal context. First, it is extremely important to be the first to market because being the first to market can create an enormous competitive advantage on the Internet. Second, successful Internet companies are willing to challenge traditional assumptions and turn traditional business categories upside-down. Third, Amazon.com has been successful by continuing to try new things and to bring those new ideas to its business on a consistent and rapid basis. Fourth, Amazon.com has constantly focused on improving the customer experience.

The Practical Areas.

We now turn to three practical aspects of the legal profession to show some of the effects that the Internet has had on those areas and the impact that is likely to happen in the future. The three areas are research, communication, and marketing.

Research.

It has become essential for lawyers to be conversant with Internet research methods. It used to be that you needed to know the books and, if you were fortunate to be in a firm that could afford Lexis or Westlaw, those research services as well. Lexis and Westlaw were thought to have impregnable monopolies because they had huge databases of cases going back over hundred years. Primary source material, however, including cases from courts, statutes from legislatures, and regulations from governmental agencies, have all become available on the Internet. For free. Lawyers found that for some other cases they simply don't need cases from the 1800s and the current cases suffice. A company like Versuslaw can create a niche market for lawyers who don't need cases going back so far at a price like $6.95 a month rather than several thousand dollars a month.

As a result, Lexis and Westlaw have been scrambling to find Internet models and are starting to see that the value that they have comes not from the databases themselves, but from their method of searching, the key number system, attorneys' familiarity with those methods, and the brands they have established.

The Internet has begun to alter the basic materials of research. It has become essential that lawyers be familiar with Internet tools such as Findlaw, CataLaw, LLRX and other Internet resources.

The biggest development to come in research will focus on the collaborative elements of research through the use of intranets and knowledge management techniques. Often in many large law firms, research is duplicated and the wheel gets reinvented many times. Intranets and other knowledge management techniques allow law firms to take advantage of research already done in the firm and use it as a basis for further research and to keep existing research constantly updated.

The roles of law librarians are also changing. As law firms realize that they have skilled professional librarians who can do research, we have started to see changes in the way those librarians are used in law firms. Some law firms have even started to contract out the research their librarians perform to clients and others. Some see the possibility that a library can begin to pay for itself or even to make money for the firm. As a client, the question may become whether you want to spend $30 an hour for professional librarians to find you a specific answer quickly or whether you want to unleash a team of four or five new associates to perform the same research at $150 an hour, producing a 45 page memo that really doesn't seem to answer your specific question, and giving you a bill for $35,000? Increasingly, we will see the model for research in the law firm changing and the likely development of research attorneys and/or research librarians.

Legal publishing will likely change as well. Legal publications run the range of a continuum between timeliness of the information and quality of analysis. On the one end is the simple publication of a statue by a legislature at the time of the statute's passage. It has excellent timeliness but because it is unanalyzed primary source material, it scores low on the quality of analysis scale. On the other end of the continuum is the classic law review article that has excellent quality of analysis but may be released the year or two after cases decided, giving it very poor timeliness.

The attractive part of the publications market will be the legal newspapers and publications that provide contemporaneous analysis. For example, if National Law Journal or Lawyers Weekly USA can provide within a few days a highly sophisticated analysis of the recently decided case, it has both excellent timeliness and excellent quality of analysis. A law professor who participates in your e-mail discussion group who writes a thoughtful response to a decision on the same date the decision is handed down also can provide timely, high-quality analysis. It is this niche of high timeliness and high quality that lawyers will increasingly look to and companies that fill that niche will do well. Publications with long lead times, such as law reviews, will be a competitive disadvantage.

An interesting new area in research is something called collaborative filtering. If you've been to Amazon.com and bought books, you will notice the next time you return some suggested books. Collaborating filtering is a technique allows someone like Amazon to use their customer databases to predict customer actions, such as what other books are bought people who bought the same books that you did. So, if you buy several books by the same author, the databases can predict, based on the behavior of others who bought books by the same author, what other books you might like. Legal research companies are looking at the same techniques. The model might look something like this: You enter a search of three or four keywords into Lexis and get your results. At the end of your research session, a box pops up and says people who also ran searches on those four keywords went on to do one or more of the ten following searches. Those searches may be irrelevant to you or they may be highly important to you. They may give you ideas that you wouldn't otherwise have had and allow you to follow the paths of prior researchers as part of an anonymous community of interest.

Finally, as clients become even more skilled in the areas of Internet research, we are entering the era of the highly informed client. Lawyers, doctors and other professionals report that they are finding clients who are increasingly knowledgeable about the issues involved when they come to the professional. This is so because the clients have done their homework on the Internet. Not only do the clients who are highly informed come to doctors with diagnosis and suggested treatment and to lawyers with specific questions and solutions, but they want to and expect their professionals to be conversant with the same information. When I still had an estate planning practice several years ago, I was already seeing clients who used the Internet to find out a significant amount of information before coming to a lawyer.

Communication.

Tom Peters has said "distance is dead!" If you are stuck in traffic with a bridge between you and your home, distance certainly doesn't seem dead. Peters, however, makes an important point. It is just as easy and fast to send email to someone in Hong Kong as it is to send it to someone down the hall. Similarly, a local phone call is no different than international one, at least conceptually.

When we think about communications, we need to take a look at Metcalfe's Law. Metcalfe's Law essentially says that the value of a network increases exponentially with the number of nodes on the network. The classic example is the fax machine. When there is only one fax machine with no one to send to, your fax machine has no real value. It becomes more valuable when someone else has a fax machine. The fax machine becomes highly valuable when millions of people have fax machines and you are connected to the world.

In the practice of law, email, intranets and extranets will become increasingly important means of communication. According to some reports, in 1998 more business messages were transmitted by email than were transmitted by telephone calls. E-mail has taken root in the legal profession and is likely to become even more important. The use of e-mail raises important issues about confidentiality, encryption and a record retention. Intranets for internal communication and knowledge, management will also become increasingly important.

Probably the key area development in communication for lawyers will be extranets. Extranets are private secure Web sites were people can share information, communicate, and collaborate. One example would be a mass tort litigation involving fifty law firms scattered around the country who use a secure, password-required web site to share research information, depositions, strategy discussions, and evidentiary material.

The key to communication is to focus on improving the quality of the conversation. Do the communication methods you are considering implementing improve the quality of your conversation with clients and others? Communication should also be focused on harnessing the power in the intelligence of the network. For many years, scientists have focused on creating artificial intelligence by brute force methods of throwing computing power at the problem and trying to create simple rules to mimic human intelligence. Now we're starting to see that the true artificial intelligence comes from the network. If you ask a question you are likely to find an answer and see the network itself has intelligence. Communication efforts should be directed to harness the intelligence of your internal and external networks.

Communications efforts among lawyers will be largely client driven. It is clients who have seen the advantages of intranets, extranets, Lotus Notes and other groupware and want their law firms to participate in the benefits they have seen. Those companies want their law firms to be involved in the same processes. As a result, you're likely to get push from clients for these new forms of communications. The savvy law firms will work with clients to implement these advances in communications.

Marketing.

Law firms need web sites. I've spoken to many lawyers about the value of web sites. Sometimes people were willing to listen. Sometimes they never saw the point. As I spent time on the Internet looking at lawyers' web sites and observing what lawyers are doing, I began to realize that every firm already has an Internet presence, whether they know it or not. On the Internet, right now as you read this article, you and your law firm have an Internet presence that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The presence may be a black hole. The presence may be a web site that embarrasses you. The Internet presence may include information that is inaccurate or incomplete. But that Internet presence is there.

You should be concerned about not just creating an Internet presence but managing the presence that you already have. Marketing on the Internet becomes largely a question of marketing and managing the image that you already have and starting to make improvements and bringing in your online image in line with what you want.

Marketing on the Internet should not be seen as something that takes the place of existing marketing techniques. Marketing on the Internet is just one component of your total marketing picture. Marketing on the Internet does not replace the face-to-face closing of sales. But marketing on the Internet can be funded through other marketing expenses, and directed toward making an effective and efficient uses of your marketing budget. Many law firms have boxes and boxes of brochures gathering dust in their closets. A web site allows you to revise and update those brochures and give them new life on the web, available to potential clients 24 hours a day.

The key to Internet marketing is creating a brand name for your law firm. Traditionally, lawyers have not developed brand names for their firms. You can be aware of hundreds of law firms and never really know what anyone stands for. Some of the firms that use television or other advertising media have begun to create some brand names, but these are largely local. It is rare that you find even a national law firm that is created a specific brand name. Most firms simply consider themselves full-service firms. Developing a brand and using on the Internet gives you access to those attractive Internet demographics which are ideally suited for law firms.

Law firms have used email newsletters, collaborative ventures and web sites to market their practices on the Internet. Unfortunately, some effective advertising techniques being used on the Internet by others cannot be used by lawyers because of existing ethical rules and state regulation. Ethical limitations on testimonials, specific words and phrases, and prior review that made sense in the context of television commercials are now in the process of being adapted to the Internet. The Internet is a moving target and current regulations make it difficult for lawyers to use existing technology. As an example, if there is a state requirement that they law firm keep a record of every advertisement for two years and a web site is deemed to be in advertisement, a web site built that is dynamically generated from a database (a common and useful technique) could not be used by law firm. Limiting the technology a firm can use would give law firms a competitive disadvantage against the Big 5 accounting firms and other consulting professionals.

We are of likely to see substantial changes in the ethical rules relating to marketing of law firms as law firms find themselves increasingly disadvantaged.

Internet Signals.

Here are some interesting developments that suggest that the Internet is arriving and its potential impact on the legal profession.

1. The Growth of Nontraditional Competition for Law Firms. From the big five accounting firms at the high end of the legal practice to legal publishers like Nolo Press and other providers of do-it-yourself legal kits, lawyers are experiencing the influx of nontraditional competition at both the high end and the low end. A few weeks ago I received in e-mail from Nolo with an offer that if I bought some do-it-yourself legal kits or purchased some books, I would receive a do-it-yourself will form free. For many people, the do-it-yourself legal kits are highly attractive. They see the efforts of the legal profession to shut down legal publishers providing these kits as another example of lawyers protecting their high-priced monopoly. On a regular basis, however, we're seeing influx of nontraditional competition provided by the Internet.

2. Products Turning into Services. One of the trends we see on the Internet in the service industry is turning of services into products. These products might include books, pamphlets, videotapes, audiotapes and software programs. I received an e-mail from an attorney in Florida who realized that in an estate planning practice you tend to give the same explanations to clients over and over. Examples might include whether to use a will or a revocable trust, basics of the estate tax and other matters. This attorney prepared videotapes of her presentations on those topics and wanted to put the videotapes on her web site and direct clients to view the videos before coming and for an initial consultation. Not only would this streamline the estate planning process, but also it offers the opportunity to turn these videos into sellable products. We are seeing some of the larger firms turning presentations other materials into videos and products and putting them on the Internet, creating the possibility of an alternative income stream.

3. CyberSettle. Talk about eliminating the middleman! If you take the typical insurance company and insurance defense practice, there are a large number of cases on the docket and the sheer volume of those cases makes it impossible to determine which cases are actually worthy of being tried and which can and should be settled quickly. CyberSettle takes an interesting Internet approach. It allows plaintiffs and defendants to agree to submit cases to CyberSettle and submit offers of settlement to CyberSettle. When the CyberSettle web site receives the offers, it compares them. If offers are within 30 percent of each other, the parties have agreed to split the difference and the case is settled. The parties get three attempts to settle cases in this fashion. If none of the offers work out, no offer is revealed. At the end of three attempts, if the case cannot be settled, both sides know that they have a case that can and should be tried. This can be a way to reduce dramatically a large docket of cases.

4. Cherry Picking. We are already starting to see a trend toward cherry picking as law firms look for niche practices or to take lucrative segments of practice away from competitors. For example, a firm might do e-commerce law for a large corporation and strip away highly valuable and lucrative areas of representation from a traditional firm representing that client and leave the traditional firm with only lower-level or low margin work. Another example might be where a nonlegal competitor uses its skill set to provide services that can be highly lucrative, leaving law firms with less interesting work that cannot be compensated for as highly. An example might be litigation support or litigation management.

Key Questions.

As you consider these signals that are showing us some of the trends that the Internet is bringing to the profession, what else can we expect?

Here are five key questions I think are especially significant and worth your while to think about and discuss in your firm.

1. Who or what will be the Amazon.com of law? And, why shouldn't it be you?

2. What is the practice of law? The most disappointing part of the current multi-disciplinary practice debate was the unwillingness to define what the practice of law is. This makes it difficult for both those inside and outside the profession. Outside the profession there is pressure to define the practice of law down to the smallest level possible (rendering written legal opinions? representing clients in state sanctioned courts?). Inside the profession, there is pressure to expand the notion of practice of law to cover everything the law firm might conceivably supply to a client, including business services, consulting advice, technology consulting and more, to sweep more activities into the legal monopoly.

3. Will the law become a commodity? In the areas of bankruptcy applications, simple wills and other legal documents, there is pressure to turn these documents into commodities. If the practice of law becomes the commodity, there will be tremendous pressure to reduce price. The lawyers left in that part of the market that produces commodity items will be increasing driven to high-volume, low-margin practices.

4. Is law really different than any other information business? If it is not, the same pressures that drove Encyclopedia Britannica from being the leading encyclopedia manufacturer and a highly successful business into fighting for its very life within a period of a few years will also apply to legal profession. The answer to this question is that the practice of law is not like any other information business, but lawyers have to understand why it is not, and focus on those differences as they develop their practices. The Internet tends to route around anyone who tries to become a gatekeeper to information. There are aspects of practice of law that involve being a gatekeeper to information. To the extent that you're involved in the simple gatekeeping of information, you should be concerned what the Internet will mean to you and your practice.

5. What do you do?

Here are ten ideas about what to do:

1. Meditate on the word "reintermediation." In what ways can you reinsert value into the process in which you are involved?

2. Embrace the Internet. Use the Internet to develop your ideas. As you develop your Internet presence, consider how the Internet changes your business model.

3. Think about what services you can turn into products. Videos, books, pamphlets.

4. Self-cannibalization. This term is used in the technology industry. The notion is that if you are aware that there are areas in which you'll be vulnerable to competition in the next few years, then you should consider being your first and toughest competitor in those areas. You should be willing to put yourself out of those businesses. This approach has huge implications in a law firm where you may be considering a limiting certain areas of practices and focusing on others.

5. Fast prototyping. Get the idea, get it out there, and try it.

6. Do not fight the last war. Pulling up the drawbridges, relying on state regulation, and enforcing the legal monopoly are bound to be losers in the Internet.

7. Focus on cost-cutting, both for you and for your clients. The Internet gives you some ways to save postage, long distance and other costs. Focus on ways to save the money. More important, focus on ways to make it cheaper and easier for your clients to work with you. By reducing the costs the clients have associated with using your for legal work, you make it harder for your clients to leave you to go to another firm that cannot provide the same efficiencies.

8. Turn the kids loose. The Internet is largely a young person's game. There is now a generation of people who will have grown up with no experience other than that of having the Internet available. They simply see a different world. Recent law school graduates understand the implications of the Internet and how to live in its environment. Law firms must be increasingly willing to turn over portions of their businesses and the growth and evolution of the firms to the younger generation of lawyers.

9. Gregory Bateson has said you can't live without an eraser". Be willing to try things, take a hard look at them and admit your mistakes. Then take an eraser and try again.

10. Wayne Gretzky has said "you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take." The Nike commercials say "just do it." In the Internet era, if you have opportunity, you must seize it. Don't get involved in the bureaucratic situation of constantly planning and never implementing.

Conclusions.

The conclusions are simple, but the efforts involved and the implications are profound. Treat the Internet with respect. Keep your focus always on the clients. Innovate, collaborate and reintermediate.

In my thinking, the most important and unintended consequence of the Internet era and the greatest impact of the Internet on law firms will be the growth of meaningful diversity. For a half-dozen years, I was a member of the steering committee of the minority clerkship program in St. Louis. It is a joint effort to increase minority participation in larger law firms by providing summer clerkship opportunities for minority students. A lot of smart and creative people were involved in this process. When we look at the actual results we achieved, I think we would say that were disappointed with the results. The paradox of the Internet is that to be successful in this increasingly global and diverse marketplace, you must have an increasingly global and diverse law firm to respond. As an unintended consequence of technology, we are very likely to see firms making steps to diversify themselves in meaningful ways not through mandated programs or well-intentioned efforts, but because that is what it takes to survive in the Internet era. This diversification will be one unintended, but welcome and overdue, result of the Internet revolution in the practice of law.

Finally, the choice is yours. Gutenberg stands before you and makes you an offer to invest in his book, his printing press, or Gutenberg.com. What is your choice? Now, apply that lesson to the Internet.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

15 Internet Legal Research Tips - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This short list of legal research tips was written in mid-2004. I have not updated references for historical reasons. These are meant to be simple, handy tips for the average Internet user. I hope you find some of these tips useful.]

15 Internet Legal Research Tips

1. Keep Adding Tools to Your Toolbox. The Internet is not static and your use of it should not be static either. The best legal researchers are constantly adding new tools and techniques and evaluating their existing approaches. If anything is clear at this point, it is that no one has all the answers. New tools become available all of the time.

2. Subscribe to the Email Legal Research Email Newsletters. The Virtual Chase Alert and The Internet Legal Research Weekly are just two examples of the great, free email newsletters that cover developments in legal research and consistently provide new resources and tips. There is no reason for you to try to keep up with all of these developments on your own when great resources like these are available to help you.

3. Soup Up Your Knowledge of Google with Google Hacks. For better or worse, most people use Google as their primary search tool. Soup up the Google search engine by learning some of the hidden features of Google. Tara Calishan's book Google Hacks describes one hundred ways you can use these features and make better use of Google.

4. Use Quotation Marks to Enhance Your Results. For the non-Booleans, nothing is simpler and quicker than improving your results by putting quotes around a name or phrase. For some names, you need to use quotes to bring up relevant hits. A great, but underused, technique is to put quotes around a phrase that you might expect to find in the best hit for your search. For example, a search for "the capital of Alaska is" may bring you the result you want better than a simple word search.

5. Use Special Words to Locate Good Introductory Materials. When looking for good introductory or comprehensive materials on a topic, especially one for which a search on the phrase might turn up thousands of hits (e.g., "intellectual property"), do a few quick searches in which you add a word like "primer," "overview," "resources," "guide," "faq" or something similar. By doing so, you can often locate a great introduction that will lead you to some of the best resources and experts.

6. Use File Types to Find Presentations, Handout Materials and Articles. Many of the most comprehensive legal resources take the form of extended articles, seminar slides, handout materials and outlines. In a great number of cases, these materials are not put into HTML. Instead, they are placed on the Web as PDF files or PowerPoint files. Adding the additional search term of "pdf" or "ppt" can bring you right to many of these excellent resources.

7. Bring Information to You With News Aggregators. It's no secret that RSS feeds and news aggregators are becoming the primary way to get current quality information delivered directly to you. Do not miss this train as it leaves the station. Feeds and aggregators promise to change legal research for the better.

8. Add Blawgs to Your Search Lists. Legal blogs, or "blawgs," especially the law librarian blogs (e.g., BeSpacific.com), are tremendous resources for current developments, news and commentary. Many are written by leading figures in their fields and have a timeliness that print publications cannot match. Using Technorati, Feedster or other blog search tools is all but mandatory today.

9. Create Google Alerts and Other Automatic Searches. Probably the hottest area in search today involves the notion of "saved searches," in one form or another. From RSS tools to Google email alerts, you can set up standard searches and have them automatically run with the results sent to you by email or RSS feeds. These are very powerful tools that just keep working for you with no additional effort.

10. Make Use of Links Collections. Since the earliest days of the Web, nothing has been more helpful that an updated, well-chosen list of links on a topic chosen by a person knowledgeable in the field. The practice of creating links pages has diminished greatly over the years, but there are many still out there. It's also worth finding and collecting them.

11. Look for Specialty Search Tools. You can get better results by narrowing the field. Specialty search engines are great tools. From FindLaw to very specific search tools, you can find many specialty search engines, each of which allow you to dig deeper and locate more relevant resources on your topic by reducing the amount of "noise" you find in the general search engines.

12. Use "News" Search for Current Issues. It can take a long time for items to show up in search engines such as Google. As a result, search engines are not the best place to look for information on breaking stories. Simply switching over to the "news" search engine on Google will give you dramatically better results. Blogs are another set of great resources on breaking stories.

13. Don't Overlook Law Professor Pages. Many law professors today have web pages with heavily annotated syllabi for their courses. These pages are tremendous resources for anyone wanted to learn about certain areas of law. They also give the most important cases and note trends and areas of contention. Law professor blogs are also good sources of information.

14. Keep Up-to-Date with Search Engine Developments. Search engines change their search algorithms, spidering practices and even their underlying database technologies on a regular basis. These changes can produce unexpected results. Staying familiar with these developments, such as by visiting Searchenginewatch.com, will definitely improve your techniques and results.

15. Collect Tips, Tricks and New Techniques in a Way that You Can Use Them. You might well be able to collect ten or more new research tips, tricks, tools or techniques in an average week. They won’t do you much good if you don't use them.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)

Promoting Your Web Site: A Twelve Step Plan for Reaching Your Target Audience - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article on developing a promotion plan for your website was published in April 1999, in the pre-Google era, as you will see below. I have not updated references for historical reasons. The same basic principles still apply for websites and blogs, even though the techniques and tools are now somewhat different, and the article still has a lot of value. I'm usually known for my patience, but I've been known to get irritated when a self-styled "web marketing expert" condescendingly lectures me about these same principles while trying to impress me with his or her expertise. That's an area where you want to be talking to the real experts, especially those with real legal marketing experience, who you can spot because they listen and discuss rather than merely talk at you. At the time the article came out, I had nearly four years of experience promoting my own website. I still believe that most people do not do enough non-Internet promotion of their websites and blogs, and promotion plans are still few and far between.]

Promoting Your Web Site: A Twelve Step Plan for Reaching Your Target Audience

The greatest web page in the world does you no good if no one visits it. Much has been written about how to design web pages, but relatively little information is available on how to promote your web site and make it findable.

You cannot simply launch your page, sit back, and expect your page to be a success. Based on my own experiences with my own web pages, I have come to the conclusion that you need a strategic plan for your promotional efforts. You should put in at least as much effort into promoting your web site as you do into its design and your choice of graphics. Here are twelve steps for creating a strategic plan for promoting your web site.

1. Why do you have this web page? Your plan to promote your web page begins with this basic question. Your answer will help you define your target audience and give you a sense of the level of promotional efforts you want to make. Are you simply providing information? Are you supplementing other existing marketing efforts? Do you want to generate new business directly from the web page? Or do you want to sell new products or services to existing customers? Most importantly, what is your target audience?

2. What are your goals for the page? Your goals should be specific, well defined and attainable. A goal may be as simple as generating enough savings or revenues to pay the costs for the page. If you want to have a million hits a day on your web page, different efforts will be required than if you are simply providing customer support or supplemental information to existing clients or customers. While web pages can also be used to sell products directly, other valuable uses include streamlining customer support, providing technical information and reducing costs of printing and postage catalogs and other marketing information. Goals can change over the course of time, but your goals will help you create a framework for your promotional efforts. Goal number one will be finding good ways to reach your target audience.

3. A written plan. Promoting your web page is a continuing process that will evolve after a number of false starts. You will need to develop some checklists and logs of what you have done to promote the page. Take notes on how well each of the strategies has worked. Keeping a written record of this information will help you avoid duplicate your efforts and give you a road map for promoting new pages you may develop.

4. Thoughtful choice of a domain name. Web users will typically try the most obvious domain name, e.g., www.yourcompany.com, to find your page before they will resort to search engines or other finding techniques. If you have not chosen a domain name well, you will make unnecessarily difficult for people to find your site. You will want to avoid using initials used only by insiders in your company or other non intuitive choices. It is also helpful to avoid long, unwieldy web addresses for commercial sites.

5. Listing your page effectively on search engines. The most common way that somebody will find your web page is by using a search engine. Search engines are extremely large databases containing information on millions of web pages which allow you to do keyword searches to find web pages. The larger search engines are AltaVista, HotBot, Excite and Infoseek. [Note: Wow! I wrote this article in the pre-Google era.] When you use a search engine you are not searching the World Wide Web itself. Instead, you are simply searching a database that the search engine company has created which is designed to mirror the World Wide Web. By definition, the search engine will always be somewhat out-of-date and never completely and accurately index the World Wide Web.

It is extremely important to realize that your page will not simply appear in a search engine or any other index. You must add your page to the search engines index. You can do this by simply clicking on an "Add URL" button at the bottom of most search engine home pages and submitting the requested information.

Simply getting your page listed on a search engine is not enough. You need to design your page and promote it in such a way that when someone does a keyword search on a topic he or she will find your page. You need to keep your target audience in mind. If, for example, you are targeting people are looking for a St. Louis law firm, then you will want your page to appear high on the list of responses of someone who does a key word search on "St. Louis law firm." If, on the other hand, your target audience is anyone who is interested in securities law, your strategy will focus on a different set of keywords.

There are a number of ways to enhance your findability on search engines. You can use programming techniques such as metatags, which are hidden codes which help you specify the key words which a search engine will index your page. You might also buy banner advertising for certain key words. You can also strategically use word placement on your page to help your page receive a higher priority in response to key word searches. All of these techniques require you to develop a good understanding of how search engines work.

6. Placement in directories and finding lists.Good promotion involves a narrowing of your focus to your target audience. In most cases, search engines are not the most effective means to promote your page. Directories, such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or FindLaw (www.findlaw.com) for attorneys, and finding or "subject matter" lists can allow your page to be included on a specialized list of pages relating to a given topic. For example, if you are a computer consultant, you will want to find directories of computer consultants and other lists of consultants and get your page placed in those lists. This technique narrows the scope of your promotion and helps you direct web users more interested in your topic to your page. As a general matter, someone who finds your page through the use of a directory or finding list is someone more interested in your page than someone who found your page through a search engine.

7. Reciprocal links and targeted web advertising. If you do your homework on the World Wide Web before you publish your page, you will find a number of excellent web sites and lists of resources on which you would like to have your page listed. The real utility (and beauty) of the World Wide Web comes from these lists of hyperlinked pages. The way to get your page listed on a page you like is simply to request that the webmaster of that page add a link to your site on his or her page. In exchange, he or she will generally ask you to add a link to his or her site on your page. Since every webmaster is interested in getting more publicity for his or her page, this method works very nicely. Since every webmaster would also like to earn some money from his or her page, offering to place banner ads which link to your web site can also be a very effective means of generating traffic. [Note: My, how the world has changed! Reciprocal links are still a good thing, but the practice has been so abused that it's hard to get them any more. As for banner ads . . . ]

8. Announcements, advertising and other non-Internet techniques. Excellent, focused promotion of your page can come from both Web and non-Web efforts. Letting your existing customers know about your web page is an extremely important first step that can be overlooked if you focus too much on getting listed on search engines. Put the address of your web page on your business card, stationery and yellow page listing. Announcing the debut of your page in brochures, by a special mailing or even by e-mail will be very beneficial. Even on the Internet, nothing works better than word of mouth. Tell your employees and friends about your page so that they understand the benefits of the page. As you have undoubtedly noticed, many television and radio commercials and other advertisements routinely include a mention of a company's web page address. You've already paid for the time or space, so why not include a mention of your web page? Be creative.

9. Obtain favorable mentions from others. People are eight times more likely to believe a recommendation from an independent source than they are to believe an advertisement. An excellent way to promote your web page is try to secure favorable mentions of your site from independent sources. This method, of course, implies that you have good content, good design or something else that will cause independent sources to give your page favorable reviews. You can enhance your prospects of getting favorable publicity by sending an e-mail to a columnist or other writers who write on Internet topics or offering to write an article yourself. The bottom line in web promotion is that it never hurts to ask.

10. Pay attention to your promotion efforts. Many times, people put a lot of effort in promoting the rollout of their web page and then neglect to follow up with other promotional efforts. As I mentioned previously, your web page can fall down in priority on a search engine or even fall off a search engine. If you are adding content on a regular basis and updating the graphic design of your page, it makes good sense to focus on promotional efforts at the same time. Attention to promotional efforts is as important as attention to updating content.

11. Evaluate results on a regular basis.You must have a method to evaluate the success of your promotional efforts. Many pages have a simple counter that counts the number of visitors to a page. These counters provide useful information, but for the most part they are inadequate to help you with promotional efforts. More sophisticated web monitoring software is available and can generally be supplied as a part of your web page hosting arrangement. These programs will let you know how successful different techniques have been. Subscriptions to e-mail newsletters available on your web page are another excellent way to assess the number of quality visits. And, obviously, sales from the page may be the most important measure of all for some sites. This information should be analyzed and used to help you reinforce existing sources of traffic and to help you find new locations on which to put links and advertising.

12. Go back to the first item and start again. Do you still have the same reason for having your page? Do you still have the same goals? Do you now have a better understanding of your target audience and how to reach it? You will certainly have a better sense of what works and what doesn't work. Like content and design, your promotional efforts will evolve as you learn and as new techniques become available. A written plan will help you focus your marketing efforts and to improve these efforts on an ongoing basis.

Maintaining a great web page is a commitment. One key part of that commitment is to develop new ideas and new ways to publicize your page. Web pages can be extremely beneficial to you and your company, but you cannot expect simply to create a web page and to see results without making any other efforts. Your promotional plan will put you well ahead of many other companies with web sites, give you an important competitive advantage and help you connect with the audience you want to find.

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

Posted by dmk at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2005

It's About the Deal, Not You: A Lawyer's "To Do and To Not Do" List for IT Contract Negotiations - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. After a frustrating conference call negotiating an IT contract, I sat down and wrote this article (2004). In it, I tried to capture whatever wisdom I might have learned over the years as a lawyer involved in negotiating matters. It's my approach, but I think most of the ideas would be useful to many lawyers. I'm always looking to improve, so I welcome the suggestions of others who have experience in these areas. Warning: it's a very long article, but I think it is a good article, with lots of practical tips and pointers.]

It's About the Deal, Not You: A Lawyer's "To Do and To Not Do" List for IT Contract Negotiations

Many moons ago, as a third-year law student at Georgetown, I took a class called "Business Planning." We spent the first few weeks of the class studying negotiation, reading some of the now classic books on the subject and doing mock negotiations. At the time, the idea of "win-win" approaches to negotiation was just beginning to become popular, but that was our focus. We were also taught that the role of the lawyer was not to kill deals (as many lawyers make business people believe), but instead to help make deals happen by creatively solving problems.

I later had the good fortune to work with a good number of excellent lawyers who had a similar approach. I also have had the chance to see in action some of the lawyers who fall into the deal-killer category and the damage they can do in deals that have great potential, sometimes costing their clients millions of dollars of lost revenue in circumstances where the business issues were essentially resolved.

As a result, I've formed some strong opinions about the role of lawyers in negotiations and the behaviors lawyers should adopt in the normal negotiating session. While there can be special circumstances when approaches that are more theatrical are called for, in most events the lawyer should play a limited role.

I recently spent what seemed like an eternity on a conference call with a lawyer who broke every rule I can think of for how to handle a negotiation by conference call. My clients even remarked after the call ended that if the deal fell through, it would be because of this lawyer. I submit that this comment is one of the worst evaluations a transactional lawyer can receive.

Even worse, I felt embarrassed for the legal profession because this lawyer confirmed almost every negative stereotype business people have about lawyers. Ironically, people feel that they compliment me by saying, "Dennis is a lawyer, but he’s not like most lawyers."

My experience was instructive and I wanted to use it to illustrate some points about negotiation, especially how lawyers should behave in negotiations and how business people might better manage their lawyers in this setting, both to save on legal fees and better use their lawyers' expertise.

Here's the background. Assume my client wants to enter into an "e-commerce" arrangement and the business people have been negotiating for a few months, like each other and want the deal to happen. I get a call that the business issues are all worked out and there will be a conference call that includes the lawyers with the following agenda: (1) confirm that everyone is in agreement on the final checklist of outstanding business issues, and (2) discuss briefly any remaining legal issues and get the revised draft of the agreement moving. Both parties believe that it will help speed up the process if the lawyers hear the discussion of the business issues.

I like this approach. In many cases, the best use of lawyer time is to discuss the significant legal issues and then the business people work out the deal points to their satisfaction before getting the lawyer back into the process. It makes good sense to nail down the deal and then have the lawyers document the deal. Having lawyers working away as the deal evolves often results in expensive legal time being spent on language that later becomes irrelevant.

My reaction to this call is very positive, because it sounds like we are ready to roll and get this deal finalized and signed. I expect a conference call that will last about an hour, and maybe ninety minutes at most.

Given the stage of the negotiations and the purpose of the call, I have the following goals for this conference call:

1. Support my client's representative in the most helpful way I can. In the case where the business people have been carrying the conversation, I expect that this will mean that I will (1) prep the rep on key issues, points that may still need to be dressed or clarified, possible approaches on likely issues of contention and the like, (2) be ready to discuss issues with the rep when he or she puts the speakerphone on mute and be ready to make comments or handle issues when prompted by the rep, (3) determine any other role I'm wanted to play, and (4) at the end of the discussion of business issues, be prepared to clarify any legal or drafting issues that need the input of the business person and, only to the extent necessary, clear up any significant legal questions and follow-up steps that it makes sense to handle with the other attorney during this call.

2. Obtain the information needed to document the actual deal accurately. "Does the invoice cover the prior month or the following month?" "Does the license also include independent contractors as well as employees?"

3. Identify and frame legal issues in ways that business decisions can be made. "Under this language, if X happens, Y will result. I want to make sure that Y is what is supposed to happen."

4. Explain what I meant by language I drafted or how a certain issue is covered. "I think we handled that in Section 3.3 rather than in the section you are looking at. Let’s take a look and be sure."

5. Keep the process moving. "The best approach is probably to get some words on the page that cover the concept, and maybe leave some blanks for time periods, and then adjust them once we can look at something in writing. Why don’t I put something together and get it to everyone? I have a good understanding of what each side has in mind. I think we can then knock off the next issue pretty easily."

6. Provide the blessing or play the bad cop. As I mentioned earlier, especially as people work together over time, clients prefer that a lawyer play a certain type of role. Sometimes a client prefers that a lawyer bless the acquiescence to a point so the client does not actually concede the point. Sometimes the client wants the lawyer to hold the line on legal grounds so the client can appear to be accommodating but constrained by the lawyer.

7. Keep a positive attitude about how close we are to getting the deal done. "We're almost there on the business points. It's down to finding the right language." "I see that we have two main points that are keeping us from putting this to bed. Are they deal-breakers or can we nail this down now?"

8. Leave my client feeling good about my role in the meeting. Lawyers do not need to be present in every meeting in which a contract is negotiated. Over time, I want to educate my clients and give them the tools with which to handle everything that they are comfortable in handling and bring me in at the points where it makes the most sense and does the most good. Each client has a different comfort level, but I would like to find at the end of each meeting that my client felt that it was appropriate that I participated and that I gave them what they needed for that meeting. In some cases, this may mean that they are ready to "graduate" and handle similar meetings on their own or with me available by phone on an as needed basis.

Sixteen Suggestions.

In my hypothetical situation, assume that I have a knowledgeable and focused CIO who had carried the negotiations to this point. She has a specific checklist of the key points to cover. We talk about the legal issues before the call and positions to take on a few points that may still be unresolved. I fully expect to say very little, primarily covering a couple of legal points. I also expect that I may offer to draft some proposed language if the discussion of a point bogs down. Otherwise, the CIO is more than capable of handling the discussion.

In the real situation that formed the basis for my hypothetical, the call lasted over four hours, left everyone with the feeling that positions were farther apart than before the call, and left my client and I shaking our heads. Unfortunately, the blame for all of that fell squarely on the other lawyer. Perhaps the nadir of the call occurred when my client had to interrupt a monologue from the other lawyer to say, "It’s our deal, not yours."

After the call, I jotted down the following list of sixteen rules for lawyers involved in negotiations, especially when your client is also present or on the phone call. I made this list because I felt the other lawyer broke every single one of these rules in that one phone call and I'd like other lawyers to avoid going down that road. For those of you who are not lawyers, this list will help you prep your lawyers so that they work with in the most helpful ways and so that you can recognize counter-productive behavior and change it rather than simply accept it as "what lawyers do."

However, I can sum them up in five words, "It’s not about the lawyer."

In other words, if the other party or your client reminds you that "it’s our deal, not yours," you are not part of the solution, you are the problem.

1. Know the Purpose of the Meeting. I spent some time earlier in this article explaining the underlying scenario because the purpose of the meeting greatly influences the role of a lawyer. In that type of meeting, the business issues are front and center and the lawyer’s role will be limited. If the purpose of the meeting is to work out technical issues about indemnification language, the lawyer's role will naturally be greater. The better a lawyer understands the purpose of a meeting and the wanted or expected results, the better the job the lawyer can do. A hint: if both parties start the call by making a statement of how much they like working with each other, how much they want the deal and the relationship to work, and how they schedule the meeting or call to confirm the details and get the lawyers to work on finalizing the agreement, you not only should get a good feel for the purpose of the meeting, but you should also get a clue that your contemplated role is not to raise objections to every proposed change, complicate every process, not give on any point, large or small, and generally take over the call.

2. Discuss Your Role in the Conversation with Your Client. It simply makes good sense for the people who have been talking to do most of the talking and lead the conversation in this type of call or meeting. In most cases, it also makes sense for a lawyer to talk mainly with the other lawyer and not have an extended discussion (or, even worse, an argument) with the other party, unless that is the approach that the client wants you to take. If a lawyer takes over or monopolizes the call, the lawyer runs the risk of undercutting or embarrassing the client rep in front of the person they will be dealing with on an ongoing basis. Worse yet, many women and young business people are sensitive, I believe correctly, to this issue and will complain to superiors about your approach. The client rep on the call has ownership of this deal, it may well be the most important thing that they working on, and it may also be a major opportunity to show that they can handle this type of deal. Ignoring their preferences or directions and turning the meeting into the "lawyer show" is a recipe for disaster.

3. Agree on Your Signals. This rule goes hand in hand with rule #2. There will be times when the client wants the lawyer to step in or stay out. There will be times when a client wants the lawyer to give on a point, stay firm on a point or move on. There will also be occasions where you want to take a break or discuss a point in private. By signals, I do not mean engaging in skullduggery. Signals might be physical when you are in the same room with your client only, such as when you are on a conference call. They might be verbal when both sides are present. Simply pointing to who takes the lead, indicating when to mute the speakerphone your side of the conversation or asking for a break can all work as signals that will keep you and your client in sync. A tip: if you need to take a break to discuss a point, you will find at least one participant more than happy to agree if you ask for a bathroom break any time after an hour into a meeting.

4. Do Not Confess Your Lack of Preparation. There is only one exception to this rule. In certain rare circumstances, you may "confess" that you haven't had time to look at the revisions closely, apologize and then spend the rest of the meeting citing section and paragraph numbers and showing complete knowledge of the draft. Obviously, you take this approach only when you are fully prepared and primarily as a tactic to make people wonder how good you would be if you did have time to review the document closely. There are three things worse than simply confessing your lack of preparation. The first is mentioning it two or more times throughout the meeting. The second is confirming the fact time after time by not knowing either what is in the agreement or the fundamental aspects of the deal. The third is giving your client good reason to wonder why they are paying you.

5. Do Not Bluff on Your Knowledge or Your Experience. No matter what lawyers like to believe, law is not rocket science. Business people who work with contracts develop a good understanding of the major issues, the common compromises, what is normal and what is an overreach, the legal issues that matter to their business, and have heard many arguments posed by lawyers many times. Your argument that "even Microsoft can't get that concession" will make you look ridiculous when you are talking with someone who routinely gets that concession. Worse yet, many lawyers will try to bluff on their knowledge of the underlying technology, software or operations. While this approach usually just results in a good laugh for people who understand the technology, it can make the lawyer look foolish and lead to an agreement that does not cover key issues adequately.

6. Know When to Move On. As we all know, it is possible for a lawyer to beat a point to death. It is also possible to run into issues where it's not possible to hammer out all the points. At some point, the lawyer needs to say either "Why don’t we have the lawyers draft some language that we can look at?" or "Let’s come back to this point and see if we can get everything else done." The first approach turns an uncomfortable discussion into a "to do" item for the lawyer. The second approach is the standard negotiation strategy of putting the tough items aside and getting agreement and momentum on what can be agreed upon with the hope that the "held" issue will seem smaller and easier to resolve when you come back to it. Either approach advances the negotiation and keeps the ball moving.

7. Understand Standard Negotiation Practices. If you read the literature on negotiation tactics, you'll see that there are some standard practices and approaches to negotiation. It's important to learn to recognize those and to use them where appropriate. You will also find that there are some general principles of negotiation etiquette. If you don’t recognize these or run roughshod over them, you take the risk that the other side will dig in its heels and turn a relatively small point into a deal-breaker. For example, if I say that we are very close and we want to get the deal in place and then accede to your first point, pointing out my willingness to not create issues that get in the way of the deal, that means that I expect you to take the same approach on some issues that mean more to me than they do to you. If you instead decide that it means that you are going to win on every point and never relent, there will likely come a time where my client will dig its heels in on an issue that you will not see as important. Part of the reason is that you have set off alarm bells for my client that your client will be difficult to work with when the deal is implemented.

8. Avoid High Pressure Sales Techniques. "We never negotiate on this." "We’ll only give you these terms if you sign today." "It’s our policy and our hands are tied." On occasion, you find lawyers whose conversation sounds like a Negotiating 101 class because they use every negotiating cliche in the book. While there are occasions that one of these approaches makes sense, most of the time they are boring, tedious and get in the way of meaningful negotiation. In addition, you later look foolish when you have to back off from these positions and lose important credibility when you need to take a position on something that matters. Good responses to consider are: "We have a policy never to agree to those terms. Where does that leave us?" or "OK, if it’s deal-breaker, tell us and we’ll go back and make a business decision about whether we want to call things off right now." The last response is "calling your bluff" and may not result in an answer you want to hear, but if you are willing to walk away from the deal, it can be fun and instructive to see what happens when you use it. I routinely use this approach when a publisher wants me to agree to a one-sided agreement to publish or reprint one of my own articles because I have no trouble walking away in those cases.

9. Avoid Explaining Basic Law School Concepts and Turning Everything into Legal Jargon. I'll admit that I find this approach more irritating since I started to teach a law school class. Lawyers can do a great service by explaining legal issues when they are asked to do so. However, some lawyers cannot resist jumping in with lengthy explanations of standard principles that everyone in the conversation is already familiar with. It's usually a little insulting and it's invariably not responsive to the issue at hand. Similarly, the use of legal jargon generally interferes with effective communication and will grind a discussion to a halt.

10. Remember Business People Are Not As Fascinated by Legal Issues As Lawyers Are. It's sometime difficult for lawyers to believe that not everyone wants to be a lawyer. Legal education teaches lawyers to excel at spotting legal issues. Unfortunately, almost everyone else is interested in getting the deal done. A legal issue should always be discussed in connection with potential solutions and/or the business risks involved in making one choice over another. Raising "interesting" legal issues in a negotiation meeting is pretty much a "no-no." If a legal issue will affect your client, you need to discuss it privately, not brainstorm about it in the meeting. I'm fascinated by the number of lawyers who will launch into rambling, thinking-out-loud discussions of legal issues that may have a negative impact on their clients.

11. Don't Be a Know-it-all. I've always found negotiating sessions to be a great way to learn more about my client's business, the other side's business, the industry and what economic and other issues are most important these days. I even have a tendency to ask questions about processes and the subject matter of the agreement. In a good number of cases, learning more about the underlying subject matter will help make the agreement better or show ways that an "irresolvable" issue can be handled satisfactorily. Too many lawyers take the attitude that either there is nothing new under the sun or that they don’t have anything to learn. A big part of this approach comes from an unwillingness to admit they don't know something, which will be taken as a sign of weakness. Unfortunately, the result is that the lawyer doesn't "hear" what the client insists is a key concern or that they use a "standard" agreement for something that is not standard at all. My favorite example is lawyers who want to use standard software license agreements for application service provider arrangements. As lawyers like to say, those are "apples and oranges," and not interchangeable at all.

12. Don't Be Condescending. There's a step past being a know-it-all that will get you in trouble. Taking a condescending approach will push hot buttons, which means that it can, in certain cases, be used as a tactic, but most of the time it will cause the other side to stiffen its opposition. Most lawyers respond very negatively to being treated in a condescending matter, almost as if it is part of the "lawyer personality." Taking that approach with a lawyer is almost guaranteed to make him or her less cooperative. Taking that approach with the business person on the other side is likely both to confirm stereotypes about lawyers and make the business person less likely to agree to legal changes. Taking that approach with your client, which I've seen too often, is unforgivable in my book.

13. Don't Cut Off or Undercut Your Client. I cringe when I see or hear this one. I have the old-fashioned notion that a lawyer should be on the side of his or her client and be of assistance. While I don't think that this point needs much explanation, the fact is that it occurs all too often. If I think I can help by jumping in, I use the agreed-upon signal or pass a note to my client. Too often lawyers jump in when they don't understand what their client is saying and either address a point that is not at issue or confuse a point that everyone else was clear on. This is especially true when the discussion focuses on a technology issue that is not understood by the lawyer.

14. Don't Interrupt or Talk Over the Other Party. Lawyers are used to arguments and dealing with other lawyers. Non-lawyers are not. Lawyers have learned not to take things personally, but that's not usually the case for non-lawyers. To my horror, I listened recently to a lawyer interrupt the ultimate business decision-maker for my client, talk over the top of him and generally not let him get in a word edgewise. At the same time, the lawyer was doing the same thing to her client. I honestly think that I could feel that lawyer's client sinking down into his chair over the telephone. People will attribute the behavior of another party's lawyer to the other party and a lawyer's rudeness can have a very negative affect on a deal.

15. Don't Imply You Don’t Trust the Other Side For No Reason. Look, sometimes there are good reasons that you don't trust the other side. In my opinion, if that's the case, you need to be questioning whether you want to do the deal at all. In those cases, it's important to address the issue directly. However, there is no good reason to imply that you don't trust the other party for no reason at all. Here's a great example. The conversation is over, everyone feels great and it's time to turn to the lawyers to draft the changes. I ask for the Microsoft Word version of the document so I can easily make the changes, noting that the other side sent the prior draft as in the PDF format. The proper answer should be 'yes." If you have concerns about changes not being properly reflected in a redlined version, take steps on your end to be able to prepare a redlined version that you can check. Here's what recently happened to me that I would caution you to avoid at all costs. "No, we can't do that. We'd have to check what you send us word by word to make sure that you didn't change things other than what we talked about." My client said, "But that’s what 'Track Changes' are for." The other attorney would not give an inch and my client was looking at paying me to type in a whole set of changes by hand when an electronic version was readily available. There was a certain irony to this situation because an earlier draft from the other side contained metadata that should have been scrubbed before the document was sent to us. In this case, I resolved the situation by saying that I'd simply copy what I needed out of the PDF document, being 99% sure that they hadn't taken steps to prevent me from doing that. Not surprisingly, we got the Word document the next day. What purpose did insulting us serve?

16. Remember That It's About the Deal, Not About You. It's easy for lawyers to get caught up in being the lawyer and wanting to take the stage. What almost invariably results is that the focus moves away from getting the deal done. The best lawyers keep their clients' concerns and the deal as their priorities. That's a hard skill to learn, but one that benefits clients greatly.

Conclusion. It is no easy chore to try to follow each of these rules, but they give lawyers a good target to shoot at and clients a good checklist to use in preparing and evaluating their lawyers. Notice that all these rules can be followed no matter how easy-going or aggressive a lawyer might be. Those tactics can and do vary from one deal to the next and you can be extremely aggressive and still follow every one of these rules. These rules create a solid foundation from which you can advance a deal, protect clients and treat everyone in a way that will lead to good ongoing relationships. The contract is important, but ultimately the business relationship you develop matters most.

[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).

Posted by dmk at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2005

Keeping Pace While Keeping Your Cash Flow: Technology Leasing for Lawyers - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. I first wrote about technology leasing for law firms in the late 1990s in my Lawyers Weekly USA column. I revisited the subject in 2004. I'm intrigued by the opportunities leasing can create to reach higher and farther when implementing technologies. You may decide against leasing, but it's always a good idea to "run the numbers" and consider leasing as an option.]

Keeping Pace While Keeping Your Cash Flow: Technology Leasing for Lawyers

Remember the first time that you realized that the reason your neighbor was driving a new BMW was not because he was embezzling money from his employer but because he was leasing the BMW? Now we take for granted that many people with new cars are leasing them, in the process changing attitudes toward leasing and the culture of ownership.

The next time you notice an opposing party with another new notebook computer or a competitor law firm with all new hardware, you might be seeing evidence of the movement of technology leasing into the legal profession.

The adoption of technology leasing by lawyers and law firms should not surprise you. Many small businesses lease technology as a common practice. Some have suggested that as many as 80% of all businesses use or have used technology leasing to one degree or another.

The New Popularity of Technology Leasing for Law Firms

Computer technology is an attractive area to consider leasing. Computer systems get outdated quickly. There are good reasons to keep pace with technological change. Experts consistently recommend replacing computers on about a three-year schedule. After three years, the typical computer has little or no market value and will no longer be covered by warranty. Hardware costs, especially for servers, add up quickly and may require large cash outlays for new purchases.

The combination of these factors creates a situation that is similar to the new car sales business before leasing became so prominent. As a result, many individuals have started to look for comparable leasing opportunities for computer systems.

A new car lease is an excellent analogy when considering technology leasing. There are financial aspects of the decision – effective rates, time value of money, total costs, and the like. There are economic considerations – cash on hand, available credit, and the like. There are needs factors – potential growth, future requirements, likely usage, and the like. Finally, there are some X factors – “moving up” to a platform you can’t afford to buy, having newer and better equipment, meeting prestige or other requirements, simply getting what you want, and the like.

While there are some people who can make the lease vs. buy decision purely based on financial factors, most of us will make the decision as a result of a more complex dynamic.

The good news is that many creative leasing options are available to small businesses and individuals, one or more of these options may make good economic sense for you, and the so-called “smart leases” or “value leases” extend the benefit of leasing by, in certain cases, letting you bundle hardware, software and consulting services into a single monthly payment.

If you strip the business of a law practice of all the subtleties, we are ultimately in a cash flow business. The main goal of both a new firm and an existing practice is to reach and maintain a positive cash flow. In that light, technology leasing deserves a close look as a way to spread out expenses and create a more predictable cash flow, in addition to the benefits of keeping you current on technology.

Leasing is especially attractive to law firms that want to stay closer to the cutting edge in technology and to smooth out their cash flow and to protect their working capital while avoiding large periodic expenses for the purchase of new technology.

Technology as a Utility Cost and Other Financial Considerations

Legal technology consultant, Bill Coplin, in St. Louis, Missouri, explained the benefits of leasing to me quite a few years ago and the same principles still apply today. His approach goes to the root of the issue. He believes that leasing allows law firms to "fix their costs per seat" for technology on an ongoing basis. But he goes further than that and says, "All firms should begin to look at computer costs as utility costs and not capital costs." A lease allows you to stay at an appropriate level of technology for a set monthly cost that you can budget for in advance.

However, the lease analysis is often far less sophisticated or subtle. Studies are consistently showing that technology expenses have grown to roughly 5% to 6% of the total expenses of the average law firm. At these levels, paying cash may no longer be a viable option. Even firms that traditionally only pay cash or wait to purchase technology until the proverbial “good year” will look at leasing options today once they see the dollars required for a purchase and factor in software, training, support and other services. Often those firms will cut costs and cut corners on other parts of the package, most often training, and not realize all the hoped-for benefits of a technology upgrade. Sometimes this approach is known as being penny wise and pound foolish.

The “smart” leases give you a way to roll services, hardware and software into your monthly lease payment. This type of bundling allows a firm to consider an appropriate monthly cost of technology and reach a little higher on hardware, while not cutting corners on training and support. For example, a bundled lease may even provide a way for a smaller firm to afford a high-level consulting firm, better software or a robust network infrastructure.

Can you just walk into a leasing company and expect to obtain a lease? Not necessarily. You still have to show credit-worthiness. Be aware that some technology leasing companies may require more financials than a small or new law firm can provide. On the other hand, vendors such as Dell, HP, Microsoft and others offer leasing options to their small business customers as a standard option and may prove to be better alternatives for certain firms. In each case, however, leasing companies and vendors will probably more willing to work with you than traditional banks.

The Leasing Mentality

In many law offices, the newest and best technology can be often be found in the copiers, which are typically the only pieces of equipment a firm is leasing. Lawyers, however, tend to think of computers as capital costs or as equipment that they must own. Are copiers really so different?

A lessee is a user, not an owner. We often are caught up in the notion of ownership. However, in the case of the office itself, copiers and our cars, we are quite comfortable with leasing. Technology leasing requires a similar approach, or a “leasing mentality."

In other words, if you are currently leasing your car, you may be very receptive to leasing your computer. If, on the other hand, you are proud of telling people that your car has 150,000 miles on it and you haven't yet noticed that you tend to start out many conversations with "my mechanic was saying the other day ...", you may have more difficulty.

As a general rule, younger lawyers, lawyers starting a solo or small firm practice and lawyers with small bank accounts will tend to have a leasing mentality.

Leasing Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of leasing include:

Reduce your initial investment and capital expenditures

Spread out your technology costs over time

Make your technology costs more predictable for budgeting and other purposes

Give you favorable tax treatment in certain cases

Make it easier for you to upgrade computers and systems

Allow you to bundle software and services costs into monthly lease payment

Reduce the impact on your cash availability and credit limits

You may be able to qualify for a lease more easily than for a loan

Lessor handles disposal of old equipment

Offers you better terms than available for bank loans or other financing

Gives you the convenience of one-stop shop

Disadvantages

You do not own your equipment

Potentially larger total outlay of funds over the term of the lease

Cancellation fees will likely apply if you want to get out of a lease

Leases may not be assignable or contain other onerous provisions

Financial viability of lessor may affect your lease arrangement

Make it too easy to add additional equipment

If not carefully crafted, you may not get desired tax benefits

Leases may be based on prices for equipment substantially higher than what you could buy the equipment for

Actual finance rate may be quite high

In the case of vendor leases, becoming “captive” to one provider

Getting Your Toes Wet

Some law firms test out the idea of leasing with notebook computers before moving to leasing desktop computers. The duration of leases for notebooks is typically eighteen to twenty-four months, while leases for desktop computers typically last twenty-four to thirty-six months.

Leases can be creative, customized and flexible. A leasing arrangement may involve a master lease schedule with a phase-in of equipment. Another type of lease might allow you to add equipment on an as-needed basis and simply incorporate new items into the lease arrangement.

As mentioned above, leasing companies, hardware vendors and some consulting firms can put together a package that includes hardware, software and consulting services into a single monthly lease payment. Some leasing companies, however, may require a fixed percentage of the lease to be based on the hardware.

Another good starting point to experiment with leasing is with a new network server. I know of several lawyers who received quotes for the server set-ups they wanted that greatly exceeded what they had budgeted for all technology costs. Buying a server is far more than simply buying the “box.” As a result, firms often cut corners on memory, backup, redundancy and other important features when they make the initial purchase and try to eke more service out of badly outdated servers as replacement time approaches. Given the vital importance of stable and well-run networks to today’s law firm, these approaches create vulnerabilities at precisely the place you want to be strongest. A lease arrangement for your server will let you experiment with the leasing concept in a limited way, but allow you to take advantage of cost-spreading and other benefits of leasing to help you get the sufficient and reliable network infrastructure you need.

End of Lease Options

What happens at the end of a lease? Despite the available purchase option, the purchase of three-year-old, heavily-used equipment at the end of a lease term is relatively uncommon. Typically, a lessee will simply order new replacement equipment and have the lessor take away the old equipment. In other cases, the lease term is simply extended with the monthly payment kept the same for any new equipment. In effect, the lease never ends. The lessee will typically be working with the leasing company well in advance of when the lease term expires to work out the various options for bringing in a new technology package.

By working under a master lease agreement or by staggering the terms of multiple leases (sometimes referred to as “layered leases”), you can get the new equipment you need when you need it without ever incurring a large capital investment for purchasing equipment. In some cases, you might even upgrade all of your equipment with no change in your monthly cash outlay for technology.

A lease also eliminates the growing concern about how to dispose of old computers properly. The leasing company will take back your computers and handle disposal. On the other hand, it is vital that you have your data “wiped” or electronically “shredded” from hard drives before turning computers back to the lease company.

Tax Issues

Leases, especially those that bundle hardware, software and services, raise a number of tax issues. I want to highlight two key points about taxes.

First, there are some significant tax consequences arising out of the different methods of leasing. Consulting with your tax advisor before entering into a lease is highly recommended, especially since tax laws relevant to the leasing decision have changed recently. One reason to use a computer leasing company is the expertise it will probably have on tax issues and its experience and flexibility in structuring leases. As a general matter, you will want an “operating lease” rather than a “capital lease” and a fair market value end-of-lease purchase option rather than a $1 end-of-lease purchase option. Bundling software and services into a hardware lease may also have significant tax consequences.

Second, calculating the relative costs of buying vs. leasing accurately requires that you consider the impact of taxes and time value of money. Simply adding up the total of all lease payments and comparing it to the cash payment required will not give you accurate information upon which to make a decision. In addition, changes in Section 179 that raised the total amount of equipment that can be expensed in the first year of a business may lead to completely different financial conclusions for a start-up and an ongoing firm.

Evaluating Leasing Companies

As I suggested above, entering into a leasing arrangement will probably result in a long-term business relationship. In doing your due diligence on a leasing company, look closely at:

The length of time a leasing company has been in business and its reputation in the market.

The leasing company's financial strength and credit-worthiness.

Does a firm keep its financial paper? A company that services its own leases is preferable to a lease broker.

The expertise of the leasing representative.

Are there hidden costs, such as closing costs, “documentation fees,” or other service charges?

The administrative abilities of the lessor, particularly its record of paying vendors on time. A leasing company with a bad record with vendors may make those vendors less willing to work with you.

Knowledge of the legal business. A leasing company with expertise and experience in the legal industry should be able to come up with more creative options and customize a leasing arrangement for you, with a greater sensitivity to lawyers' concerns.

Key Terms in Leases

Once when leasing a car, I had a salesperson ask me if, as a lawyer, I wanted some time to read all the provisions carefully. I said, “Will we be able to change anything I don’t like?” Sheepishly, the salesperson said, “I really doubt it.” I suggested that, in that case, it probably wasn’t an effective use of my time to do a complete review of the lease agreement.

In some cases, you or your firm will have limited, if any, flexibility in negotiating a technology lease. In other cases, you may have enough leverage to get some concessions.
Here are a few provisions to pay attention to:

Duration of lease – is it appropriate for the leased equipment?

Total cost of lease and all additional charges

Cancellation options and penalties

Assignment provisions for both you and the lessor

Automatic renewal provisions

Permissible rate increases

Ability to exchange or update to more modern equipment

Service or maintenance charges or plans, especially mandatory plans

Contract language required for desired tax treatment

Leasing Tips

Consider the bundling option. Interestingly, a hardware vendor, a software vendor or a consultant may each have the ability to combine hardware, software and services into a single lease payment. Ask each of them what options are available.

A diversified approach makes the best sense. A combination of leases, purchases, durations and providers will often produce the best overall results.

If you are committed to certain providers, the convenience of dealing with one arrangement may outweigh other benefits of diversification for you. But be sure to revisit this issue from time to time.

Learn about leasing options from websites and other resources before you ask about them.

Proceeding as if you will make a purchase and arriving at a final price before announcing that you want to consider leasing may result in better pricing.

Leasing will work best for you if you use it as a weigh to upgrade and keep current your technology.

If you do not have a leasing mentality or cannot see technology as an ongoing monthly cost of doing business, much like a utility, reduce your stress and stay in your comfort zone by continuing to purchase equipment. However, remind yourself that you may give up competitive advantages to stick to your old ways.

Keep in mind the powerful impact leasing can have on your cash flow and consider whether leasing will enable you to free up money for needed other investments in people, marketing or other areas. What are the opportunity costs of using large amounts of cash for technology purchases? What else might you do with that money? Why not use leasing as a way to do both?

Make sure that you understand the lease arrangement and that the lease agreement actually reflects what your arrangement is.

Conclusion

Clients are putting pressure on firms to keep current with technology. Once a firm spends a significant amount of money on computers, there is a reluctance to make the same kind of cash outlay within a few years. As a result, firms have a tendency to hang on to outdated technology or to cut corners on training and support.

For existing firms, leasing offers a path to make those upgrades and maintain a good technology platform without making significant capital expenditures every few years. For new firms and solos, leasing offers a great way to reduce initial start-up costs, acquire enough technology to create a competitive advantage, and create a positive cash flow.

The advantages and disadvantages of leasing may result in firms reaching different conclusions for different technology at different times, so it is important to analyze the leasing option carefully each time and not make a permanent decision always to buy or always to lease. In many cases, a mixed approach to buying and leasing will make good sense. The path to avoid is the one that avoids any consideration of leasing at all. If you are starting a new firm, however, technology leasing, including bundled arrangements, may be one of the wisest decisions you make.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2005

A Memo to the IT Department: The Lawyer's Wish List for Knowledge Management Projects - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. I thought I'd complete my thoughts on knowledge management (KM) with this short, very informal article I wrote in 2004. It's a simple "ten tips" article, again pulled from a seminar presentation I gave. What's interesting to me now is that it introduces two ideas that became very important for me as I discussed KM (and, frankly, other legal tech issues). First, bridging the wide communications gap between lawyers and IT people is vital. Second, there is an element of creativity in what the best lawyers do that often is not appreciated by the designers and implementers of legal software. If you can identify and honor those creative elements, your chances for successful projects increase dramatically. ]

A Memo to the IT Department: The Lawyer's Wish List for Knowledge Management Projects

If you are a lawyer in a firm of any significant size, you have been or will one day be involved in a "knowledge management" project. You will hear of the enormous benefits it will bring to you, how law firms are in the "knowledge business," and that it will cost a lot of money. You may not hear some of the other benefits because you are thinking about what "a lot of money" may mean. You will hear more buzzwords than you can imagine and you may start to think that you heard some of the same talk about the document management system (DMS) the firm implemented a few years ago.

At worst, you may feel like your firm wants to run a vacuum cleaner on your brain, suck out everything that you know and then discard you. You may see the potential benefits, but your most fervent hope is that the new system does not make it any harder than it already is for you to do your work.

If you had the time in your busy day to jot down your wish list for a KM project, it would probably look something like this:

1. Honor My Uniqueness. Even if you really don't think that what I do is unique, I certainly do. I've developed ways of practicing law successfully in a high stress environment. If you come in and act like you can do it better than I can or that what I do is no different from any other lawyer, I will push back.

2. Understand My Practice. Many technology people assume that every lawyer's practice looks like a litigator's practice. Nothing could be further from the truth. Make the effort to learn what I do, who my clients are, what documents I produce and what my typical work day is like.

3. Ask Me What Must be Fixed. Lawyers are great at spotting problems. You'll need a thick skin, but sit down with me and ask me what can be made to work better and what simply does not work. I will tell you.

4. Ask Me Questions About Anything You Do Not Understand. I know that lawyers talk too fast, use a lot of jargon and assume that people are more familiar with lawyers do than they really are. Stop me. Ask the questions you have. I'll slow down and explain, or tell you to come back when I have the time to explain. I don't care if you keep coming back and asking more questions as long as we can move to a good result. On some days, I'll be happy for the interruption.

5. Listen to What I Tell You. I will think that I gave you my key points in order of importance. I will expect to see that you have addressed these issues. If you fall down on this point more than a few times, I simply will not trust you and will be reluctant to contribute.

6. Quick Responses are Usually Good Responses. If we talk about a feature or a wish I have and you take several weeks to get back to me, I may forget what I told you or I may criticize you for doing exactly what I told you to do. Lawyers like people who are responsive. Lawyers are also comfortable working with drafts of documents. Show me a quick prototype or mock-up and I'll be more helpful.

7. Make it Easy. I guarantee you that your vision of how a page should be laid out and my vision will be very different. However, I'm more likely to be convinced that my vision is correct. I will not be so insistent if you give me ways to do common tasks in a very easy way, such as by clicking on a special button, giving me a custom menu or other means.

8. Keep in Mind That Lawyers Are Creative. In many cases, KM efforts treat lawyers as if our main skill and need is to locate and re-create old documents. That could not be more wrong. The best lawyers see connections in what appear to be unconnected things and solve problems before others even see that a problem might exist. Lawyers need to look at things in a number of different perspectives, "slice and dice" information, trace out relationships, brainstorm and use a number of creative processes not often associated with lawyers. If you lock me into an elaborate and inflexible category system or, worse, put me into a world limited to Boolean queries, I simply cannot do my work.

9. Understand the Demands of a Billable Hours World. The efficiencies you can create for me have real consequences in a billable hours compensation system. Some of the resistance you see to your best ideas may come from my unresolved issues about compensation and the like. Help me understand the implications better and we can work well together.

10. Limit Your Technical Jargon. We have enough jargon of our own. We care much more about the results than the process you are using. If you meet me half way on your jargon, I'll try to meet you half way on mine.

Conclusion. It's not too difficult to work with me. Treat me as an individual, not a "knowledge worker unit." Seek out my opinions and listen carefully to what I have to say. Show that you want to help me make my job easier and do it better. Try to talk with me and not at me. We can get farther by working together instead of against each other.

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

Posted by dmk at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2005

Ten Tips for Successful KM Projects in Law Firms - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article is an article on knowledge management from 2004. I'd probably include more discussion of blawgs and RSS today. It's practical stuff and was taken from a KM seminar I did in 2004. As I've mentioned, I really enjoy writing and speaking about knowledge management and don't get as many chances as I'd like to do so. I'm now quite bullish on today's KM tools and techniques. I have not updated this article.]

Ten Tips for Successful KM Projects in Law Firms

Law firms struggle with knowledge management. On the one hand, law firms are classic examples of information and knowledge businesses. On the other hand, managing lawyers has often been likened to "herding cats." Combining "knowledge" with "management" in the law firm setting has proven to be surprisingly difficult.

The legal landscape is littered with the debris of abandoned brief banks, ineffective document management systems and little-used practice management tools. We have reached this point not through lack of effort or failure to make the required investments, but rather because of difficulties inherent in today's practice of law. Some of these difficulties are well-known – emphasis on billable hours, lack of incentive structures, and the legendary "busy-ness" of lawyers. Others are more subtle and perhaps less subject to change.

Walk into the office of almost any lawyer. What are you likely to see? A desk piled high with files and scattered papers. Files and papers covering the floor, credenza, chairs and any other available space. A computer monitor covered with Post-it notes. The lawyer's secretary's cubicle may look no different. How realistic is it to think that we can transform this picture into a sleek, well-oiled, computer-based knowledge management system?

There's no question, however, that there are many good reasons to try to do so. The following ten tips will point you in directions that maximize your chances for success in legal KM projects. While nothing can guarantee success in trying to manage anything having to do with lawyers, these steps will help you move toward solid, measurable and appreciated results in your projects.

1. Bag the Jargon and Give Us Buttons. If you use the word "taxonomy," you will lose the interest of many lawyers. If you use "taxonomy" and "ontology" in the same sentence, you may lose them forever. Concepts like "tacit" and "explicit" knowledge are simply not helpful to most lawyers. Forget the "XML" and "SQL."

Lawyers tend to be doers. They can learn the underlying concepts, but will do so only if there is a good reason to do so. Because the emphasis is on "doing," it is important to stress the "what" rather than the "how." Find out what lawyers what to accomplish, give them a method to accomplish it, and then work on making it as simple as possible to execute that process. Ideally, give lawyers a button to click on or a tab that shows the information that they want. Hide the process and highlight the result.

2. Try to Adapt the System to Lawyer Behavior and Not Vice Versa. After twenty years of practicing law, I have a tendency to laugh when I hear about knowledge management systems that require significant changes in lawyer behavior. I heard recently of a system in which lawyers would be expect to fill-in thirty-five (!) fields of information for each document. One CKO I know checked the firm's document management system and found that at least 20% of all documents were classified only with default options (e.g., Firm – Miscellaneous). I have had lawyers tell me that there is no way that they would enter even two fields. You can bring a KM system to a lawyer, but you cannot make a lawyer use it.

This behavior is clearly self-defeating, but you make a big mistake if you think that it does not exist and will not persist. When in a hurry, every lawyer will develop work-arounds to avoid cumbersome data entry requirements. If you require fields, give lawyers drop-down menus.

More important, however, is that the implementation of any successful KM system requires a solid understanding of how lawyers work and how they will not work. If you design a system that does not reflect the way lawyers work, you all but guarantee its failure. Because lawyers are creatures of habit, especially in times of stress, and conservative by nature, expecting behavioral changes, especially in times of high stress, is simply not realistic.

3. One Size Does Not Fit All. You want to be very careful about rolling out a "firm-wide" knowledge management system that looks and works the same for all lawyers. Lawyers work in many different ways. Practices vary from department to department and from lawyer to lawyer. The needs and practices of litigators are far different than those of corporate or transactional lawyers. Tax lawyers and employment lawyers, for example, may have completely different needs. A system that fits the way some of my former law partners work would be a horror show for me.

If you do not fully understand these differences and you attempt to roll out a single-interface, single-approach KM system, I guarantee you that it will be "doomed." Your odds of significant adoption, let alone success, will be greatly diminished. You will see significant "leakage" out of your system as lawyers use their own work-arounds or even ignore the system.

You must take the time on the front-end to understand how lawyers work and also look for ways to build in flexibility and personalization to make it easy for lawyers to use your system in a way that complements how they work.

4. Enter Data Once; Use Many Times. For many years, the promise of document management, case management and other legal software has been that we can enter information only once and then it can be used in many places. The reality, however, is that, as a lawyer, I found that I was entering client and matter numbers in many different places, time after time. In too many cases, information that is already in the "system" must be re-entered with regularity. ODBC was supposed to make this problem go away and now most legal back office programs, DMS and the like are all built on SQL databases.

However, far too often, information in one database is not used by other databases. Given the tendency of lawyers to disregard or work-around field entry requirements, it is vital to use existing database information to automatically generate metadata about documents. Even if the results are not perfect, they have to be better than what we are now getting. For example, in many firms, email is an unconnected island of information that exists outside of DMS. Even if all you could do was automatically and invisibly pull and assign client number and a limited amount of other metadata based on the domain name to which an email was sent, you would be miles ahead of what most firms have now.

5. Address the "Pain" and Handle the Perceived Problems. In many cases, a KM system offers lawyers solutions for problems that they do not have. For example, a common selling point for KM is that I can automatically update the cases mentioned in my documents. I am not a litigator. My documents are almost always agreements. This "feature" would play almost no role in my practice. Similarly, a system that helped me locate and use "clauses" would be more valuable than one that focuses on documents.

There has been a lot of emphasis placed on the ability to find "documents" in the world of KM. For some lawyers, this emphasis is correct. For others, the ability to locate the "expert" or other KM concepts may be far more important. In each case, however, I can guarantee that a conversation with a lawyer will reveal several places where the current system gets in the way of what the lawyer wishes to do and causes "pain." If you can identify those pains and solve them, you will build strong momentum for your KM system, often with surprisingly little effort.

6. Expand the Concept of "Document." The initial focus on "documents" in DMS proved to be unwieldy when email usage exploded and important "documents" stayed outside the DMS. Today, think about instant messages, RSS feeds, voicemail, social software, deal rooms, web meetings and more new ways people work together that all create valuable information that does not fit the standard concept of "document." As is the case in email, these new forms of communication may well contain the most valuable "knowledge" with respect to a case, transaction or other legal matter. If my KM system does not sweep this information in and make it usable, then the KM is not as useful as it could be or, worse, is potentially dangerous if I proceed on the basis that it is a complete system.

It has also become clear that expecting lawyers to fill out surveys, write memos or otherwise reduce to paper their resumes, areas of expertise and other information that would be useful to others is not wise. The use of audio and video to gather this information by interviews holds much promise in KM. Even if all you do is to assign interns to interview lawyers on video with a set of questions, you will be miles ahead of where most firms are. The results would include video, audio and transcripts. Audio and video would be especially valuable for firms with lots of offices.

In my old firm (300 lawyers), it was difficult to learn much about lawyers in other offices from the standard bios and black-and-white headshot photos you had available. If, on the other hand, I could have viewed short videos of the lawyers talking about their backgrounds and what they did, it would have been more valuable by orders of magnitude. Think about tip number 2 above for a minute. Lawyers like to talk about themselves and what they do, but they do not have the time to write all of that down. Audio and video techniques offer enormous promise.

7. Mimic the Standard Web Experience. Lawyers use Google, Amazon and any number of the other "ten most popular websites." Usability experts, such as Jakob Nielsen, confirm that the best approach to take for your own website is to adopt many of the standard navigation, placement and other practices of these sites. As a result, users take advantage of familiar skills that they have learned and used on the websites that they use most commonly. Resist the urge to create new navigation schemes or to "break" common user expectations.

Adopting a web interface or "portal" front-end to your KM system, therefore, just makes good sense, as would using Outlook as a front-end. It is difficult for lawyers and other users to move between programs that work in different ways. We are all at a point where we do not want to learn any more interfaces or find that we have to go to another program to get information. If you can mimic the common web experience and give access to the underlying information from a "start page," you can expect a great level of acceptance of your project.

8. Make Categories Flexible. I must admit that my eyes roll up into my head when people start talking about taxonomies, especially custom taxonomies. I recently abandoned yet another system of subfolders for email and bookmarks because it no longer worked. I have found that categories evolve over time and that I often will not know what the "right" category for certain information is until I am in a context where I need to use the information.

There are many problems with categories. How do you handle items that should be in multiple categories? How can I split up categories or create new subcategories? What about variations in naming? My biggest difficulty often comes when I am presented with a list of categories and my item simply does not fit any of them.

You will see occasional references to "liquid" categories or "flexible" categories as potential solutions for these kinds of issues. "Saved search" techniques may also become valuable in this context. Much work remains to be done in these areas, but a system that allows for the easy creation of new categories and the easy reassignment of items to categories will be much more acceptable than a rigid, committee-developed taxonomy system.

9. Make it Personal. If I go to Amazon.com, I will find "My Recommendations," "My WishList" and other personalized features. I can create and customize "My Yahoo," "My Excite" and "My FindLaw" pages, to mention only a few. I can use "skins" in a number of programs to make my user interface look the way I want. Certain sites with cascading style sheets (CSS) even allow me to change the look and feel of the pages I see.

Consider the likely reaction of an audience accustomed to this level of personalization and control to a KM system that is rigid, inflexible and offers no ability to customize. Nothing is more personal than knowledge management. In fact, there is an argument by some KM experts that KM can only be achieved through personal KM. If you do not give users the ability to personalize and control their experience, your odds for success will diminish greatly.

10. Hitting Solid Singles Beats Swinging for Home Runs. I cringe when I hear that a law firm plans to implement a KM "solution" for lawyers. The best approach for getting lawyers to use technology is to build momentum by introducing a string of incremental successes, each of which addresses a real-world, well-understood problem lawyers are facing while not doing violence to the way they like to practice law.

If you remember back to when you were first taught to hit a baseball, you'll probably recall someone saying over and over, "Just meet the ball. Don't try to kill it." As you adjusted to the more realistic ambition, you noticed that you began to hit the ball more consistently and probably farther than you did when you tried to swing like Babe Ruth. The same principles apply in KM for law firms. Listen carefully to what lawyers are saying, make the effort to understand how they work, develop fast prototypes that show that you listened to their concerns, and make it easy for them to do the things that they care about doing. Reduce your big ambitions, concentrate on the ball, relax and be ready to make adjustments, and focus on the solid hits. Over time, a string of solid results can build something far more spectacular than what you might have originally envisioned.

Conclusion.

Tools are very important in KM, but it will be whether you can use your KM tools to create tools that your users can easily use that will be the key to any successful KM project. KM in law firms is no easy task, but if you implement the tips in this article, you can greatly enhance your likelihood of achieving success for the long term.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

December 05, 2005

Do-It-Yourself Knowledge Management Practical Personal KM - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. I ran across this article today. It's from 2003, and it distilled a lot of my thoughts on "personal knowledge management" (PKM) in the legal profession. I remember that it was one of my better-received articles. I really enjoy writing about knowledge management and don't get as many chances as I'd like to wribte about KM and PKM. My latest approach to PKM is that I have created a folder called Research and I save PDFs and other documents into that folder and use Copernic Desktop Search as a way to find information when I need it. In a sense, I'm creating my own little "information cloud" of locally-available information that I've already identified as potentially useful. I also still use a good number of the techniques mentioned in this article. As I mention at the note at the end of the article, I was a little pessimistic about KM when I wrote the article. I'm now quite bullish on today's KM tools and techniques. I've added a few notes in the article to update certain sections.]

Do-It-Yourself Knowledge Management: Practical Personal KM

Recent experiments implanting memory chips directly into brain tissue notwithstanding, the holy grail of integrating computer technology into the practice of law remains a distant hope. Lately, we have heard much about "knowledge management" as the new tool to "leverage" lawyer knowledge, experience and expertise and more efficiently use what we know.

There is much hype about knowledge management, or "KM" as the cognoscenti call it. KM is a nebulous, seemingly ever-changing concept that varies as each new vendor enters the field. For the average lawyer who needs a time management tool just to schedule some time to learn the differences among case management, document management, litigation management, customer relations management and practice management, the introduction of KM into the mix may be the "management" straw that breaks the camel's back.

KM software "solutions" are generally expensive and directed to big firms. They can do amazing things, but too often are not implemented in effective ways. However, the promise of KM appeals and applies to all lawyers, even if million dollar KM solutions do not.

This article takes a different approach to KM. I call it "do-it-yourself KM." I believe that individual lawyers and small firms can use existing tools, obtain inexpensive tools we don't already have and employ unused features of those programs to create simple, practical and useful personal knowledge management tools that help them not at the theoretical level, but where the rubber hits the road.

I will take a look at a number of software programs you probably already own and suggest simple ways to turn them into tools and resources that simply and quickly achieve some of the basic goals of knowledge management, such as easy retrieval of reusable knowledge materials. Try a few of these approaches and you will begin to understand the practical value of KM and use KM more effectively than the big firms with high-end but underutilized KM software.

1. Email Programs.

Collecting and retrieving relevant information easily is a key element of KM. Today, we receive much useful information through email. Email newsletters, messages from discussion lists and emails from clients and colleagues contain valuable "knowledge" that might be reusable. Emails contain references to cases or articles, instructions, recommended professionals, tips and other valuable material.

While there are many good reasons to improve your management of email, KM may provide the best incentive. I suggest the simplest of approaches: start to use folders for email. Using the "New" option under the "File" menu, you can create new folders and subfolders in your inbox. You can then copy messages you later might need into one or more of those folders. When you later are trying to remember something you saw earlier, simply use the "find" function to search the folder and you have a solid "knowledge retrieval" system. [Note: If you use Outlook, the free Lookout plug-in from Microsoft will change your entire outlook on Outlook. It is an astonishingly fast search engine that typically returns results in under a second.]

For example, for several years, I have routinely placed all of my email newsletters into a "Newsletters" folder. When I run into an issue that I think I might have seen something about recently, I run a search in that folder and generally can find the reference I need. I usually delete newsletters after they get to be six months old to keep the folder manageable.

Similarly, you might create separate folders for discussion list messages, messages from colleagues and the like. I suggest resisting the urge to set up too many folders so you don't have to figure out which folder you might have put the information into. In fact, you might just set up one folder, call it "KM" and copy any message that contains useful info into that folder for later searching. Don't forget that you can use email "rules" to automatically move or copy messages to particular folders and that can make this process even easier.

Because Outlook and other email programs do not have the greatest search tools, looking at inexpensive search tools such as Enfish (www.enfish.com) or making use of email search tools in a document manager such as Worldox (www.worldox.com) might improve this approach for you. [Note: In addition to Lookout, I also use the Copernic Desktop Search tool. Another interesting option is to use Adobe Acrobat 7's ability to create PDF files from your Outlook folders and then use Acrobat's cataloguing and indexing tools. You can also use your RSS news aggregator as another ad hoc KM repository.]

2. Word Processing.

You can find a number of tools in your word processing program that can be used for knowledge management. Sophisticated users can take advantage of autocomplete features, smart tags and wizards to create reusable material that can be invoked and reused with little or no effort. I recommend that you take a look into some of those and consider training for those features.

However, let's keep it really simple. The simplest form of KM is creating forms. When you finish a document, consider whether it might serve you later as a form. If so, replace the names with blanks, add a few notes (such as, in a lease, is it pro-lessor or pro-lessee?) and save it as a new document. Keep all your forms in one folder so you can find them easily. Merely adding the notes and a descriptive name ("Pro-lessor triple net lease form") is an enormous advantage over the common approach of trying to remember the last lease that you did.

Another simple and powerful approach is to harvest new clauses or legal arguments on a regular basis. Create a "clauses" or "legal analysis" document and, on a regular basis, copy new contract clauses you create or use, variations of clauses, arguments from briefs on standard issues and similar material into this document. Add a few notes about each and you have a stored repository of valuable work, plus the "knowledge" you associate with it by adding notes on use.

3. Document Management.

Many lawyers and firms have a document management tool, such as Worldox (www.worldox.com). These powerful tools help you identify, locate and retrieve your documents. You can do full-text searches, key word searches and associate documents with each other. In most cases, lawyers do not take full advantage of these tools.

However, with a minimal amount of effort, you can greatly enhance the KM value of these tools. In document management programs, you create a "profile" of each new document, which typically includes client and matter numbers, author name, title, etc. Lawyers hate to be bothered with filling in these profiles. As a result, it can become very difficult to find documents and the software is not as useful as it could be.

There are four simple steps to take to enhance the KM potential of your document management software. First, spend a few extra seconds filling out as much of the profile as you can. Second, when you are finished with a document, dictate some key words for your secretary to add to the profile. Third, clearly label forms and make sure that forms are kept in one place where they are easy to find. Fourth, choose title names and key words with the idea that you will want to find and reuse the documents later.

4. Contacts.

It's not what you know but whom you know. Outlook, other contact managers and practice management programs will keep track of your contacts for you.

Too many attorneys, however, enter only the basic address, phone number and email information. Each of these tools provides places to enter additional data, to group contacts by categories and to retain important information about your contacts, from names of secretaries, birthdays, where you met and much, much more. A minimal amount of effort to add this information to a contact listing can pay off big later.

Also, most of these tools let you process the information you collect. Do you know which of your contacts provided you with the most referrals last year? Would you like to know that the next time you have an extra hockey ticket and see a note that the contact is a hockey fan? [Lookout, Copernic Desktop Search and other desktop search tools make searching contact information easier and faster today. If you upload your contacts to LinkedIn and use its "grab" tool, you can harvest contact information from emails automatically and even use the LinkedIn network with ease.]

5. Internet Bookmarks.

You can find a lot of great information on the Internet, but it's not so easy to find it again when you want it. Traditionally, browser programs have allowed you to collect links to web sites either as bookmarks (in the Mozilla family of browsers (FireFox or Netscape)) or as favorites (in Microsoft's Internet Explorer).

Your list of bookmarks or favorites can quickly get overwhelming and unwieldy. The good news is that the browsers contain organization and management tools. These tools (e.g., those found on the drop-down "favorites" menu in Internet Explorer) allow you to create folders, move and organize your bookmarks and favorites. Using convenient folders and cleaning up your list of favorites can make them substantially more useful and aid you in retrieving information that you have already found once.

There are also third party bookmark managers (e.g., PowerMarks, www.powermarks.com) and online bookmark repositories which allow you to access the same set of bookmarks no matter where you are. [Note: There is still no "great" bookmark management tool. I like the Omea Reader from JetBrains and also use Copernic Desktop Search to index and search bookmarks.]

There are also great tools like Copernic Agent (www.copernic.com) that allow you to search multiple search engines and once and to save and reuse the search requests. These tools are another set of simple and inexpensive tools that provide excellent KM results.

6. Practice Management Software.

According to a recent ABA survey, the number of lawyers reporting that they use case or practice management tools (for example, Time Matters (www.timematters.com) and Amicus Attorney (www.amicus.ca)) has doubled in the past year. [Note: Most recently, I've heard that these programs have a market penetration of about 20% in the legal industry.] These programs have definite KM implications because they offer ways to collect, retrieve and, most important, share knowledge and expertise.

The key to using these tools for KM is to start to think about ways to use them other than just for standard office and case management. Here are just a few examples in Time Matters: stored Lexis search capability, full-text search tools, and the ability to create "non-client" cases and matters for stored research, training tools, forms and instructions. Thinking about these kinds of uses will help you realize the potential of these programs as a great platform to implement simple and beneficial KM initiatives.

7. Document Assembly.

A significant number of lawyers are using document assembly programs (such as HotDocs (www.hotdocs.com) and GhostFill (www.ghostfill.com)) to automate the drafting of documents. These programs allow the user to answer a set of questions and automatically generate a good first draft of a document based upon those answers.

With only a little extra effort, these tools can have KM implications. Implementing a routine effort to add new clauses to the document assembly system will help you consistently use your latest and best approach and save you from reinventing the wheel. More importantly, building some explanations into the system will help with training, minimize mistakes and improve quality.

For example, if the user of your document assembly system reached a question that gave a number of choices, you might explain in what circumstances a choice was or was not appropriate. In addition, by using the answer to a question to generate all related clauses, you could eliminate situations where a user answered questions in a way that produced inconsistent results. All of this leverages the knowledge and expertise that you have gained in your practice and turns it into practical results – the primary goal of all KM. [NOTE: I am the eternal optimist when it comes to document assembly. I created some document assembly applications for my law firm more than fifteen years ago. The adoption in the legal industry has proceeded quite a bit more slowly than I expected, to put it mildly. In 2005, we saw the arrival of some new tools and approaches that make document assembly an area to watch in 2006. People still underestimate the value of simple document assembly apps.]

8. Networking.

Even the best KM effort has limited impact if you implement it only for yourself, while even the simplest KM effort can have results multiplied many times over if your whole office shares it. In each case where you consider a KM effort, look for ways that you can use your computer network. Because case management tools are usually network applications, they make an excellent platform for simple do-it-yourself KM efforts.

As many lawyers have also discovered, there is KM power in other networks. The ABA Solosez list and state bar email discussion lists are often cited as invaluable resources for solo and small firm attorneys to get advice, recommendations and help over the Internet. [NOTE: The network of bloggers is an amazingly valuable network for me these days.]

9. CaseMap.

CaseMap (www.casesoft.com) is a litigation knowledge management tool that costs under $500. CaseMap allows you to work with the facts and issues of your case in powerful ways to formulate strategy, assess the strengths and weaknesses of your case and organize and present your case in the most persuasive manner. It also unlocks all the information in your case that is typically hidden in legal pads, banker's boxes and attorney's heads.

For example, in CaseMap, you and your colleagues can assess each fact in your case for its relative strength or weakness and determine whether it is favorable or unfavorable. Facts can also be associated with specific issues. In how many cases would it be helpful to you to have a list of all strongly favorable, undisputed facts on the causation issue, with the names of the relevant witnesses and researched associated with each fact?

CaseMap is an inexpensive and powerful KM tool that no litigators should be without.

10. Routine Recording and Transcription.

Do you routinely tape your presentations and arguments? Why not? If you think you have a good reason, why not videotape or audiotape your practice sessions?

Recording spoken and performance materials can be an excellent KM tool. The recordings might be used for training other lawyers. Transcripts might be made so that the material s could later be reused for articles, seminar materials, email newsletter or web site content. Would a potential new litigation client benefit from seeing a video clip of you in action?

The opportunity to capture this type of material is routinely lost by lawyers. The availability of relatively inexpensive video cameras, recorders and voice recognition software, when combined with the today's digitization techniques, opens up a new world of possibilities in this area. [NOTE: I feel even more strongly about this today.]

Practical Tips for Getting Started in DIY KM.

Here are a few of my best tips to get started with do-it-yourself KM.

1. If you don't understand the whole KM concept, don't worry about that one little bit. Even the experts can't agree on what KM is. What you care about is the practical, real-world impact of KM techniques for you. You practice law, not linguistics or philosophy.

2. Start with a few easy efforts. Look through the items above. Make a list of the ones that seem easiest for you to do and where you can see that they would bring quick, concrete results. For example, it's easy to record presentations and have your secretary transcribe them. It's also easy to create a "KM" folder for email.

3. Consider how you work best. KM techniques that force you to modify how you work are doomed to failure. If you aren't collecting clauses with notes, circle the clauses on a printout and dictate some notes and have your secretary take care of it. Dan Felean of PensEra (www.pensera.com), a KM tools company, argues persuasively that KM is a team sport and that the best approach to KM in the legal profession involves building upon the routine relationships and tasks of lawyers and their staffs.

4. Set reasonable, business-oriented (or personal and professional) goals. We can all go a little overboard on technology. Think in business terms. If you are applying the simple KM approaches that I suggest above to contacts, don't think in terms of either technology or "contact management." Think in terms of the effects and goals that you want to achieve. Do you want to "implement a contact management system" or do you want to know who your top twenty sources of referrals are and what kind of "quality contacts" you are having with them? I hope that's a rhetorical question.

5. The network is the message. Personal knowledge management is great, but the real power of KM comes from sharing. Look to ways to put KM efforts in place across your network and to take advantage of the collective knowledge of the whole team.

Conclusion

The approach that KM software vendors have taken to KM today is not working yet for many lawyers. Lawyers now find KM impossibly vague, very expensive and, rightly or wrongly, just today's flavor of "management." At the same time, lawyers need to take advantage of KM tools and techniques to cope with increasing information overload, new competitive pressures and changing economic realities. Ignore the hype. Take a do-it-yourself approach to KM and try to get real-world business results using tools you already have or can cheaply obtain and you will move well ahead of those who are content merely to debate KM concepts. [NOTE: Although I was critical of the high-end KM tools at the time I wrote this article, in part I used that critique as a rhetorical device to make the argument for the personal KM approach taken in this article. The focus of this article is individuals and small firms. I am quite bullish on today's generation of KM tools for larger firms – what a difference a few years can make.]

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

Posted by dmk at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2005

Seven Quick Negotiating Tips from Columbo - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article is from my "Practical Technology Contract Review News," a newsletter I did a couple of years ago, before concentrating on blogging and other writing efforts. This article is meant to be fun, but still give you some helpful tips about negotiation. And, yep, my daughter and I are still Columbo fans.]

Seven Quick Negotiating Tips from Columbo.

My daughter and I have been watching reruns of the old Columbo TV show. It struck me that there are some good lessons to learn from these shows about contract negotiations. Consider these:

1. Do Not Underestimate the Opposing Party. The criminals always make the assumption that Columbo is not an opponent who matches up to the high opinion they have of themselves.

2. "Bear with me, I'm just trying to understand this." Columbo often uses this tactic to get his adversary to spin out explanations of events in ways that show contradictions. Try this: "Bear with me, I'm just trying to understand how if your software infringes someone's copyright, and we can't even see the source code, why should we bear the risk of an infringement claim instead of you."

3. "My superiors want me to tie up all the loose ends. You know how they can be." This tactic is actually a variation of #2. The advantage is that you can keep a friendly relationship and blame the boss.

4. Be Polite But Be Persistent. Columbo uses a very high level of patience combined with a dogged persistence. He remains personally likeable while continuing to move toward his goal. The opposing party still likes you, but they reach a point where they just want you to stop coming back to the same point about the damage cap, and may become willing to give on the point.

5. Ask for the Opposing Party's Help. A good tactic when you reach the endgame stage. "Can you help me out? If we can just get these two points - and they really are minor points when you think about it - then I know we'll get the signature and put this one to bed."

6. "Just one more thing." Columbo says this signature line as he gets to the door to leave, as if he has just remembered a small point that slipped his mind - almost as an afterthought. The "one more thing," in fact, deals with his major reason for having the conversation in the first place. Psychologically, Columbo's opponent has already mentally "closed the door" on the conversation, dropping his or her guard, and leaving an opening to make the point with greater effect.

7. Keep Your Focus. Misdirection plays an important role in Columbo's style and approach. However, his focus never wavers from his goal of solving the case.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

Beating Information Overload with News Aggregators - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article, from the fall of 2003, over two years ago, was my effort to explain RSS feeds and news aggregators (or news readers) in plain language and to show why I found them so exciting and, even, a "world-changing" technology. If you still visit this blog on a regular basis, you'll want to read this article to see how you can get the posts on this blog to come to you without you visiting this blog. People describe RSS as a "disruptive" technology and all kinds of other things. But until you "get" the newsreader experience, this is all just theory. Use of RSS feeds and a news reader can dramatically change your everyday experience of the Internet. It's powerful stuff, if it fits the way you use the Internet. It's worth making the experiment.]

Beating Information Overload with News Aggregators

I knew the world had changed the first morning I checked my news aggregator before I checked my e-mail.

We all have our routines for getting our daily dose of information. We might read a newspaper or two. We check our e-mail for messages and newsletters. We have our favorite web sites we check every day. The mail brings magazines, advance sheets and other information resources.

And it all overwhelms us.

“Information overload” is no longer a catchphrase – it is an illness that leaves us with a sense of being overwhelmed and falling further behind. Being a lawyer means that we are definitely in the information business.

I have found a solution that really works. The same tools can work for you.

Let me start with a paradox. The amount of information I now handle on a daily basis has grown dramatically, but the amount of control I feel that I have over that information has increased exponentially. You might be thinking: is he actually going to try to talk me into adopting a new technology that brings me more information? Yes, I am.

I’m also going to try to sell you on a new technology and hardly tell you any details about the underlying technology. Why? Because it’s not about the technology—it’s about how the technology can help you in what you do every day.

Some of you might remember back to a three-month period in the late 1990s when “push” technology was the hottest tech trend going. The idea was that rather than going out to the Internet to find information, we could have information “pushed” to our desktops. Pointcast was a classic example. “Push” was not ready for prime time and it disappeared off the face of the earth.

However, one of the ideas behind “push” – that it is better to receive some information, especially updates and news items, automatically rather than to go out and search for it – continued to be attractive. For the most part, e-mail and e-mail newsletters have since filled the role expected for “push.” Savvy e-mail users could subscribe to relevant newsletters and had friends and colleagues who sent them relevant material off the Internet.

Unfortunately, in the last year or so, the sheer volume of e-mail, spam and the danger of attachments, drastically reduced the effectiveness of e-mail for these purposes. It has become difficult to find relevant material in your inbox.

At the same time, it has become harder to find the information you want on the Internet. When you do find a valuable page, it takes work to keep up with developments on the site. Essentially, you have to remember to visit each page that you want to follow on a regular basis. I’ve tried a variety of techniques, from a “daily” favorites list to “tabbed” browsers to some “automated browsing” techniques. None of them work. The difficulty is that you have to make an ongoing effort to go out to each page.

As a result, I found that I never remembered to check a wide variety of useful sites, especially those of my friends, and I missed all kinds of useful material. I had accepted that as the cost of living in a world of information overload.

Enter newsfeeds and news aggregators. A news aggregator is a software program that automatically retrieves newsfeeds from web pages that supply these feeds. Newsfeeds come in a number of standard formats and are relatively simple items of code that (1) can be retrieved and read by news aggregators and (2) may contain headlines, summaries, excerpts, full text of articles, links or even images. That’s all you really need to know about the underlying technology in order to use it.

What are the benefits and advantages of news aggregators and newsfeeds?

I do not have to visit each source site individually. Once I find a site with a feed (and I’ll talk about that below) and "subscribe" to the feed via my aggregator, I get the information the site feeds without taking affirmative steps to visit the site.
I can review new information from a large number of sites in a short time.
I can sort my feeds into groups categorized by subject matter.
I can add and delete feeds easily.
Because I receive information via feeds in a highly useful manner, I can deal with information easily and efficiently.

The last point touches on the essence of the usefulness of newsfeeds and news aggregators. With respect to new information, we, and lawyers especially, ideally want to do the following:

Know that the information is there (Alert).

Quickly determine what it is (Headline).

Quickly scan or get the gist of the information (Excerpt or Summary).

Read the full article if we are interested (Full Text).

Deal with the information – typically act on it, move it on, delete it or file it (Take Action).

If we could find a tool that allowed us to take these steps easily, not only would our lives be easier and less overloaded, but we could, in fact, take on and handle more information, especially if, at the same time, we are improving the quality and the relevance of the information we get.

News aggregators give us precisely such a tool.

In my news aggregator (I'm using FeedDemon as my example), I have a number of subject matter folders. In each folder are the feeds (sometimes called channels) that I have affirmatively added to my list of feeds. When my news aggregator updates (either on launch or when I manually trigger it), I will see in the left column a highlighted feed and the number of new items sent out by that feed. When I click on that feed, I see in the middle column the headlines of these feeds, with the unread ones in bold. If I click on a headline, then, in the right column, I will see either a summary provided by the author of the feed, a short excerpt, or the full item, in each case with a hyperlink to the page on the site providing the feed on which the item is located. Today’s news aggregators, for the most, look very much like the Outlook e-mail interface many of us use on a daily basis.

In short, I quickly see the Alert, the Headline, the Excerpt or Summary, and either see or can quickly jump to the Full Text. Therefore, I get four out of the five ideal steps in a matter of seconds, or less, per item, and I take full advantage of my ability to scan quickly. I also have the tools to perform the Action Steps in an efficient manner.

As a result, I have a great deal of control over the information I receive because I can “triage” it very quickly, and move on or go deeper easily and efficiently. If the headline doesn’t affect me, I move on. If the headline interests me, I look at the summary or excerpt. Doesn’t affect or interest me? I move on. If it does, I look at the full text. Then I act on it – bookmark it, delete it, forward it on to a colleague, whatever.

As you will notice, e-mail newsletters, web pages and other approaches, do not give you the benefit of following these five steps so easily. For example, many e-mail newsletters are full text. If you like, as I do, e-mail newsletter that provide a short blurb and a link to the full article, you’ll see the benefit of a news aggregator right away.

We now have access to a rich information environment that brings material to us on a regular basis in a manner we can work with. But what can information can we really get?

It is now time for a brief digression about weblogs or blogs. Newsfeeds and blogs are almost invariably talked about at the same time. Here is all you have to know: A blog does not need a newsfeed and a newsfeed does not have to be connected to a blog. That said, newsfeeds definitely play a major role in the world of blogs and some of the best feeds come from blogs.

You can now get feeds from newspapers, magazines, news networks, headline services and a wide variety of content sources as well as from blogs. If you want to monitor, on a daily basis, a dozen of the most well-known newspapers in the world, you can easily do so. If you want to see headlines on your favorite sport or subject of interest, you can do that. There are now hundreds of law-related feeds.

As a result, you can be more up-to-date, spot trends, see what some of the leading thinkers on a variety of topics are writing, and learn of new developments quickly and easily. I will tell you that you can realistically manage several hundred feeds in less than half an hour in the morning.

How do you get started?

Here is the path I suggest. There are a number of sites that point you to legal blogs with newsfeeds. I'd start at Blawg.org (http://www.blawg.org) and see what is out there and what might interest you. Technorati (http://www.technorati.com) is a good general search tool for blogs and newsfeeds.

Once you get a feel for the information that is available and want to take the next step, check out a news aggregator. There are a number of them and new ones appear regularly. If you ask me today, I would suggest trying NewsGator (http://www.newsgator.com) or Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com), an online newsreader. There are many newsreaders these days. I generally recommend using Bloglines as an easy way to get started.

\You will gradually learn a number of tricks to locate feeds and there are some helpful resources. However, you will want to start looking on your favorite web sites either for an orange, rectangular button that says “XML”, the phrase “Syndicate this site” or something similar that indicates a newsfeed, an “XML” feed, an “RSS” feed, an “RDF” feed or something along those lines.

Click on that link. You will be taken to a page of code that is all but incomprehensible. That’s OK because all you want is the URL. Copy the URL and go to your news aggregator and following the steps for adding a new feed or channel and paste the URL in the appropriate blank. In some cases, an aggregator may automatically pick up the feed.

From that point on, when your aggregator updates you will get fresh headlines and material from that feed and it will appear in a convenient place with the other feeds you monitor. You never have to go to the website or blog, or the incomprehensible XML page, again, unless you want to. New posts and items will just come to you.

As a result, you will find yourself better informed and more in control of the information tidal wave in which we now live. I have been looking for a tool that will produce these results for many years. News aggregators have dramatically changed the way I deal with information, especially developments that affect my practice, in a manner that is extremely positive, productive, and, I hope, profitable. I definitely encourage you to take a test drive with these new tools and technologies. They will help you where you need it on a daily basis and give you a greater sense of control, and that’s something all of us can use.

[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 advanced blogging consulting and technology committee coaching packages for law firms, corporate legal departments and other professional services providers.

Posted by dmk at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2005

Flashback: My Legal Technology Predictions for 2000 - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. As you may know, I have a long tradition of writing an annual legal technology predictions article. I was gazing into the legal tech crystal ball recently and came a way with a bit of a sense of pessimism and a large sense of deja vu. I mentioned this to some of my legal tech buddies. They quizzed me a bit and I mentioned that 2006 in legal technology reminded me a lot of the year 2000 in legal technology. I dug out my predictions article for 2000 and quickly realized why I had that feeling. I'm finding that writing these predictions articles increasing involves a balancing between developments that really interest me, such as Web 2.0, and developments which are likely to happen in the use of technology by lawyers. With that in mind, I'm republishing my predictions article for 2000 without any changes. You'll seem some of my common themes and I'll let you judge how accurate my predictions were – some wags might say that certainly many law firms have had much financial success ignoring my predictions. The article may be especially interesting to those who contend that the legal profession are "slow adopters" of technology.]

A Legal Technology Agenda for 2000

Assuming you have put the aftermath of the Year 2000 Problem behind you, 2000 will be a year in which you will find that your clients more so than innovations in technology will dictate changes in the way you practice. In 2000, it will be more a question of implementing existing technologies well rather than preparing for strikingly new technologies. It will be a year of great opportunity for lawyers and law firms, especially those looking toward the Internet.

Here are twelve items to put on your technology agenda for 2000:

1. How Will You Do Windows? Lawyers live largely in a Windows world. You may hear a lot about Linux, Macintosh and other alternatives, but most legal applications are Windows applications.

The biggest technology release of 2000 will be Windows 2000, Microsoft’s much ballyhooed and much delayed successor to Windows NT 4.0. A major new version of Windows is big news in any year, but Windows 2000 is the proverbial 800 pound gorilla – much of your thinking about upgrades and new systems will be a reaction to Windows 2000.

Microsoft clearly wants business users to move to Windows 2000, which it sees as the next generation in operating systems. Expect to see availability and support for Windows NT and Windows 98 dwindle as the year proceeds.

You may still conclude that you will stay with Windows 98 or NT for the foreseeable future, but you have to look at Windows 2000 and understand the reasons for choosing it or not choosing it. Your thinking, unfortunately, will be further complicated by the Microsoft antitrust case. Although there’s always a reluctance to move to the first release of any software, it’s hard to imagine a more thoroughly tested product than Windows 2000. There’s a feeling of inevitability about Windows 2000.

2. An Explosion of Non-PC Options. How much longer PCs will be the "computers" of choice? Some predict that as early as 2001 the number of "information appliances" purchased, such as Palm computing devices, "smart phones" and the like, will surpass the number of PCs purchased. We soon will be seeing the decline of the PC.

Information appliances focus on a limited number of specific tasks (calendaring, e-mail, paging, web access) and are generally portable in a meaningful way. They tend to be "instant on" (no waiting to boot your PC) and extend the reach of your office computer in user friendly ways. The cost is more likely to be a few hundred dollars rather than the few thousand dollars you might spend for a PC.

While Palm computing devices are the hot items in this category and the new Visors from Handspring have gotten a lot of attention, watch this year for e-mail appliances, web pads that allow you to browse the Internet, wireless devices and other specific-purpose devices. These devices are tailor-made for the ways many lawyers work and may improve your productivity while trimming your technology costs.

3. A Move Toward Knowledge Management. Knowledge management gets a lot attention these days. From simple efforts to make earlier work available to reduce the need to "reinvent the wheel" to more elaborate efforts to capture and exploit the accumulated "wisdom" inside your firm, innovations in knowledge management continue to grow.

Knowledge management really means finding ways to move beyond simply processing data or managing information to unlocking the "knowledge" in your firm. You and your firm have a lot of knowledge – methods, people to talk to get things done, strategies. Typically this knowledge is in the head of only one person. The result can be inefficiencies and duplication of effort when someone doesn’t know the right person to ask, can’t find a file that shows how something was done in another case or can’t locate a research memo on the same topic.

Firms and software companies have put a lot of effort into "unlocking" this knowledge and finding ways to make it sharable and more usable. In larger firms, attorneys use intranets, Lotus Notes applications and databases. In smaller firms, attorneys use case management packages, litigation database programs and simpler databases.

Law firms have been slow on the draw in this area, especially when compared to the massive efforts of the Big 5 accounting firms and other professional service firms. In part this slowness is because knowledge management is usually cast as a highly invasive, retooling of a practice. The better approach is to pick discrete areas in which to experiment, focus your efforts where they may bring the best results, limit the scope of projects, and try to measure your success.

Here’s a move toward knowledge management for trial lawyers that everyone can afford: (CaseMap). CaseMap costs less than US$500 and this powerful software allows you to capture the knowledge you have about a case, categorize and rate your evidence, see patterns in evidence, analyze evidence and even share results with others on a team. I’m a big fan of CaseMap. Another development to watch in this area is Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard initiative, which turns Outlook into the primary means of access to a variety of information you use on a regular basis.

4. Security Is No Longer Just a Blanket. Over the past year or so, hackers and virus creators have made the world much more dangerous for computer users. Your computers and your networks have become increasingly vulnerable to attack from a variety of sources.

While you might expect lawyers, with their concern for confidentiality, to be in the forefront of computer security, the sad story is that many law firms keep information on systems that are shockingly vulnerable and commonly allow practices that make virus infection all but inevitable.

The security issues with Microsoft products alone dictate a policy of installing a regular set of upgrades, patches and industrial strength security and virus protection. Even the most secure networks are vulnerable because firms allow easy-to-break passwords. Hacking "tools" and scripts are readily available on the Internet to assist even the novice hacker.

Simply put, you must get security issues onto your technology agenda. The program to watch in this area: BlackICE. You will also want to add Stuart McClure and Joel Scambray’s weekly Security Watch column in InfoWorld to your regular reading list.

5. Web Presence Matters. More than ever, law firms must have a professional web site. While many law firms now have web sites, it is time to move these sites to a second generation and use the sites to provide real value.

Current Internet usage statistics show that today’s user is not the stereotypical 15-year-old, but a member of a demographic group that should be attractive to almost all lawyers. A surprising number of people look for lawyers on the Internet and if you don’t have a site or if you have an amateurish site, you will not get these clients.

People are developing Internet expectations and a professional web presence is one of those expectations. Take a hard look at your web site and compare what it does to what you want it to accomplish. A major revision is probably in order.

6. There’s Gold In Your Networks. It’s not what you know but who you know, right? Most of us do not do a good job of capturing or mining the information we have about contacts. Address books get out of date. We have a collection of business cards of people who we no longer remember. We can’t remember our last conversation with a client, her birthday, names of children, et al.

It’s not only embarrassing, but it hampers our practice. Programs like ACT!, GoldMine, Outlook, TimeMatters, Amicus and others all provide "contact management" options. In a sense, this is a subcategory of knowledge management. Contact management turbocharges your address book. You can keep expanded types of data on a contact and, most important, keep historical data. And you can pull useful information out of your contacts.

Such as: contacts most responsible for referrals, clients with wills over two years old, prospects who are basketball fans for the extra tickets you have, the names of art appraisers you’ve used in the past. You get the idea. Some programs can work with caller ID and even pop up the caller’s information as you are picking up the phone.

7. Expand Your Network with E-mail Discussion Lists. One of the great Internet phenomena we’ve seen is the development of e-mail discussion lists. For virtually any topic you can think of there is a discussion list.

They work like this: You "subscribe" by e-mail to a list. You receive a copy of every e-mail sent to the list manager. Copies of any e-mail you send to the list manager are sent to everyone on the list. This mechanism produces an ongoing and wide-ranging discussion.

Why are they so useful? Many times, the leading lights in a field are regular participants. People tend to share a lot of practical knowledge. It is rare to see a question that goes unanswered. You can make friends all around the word. And, there is no better way to learn about new developments. Start at TileNet (http://www.tile.net) to find lists that appeal to you.

8. Taming the E-mail Tiger. Many attorneys have seen great benefits from using e-mail and clients increasingly want to contact attorneys by e-mail. E-mail, however, raises many important management issues. How long do you store e-mail messages? Must you protect messages to clients with encryption techniques? How do you ensure that an e-mail with important information is integrated into a client’s file? How do attorneys manage growing numbers of messages? You will want to implement management solutions well before you and your attorneys are run over by the volume of e-mail they face.

9. Computers Continue Their March into the Courtroom. One clear trend in legal technology is the march of computers into the courtroom. Litigation technology includes real-time transcription, litigation databases, trial management and trial presentation. Projectors and large monitors are becoming more common in trials. This technology can dramatically level the playing field for small firms and solos against much larger firms. Expect to see continued explosive growth in this area. From video depositions to PowerPoint slides to digital cameras, trial lawyers are seeing the benefits of using technology to present cases to jurors (and judges) who are part of the TV generation. Litigators ignore developments here at their peril.

10. Collaboration Counts. Intranets allow you to turn all the information contained in your firm into a giant, private web site. All that information can then become easily accessible to other members of the firm. While intranets offer a great way to share information of all types within a firm, extranets allow you to create a private web site for a client that the client can reach over the Internet and see work in progress, billing information and other information that can enhance the client relationship and offer novel ways to work together more closely and more cheaply. Clients are starting to put pressure on firms to create extranets or to implement other collaborative software (sometimes called "groupware") such as Lotus Notes.

Extranets are becoming popular as a way for co-counsel to collaborate on complex, far-flung litigation matters like tobacco or other mass tort cases. By going to a secure, private site on the Internet, co-counsel can share information, discuss cases, work jointly on projects or documents and stay up-to-date on case developments. Other firms, large and small, are starting to use extranets for clients who want access to drafts of documents, billing information and the like. Extranets have potential to both aid in collaboration and to help save money – a dynamite combination.

11. Browser Interfaces Become Ubiquitous. A hot new Internet topic is "web-enabled" technology. In essence, this means that you can access programs and underlying information using only an Internet browser (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape’s Navigator). For example, many firms now give attorneys access to e-mail through a secure web site interface. Another example to watch: the application Service providers (ASPs) such as the Serengeti project (http://www.serengetilaw.com), which plans to provide a web interface to high-powered legal software applications that are hosted by a third party rather than at your firm. Expect to see even more of this trend, including in bread-and-butter applications like document management. The benefits: reduced training time and ability to access information from almost any computer.

12. Training Takes A Front Seat. Most law firms I know tend to skimp when it comes to training. This approach can be short-sighted and foolish. Excellent training can bring you excellent results. As you consider your technology agenda for 2000, think hard about dramatically increasing your training budget and focusing on how to make that training more effective. Consider a variety of training options and remember that lawyers who refuse to participate in training can generate substantial support and other costs.

Bonus Point. Try Something New that Can Revolutionize Your Practice. There are a lot of great new technologies available to lawyers. I recommend that you pick one technology that can have a dramatic impact on your practice and invest in it. For litigators: real-time transcription, databases like Summation, trial presentation packages like Trial Director, or a trial strategy program like CaseMap. For lawyers who produce a lot of form documents: document assembly software. For presenters: Powerpoint. For all: getting your practice onto the Web. Best advice: turn your young lawyers loose on some technology projects.

Conclusion. You may notice that I did not mention much hardware and only a few software programs. More important than gee-whiz new hardware in 2000 are the Internet and your attitude toward technology and your motivation to find ways to make technology work for you in your practice.

[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).

Posted by dmk at 07:23 PM | Comments (1)

November 23, 2005

Fast Fish and New Technologies - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. Here's an oldie that someone recently reminded me about. I wrote the first version of this article way back in 1997 and the version you see here was published in this form in 1999, but many people still like this article and tell me that they have found it valuable. It shows my belief that thinking carefully about how to use technology well is usually much more important than over-focusing on features of specific hardware or software products. As you begin to think about ideas like "Web 2.0," you might want to give careful thought to the "fast fish" metaphor used in this article. It also applies to individual departments within larger organizations and other collaborative efforts.]

Fast Fish and New Technologies

We have moved from a world where the big fish eat the little fish, says Tom Peters, the famous management consulting guru, to a world where the "fast fish eat the slow fish."

I've noticed lately that many of the most innovative developments in legal technology have come from smaller firms and solo practitioners. Small firms and solos have developed some of the most successful legal web pages, pioneered voice recognition and other applications, and taken the lead in developing "paperless" office strategies. They have become the faster fish.

While much has been written (including by me) about the difficulties small firms and solos have in finding good technological assistance, the flip side of the story is that small firms and solos have some advantages over big firms that help them leverage new technology and level the playing field against larger firms.

Here are ten advantages that small firms and solos have over large firms when it comes to innovation and technology:

1. The People Most Affected by the Technology Decisions Actually Make the Decisions. Large firms generally have an IS department that handles technology matters. Technology decisions are generally announced to lawyers rather than discussed or voted on. As a result, decisions tend to be based on what is best for the organization as a whole rather than what it best for individual lawyers.

In a small firm, the people most affected by the decision actually make the decision. There is more opportunity to tailor technology to individual needs. More importantly, the decision-makers will directly experience the impact of their decisions. A critical factor in the success of the adoption of any technology is the amount of "buy-in" from the people who will be using the technology. Better participation leads to better attitudes about changes, greater success with training and more effective use of new technology.

2. Decisions Can Be Made Quickly. Some large firms have spent years debating whether to have a Web page. Some small firms have gone from decision to implementation over a weekend.

Any process that involves a long series of committee meetings will foster an atmosphere of cynicism and frustration. In a small firm, decisions often can be made over lunch or when several attorneys decide to make an impromptu trip to a computer store. For solos, important decisions can be made in the shower or on the drive to work.

3. The Need to Find Cost Savings Drives Innovation. In a small firm, every little bit of cost savings can have a direct impact on an attorney's earnings. In larger firms, cost savings have more indirect results. Cost savings can be an important motivation for adopting new technologies.

If you are starting up or maintaining a small practice, the cost of a library can be prohibitive. Purchasing library material strategically on CD-ROM rather than in book form can result in both space and cost savings. Wise choices made while attempting to cut costs can result in an innovative use of technology that leads to a more productive practice.

4. The Size of the Project is Less Daunting. It is easier and cheaper to set up a network of three computers than it is to set up a network of three hundred computers. Adding a new hard drive to one computer is far easier than to add several mirrored hard drives to a network server.

5. Technology Improvement Can Be an Important Use of Downtime. Smaller firms and solos sometimes have alternating cycles of busy periods followed by slow periods. In a large firm, the constant push to bill hours does not allow for that type of cycle and puts pressure on attorneys to focus exclusively on generating billable hours and not on developing systems or improving technology. In a small firm, a slow period in the practice may be a perfect time to implement new software, to use document assembly to automate forms, to try a new calendaring or contact management program, or simply to plan for future technology requirements. Taking more time to think about technology and to explore options will result in more successful applications of technology.

6. Small Firms Are More Willing to Adapt Their Practices to Shrink-wrapped Software. In a large firm, different departments often do things in very different ways. In addition, there may be a "Firm" way of doing things which has not been modified for many years. These firms will often spend enormous amounts of money to customize programs to match existing practices.

Small firms, on the other hand, are likely to use commercial legal software, and even commercial software designed for home users, and adapt their practice to the software. This flexibility will often allow a small firm to use a time and billing program costing a few hundred dollars as opposed to a $100,000 time and billing package which might produce no significant practical difference in results. What matters is that time gets recorded and bill get sent out, not that you are using "legal-specific" or customized software to do it.

7. The Payoff From Technology Investment is More Easily Seen. If every time that you want to print a document you must copy the file onto a floppy disk and take it to another computer which is physically attached to a printer, you will clearly and concretely see the benefits when you network your computers and printer. A larger monitor may give you an immediate impact by reducing the need to squint to see details. A Web page might start producing clients that can be readily traceable to the Web page. A small firm's return on investment can be easily seen and measured. In a larger firm, return on investment can be harder to identify and may take place over a longer time frame.

8. Small Firms Are Willing to Experiment. Small firm lawyers are usually the lawyers speaking at seminars about voice recognition software and other innovative technologies. As a general rule, lawyers are not known as "early adopters" and many large firms are extremely conservative and unwilling to take risks when it comes to technology.

In small firms, there tends to be more of an attitude of experimentation and a willingness to try new things. There is also a willingness to admit that an experiment has not worked and to try something new. This attitude allows smaller firms the opportunity to match technology to their needs and to keep them in some cases closer to the leading edge of technology than many larger. Smaller firms seem more willing to try new options like leasing technology and breakthrough legal software like CaseMap.

9. The Need to Level the Playing Field Drives Technological Change. Some of the more innovative uses of technology by small firms came in response to the practice of larger firms of trying to bury smaller firms in paperwork during discovery. The use of programs like Summation, or other litigation management software, can give a small firm control over mountains of evidence in a way that can be superior to what can be achieved by a team of big firm lawyers not using the same technologies.

Because it is all but impossible for a small firm to compete with a large firm in a war of attrition using human resources, small firms have tremendous motivation to leverage technology to level the playing field against big firms. Competitive factors often drive excellent decisions about technology.

10. Small Firms Focus on the Practical. Often big firms seem to be preoccupied with the theory of technological improvement and with thinking about how technology might work rather than actually using the technology. In the meantime, small firms are adopting new technologies that streamline their practices, putting up Web pages that draw in clients, and producing charts and visuals that help them to win cases.

An important example is law firm web pages. Large firms have a tendency to put out web pages because it is seen as a requirement for a firm of stature, with no real expectation of getting clients, often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Small firms put up web pages that work and get clients.

Here are five final points to remember about technology and the small firm:

1. Be flexible and willing to experiment.

2. Build on your successes. Constantly try to extend the efficiencies you have already gained through other technology and systems you've developed.

3. Try to identify areas where cost savings will also result in innovation and increased productivity in your practice.

4. Focus on practical and measurable results.

5. Get on the Internet.

Be a fast fish. By being flexible, practical and innovative, small firms and solos can use technology to increase their effectiveness and productivity and level the playing field against slower-reacting large firms.

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. I wrote this article in January 2004 for the ABA's GP Solo Magazine. Please note that parts of this article are dated, but I've not updated it to give you a sense of history. This article sets out several of my key principles in making legal technology decisions.]

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's legal technology consulting services, featuring website and blog consulting and technology committee coaching packages for law firms, corporate legal departments and other professional services providers.

Dennis Kennedy

legal technology

Posted by dmk at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2005

To Tech or Not to Tech? - Article

To Tech or Not to Tech? Important Questions (and Answers) for Your Practice

Hamlet, in Act III, Scene 1, delivers these immortal lines:

To tech, or not to tech: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The crashes and reboots of outrageous operating systems, Or to take arms against a sea of software glitches, And by opposing delete them?

Or he might have, if the play was written now and set in a small law practice.

Trying to make good technology decisions has left many otherwise skilled and confident lawyers feeling like TechnoHamlets – seeing and speaking with ghosts and making friends and colleagues wonder about their sanity.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. This article will show you how to think about systems and technology and give you a solid foundation upon which to build a framework for making good decisions about legal technology.

Technology is both a tool and an investment. As does any good craftsperson, we must try to find tools that are both the right tool for the job and of sufficient quality to give us a good return on our work.

A Story of Technology as Both Tool and Investment.

My wife's brother went back to law school at the age of 40 after working in the real estate and art gallery businesses in the San Francisco area. He wanted to open his own law firm from day one. We had a number of telephone conversations about what computer and software he needed when he started, primarily focusing on a laptop computer and speech recognition software. He would ask me about specs, memory, screen size, percentage accuracy of the programs, and the like. After a while, we seemed to be returning to the same questions without getting a decision made.

Finally, I asked him what he really wanted to do with a laptop and speech recognition software. It turned out that, as a practical matter, he could expect to pay about $4,000 (about the price of the computer and software at the time) a month to hire a good legal secretary. He didn’t know whether he could make enough in the first months to pay the secretary, let alone leave anything for himself.

Now, we were on track. If the only thing the laptop and speech recognition software did for him was to delay the need to hire a secretary for a few months, buying them would be a good investment. In fact, he bought himself nine months. That's $36,000 of value for a $4,000 investment in just nine months, not a bad return. He has told me several times that my "advice" made all the difference in getting his business off the ground.

I don't think that I gave him "advice." I simply asked the right question. When you ask the right questions, the answers get a lot easier. What I want to teach you is how to ask the right questions about technology.

The Right Questions.

The question whether "to tech or not to tech" is one of the right questions, but, properly understood, it is a question that comes later in the process.

There's a great scene in my favorite science fiction TV series, Babylon 5, where one of the main characters is suspended in a state between life and death, bathed in waves of light, with disembodied voices asking repeatedly, "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" Because the character can answer those questions with clarity and authenticity, he goes on to fulfill his great destiny.

"Who are you?" "What do you want?" It really doesn't get much more basic than that. However, these are pretty deep questions to answer when you really thought that your question was "should I get an inkjet printer or a laser printer?" My argument is simply that the better the answers you have to these two questions, the better decisions you can make about technology.

Here's the Key.

You must choose technology on the basis of whether it helps you be who you are and do what you want better than the other alternatives that you are considering.

There are several consequences of this approach. First, my best technology choices will not be your best technology choices. Second, although you should listen to advice and recommendations, the final decision must be your decision. Third, this approach forces you to think of technology as both a tool and an investment.

Do Not Separate Technology From Systems.

Lawyers create and are creatures of systems. A law practice incorporates a large number of systems. There are systems for:

Running your office (Workflow management, operations and procedures, hiring and training, accounting and financial, planning and continuity)

Getting clients (Contact management, marketing materials, follow-up, client intake, engagement letters)

Serving clients (Project and workflow management, procedures, filing, forms, calendaring and docketing)

Getting paid (Fee setting, timekeeping, billing and collections, banking and trust account, procedures)

Complying with rules (Conflict checking, confidentiality, calendaring and docketing, recordkeeping, training and CLE, taxes)

It's no wonder you are so tired at the end of the day. There's plenty of work involved in creating and maintaining systems before you even get to the practice of law stuff.

I have two core principles about systems:

1. You always have a system, but it may not be the one you want.

2. Your systems should work for you, not against you.

We all know lawyers who use the following "system" for locating notes, correspondence and documents. Every piece of paper is stacked in tall piles on desktop, credenza, office chairs and floor. When something is needed, the lawyer digs through the papers until frustrated and then calls in a secretary who assists in going through the piles until the document is found or another emergency arises.

This is, in fact, a system for retrieving needed documents. Is it a good one? Is it an efficient one? Is it one that the lawyer would have designed or ever have intended?

Technology in Proper Context.

Technology must always be viewed within the context of your existing systems. Thinking about technology outside this context will lead you in the wrong direction. Unless you consider how a technology fits into this context, you cannot read reviews in a meaningful way and lists of "editor’s picks" may lead you to unsuccessful purchases.

Consider the previous example of a "system." The question of whether the lawyer should buy one brand or another is not useful. The "best" scanner is the one that will hold the highest pile of papers stacked on it when it is treated as another storage space. The better question is: does any scanner make any sense in this type of system or are there better options?

If you want to implement any technology, the introduction of the new technology must do one of two things:

1. It must implement a better system; or

2. It must improve an existing system.

If it will, it makes sense to proceed. It's as simple as that. Even a technophile like me will admit that in certain cases a technology solution may not be the best approach.

Technology is only a tool; it is not a panacea. As a practical matter, technology simply enhances the habits and skills you already have. Technology does not magically give you new skills. Speech recognition only makes it easier to get your words into a document; it does not magically make you a better writer.

It all comes back to the basic question: does the technology help you be who you are and do what you want? If the answer is that you want to be a better writer, speech recognition will not be as good an option as some non-technological efforts. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to launch a practice with minimal expenditures and only bring in a secretary when you feel that you need one, then speech recognition makes a great deal of sense.

Two Big Roadblocks.

Most lawyers are aware of only a tiny fraction of the choices available today. For example, did you know that there are more than one hundred "case management" programs? Often, a lawyer or firm will be trying to decide between the lesser of two evils when there are better choices available that they haven’t heard about. The list of resources at the end of this article will help you with this roadblock.

You will also get a lot of well-intentioned misinformation about legal technology. People recommend using Linux instead of Windows to a lawyer who barely knows what a mouse is. People will warn lawyers away from newer versions of software or installing updates and patches (a security problem just waiting to happen), lead them to obscure programs, and draw conclusions from setups that are outdated or clearly inadequate. In simplest terms, they are giving you generic information that does not take into account your specific needs or the context of your systems. The result is that you learn that what works best for them doesn't work out so well for you.

Think about the practice of law. A client comes to you and asks whether they should form a C corporation or an LLC. The best response is to ask, "What do you want to do?" To answer, "I heard that some people had some kind of tax problem with C corporations a few years ago so I tell people never to use them," probably is not a good approach to the practice of law or helping your client.

Key Variables to Consider.

Some factors are especially important in making technology decisions and your needs in these areas can have a dramatic impact on the choices you should consider.

Solo / Solo with Staff / Small firm. The type and number of users will have a huge impact on your choices. If your practice consists of just you, you can look at much simpler choices over a longer period of time. As soon as you move to two users, you must consider networking, training and standardization of software.

Litigation or Not. I do not see how you can be a litigator and not use a laptop computer. Because litigation software, such as CaseMap and Summation, can be so valuable, you will need to devote time to learning more software options. Projectors, wireless access, PowerPoint and other "options" may well become necessities.

At Desk All Day or Not. If you are an at-the-desk lawyer, PDAs and cell phones are much lower priorities.

Volume of Work. This factor may be the most important one of all. The cost of replacement cartridges for an inkjet printer will eat you alive if you print thousands and thousands of copies a month. If you have a small number clients, you may well be able to run your accounting with a spreadsheet. If you have a lot of clients, a range of rates and lots of matters, you probably have to go with a legal accounting package. Asking "how often will I use this?" is an essential part of hardware decisions in particular.

Your Priorities. It could well be that who you are and what you want will be the lawyer who has the coolest gadgets. It might be that you want to reach jurors with a simple, plain-spoken style rather than thrill them with the latest thing in multimedia. Don't ignore who you are.

Area of Practice and Client Needs. In some areas of practice, there may be standard technologies that everyone uses. Some lawyers have told me that to make a decent living in family law these days, you need to automate to the greatest extent that you can. Similarly, you may have clients who require that you provide documents in certain formats, have ready access to e-mail, or implement security measures.

Twelve Tips, Observations and Recommendations.

Because this article argues that a one-size-fits-all approach is never appropriate in making legal technology decisions, I hesitated before setting out a list of general comments. However, I do want leave you with some practical pointers.

1. Even the least expensive of today's computers is a rocket ship compared to the computers of even a year or two ago. Don't limp along with old, slow computers. Four corners not to cut in configuring a new computer are: memory (RAM), hard disk capacity, number of USB ports and CD or DVD burners.

2. The new generation of high-capacity external hard drives offers the best inexpensive backup solution we have seen so far.

3. A laptop now makes sense as the primary computer for all attorneys. It is essential for today's litigator.

4. Windows XP Professional is the operating system of choice for lawyers in the Microsoft world.

5. For any firm putting in a network, the new low price of Windows Small Business Server ($750, or less when bundled with a server) make it a must-consider option to get standard networking capabilities, including remote access, at an affordable price.

6. Volume discounts for many software programs, including Microsoft programs, can be obtained for as few as 5 users and some consultants can offer you programs to roll hardware, software and consulting costs into a monthly payment option.

7. While Microsoft Office 2003, Small Business Version, might be the best option for small firm lawyers, there are now free alternatives such as OpenOffice that may work in your situation.

8. If you are prepared to do a little more research and go off the well-worn path, Macintoshes and Open Source software represent very acceptable non-Microsoft alternatives and no lawyer should dismiss them out of hand.

9. With the advent of electronic filing, a PDF creation program should now be considered essential software. The gold standard is Adobe Acrobat (Writer, not just Reader), but cheaper alternatives are available.

10. If you have a laptop computer, you should have a wireless card (802.11b or 802.11g) or Intel Centrino technology to take advantage of wireless Internet hotspots at airports, hotels and restaurants.

11. If you are not installing Windows security updates and updates for other programs, running an updated antivirus program, and using a hardware or software firewall (ZoneAlarm is free), you might as well turn on a big neon “welcome” sign to the bad guy hackers.

12. Take a class in any program you use on a regular basis.

Action Steps.

So . . . what should you do when you finish this article? Take a few minutes to think about your technology and your systems. Then take the following actions over the next week or so:

Do enough research to find 3 or 4 software programs you did not know about that can be used in your specific areas of practice.

Inventory and make a quick assessment of your current technology and systems.

Look back at one significant technology decision you made in the past and reevaluate it using the principles outlined in this article and write down the lessons you learn.

Identify one or two technology options that have been on your mind and apply the principles outlined in this article as you make your decisions about them.

Conclusion.

"To tech or not to tech" is only part of the question. Technology should not be seen as an area of bewildering complexity. Instead, treat it as both a tool and an investment. Fit your technology into the context of your existing systems and only make decisions that result in either the implementation of a better system or the improvement of an existing system. If you do so, you will come closer to the goal of having your technology enable you to work the way you want rather than force you to work the way it wants.

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

Posted by dmk at 08:35 PM | Comments (1)

November 21, 2005

Blessed Rage for Simplicity: The Most Important Trend in Legal Technology - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. An earlier version of this article appeared in the September 1999 of my legal technology newsletter called "Legal Technology Strategies." Please note that parts of this article are dated, but I've not updated it to give you a sense of history. In many ways, I've long felt that this article captures most closely my general philosophy about technology and its use. ]

Blessed Rage for Simplicity: The Most Important Trend in Legal Technology

When you are around accomplished craftspeople for any period of time, you start to notice how easy their work seems to be for them. You also notice that they have a lot of tools, many of which you've never seen before, all of which seem perfectly suited for the task at hand. I’m often struck by the elegance of their function and how simple and well suited both to the task and to the individual doing the task they seem.

I've noticed this in a number of settings lately. The other day, I got on an elevator with a guy who was delivering five-gallon water bottles. He had a handcart that had a couple of shaped metal tubes that allowed him to slide the bottles securely onto the cart and unload them easily. He could also carry several more bottles than he could with a standard handcart. In fact, I tried to imagine how difficult it would be to hold these rounded bottles on a standard handcart and the time and effort that it would take to try to strap them on and keep them secure. I also pictured myself with a tipped handcart and the bottles rolling across the floor, something that would not happen with this specially-designed handcart.

But I also imagined a day when someone said, "Here's what we need. Why don’t we try welding some tubes onto a handcart so the bottles slide right in and don’t fall out?" In fact, maybe one delivery person got so tired of bottles falling off that he or she welded the bars on a regular handcart. A simple idea makes a great tool. A better result comes from considering the user and the process and by limiting functionality rather than expanding it.

I was reading the story of the inventor of the PalmPilot and his efforts to make sure the first PalmPilot would work as he envisioned it. He focused not just on operating system and technical details. He also cut a block of wood in the same dimensions as the PalmPilot and carried it around for months to make sure that it really worked as a shirt-pocket device. He wanted to understand the user experience. Thinking about this story will help you understand what a Palm device can and cannot do well.

We are moving toward a time when we have technology that fits our tasks rather than having our tasks fit our technology. In other words, I think all the talk about "information appliances" means something.

Part of what's driving this movement is the general sense that our lives, and our PCs in particular, have become too complicated and overwhelming. There's a movement toward simplicity in other technologies we use. Want fresh-baked bread? Push a button on your bread maker. Microwave ovens have one button to push for popcorn and cooking sensors for one-button cooking and reheating. As more intelligence gets built into products, they become easier to use. PCs have even more intelligence built into them, yet it seems that using them is getting harder and harder.

In part, there are, in a way, too many choices - Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, Macintosh, Novell, Linux, BeOS, WordPerfect, Word, 25 different case management programs, Palm, multiple product versions. You finally reach a state where you long for what Wallace Stevens once called a "blessed rage for order." How do you make sense of it?

We are trying to make our PCs and the standard programs we use perform tasks for which they are not optimally suited. Another part of the problem is that clearly the PC environment does not always work for the ways that we work. You see a lot of frustration, primarily focused on Microsoft.

Now, some people seem to deal with this issue by adopting an anti-Microsoft method of dealing with complexity. It goes like this: I don't care how much it inconveniences me, as long as I can avoid using Microsoft products, I am doing a good thing.

As a general rule, this kind of negativity gets you nowhere, in no small part because it does not focus on how you work.

I advocate another approach: a movement toward simplicity. Simplicity in the sense of what works best for the way you, not anyone else, work. And we are seeing some signs of that movement.

Windows can be a maddening environment, but I tend to like it. Microsoft has done some things that really work for me. I really like the right mouse button and knowing that I can click it and most of the things I want to do become available. Coming from a Macintosh background, I'll always prefer a graphic interface. I also like the fact that you get a lot of consistency in the interface. I never liked DOS and DOS programs where F7 would mean "enter" in one program, "print" in another and "exit" in a third. Even if you argue that it is easier to press one key than to use a mouse, that doesn't work for me. The good news, however, is that there doesn't have to be a right and a wrong.

How do you work? Learning to dictate for voice recognition does not make sense if you can type 100 words a minute and have an unusual accent. Learning to type is no solution if you can't type but can dictate 100 words per minute. "Simple" depends on how you work best.
How you work best can vary with each task. It now drives me crazy to wait for Windows to boot. Especially if all I want to do is enter a phone number, make a note to myself or jot down some ideas for an article. Here, the instant-on Palm device is perfect. When I want to write an article like this one, however, a Palm device is not the right tool. A handheld Windows CE device might be perfect for on-the-road presentations because it is so light and will run PowerPoint presentations. If you have to edit your presentation on the fly, however, it's the wrong tool.

Other examples? Bill Coplin, at NetTech, thinks that the "killer app" for attorneys will be the perfection of handwriting recognition on a device like the CrossPad [NOTE: Today the example would be a Tablet PC.] because attorneys are so used to carrying legal pads. On the other hand, Bob Wiss and Greg Krehel at CaseSoft want CaseMap to "replace the legal pad." I'm excited by the cordless flat panel web appliances due out soon from Cyrix and others that will allow you to access the Internet while sitting in your favorite chair. My notion of the perfect simple device has full-time Internet connectivity. [NOTE: These deviices never made it, but a Tablet PC with WiFi access does the same thing I had hoped for.]

The fact is that getting to simple is not so simple. In fact, the whole notion of simplicity is quite complex.

How do we begin to move to simplicity in our computer technology. I want to talk about four possible solutions, all of which open up the paradoxes of simplicity.

One solution is to create simplicity through multiplicity. There's always been a strand in predicting our technology future that focuses on making computers "ubiquitous." An excellent recent discussion on this point of view can be found in an article on MIT’s Oxygen project by Michael Dertouzos in the August 1999 issue of Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/1999/0899issue/
0899dertouzos.html). The notion is that we can make life easier and simpler by having many computers instead of one and scattering them all over our houses and offices and matching function to location. Lately, this notion includes the idea of having "Internet tone," just like dial tone, so we can plug into the Internet anywhere and anytime.

As an example, we might have a PC on the desk, a Palm in our pocket, an electronic phone book in a cell phone, an electronic book on the night table, and so on. The right tool will always be at hand because there will be many location- and function-specific devices.

This approach becomes more possible as hardware prices continue to drop. In my opinion, the Palm gives us a taste of this approach and it is an attractive one.

A second solution is to create simplicity by standardizing on one interface (and that interface might even be Windows). The most-talked about candidate is the browser. The browser is simple. What if we can use the browser as the main interface and treat all the information we use as if it were a series of web pages? Click on a hyperlink and access information anywhere and retrieved information from other programs or even get Java applets to do word processing and other functions.

This approach really appeals to me because I sometimes feel that I'm one of the half dozen people outside Microsoft who really likes browser integration in the operating system. Think about it: whether you are accessing files on your local computer, your network or the Internet, all you're doing is accessing files. Why use a different program? This approach to file access and management is so obvious and desirable to me that I literally cannot even understand the arguments to the contrary.

But the browser is not the only option. Look at is how you use your computer. In what program do you spend most of your day? It might be Outlook (check out Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard initiative), ACT, a word processor, a PIM, a case management program, an e-mail program. An approach to simplicity would be to add functionality and access to your data to that program.

A third approach is to create simplicity by limiting functionality. Palm computing is one example. Another example is something like a Java-based approach that would allow you to grab as much functionality as you need at the time.

Here's an example. As I write these words, I’m looking at a screen that has shockingly close to 100 buttons and menu items on the screen as I simply type text. If I step back from writing and look at the screen, I feel a bit like a jet fighter pilot.

What if I could grab versions of a word processing program that gave me only the functionality I needed for the task at hand? A couple of fonts, spell checker, word counter. When I needed more functions, I could just grab that specific functionality as, for example, a Java applet. [NOTE: Sounds a little like AJAX and Web 2.0.]

Or, maybe I could rent the additional functionality or even other programs only if I need them from an Internet-based service. Presumably, a limited-function version of our standard programs would run faster and cause fewer glitches.

A fourth approach is to create simplicity through customization. A custom approach tailored to how we work might require the underlying programming to be more complex, but what we will see and use will be much simpler - to us. It's going to be more expensive, and more work to set up and get right, but it gives us some interesting possibilities.

Consider this example. Think of a lawyer who doesn’t want to use a computer, but when pushed, says that what really frustrates him or her about computers is that they can’t do what would be most useful to him or her: calculating settlement figures. When an opposing party makes a settlement offer, it might take days and several people using several programs to put together disbursements, fee arrangements and the like into a form where the lawyer could decide whether the offer was "reasonable" or not. Far too often, these settlement calls come on a Saturday or after hours, at a time when the lawyer can not get any information. That lawyer might very well say that if you could give him or her one button to click on that would produce that information, he or she would immediately buy whatever technology that could make that happen because the technology would solve the lawyer’s business problem.

A programmer might be able to give the lawyer that button to produce that customized result. Clicking on that button would set of a process, invisible to the lawyer, that pulled information transparently from a variety of underlying programs and then displayed the necessary result in an understandable and usable form.
Custom approaches are funny things. Most people have a reluctance to go that route. The upfront costs are certainly higher than off-the-shelf solutions, especially where you don't put a cost on frustration and wasted time. In this country, "custom" seems for many people to be synonymous with "decadent," or seen as a luxury.

On the other hand, custom can bring us closer to getting the right tool for the job, Just as the carpenter has a specialty router jig for certain cuts that saves a great deal of time, gets the job done right and allows the carpenter to enjoy the craft, a settlement calculator may do the same thing for a busy personal injury attorney. Ironically, the better the custom design and the more upfront work put into it, the more effortless and simple the results.

I'm fascinated by this notion of simplicity and the "complexity" that seems to underlie it. My friend Howard Smith is a serious cyclist (he owns 15 bikes) and was helping me buy a bike recently. He ended up building a bike that he thought would work best for me and I learned a lot during the process.

At one point, Howard introduced me by e-mail to Grant Peterson, something of a legend in bike design circles. We had an interesting discussion about handle bars and other things, all in the context of how I would actually use a bike. After I got my bike, I began to subscribe to Grant's great newsletter (www.rivendellbicycles.com). Even if you don't ride a bike, the newsletter is fascinating for the glimpse it gives into how a gifted designer sees things. Grant's comments on things outside the realm of cycling are often incisive and profound. Another great source of ideas about simplicity is Jakob Nielsen's writing on web design at Useit.com.

Both Peterson and Nielsen advocate a highly user-focused approach that moves you toward customization, where it makes sense, and lots of upfront effort in the design stage of a project. Both leave you with a sense of simplicity and effortlessness in the actual use of a bicycle or web site that you will want to apply in other areas.

There's a lot to think about on this subject. I recommend taking a look at the technology tools you use and thinking about how they work for you and how they could better fit what you do. It's that aspect of simplicity that I would suggest that you focus on and make a guiding principle. Resist the urge to make a dislike of Bill Gates your motivating principle in making technology choices. You still may end up miles away from Microsoft, but do so in a way that reflects the way you work best.

The great news is that there are so many technology choices and so much power in those choices that we can come much closer to finding the tools that suit us best than we ever have before. And that trend is likely to continue. Paradoxically, it may be in more complexity and looking forward rather than backward, that we move to a simplicity most of us crave.

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

Posted by dmk at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2005

Hanging Out Your Shingle on the World Wide Web: Promoting Your Practice in a Digital Era - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. This article is another favorite ofmine. Earlier versions of this article appeared in the September 2000 issue of the Missouri Bar Bulletin and the Spring 1997 issue of the St. Louis Bar Journal. Please note that parts of this article are dated, but I've not updated it to give you a sense of history. This was my first significant to capture what I thought I had learned about the use of web pages by lawyers. It's instructive to see how many of the links are dead in even an article like this one with a short list of footnotes. In early 1997, there were only a few articles like this one available and it seems like all of the authors sought the other others out for guidance. In a real sense, this article led to my chance to meet Jerry Lawson and built the foundation for the Internet Roundtable columns that Jerry Lawson, Brenda Howard and I (along with the occasional guest author) wrote on LLRX.com that I think constitute some of the best analysis and advice about lawyers using websites that you can find. It's also interesting how blogs, by their nature, create the content-based approaches I advocated in this article.]

Hanging Out Your Shingle on the World Wide Web: Promoting Your Practice in a Digital Era

While many attorneys have focused on the use of the Internet for legal research, others have learned that the most innovative uses of the Internet by lawyers can be found in the area of marketing. In January 1995, no more than twenty law firms had web pages.[1] In the past few years, however, thousands of law firms and lawyers have created web pages and many more firms will debut web pages this year. If you have not thought seriously about implementing a web page for yourself or your firm, now is the time to consider your options.

Individual attorneys and law firms have been attracted by the demographics of the hundreds of millions of users of the World Wide Web – generally more educated and more affluent than the population at large. Attorneys have seen their clients, potential clients and competitors establish presences on the World Wide Web. Internet-savvy firms have learned that web pages can be excellent ways to deliver and enhance client services and to develop cross-selling opportunities with existing clients. A web page can also provide a cost-effective way to supplement or enhance other marketing efforts.[2]

Peter Martin has said that "enterprises moving serious commercial activities onto the Internet undoubtedly will want legal counsel and representation from lawyers who understand the Internet and show that they can work comfortably in that environment. They will be looking for law firms with branches already established in this new enterprise zone."[3] A web page offers a lawyer or law firm a chance to create a presence in and gain access to this new enterprise zone.

This article will focus on the two types of World Wide Web pages commonly used by lawyers -- the law firm web page and what I call the specialty page, offer some practical tips on getting started and publicizing your web page, and discuss realistic expectations of results.

The Law Firm Web Page.

There are two general types of law firm web pages: the "static" web page, which is basically an electronic business card or brochure, and the "dynamic" web page, which adds a number of enhancements and interactive features.

A static web page generally is a simple conversion of an existing marketing brochure into electronic form. Such a page might contain biographical information about attorneys, information about firm practice areas, contact information and other marketing materials. In some cases, a static page is no more than an electronic business card or billboard. Other static pages are electronic copies of existing marketing brochures or recyclings of existing marketing materials. The major drawback to static pages is that there is no reason to visit them more than once.

A dynamic web page includes much of the same material found in a static page, but adds a number of important enhancements, such as articles and memos written by firm members, e-mail newsletters, lists of links to other web pages and other information helpful to clients and non-clients alike. Each of these enhancements is designed to prompt some form of interactivity or to encourage a visitor to return to the page on a regular basis. New types of features incorporate the lessons of "e-commerce" learned from Internet companies like Amazon.com and might include personalization, private areas and discussion areas.

You will want to have a dynamic web page because the main goal with a web page is to create a high volume of traffic and, especially, return traffic from visitors of the type that you want to attract. Return traffic creates potential clients, potential referrals and enhances your reputation or that of your firm.

You can give people a reason to return to your page by providing interesting and changing content which highlights the specific aspects of your firm which you wish to market. One of the key maxims on the Web is that "content is king." Your page should offer content that is valuable to visitors of your page and which gives them value on each visit to the page. Your web site should also provide easy and speedy navigation through all of the pages comprising the site so that visitors can easily find content which would be useful to them and e-mail contact to request more information or follow-up with you.

Law firms that have generated clients from their web pages point to the use of e-mail newsletters and mailing lists as the key to a high number of return visits and the production of business directly attributable to the web page.[4] E-mail newsletters can help enhance your reputation for expertise in a given area or provide you with a ready means of contacts with people who are already interested in your firm, whether they are clients or not. As a result, you can use the e-mail newsletter for targeted marketing efforts. An e-mail newsletter also provides a built-in feedback mechanism to help you measure the impact and effectiveness of your web page.

Since a primary purpose of a law firm web page is to market your firm, you will want to know how well your efforts are working. Web counters are available which will count the number of visitors you have had to your page, but these simple counters do not inform you whether you had one-time visitors or prospective clients. More sophisticated tools are becoming available and should be used as a matter of course, but simple features like e-mail newsletters and guest books will help you count the number of quality visits to your page. A subscriber to your e-mail newsletter shows much more interest in your firm than a casual browser. These simple techniques can help you gain useful marketing data and quantify the benefits of the web page.

There are many innovative and useful law firm web pages. Visiting even a few law firm web pages will give you an idea of some of the potential benefits of a web page for your firm. A great listing of reviews and links to many law firm web pages can be found at http://www.redstreet.com.
[NOTE: Website no longer in existence.]

The Specialty Page.

The second type of web page being used by lawyers is the "specialty" web page. A specialty web page is a page that is devoted to one specialty topic; for example, estate planning. A specialty page can be a stand-alone page done by an individual attorney or it can be a sub-page on a law firm's overall web site.

Specialty pages tend to be built around a set of articles written by an attorney or a set of links to other web pages dealing with the same specialty topic. Specialty pages generally grow out of an attorney's personal interest or as an attempt to fill a perceived need for such a page.

I created my first web site because I simply wanted to have a handy collection of web pages dealing with estate planning and tax information on the Internet. I decided that the information would be useful to a wider audience and my page then grew and evolved to cover a large number of related legal areas. Similarly, a lawyer who has written a few articles might start a specialty page containing only those articles. Over time, such a page might grow to include related links, other articles, practice pointers and recent decisions. A good specialty page can be an excellent starting point to get a quick overview of a specialty area and can also be helpful to those looking for technical and in-depth treatments of specialty subjects. Often such a page can be an excellent point of entry to a specific legal topic.

Specialty pages are typically designed to help others, provide educational materials, publish or publicize written material, or enhance an attorney's reputation as an expert in a specialty area. They are not usually designed with the primary intent to produce clients directly.[6] By developing a reputation on the Web, however, an attorney might expect to get referrals or new clients as an indirect benefit, in much the same way as would an attorney who lectures at seminars.

Not every area of the law currently has a web page devoted to it. With a little effort and persistence you can have a nationally-known specialty page. My estate planning page, for example, was personally rewarding and seems to have been helpful to a good number of people all around the world. Every attorney has a unique perspective and expertise and is capable of producing a creative and interesting web page.

Getting Started With Your Web Page.

The very best way to get started is to spend some time on the Web and look at as many law firm and law-related web pages as you can. There are a number of web pages that will direct you to some of the best legal and law firm web pages.[7] Again, I especially recommend the Redstreet Consulting list (http://www.redstreet.com [NOTE: Website no longer in existence.]). You will know after you look at a number of pages if having your own web page is going to appeal to you. In addition, you will gain a good understanding of what seems to work for other firms and what features might work well on your page.

You will want to take the time to get a strong understanding of what your goals are with your page and how you will determine whether those goals are being met. Sketch out your ideas for the page, drawing the graphics, layout and navigation scheme. You should think at all times like someone who will be using the page. Will the page be easy to navigate? Will the most valuable information be easy to find? Will your features enhance the visitor's experience or simply lead to long, frustrating delays? Will it be easy to contact you from the page? Fortunately, there are many resources on the World Wide Web about effective web page design to assist you in this process.[8]

Before you implement your page, you will need to resolve two important issues. The first question is should you create the page yourself or should you bring in an expert? There are pluses and minuses of each approach. The programming language for creating web pages, "HTML" (HyperText Markup Language), is not difficult to learn. You can buy a book on HTML[9] and put together a solid web page after a couple of weekends of reading and work. Web page creation programs, like Microsoft's FrontPage, make the process even easier because they eliminate the need to learn the underlying HTML code before you create your page.

On the other hand, a web page consultant who comes highly recommended might produce a great web page with graphic design and features that you could not produce or think of on your own. A professional designer might also help you avoid problems that you would only discover through experience. A professional will charge a fee; if you do it yourself, the cost is your time or the time of someone on your staff. Lately, the balance has probably shifted over to professional design of most law firm sites.

The second and more important question, however, is who will keep the page updated? In order to get return traffic, you must have a page that regularly provides new or updated content. Even if someone else created your web page, you will need to decide if that person will update the page on an ongoing basis or whether it is more reasonable to update it yourself. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to update on a regular basis. If you do not, people simply will not return to your page. Nothing turns off a web page visitor more than finding that a page has not been updated for several months.

Five more tips on getting started:

1. Do not overwhelm yourself by trying to design a perfect, feature-laden web page which you never complete. Start with a solid effort and then build and improve as you see what does and does not work.

2. Commit to the web page. If you or your firm has tried other marketing techniques and they have been successful, your web page is more likely to be successful. If you have started newsletters or other marketing efforts which have been discontinued, then you will probably need to hire out the updating of your web page. Be honest with yourself.

3. Be guided at all times by two concerns: (i) your goals with respect to the page and (ii) the viewpoint of the potential user of the page.

4. Find a good, reliable host for your page. Web pages are not self-executing; after you design and code your page, you will need to put your page files on a computer that is attached to the Internet (a "server"). The complications of hosting your own page on your own server are outside the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that most web pages are hosted by a third-party provider.

5. Become familiar with the applicable ethical rules. The use of web pages raises important ethical considerations, but, as an example, the ethical guidance in Missouri has been favorable to web page development. You will need to know the applicable rules of your jurisdiction and monitor developments.[10]

Getting Publicity For Your Page.

The world's greatest web page will do you no good if no one sees it. You will want to make sure that the people that you want to see the page can find it. Your guiding question should be: how do you want people to find your page? By concentrating on this question, you will be forced to consider what your target audience is, how that audience will use your page and in what ways you want your audience to find your page.

I have gradually come to the conclusion that planning for getting publicity for your page is more important than planning for the actual design of the page itself. I suggest taking plenty of time to draw up a written plan for getting publicity for your web page. Do not forget that publicizing your web page is an ongoing project.

Your web page is one part of your overall marketing effort. Once your web page is online, you should send out an announcement about your web page and mention the page in every marketing mailing. The address of your web page should be placed on business cards, stationary, brochures and your yellow pages ad. If you have a newsletter, you will want to run a feature article on the new web page, as well as create an e-mail version of that newsletter which can be subscribed to from your web page.

It is vital to let your existing clients know about the page. One of the best uses of a web page is to help existing clients find out about other services your firm can provide. Every marketing consultant will tell you that the best way to increase your business is to cross-sell your existing clients and provide other services to them that they are not now getting from you and may not even know that you can provide.

How does someone find your page if you do not tell them about it yourself? There is no single index to the World Wide Web. People using the World Wide Web find information by using what are known as "search engines." Search engines are web pages which allow you to use key words to search a database consisting of indexed information from actual web pages and produce a list of links to web pages that best match your search request.[11] Each of these search engines allows you to submit your web page to be added to its index. You should definitely do that as a starting point to publicize your page. But they are only starting points.

You will also want to consider getting your web page listed on one of the Web's directories of law-related web pages. Two examples are the large collections of legal web pages found at Findlaw[12] or CataLaw [13] You will probably want to add a link to your web page from your firm's online Martindale-Hubbell listing.[14 ] If you have done your homework, you will probably have a list of law-related web pages on which you would like to have your web page listed. You simply need to contact those web pages and ask them if they will add a link to your page. A very important way to get publicity for specialty pages is to give and get these "reciprocal links."

If you want people to find your page by searching, for example, for "St. Louis law firms," then you must learn enough about search engines to find out how you can guarantee that your web site will found by someone doing a search using those key words.[15] You should also submit your page to all of the online St. Louis business directories. If you want your page to be found because it contains specialty information, you must design a strategy so that people looking for that type of information will find a link to your page when they use the most likely key words on one of the major search engines. You must stay focused on how you want someone to find your page.

You will get the best results if you develop and execute a plan to gain publicity for your site and monitor your results. Be innovative, take advantage of free publicity and remember that getting publicity for your page is an ongoing process.

Realistic Expectations of Results.

It is probably best to look at a law firm web page, at least initially, as a supplement to existing marketing efforts and part of a total marketing package. Use of a web page can generate substantial savings in terms of reduced printing, publication and postage costs related to ongoing marketing efforts. For example, changes to your marketing brochure require a new printing and a new mailing. Substantial changes can be made to the web page simply by making changes to the underlying computer file and uploading it to your web page.

On the other hand, there are firms, especially in the areas of immigration, intellectual property and technology law, that have developed a significant client base through the use of the World Wide Web. Greg Siskind has said that as much as two-thirds of his immigration law practice arises out of his web page.[16] Lew Rose, an Internet pioneer with an advertising law web page, reported that he had $175,000 of business in 1996 alone that he can trace to his web page.[17] Computer giant Sun Microsystems hired a law firm on the basis of the firm's web page.[18]

Most lawyers and law firms, however, have had difficulty quantifying the dollars-and-cents benefits of having a World Wide Web page. However, remember that for certain firms there may be disadvantages of not having a web page. There is an expectation that leading firms and firms with certain types of practices, especially high tech and intellectual property, will have web pages. Firms without web pages risk creating an impression that they are not current with the cutting edge in either technology or law and losing out in their efforts to recruit young attorneys..

Conclusion.
The use of the Internet is dramatically changing the ways in which all business is being conducted. It is impossible for the Internet not to have a similarly dramatic impact on the practice of law and, especially, on the business of the practice of law. The Internet is certainly a new enterprise zone and that fact must be addressed by you and your law firm. A few years ago, having a web page for your law firm would have been a novelty. It later became a trend. Now, it is a necessity.

End Notes

[1] See http://www.collegehill.com/ilp-news/hornsby1.html.

[2] See generally http://www.bamsl.org/inet/dkmark01.htm (which covers topics addressed in this article in more detail and provides links to helpful web pages).

[3] Martin, Prospecting on the Internet, ABA Journal, Sept. 1995, at 52, 53.

[4] See Greg Siskind's article, "Building a Law Firm Using the Internet", at http://www.internetlawyer.com/siskind.htm. Siskind has also co-written the widely-praised book, The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet. For more information about his book, see http://www.lawmarketing.com/~law/ or http://www.visalaw.com.

[5] See http://www.estateplanninglinks.com.

[6] See http://www.ca-probate.com/results.htm.

[7] E.g., http://www.legalonline.com/bestoweb.htm; http://www.bamsl.org/inet/sereng.htm.

[8] See, e.g., some of the resources I list on the http://www.denniskennedy.com site and Jerry Lawson’s excellent Netlawtools site at http://www.netlawtools.com. A good discussion of designing law firm pages can be found in Cohen, "What Makes Web Pages Work: The Dos and Don'ts of Cyberspace", 1 AmLaw Tech, Winter 1997, at 56.

[9] I recommend any of Laura Lemay's excellent "Teach Yourself Web Publishing" books from Sams.net Publishing.

[10] For a general discussion of ethical issues, see Mary Toy's excellent article in the Spring 1997 issue of the St. Louis Bar Journal. Informal Advisory Opinion 960151 from the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel is the key guidance in Missouri. For example, in Missouri you also need to be familiar with Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct 4.7.1 -4.7.4. There are two excellent web sites covering ethical issues: http://www.legalethics.com and http://www.computerbar.org/netethics/. A good summary of ethical issues can be found at http://www.collegehill.com/ilp-news/hornsby1.html. Other ethical materials can be found in my discussion at http://www.bamsl.org/inet/dkmark01.htm.

[11] See my list of search engines and related web sites at http://www.bamsl.org/inet/sereng.htm.

[12] See http://www.findlaw.com/.

[13] See http:///www.law.indiana.edu/law/v-lib/lawindex.html.

[14] See http://www.lawyers.com.

[15] See, e.g., http://www.searchenginewatch.com.

[16] See Greg Siskind's article, "Building a Law Firm Using the Internet", at http://www.internetlawyer.com/siskind.htm.

[17] Cohen, "What Makes Web Pages Work: The Dos and Don'ts of Cyberspace," 1 AmLaw Tech, Winter 1997, at 56.

[18] Id. at 57.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy’s legal technology consulting services, featuring website and blog consulting and technology committee coaching packages for law firms, corporate legal departments and other professional services providers.

Posted by dmk at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2005

Bringing Presentation Technology into Your Practice - Article

[NOTE: This is another in the series of repostings of my previously-published articles. An earlier version of this article appeared in the Febraury 10, 1997 issue of Lawyers Weekly USA. Please note that parts of this article are dated, but I've not updated it to give you a sense of history. I like this article for two reasons. First, the ten tips about doing presentations I give at the end of the article are still good ones today. Second, it shows how enthused I was about the use of PowerPoint back in 1997 – an enthusiasm that's continued to this day, even though my PowerPoint techniques have changed quite a bit over the years. As always, it's a matter of choosing the right tools and using them well. I'm always experimenting. At BlawgThink, I did a presentation using the presentation mode of MindJet's MindManager program and I really liked that approach for that audience. In the Open Space approach we took on Day 2 of BlawgThink, using PowerPoint doesn't make sense because everyone is both speaker and audience member and there is a conversation rather than a lecture. I sometimes hear or read people who condemn all PowerPoint presentations and PowerPoint itself. While there are plenty of bad PowerPoint slides, I generally think that people who dismiss PowerPoint as all bad haven't seen people who can really use PowerPoint well. It takes practice, ability and understanding of audiences to do PowerPoint really well. If you haven't seen PowerPoint used really well in the legal setting, I recommend that you attend one of Craig Ball's PowerPoint sessions at the ABA TECHSHOW or wherever else he may be delivering it. That will give you an idea of what can be done with PowerPoint in the hands of someone who really gets it.]

Bringing Presentation Technology into Your Practice

You have probably noticed the growing use of projection panels and projectors at seminars you have attended lately. Improvements in technology, some price reductions and the visible benefits to speakers' presentations have hastened the adoption of this technology. If you speak in front of groups of people - and what lawyer does not - you will want to take a look at what now is available in presentation technology.

I am a big fan of presentation technology. In fact, given diminishing attention spans of audiences, I predict that soon no one will be able to give a presentation simply by standing alone in front of an audience and expect to keep his or her audience's attention. In almost every case, your presentation will be improved by the use of presentation technology.

Presentation equipment may be either (1) a projection panel used in combination with an overhead projector or (2) an all-in-one projector. In each case the panel or projector is connected to the video output of your computer (typically a laptop computer). Once everything is connected, you can display whatever is on your computer screen in an enlarged form upon a projection screen in the same way you can show transparencies on an overhead projector. Anything that you can do on your computer, including animations and sound, may be seen and heard by your audience.

[Note: this article was written in 1997 and the marketplace has changed dramatically. The following section on hardware is interesting historically.]

Projection panels are small panels about the size of a laptop computer screen which are placed on an overhead projector so that the projector's light source shines up through the panel and projects the panel's images onto a projection screen. Panels once dominated the presentation market. They are generally cheaper than all-in-one projectors, lighter in weight and easier to transport (as long as you don't have to carry your own overhead projector with you). Panels range in price from about $3,000 to $7,000 for a quality active-matrix panel. Do not consider passive matrix panels because their quality simply is not adequate. A high quality overhead projector will cost another $500 to $1,500. You will definitely want to use a high-quality overhead projector with a panel. The overhead projectors we remember so well from eighth grade science class will not provide sufficiently brightness.

All-in-one projectors combine the panel technology with a high-intensity light source in one unit. All-in-one projectors have recently become very popular and are predicted to capture 75 to 80% of the presentation hardware market in the very near future. Generally their displays are significantly brighter and sharper what you can get with a panel using an overhead projector. They are also relatively compact and usually have built-in multimedia capabilities (speakers and audio/video inputs). Typically, all-in-one units range from about $5,000 to $10,000, although while researching this column, I saw an ad for an all-in-one projector on sale for $3,000.

One of the newer newest developments is called digital light processing ("DLP"). DLP is a technology which uses thousands of tiny mirrors to project an image. The projected image is brighter than the LCD technology which is being used in most panels and projectors. DLP units tend to be more expensive than LCD units.

Manufacturers of presentation hardware include Proxima, Sharp, In Focus, Boxlight, Canon, NEC, Sanyo and 3M. Most companies seem to have a number of models at a number of price ranges. Because a panel or projector is not a typical consumer item, you will probably buy your unit on the basis of a demonstration by the vendor in your office rather than by going to your local computer store. This approach is a good one because you will want to see each model in action and learn whether it will work with your current computer and with you.

Other features which are available with your presentation hardware include an infrared or remote mouse or other remote control so that you can walk around the room or away from your computer and still control the computer and the presentation, and in some models, software or an electronic tablet that allows you to write or draw on what appears on your screen during the presentation. Some projectors allow you to run a version of your presentation on a floppy drive built into the unit in case you have a problem with your computer.

The most significant technical issue to be concerned about is ensuring that the display of your laptop computer (typically VGA or SVGA) matches the display of your panel or projector. Most presentation panels and projectors have a VGA display. Newer notebooks which have SVGA (better) displays cause problems with VGA panel or projector. In most cases, the problem is that the panel or projector will not display anything at all.

There are two solutions to this problem. You can purchase a more expensive SVGA panel or projector or, less expensively, change the video display of your computer to VGA. It is not difficult to change your computer's display from SVGA to VGA, once you have learned how to do it. On the other hand, if you find the problem 5 minutes before your presentation and do not know how to change those settings, you may have a disaster.

Since you will likely be buying your panel or projector from a vendor who has demonstrated the product to you, you should insist that they ensure that your panel or projector works perfectly with your laptop computer. If the laptop computer you currently own does not do that, consider buying a laptop computer dedicated to use for presentations.

Another important consideration if you travel a lot is the weight of an all-in-one projector. These projectors have gotten much lighter in the past few years, but can still cause arm strain on a long trek through an airport. Newer models, however, can weigh less than ten pounds. The near-universal presence of projectors at most facilities can alleviate the weight problem by eliminating t he need to carry your projector with you to every presentation. Another alternative is to purchase a carrying case with wheels for your projector.

[Note: this article was written in 1997 and the marketplace has changed. The following section on software is interesting historically.]

Presentation software programs are extremely easy to use, allow you to include some impressive effects with the simple click of a mouse, look great and generally work as tools should work. Presentation software allows you to generate presentation slides with colorful backgrounds, bulleted text, graphics, animations and a wide variety of transition effects. The universal comment I heard about presentation software was how easy the programs are to use. There are probably four major programs designed for presentations and graphics - Microsoft's PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance, Harvard Graphics and Astound.

Microsoft's PowerPoint is the most commonly used presentation package and, even if you do not use it, you will want to save your presentations in a PowerPoint format to make it easy to transfer to others. PowerPoint is a very easy to use program.

However, since you'll be able to display whatever is on your computer screen, any software program can be used for presentations. For example, in a talk about the Internet, you might be live on the Internet showing web pages to illustrate your points. Another example is using your presentation hardware to display language that was being negotiated and revised in a conference room with all attorneys able to see the changes.

Presentation software can be used to create a set of slides which highlight your main points and become your speaking outline. You no longer have to read your speech and guarantee that you will lose your audience or refer constantly to your outline. In most cases, the room will be set up so that you can look at your laptop computer in front of you on the podium while your audience sees your computer screen displayed behind you on a large display screen. As a result, you can talk to your audience without any need to turn your back on them to point to text or graphics on the display screen.

New presentation technology will give you more control over your presentation, allow you to create better and more impressive presentations at a low cost and generally save you the embarrassment of dropping overhead transparencies or having slides upside down or out of sequence in a slide projector. However, like any new technology, presentation technology also opens the door to new concerns. There are more things that can go wrong.

Here are a few tips from my experience with presentation technology:

1. Arrive early to check all the equipment at your presentation site and make sure that your presentation looks the way that you think it should look at the site. You can make adjustments to improve the visibility of slides, change background colors or font sizes, or move screens and projectors.

2. It's better to be safe than sorry. I take two backup floppy disks of my presentation slides and a set of transparencies. You may also want to take along extra cords, outlet strips, extension cords, bulbs and a few tools. And, as I've learned, a small screwdriver.

3. Make sure that your screen saver program is turned off. It is embarrassing to have cute screen saver images appear just as you are ready to make a major point.

4. Do not run your laptop computer off its battery. Use the AC adapter. Don't ask for problems.

5. Do not use all the features of your presentation software in your first presentation. Use these features and effects gradually and as they make sense for each presentation. If you use a lot of effects and features, the medium, as Marshall McLuhan said, will become the message. People will remember the effects and the capabilities of the presentation program and not a word of what you said.

6. Practice giving your speech while using the equipment. You need to get the feel of using a mouse and changing slides.

7. Keep in mind the audiences point of view at all times. Think about the backgrounds that you are using and be sure that the text can be read. A rule of thumb is that if you can read the text eight feet away from a 15 inch monitor it will probably be okay.

8. Do not overload each presentation slide with information.

9. Use your slides as a speaking outline and move around, if you can, while you speak. You will give the impression of speaking extemporaneously, enhancing your authority, when your actual speaking outline is appearing on the screen in front of everyone.

10. Anticipate the unexpected. I learn something new about potential problems every time I speak. [NOTE: Yes, every single time.]

Attorneys speak in front of people on an everyday basis. Everything that you can do enhance your ability as a speaker will work to your benefit. This technology can definitely enhance you speaking abilities and you should look into it if you have not already done so. One final bit of advice: your image will be a reflection of your ability to present, your presence and charisma, and the presentation technology you use. There are a number of places in legal technology where you can choose to "go cheap," but presentation technology should not be one of them.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's half-day electronic discovery seminar - "Preparing for the New World of Electronic Discovery: Easing Your Transition from Paper to Electronic Discovery." Contact Dennis today for more information and to schedule a seminar for your firm or legal department.

Posted by dmk at 07:29 PM | Comments (1)

November 08, 2005

A Prudent Approach to Legal Technology Spending in a Slowing Economy - Article

[Note: This is another in the series of my previously-published articles that I'm reposting on my blog. An earlier version of this article appeared in the April 16, 2001 issue of LLRX.com and I've left in some references that are historical – anyone remember that Y2K thing? This article sets out two important themes in my writing about legal technology that still carry through my writing. First, there is a notion of "prudence" that should be applied to technology investments. Second, the elements of portfolio theory play an important role in making technology decisions and are part of my notion of prudence.]

A Prudent Approach to Legal Technology Spending in a Slowing Economy

An interesting new survey of 300 IT and business executives from Information Week magazine reveals that, for the first time in the four-year history of the survey, more than half of the respondents say that their technology budgets are either flat or declining. Just three months ago, that percentage was only 28%. Since law firms tend to be more conservative than businesses in general when it comes to technology spending, expect flat or declining technology budgets at many law firms in the current slowing economy.

The Information Week survey indicated that cuts are coming in custom software development and large-scale PC rollouts. Investment is continuing to flow into intranets, extranets and enterprise projects.

Whether from a recession or simply as a result of concerns about a recession, we are likely to see a pronounced tendency toward retrenchment in technology in the legal profession. Firms that have recently sunk large sums into network and hardware upgrades and Y2K-motivated projects are, frankly, looking for a breather.

Some effects are easy to predict: delays in moving to Windows 2000 (or XP), fewer hardware upgrades and a general willingness to push "enterprise" projects such as overhaul of document management systems off to a later date. There will also be a more hard-headed approach to requiring projects to be justified in terms of investment.

Does it make sense to buck the trend and invest in technology now to take advantage of some unique opportunities rather than to focus only on retrenchment?

In slow economic times, there are deals that can be made. Hardware and software vendors are more willing to bargain. The best consulting firms have more time available for new projects. Lots of talent is becoming available as dot-coms burn out.

There are extraordinary technologies now available that will revolutionize the practice of law over time. Investing in a few of them now could have dramatic payoff in the future. Taking advantage of the current market can help a law firm or individual lawyer get positioned for a "21st century practice" and be ready when the economy takes off again or help cope with an extended slow-down.

A Portfolio Approach

The key: being willing to think of technology in terms of investment. I like to think of technology investing as a form of portfolio investing. Much as we rebalance our investment portfolios in changing economic conditions, the same principles apply to technology investment.

If we learned anything at all in 2000, it is the importance of having a diversified investment portfolio that is line with our notions of appropriate risk. We tend to find a mix of low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk investments that fit our personalities and risk-tolerance levels. The best investment portfolios, over time, must include elements from each category. The interesting conclusion in modern portfolio theory is that the most prudent approach, over the long term, includes a reasonable proportion of high-risk, high-return investments, regardless of the investment climate. In a slow economy, sticking with a diversified approach is mandatory.

Investing in technology requires a similar portfolio approach.

The more technology options you can consider, the better. Gather a list of potential technology projects. Do a little brainstorming and include projects that are innovative and "push the envelope." Then sort them into categories based on the risk and potential return you assign to them. Focus on what makes sense for you, not on what "everybody" is doing.

You or your firm can decide on a conservative or an aggressive approach based on your personality or tolerance of risk, but the portfolio of projects you decide on must be diversified and contain some higher risk projects if you are to be prudent - an interesting paradox. A more conservative firm might try only a few high-risk technology projects and concentrate on "safe" projects. A more aggressive firm might decide that "safe" projects in this environment are the most dangerous of all and adopt a much higher-risk approach.

Here are six areas to think hard about when developing your technology portfolio:

1. Technology That Cuts Costs

If the economy slows, cost cutting is an important strategy. Does a Palm device or a Blackberry e-mail pager make more sense than a new notebook computer? Does scanning documents rather than storing them in your Class A office space make good economic sense? Will intranets save you printing, paper and copying costs? Will extranets save you long distance, Fedex and copying costs? More important, will offering an extranet save your clients on those costs?

Here’s a simple example: my brother-in-law, a solo in California, invested in a high-end notebook computer and speech recognition software with the hope that it would help him enough at the start of his practice that he would not have to hire a secretary for a least a few months. The $4,000 invested in that approach saved him six months of a secretary’s salary and benefits and played a key role in getting his practice off the ground.

2. Technology That Makes You Indispensable to Your Clients

You will want to hang on to your best clients. Look for technologies that help you do that by providing better service and saving your clients money. Extranets are the obvious approach to take, but web sites, e-mail newsletters, wireless technologies and contact management software offer significant opportunities.

3. Technology That Helps You Get New Clients

What does your web page look like? Is it working for you? Frankly, it had better be. A great web page works for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A bad web page works against you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The choice is yours.

Contact management software and better use of e-mail programs also fit into this category.

4. Technology That Helps You Move into New Practice Areas

Every law firm or law practice has a treasure trove of useful information, forms and the like that can help you move into new practice areas or find productive niches. In general, the technology category that helps you exploit this information can be called "knowledge management."

Whether you use case management programs, databases or other software tools, you need to learn what you do best, what you have done before and whether you can reposition yourself to take advantage of that internal knowledge to target new markets or to establish yourself firmly in the best part of an existing practice. Even simple document assembly applications will help you mine your expertise. Web pages, obviously, play a key role in establishing new practice areas and strengthening your position in existing niches.

5. Technology That Helps You Recruit and Retain Great People

Talented people want great technology. Here’s a hypothetical: Imagine that you are a bright young attorney. At firm A, a team of lawyers using CaseMap to develop trial strategy and put together cases. At Firm B, you get all the legal pads you want. What firm do you choose?

Law students don’t like to find that they are taking a step backwards in technology when they join a firm. Lawyers who grow to use technology don’t like to fight every step of the way to get basic tools. Look for ways to use technology to attract and keep good people.

6. Technology That Makes You Saner

Two words: remote computing. Do you want to shovel your car out after a snowstorm or do you want to stay home and telecommute by modem? Do you want to have to cart around boxes of documents or do you want to carry scanned images of all those documents on one CD-ROM? Do you want a case management program that shows you what you need to get done, gives you information you really need and also puts that information on a Palm device for you?

Identify sources of real aggravation and deal with them. If you are overwhelmed by e-mail, learn to use the management features of your e-mail program. If you can’t convert documents you routinely receive because you have an old version of Word or WordPerfect, step up to the plate and get the new version. Efficiency and productivity are great goals, but the best technology makes your life simpler and easier.

Concluding Thoughts

In a slow economy, you need to make smart choices about technology. Focusing hard on return on investment is important, but not if you are using that as an excuse to shut down technology investment. A better approach is to get a lot of options on the table and consider their likely risk and potential return. Then prudently pick a diverse portfolio of technology investment projects and step boldly forward. Not all of them may work, but the diversification will, and you’ll find yourself well positioned for the changes to come, both in the economy and the practice of law.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy’s consulting services, featuring RSS and advanced blogging consulting and technology committee coaching packages for law firms, corporate legal departments and other professional services providers.

Posted by dmk at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2005

Ten Tips to Improve Your Presentations with PowerPoint

[Note: this is another in the series of my previously-published articles that I'm reposting on my blog. Although my own thinking on PowerPoint use has evolved to be largely in line with Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points approach, I still like this article a lot. So have many others and it has long been my most popular article. It's been reprinted many times and used in classes from elementary schools to colleges. I seem to have struck a chord with this one, originally written in 1999.]

Ten Tips to Improve Your Presentations with PowerPoint

PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way people make presentations. Some accountants, engineers and other professionals consider PowerPoint a more essential tool than a word processing program. We are beginning to see lawyers use it in the courtroom, seminars and other legal settings. Lawyers use PowerPoint for opening and closing arguments to summarize witness testimony, outline the basic points of the case, and explain complex concepts.

PowerPoint takes advantage of the fact that most of us learn best visually. We are members of the TV generation and like variety, visuals and variation in the ways we learn new things. The term "edutainment" accurately describes how most of us like to get our information.

PowerPoint adds visual interest to our presentations, organizes our points, de-emphasizes the need for high levels of personal charisma and "speaking skills," and allows us to present to people in ways that enhance our ability to connect with and persuade audiences.

Best of all, PowerPoint is easy to learn and use. Because it is so easy to use, however, it can also be easy to misuse or not use effectively. Here are ten tips for making good use of PowerPoint in your presentations:

1. Make Use of Other Presentation Elements That Work Well. If you find slides that you like (and get permission), import those slides into your presentations or use them as models. If you like the colors or textures you see at a presentation, find out what they are and use them in your next presentation. Many speakers will give you copies of their slides or tell you how they prepared them. It never hurts to ask. Better yet, make use of the pre-fabricated templates and presentations that come with PowerPoint or that can be downloaded from the Microsoft PowerPoint website or other sites on the Internet. PowerPoint also has "wizards" that walk you through a set of choices and automatically generate the format of your slides. Most of us are not graphics artists, but the people who put the templates and wizards together are. The point is to communicate – if someone has a good way of doing things, learn from it and use it.

2. Don't Overuse Effects or Overcrowd Slides. Don't let people focus on the "gee whiz" aspects of your program. You want them to focus on the content of your presentation and on you as the deliverer of that content. Crowded slides turn off audiences and obscure your main points. Your slides should be designed to illustrate your speech, not to replace your handouts. Don’t cram them with information that belongs in a handout. Limit your points on a slide to 3 to 6 points. Avoid sub-headings. Instead, break major points into separate slides. Stick with the same backgrounds, styles and transition effects throughout your presentation. Think carefully before using animations, sound and video. It’s best to use those effects sparingly – they’ll have more impact.

3. Use Headlines Rather Than Outline Headings. The typical slide will have 3 to 6 bullet points. Compare the headings I have used for the first three points in this article with ones I could have used: "1. Resources; 2. Effects; 3. Bullet Points." Each bullet point on a slide gives you a chance to introduce, set expectations for and sell your argument on that point. Writing the points as headlines gives your presentation energy and power.

4. Find Your Own Style. On each slide, I like to use 3 to 6 bullet points and a single, simple graphic that illustrates the slide title. I prefer to bring my points onto the slide one at a time with no special effects and I like to "gray out" points after I finish with them. This approach gives better control and pace. I typically don't use sounds or movie clips. I'm just not comfortable with them and think that they tend to make cliched points (e.g., you say: "we hit our target" and then play an animation of, what else, an arrow hitting a target). Other people may find that sound and video work perfectly for what they are trying to do. I’ve seen people incorporate music clips, for example, very effectively. However, they are comfortable in using music. PowerPoint gives you plenty of tools to fit your style.

5. Prepare for the Unexpected. Any experienced speaker can tell you hair-raising tales about air conditioning, microphones, seating and a variety of other elements of speaking that can go wrong. My favorite of these, by the way, is leaving the wireless mike on after you leave the room. Using presentation programs, laptop computers and projectors brings in a whole new dimension of things that can go wrong. Projectors are especially tricky – I wish manufacturers would standardize where to put the on/off switches – and sometimes will not work with your laptop computer. Some speakers carry whole tool kits: extra bulbs, extra hard drives, copies of the presentation on floppy disks, cords, cables and adapters. Most of the time, things work quite well, but your failures are quite visible. The best advice: get to the room early and get everything set up and tested. Find out if the meeting place has a technical person assigned to your presentation. If so, befriend that person. If you make a lot of presentations, give serious thought to buying your own projector.

6. Think Like Someone in Your Audience. Picture what your audience will be seeing and hearing. Spend more time on content than on design issues. You can be creative but don't be silly. A very important point: readability. Use large fonts. If you can’t fit all your points on a slide without moving to a smaller font, break the points up onto separate slides. Colors matter because they have connotations. For example, you want to avoid reds because they can agitate people negatively. Font styles and graphics choices set your professional image, so be smart in your choices.

7. Practice, Practice, Practice. Your success with the PowerPoint presentations will depend on how comfortable you are using the program. It is vital to practice your speech and running the laptop computer at the same time because you have to do both at the same time in your presentation. If you can’t do both at once, it makes excellent sense to have someone else run the laptop computer. You don’t have to do everything, especially if it inhibits your performance. You will want to practice your talk with the person who is running the computer. I have noticed that it is easier to do full rehearsals of talks with slides than it is when using only notes. The slides make the rehearsal more fun.

8. Storyboard Your Presentation. PowerPoint helps you think structurally about your presentation. You know you need an introduction, a conclusion and main points, all supported with arguments, stories and examples. Some people work best with outlines. PowerPoint will automatically turn an outline into a set of slides. I like to sketch out my presentations as a series of slides. This process is called "storyboarding" and is done in moviemaking. I can then conceive my presentation as a set of slides and sketch what kind of graphic I want, how many bullet points, and where anecdotes and examples will fit into the talk. I makes it easier for me to imagine the presentation in its entirety and to visualize my performance.

9. Never Forget Your Conclusion Slide. One way PowerPoint will make you a better speaker is by reminding you that every presentation needs a conclusion. Too many speakers simply end a presentation by saying "that’s all I have." If you have a concluding slide with 3 - 5 summary points or action steps, you’ll leave the audience with a much stronger impression and you can never emphasize and restate your main points too often.

10. Own Your Presentation. It’s very easy to tell when someone is delivering a speech that they haven’t written. It’s just as easy to tell when someone is using a PowerPoint presentation that someone else has put together. You may see expressions of surprise or puzzlement or even comments that a graphic is especially good. You can have someone else prepare the slides and even have someone else running the computer, but you have to own the presentation as if you created it yourself. When you know the presentation and are comfortable working with the slides, you become free to connect with your audience and shine as a presenter.

While PowerPoint will not take the place of communication skills, it can be a great tool for enhancing and improving your skills. You can learn to be a great presenter through practice, repetition, hard work, study and the right tools. Keep in mind, though, that the best speakers are the ones who are able to speak in a way that is most congruent with their own personality. The more authentic you are the more effective the communicator you are. The power of PowerPoint is that it gives you the flexibility to use your own style and get your message across to your audience. These ten tips for using PowerPoint will help make you a top-notch communicator.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink!(TM) - The Conference, Re-imagined. LexThink! - Think big thoughts, do cool things, change the world. November 11 & 12 - BlawgThink 2005 - the legal blogger unconference.

Posted by dmk at 07:47 PM | Comments (1)

November 06, 2005

Passwords: The Weakest Link in Your Security Chain? - Article

[Note: This is another in the series of posts of my previously-published articles. This article on passwords was written in 1999. Most of the principles still apply. Most of the poor password practices still exist. The one technology the article didn't mention that has become more prominent is the use of key chain devices that generate new passwords on a minute-by-minute basis. Biometrics have not yet made the inroads into the world of "passwords" as many have predicted. How are your passwords? As the article concludes, today might be a great day to change passwords. ]

Passwords: The Weakest Link in Your Security Chain?

We find ourselves awash in the sea of passwords and pin numbers for ATM and credit cards, voice mail, network logins, Internet access and even some Web sites. What are the best ways to stay afloat?

An unwise selection of a password can compromises security of your computer system, your business and your personal life. A poor job of keeping a password secret can compromise the security provided by a well-chosen password.

Even worse, if you make an excellent selection of a password and do an excellent job of keeping it secret but then forget your password, you may find yourself in a hopeless situation.

Passwords pose two key issues: How do you select a good password and how do you manage passwords once you have chosen them?

Selecting a Password

Many of the first computer hackers broke into computer systems by logging on with the user name of "guest" and then trying the password "guest". In many cases, believe it or not, "guest" was the actual password.

These days computer hackers take advantage of readily-available, highly-sophisticated "cracking" programs that try, in rapid succession, most of the common password strategies and variations thereon. These programs use every word in the dictionary and many foreign dictionaries, numerical combinations, and many variations on common password techniques. As computers become more powerful, a hacker can use increasingly sophisticated techniques to become even more successful at cracking your password.

Studies indicate that most passwords fall into several basic categories:

1. Common words like "password", "secret", and other similar words. In fact, one report indicated that at one time the word "password" was the most commonly used password in Germany.

2. Your first name, last name, initials, or a variation on your name or initials.

3. Your spouse's name, the name of a child, the name of a pet or variations thereon.

4. Common numbers based on birth dates, social security numbers, phone number, license plate number and the like.

5. Obscure words.

6. Mythological names, geographical names, common names, characters from TV shows or movies or sports figures.

7. Names of sports teams.

8. Names or words related to your profession or hobby.

9. Simple two word combinations.

Each of these techniques for selecting a password will result in a password that can be broken fairly easily by a cracking program or a sophisticated and persistent person who wants to break into your account and has some knowledge of you and your interests.

A true story: Several years ago, I needed to log on to my old firm's network and found that I was already logged in on my own computer. At the time, I was not allowed multiple logins for my user name and could not use another computer unless I went back to my office and logged myself off of my computer. Not wanting to do this, I went to the nearby office of an attorney who was on vacation and typed in that attorney's initials and spouse's name as a password. I logged right in as that user on my first try. It was that easy.

How do you choose a good password? Here are a few tips:

Avoid the common categories of passwords. In particular avoid any use of your name or any variation of your name, your user name, your spouse's name or your children's names.

Avoid the use of any word or words that can be found in a dictionary.

If you must use words, use nonsense words or intentionally misspelled words.

Avoid purely numerical passwords, especially ones based on easily obtainable personal information about yourself such as the license plate number.

If you use letters, make some uppercase and some lowercase.

A combination of words might be a good choice, but only if you separate them or divide them by using punctuation marks or symbols like "#" or "&".

A good password might be based on the first or last letters of the first eight words of a favorite poem, a favorite quote or a favorite provision of the Internal Revenue Code.

In many ways the ideal password is a random combination of letters, numbers and punctuation symbols with some uppercase letters and lowercase letters.

Based on the advice from experts, your ideal password would look something like "e#2!B5$c". And, ideally, you would have a similar password for each of your account which requires a password. In addition, you would change this password once a month or so.

You should be beginning to see the problem. Creating excellent passwords is not nearly as difficult as remembering them.

Managing your Passwords.

Password management takes two forms. First, you must be concerned about keeping your passwords secure. Second, you must have a way to maintain the passwords in a way that you can remember them. These two concerns are often in conflict.

For example, it is common advice that you should never write down a password. If you don't write down a password and you use an "ideal" password of eight randomly selected characters, you will have done an excellent job on security while all but guaranteeing that you will do a poor job of remembering the password.

Your approach to password management will involve your level of comfort and your compromise between security and ease of recall.

Security.

Here are a few basic tips on password security.

Avoid writing down passwords and keeping them in a place where they can be readily found. Taping your passwords to the side of your computer monitor is not a smart idea no matter how convenient it may be. Neither is writing a password on a piece of paper kept in your desk drawer, your laptop computer's carrying case or a file folder marked "my passwords."

Don't tell anyone your password. If you must do so, change your password after that person is done using it.

Be careful when entering your password so that someone can't observe it easily. Avoid passwords based on easily-observable keyboard patterns such as "aaaaaaaa" or "12345678".

Don't use the same password for all of your accounts. If someone figures out that password, they have the keys to your kingdom.

Don't give your password to anyone who asks for it, no matter how official sounding they may seem. A common scam is for someone to send you an official looking e-mail asking you to give them your password for security or maintenance reasons. Don't do it.

Change your passwords on a regular basis. Some organizations now require users to change passwords on a monthly basis.

If you have any concern whatsoever that your password security has been compromised, change your password. Often the simple act of changing your password will deny the unauthorized user further access to your account or system.

Enforce these rules for every user on your network.

Remembering Passwords.

Let's assume that you have created an ideal password, taken every security precaution, and then one day the password simply disappears from your mind. What do you do? Unfortunately, in some cases you are out of luck. In other cases, your network administrator or a computer consultant might be able to bail you out.

A better approach is to devise a system to help you remember passwords. You have a number of choices, but the two most common are mnemonic and software techniques.

If you use a mnemonic technique, you will use a password selected in a way that will help you remember it. A good example is a password chosen by using the first letters of a phrase that you will remember.

A second approach would be to create a phrase out of the password that you have chosen which will help you remember the password. For example, many people were taught the name "Roy G. Biv" to help them remember the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet).

Software techniques would include a passworded or encrypted file or a password management program to store and protect your passwords. These types of programs allow you to store and manage your passwords and then to encrypt the file that contains them. As a result, all you will need to remember is the password to the password management program.

Looking to the Future.

Fortunately, new methods are being developed to help reduce the threat of your password being hacked. For example, some networks have intruder alerts if multiple unsuccessful attempts are made to access an account. Other systems allow a user to make only a limited number of incorrect attempts before prohibiting access to anyone using that user name.

The word to remember in computer security, however, is "biometrics." In the future, we can expect to see security based on seemingly science fiction techniques such as retinal scans, fingerprinting, voice recognition, face recognition and even DNA-based systems. The key is the massive increase in power and speed of computer chips which will make such options possible. Until then, today might be a great day to change your passwords.

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

Posted by dmk at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2005

Using Computers to Keep a Judge and Jury Interested - Articles

[Note: This is another in the series of my previously-published articles that I am reposting on my blog. This article is an oldie - earlier versions appeared in the March 23, 1998 issue of Lawyers Weekly USA and the July 1999 issue of Res Gestae. It's a somewhat unusual article for me because I usually do not interview people and use their quotes in my articles (or on my blog) much these days. I wrote this one as one of my monthly columns for Lawyers Weekly USA, where I got the chance to work with my favorite editor, Elaine McArdle, and started to build my reputation as a writer on legal technology. I really like this article for a couple of reasons: (1) I get to quote and feature my good friends Alan Steinberg and Art Smith, two of the legal tech pioneers in St. Louis, (2) it shows how you can write about technology in ways that will have longevity, and (3) it illustrates how slo-o-o-ow the pace of change in litigation technology really is for those of you who don't believe me when I make that statement. Most of the tips and techniques in this article from Art and Alan are still fresh and valuable today.]

Using Computers to Keep a Judge and Jury Interested

Computers continue to march from the law office into the courtroom. Currently available technology and techniques make it possible for any attorney in almost any courtroom to streamline case presentation and enhance the impact of a case on judges and jurors. Most important, these new tools are transparent enough to allow jurors to focus on the main points of your case and not on the "gee whiz" aspects of the technology.

Art Smith, of Husch & Eppenberger (over 150 attorneys), and Alan Steinberg, of Steinberg & Steinberg (two attorneys), both of St. Louis, recently completed cases in which they took advantage of technology in the courtroom. When their cases were over, they were so impressed with the technology that they wanted to share their experiences with other lawyers in the community. As Steinberg said, "this is technology that will make you money."

Smith has four important conclusions about using presentation technology in the courtroom:

1. Computer display makes it easier for jurors to see and study exhibits.

2. Presentation technology allows an attorney to focus the attention of the judge and jury on the relevant language of any exhibit.

3. Presentation software specifically designed for trials speeds the presentation of evidence.

4. You can greatly enhance the impact of your documentary evidence.

What is Trial Presentation Technology?

Trial presentation technology is simply the use of computer equipment to display presentation slides and scanned digital images of exhibits. For example, if your case involves a letter that contains incriminating evidence, you might use a scanner to create a graphic image of that letter that could then be identified, labeled and stored in a database. When it is introduced into evidence, the graphic image would be retrieved and displayed to the jury. Each juror can view it simultaneously without the need for you to pass the letter to each juror.

Hardware.

Presentation hardware can be as simple as a notebook computer running into a switch-box which displays information on separate monitors for the jury, the judge, and the attorney. Other hardware items can include a VCR for playback of video depositions and an overhead digital camera (such as the Elmo) which will allow you to display documents and even three-dimensional objects on a monitor for the judge and jury. An overhead projector might also be appropriate. Other useful hardware might include a remote control or wireless mouse, if you like to move around, and a laser pointer.

Smith's trial was a large and lengthy one and required a fairly elaborate hardware setup. It included two 35" monitors for the jury and separate monitors for the judge, witness box and counsel. He also used a VCR for video depositions, a sound system, an Elmo overhead digital camera for displaying exhibits that were not scanned as digital images, a connection box and an uninterrupted power source. The Elmo camera has become very popular among trial lawyers since you can show documents and three-dimensional exhibits using the camera.

This setup cost $1,500 to install and remove, $300 per trial day for hardware rental, and $500 per day for technician to monitor the hardware setup. Because you can use different aspects of presentation technology, you can pick and choose software or hardware that will give you the most advantage for your case at a price you can afford. In some cases, as Smith found, your opponent may be willing to share the costs of the courtroom setup because of the advantage to both sides.

Software.

There are two types of software you might use in the courtroom: (1) Microsoft's PowerPoint, or a similar presentation program, for your opening and closing arguments, and (2) trial display packages such as Trial Link or Trial Director, to display your exhibits and highlight or annotate important parts of those exhibits.

The trial display packages integrate well with litigation management programs like Summation or Concordance and can also be used in connection with real-time transcription software. A combination of all these packages can turn you into a techno-lawyer with your case completely digitized and at your fingertips.

Presentation Software.

You can use a presentation program, such as PowerPoint or Corel's Presentation, for their opening and closing arguments. Presentation software allows you to prepare a set of slides which will display your main points. Graphics, sound, video clips and animation can be added to each slide. The slides can be sequenced as you wish and controlled manually or automatically by timer. The slides can be displayed from your notebook computer onto a screen or monitor or even printed out and used as handouts or transparencies.

These programs allow you to reinforce your main points by displaying them at the same time you are talking about them. You can organize, illustrate and focus your talks in a manner that is entertaining and keeps the attention of your audience. Your opening and closing can be much more effective than what you can do by reading from your notes scrawled on a legal pad. Steinberg commented that he would prefer never to do an opening or closing argument without PowerPoint again.

As an example of how you can use these slides, Smith created a slide that contained a picture of a witness along with a quote from his testimony during the trial that Smith wanted to emphasize. This slide could be used to remind the jury who the person was as well as to emphasize the remark itself.

Trial Display Software.

Trial display software allows you to display images of documents and other exhibits onto a screen or monitor. The programs have a simple, uncluttered interface and tools that allow you to highlight phrases or areas of the image. For example, you might electronically draw a red circle around an important part of a photographic image, use an electronic yellow "highlighter" to mark important phrases, annotate documents, add arrows or use other effects, such as enlarging key language, to emphasize your points. The electronic marking appears only on the display of the document not on the underlying document or file.

Two of the leading programs in this genre are Trial Link and Trial Director. Both are very impressive programs which can integrate well with other programs you might be using for trial management. You will want to look into the features of both to see which program will work best for you.

A large part of the effectiveness of this software is due to its apparent simplicity. Jurors simply see an image of an exhibit on a large monitor and then watch you emphasize phrases, enlarge key parts of exhibits or photos, and even use video and animation. This approach seems to be very effective for jurors used to getting a large portion of their information from television.

Practical pointers.

1. As Steinberg says, the most important advice is simply to "practice, practice, practice." You want to make your presentation more focused, more organized and more effective. You cannot do this if you cannot run the equipment properly or you struggle with the software. Practice until you are able to run the equipment and software smoothly. If you cannot become comfortable using equipment and software, have an assistant who runs the equipment while you do the talking.

2. Take advantage of advanced features of programs but take care not to let the features get in the way of your story. PowerPoint has a many impressive effects and graphics built into the program. Focus the jury on your case, not your visual effects and animations. Stick with fairly simple and straightforward backgrounds and effects until you are comfortable using the programs and are sure that the effects increase the impact of your presentation.

3. Backup your work. Trial presentation technology does not save paper. To prevent mishaps, you definitely will want to take a print out of all of your exhibits, presentation slides and other documents that you might use in the courtroom. You might even prepare transparencies. You will also want to have multiple backups of your data.

4. Have the same setup in your office, or "war room," as you have in the courtroom. If you set up a configuration identical to what you are using in the courtroom back in your office, you can practice under the same conditions. You will also be able to substitute an identical component from your office over a lunch break.

5. Prepare for the unexpected. When speaking, any additional element that you put into your presentation increases the opportunity for something to go wrong. If you write out your speech, you might lose the paper on which it is written. If you use transparencies, the overhead projector light bulb might burn out. If you use elaborate presentation technology, any aspect of the equipment may go wrong or you may experience one quirk or another which can throw off the pace and style of your presentation. Take extra projector bulbs, cords, batteries, transparencies and tools.

6. The client makes the call. Although you can fall in love with courtroom presentation technology, it probably makes the most sense in document-intensive cases or cases where charts and graphics will help reduce complexity. The technology probably makes more sense in longer trials than in shorter trials, although the use of PowerPoint or a similar program in openings and closings could be used in any trial. Your client, however, may be more willing to use this technology in a jury trial as opposed to a judge-tried case or may deem the cost to be prohibitive in any case. It will become a matter of educating your client and showing your client the benefits of this approach.

Conclusions.

More and more judges are become receptive to the use of technology in the courtroom and a good number of courthouses are planning to at least have one courtroom that is designed as a "courtroom of the future." Because this technology can benefit jurors in understanding cases, I expect to see more receptivity on the part of judges. There was no area hotter in legal technology than courtroom presentation technology.

Smith and Steinberg both agree that the main benefit of presentation technology is that it allows you to organize your case and control the flow of the case. By moving your case along in a steady, organized fashion, you keep the attention of the jury and present information to them in an educational and entertaining manner. Jurors seem to respond to this technology. Courtroom presentation technology can dramatically enhance the impact of your arguments, your exhibits and your case. As a result, it can give jurors a better experience with the legal system, something which will benefit all lawyers.

++++++

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

Posted by dmk at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2005

Creating an Environment in Law Firms Where Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Management Will Work - Article

[Note: This is another in the series of my previously-published articles I'm reposting on my blog. I prepared the original version of this paper was prepared for the Workshop entitled "Legal Knowledge Systems in Action: Practical AI in Today’s Law Office" at the 2001 ICAIL (International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Law). You'll notice some of my common themes and a focus on how we can use technology to help us rather than fitting what we have to do into what technology (or programmers or IT departments) permit us to do.]

Creating an Environment in Law Firms Where Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Management Will Work

The adoption of artificial intelligence applications and knowledge management technologies by the legal profession has proceeded far less rapidly than many people would have expected or hoped. While vendors of data mining, knowledge management and other information technologies consistently see the legal profession as a fertile market for their products and initiatives, they are often disappointed by the resistance they find by lawyers and law firms. Why have advanced and sophisticated information techniques made so little impact on the information-intensive legal profession? What can be done to open up the legal market? In spite of the general climate of resistance, what projects are good candidates for these techniques?

There is a certain inevitability to the entry of knowledge management and artificial intelligence approaches in the legal profession, whether the push comes from within the profession or from external pressures from clients and competitors. This paper will discuss some of the needs that law firms want to address with artificial intelligence and knowledge management projects, the resistance barriers in law firms, and then move on to list some attractive target areas for these approaches and factors that will contribute to success of these types of projects.

1. Needs Law Firms Seek to Address.

As part of an information intensive profession, lawyers and law firms create, use and store vast amounts of information in connection with their work. This information has a recognized value because it holds experience and expertise learned and maintained by legal organizations. Too often, however, the transfer of this knowledge inside or outside the firm occurs by happenstance or through one-on-one conversations without a sharing of information by all who need the information. Law firms want to tap into the value of their information in systematic and effective ways.

A. Not Reinventing the Wheel. To a surprising extent, in many law firms research is often duplicated, and agreements and other documents are created from scratch when models for such agreements already exist. The concern is not just inefficiency but also the inability to take advantage of best practices and current information and to make proper assignments to people with appropriate experience. With varying degrees of success, all firms have made efforts to implement techniques such as brief banks, standardized forms, training manual and documentation of procedures. Document assembly is one example of a technology used to capture prior efforts and to standardize best practices.

B. Knowledge Transfer and Mentoring. It is highly desirable to transfer the knowledge and even wisdom of older attorneys down to younger attorneys. In many cases, older attorneys may leave a firm or even die without the knowledge and other benefits of their experience being captured in a usable fashion. Not only is there a loss of substantive practice knowledge, but far too often there is the loss of the history and stories of a firm culture. There is a growing recognition of how much information is carried by way of story-telling. Core knowledge about a firm and its practices are encoded in its "myths and legends." Where transfer of this experience and expertise is not encouraged and facilitated, the knowledge of important historical details, such as how difficult management, ethical and other situations were handled, is no longer available for later generations of the firm. The transmission of core values and wisdom is either hindered or does not occur. Increasingly, law firms are recognizing the value of this loss and emphasizing the role of senior attorneys must play in mentoring other attorneys.

C. Efficient Delivery of Legal Services. Attorneys arguably work many more hours than other "knowledge workers." There is often a question of whether attorneys are simply working harder rather than working smarter. Both attorneys and clients see the benefits of more efficient delivery of legal services. Attorneys are increasingly aware of productivity gains achieved in other businesses by use of technology and find that their clients who have achieved such gains through the use of technology are pressuring law firms to adopt the same approaches. In other cases, business clients expect law firms to have certain technologies in place and are not willing to pay lawyers to deliver work in what is seen as inefficient and expensive ways.

D. Information Overload. Attorneys are inundated with paper, e-mail, advance sheets, journals, newsletters, web pages and a rising tide of information falling over them. Keeping up with developments in a practice area can take a substantial amount of time. As attorneys take advantage of e-mail newsletters, e-mail discussion lists, and other Internet resources, the symptoms of information overload can become very apparent. The need to organize, process and store in a retrievable fashion relevant information has become increasingly important.

E. Employee Retention. The new generation of lawyers leaving law school has been raised in an era of computers. Soon we will have a generation of law students who have never known a time when the Internet was not available. The level of expectations and reliance of sophisticated approaches to information and technology of these lawyers is very high. Law firms have found and will continue to find an unwillingness by these lawyers to stay at firms that do not have state-of-the-art approaches to information. Law firms realize that addressing technology concerns is an essential part of attracting and retaining the best talent.

2. Resistance Barriers to Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Management Projects.

A. Culture of Individual Practices. Nearly every successful knowledge management project has at its roots an organization in which there is a culture of sharing of information. More important, success grows from a culture of willingly sharing information. While financial incentives can help create a spirit of willingness, the trick is to create a culture where the benefits of sharing information are seen as real and sharing knowledge becomes second nature. Many firms are often described as a collection of individual practices. Even within specific practice areas, lawyers may work in a very autonomous manner. In addition, lawyers in one practice area may see little or no commonality with lawyers in other practice areas. At a more basic level, there is often a divide between litigation attorneys and transactional attorneys that is difficult to bridge.

B. Resistance to Technology. Far too often, the attorneys, especially older attorneys, who must be involved in the transfer of knowledge down to other attorneys have a reluctance to use technology. Ironically, attorneys whose whole careers show a demonstrated ability to learn completely new areas of knowledge during the preparation of cases or through their representation of clients in a particular industry will balk at the notion of using computers. This reluctance to learn hardware and specific software can result in an unwillingness to be involved in "technology" at any level, even including the unwillingness to be assisted in knowledge transfer techniques that would involve the use of technology.

C. Lack of Time. The increasing emphasis on massive billable hour requirements tends to leave lawyers with little time and opportunity to create expert systems, highly organized data structures, or other artificial intelligence and knowledge management techniques. All of these efforts require the investment of substantial amounts of upfront time. Systems that require large amounts of upfront organization have little chance of succeeding in most law firms. Techniques that may involve the ability to process existing information "as it lies" will have the greatest opportunity for success.

D. Inability to Measure Returns. Metrics are not readily available that would help law firms measure the financial return of knowledge management applications. Where billing structures are not changed, the efficiencies obtained through these types of applications may not benefit a firm financially. For example, while the idea of document assembly has long been attractive to lawyers, the reality of reducing a several hour drafting job to ten minutes is not financially advantageous if billing continues to be based on a pure billable hours basis.

E. Incentive Structures. While there are a few firms that have created positions such as "chief knowledge officers," in many cases attorneys interested in knowledge management projects do them on a voluntary basis or may even be penalized for their efforts if these efforts diminish their amount of billable hours. In a traditional law firm, there is often a lack of incentive structures to motivate lawyers to be involved in a knowledge management project. In firms where knowledge management efforts, such as brief banks, or collections of memoranda have been tried, with unsuccessful results, there is often a reluctance to try again and a tendency to dismiss the whole notion of knowledge management rather than to analyze carefully where the prior projects failed and develop more effective new projects.

3. Attractive Areas for Knowledge Management and Artificial Intelligence Projects.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that large-scale, firm-wide knowledge management techniques have little chance of success in law firms, especially if they are the first project undertaken. Discrete, well-considered pilot projects that can be scaled up and rolled out throughout the firm have a much greater opportunity of success. Similarly, targeted, incremental approaches that work within the existing knowledge flow of the firm are preferable to attempts to reorganize how people work. Examples of projects that should be given careful consideration are:

A. Litigation Strategy. A good starting project for many law firms would be an application in the area of litigation strategy. Excellent tools are available and the return on investment in this area can readily be perceived.

Perhaps the most interesting development in knowledge management in law firms has been the success of a software program, CaseMap (www.casesoft.com), over the past few years. CaseMap allows lawyers to pull information that otherwise might be hidden in legal pads, bankers’ boxes, or in the memories of individual lawyers into a format that allows lawyers to gather and analyze facts in a helpful manner. Through a simple method of tagging information, lawyers can use CaseMap to find answers to questions previously difficult to obtain. For example, a lawyer preparing a summary judgment motion can, in a matter of seconds, retrieve a list of all undisputed facts in the case relating to the issue about which they are writing. A lawyer can assess the strength of a case by seeing a list of all undisputed facts that have been judged by that lawyer or other members of the team as highly unfavorable.

CaseMap creates a method for looking at the information involved in the case in a variety of ways and preparing and testing strategies as well as determining where additional work may be required on a case. In addition, a lawyer can determine the strengths and weaknesses of a case and the role that individual witnesses will play in developing a case.

In part the key to the success of CaseMap is its reasonable price, but, more so, its success lies in its use of a relatively simple interface to accomplish a limited number of highly useful things. The program recognizes that there is a great utility in identifying key information and associating it with other information and that a broad-based approach can be much more useful than a method that attempts to implement hundreds or even thousands of rules to create a trial strategy.

B. Client Relationship Management. A highly important area in knowledge management is customer relationship management ("CRM"). CRM is simply a method of gathering, associating and using in an efficient manner information that you have about customers. In many law firms, there are countless examples of lawyers trying to cultivate a potential client only to find later that that potential client was a college roommate of someone else at the firm. Where information about clients is not readily available, lawyers working for a long-term firm client for the first time can easily make mistakes, such as e-mailing clients who have demanded that information only be faxed to them or Fedexing copies to clients who only want e-mail copies. The holy grail of CRM in law firms is to promote the cross-selling of business to existing clients. This area is an especially fertile one for potential knowledge management and artificial intelligence projects.

C. Conflict Checking. Conflict checking is an area of difficulty for many law firms, especially as the number of clients increases and as companies enter into more joint ventures and combinations. While traditional databases can be of great assistance, often potential conflicts can only be seen by lawyers who are personally familiar with the relationships between a variety of companies and people. While CRM efforts will have a spillover effect in the area of conflict checking, the application of artificial intelligence specifically to conflict checking holds a great deal of promise.

A product in development from DolphinSearch (www.dolphinsearch.com) is an example of an artificial intelligence tool that may have application in the area of conflict checking as well as other knowledge management projects. DolphinSearch is based on research that was done on communications between dolphins and then applied to the assessment of data and information. DolphinSearch can be described as a "fuzzy" method of searching because it is based on pattern recognition rather than a top-down, rules-based artificial intelligence approach. As a result, DolphinSearch can recognize connections between documents, clients and other information and retrieve relevant information with striking results. This ability to use the program is a way to identify connections between information has significant promise in the area of conflict checking.

D. Delivery of Client Services. The most exciting area of potential development for artificial intelligence and knowledge management systems is in the area of actual delivery of legal services to clients. This delivery of services might occur through traditional means or over the Internet. A number of examples of this trend are appearing and a good resource for keeping track of this phenomena is the elawyering site developed by Jerry Lawson at www.elawyering.org. The application of technology to the delivery of legal services is especially attractive in the area of what is sometimes referred to as the "latent market for legal services" or the segment of the market where people cannot afford traditional legal services. From document preparation to delivery of relevant legal information to decision tree approaches to transactions, there is a world of opportunity and law firms are only beginning to tap the potential.

E. Managing Information Overload. Lawyers, like many others, are fighting to gain some degree of control over the overwhelming amount of information they receive on a daily basis. Through the use of intelligent agents and other knowledge management and artificial techniques, it is gradually becoming possible to manage that flow of information. Techniques, such as creating daily electronic newspapers, personalized resources, and "push" technologies to deliver specific information, updates and other information of interest can all be highly effective with very tangible benefits. Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard initiative for use of Outlook as a front end for information retrieval and management is a good example of this type of effort. "Personal knowledge management" tools such as Clickgarden [Note: no longer exists, but a program I really liked and where I first learned to love tabbed browsing.] give the ability to harvest and organize information on the web. This area suggests a number of useful, discrete pilot projects that can have a high impact on individual attorneys and develop momentum for other projects.

4. Strategies for Improving the Likelihood of Success of your Projects.

Choose discrete rather than global projects.

Use methods that process existing pools of data rather than require large amounts of upfront coding, organization or tagging.

Identify appropriate tools and get those tools into the hands of the people who will actually use them.

Choose committed, enthusiastic volunteers for pilot projects.

Stay up-to-date about new tools and improvements to existing tools.

Achieve buy-in from top levels of management.

Develop appropriate incentive structures for attorneys participating in projects.

Set goals, supply necessary resources and determine from the beginning a method of measuring success or failure of a project. In part, this involves the ability to answer the two following questions: How will you determine whether a project is successful and who will determine whether it is a successful?

Determine whether a chief knowledge officer level position is required. It is difficult to have success for large projects without such a person.

Stay aware of developments, talk to others involved in successful projects and keep current with initiatives at other firms.

Listen to your clients and try to anticipate their needs as a driving force in your projects.

Maintain a high degree of flexibility and willingness to change direction.

Try to get as thorough an understanding of the information flows and the information cultures within your firm.

Attempt several pilot projects at a time. Diversify your risk.

Be innovative and courageous.

5. Conclusion.

While the past history of knowledge management and artificial intelligence in the legal profession does not show a lot of successes or adoption of these projects, a number of factors, economic and otherwise, are coming into play and suggest that there is light at the end of the tunnel. By being aware of the available tools, the fundamental promise and potential that law firms see in these techniques and being able to deal with the resistance barriers, you improve your likelihood of success. Discrete, high impact pilot projects are a good way to start and build momentum for an evolutionary development of these projects. There are also practical strategies that can further enhance your efforts and open up the promise of knowledge management and artificial intelligence that many people see in the legal profession. Most important, there are others working on similar projects who are willing to share information and provide assistance. The future looks promising.

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Maybe I was a bit too optimistic on how quickly some of these things would happen. From where I stand right now, however, the future looks even more promising in these areas.

[Orignally 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).

Posted by dmk at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2005

Ten Ways to Address Security Concerns in IT Contracts - Article

[Note: This is another in the series of my articles that I've been reposting. I thought I'd add a little variety by reposting an article on technology law rather than legal technology. This article from 2004 is a checklist (or "ten tips") article that covers some of the key points to consider when addressing computer security issues in an IT agreement. Computer security issues have become all too common. Businesses signing IT agreements don't always know that they have a number of approaches they can take to try to address their legitimate security concerns. In general, you will have to negotiate on these issues - don't expect a vendor agreement to give you what you need to cover your security issues. This article will give you some starting points and some ideas on strategies.]

Ten Ways to Address Security Concerns in IT Contracts

While security is rapidly becoming job #1 for IT departments, coverage of security issues has found its way into surprisingly few IT contracts. Many companies discover, far too late, that their contracts are largely silent when security issues arise during the life of an IT agreement.

The following checklist shows you 10 places in your IT contracts where you can address security concerns. You will have to be a good negotiator or have great leverage in the deal to get coverage in all 10 places, but the list will give you a number of strategies to cover security issues.

Warranties

The biggest weapon in your contract arsenal will be a warranty from your vendor. There are two types to consider:

1. Security Warranty. Ideally, you would like a vendor to represent and warrant that the software or services it will be providing will be secure and that your data, systems and networks will be secure from both third parties and the vendor's employees. The language you get will largely depend on your bargaining power. While vendors will balk at warranting complete security, you might try to get a warranty providing security consistent with industry standards or obtain and maintain a recognized security certification. Failing that, you might try to get a warranty that provides reasonable security, keeps passwords safe or meets other specific requirements.

2. No Malicious Code. Another reasonable request is a warranty that software or services contain no viruses, Trojan horses, backdoors, malicious code or other programs that would allow anyone, including vendors, access to your computers or networks.

Procedures

3. SLA Requirements. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) customarily cover areas like uptime, backup, support procedures and other service requirements. A good way to cover security issues is to include specific security requirements, such as firewall specifications, certification, testing and notice of security breaches in the SLA.

4. Specifications. Software and IT services agreements commonly contain an exhibit that sets out a list of detailed specifications. Consider including security requirements in this list.

Action Requirements

You can also create affirmative obligations for the vendor.

5. Security Audits. Providing for annual or more frequent security audits or testing will place a burden on the vendor to provide adequate security and a standard for judging whether they are doing so. Remember to spell out the consequences for a failure to pass the audit.

6. Reporting Requirements. You will definitely want to know when there has been a security breach, especially a major one. A clause spelling out what events trigger a notice and how quickly will address these concerns directly.

Modifying Standard Contract Provisions

Making adjustments to standard contract provisions can provide great results.

7. Confidentiality. Your biggest security concerns will relate to your customer data (for which you may have obligations under your privacy policy or applicable law) and confidential information. Rather than rely on a general obligation of confidentiality, consider setting out additional, specific obligations to protect the information through appropriate security measures.

8. Exempt Security Damages from Liability Cap. Software and IT agreements routinely set limits on liability and caps on damages. It is common to clarify that limits and caps do not apply to indemnification obligations and damages for breach of confidentiality obligations. You can also argue that it is appropriate to exclude damages from a security breach from any limitation or cap because the potential damages are so high.

9. Security Indemnity. A vendor's breach of security obligations could cause damages to a third party for which the third party would sue you. If you have strong bargaining power, you might ask for an indemnification from the vendor for any claims that a third party makes against you as a result of the vendor's failure to maintain security.

10. Termination / Transition. As a practical matter, if a vendor fails to provide adequate security, you will want out of the deal. Consider spelling that out clearly and providing for a short and secure transition to another service provider.

Conclusion

In today's IT contracts, it is important to address security issues during the negotiation process rather than trying to sort them out later in litigation. By consulting the 10-point checklist above, you will have a number of ways to negotiate security protections in your IT contracts by approaching the issues in a number of different directions. You may not get all you ask for, but you should be able to get some protection or get a good sense of how comfortable you will be with a vendor who is not willing to stand behind its security efforts.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink(TM) - The Conference, Re-imagined. LexThink! - Think big thoughts, do cool things, change the world. November 11 & 12 - LexThink's BlawgThink 2005.

Posted by dmk at 07:34 PM | Comments (1)

November 01, 2005

A Vision of Virtual Law Firms - Article

[Note: Another in the series of posts republishing many of my articles on my blog. This article has probably generated a greater ratio of private discussion to public discussion than any other of my articles. I wrote this at the end of 2003, a period when I felt that what I was writing was not finding an audience, only to find later that several of the articles I wrote then have become quite influential. The article, by design, raises more questions than answers. I would note that blogging has brought the issues raised in the article into higher focus, but the changes in the legal ethics in the past few years have created a landscape that is more hostile to the idea of "virtual law firms." I've noticed lately that people are talking these days about approaches that are somewhat different than "virtual law firms." Will virtual law firms and other forms of collaboration be topics for discussion at BlawgThink 2005? Yes, they will. If that's the type of thing you want to be talking about, let me know and let's get you registered for BlawgThink.]

A Vision for Virtual Law Firms – Questions You Should Be Asking

I've had a couple of interesting conversations lately about where we are on "virtual law firms." To me, virtual law firm simply means an affiliated group of lawyers connected by technology rather than co-existing in common physical locations.

What struck me as odd in these conversations was how applicable the arguments I set out in 1998 as part of a draft of an ill-fated book project (the publisher went out of business - I have thought about resurrecting the project from the existing draft).

Several years later, the environment is more conducive to virtual law firms, yet you tend to hear much less about the idea. New efforts and ideas, however, are still bubbling.

Consider the recent rebirth in interest in the DuPont Legal Model. One of the key reasons this ambitious plan for lawyer-client collaboration has now started to work is the increase in sheer horsepower. With broadband, today's chips and storage and workable software platforms, the tools actually exist to accomplish things that were barely workable just a few years back.

Here are a few thought questions about virtual law firms:

1. What happens when you find that the mentors, experts and authorities you grow to rely on are not the people down the hall, in your offices, or even in your geographic area? With email lists [and blogs], this phenomenon is increasingly common.

2. Do you best serve your clients by referring work to your partners when you have professional contacts clearly able to do a better job for your clients?

3. One of my favorite businesses is The Teaching Company, which offers audio and video of great teachers on a variety of college-level subjects. If we are going to learn something new, why not learn it from the best teachers, no matter where they are located. Isn't it a small jump to say why not use the Internet to find the best individual lawyers for your project rather than sticking with whatever lawyers get assigned by your law firm to your project?

4. Tom Peters talks about the "Hollywood model," in which a variety of skilled contractors are pulled together on a project basis because they are the best choices for the project. Once the project is completed, some may work together on another project, or they may split up and then later work together in one combination or another. If you consider this Hollywood model to be a more appropriate model for the future of professionals than the industrial model of most law firms, doesn't it make this approach desirable for lawyers? Again, how likely is it that we can find these teams in today's law firms? Let's face it, if we had a complex legal problem, we would want to assemble the best team and would not want to be limited to other choices in a single firm.

5. The great thing about a law firm is having great partners who you enjoying being around and practicing with. How often are you finding that your most interesting conversations are with people online?

6. Location, location, location is the mantra in real estate. Most of us hate commuting, especially going in to the office on weekends or in bad weather. Prime office locations are expensive. How often do our clients come to our offices? Is physical local or even proximity all that important anymore?

7. Talk to any lawyer who is truly enthused about the application of technology to the practice of law who is in any firm and I guarantee that it will not take you long to uncover a good amount of frustration with the firm's technology tools, practices and procedures. After all these years, you have to wonder: is client-driven, cutting-edge, cool and attorney-centered technology ever going to happen in today's law firms? Will it take a different model?

8. Do current rules on licensure and multijurisdictional practice that are overwhelmingly tied to physical location make much sense in today's world?

9. To the software vendors and others in technology, why not help put together the showcases of your technology in the context of virtual firms and help facilitate them as an alternative to pounding on the same closed doors year after year?

10. If not you, then who? If not now, when?

Discussion of virtual law firms and related topics always interests me. Let me know what is going on out there and what ideas and approaches are working.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink(TM) - The Conference, Re-imagined. LexThink! - Think big thoughts, do cool things, change the world. November 11 & 12 - LexThink's BlawgThink 2005.

Posted by dmk at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

Document Management and the Mathematics of Technology Investment - Article

[Note: This post is another in the series of reposts of some of my articles. My friend Tom Burke at Worldox mentioned to me the release of the new Worldox GX version of the popular and well-regarded document management program. I've liked Worldox for many years and Tom is one of my favorite people in the legal tech world. In honor of the new version of Worldox, I'm reposting an article I wrote on document management basics back in 1999 in my monthly column for The Indiana Lawyer. I've updated the prices listed in the article, but otherwise left it unchanged except where indicated.]

Document Management and the Mathematics of Technology Investment

I read the other day that, on average, we spend sixteen minutes a day looking for lost or misplaced items. Based on my experience in law firms, sixteen minutes seems a little low. Lawyers seem to spend a great deal of time looking for documents, on their computers and even on their desks.

If we assume that the average lawyer works 250 days a year, then he or she spends approximately 67 hours a year looking for documents. The median hourly rate for lawyers these days is about $150 per hour. Sixty-seven hours times $150 per hour gives us approximately $10,000 as a monetary cost of looking for documents. On average. Your situation might result in a higher number.

Lawyers sometimes question the benefits of technology spending because they see the benefits as too intangible. Let’s try this experiment: imagine a technology that reduces the times you spend searching for documents on your computer in half, or to eight minutes a day. As you will soon see, this estimate is very conservative. Over the course of a year, that technology could save you $5,000. You can see a "return on investment." In fact, if you can successfully implement that technology for under $5,000 per user, you pay for the technology in savings in the first year alone.

I like to use document management as an example of a technology with an excellent return on investment because it is a simple, utilitarian technology that does not immediately grab your attention.

Document management software simply provides a way to "manage" your computer files so you do not have to deal with the intricacies and limitations of standard filing conventions of Windows or other specific programs. This industry segment grew up as a means to get around the infamous "8 and 3" eleven-character file name limitation of DOS. You may remember the days of using a file name such as TILARTDM.999 for an article written for The Indiana Lawyer on document management in September 1999.

Users struggled to find ways to name documents in 11 characters and still be able to find them and figure out the shorthand months or years later. Some users established thousands of directories and subdirectories as a way to organize files.

Conceptually, a document management program intercepts the "save" command and presents you with a screen that allows you to give your document an extended name (such as "Smith v. Smith Motion to Modify Child Support") and to provide "profile" information (author, typist, client, matter, keywords). After you fill out that screen, the document manager continues the "save" and files the document for you. When you next open the file, you simply retrieve it out of the document management software, with the extended range of options and ease of use it provides, rather than fussing with the underlying file structure.

The key to document management is that you really don’t care where the file sits on a hard drive, you just want to be able to find, access and use it quickly. Document management software allows you to do this. And a lot more.

Other helpful features let you do full text searches across your hard drive or network, organize your documents in a structure meaningful to you, associate keywords (such as "form") with documents, and share the "knowledge" accumulated in your documents and across your firm.

Full Text Searching. Document managers each use some form of indexing on a regular basis to let do lightning fast full text searches of all your files. Instead of vaguely remembering a memo on postnuptial agreements done 3 or 4 years ago and sending out a team to track it down, with document management, you can search on words and phrases much like you can with a search engine on the Internet or with LEXIS or WestLaw. Running a search on "memorandum and postnuptial" will, within seconds, give you a workable list of likely candidates. In some instances, you might need to refine your search once or twice. Many firms have bought document management programs for this feature alone.

Improved File Structure. In many firms, you find a hybrid of file management structures. Some attorneys have separate directories for each client. Some have directories by document type. In some cases, each attorney has an individual directory containing all of his or her documents. In each case, sharing documents or finding someone else’s documents becomes quite difficult.

Since the physical location of a file does not matter in a document management system, you can specify client, matter and other information for each document and create "views" that allow a user to see, for example, all the documents involving a certain matter arranged in reverse chronological order. Click on the document you want and you can retrieve it. The underlying location of the document simply becomes irrelevant. If you like to see all of the files you have created in one place, you can do that. At the same time, an associate can have another view of all documents relating to a client that includes your documents. Each view exists independently and neither view affects the other.

Profiling Documents. Document managers let you categorize documents and then use those categories for searches. For example, identifying authors will later allow you to retrieve all memos written by a particular summer associate. Categorizing certain documents as forms (and protecting them from editing except by designated individuals) can help you set up an excellent form file.

Knowledge Management. "KM" is a big buzzword these days. You can use profiling and categorizing aggressively to help share important information and even the accumulated knowledge or wisdom across a firm. For example, by using keywords, you might also be able to find easily documents like buy-sell agreements with rights of first refusal favorable to the shareholder leaving the business.

You have a number of choices in document management programs. Four of the "big names" are PCDocs [now Hummingbird], Worldox, iManage [now part of Interwoven] and ProLaw [Now part of Thomson Elite]. Each does a few different things in a few different ways. All are worthy of consideration.

Here’s an example. The current pricing structure for Worldox is $375 per user for the first year and $70 per year thereafter. You’ll also need a modest workstation for indexing and some time of set up profile screens and other features. Other document managers typically require a separate SQL server and, for that reason, can be expensive for small and medium-sized firms. But . . . remember the $5,000 per year in "lost" time example (and each vendor will tell you that estimate is highly conservative) and consider how quickly your investment might pay for itself.

Document management is an example of using technology to help lawyers right where they live - under a huge stack of documents - and in a way that helps them directly. Some even suggest scanning all documents in your file, getting the scanned document files into your document management system and then literally having an electronic copy of your entire case file retrievable on your computer. The math on document management is surprisingly easy. Your life might well be a little easier too.

An earlier version of this article appeared in the October 13, 1999 issue of The Indiana Lawyer.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2005

Extranet Basics: Taking a Step Toward a Client-focused Practice - Article

[Note: This article, written in 2000, may have been the first place where I started to set out my notion of "client-driven technology." I recently enjoyed a compliment from an extranet vendor about how he had pointed many people to this article over the years. Extranets may now be the easiest way for law firms to provide clients with something they really want by offering a helpful technology. As recent surveys show, extranets are still not used very often by law firms,]

Extranet Basics: Taking A Step Toward a Client-Focused Practice

When we think about technology, we usually focus on ways to make our practices more productive and our lives easier. These are important goals, but in this column I want to shift our usual focus away from ourselves to our clients. As the legal profession sees growing competition both internally and externally, retaining existing clients will become increasingly important to many firms’ survival.

An Internet application called an "extranet" may prove to be an excellent way for many law firms to use the Internet to improve the attorney-client dynamic and retain current clients.

Everyone is familiar with the Internet, the giant global network of computer networks. And nearly everyone has used an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape’s Navigator, to find helpful web sites. Some of you may even be familiar with "intranets," or large internal web sites within a single firm. The former Latin students out there will not be surprised then to find that extranets refer to private web sites that are directed to one or more outside entities.

An extranet is a private, secure web site that, while available over Internet through a browser, can be used only by a limited audience to whom you have given the necessary permissions. Conceptually, there are two types of extranets. The first is a standard web site that has password-protected private areas of content and features. The second is a web site that gives password-protected access to limited portions of a firm’s intranet or internal computer network.

The key difference between an extranet and a web site is that an extranet is secure. No one gets access unless permitted.

A law firm can use an extranet to open access to a controlled number of outsiders, typically co-counsel and clients. An extranet also allows you to customize the levels of access and the amount and type of information made available. Since an extranet is programmed like a standard web site, you can have text, graphics, audio, video, message boards, chat sessions and any other Internet feature on your extranet. In other words, you can personalize an extranet specifically for your client, not unlike the My Yahoo web site.

A few examples are in order. On an extranet site, you might make sanitized versions of research memos and updates to articles available to clients only. You might make copies of all a client’s documents, including drafts in progress, available only to that client. In litigation, you might give a client access to deposition transcripts or even video of depositions, or share all case information with co-counsel. An extranet might provide a client with instant access to time and billing information, electronic bills, and message boards to leave comments for attorneys. Rather than preparing huge closing binders for real estate deals, a firm could instead give a client an electronic copy on an extranet. An extranet might provide clients with updates of legal developments and summaries of cases of interest.

The beauty of an extranet is that your clients require no technology other than a computer, an Internet connection and a browser. And they can access your extranet from any place they can access the Internet.

Extranets have become popular in the corporate setting and, as a result, law firms are getting pressure to offer extranets. As the Internet increasingly changes our expectations about customer service, lawyers must keep up with developments. For example, many consumer web sites show you how many units are in stock before you order and let you track your shipment with the click of a button. Why shouldn’t a client expect to click on a button and see current billings and work in process?

Extranets can be developed internally or "outsourced" to a company like LegalAnywhere that provides a packaged solution. As an extranet gets more complex, or ties into your computer network, you will need a higher degree of sophistication and programming, but standard approaches can serve you well as you get started.

Extranets require commitment. They must work flawlessly. They require that you pay attention to message boards and update content regularly. As you provide features and your clients use them, your clients will suggest new features and expect you to add them. Adding video, message boards, chat rooms or other features can place demands on your systems and your people.

Costs, not surprisingly, will vary, but your first extranet can serve as a template for many other clients.

While I believe that extranets offer a way for firms to innovate and even transform a practice, let me focus on the practical – cutting costs. There are two sides to this cost-cutting equation. With an extranet, you can readily find savings in paper, printing and copying costs, long distance, overnight shipping and postage costs, and travel costs. Moving to a form of electronic billing may help you be more efficient in billing and collecting from your clients.

More important, however, is to focus on the ways an extranet can save your clients money. Can you save them copying, printing, shipping, long distance and travel costs? What if you offer a discount for moving to electronic billing? What client will not like a lawyer suggesting ways to save money?

Extranets can also help you market to your clients. By keeping them informed and making them aware of all your services, you add value to the relationship. An extranet can tie a client to your firm, not just to the attorney with the personal relationship. If a client gets used to the benefits and conveniences of its customized extranet, the client will find it harder to go with a lawyer who is leaving your firm or to another firm without the same level of service.

Clients do not like it when they feel you are not paying enough attention to them. An extranet that keeps them up-to-date, provides them with news and developments and even allows them to collaborate on projects and documents will show your clients that you are paying attention.

If you get the underlying concept of extranets, you should already be generating some good ideas. Extranets are increasingly common in class action cases, multi-state complex litigation and general corporate representation. Extranets offer a way to move toward a more client-focused practice and should definitely be on your technology agenda.

An earlier version of this article appeared in the March 15, 2000 issue of The Indiana Lawyer.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy’s legal technology consulting services, featuring RSS and advanced blogging consulting and technology committee coaching packages for law firms, corporate legal departments and other professional services providers. And, of course, consulting on extranet options and opportunities.

Posted by dmk at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2005

Seven Easy Ways for Law Firms to Throw Away Money on Technology - Article

[I wrote this article at the end of 2003. The end of the year has always seemed like a great time to step back and take a close look at what you are doing and see if it makes sense to continuing doing it. No one likes the word "audit," but taking a close look at what you are doing right and wrong is a necessary first step for doing strategic planning for your technology. Or you can keep pouring money down the drain.]

Seven Easy Ways for Law Firms to Throw Away Money on Technology

Technology spending has grown to comprise 4 to 6% of the average law firm’s budget. The sad story is that many law firms, despite their best plans and intentions, are throwing many of their technology dollars down the drain.

I am talking about real money, not potential savings, not speculative productivity numbers, and not “potential” new clients from web sites or “knowledge management” efforts. There are many ways to toss away money on technology. How many of the following ways to waste your budget apply to you?

1. Do not align technology projects with business goals. The results: projects that never get completed or produce any benefit and diversion of dollars away from great projects to pet projects.

2. Do not quantify and measure results. The results: projects with costs far greater than any benefits and lingering projects on which the plug should have been pulled long ago.

3. Buy new software when you already own software that would perform the task you require. The result: your losses compound as you add training costs for the new software to the costs of the software.

4. Be unaware of all of the legal software alternatives. The results: paying too much for software that sort of fits your needs when better options exist.

5. Do not explore volume licensing options and, in particular, Microsoft licensing options. The results: paying a higher price than necessary and, in the case of Microsoft products, incurring unnecessary upgrade costs.

6. Have a technology committee without experience, expertise and a clearly-defined mission. The result: even simple projects take years to make decisions about and IT staff operates on its own.

7. Fail to educate your IT staff about your legal practice and the unique issues involved. The results: ill-advised decisions, misdirected priorities and technology gaffes involving clients.

And these seven ways represent just the tip of the iceberg. You may also be putting money into technologies already known to be on their way out, locking up your data in proprietary systems, buying overpowered or underpowered hardware, paying insufficient attention to security and antivirus issues, and creating difficulties in communicating with clients. You have to find a lot of extra hours to bill to be able to toss away that kind of money. The best route, of course, is to take a good hard look at what you may be doing wrong, refocus your efforts and save some of the money you are wasting to use for technology that helps you.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2005

Introduction to Mind Mapping - Article

[With our big MindJet Mind Manager 6 announcement today for attendees of BlawgThink, I thought I'd post my August 1999 article on mind maps. I've updated a few references and eliminated some links that no longer work, but this will give you my general approach to mind mapping and why I've used them for many years.]

AN INTRODUCTION TO MIND MAPPING

I wasn't planning on it, but I started a spirited discussion thread on the TechnoLawyer list a month or so ago about mind mapping and mind mapping software. Portions of the thread can be read in the August/September 1999 issue of Law Office Computing.

Mind mapping, or radiant thinking as it is sometimes called, is a fairly new technique that allows you to both brainstorm and structure your thoughts using graphics, colors and words in a free-ranging map. It's easier to see than to describe, so take a look at some examples at http://www.mindjet.com/us/download/map_library/index.php or http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/mind-maps-examples.htm.

My recommended starting point is Tony and Barry Buzan's The Mind Map Book. Tony Buzan (http://www.buzan.co.uk) is the acknowledged authority on mind maps. Michael Gelb's How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci is another interesting starting point as Gelb analogizes mind mapping to DaVinci's notebooks which were replete with drawings and notes.

Mind maps are generally seen as an alternative to outlining. My third grade (or whenever) teacher who first taught us outlines put the whammy on me for outlines. I really don't like using formal outlines and the association of outlining with law school exams is not a pleasant one. But, I did find myself pleasantly surprised by the Palm outliner, BrainForest, which prompted my role in the discussion thread.

The main criticism of outlines is that they force you to impose a rigid structure on your thoughts as you put them down on paper. They also get unwieldy as they become more complicated (hmm, here's a point W.3.c.ii. ? I wonder what in the world point W.2 was). In general, outlines do not allow your ideas to flow.

Mind mapping lets you brainstorm and generate and connect ideas. More important, you can see new connections between ideas and make new connections. You can also take your mind map and turn it into a traditional outline later.

I've used mind maps regularly for several years. I like the process and the results. In fact, I have a whole notebook full of mind maps of articles, plans and ideas.

As a general matter, you take a piece of paper, turn it lengthwise, write your main idea in the center and make a related drawing. You then start to radiate ideas around the central image. For example, with an article like this one, I would start with the word "Mind Maps" and an image in the middle of the page and then surround it with other points I wanted to raise: "comparison to outlines," "resources," "Harhai article," "PowerPoint lessons" and other points. I might draw little pictures with each point.

Then I'd move to each individual point and repeat the process. For example, for "comparison to outlines" I'd surround it with "third grade experience," "law school exams," "RIGID," "unwieldy" and maybe a picture of a person with the flow of ideas out his head blocked by a dam called outline. You try to get your ideas out of your head and onto paper, without self-criticism. That can come later.

At some point, you reach a sense of "done" and you can then look at the tentative mind map. You might add some new points, draw arrows between points, number points or leave gaps for something you might add later. You might use highlighters or different colors of ink. In fairly short order, you have most of your ideas on the piece of paper and the structure that those ideas have may become much more apparent to you.

Contrast this to preparing an outline, where I tend to fuss over numbering schemes and can't get past the notion that you must have at least 2 sub-points. What I learned, though, from the discussion thread and from using BrainForest on the Palm is that if you are willing to break the "rules," outliners can give you a lot of flexibility because you can move points around and even do some brainstorming.

Unfortunately, outliners still don't let you view your ideas and see the structure that may be present in your ideas as readily as mind maps do.

The downside of mind mapping (other than the difficulty of explaining it to a senior attorney and the more "rational" and traditional of your colleagues) is that that the best mind maps are like miniature works of art and you feel obligated to include drawings. If your elementary school teacher left you with the feeling that you didn't have a single artistic bone in your body (don't get me started on what my elementary school music teacher did to me with music), this can be daunting.

Enter the world of mind mapping software like Inspiration and MindManager. What if instead of drawing on big sheets of paper, you had a computer program that allowed you to select images (or draw them) and arrows, shapes, et al.? What if you could move parts of your map around and resize them automatically? The mind mapping programs let you mind map on your computer.

These programs can work either for creating a mind map or for "cleaning up" a mind map you've made on paper. There's a certain tactile element to creating a mind map on paper that might get lost for some people if they tried to start with a blank screen rather than a piece of paper. [Note: Tablet PCs rock in connection with mind mapping.] Since mind maps are about promoting the flow of ideas, you want to focus on what works best for you. Some people also like to draw their own images and not pick among pre-fab images.

I've found the opposite to be true. One of my favorite parts of creating a PowerPoint presentation is the part where I sort through the clipart library to find an image that fits the points I'm making on the slide. Many times, once I make the selection of the image, I realize another point or two I want to make, change the order of points or realize what example or anecdote I want to use in that portion of the talk. It's a fascinating element of the creative process and has brought home to me both that the visual element is a key part of the thought process and that the more senses that you can use in the creative process the better.

Mind mapping is one of a number of "thinking tools" that are becoming available to lawyers as technology slowly begins to give us tools that help us work the way we work rather than forcing us to work in ways that programs work. CaseMap (http://www.casesoft.com), to me, is another important legal "thinking tool." Others have experimented with the Brain (http://www.thebrain.com) and Trellix. For a great introduction to legal thinking tools, take a look at Steve Harhai's excellent article in the November/December issue of Law Practice Management magazine, a version of which is on the web at http://www.coloradofamilylaw.com/Articles/Thinking%20Tools%20(9-98).htm.

If you are interested in mind mapping, the definite starting point is Buzan's The Mind Map Book. I'd try making a few mind maps and seeing if they work for you before jumping into a program. I assume that the choice of this type of program will be highly idiosyncratic and that there's no one "best" program out there, but I wouldn?t expect the main features of the programs to be too different. Mind mapping is a fascinating and useful "thinking tool."

+++++

Want to attend BlawgThink? Let me know.

Note: This article is one of a series of my previously-published articles that I'm making available for free on my website and incorporating into my blog. Other of my articles may be found in the Articles category archive on my blog.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink!(TM) - The Conference, Re-imagined. LexThink! - Think big thoughts, do cool things, change the world. November 11 & 12 - LexThink BlawgThink - the legal blogger unconference.

Posted by dmk at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2005

A Mobile Computing Kit for Lawyers - Article

[Written in December 2004. Published in Law Office Computing.]

A Mobile Computing Kit for Lawyers

An anthropologist could spend years studying what lawyers carry in their briefcases and laptop bags and how the items have changed over the years. There is always a story that explains the need for each item. The story usually involves a traumatic incident that made the lawyer vow never to travel without the item ever again.

In my case, you will find the screwdriver I carry because I couldn't unscrew a projector cord that had tightly secured too tightly to keep the cord from pulling out of my notebook computer. You will see the USB hub I carry because I can't always fit USB devices into the space for the USB ports on my notebook. The three-prong adapter is the result of finding myself with a three-prong plug in a room with only two-prong outlets.

You get the idea. However, my purpose in this article is not to share my technology snafus that only seem funny in retrospect. Instead, I want to help you put together the best travel kit for your mobile computing needs based on the lessons I've learned the hard way and from the wise and kind advice of others.

1. The Focus is You.

In mobile computing, the idea is not to assemble a set of 5-star reviewed devices, hot gadgets or status items. You want to have the tools that help you get your work done, often when you are under pressure, up against time deadlines or in other stress-inducing situations.

Your first guiding question should be, "What do I need to do?" Great athletes visualize themselves in expected scenarios, from making the perfect shot to skiing the perfect slalom run. The best users of technology use a similar visualization process.

Think carefully about the scenarios in which you are most likely to use a notebook computer. Picture how you will actually be using it. If you expect different types of uses, consider how the notebook will work for you in the most important setting.

For me, I care the most about how a notebook works for me when I do presentations, many of which involve air travel. That use dictates my choices. If your main use will be taking notes in depositions or drafting documents in your favorite chair at home, my choices will not be the best choices for you. Focus on what works best for you.

The second key question is just the follow-up to the first one, "Does the item you want actually help you do what you want to do?" If you plan carefully, visualize and understand what you need, you will know the answer to this question. The true challenge is whether you can put aside cost, envy, desire and all of the other tangible and intangible issues that conspire to keep you from voicing that answer and acting on it.

2. Let's Get Started . . . With the Bag.

Your choice of computer bag plays a more important role than you might imagine.

What you have in your ultimate travel kit will be limited by how much you can fit into the bag. As a result, your ultimate travel kit is going to contain something less than everything that you might want and something more than the bare minimum essentials. You want to make the best use of the space you have.

I have been using a two bag approach. The first bag is an "everyday bag." For the past six years, I've used a Targus combination bag that can be carried as a briefcase, used with a shoulder strap and also works as a backpack. It's very versatile and makes a great standard choice.

However, even in the backpack mode, it still gets heavy when I hoof it long distances through airports. I now use a wheeled laptop bag when I travel. I thoroughly recommend this approach for air travel and other times you need to carry a heavy bag for an extended time or distance. Test them out before you buy because small details make big differences. Features I like include the little feet on the bottom that keep a bag from falling and smoothly rolling wheels.

Certain people might also consider a less-functional "dress bag," such as a fancy leather or aluminum case for client meetings or court appearances. Don't forget about functionality in your quest for style. The other option that might come into play is the "bohemian" backpack or satchel to make the scene at a coffee house.

A well-chosen computer bag is an essential component of the ultimate travel kit.

3. The Essentials.

The notebook computer is the central core of your travel kit. Today's notebook computers truly have the power and storage capacity to let you carry your office with you. If you haven't purchased a computer in a few years, you will be amazed at what you can get today.

It's hard today to make a really bad choice in notebook computers and most of the ones available will do more than the average lawyer requires. There are still a few important factors to consider.

First, you will want to identify the appropriate category for you. Today, there are six categories of notebook computers to consider. One of them will make the most sense for you.

The Middle of the Road - These moderately-priced notebooks are solid, if unexciting, computers that are great all-around choices. They fall into the middle in almost every category and will never dazzle anyone with their design. However, they do almost every job well.

The Desktop Replacement - These notebooks are high-powered and high-priced. They are also big in many ways - big screens, big hard drives and did I mention the big prices? If you handle large amounts of data or work with audio and video, you might consider these. The cost can be a thousand dollars or more than a middle of the road computer.

The Subnotebook - If you travel, every pound you save is important. You can find subnotebooks under four pounds. There are tradeoffs with subnotebooks, including smaller screens and external, rather than internal, CD or DVD drives. These make the most sense for frequent travelers or if you simply want to use a computer in different rooms in your house.

Tablet PC - Tablet PCs seem to be made with lawyers in mind, yet lawyers rarely buy them. No one really understands why. Tablet PCs are full-featured computers that allow you to enter data and write on the screen with a stylus. If you are a litigator, you owe it to yourself to look closely at the Tablet PCs. Other lawyers should consider them as well. The cost differential is less than most people think. Tablet PCs would be great on crowded flights.

The Mac Notebook - Macintosh notebook computers are a realistic option today. They are excellent wireless tools and highly-regarded notebooks. Consider your actual uses and what software is available. If you do your homework, there might be a Mac in your future.

The Mini-Theater Notebook - This new category consists of behemoth notebooks with very large screens, DVD drives and great video and sound cards. They will meet your work needs, but they are unparalleled for watching movies on DVDs. These might be good choices for litigators working with video depositions or for lawyers who need large screens for particular purposes. Frankly, though, traveling with small children is one of the best reasons for using one of these. These notebooks probably are options for small firm lawyers because it is difficult to imagine getting a request for one of these approved by a large firm IT department.

Recommended Specs in 2005.

I see 512 megabytes of RAM as a minimum choice these days and suggest getting a gigabyte of RAM. Unless you are playing high-end games or working with video, almost any processor chip available today will be more than adequate for normal use. The built-in wireless networking and improved battery life make the notebooks with Intel's Centrino chips a good choice.

Take a good look at screen size and quality and pick the one you like. USB and Firewire ports are all-but-required today. Bigger hard drives are better. I recommend some form of optical writing device - DVD writer, CD-RW, or a combo DVD/CD-RW. If you don't have a Centrino-based notebook, a wireless network card (very inexpensive) is essential.

4. Communications/PDA Device.

Notebooks with wireless Internet access are changing the equation in this area. I personally have moved to a notebook computer and a standard cell phone and stopped using a PDA (Palm or Pocket PC device). This area is truly one where personal preferences reign supreme. Make your best choices and toss them in the bag. Don't let your IT department convince you that a Blackberry is as good as having a notebook.

5. Accessories - Essential.

Required Power Supplies, Rechargers and Add-on Devices - You cannot live by batteries alone. In fact, you will want to use AC power whenever possible to reserve battery life for when you need it. Some notebooks have swappable or external drives. Take them with you.

USB Flash Drives - These tiny devices hold a ton of data at a tiny price. Since the summer of 2004, prices have plummeted, all but killing off floppy drives. These drives come in 128 megabyte, 256 megabyte, 512 megabyte and 1 gigabyte sizes and plug into the USB port on your notebook. They are indispensable. They are also easy to lose, so be careful with them. Your travel kit should have one or two of these.

USB Optical Mouse - Gadget gurus talk about all kinds of cool devices. The one thing they all use is an USB optical mouse. These are often available for under $20 and come in wired and wireless flavors. If, like me, you have the habit of dragging your thumb across a touchpad, these are immensely helpful. Just plug them into your USB port and your ready to roll.

Portable USB Hub - With so many useful USB devices available, you can easily have more devices than ports. For about $20, you can get a very small 4-port hub to plug into your notebook's USB port and plug in four devices.

Headphones - If you can't work on a plane, you might as well listen to music or watch a movie. They can also come in handy if you don't want to talk to the people sitting next to you.

The Emergency CDs for Your Computer - They're no help if they're at home.

Standard Network Cable and Phone Cable - Worth their weight in gold when you need them.

A Small Screwdriver or Toolkit - Or any other item that past experience has taught you that you can't be without. Be prepared. Avoid the Swiss army knife with tools unless you enjoy getting the full security treatment in airports and seeing your knife tossed into a trash can.

6. Accessories - Recommended.

Three-prong Adapter, Extension Cord and/or Small Power Strip - An adapter will one day save you if you have any cord with a three-plug. In many rooms, there are available outlets, but they are too far away from where you are sitting. Making your extension cord or power strip available to others is a great way to make new friends.

Surge Protector - Of course, no one ever buys one of these until their notebook gets fried. Some "mobile essentials" packages combine these with a mouse, USB hub or other useful items.

Extra Battery and Extra Power Cord - I didn't list these items as essential for two reasons. First, they can add significant weight. Second, they can be breathtakingly expensive. I once packed the wrong power cord. I learned that a replacement cord was $150 and a universal power cord cost about the same. I thank my co-presenters for loading my presentations onto their computers. I'll consider buying one of these if I see a great sale price or if I make the same mistake a second time. For long plane trips, a second battery may be a necessity. Emergency power sources may make sense if you will be away from electrical sources for an extended period of time.

Blank CDs - Not everyone has a USB port and sometimes a network connection is not available. CD drives are almost universal and a blank disk will give you another option for transferring data.

7. Accessories - Special Situations.

USB Hard Drive - External hard drives with USB (or Firewire) connectors are an attractive way to back up your data or carry large amounts of data. You can now routinely find 100+ gigabyte hard drives for not much more than $100.

Remote Control Mouse and Laser Pointer - Depending on your style of presenting, these can be useful devices, although remote controls can be a little temperamental.

Digital Camera - A surprisingly versatile tool that can be used in a number of useful ways, including, in a pinch, as a document scanner.

iPod/MP3 Player - Another versatile device that can be used for more than listening to music or audio CLE, including as a voice recorder or as an extra hard drive.

Portable Printer - For most lawyers, the extra weight and space will rule out portable printers. However, they may be invaluable for you in your practice, especially in a courtroom setting.

Projector - If you need a projector, you can expect to be carrying an extra bag. Key factors: your brightness needs, weight/portability, and compatibility with your notebook. The extra cost of wireless projectors might well be justified by the elimination of the need to carry around a cable. An extra bulb is a must.

8. Helpful Hints.

Watch people who travel a lot when they dig into their computer bags. You can learn a lot of useful tools and techniques. Here are two useful tips.

Resealable Plastic Bags - Many mobile lawyers use one- and two-quart resealable plastic bags to organize the items in their computer bag. Group like items into bags and label them. This technique allows you to check to make sure you have what you need and should prevent you from taking the wrong power cord or other similar mistakes. Plastic bags also work well when you use two or more computer bags and transfer items between them. They are also great for storing your snacks.

A Couple of Pens and a Small Notebook - Sometimes paper is the best or only option.

9. The Final Check.

Take everything that you have decided must be in your ultimate travel kit. Put it in your computer bag and attempt to zip it closed. Give your self time to stop laughing. Eliminate items until the bag can be zipped without undue effort. Even better, clear enough room to throw in a book or a couple of magazines, airport souvenirs for your children and whatever items you will need to remove from your pockets to make it through airport security without setting off the metal detectors.

10. Bringing It Home.

When putting together your ultimate travel kit, the emphasis must be on "your." Use this article and the advice of other people as checklist of items for you to consider, not as requirements. Consider carefully what you want to do and what you will need. Then make the best choices you can.

Learn from your mistakes and always be on the lookout for ways to improve what you are doing. Listen patiently to what experts tell you, but observe carefully what they actually do and what they actually use.

Mobile computer will only become more common. Whether your mobile computing is by flying around the country or the occasional trips to the local coffee shop, you can put together a great travel kit that works for you and keeps the items you need most often with you when you need them most. The effort you put into getting it right will pay for itself many times over.

SIDEBAR

SERVICES FOR THE MOBILE LAWYER

Veteran mobile computing lawyers also develop a travel kit of useful services to cover emergencies and other surprises.

1. Backup National ISP Account - Don't delete all those AOL and other ISP offers that come preloaded on your new notebook. In a pinch, you can activate one if you have no other way to get Internet access.

2. Internet Email Accounts - Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and other free email accounts give you options for sending and receiving email if you can't get to your usual email account. Most services offer address book and even calendaring functions.

3. Internet Fax Service - Maxemailsend and eFax are two examples of inexpensive Internet fax services that let you send and receive faxes by email. You can fax yourself at your hotel to get a printout of a document if you are otherwise unable to print.

4. Online Backup Services - An online backup service will give you accessible storage space for a copy of your presentation or other documents you need. You might also email the documents as attachments to yourself at an online email address.

5. Online Bookmark Repositories and Newsreaders - Get access to all of your bookmarks and favorites no matter where you are. Bloglines is a popular online newsreader so you can keep up with the RSS feeds you read.

6. Connect to Your Office - Depending on your setup in your office, Citrix software, virtual private network software, GoToMyPC or PCAnywhere will allow you to access your office network from the road.

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

This post brought to you by Dennis Kennedy's consulting services, featuring RSS and advanced blogging consulting and technology committee coaching packages for law firms, corporate legal departments and other professional services providers.

Posted by dmk at 05:32 PM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2005

The Mysterious World of Metadata - Article

[Written in January 2005]

The Mysterious World of Metadata

A. Introduction

Recent stories about lawyers releasing documents containing embarrassing hidden data have highlighted the dangers of "metadata," especially in documents created with Microsoft Office programs. Unfortunately, other lawyers who do not learn how to deal with metadata will suffer the same public humiliation. Metadata may not be the most important issue in electronic discovery, but it is one issue that lawyers must be familiar with because there will be negative consequences if they don't address the well-publicized issues.

A. What is "Metadata" and Why We Should Care About It

The hidden data we call metadata is another example of a helpful feature that has some unfortunate negative consequences. The term is occasionally used in a limited or otherwise imprecise way, so let me give you my definition.

1. Defining the Term

"Meta" is the Greek word for "about." Metadata refers to certain data that are associated with a document, but are not generally visible in the ordinary display or printing of the document. Common examples include comments, markup and revisions, author, owner and other information, and even records of versions. Although metadata is often discussed in connection with Microsoft Office documents, it can be created by many software programs.

2. Why Metadata Exists

Metadata is not inherently bad. It depends on the context we find it and who is viewing or using it. For many purposes, especially for collaborating on documents, this information is helpful and valuable. The "Track Changes" features, versioning, document and author information and other metadata can be very useful when several people work on a document. Once the document moves out of "friendly hands," however, it can cause some damage if it is revealed, ranging from embarrassment to devastation of your case. Imagine the consequences if a document included a different settlement figure or candid comments about the strength or weakness of certain points.

3. Good Metadata and Bad Metadata

While it is tempting to think in terms of "good" metadata and "bad "metadata, it is more useful to think in terms of the amount and types of information that a particular piece of metadata carries. Some metadata is all but innocuous – file name, file type, creation date and the like. However, in certain cases, this information can turn out to be key evidence in a case. Other metadata is rich in information content – comments and revisions, for example – and you would generally not want this information to fall into someone else's hands. The context is what is important. A document might have more than one hundred metadata items associated with it. Unless you know what metadata exists, you cannot make good decisions about it.
It's also worth noting that some metadata may be altered or incorrect. For example, in the document properties, fields, such as author, may be edited and the "statistics" information for some Word documents bears no relation to reality.

B. Metadata You Might Find - Microsoft Word Example

Microsoft Word metadata gets the bulk of the attention these days, so let's take a closer look at it. Do you know how to check for metadata in Word documents? Microsoft's website is a useful resource for information about this hidden data.

1. Document Properties

Even if they are aware of metadata being created and associated with a document, many people do not realize how simple it is to view the metadata in documents. We will not go into much detail here, but spending 5 to 10 minutes under the Help menu in Word or on Google will open up new worlds for you.

For a quick example, simply open a Microsoft Word document and click on "Properties" under the "File" menu. You'll find a screen that will allow you to see the wide range of metadata that is and can be associated with a Word document. People have been embarrassed by nearly all of these items, from revealing that someone outside the firm was the original author of an agreement to showing only a few minutes of actual editing time on a document for which many hours of time was charged for preparation. Again, it's not so much the information itself – it's the context that matters.

2. Track Changes and Comments

Everyone's favorite forms of metadata are "Track Changes" and comments. An opposing party or even a judge can turn the "Track Changes" back on in a document after you thought you turned them off. There are lots of embarrassing and costly examples I'm sure that you have heard about. The sensitivity of this information is obvious.
You simply must learn how these features work and what precautions to take. Note that Office 2003 has built in some warnings and settings to help you out. Note too that you can set up Word to reveal hidden information in documents, which helps you see what is in your documents and, of course, will let you see what might be in documents that are sent to you.

3. Earlier Edits and Versions

If you are not careful about default settings, you may find other surprises. Earlier versions might be included as part of the final document you send, even if you use Adobe Acrobat to create a PDF file as a way to remove metadata. In certain situations, a Word document might contain information to allow someone else to use the "undo" feature to reveal changes and revisions.

D. Playing Offense and Defense with Metadata

Obviously, you want to be careful on this issue. It should be equally apparent that metadata can be a two-way street and that there are offensive and defensive uses of metadata.

1. Protecting Your Documents

Job one, of course, is to protect your own documents. You also want to understand what metadata is associated with your clients' documents and the implications of that metadata.
A commonly-advised approach is to strip the metadata from the documents. There are several inexpensive software tools that will remove the metadata from or "scrub" Microsoft Office documents. Remember that Excel and PowerPoint files also contain metadata and spreadsheet files might have very damaging revisions or evidence of prior calculations. Microsoft also has a free "Remove Hidden Data" tool, but it only works with the newest versions of Office and you will need to study the published list of known issues.

Other common solutions are to save Word files as PDF files, use WordPad, a stripped-down word processor in Windows, or save the file in the RTF format. Note that Adobe Acrobat can now introduce its own metadata. Scrubbing and other techniques will work, but they may not get everything and it is important to follow developments in this area. There is currently an ongoing discussion about whether Word metadata can in fact carry through to a PDF document.

2. Showing Metadata in Other Documents

Playing defense on metadata is hard work. Playing offense is much more fun. Not to give away secrets, but a number of excellent lawyers have been aware of metadata and how to read it for years. They have used metadata as one more weapon in their arsenals. As we have suggested, it takes only a few setting changes in Word, Excel or PowerPoint to reveal, on a routine basis, the metadata associated with documents you receive. Perhaps the memo you had hoped would be the "smoking gun," but was not, actually has the smoking gun hidden in it. At this point, it is hard to argue against treating the checking of metadata as a standard practice. However, it is worth noting that some commentators have opined that this practice is just plain wrong.

3. Difficult Ethical and Other Considerations

Metadata raises its own set of difficult ethical and other issues. Consider this question: what happens when I realize that I have produced or am compelled to produce documents that have damaging metadata in them? Am I compelled to affirmatively reveal it?

Given the lack of awareness of many lawyers, simply turning off the "track changes" on Word documents, which does not remove the metadata, does in fact make it invisible to unsophisticated readers. How would a court treat that approach? Is it possible to educate a judge about metadata and obtain a protective order that effectively permits the scrubbing of metadata? Should discovery requests routinely refer to production of documents in a format where metadata has not been scrubbed or altered?

I have little doubt that we will soon see court decisions on some of these questions. This area is one where you will want to track developments carefully. One good approach is to think of metadata in the same light as handwritten comments on paper documents. What would you do with the paper? Let those principles guide you in handling metadata.

E. Conclusions, Tips and Action Steps

The good news in the world of metadata is that, in many cases, you can address the primary issues relatively easily and inexpensively. The bad news is that there are a lot of metadata issues to worry about.

Let's end with three action steps for you to take in the next few days.

First, an easy one. Open up a Word document, check the properties and see what you find.

Second, write down on a piece of paper the software tool that your firm uses to scrub metadata from documents and locate and read your policy for when and how to use it. If you can't do either, find out why.

Third, take a few documents created outside your firm and try to turn on the "Track Changes" or show hidden data features. Think about what you find and decide whether you have the nerve to check your own documents.

As always, it's best to be embarrassed in private than in public. If you don't get metadata, metadata will get you.

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

Posted by dmk at 08:40 PM | Comments (2)

October 21, 2005

Making the Right Choices When Starting a Solo or Small Firm Practice

[Written in April 2005. Published in Law Office Computing magazine.]

Making the Right Choices When Starting a Solo or Small Firm Practice

Obtaining the right technology is a key component of the business plan of every lawyer planning to start a solo or small firm practice. Often, however, it's the one area over which a lawyer feels he or she has the least control.

As a result, indecision about technology can paralyze the whole process of making a decision to start a new firm. Even though I hear more talk than ever about "law firm in a box" approaches, the reality is that you cannot walk into a computer store and order up a "solo starter combo meal" and launch your practice the next day.

I have noticed over the years that when lawyers ask me for recommendations about what to purchase, they invariably have done a lot of homework. Almost without exception, the real question they are asking me is not what they should buy, but whether it would be a mistake to buy what they have in mind. Make no mistake, technology costs will make up a significant portion of your start-up costs.

In this article, you will learn my approach to making technology decisions when starting up a solo or small firm practice, based on my own experience and what I've learned from talking with lots of lawyers. I will show you what questions you want to ask, how to set priorities, evaluate options and get started, and give you a number of approaches that you can take. My goal is to get you to the point where you can open the doors of your new business feeling confident about and comfortable with your technology.

1. The Practice of Law is a Cash Flow Business.

Let's start with the basics. The best advice I received about starting my own practice what that the practice of law, like any small business, is a cash flow business. The second best piece of advice was the "Rule of Threes" for new businesses: Everything will take three times longer than you expect, be three times harder to do than you expect, and cost three times as much as you budget.

For several years, the likely cost of setting up the desired technology for a typical small firm with a couple of lawyers and a couple of people on the staff easily ran into the $30,000 to $50,000 range and perhaps even higher. Those kinds of number were show-stoppers for many firms. As a result, lawyers made a lot of cuts and compromises to get the technology budget down to the point where they could live with it.

Fortunately, the world is changing. In certain cases, small firms might be available to take advantage of leasing arrangements that roll hardware, software and consulting into a single lease, giving you one monthly payment for technology. While not always at the most favorable interest rates, companies like Dell will extend credit to small businesses, again allowing you to turn your technology costs into monthly payments. New "software as services" and other hosted and outsourced services are becoming available to provide needed technology for fixed monthly fees.

These trends allow a startup firm to consider the approach of treating technology as a kind of monthly utilities cost (like electricity) rather than a big, front-end capital cost. Technology costs can then be budgeted and you can obtain more of the technology you need with the goal of using it to improve your cash flow as quickly as possible. Obviously, taking a highly-leveraged approach to starting a business has its own dangers that you must consider carefully, but the options are available.

2. The Golden Triangle ? Hardware, Software and Services.

The "sticker shock" on technology often comes because lawyers forget to consider all three sides of the technology triangle. In many cases, a lawyer will concentrate on a dog-eared copy of an HP or Dell catalog or Computer Shopper magazine and come up with a budget. Unfortunately, they are only looking at the hardware piece of the puzzle.

The surprise happens in two stages.

First, you find that the cost of software will easily exceed the cost of hardware. In fact, it's easy today to find computers that you can buy for less than the cost of a copy of Microsoft Office. Legal-specific software, depending on your areas of practice and needs, can cost thousands of dollars.

Second, you find that you probably have neither the time nor the expertise to set up and install everything yourself. Some kind of consulting, technical and/or training services will be required. The good news is that these services can add tremendous value and help you get a substantial return on your technology investment. The bad news is that the cost of services can easily be greater than the cost of both hardware and software combined.

You must consider all three sides of the technology triangle ? hardware, software and services ? when planning for technology at your new firm. Factor in the Rule of Threes I mentioned early, especially about cost expectations, and you'll arrive at a realistic number to use for your technology budget. Or you might think in the opposite direction ? take your planned budget and divide it by three and see what you can get with that number of dollars. These are important exercises to help you focus on key issues and set priorities.

3. Asking the Right Questions.

Lawyers often ask me questions like, "What [scanner, case management program, etc.] should I get?" Well, what do you want to use it for? The answer changes depending on your plans.

It is also essential to ask a number of core questions. Where will you be working? Will you work in one place or will you be mobile? Will you travel? How do you (and others) work best? How comfortable are you with computers and software? If a program has a significant learning curve, will you get the training you need? Will you produce a lot of paper or will your work be electronic? How important is email, Internet use, faxing and telephone service? What software might be required for your practice? For example, if you do electronic filing, you'll need a program (or a service) to create PDF files. The more basic the questions, the better your results will be.

Finally, you need to think very carefully about what your areas of practice will be. Your practice areas will drive many of your technology choices. If you do litigation, you have an entire set of considerations and options than non-litigators have. Even in litigation, lawyers who try cases will use different technology than lawyers who handle only appeals.

4. One Key Word to Consider ? "Volume."

The single most important driving force in your technology choices is volume. If you understand the volume of your work, the volume of your work product and volume of the demands that you will make on your technology, you will be successful in making good technology choices. If you misgauge volume, your choices will fail you.

What I mean is that you must have a clear picture of the amount of input and output you need from each part of your technology. Then, you must be sure that you make selections that will comfortably handle the volume that you expect.

For example, if my practice consists of one case with one matter, I can easily get by without a case management program. At some point, however, the volume of cases and matters mandates that you use case management software. If you fax hundreds of pages a day, then you must consider a dedicated fax machine with a sheet-feeder and all the accoutrements. If, however, you email documents as PDF attachments and only need to fax a few pages every other month, then you can save the money you would have spent on a fax machine and use a low-cost Internet fax service.

As a general rule, then, technology will make the most sense and give you the biggest payoff in areas where there is sufficient volume that can be addressed by automation or other computerized systems.

5. Outsourcing vs. Do-It-Yourself vs. Sharing.

The trend toward home businesses, even in the practice of law, has produced a lot of discussion about the notion of "core business." If you have limited space and money, you want to consider what elements of your business really need to be done by you. What is the core or essence of your business that must be done by you and what can be done for you by third parties?

As long as the volume remains manageable, many of your technology needs can be met by a Kinko's or other office store, as long as it convenient for you to use it. Dictation services may be better and more cost-effective than speech recognition software.

Consider putting together a group of solos and small firms and try to get group rates for training, maintenance, consulting, planning and other services, as well as volume discounts for hardware and software purchases.

6. A Few Words About Services.

The third side of the legal technology triangle is services. I use the term "services" in two ways. The first is the traditional sense of consulting services. The second is the notion of hosted services, "software as services," or what used to be known as the application service provider or ASP model.

It's difficult for many startup firms to pull out the checkbook for consulting services, especially after they have paid large amounts for hardware and software. There is some irony in this, since lawyers' livelihoods depend on other people hiring lawyers to provide professional services.

There are many consulting services to choose from ? planning, evaluating, installing, training, financing, and more. You can get experts in networks, integration, communications, Windows and even single applications.

Everyone has his or her own comfort level with asking for help and paying for help. I recommend that you build into your technology budget a reasonable amount for consulting services. As you might expect, cutting corners on the front end may well cost you a lot more on the back end. Although this point is an obvious one, it's still worth mentioning that non-lawyers often have difficulty understanding how lawyers work and the ethical and other requirements lawyers have.

The most interesting area in legal technology for startups today is the hosted services area. There are some widely-accepted examples, such as website hosting. Other options appear on a regular basis. Backup, security, email, contact management, databases, timekeeping and other traditional areas of software usage have all been turned into services to one degree or another. I've noticed a number of young attorneys turning to these services as a way to get functionality and features they could not otherwise afford to buy, but that they can use for a reasonable monthly fee.

7. Some Standard Models to Consider.

In 2005, startups can make a decision in favor of Windows or the Macintosh environment. If you are a Linux user, I wouldn't discourage you from that option, but I am reluctant to suggest it as an option for the average computer user.

If you want to take the Macintosh route, go ahead, after you consider the software options in light of your requirements. Apple has put together a helpful list of legal software for the Mac at http://www.apple.com/business/solutions/ legal.htm. You can also run Windows programs in an emulation mode on a Mac and get perfectly adequate levels of performance. As long as you make your decision with eyes wide open and know where you will get support, any startup firm may consider Macintosh as a viable option.

Most startups, however, will live in the Windows world. Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 is the operating system of choice for lawyers. Windows Small Business Server is a great package for a server-based network in a small firm.

Rather than make a lot of specific recommendations about hardware and software, I want to describe some standard approaches to consider.

A. The Classic Approach. In the Classic Approach, you build your technology around a central server and traditional applications, giving your firm room to grow. The Classic Approach involves a lot of planning, consulting help, name brand equipment and tried and true software. As you might guess, a full-blown version of this approach can be very expensive and reach into the six-figure range even for a relatively small firm. Leasing and other financing arrangements will be important in this approach, and you often see compromises made to help cut costs.

In this approach, I'd expect to see a Windows based network running on Windows Server 2003 or Small Business Server on a server that may cost $10,000 or more, tricked out with lots of memory, storage, backup tools, backup power supplies and the like. Generally, you will see users given some choices of computers, but all within the same brand. The whole system will probably be installed by a consultant who provides continuing maintenance and other services.

I would expect to see Microsoft Office 2003, Worldox for document management, and market leaders (e.g., TimeMatters for case management) for other back office programs and a reasonable number of practice tools. You should be able to see that we are talking about a large investment, especially if you start with the traditional medium-sized firm packages from the beginning because you expect growth.

B. The Classic Lite Approach. Not surprisingly, many firms look for ways to get the equivalent of the Classic environment for a much less than Classic price. You look to focus your spending and efforts on the most important pieces of the puzzle for you and you shave pennies everywhere that you can. It's a tricky approach and one where you can easily make mistakes.

C. The Modern Approach. The Modern Approach is another variation of the Classic Approach. It is a customized approach that requires a lot of planning and personalization. In other words, everyone does not get the same setup. Users get only the tools they need. A variety of outsourcing options are considered and used. There is a willingness to start with a reduced number of features while keeping a close eye on the need to improve features when necessary. The savings over the Classic Approach might be substantial.

D. The Outsourced Approach. The Outsourced Approach goes even further than the Modern Approach. You will see this approach from young lawyers, some tech-savvy lawyers and lawyers fleeing large firms who are accustomed to certain levels of technology they can no longer afford. The Outsourcing Approach involves a conscious effort to look for hosted services for as much of the firm's technology as possible. Risky? Yes, but it can rocket your firm to a high level of technology, especially customer-facing technologies like extranets, for a small initial capital outlay, plus a reasonable monthly utility cost.

E. The Macintosh Approach. Macintosh has becoming a significant and growing presence in the solo and small firm legal market. Concerns about Windows security, the Mac's reputation for usability and reliability, and the push from young lawyers have driven this trend. Don't expect to see a lot of savings on hardware and software, but expect savings in consulting and other costs and potential benefits in productivity. Like the Outsourced Approach, the Macintosh is a bit outside the tradition legal approach, but that's part of the appeal of the Macintosh. The Macintosh Approach may be a good one for lawyers looking to use audio and video and take other creative and innovative approaches.

F. The Barebones Approach. How low can you go? Most lawyers already have a computer or two at home. They might work for you until you get the business rolling. You can use the Internet to find free and shareware programs for everything from basic accounting to the OpenOffice suite to time-keeping. It's a stop-gap measure, but it might be what it takes to get your practice off the ground.

8. Realistic Thinking about Costs and Cost Savings.

For many years, consultants have suggested that the rule of thumb cost figure to use for computer technology is between $5,000 and $10,000 per seat. It's a good number to use for ball-parking your budget.

You can improve your practice's cash flow by either bringing more cash in or reducing the flow of cash out. You have the most control over outflow.

First, do not overbuy for your needs. It's easy to get caught up in the thinking that you need to buy certain pieces of equipment because every office needs it. I've seen lawyers spend a lot of money on equipment that is rarely used. A startup rarely has that kind of luxury.

Second, watch for Internet bargains. Every little bit of savings can help you and you can sometimes jump up your level of technology for the same price you expected to pay for lesser technology.

Third, look for volume discounts. A surprising number of software companies start offering volume discounts for as few as five copies. As I mentioned earlier, you might also explore ways to work with other lawyers and firms as a consortium to secure better pricing or split the costs of training or services.

Fourth, take a hard look at outsourcing and hosted services.

Finally, consider leasing and other arrangements to reduce your initial capital costs and treat your technology like another monthly utility cost.

Conclusion.

Implementing the right technology can put you on the road to success. Technology costs are some of the biggest variables in any startup firm's business plan. You want to make good choices while keeping your costs under control. Listen to the suggestions of others, but keep the focus on you and your business. Ask the fundamental questions and think carefully before you answer them. Get the help you feel you need. Then choose an approach that fits your philosophy and budget and be as smart in your technology implication as you are smart in your legal work.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

Revolutionizing Client Relations with CaseMap's New ReportBooks - Article

[This article talks about one of my favorite programs, CaseMap, and the way I believe that lawyers can use one of its new features to take their practices to the proverbial next level. However, it's become even more interesting as a tool that clients might use to gain control over their litigation matters, make better decisions about what cases to try and what cases to settle, and get a grip on its litigation portfolio. Written in late 2004. Published on LLRX.com and elsewhere.]

Revolutionizing Client Relations with CaseMap's New ReportBooks

Let me say this as clearly as I can – CaseMap 5's ReportBooks feature will revolutionize the way clients expect to receive status and other reports about their cases from their lawyers. Used effectively, ReportBooks will help enhance existing client relationships, win new clients and create new business and revenue streams. ReportBooks will also allow you to bring new members of the team up to speed quickly, minimize the losses of team member leaving your firm and ensure that all team members are on the same page.

Since CaseMap 1.0 debuted in 1998, there has been a general consensus that CaseMap has been a step ahead of other litigation software tools. With a steady stream of improvements, CaseMap has continued to hold its place as the leader in innovation among litigation software programs. Now, the newest version, CaseMap 5, moves CaseMap 5 at least a hop, skip and a jump ahead of the rest of the litigation software vendors.

One of the under-recognized reasons for CaseMap's success in winning a place at the table with some of the premier litigators in the United States is the long experience CaseSoft's co-founders' Bob Wiss and Greg Krehel had as jury and litigation consultants with some of this country's leading trial practice firms. CaseMap grew out of a need to solve real world problems that hampered the effective preparation and presentation of cases. CaseMap reflects an understanding of what lawyers do, how they work and what will help them work better.

CaseMap is a litigation fact management, evaluation and strategy software tool that has become popular among some of the best litigators in the country and in large firms, small firms, government and corporations. It is both simple and powerful. CaseMap has always provided ways to present important and useful information about cases in ways that help both lawyers and their clients. Unfortunately, not all lawyers made the best use of CaseMap for these purposes, especially when it came to presenting information to clients.

CaseMap 5 has now made it ridiculously easy to create reports that give clients the information they have always wanted in a way that is most useful to them. The method is through a new feature called ReportBooks.

Let's take a closer look at ReportBooks to see why I think that they may become so important. The concept is quite simple, but the potential power is immense.

A ReportBook is simply a compilation of your CaseMap reports that is automatically assembled and generated on the fly. CaseMap has created a number of templates for ReportBooks. You can customize ReportBooks or create your own version from scratch, but I expect that most of you will find that the standard templates will work well for you.

Here is an example of how ReportBooks work. You receive a call from a client who wants to know what is happening on a certain case. If you are like many lawyers, you will likely stammer, delay and buy some time to try to remember the case and what might be happening in it. You will likely offer your client something like, "We're on top of it," or "We have a status meeting scheduled next week and I'll give you a call after that." Essentially, you buy time, make vague comments and bland reassurances, or you change the subject as quickly as you can. Your client will be left with a vague uneasiness and irritation that may grow into anger when he or she sees your bill for that telephone conversation.

Here is what you can do in the same scenario with ReportBooks. You can say, "Give me about twenty seconds and I'll email you a full report that we can talk about while we look at it together. Let me do that while you are on the line." You are already opening CaseMap, and finding and opening the CaseMap file for the case. You choose to create a ReportBook with a default template. A ReportBook is generated and you send it to an email attachment in PDF. A new email message appears with the ReportBook attached. You type in the email address and write a short note. You send the email. In a second or two, your client has the message and opens the attachment. Now, you both have the ReportBook to serve as a basis for discussion.

The ReportBook will give your client, in a summary fashion, the key information your client needs to understand and discuss the case. In fact, it will probably give many clients the basic information about cases to which they feel they are entitled and that they have long felt their lawyers should provide them.

Here are just a few of the ideas I have had for using ReportBooks: creating ReportBooks for the trial (maybe with a nice binding) for everyone on your team; sending your clients weekly or monthly ReportBooks on their cases; getting new associates up to speed on the case; giving a tax or corporate partner from whom you want advice about a specific issue a quick way to become familiar with the case; creating useful overviews for expert witnesses; and much more.

However, there is no need to rely on my hypotheticals. Let's see what David Wolowitz, of McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has actually done with ReportBooks:

"I have found the new ReportBook feature to be of great benefit in unexpected ways. In one matter, I had a mediation to prepare. I was dealing with my clients, two highly educated professionals, a member of their board who is a very astute attorney in NYC and a savvy insurance adjuster, also an attorney. I needed to educate all of them on the facts and the issues and to determine what information was missing. So, I sent them a CaseMap ReportBook of the key facts and also three reports by key issues.

I created a very impressive cover sheet in about two minutes. I then revised the confidentiality statement to meet my needs and created an intro page explaining how to utilize the reports and the status of the case. From that point on, everyone responded with ideas and missing information. On a weekly basis, I sent them updated ReportBooks, including a report on what was new (a standard CaseMap saved report.) The mediation went well. I gave the mediator a TimeMap report of key dates. I noticed he kept referring to it throughout the mediation. Throughout the process, everyone involved commented on my thoroughness and the usefulness of the reports."

What's in the ReportBook? The standard "Case Summary" ReportBook contains a customized cover sheet, a confidentiality statement, a table of contents, introduction, issue outline, cast of characters (persons), cast of characters (organizations), fact chronology, document index, list of open questions, research authorities and research authority extracts, all generated automatically in seconds from your existing CaseMap file. Other templates include (1) a summary of issues, cast of characters, facts and key documents, (2) key issues fact chronologies, (3) key players fact chronologies, (4) summary list of key players, facts and documents, and (5) what's new in the last 14 days.

The utility of these reports, both externally and internally, should be clear to you. Compare the impact of sending any of these ReportBooks to a client to the traditional methods. As Wolowitz concludes, "I prepared these ReportBooks with very little effort but received far more attention than if I had not used this feature."

The beauty of ReportBooks is that they can be created in seconds from existing data (and you can even refresh an old ReportBook with new data). You can provide them at no cost to your clients just as part of your standard service. When your client, who probably uses other law firms for other cases, starts to ask its other firms for similar reports. They will probably get some pushback from other firms and, more than likely, will see time charges for the creation of reports. Take a look at a sample ReportBook and try to estimate the cost of producing something similar by hand. I suggest that most firms would run up thousands of dollars in costs to produce the same kinds of reports.

In the CaseMap tradition, ReportBooks allow the experienced lead lawyer to move away from spending too much time on the drudgery parts of cases and move toward spending time do what he or she does best and probably enjoys most – analyzing and evaluating cases, planning strategies and tactics, dissecting the strengths and weaknesses of cases, and preparing to be devastatingly effective.

Clients prefer to pay lawyers for their expertise and ability to analyze cases and make good recommendations about how best to handle those cases. Too many lawyers get caught in the trap of thinking that clients are paying them to produce memos, briefs and other documents. With ReportBooks, your clients will easily see the value that you bring to their matters. More importantly, your clients will understand your unique value to them as compared to law firms that do not use ReportBooks.

Here is just one idea to consider. Assume a major client can receive ReportBooks for all of its cases from all of its law firms. Might they want to use your services and pay you very well for your evaluation of those cases rather than have you spending your time supervising associates handling routine discovery and writing memos and briefs? Are there other opportunities for litigators to create new services, packages of services, products or other income streams as a result of ReportBooks? I believe there are. How about you?

What value do you put on these kinds of results? I suggest that the value is significantly higher than the $495 cost of a single-user license for CaseMap 5 (volume discounts are available), or the $199 upgrade price for current users of earlier versions of CaseMap. However, I'll let you do your own math.

Conclusion – Is Now Too Soon?

With CaseMap 5, the best litigation software just keeps getting better. If you use ReportBooks, you might start hearing your clients introduce you to others as "my favorite lawyer." When lawyers start hearing those words, you will know that a revolution is here. Client service and client satisfaction are the wheels on which today's law practice turns.

The benefits of CaseMap's ReportBooks are limited only by your own imagination. However, I suggest that you get to ReportBooks before either your clients tell you to start using them or your clients stop calling you and move their work to competitors who do use them. As always, the choice is up to you, but this choice is much clearer than most of the technology choices you have these days.

If you are a client of a law firm, or a client of many law firms, as many corporate general counsel are today, then pick up the phone and find out why your firms haven't told you about ReportBooks yet. In today's world, the bill for that call from your lawyer might be more than the upgrade price for CaseMap, but it will pay for itself many times over if you improve the quality of information about your matters as much as ReportBooks can do for you.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2005

Placing Your Bet on Client-Driven Technologies - Article

[Note: This article, written in January 2003, was my first effort to pull together a set of ideas into the theme I've come to call "client-driven technologies. I think the ideas associated with client-driven technologies are the most important trend in legal technology today. This article gives some ideas for innovative and forward-thinking law firms. It also gives corporate legal departments some guidelines for what to ask from their law firms.]

Placing Your Bet on Client-Driven Technologies

From application service providers to knowledge management, we hear a lot of buzzwords and predictions for the future of legal technology. How should you sort out each of these options? Where should you place your bet as you allocate your legal technology dollars today?

A large portion of your bet should be placed on the spot on the wheel labeled "client-driven technologies."

Recent surveys of corporate legal departments show some statistics that all law firms should consider carefully. Lawyers are hired for factors such as "expertise" and "familiarity with the client and its business." Lawyers are fired primarily for "lack of responsiveness." A stunning 62% of corporate legal departments considered firing one or more law firms in 2001. The trends toward cost cutting and reduction in number of firms used have been well documented.

Consider this, though. Over 90% of corporate legal departments would be willing to respond to client surveys from law firms. Most would like to have more contacts from their firms. Finally, and not surprisingly, most would respond very favorably to a firm's efforts to find creative solutions to billing, fees, and delivery of legal services.

Many companies are also looking at the success of Dupont's efforts to control costs and improve legal services. All lawyers who have corporate clients would be well advised to study what Dupont and its law firms have done.

The best firms servicing this market will make changes in reaction to the current and future market. In the Dupont paradigm and in other examples, a major driver has been technology.

How, then, do you move into the world of client-driven technology?

1. Study History. To put it mildly, the legal profession is rarely a "first mover" in technology. Just a few examples, fax and e-mail, show how clients tend to push reluctant law firms into new technologies. The sea change of law firms moving from WordPerfect to Word was almost completely driven by client wishes. With a few exceptions, clients, rather than firms, have pushed for extranets, electronic deal rooms, electronic billing, collaboration and other technology evolutions.

2. Learn What Options You Have. You cannot move very far toward implementing client-driven technologies if you do not know what technologies and capabilities your firm has or can obtain. It is rare to find a firm that is using or is even aware of all the capabilities of its software and systems, let alone to find lawyers and firms who have a good understanding of all the new developments in legal technology. Becoming a member of the ABA's Law Practice Management Section or Technolawyer.com are two good starting points, but it is very difficult to stay current. You may find that you have capabilities that you did not know you had.

3. Learn What Technologies Your Clients Use. Once law firms found out that their clients hated getting documents in WordPerfect, firms began to move to Word. It is vital to understand what software and technologies your clients use for their own work and how they would prefer to interact with you. Today, many law firms underestimate how commonly PowerPoint is used in many businesses. You might use surveys, meetings with the client or meetings between IS people to compare notes on what software and systems are used.

4. Find Out What Bothers Your Clients. Clients are willing to answer surveys. What about your software and technology irritates them? Do they have difficulty with the program you use to redline? Does your use of GroupWise cause irritating little problems for Outlook users? Do clients want to use Excel or PowerPoint?

5. Ask What Would Help Your Clients. Involve your IS people. At this stage, knowing what your capabilities are will not only be helpful, but also should impress your clients. Look for significant concerns, such as scrubbing of metadata out of Microsoft documents, security or encryption. Search for approaches that can be done easily but create great results. These could be small things like changes to your web site or extranet to make it more usable, new features on extranets or web sites or more complex items such as movement to new programs or common platforms. Consider the 80/20 rule that 20% of your efforts will give you 80% of your results and try to identify that 20%.

6. Suggest Items Your Clients Have Not Thought Of. You should have the advantage of knowing what is now available in legal technology. You should also consider ways to address the key client concerns you have been alerted to by the available statistics. Are there ways you can suggest to show clients your expertise, cut costs or improve responsiveness? What is the potential benefit of having a client say "Would you believe that my lawyer came to me with a way to save money of legal fees"? A few simple ideas: CaseMap offers a way to present very useful information about the strength of litigation cases to decision-makers; EZClean is an inexpensive tool to scrub metadata out of Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents; and virtual deal rooms and electronic document repositories are valuable solutions. Full-blown extranets, collaboration tools, common databases and content management may make sense in some cases, but, for most clients and firms, it will be best to build those projects after building momentum from a string of small successes.

7. Identify Priorities. Apply the 80/20 rule again to the ideas you have generated. Which ideas make the most sense in your current context? From your point of view, which initiatives will best address the common reasons law firms are fired (e-mail problems all but certainly will lead to "lack of responsiveness" issues) and hired (how can you show your expertise and understanding of the client's business?)? Do these initiatives cut costs or enable creative billing approaches? Do these approaches connect the client to you and make it harder for the client to leave? Are these approaches useful to other clients? Finally, are they responsive to your client's own list of priorities?

8. Make a Plan. Your technology initiatives will fall into one of three categories. The first category is things that you can do internally and on your own. The ball's in your court. Start the effort to get them done and get the right people working on them. The second category is things that your clients can do internally. The ball is in their court, but you can provide assistance, resources or tools, as appropriate. The third category is things that you must cooperate on. Here, too, the ball is in your court. How can you make it happen? Is a joint "task force" that meets regularly the right approach? How can you make sure that the right people are working together to get things done? Are written plans and timetables appropriate?

9. Keep the Momentum. Talk is cheap. If you are the one who did the talking, you need to be the one who makes sure that the work is getting done.

10. Finish Projects. The technology landscape is littered with the wreckage of uncompleted projects. Finish some projects. Celebrate their completion. Reward accomplishment.

11. Measure Results. How do you know whether this idea worked or not? Can you measure results? Communicate the results to clients.

12. Take It to Other Clients. Some of the initiatives you take can be reused. Some might even be licensed as moneymakers for your firm or even sold as products. Be alert to opportunities to implement similar projects for other clients.

Then, repeat the process, over and over again. Get the word out on what you have accomplished, but focus your articles and press releases on what benefits you bring the client. As a result, you will address the leading reasons clients hire and fire lawyers, help clients contain costs, cement client relationships and position your firm well for the future. And, that is not a bad return on investment. Client-driven technology initiatives are a great bet to place in today's legal market.

Ten Practical Tips for Client-Driven Technology Initiatives.

1. Educate yourself. My web page at http://www.denniskennedy.com/resources/legal-tech-central/clientdriven.aspx is a good starting point. But it takes a lot of work to get up to speed on technology alternatives. Hiring appropriate expertise may be desirable in many cases.

2. Ask your clients. Surveys show that most are willing to respond.

3. Listen to your clients. Enough said.

4. Give your clients new ideas to think about. Clients cannot know everything that is available. Give them some great suggestions.

5. Get the right people involved. Are you the right person for this initiative? Who is? What role will your IS department play in the initial phases? I suggest that a high-level IS person be involved at the earliest opportunity.

6. Facilitate relationships between your IS people and the client's IS people. Here is a simple test. Ask the head of your IS department how many of the heads of clients' IS departments are in his or her contacts list. I bet it is too small a number. Are there ways you can get IS people to get together on a regular basis. Presentations by your IS group to client IS groups may make sense.

7. Find creative ways to control costs. Clients like law firms that are creative. They are also under pressure to control legal costs. Technology may allow you to show you are good at both.

8. Use great results as a way to publicize your client, not yourself.

9. Use technology initiatives in ways to increase the costs for a competitor to steal your client away.

10. Lead, follow (closely) or get out of the way.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

Taming the Email Tiger - Article

[Continuing the email theme, here is an article on email management that I wrote in 1998. Some of the references are outdated, but the basic principles of email management have not changed too much over the years. Spam and, increasingly, spam filters have diminished the value of email for business purposes and greatly added to the difficulty of managing email.]

Taming the E-mail Tiger

Many attorneys are finding that they increasingly rely on communication by e-mail. They are also finding that at times their e-mail mailboxes look as if a blizzard had hit them. It is not uncommon to find attorneys who receive well over a hundred new e-mail messages a day.

Internet guru Jakob Nielsen in the September 19, 1999 issue of his essential Alertbox newsletter (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990919.html) notes that surveys say that whether people get 10, 100 or 1,000 e-mails a day, they all say that the number they get is "overwhelming." The volume of e-mail will only be increasing. In the same newsletter, Nielsen stresses the importance of "protecting your mailbox."

In other words, you want to manage your e-mail before it manages you. I sometimes call this "taming the e-mail tiger." Fortunately, most e-mail packages, especially newer ones, provide you with valuable management options. You can also use techniques not specific to individual programs to take control of your e-mail. A great idea is to implement these techniques while your volume is low so that you can have them in place as your e-mail volume grows.

There are four points in the e-mail process at which you can have a significant impact on e-mail management: before a message sent to you, when you send a message, when or as you receive a message, and when you store or delete a message. An approach that attacks each of these four points will bring you the greatest benefit, but taking steps at any one or more of them will also help you.

Before E-Mail is Sent to You.

The strategy here is to reduce the volume of unwanted e-mail and make sure that the messages you want come to your main mailbox.

There are several sources of heavy e-mail volume.

Using the Internet for commercial services or buying products is likely to result in your e-mail address becoming available to direct e-mail marketers who will hit you with all kinds of commercial e-mail, commonly known as "spam."

A second potential source of high message volume is an e-mail discussion list. While these discussion lists can be enormously valuable if they relate to specific topics of interest to you, some of them can generate hundreds of e-mails on a daily basis or when a heated discussion is going on.

A third source of e-mail volume can occur if you indiscriminately make your e-mail address available to clients, friends, co-workers and everyone else you meet.

The best first step for you to take is to have both a "work" e-mail address and a "home" e-mail address and make every effort to limit the use of the work address to business-related e-mail.

Obtaining free e-mail addresses has become an easy thing to do. Yahoo and Excite provide free e-mail addresses. Law.com and the ABA can even provide you with a more upscale-looking free address.

After obtaining a "home" e-mail address, use it any time you are asked to supply an e-mail address for commercial or informational purposes that might lead to spam mail. Use your work address only for important mail that you want to handle in the work setting.

Blocking certain types of messages can also help you. Your Internet Service Provider, your firm's network administrator and some e-mail programs, such as Outlook, can set up "spam filters" to block e-mail from certain locations or with certain words or phrases in the subject line or body of the message. Look into what options you might have available.

Consider the potential volume of any e-mail discussion list before you subscribe to it and resist the urge to subscribe to every interesting discussion list you find. A good option that many discussion lists have is a "digest" subscription – you receive one large e-mail a day containing all the messages posted to the list that day topped with a table of contents.

In short, being thoughtful in how and to whom you give out your e-mail address can go a long toward protecting your mailbox and making your mailbox manageable.

Managing Your Outgoing Mail.

The first decision you must make is whether you want to keep copies of all the messages you send. I cannot imagine why you would not, but I have been surprised by several lawyers who did not want to keep copies of the messages they sent.

Assuming that you decide to keep copies of your outgoing e-mail, how do you do so? Most newer e-mail programs automatically store copies of all your sent messages, usually in an easily accessible folder called something like "sent mail." In some programs you have to turn that feature on, so don't assume that copies of your e-mail are being kept. In my experience, about 30 seconds with the manual or a help screen and clicking in a checkbox or two will enable this function.

Some e-mail software (usually older programs) will not store copies of your outgoing e-mail. The easy solution is simply to send an extra copy of each message to yourself. The best technique is to send a "bcc" (anachronistically, "blind carbon copy") which does not show your recipient that you are doing this. Some e-mail programs do not have a "bcc" function, so simply "cc" a copy to yourself. You'll get the copy, but your recipient may notice that you sent the copy to yourself.

You can also save yourself a lot of time and trouble with e-mail addresses by using your e-mail program's "address book." Rather than try to remember and type in individual addresses every time you send an e-mail, put the addresses into the address book under the person's name. You can then select the person's name off the list when you send an e-mail and have the e-mail address automatically entered for you on your message.

A final, important technique for managing outgoing mail is to make good use of the subject matter line and use descriptive phrases that will help you locate what is in the e-mail. Too many people use no subject, terms like "message," or clever phrases, and then have difficulty later finding the message later. While the more powerful e-mail programs have "find" functions, it may be difficult to remember the exact words you want to search for. A good subject line also helps your recipient notice your message and manage it appropriately.

Managing E-mail When or As You Receive It.

Your e-mail program will put all your new e-mail into a "new mail" folder or an "in box." The contents of that folder are what you see when you open your e-mail program. Most programs give you many options to create additional folders and move mail among them. More powerful programs allow you to set up routines known as "filters" or "rules" that will automatically handle e-mail based on directions you can establish.

The first technique that you want to use with incoming messages is to delete everything that you don't need to keep and all "junk" mail. Change your mind or make a mistake? Many e-mail programs can be set to keep deleted mail in the "recycle bin" for a period of time (including forever) before it is irretrievably deleted. In other words, you have ways to undelete if you make a mistake.

Therefore, it pays to be aggressive in deleting mail from your in box. Deleting unnecessary messages will reduce clutter and make it easy to find the messages you want to find. Similarly, dealing aggressively and immediately with your e-mail by replying quickly or forwarding messages can help you manage your in box.

A second important technique is to select the best "view" for your e-mail. I'll use Microsoft Outlook as an example. In Outlook, you can set up a "tri-pane" view that shows all your mail folders in one pane, the contents of your Inbox or the folder you have selected in another pane, and the first roughly 20 lines of the selected message on your screen before you even open the message. Using this tri-pane view can help you scan e-mail messages quickly and delete spam or other messages.

In addition, Outlook has ten ways to view e-mail (by sender, by topic, last seven days, unread, etc.) and gives you ability to create custom views. You are highly likely to find a view that can help you best manage e-mail. You can also sort within the views in a number of ways.

You will definitely want to create additional folders and organize your received mail in folders. Choose the approach that works best for you. I prefer to create folders for individuals, groups or projects. I like to be able to go to a folder called "Newsletter" and know that I can find all the e-mails I've gotten related to this newsletter in one place. Others might prefer action folders: "reply needed", "ASAP", "to file", et al.

The simple fact is that any of these folder techniques will help you greatly and organize old mail while keeping your in box clean for new mail.

Once you create the folders, you simply move relevant messages into each folder after you have received them.

"Rules" or "filters" can make this task even easier. Some e-mail programs allow you set up rules for dealing with e-mail. Generally, these are simple "if-then" rules like "if subject line contains the words ‘get rich quick', then delete message on arrival" or "if sender is X, move message to X folder on arrival". Outlook has a great feature called "organize" that simplifies the creation of the most commonly used rules.

This technique can be a very powerful way to manage e-mail. Many people especially like these rules for e-mail discussion lists because they automatically move all the discussion list mail to a folder. The folder contents can then be read at leisure and the list messages do not overwhelm your in box.

If your e-mail program has this feature, it's well worth your time to learn how to use it.

Storing, Archiving and Deleting Old E-mail.

On several occasions I've talked with an attorney who commented on how "slow" his or her e-mail program was performing. When we checked, the slowness was the result of a "new mail" folder or "in box" that had thousands of messages going back several years.

While from a management standpoint, the easiest thing to suggest is to delete and archive old messages, deletion and archival raise some thorny issues and there are many nuances.

Recent court cases indicate that old e-mail can come back to haunt you, either because you still have it or because it has been deleted. Just ask Bill Gates. Keeping all old e-mail can also, over time, take up storage space. There is developing law in this area and a lot of subtle issues. I will not make any blanket statements, but will suggest that you are well advised to pay attention to these issues now and consider adopting firm-wide policies on e-mail storage and deletion. [Note: Email retention and deletion policies have become immensely important over the years.]

Two other points to consider:

First, as significant matters and details are handled increasingly by e-mail, it is vital that these messages become part of the client or case file. Or that you know that they exist and can locate them immediately when they are needed. What if your client provided key information to a summer law clerk by e-mail and you are unaware of it and then cannot find out once you do become aware of it? Think carefully about ways to integrate e-mail into your case management or document management systems.

Second, remember, as I suggested earlier, that deletion does not mean that a message is "deleted." Even if you go to a policy that mandates, for example, annual deletion of e-mail, you will want to make sure that it is fully deleted. There are software programs that can ensure that your deleted messages and files cannot be later retrieved and meet deletion standards set by the Department of Defense. These types of products should be considered if you adopt such a policy on deletion.

Conclusions.

E-mail is a marvelous tool, but it raises a number of its own problems. With a few relatively simple steps, both e-mail issues and e-mail itself are manageable. Keeping in mind the idea of "protecting your mailbox" and taking advantage of some common sense techniques and a few features of your e-mail programs, like rules, of which you might not have been aware can help make your life a little easier.

This article appeared originally in the November 16, 1998 issue of Lawyers Weekly USA and was reprinted on several occasions.

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

Posted by dmk at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

Ten Habits of Highly Effective Emailers - Article

Note: Originally published in September 1999, this article has been one of my most popular and longest-lived articles. It's been reprinted many times and was translated into Chinese for the Hong Kong Lawyer magazine.

Ten Habits of Highly Effective E-mailers

For several years, e-mail has been considered the "killer app" of computing, the application that is so essential that it brings people to computers who might not ordinarily be interested. In other words, e-mail is the reason you "gotta have" a computer and Internet access.

In some ways, it doesn’t get much easier than e-mail. You type a message, address it and send it. You receive a message and read it. You might reply to a message or forward it. Pretty simple.

But it doesn’t take too long before you realize that there’s much more to using e-mail than meets the eye. Both internal office e-mail and external e-mails can fill your inbox. In short order, you might find that the volume of e-mail you receive has become overwhelming.

Gradually, you will come to realize that you will want to develop some e-mail strategies so you can take greater advantage of benefits e-mail offers to you. You want to become a power e-mail user.

With a nod to Steven Covey and his famous "seven habits of highly effective people," here are ten ways that you (and your firm) can become more effective e-mail users and use e-mail more effectively.

1. Cut Your Costs. Do not underestimate for one minute the cost-cutting benefits e-mail can bring to your firm. In certain settings, the cost savings brought by e-mail can be enormous.

Using e-mail instead of long-distance calls can save money. Attaching draft documents to e-mails rather than sending them by Federal Express can save money. Sending an e-mail rather than playing phone tag can save time and money. Sending an e-mail rather than sending a standard transmittal letter can save money, paper and postage. Using e-mail can put a dent in the amount of paper required to run a typical law office.

Look around your office for ways that e-mail can result in cost savings. Do you print, copy and distribute a daily announcement sheet? Send it by e-mail instead. Do you mail out a client newsletter? Making an e-mail version available will save you printing and postage costs. Signing up for e-mail newsletters can get you information commonly copied and passed around in law firms. Sending the URL of an article by e-mail saves the cost of copying and distributing the article.

A law firm makes more money by increasing revenues or by reducing costs. E-mail can definitely make a contribution on the cost-cutting side. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to use e-mail in this fashion.

2. Respond Responsively. Many users have a full-time Internet e-mail connection and expect an instant response. You need to keep that in mind. Let me emphasize: anyone who sends an e-mail expects a response.

I have always tried to acknowledge and respond to all well-intentioned, unsolicited personal e-mail. If you put your or your firm’s e-mail address on a web site, advertisement or brochure, you must make sure that any e-mail sent to you is answered in a timely fashion. You’ll have to decide what timely means and how e-mail rates in priority with voice mail and other communication methods.

Often, a one or two sentence response or a simple direction to a web address is all that is required to respond to an e-mail. The important thing is to be sure to respond in some fashion to e-mails that you get. Ignored e-mail sends a very poor message about you, your firm and, most commonly, your web site.

3. Mind Your Netiquette. There are a surprising number of "rules of the road" that have grown up around e-mail. Some are common sense and all are directed at imposing a set of good manners or etiquette on e-mail usage. These rules are commonly known as "netiquette" and the "Miss Manners" resource on Netiquette is Virginia Shea’s Netiquette, the core elements of which can be found at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html.

It is surprisingly easy to make mistakes of form and manners when entering e-mail discussions. E-mail lies somewhere between the informal communication of a phone call and the more formal communication of a business letter. E-mails tend to be unedited first drafts that are removed from the context of vocal inflections and mannerisms. As a result, it’s easy to misunderstand and be misunderstood. Some people are far more aggressive in their e-mails than they would be in person. There’s a term in e-mail called "flaming" that refers to conversations where anger and feelings get out of hand.

Some netiquette rules are simple like not typing in capital letters (because it is the e-mail equivalent of shouting). Others are more nuanced. You really want to be up on your basic netiquette when you join a discussion list because, all too often, someone who apparently was not treated well as a child will jump on well-intentioned new users to a list for making netiquette errors.

Netiquette will make your e-mail experience and that of your readers far more pleasant.

4. Select Subject Matters Sagaciously. A friend of mine tends to send e-mails that have the subject matter line say "Message from Jackie." It’s short and to the point, but it makes it hard to find the message you want in a folder full of "message from Jackies."

Make good use of the subject matter (or "re") line of your e-mail messages. Give a good concise summary of what’s in the message that can help people assess the priority of your message and to locate your message when they need it later. Compare an e-mail with the subject line of "Financials" with one that says "August 1999 Income and Expense Report (NEED COMMENTS BY FRIDAY)".

That’s not to say that writing wry and humorous subject matter lines can’t be fun. It is and it can be a bit of an art form for some. There is, however, an appropriate time and place for it.

Picture your recipient’s inbox and think of ways that you can help him or her manage the e-mail in that box.

5. Sell with Signature Blocks. A wisely chosen signature block can help you market your firm. You’ve probably noticed signature blocks. Often you’ll see a block of text immediately below the sender’s name at the bottom of his or her message that includes title, company, address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address, web site address and even quotes, slogans, graphics or other matter. These are signature blocks.

A signature block can be created within most e-mail programs that can be automatically inserted at the end of each message you send. You definitely want to create a signature block that contains the appropriate information about you and your firm. If you have a web site, include the URL in your signature block. Here’s a helpful tip: be sure to type the "http://" in front of your web address (http://www.denniskennedy.com rather than simply www.denniskennedy.com). If you do so, many e-mail programs will let the reader click on the address and go directly to your web site.

Your signature should also contain description of your firm or a slogan ("Representing personal injury plaintiffs since 1883") or other subtle and reasonably subdued marketing information. Some people also like to include a favorite quote – I’d be careful here and remember your business image and decorum.

Here’s the interesting dimension of signature blocks. Take the example slogan above. If you sent an e-mail describing your firm to a discussion list or in an unsolicited fashion that described your firm, you would likely be accused of "spamming" (sending unsolicited indiscriminate commercial e-mail). If you send a regular message, your signature block makes the same point in a perfectly acceptable way.

6. Enlist in Discussion Lists. Perhaps the most useful aspect of e-mail is participation on discussion lists or "listservs" (from the name of the software used to run them). The concept of a discussion list is pretty simple. You "subscribe" to a listserv. The listserv has a central distribution point. Copies of all e-mails sent to the central distribution point are in turn sent to every subscriber of the list (in some cases, thousands of subscribers). Every other subscriber receives each e-mail you send to the list. You (and every other subscriber) receive each e-mail sent by any other subscriber. The result is a mechanism that facilitates discussions.

There are thousands of discussion lists (see, for example, http://www.tile.net). On some you might receive a message or two a day. Others can generate hundreds of messages a day. Each discussion list focuses on a topic. For example, there might be a discussion list of legal administrators of plaintiff personal injury law firms. The list might include subscribers from hundreds of law firms. A discussion list creates a forum where subscribers can share ideas, ask questions and learn from others in the same field with common interests. As a general rule, some of the most interesting and well-known members of the "community of interest" tend to participate in these discussion lists. As a result, you often learn from the best sources, become aware of trends and developments, hear the latest news and rumors and gain a variety of other benefits.

Discussion lists can be a great way to continue conversations, make friends and stay in touch. It is impossible to overestimate the value of a great discussion list.

As with many other aspects of e-mail, Jerry Lawson’s book, The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers, is an excellent resource on e-mail discussion lists, how they work and how to use them.

7. Reach for High-end Software. You can use a variety of e-mail programs. Some are free. Some are simple. All will get the basic job done. But the highly effective e-mailer wants more than that.

I recommend moving to the high-end e-mail packages and the newest versions. These include Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, Novell’s Groupwise, Eudora Pro and, in certain special cases, Lotus Notes.

Why? Control, management, flexibility, power. You want the tools that can take your use of e-mail to the highest level. The big-time packages allow you to create rules and filters that will sort and move your mail to folders on arrival, automatically delete "spam" messages, view mail in ways that work for you, create mailing groups and do countless other things for you. It will be easier to use encryption and take advantage of security features. Some packages even allow you to scan for inappropriate content.

E-mail is a completely different experience with the high-end tools. As your volume of e-mail increases, you’ll appreciate having the extra power.

8. Make it Easy to E-mail You. As you become a highly effective e-mailer, you’ll want to funnel more and more of your communication into your e-mail system. In other words, you want to make it easy for people to e-mail you.

There is, however, a tricky balancing point to consider. You want to minimize junk e-mail. Don’t be indiscriminate about handing out your e-mail address. Many power e-mailers have a separate free e-mail account (see http://www.yahoo.com, for example) that they use when forced to give an e-mail address in a situation that might get them put onto a direct mail list.

Get your e-mail address into the hands of those you want to e-mail you. Include e-mail addresses on business cards, stationery, brochures and other marketing materials. Every page of your web site should make it easy to contact you, your firm or any attorney in your firm by e-mail. Directory listings, committee and organization listings and, especially, publications or speaker bios should definitely include your e-mail address.

9. Follow the Ethical Rules. Lawyer and law firm behavior is governed by a set of ethical rules. Some of them will be different than what you might expect. Bar disciplinary entities have had a lot of difficulty deciding what to do with lawyer communication by e-mail, but there is a growing body of rules, some of which, frankly, do not make much sense.

You will need to become very familiar with these rules and to make sure they are followed. Of particular concern are rules relating to confidentiality. In addition, Unsolicited e-mail from potential clients can inadvertently create conflict of interest issues. You will need to look into ways to avoid these and other related issues.

There is a raging debate on whether e-mail communications with clients must be encrypted. There is a movement toward encryption for sensitive client communications. In a few years, it will be easier to encrypt all client communications than to decide which ones should be encrypted.

E-mail to potential clients brings into play ethics rules on solicitation and advertising. Even your signature block should be scrutinized to be sure that you are complying with the Byzantine rules on advertising and marketing (can you say "full-service," "specialize in" or "national"?). Know the rules and see that they are enforced in your firm.

10. Sharpen Your Saw. This habit is really one of Stephen Covey’s seven habits. The notion here is to keep learning and to hone the tools that you have so that they are ready to use when you need them. Because e-mail is so easy to ease, many firms give little or no training on e-mail. Many users are simply unaware of helpful features readily available in their programs. Becoming a highly effective e-mail user requires that you update your skills regularly, experiment with software features and devote yourself to continuous learning and improvement.

Seek training for yourself and others on a regular basis. Don’t neglect e-mail training when you upgrade an office suite because "it’s only e-mail." Many people spend a good portion of their days only in e-mail. One great thing about e-mail is that e-mail topics lend themselves well to "brown bag" lunch seminars and short training sessions. You might find that a mini-session on using rules, managing folders or creating groups will be surprisingly well attended and can be repeated from time to time.

E-mail raises issues on a regular basis. You will want to keep apprised of virus and security issues. Encryption is a growing and important issue. Monitor developments. Again, a great resource on a variety of e-mail issues is Jerry Lawson’s excellent The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers.

A helpful book on the e-mail program you use or the occasional foray into Help screens can be especially rewarding and give you new ideas, techniques and tools.

E-mail is fundamentally a communications tool and like all communications will change and evolve steadily.

Conclusion. Great e-mailers are made not born. It will take some time and effort, but the rewards are immeasurable. Adopt these ten habits and you will become a highly effective e-mailer.

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

Posted by dmk at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2005

What the Amish Can Teach Us About Technology - Article

As I mentioned a little while ago, I made a decision to pull down most of my old articles from my website when I re-designed my site about a year ago. I've changed my mind about that and decided to make them freely available on my website, but wanted to put them into the database for my blog and amke them available in the "Articles" category archive. As a result, I'll be regularly posting these articles on my blog. Consider them as bonus posts.

The first one is one of my favorite short articles. It was written in 1999, is still timely now and the questions raised in the article will probably be topical forever.

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What Can the Amish Teach Us About Technology?

Has anyone else has read Howard Rheingold's fascinating article on the Amish and cell phones in the January 1999 issue of Wired? It's one of the most thought-provoking articles I've read recently. Or maybe it has a special resonance because I grew up in a part of Indiana where it wasn't a rare thing to see Amish people in stores, building barns and houses, and riding in horses and buggies on the roads. The Amish society, however, remained a closed mystery to those of us who were allowed only to be distant observers.

Rheingold's article looks at the fascination the Amish in Pennsylvania have with cellular phones and how they are wrestling with the place of these phones in their society and whether they will even allow this technology (and others) into their communities. He calls the Amish "techno-selectives," a useful term. The article turns into a fascinating discussion of how communities, in a principled way, make decisions about the place of technology.

I love the way the Amish who do have phones sometimes keep them in a shed away from houses or even in outhouses -- the concern being that phone calls are essentially disruptive to face-to-face discourse and must be kept in a place in a way that shows that people control the technology and not vice versa.

Rheingold explicitly relates this to the issues that arise when older Internet communities experience an influx of new people who are not aware of the community customs and norms. In the "old days", he says, everyone adhered to the largely unwritten rules of "netiquette" and those rules and list lore were passed along as new members entered and were integrated into the community. Sheer volume has overwhelmed the capacity to pass along this community lore and norms that Rheingold refers to with the German term "Ordnung." And the older Internet communities have struggled to adapt to a new reality.

By the end of the article, there is a dawning feeling that perhaps, in some sense, the Amish have it right - the new technologies should be considered and discussed in terms of their implications for the community, both in terms of costs and benefits and in the sense of appropriate place.

We would do well to consider and try to answer Rheingold's final question: "If we decided that community came first, how would we use our tools differently?"

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I recently finished Joel Garreau's excellent book, Radical Evolution, which I highly recommend, especially as a popular explanation of the notion of the Singularity often associated with Kurzweil. One of the most interesting parts of the book addressed the Amish and these same issues.

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

This post brought to you by LexThink!™ - The Conference, Re-imagined. LexThink! - Think big thoughts, do cool things, change the world. November 11 & 12 - LexThink's BlawgThink 2005.

Posted by dmk at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)

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The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell

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