Podcast description form the site: "On this edition of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay welcomes  Andrew Adkins III, Director of the University of Florida's Legal Technology Institute,  to talk about the recent case/practice management survey conducted by the Legal Technology Institute.  Monica and Andy discuss why small firms tend to be resistant to this technology, how it can increase profitability and productivity and what managing partners need to know.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:08 -- 17.1MB)

Related Podcasts

• January 20, 2010 -- Favorite Law Practice Management Tips for A Successful 2010
• January 19, 2010 -- Practice Management and Ethics Issues, Plus Choosing a Litigation Support Vendor
• July 1, 2009 -- Choosing Practice Management Software
• June 11, 2009 -- Job Insecurity at the Firm
• March 3, 2008 -- Legal Software Magic Bullet?

Active links and podcast are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 4 March 2010

This post was written by Jim Heckman: "When a firm first adopts a document management system such as Worldox, it has to contend with the fact that many secretaries and power users have constructed their own workarounds to compensate for the innate inefficiency of not having a DNS...

Fortunately, there are a variety of ways around this.  One "quick and dirty" solution that I frequently suggest is to have the user move those files into Worldox but to add there initials or a unique code such as your initials (personally I use "yyy") to the description. Then, you can do a search for "yyy" and all your documents appear...

An added benefit is that the "standard" documents can then be organized to benefit the entire firm to the extent that they are useful to more than one person.

The full text of this instructional post is available by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Does It Compute? 3 March 2010, reproduced with permission of the author.

This post was written by John Heckman: "Amicus comes in two flavors:  Small Firm and Premium. By and large the feature set is very similar. Gavel & Gown has gone over to yearly releases, so you can expect each release to be minor and incremental. Over several years, however, the "increments" can add up to significant changes..."

Also read his review of Amicus Premium Edition 2010 

Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.

Source: Does It Compute?, 11 and 13 January 2010

This post was written by Dennis Kennedy: "Tom Mighell and I have recorded another episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast and it's now available on the Legal Talk Network and on iTunes, with an RSS feed here. The episode is called "Looking Forward: Legal Technology in 2010" (show notes here), and it's sponsored by Bill4Time. A special thank you to readers of this blog who listen to the podcast - we're very pleased with the growing numbers of downloads the podcast is getting.

Here's the episode description:

In part two of this two-part series on legal technology trends, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell peer into the crystal ball to find the key trends and storylines to expect in legal technology in 2010. Will the economy keep a lid on significant developments? What role will Internet and mobile technologies play? What should lawyers, law firms and other legal organizations be putting into their strategic technology plans? In addition, Dennis and Tom make predictions about technology in general and legal technology in particular.

..."

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: DennisKennedy.blog, 5 January 2010

© 1995 - 2005 Dennis Kennedy.

In the news: "Good software ages gracefully, an apt portrayal of iBlaze, the litigation support software from CT Summation. Nonetheless, according to consultant Brett Burney, the new iBlaze 3.0 brings much-needed feature upgrades to address the tempestuous world of e-discovery and electronic evidence."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 11 January 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

In the news: "Deciding to become an early adopter for Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system was one of those moments when all of the stars aligned for Allen Matkins. It was time to replace hardware, improve efficiency, and make lawyers more effective with 24/7 access to mission-critical tools."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 6 January 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

In the news: "'Romantic' would not be the first or last word that comes to mind when considering the best practices in document preservation. But Gibson Dunn attorney Farrah Pepper shows that the same common-sense principles that preserve romantic unions can apply to successful document preservation."

Topics discussed include:

Timing is everything...

Get to know each other...

Uncover hidden issues early...

At the outset, keep your options open...

Relationship history matters...

Communicate clearly and regularly...

Get it in writing...

Be committed...

Love means having to say you are sorry...

Know when to let go...

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 16 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Tom Mighell: "If you use Outlook as your primary email program, I'd wager that you spend a lot of your average day working in that program. And Microsoft would prefer it that way - that's why it takes care of most of the things you need during the work day - email, calendars, contacts, and tasks. But for something that we use so often, most of us don't use it properly, or make the most of its capabilities. Microsoft wants to help us out with that.

They've published a great 40-page document called Best Practices for Microsoft Outlook 2007. It's a really good collection of tips and tricks for using Outlook 2007 in more productive ways. The Outlook team that published this article also put together some basic principles of good time management that are worth reprinting here:

Basic principles of good time management

Outlook 2007 is a tool to help you manage your e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks. As such, it is at the center of not only your communications but also your time-management. To get the most out of Outlook 2007, we suggest a few basic principles:

-- Reduce the number of places you read e-mail. Filter all of the messages you need to read into one place -- your Inbox -- using a series of rules.

-- Let some e-mail pass by. Use rules to send e-mail you need to read to your Inbox and then let the rest flow into distribution list folders, untouched. You don't need to read every message sent to you. Only the important ones should go to your Inbox. Remaining messages can be useful to keep -- in case you get looped in on an issue, for example.

-- Reduce the number of places where you manually file messages. Reduce the mental tax of filing by relying on search to locate messages.

-- Process your e-mail using the 4 Ds When reading a message, decide whether to:
* Delete it.
* Do it (respond or file for reference).
* Delegate (forward) it.
* Defer it (using categories and flags) for a second review in your task list.

-- Reduce your to-do list to one list. Use a single to-do list and calendar to manage what you need to do.

-- Work in batches. Use categories to help you group similar tasks together.

-- Use good judgment when sending e-mail Follow the dos and don'ts of writing great e-mail. Review your time and tasks regularly.

The best practices document is great, and is available in both Word and PDF versions. Give it a look.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Two weeks ago, I presented a nearly full day CLE in Oregon on Solo by Choice in the Current Economy, with a summary by Beverly Michaelis, one of the Oregon Professional Liability Fund's Practice Management Advisors.  But below are a couple of slides that I used for the Oregon program and others, highlighting many of the free products and services available to lawyers starting or running a law firm.  Though I don't believe that it's necessarily prudent or always cost-effective to run a law firm on freebies alone, free services, when used appropriately can give lawyers a wide range of capabilities that once would have been cost prohibitive.  And of course, don't forget that yet another free tool for starting a law firm is MyShingle!

Take a look at these slides and please let me know about your favorite freebies in the comment section or your thoughts on some of the services that I've listed (I've used all of them at one time or another).

[Slide show is available at the source site listed below.]

Free Tools for Starting a Law Firm

View more presentations from carolynelefant.

The slide show and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Posted by John Heckman: "Worldox Web/Mobile was originally designed for the PDA, and works with just about anything from Blackberrys to iPhones. Given that most people have remote access to their office, the primary function of PDA access is usually to email documents to other people.

However, since Worldox Web is platform independent and works with just about any web browser, this means Mac users (otherwise shut out from the majority of legal software) can use their browser to access the firm's Worldox document store. It won't be quite as slick as the regular Worldox program, but will be perfectly workable."

From more great advice and tips on legal technology, visit John's blog.

Source: Does It Compute? 28 October 2009