CLE Program Book

2nd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference

October 5, 20007 — October 6, 2007 Hyatt Regency at Penn’s Landing

Philadelphia, PA

Table of Contents

A. Grid & Schedule

B. Biographies

Friday, October 5, 2007

C. Plenary How We Earned Our Gray Hair: Wisdom of Solo and Small Firm (SSF) Veterans

D. Session 1 Outlook for Lawyers: The Case Manager You Already Have

I’m Done! SSF Retirement and Succession Planning 15 Tips for Stress LESS SSF Practice in 60 Minutes

E. Session 2 Buy Right and Spend Smart: Law Office Technology 101 The Lawyer as Employer: Hiring, Firing, Managing, and More Immigration Gotchas for Non-Immigration Lawyers

F. Session 3 E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: Essential Small Firm Primer When Bad Things Happen to Good Firms: Disaster Planning Essentials Creating an Effective and Professional Online Presence

Saturday, October 6, 2007

G. Plenary

60 Tremendous Solo & Small Firm Tips, Gadgets, and Sites H. Session 1

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! All About the Benjamins: Billing Smart, Getting Paid Sale of a Law Practice

I. Session 2 Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Free and Cheap Utilities Show Me The Money! Taking Your Firm’s Financial Pulse Balancing Your Life: Tips for Time Management and Getting It Done.

J. Session 3 PDFing Your Practice: Acrobat and More Keeping Them Satisfied: Exceeding Client Expectations Everyday! Writing Your Way to Fame: Getting Published and Noticed

K. Session 4 How NOT to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer Your New “Partner” Isn’t Your Partner: Contract Lawyering Don’t Worry, Be Happier: Using Case Management Software To Reduce Stress

L. Closing Plenary Solosez Live! Q&A With Solosez Stars

2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference Friday, October 5, 2007 and Saturday, October 6, 2007

“Solo & Small Firm Power!

The Best Things Come in Small Packages”

Co-Chairs: James Calloway, Ross Kodner, and Deborah Matthews

OPENING

12:30p

Keith B. McLennan, ABA GP Solo and Small Firm Division Chair

Ross Kodner, James Calloway, and Deborah Matthews, Conference Co-Chairs

DAY ONE PLENARY

12:30-1:30p

How We Earned Our Gray Hair: Wisdom of Solo and Small Firm (SSF) Veterans

Bruce Dorner, Moderator and Jeffrey Allen, Charles Driebe, David Lefton, jennifer rose

TRACK 1 - Tech That Works!

TRACK 2 - Manage Smart!

TRACK 3 - Have a Life!

Session 1 1:45p-2:45p

Outlook for Lawyers:

The Case Manager You Already Have

Ross Kodner

Andrew Simpson

I’m Done!

SSF Retirement and Succession Planning

Stephen Gallagher

Ellen Freedman

15 Tips for Stress LESS SSF

Practice in 60 Mins.

Reid Trautz Deborah Matthews

Sandy Bautch

EXHIBIT AREA BREAK (15 MIN) Session 2 3p-4p

Buy Right and Spend Smart: Law Office Technology 101

Nerino Petro Jeffrey Allen

J. Anthony Vittal

The Lawyer as Employer:

Hiring, Firing, Managing, and More

Ellen Freedman James Calloway Harold Goldner

Immigration Gotchas for Non-

Immigration Lawyers

Reid Trautz William “Bill” Stock

SESSION BREAK (15 MIN)

Session 3 4:15p-5:15p

E-Discovery for the Rest

of Us: Essential Small Firm Primer

Sharon Nelson

John Simek Vince Nalin

When Bad Things Happen to

Good Firms: Disaster Planning Essentials

Deborah Matthews

Sandy Bautch J. Anthony Vittal

Creating an Effective and

Professional Online Presence

Brett Osterhout, Eastern Division, Thomson FindLaw

DAY TWO PLENARY

8:30a-9:40a

60 Tremendous Solo & Small Firm Tips, Gadgets, and Sites

Bruce Dorner, Moderator Ross Kodner, James Calloway, Daniel Coolidge, Catherine Sanders Reach

No charge for GPSSF Division Meeting Attendees (ONE DRAWING AT END)

SESSION BREAK (5 MIN)

TRACK 1 - Tech That Works!

TRACK 2 - Manage Smart!

TRACK 3 - Have a Life!

Session 1 9:45a-10:45a

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation

and Voice Recognition that Works!

Nerino Petro Jeffrey Allen

All About the Benjamins: Billing

Smart, Getting Paid

Monica D’Amore James Calloway

Sale of a Law Practice

Todd Scott, Minnesota Lawyers

Mutual

EXHIBIT AREA BREAK (15 MIN)

Session 2

11a-11:50a

Technology for Tightwads: Our

Favorite Free and Cheap Utilities

Bruce Dorner Daniel Coolidge

Ross Kodner

Show Me The Money! Taking Your Firm’s Financial Pulse

Ellen Freedman

Balancing Your Life:

Tips for Time Management and Getting It Done

Margaret Spencer Dixon

SESSION BREAK (10 MIN)

LUNCH

KEYNOTE Noon-1p

Harold M. Goldner, Esq., Chair, Solo and

Small Firm Section, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Welcome Address and Lunch Sponsor

Keith B. McLennan, Chair, GP Solo and Small Division, American Bar Association, Keynote Address

Session 3 1:15-2:15p

PDFing Your Practice:

Acrobat and More

Catherine Sanders Reach, Mod. Daniel Siegel Rick Borstein

Keeping Them Satisfied:

Exceeding Client Expectations Everyday!

James Calloway Ellen Freedman

Writing Your Way to Fame:

Getting Published and Noticed

Elio Martinez, Mod. Robin West Joan Burda

EXHIBIT AREA BREAK (15 MIN)

Session 4 2:30p-3:30p

How NOT to Commit Malpractice

With Your Computer

Ross Kodner Sharon Nelson

Your New “Partner” Isn’t Your

Partner: Contract Lawyering

Carolyn Elefant Lisa Solomon

Don’t Worry, Be Happier: Using Case Management Software To

Reduce Stress

Andrew Simpson Daniel Siegel

SESSION BREAK (10 MIN)

Closing Plenary

3:40p-4:40p

Solosez Live! Q&A With Solosez Stars -Bruce Dorner moderating Various Solosezzers Answering Audience Questions

CLOSING AND PRIZE DRAWING

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Schedule DAY ONE Friday, October 5, 2007 Plenary 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. How We Earned Our Gray Hair: Wisdom of Solo and Small Firm (SSF) Veterans Moderator: Bruce Dorner Speakers: Jeffrey Allen, Charles Driebe, David Lefton, and jennifer rose Room: Grand Ballroom B & C, Second Floor Experience is still the best teacher. Our panel of veteran solo and small firm practitioners shares with you the things that they did right and wrong in the early years of setting up their law practices. Come listen and benefit from their wisdom and avoid some of their mistakes. Exhibit Area Break - 1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. Friday, October 5, 2007 Programs 1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Outlook for Lawyers: The Case Manager You Already Have Track 1 – Tech That Works! Speakers: Ross Kodner and Andrew Simpson Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor Microsoft Outlook is ubiquitous within many law offices. While professionals agree that it is better to use dedicated case management software to manage your law practice, the fact remains that many lawyers are managing their law practice using Outlook’s the calendaring and "to do" list functions. But there are a lot of hidden gems within Outlook that you may be missing. Learn how to more effectively use Microsoft Outlook to improve your practice. I’m Done! SSF Retirement and Succession Planning Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: Ellen Freedman and Stephen Gallagher Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor One thing is certain. You won't be practicing law forever. Solo and small firm lawyers do themselves and their loved ones a disservice if they don't make plans to realize the value of their ongoing practices as they begin to slow down or retire. Planning for your own obsolescence may not be an easy thing to do, but it is valuable and important for your family, your clients, and your peace of mind. 15 Tips for Stress LESS SSF Practice in 60 Minutes Track 3 – Have a Life! Speakers: Sandy Bautch, Deborah Matthews and Reid Trautz Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor The practice of law is a very stressful occupation. Stress can impact your health and your productivity. Our expert panelists explain simple and practical ways to reduce the day-to-day stress of law practice. These techniques can

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make you a more productive and happy person. There will be a positive impact on the delivery of client services as well. Exhibit Area Break – 2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Friday, October 5, 2007 Programs 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Buy Right and Spend Smart: Law Office Technology 101 Track 1 – Tech That Works! Speakers: Jeffrey Allen, Nerino Petro and J. Anthony Vittal Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor The modern-day law office needs a solid technology infrastructure. But you don't have to spend a fortune to get great law office technology. There are many new avenues available for purchasing equipment and software. The Internet provides a wealth of information on how to get law office technology bargains. The smart solo and small firm lawyer will invest an hour here and learn how to be a smart technology shopper for the future. The Lawyer as Employer: Hiring, Firing, Managing, and More Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: James Calloway, Ellen Freedman and Harold Goldner Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor One of the more tricky things about being in a solo and small firm lawyer is discovering that you have become the de facto human relations director. Many lawyers do a poor job in this area. Most of us never had any training in personnel management in any of our higher education and yet this could be the most important variable for the success of your firm. Good staff can help you to succeed. Poorly trained staff lead to frustration and lack of trust. Learn how to motivate employees, reward them for their successes, and, most importantly, how to positively correct mistakes. Immigration Gotchas for Non-Immigration Lawyers Track 3 – Have a Life! Speakers: William “Bill” Stock and Reid Trautz Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor Immigration issues have been a hot legislative topic recently. These issues now involve employment law, family law, criminal law, estate planning, and many other areas. This is a great opportunity to learn from immigration law experts about the “danger zones” for the general practitioner. Learn when you can deal with something that touches on immigration law and when it is time to call in an expert. Session Break – 4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Friday, October 5, 2007 Programs 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: Essential Small Firm Primer Track 1 – Tech That Works! Speakers: Vince Nalin, Sharon Nelson and John Simek Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor With the adoption of new federal rules related to e-discovery at the end of 2006, one can no longer avoid this new business and litigation reality. How can a small firm lawyer with a limited staff possibly deal with requesting and receiving hundreds of thousands of e-mails? Is your firm ready to deal with a divorce client who shows up with a

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home computer containing "evidence?" This course will give you a great start on the new world of e-discovery, covering what to do and, more importantly, what not to do it. When Bad Things Happen to Good Firms: Disaster Planning Essentials Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: Sandy Bautch, Deborah Matthews and J. Anthony Vittal Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor After such highly visible events as Katrina and 9/11, no one disputes that disaster planning is important. But for the small firm lawyer, it is equally important to prepare for "small" internal disasters as well as for the mega-disaster. Would your staff know what to do if you were unexpectedly and suddenly unconscious in the hospital for the next three days? Are you sure that your backup systems for data are functioning and that you know how to recover data in any event of a loss? Creating an Effective and Professional Online Presence Track 3 – Have a Life! Speakers: Brett Osterhout Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor In order to gain new clients for your law firm, distinguishing yourself from your competitors on the Internet can be vital to your success. Learn key insights into an effective Web Site, how to drive Web traffic through search engine marketing, and how to evaluate your marketing tactics from a budgetary perspective, and the ethical considerations of legal marketing online. DAY TWO Saturday, October 6, 2007 Plenary 8:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m. 60 Tremendous Solo & Small Firm Tips, Gadgets, and Sites Moderator: Bruce Dorner Speakers: James Calloway, Daniel Coolidge, Ross Kodner and Catherine Sander Reach Grand Ballroom B & C, Second Floor Strap on your seatbelt for this fast-paced plenary session! Everyone loves a good “tips” program. In no other type of program will you find so many valuable nuggets of information that you can take back to the office to use the very next day. Our panel of veteran tipsters will cover a law office management technology tips as well as useful websites for the solo or small firm lawyer and some great new technology "gadgets." Session Break – 9:40 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Saturday, October 6, 2007 Programs 9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! Track 1 – Tech That Works! Speakers: Jeffrey Allen and Nerino Petro Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor If you are still dictating using cassette tapes, you can't afford to miss this session. The power and flexibility of digital dictation processes has already rendered cassette tapes obsolete. Learn why everyone is switching to these new tools. In addition to digital dictation for traditional dictation, more and more lawyers are now using voice recognition software. You may have previously tried voice recognition software and been less than impressed with

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the results. But today's products are state of the art and highly effective. Learn from two lawyers who actually use these advanced dictation tools every day. All About the Benjamins: Billing Smart, Getting Paid Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: James Calloway and Monica D’Amore Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor In too many small firm practices, billing gets limited attention and it is viewed as a necessary evil. Billing is an important part of the overall client communication and satisfaction experience. Learn about alternative billing, drafting bills clients are more likely to quickly pay, how to set the proper expectations in the initial client interview and the warning signals of clients who are unlikely to pay their bills. The practice of law can be fun, but it's important to get paid! Sale of a Law Practice Track 3 – Have a Life! Speakers: Todd Scott Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor More and more states have changed their ethics rules to allow a lawyer to sell his or her law practice upon retirement or changing careers. This is an important area for lawyers to understand and appreciate. Advising lawyers about the sale of the law practice is in itself becoming a new practice area. Learn the ins and outs in this new area of substantive law. Exhibit Area Break – 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Saturday, October 6, 2007 Programs 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Free and Cheap Utilities Track 1 – Tech That Works! Speakers: Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner and Ross Kodner Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor It would be nice if computers and software packages came out of the box with the ability to do everything that we need them to do. But they do not. There are many free, or cheap, software utility packages that can greatly enhance your productivity. In fact, we think that you will be absolutely amazed at the no-cost options that our panelists will present to you. There are e-mail utilities, instant data capture utilities, utilities to find lost files and e-mails and a whole host of Internet utilities. Show Me The Money! Taking Your Firm’s Financial Pulse Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: Ellen Freedman Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor What would you tell a business client trying to operate a business without analyzing his or her profit and loss reports and financial statements? Too many small firm lawyers treat reconciliation of their bank statements as their primary financial analysis tool. Learn how to improve the bottom line by creatively analyzing your financial data and then making appropriate business decisions based on that information. This is a “must attend” for new lawyers setting up their practices.

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Balancing Your Life: Tips for Time Management and Getting It Done. Track 3 – Have a Life! Speakers: Margaret Spencer Dixon Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor This fast-paced program will cover practical strategies for managing time, conquering procrastination, and processing information efficiently. Learn how to create goals that will inspire you to do your best, ways to manage myriad details while keeping ‘the big picture’ clearly in mind, and other techniques to help get your work done efficiently and keep your life in balance. Session Break – 11:50 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Saturday, October 6, 2007 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Luncheon Welcome: Harold M. Goldner, Esq., Chair, Solo and Small Firm Section, Pennsylvania Bar Association Keynote Address: Keith B. McLennan, Chair, GP Solo and Small Firm Division, American Bar Association Room: Riverview (A-C), Third Floor Saturday, October 6, 2007 Programs 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. PDFing Your Practice: Acrobat and More Track 1 – Tech That Works! Moderator: Catherine Sanders Reach Speakers: Rick Borstein and Daniel Siegel Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor With the advent of E-filing and more offices converting to digital file storage, the PDF format has become the de facto standard for digital documents. This session will cover why you should be using PDF files more and how you go about making the transition. A representative from Adobe Corporation will be available to respond to your questions and comments. Keeping Them Satisfied: Exceeding Client Expectations Everyday! Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: James Calloway and Ellen Freedman Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor It is no longer sufficient just to complete legal assignments correctly. The successful law office of the 21st Century will also have business models in place to make sure that clients are pleased and satisfied with the services and treatment that they receive. We've all had experiences where poor customer service caused us to stop doing business somewhere. Don't let this happen to your law firm! Learn how to become a true expert in good client service. Writing Your Way to Fame: Getting Published and Noticed Track 3 – Have a Life! Moderator: Elio Martinez Speakers: Joan Burda and Robin Page West Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor Many lawyers are concerned with ethical ways to more effectively market their practice. One of the best ways to establish yourself as a true expert in your field is to have articles and books published under your byline. Not only

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is this a "free" way to become famous, but writing and speaking also may even become direct revenue generators for your practice. Step up for your 15 minutes (or more) of fame. Exhibit Area Break – 2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Saturday, October 6, 2007 Programs 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. How NOT to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer Track 1 – Tech That Works! Speakers: Ross Kodner and Sharon Nelson Room: Columbus Ballroom A, Second Floor Various versions of this program have been a staple at legal technology conferences and ABA annual meetings for years. With the greater complexity of technology being utilized in the office, there is more possibility for costly errors. Learn how to minimize the risks of metadata disasters, mis-sent e-mails, computer hard drive crashes, computer viruses or spyware, lost or stolen laptops or mobile phones or inadvertent technology breaches of attorney-client confidences. Your New “Partner” Isn’t Your Partner: Contract Lawyering Track 2 – Manage Smart! Speakers: Carolyn Elefant and Lisa Solomon Room: Columbus Ballroom B, Second Floor A solo and small firm lawyer cannot be an expert in everything. We are seeing more and more teams of experts assembled to create a "virtual law firm" for a particular matter. Learn how contract lawyering is changing the face of small firm practice. Don’t Worry, Be Happier: Using Case Management Software To Reduce Stress Track 3 – Have a Life! Speakers: Daniel Siegel and Andrew Simpson Room: Columbus Ballroom C, Second Floor Do you ever wake up at night wondering if a certain task was handled before the deadline expired? Case management software designed specifically for law firms is both the antidote to sleepless nights and the tool to take your practice to the next level and efficiency. Certain software packages are friendlier for small firm practice. Learn how your practice can benefit from these great tools. Session Break – 3:30 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. Saturday, October 6, 2007 Closing Plenary 3:40 p.m. – 4:40 p.m. Solosez Live! Q&A With Solosez Stars Moderating: Bruce Dorner Room: Riverview (A-C), Third Floor Solosez is much more than electronic mailing list. In some ways it has become a virtual firm of over 2700 lawyers and participants from across the globe. It is a daily source of expertise, advice, handholding and referrals for many lawyers. The final session of the 2007 National Solo and Small Firm Conference is designed to make sure that you don't leave the conference with an unanswered question. Our panel of Solosezzers will try to answer your questions about law practice management technology and solo and small firm lawyering issues. Solosezzers from across the country will be in attendance for this program.

CO-CHAIRS’, TRACK LEADERS’, MODERATORS’ AND SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES

JEFFREY ALLEN

JEFFREY ALLEN is a principal in the law firm of Graves & Allen, in Oakland, California. He runs a general practice that, since 1973, has emphasized negotiation, structuring and documentation of real estate acquisitions, loans and other business transactions, receiverships and related litigation. His clients have included banks, savings & loan associations, title insurance companies, real estate licensees, borrowers, lenders, buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants. Mr. Allen also works as a provider of alternative dispute resolution services as an arbitrator and a mediator. He has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Alameda County Bar Association ADR Section, a member of the California State Bar Standing

Committee on ADR and as the Co-Chair of the Commercial Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Mr. Allen actively participates in the Alameda County Bar Association, the California State Bar and the American Bar Association. He currently serves as Special Issue Editor and writes the Road Warrior column for the Technology & Practice Guide issues of GP Solo Magazine. He also serves as the Editor of the Technology eReport and authors its MacNotes column. Mr. Allen also writes a technology column for Experience magazine and frequently contributes product reviews and articles to other legal publications. He also served as the ABA advisor to the NCCUSL drafting committee for Uniform eDiscovery Rules. Mr. Allen currently serves on the faculty at the University of Phoenix, and at California State University of the East Bay. He frequently presents at continuing education programs for attorneys throughout the United States on technology-related, technique and California, substantive law and trial practice topics and for mediators on mediation practice and techniques. He has authored numerous articles relating to the use of technology in the practice of law and regularly presents at seminars throughout the United States on the use of technology in the practice of law. In addition to his California license, Mr. Allen is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and a Member of the Rolls of the Law Society of England and Wales. SANDY BAUTCH

Sandy Bautch and her husband, Denny, are founding partners of Easy Productive Solutions (EPS) located in Winterset, Iowa. For 12 years of her career, Sandy was a legal secretary for both a county-seat general practice attorney and highly-respected trial attorneys in the Davis law firm in Des Moines. Since that time, Sandy and Denny’s sole focus has been streamlining the routine, redundant, menial tasks of day-to-day business practices with industry-standard, state-of-the-art computer hardware and software. What makes EPS unique is that they first learn how to use the software themselves before ever recommending or implementing it for others!

Sandy’s passion is consulting with others about where to look for “hemorrhages” in their practice, teaching them the benefits of adopting computerization in critical areas of their practice, demonstrating where clients can achieve significant returns on their investments and walking hand-in-hand with them to implement the solutions into day-to-day business operations.

Sandy frequently speaks and writes on legal topics relating primarily to practice management and business automation. She is renowned for conducting educational and CLE seminars for State Bar Associations and speaking at international events for the American Bar Association. She earned her B.A., magna cum laude from Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a double major in Communication and Business Management. Currently, Sandy and Denny reside in a log home built on her family’s century farm in Madison County, Iowa with their 3 “children with fur,” Lollipop, Candy Kisses & Cappuccino. RICK BORSTEIN Rick Borstein is a Business Development Manager specializing in the Legal Market for Adobe Systems Incorporated. Rick is a veteran of twenty years in the software business, the last fourteen with Adobe. During his tenure at Adobe, Rick has had broad exposure to all of Adobe's products including intelligent documents, digital imaging, publishing and digital video. Rick is an Adobe Certified Expert in Acrobat and a member of the American Bar Association and International Legal Technology Association. Mr. Borstein has spoken on Acrobat at the ABA Techshow, LegalTech East, LegalTech West, International Legal Technology Association show, and over 100 others. Adobe Systems Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company with over 6000 employees. The company's popular Adobe Reader software is installed on over half a billion PCs around the world. JOAN BURDA Joan M. Burda practices in Lakewood, Ohio. In addition to her solo practice, she is the Director of the Cleveland Homeless Legal Assistance Program. She is also an adjunct professor at Ursuline College where she teaches Civil Procedure and Contract law in the College’s Legal Studies Department. And, she serves as an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau. Ms. Burda is the author of An Overview of Federal Consumer Law (ABA Publishing 1998) and Estate Planning for Same-Sex Couples (ABA Publishing 2004), an ABA best-seller and recipient of a 2005 Benjamin Franklin Award. In January 2008, the American Bar Association will publish her latest book on legal issues affecting lesbian, gay and transgender families. She has written numerous articles for various publications, including GPSOLO, the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division magazine. She is active in the ABA’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division where she serves on several boards and committees, including the Long Range Planning Committee and the West Advisory Board. She is also the Division 1 Vice-Director of the External Division Activities and Group Chair for New Lawyer Newsletter, Awards, Communications, Outreach, Public Service, Solo Advocacy and Coordination. Ms. Burda is the Editor-in-Chief of the Division magazine, GPSOLO. She is also a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association and the Cleveland Bar Association. JAMES CALLOWAY CO-CHAIR, ABA GP|SOLO NATIONAL SOLO & SMALL FIRM CONFERENCE, 2007

Jim Calloway is an attorney from Oklahoma. He serves as the Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, where he was named to the Oklahoma Law Review. Mr. Calloway is a member of the American Bar Association where he served as chair of the ABA TECHSHOW™ 2005 Board. He had served on the TECHSHOW™ board for three previous years. He is an active member of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and was recently elected to the ABA LPM Section Council. He is also the chair of its Practice Management Advisor’s committee. He is also an active member of the ABA’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division, where he serves on the Solo Day and Road Show planning committees for the GPSSF section. He also co-chaired first GP/Solo National Solo

and Small Firm Conference held in October, 2006 in Milwaukee and the 2007 GP/Solo National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia. As a part of his duties with the OBA, he designed and now manages the OBA-NET, the official online service of the Oklahoma Bar. He has made hundreds of presentations on law office management, legal technology, ethics and legal business operations. He also manages the annual OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference. He has been inducted as a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management. Mr. Calloway publishes the weblog, Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips at http://jimcalloway.typepad.com . This weblog was awarded the 2005 Technolawyer @ Award for Favorite Practice Management Blog. He also publishes, through his employer, the Starting a Law Practice Web Directory, online at http://www.okbar.org/members/map/practice.htm . Mr. Calloway also produces, with Sharon Nelson, the podcast, The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology. This podcast covers a number of legal technology issues and can be downloaded from http://www.abanet.org/lpm/ltt/archives/podcasts.shtml or from iTunes. He also published, with co-author Mark Robertson, the book Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies That Work, presently on sale through the ABA Law Practice Management section and was the author of two chapters in Flying Solo, 4th Edition (2005.) Mr. Calloway has been a featured speaker at numerous events including the ABA Annual Meetings from 1999 through 2007, ABA TECHSHOW 2000 through 2007, LegalTech Toronto and Dallas 2000, Pacific Legal Tech 2006, ACLEA annual meeting 2006 and LegalTech New York 2006. He has done presentations for the National Association of Bar Executives and the National Council of Bar Presidents at their annual meetings. He has also spoken at state bar association meetings and seminars for the Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Texas, South Carolina and Utahstate bar associations, as well as the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. His articles have been published in Lawyers Weekly USA, Law Practice Management magazine, Law Practice Today, Law Technology Today, Legal Management magazine, Law Technology News, LLRX.com and GPSolo, as well as many state and local bar association publications. Mr. Calloway is also a member of the National Association of Bar Executives where he has served as chair of its Website Committee, Knowledge Management Committee and its Member Services Forum. Before taking his present position with the OBA, he was in private practice for approximately sixteen years in south Oklahoma City and Norman, Oklahoma. He is a former President of the Cleveland County (Oklahoma) Bar Association. Many of his articles are found at http://www.okbar.org/members/map/articleindex.htm . MONICA D’AMORE Monica D’Amore of D’Amore Consulting, LLC, located in Cherry Hill New Jersey, has been a software consultant for the legal community since 1991 and specializes in legal specific billing & accounting and case management software. Over 20 years of experience gives Ms. D'Amore a unique combination of technical knowledge and implementation & training skills that help law firms bridge the gap between technology and real life daily operations. She has written and lectured on such topics as: implementing case management software, choosing appropriate billing software, and effective training techniques for law office staff. Ms. D’Amore is a Certified Independent Consultant (CIC) for LexisNexis Time MattersTM calendaring and case management software and a Certified Consultant and President’s Circle Member for Tabs3TM and PracticeMasterTM time & billing and practice management software packages. CAROLYN ELEFANT Carolyn Elefant is founding and principal attorney with the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant in Washington D.C. founded in November 1993. Ms. Elefant specializes in energy and utility regulatory and enforcement matters, hydroelectric licensing and emerging renewable energy development, specifically marine renewables. In addition, Ms. Elefant handles litigation and appeals involving energy matters and employment and civil rights.

Ms. Elefant is an internationally recognized expert in the field of ocean renewable energy. Her web log, www.carolynelefant1.typepad.com/renewablesoffshore which has covered marine renewables is widely by congressional staff, regulators, investment bankers and others within the renewables industry. Ms. Elefant has, either individually or with other attorneys, briefed and/or argued approximately 30 appeals before federal circuit courts. In addition, Ms. Elefant has successfully recovered nearly $500,000 in refunds for clients, through successful appeals or rehearings of civil penalties or overcharges. In December 2002, Ms. Elefant launched the web log, MyShingle.com. Ms. Elefant was one of the first fifty (of now 800) law related bloggers, and MyShingle.com was the first dedicated to celebrating solo and small firm practice. Ms. Elefant’s blog captured the attention of editors at American Law Media’s law.com, which made MyShingle.com an ALM affiliate and tapped Ms. Elefant as one of two official bloggers for law.com’s Legal Blogwatch. Ms. Elefant is author of at least a dozen articles for law.com as well as a book, Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be, Decision Books (January 2008). Ms. Elefant earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School in 1988, where she served on the moot court board and placed second in the 70 competitor moot court competition. She graduated from Brandeis University in 1985 with a B.A., magna cum laude, with honors. Ms. Elefant is admitted to the bars of Washington D.C., Maryland, New York, the Second, Third, Fourth and D.C. Circuits and the United States Supreme Court. VICKI LEVY ESKIN Track Leader, ABA GP|SOLO NATIONAL SOLO & SMALL FIRM CONFERENCE, 2007 Vicki Levy Eskin, owns the law firm of Levy & Associates, P.A., in Longwood, Florida. She practices estate planning, probate, real estate, and corporate transactional law, and serves as a circuit and appellate court mediator throughout Central Florida.. She has worked extensively in matters involving children, the elderly, and physically and mentally disabled persons. She served first as an assistant state attorney and has a background in criminal defense work, specifically targeting children and young adults involved in the criminal justice system. Before attending law school, she piloted a program for emotionally disturbed children involved in the justice system and taught gifted children. Ms. Eskin has written and lectured on legal topics ranging from estate planning and asset protection for children involved in dependency court to rainmaking for women lawyers and law office management. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the Florida Bar Association, and the Seminole and Brevard County Bar Associations. She earned her J.D. from the University of Florida and her B.A. from University of Alabama and is admitted to the Florida Bar and the U.S. District Court of Florida, Middle District. CHARLES J. DRIEBE Chuck Driebe is the founding partner with Driebe, Driebe & Martin in Jonesboro, GA. He has been a general practitioner for over forty years with an emphasis on litigation, zoning, real estate, business consultation and just plain problem solving. He is a former two-term Council member of the ABA’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division. The Division recognized him with its Lifetime Achievement award this year. He serves the State Bar of Georgia as a long-time member of the Board of Governors. The General Practice Section of the State Bar granted him its 2007 Tradition of Excellence Award in the general practice category. He is a member of the Atlanta Lawyers Club and was a Georgia Special Assistant Attorney General. Driebe earned his Juris Doctor(magna cum laude) from the University of Georgia School of law where he was first honor graduate. He attended Penn State and Temple University, the later on a football scholarship. He is admitted to the Georgia Bar, several U.S. District Courts and the United States Supreme Court.

ELLEN FREEDMAN, CLM

Ellen serves as the Law Practice Management Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In that capacity she assists PBA’s members with management issues and decisions on the business side of their practice, including areas like technology, bookkeeping procedures, human resources, marketing, risk management, setting up a practice and so forth. PBA members are encouraged to contact Ellen through the 800 “Hot Line” at PBA headquarters, (800-932-0311 x2228) or through email (lawpractice@pabar.org).

Ellen is founder and President of Freedman Consulting, which assists PA law firms with a full range of issues and projects on the business side of the practice. More information about Ellen and her law practice management services may be obtained at http://www.PA-LawFirmConsulting.com. Ellen is also founding partner of the Managing Partner Development InstituteTM, which has been formed specifically to provide educational information and management resources to current and future managing partners of small to mid-size law firms. More information may be obtained from the web site at http://www.ManagingPartnerInstitute.org. Ellen also publishes the Law Practice Management Blog at www.PA-LawPracticeManagement.com. Ellen holds the designation of Certified Legal Manager through the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), the credentialing body for the CLM degree. Of the 11,000 members of the ALA, approximately 240 are certified legal managers. She was one of the first 20 in the nation to have achieved this designation. She holds a Certification in Computer Programming from Maxwell Institute, and a Certification in Web Site Design and a B.A. from Temple University. Ellen managed inside law firms for twenty years. Most of that time was spent in a mid-size (35+ attorney) firm environment. She launched her consulting practice in 1998, and joined the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1999. Ellen is an associate member of the American Bar Association, and its Law Practice Management and General Practice & Small Firm sections, and a member of the Association of Legal Administrators. She is a frequent author and speaker on law firm management issues on a national level. STEPHEN GALLAGHER

Stephen P. Gallagher is a former Director of Law Practice Management for the New York State Bar Association and currently he is president of Leadershipcoach.us, an executive coaching business that works primarily with attorneys. Since retiring from NYSBA in July 2003, Mr. Gallagher continues to advise bar associations and law firms on strategic planning initiatives to help address the changes taking place in the profession. Gallagher works with management teams to develop transition planning strategies. Mr. Gallagher has over 30-years of experience in working in the legal profession. He is a regular contributor to professional publications, as well as a frequent

speaker on practice management and technology related topics. Steve has written extensively in the areas of strategic planning, leadership, organizational change, knowledge management, and balancing life and work. Many of his writings can be accessed through his website at www.leadershipcoach.us. Stephen is a member of the Publishing Board of the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management (ABA-LPM) Section. Stephen and his wife Nancy have been married for 34 years and they have been blessed with five boys. Stephen is an adjunct faculty member at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. He teaches a variety of marketing courses to undergraduate and MBA students. Stephen is also a member of the Academic Affairs Committee for Neumann College in Aston, PA. Steve also works as a volunteer coach for the Catholic Leadership Institute in Malvern, PA. Stephen holds a B.A. degree from LaSalle University and a M.Ed. degree in Counseling Education from West Chester University, as well as a M.S. in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Stephen P. Gallagher President, LeadershipCoach.us sgallagher@leadershipcoach.us www.leadershipcoach.us. 610-660-0218 HAROLD GOLDNER

Mr. Goldner’s practice is devoted to relieving sources of conflict and stress in the workplace, and to alleviating concerns which business owners have about continuity of ownership issues. He handles employment discrimination claims on behalf of both employees and employers from filing of claims through trial, verdict and appeal. He prepares human resources policies and procedures for employers as well as offering training to employers and even fellow lawyers on employment claim avoidance. He drafts and interprets restrictive covenants and other professional contracts both on behalf of those businesses seeking to secure their assets and for employees looking to make career changes. A trial lawyer with more than 26 years of courtroom and appellate experience, Mr. Goldner has also been involved in assisting professionals in practice mergers and separations and wrongful termination controversies. He is currently President of the Eastern Pennsylvania Affiliate of the National Employment Lawyers Association, which is an organization devoted to assisting employees in redressing employment discrimination and civil rights violations. He is also Chair of the Solo & Small Firm Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and has been on its governing Council since 2001. He also serves on the Council of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Mr. Goldner also has written numerous professional and technology pieces which have been published in national and regional publications and he has appeared frequently for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute speaking on employment, litigation and technology topics. Mr. Goldner holds an LL.M in Trial Advocacy from Temple University School of Law, a J.D. from Boston University and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. When not practicing law, Mr. Goldner can be found practicing oboe, playing with the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and the Windsor Quartet. ROSS KODNER CO-CHAIR, ABA GP|SOLO NATIONAL SOLO & SMALL FIRM CONFERENCE, 2007

Ross Kodner is an attorney, having graduated from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1986 He founded Wisconsin’s MicroLaw, Inc. (www.microlaw.com) in 1985, an international legal technology and law practice management consulting firm, having served over 1000 law firms and legal departments across the North America. He has also advised major companies including Hewlett-Packard, Thomson-West, Lexis-Nexis, Gateway Computers, Corel Corporation, Visioneer Corporation, AT&T/Cingular, Software Technology, Inc. and Juris, Inc. among others. Ross is a frequent speaker and author internationally on a broad range of legal technology topics, including his Paper LESS Office™ process, practice management and electronic

discovery, having conducted over 1400 CLE sessions since the mid-1980's.

Harold M. Goldner, Esquire One Belmont Avenue, Suite 703 Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004-1610 610-664-7090 fax 610-664-7094 email hgoldner@goldnerlaw.com http://www.goldnerlaw.com

Ross has received an unprecedented six awards from the industry’s Technolawyer Community. In 1999 he was honored as the “Technolawyer Consultant of the Year” – a lifetime achievement award and the industry’s highest honor. He was subsequently awarded the Contributor of the Year award in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2006 He served four years in the ABA as Chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section’s Computer & Technology Division. He was also a member of the ABA TECHSHOW Executive Board for five years, held every March in Chicago. He recently founded and co chaired the ABA GP|Solo Division’s Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference and the first Wisconsin Solo & Small Firm Conference. Ross was acknowledged in 2007 by inclusion in the U.K.’s CityTech Magazine “Global100 Legal Technology Leaders.” His firm’s website at www.Microlaw.com is the world’s largest web repository of free online viewable legal technology CLE materials and his blog, Ross Ipsa Loquitur at www.rossipsa.com was recognized in 2007 as one of the world’s most influential legal blogs. His personal mottos are: “Friends don’t let friends word process without Reveal Codes” and "If you think hiring an expert is expensive, try hiring an amateur.” DAVID LEFTON David H. Lefton is a partner in the law firm of Barron, Peck, Bennie & Schlemmer Co., LPA, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is licensed to practice law in the State of Ohio. His practice centers around helping individuals and families achieve their estate planning goals; advising for and non-profit businesses; litigation; real estate; personal injury and workers’ compensation. Mr. Lefton is actively involved in the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA). Mr. Lefton is the immediate past chair of the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Section of the OSBA and is a District 1 (Hamilton County, Ohio) representative on the OSBA Council of Delegates. Mr. Lefton is also a District 1 representative on the Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Board of Governors for the OSBA. This is a board that reviews and proposes legislation on topics that affect estate planning and probate in the State of Ohio. Presently, Mr. Lefton is a Council Member-at-Large of the ABA GP/Solo Division. He is Chair of Programming and Publications and is a member of the Long Range Planning Committee. Mr. Lefton formerly served as chair of Solo Day and the Estate and Financial Planning Committee. Mr. Lefton was formerly a partner in the law firm of Hardin, Lefton, Lazarus and Marks, LLC and an adjunct law professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph, in Cincinnati, Ohio where he taught law in the paralegal studies program. ELIO MARTINEZ, JR. Elio F. Martinez, Jr. is a business litigator whose practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, specifically copyright and trademark infringement, as well as protection of trade secrets. He has also represented major lenders in multi-millio dollar litigation and the work-out of complex troubled loans, as well as securities brokers in arbitration hearings. He has regularly represented creditors on Bankruptcy Court and argued numerous appeals. Mr. Martinez was born in Havana, Cuba and is fluent in Spanish. Over the years, he has shared his experience with students of St. Thomas University School of Law as an adjunct professor of Intellectual Property Law. He is the former Chair of the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division’s Book Publishing Board, and has written articles for the Division’s magazine, GP/Solo. He is a member of the Defense Research Institute, the International Trademark Association and ASIPI, a Central and South-American based intellectual property organization. He earned his J.D. in 1985 from New York University School of Law, and his B.A., summa cum laude, in cursu honorum, from Fordham University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to the bars of the State of Florida, the District of Columbia, the District Courts for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

DEBORAH MATTHEWS CO-CHAIR, ABA GP|SOLO NATIONAL SOLO & SMALL FIRM CONFERENCE, 2007

Ms. Matthews is devoted to working with clients and their families. Her law practice focuses on estate planning, trust and estate administration, probate, and guardianship matters in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia. She has received the highest ranking by her peers and is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. She is also licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Tax Court. Her reported cases are Burwell v. Burwell, 700 A.2d 219, D.C., 1997 and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research v. Zaleski, 156 Md. App. 527, 2004.

Ms. Matthews has lectured before attorneys, judges, court staff, and certified public

accountants at the American Bar Association's annual meeting, the ABA's GP Solo and Small Firm Division's Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference, the Fairfax Bar Association, the Alexandria Bar Association's Tax Committee, Virginia CLE (continuing legal education), and the Maryland Association of CPAs on topics including the District of Columbia Uniform Trust Act, Drafting for Religious, Cultural, or Ethnic Considerations, Probate 101 for the Non-Probate Practitioner, and The 2001 Tax Act. She is a member of the following bar associations: American, Virginia, Maryland, and District of Columbia, City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Montgomery County. Ms. Matthews serves on the American Bar Association’s GP Solo and Small Firm Division’s Technology Committee and as a Co-Chair of the Division’s Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference. She was a Co-chair of the Fairfax Bar Association’s Wills, Trusts, and Estates Section for several years. She is also a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), the Virginia Estate Planning Council, the Virginia Women Attorney’s Association, and the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She received her J.D. from Catholic University of America and her B.S. from Georgia State University. While attending college in Atlanta, Ms. Matthews joined the staff of CNN and was one of the "originals" when CNN went on the air. She went on to work as a journalist for local television and the Atlanta Constitution. After moving to Alexandria, Virginia, she joined the Congressional staffs of U.S. Representative Michael A. Andrews, a member of the Ways and Means Committee; U.S. Senator Wyche Fowler Jr.; and U.S. Senator John Heinz, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging. Ms. Matthews also served as Deputy Director of the Congressional Sunbelt Caucus and the Sunbelt Institute and worked for the National Commission on Children.

After moving to Fairfax County, Ms. Matthews and her husband opened their home to foster children. She served United Community Ministries (UCM) as a board member as well as President, Vice President, and a founding member of the Friends of UCM. She is a past member of the Development Committee for Burgundy Farm Country Day School, where her daughter attended. Ms. Matthews is a graduate of the Leadership Alexandria Class of 2007.

BARTOLI CAIN & MATTHEWS, PLLC 908 King Street, Suite 350, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 703 548.3577 dmatthews@BCMfirm.com VINCE NALIN Vince Nalin is a Senior Solutions Analyst for eMag Solutions and has over 10 years of experience in IT, network administration, project management, and supervising production facilities in the electronic discovery arena. Vince has an extensive background in creating and implementing backup and disaster recovery procedures as well as systems migrations, and has broad operational background in managing data centers and supporting large scale electronic data transfer. As Vice President of Operations for eMag Solutions, Vince developed processes which allowed for the forensically sound practice of custodian extractions from various messaging platforms as well as implementing standard operating procedures for forensic, production and post production within the electronic discovery practice. Mr. Nalin received his degree in Computer Network Technology from Clayton College and State University.

SHARON NELSON

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., is the President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a computer forensics and legal technology firm located in Fairfax, Virginia. Ms. Nelson graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978 and has been in private practice ever since, now concentrating exclusively in electronic evidence law. Ms. Nelson is a past President of the Fairfax Bar Association, a Director of the Fairfax Law Foundation and serves as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Publishing Board and as a member of ARMA’s E-Discovery Advisory Group. She is also a graduate of Leadership Fairfax, is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s TECHSHOW and

serves on the Virginia State Bar Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board and the Virginia State Bar Special Committee on Law and Technology, and as the Chairman of its Court Technology Subcommittee. She is a co-author of The Electronic Evidence and Discovery Handbook: Forms, Checklists and Guidelines (American Bar Association, 2006) and Information Security for Lawyers and Law Firms (American Bar Association, 2006). She is a frequent author and speaker on legal technology and electronic evidence throughout the country. BRETT OSTERHOUT Brett Osterhout is a Director of Sales for FindLaw, a Thomson company. FindLaw is a leading provider of client development services for law firms, and the nation’s most comprehensive and popular source of online legal information and resources for attorneys, corporations and consumers. With more than 8 years of experience in the legal information and client development industries, Mr. Osterhout advises law firms on a variety of client development and client retention strategies. His particular area of expertise is in the use of law firm technology. He advises firms on issues including Web site design, Web site marketing, Web site content development, and the use of interactive tools such as online newsletters to support specific practice areas and Web-based extranets to build client relationships, improve client service and increase law firm productivity. Mr. Osterhout also aids law firms in search engine ranking analysis and makes recommendations for increasing the likelihood that a firm’s Web site will rank prominently in Internet search results. Leading a group of 47 FindLaw Client Development Consultants and 5 Regional Sales Managers who work directly with lawyers on the East Coast, Mr. Osterhout and his team help law firms design and implement Web-based marketing strategies to improve both the size and quality of a firm’s client base and increase firm profitability. In addition to his experience helping law firms in their client development activities, Mr. Osterhout has extensive knowledge of legal research materials having spent 4 years as a Westlaw representative prior to coming to Findlaw. Mr. Osterhout and his team have spoken on numerous occasions to continuing legal education seminars, bar associations and legal marketing organizations on emerging trends and best practices in law firm marketing. Mr. Osterhout earned his undergraduate degree in Management Science and Information Technology from the Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech University. NERINO PETRO, JR.

Attorney Nerino Petro is the Practice Management Advisor for the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Practice411™ Law Office Management Assistance Program. The mission of Practice411™ is to help attorneys operate their offices more effectively and efficiently. Licensed in Illinois and Wisconsin, Mr. Petro uses his 16 years of legal practice experience, as well as his experience being CEO/Senior Legal Technologist for CenCom which he founded in 1994, to help Wisconsin lawyers and their staff deal with the practice management issues facing them. He is a Certified Independent Consultant for TimeMatters® practice management software, Billing Matters® time, billing and accounting software and PCLaw time, billing and accounting software, and has provided consulting, installation, customization and training for his clients

throughout the country. He has been an instructor for the official LexisNexis Time Matters Certified Users Training

TEL: 800.444.9404 ext. 6012 FAX: 608.257.5502 EMAIL: npetro@wisbar.org WEB: www.wisbar.org

course and has worked with other leading products including TABS® time, billing and accounting software, Practice Master® practice management software, Quikscribe Digital Dictation and TValue financial software. He is a member of the ABA GP, Solo and Small Firm Division Technology Committee and served on the ABA TECHSHOW Advisory Board – Tech University Track for 2005 and serves on the GP|Solo Magazine Technology & Practice Guide Board. He is a past Chair for the ISBA Committee on Legal Technology. Mr. Petro is the ABA LPM Magazine Product Watch columnist as well as being a regular contributor to local, state and national publications. He provides information on legal technology, practice management and items of interest to lawyers on his blawg at www.compujurist.com . Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Attorney Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin 5302 Eastpark Blvd. P.O. Box 7158 Madison, WI 53707-7158 CATHERINE SANDERS REACH Catherine Sanders Reach is the Director at the American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center. She has provided practice technology assistance for lawyers for seven years with the LTRC. Prior to her work at the ABA she worked in library and information science environments for a number of years. Ms. Reach's professional activities include articles published in Legal Information Alert, Law Technology News and GPSolo Magazine, and her continuing research on the digital library appeared in the AALL Law Library Journal. She has given presentations on the use of technology in law firms for national bar conferences, state and local bar associations and organizations such as the Association of Legal Administrators. In her articles and presentations she often references trends and statistics gleaned from the Center's annual legal technology survey. She received a master's degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa in 1997. She is a member of Beta Phi Mu, an international library and information studies honor society, and the Special Libraries Association, where she is the former Director of the Legal Division. She is currently serving on the ABA TECHSHOW Planning Board for 2008 and on the editorial advisory board for Law Technology News and Law.com’s LegalTech. DANIEL SIEGEL Daniel J. Siegel is the founder and President of Integrated Technology Services, LLC, a consulting service for attorneys, as well as a sole practitioner with offices in Havertown and Philadelphia. Mr. Siegel authors the “Technology” column in The Philadelphia Lawyer, quarterly magazine of the Philadelphia Bar Association, and “Tech Brief,” the Technology column in Trial, the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America). A nationally-known writer and lecturer about technology in law offices and in litigation, Mr. Siegel is Vice-Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association Law Practice Management Division, and Co-Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association Practice Technology Committee. He is also certified to train and/or support numerous software and technology products, including TimeMatters, LegalFiles, CaseMap, TimeMap, and LiveNote. Mr. Siegel has served as a writer, lecturer and course planner (on technology, civil litigation, workers= compensation, ethics, non-profit law and personal injury matters) for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations, and American, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Associations. He serves on various Bar Association committees, and is a member of the Editorial Boards of The Philadelphia Lawyer and The Legal Intelligencer. He received his law degree from Temple University in 1984 and his bachelor=s degree from Franklin and Marshall College (with honors) in 1981.

JOHN SIMEK Mr. Simek is the Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. He is an EnCase Certified forensic technologist (EnCE). Mr. Simek has a national reputation as a computer forensics technologist and has testified as an expert witness throughout the United States. Mr. Simek holds a degree in engineering from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and an MBA in finance from Saint Joseph’s University. After forming Sensei, he ended his 20+ year affiliation with Mobil Oil Corporation, where he served as a senior technologist designing and troubleshooting Mobil’s networks throughout the western hemisphere. Mr. Simek has in-depth experience with network troubleshooting, hardware and software implementations, systems integration, and logistical and financial expertise in a wide range

of computer engineering designs and solutions. He has an extensive knowledge of multi-protocol environments and a diverse range of networking technologies. In addition to his EnCase Certification (EnCE), Mr. Simek is a Certified Novell Engineer, Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, NT Certified Independent Professional, a Certified Internetwork Professional and a Certified Trial Technologist. He is also a member of the High Tech Crime Network and of the International Information Systems Forensics Association as well as the American Bar Association. Mr. Simek is a member of the ABA TECHSHOW ® Board. He currently provides information technology support to over 150 area law firms, legal entities and corporations. He is a co-author of The Electronic Evidence and Discovery Handbook: Forms, Checklists and Guidelines (American Bar Association, 2006) and Information Security for Lawyers and Law Firms (American Bar Association, 2006). He is a frequent author and speaker on legal technology and electronic evidence throughout the country. Mr. Simek’s contact information: John W. Simek Vice President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc. 3975 University Dr., Suite 225 Fairfax, VA. 22030 ANDREW SIMPSON Andy Simpson is a small firm practitioner with his own firm, Andrew C. Simpson, P.C. in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The firm concentrates in insurance defense issues and appeals. He is a frequent contributor to GP/Solo Magazine and an active member of the Solosez listserv. He was recently appointed to the editorial board for the GP/Solo Technology Practice Guide. Andy attempts to keep his office near the state-of-the-art when it comes to technology and uses the technologically-advanced nature of his practice as both a marketing tool and a recruiting tool. LISA SOLOMON Lisa Solomon, the principal of Lisa Solomon, Esq, Legal Research & Writing, was one of the first attorneys to recognize and take advantage of the technological advances that make outsourcing legal research and writing services practical and profitable for law firms of all sizes. Since 1996, Lisa has limited her practice to assisting attorneys with all of their legal research and writing needs, including preparing and arguing appeals and drafting substantive motions and trial memoranda. She has worked in almost every area of law, and has developed particular expertise in insurance coverage, employment, negligence and contract matters. Lisa is the author of many published articles, including “Taking an Appeal,” which appeared in the October/November 2002 issue of GP|Solo and “Specialists Will Take Care of the Messy Detail Work: This Cadre Can Guide Attorneys Through the Procedural Minefields,” which appeared in the February 19, 2007 issue of the National Law Journal. Lisa has also been featured in a number of articles, including “Outsourced Legal Writing” (National Law Journal, March 17, 2003) and “Some Solos Like Concentration” (ABA Journal, October 2001), and “Home Alone” (ABA Journal, November 2004), a story about home offices. She frequently presents continuing legal education courses in the field of legal writing. Lisa is a member of the Westchester Women’s Bar Association, where she is co-chair of the Practice Management Committee, and is also a member of the Westchester County and White Plains Bar Associations.

703-359-0700 (phone) 703-359-8434 (fax) jsimek@senseient.com

Lisa earned her J.D., cum laude, in 1993 from New York University School of Law and her B.A., magna cum laude from Brandeis University. She is admitted to the bars of New York, the United States Supreme Court, the Second Circuit and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. MARGARET SPENCER DIXON Margaret Spencer Dixon is the president of Spencer Consulting, located in Kensington, Maryland. Spencer Consulting (www.TimeManagementForLawyers.com) provides time management and stress management seminars for lawyers and legal professionals. Since founding Spencer Consulting in 1992, Ms. Dixon been giving speeches, writing articles, and conducting seminars on time management and related subjects such as procrastination, stress management, and how to run effective meetings. She has presented seminars for numerous law firms, CLE providers, government agencies, and educational institutions, including Harvard Law School. She has been chair of the Time Management Interest Group of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section. Her writings include the chapter on time management in the book, "Living with the Law: Strategies to Avoid Burnout and Create Balance," the book “The Lawyer's Guide to Palm Powered Handhelds, and the audiotape programs "So Little Time, So Much Paper™: Organize Your Time and Manage Your Paperwork," and "So Many Meetings, So Little Time: Making Meetings Shorter, Better Organized, and More Productive,” all published by the ABA. She practiced in the litigation and energy groups of Shaw Pittman in Washington, D.C. She clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She received J.D. in 1985 from Stanford University and her A.B. cum laude in economics from Princeton University in 1982. REID TRAUTZ Reid F. Trautz is an attorney and director of AILA’s Practice & Professionalism Center, where he provides guidance on management and ethics issues to help members improve their businesses and the delivery of services to their clients. He is a nationally-recognized author and presenter on these topics. His articles have appeared in numerous bar publications, including Law Practice Management, GP Solo, and Immigration Law Today. He is a frequent presenter at CLE conferences nationwide. rtrautz@aila.org. J. ANTHONY VITTAL

J. Anthony Vittal is the principal of The Vittal Law Firm in Los Angeles, California. He handles complex dispute resolution - by arbitration or mediation, and by litigation, trial, and appellate review in state and federal courts - in the areas of business and business torts, employment practices, real estate, construction, enterprise control, e-commerce, privacy, technology and cyberspace law. He also handles transactional matters in the areas of corporate governance for privately-held entities, general business transactions, e-commerce, privacy, technology and cyberspace law. Mr. Vittal has written and lectured extensively on various topics involving technology, its uses, and its abuses, including issues involving the intersection of technology and privacy. He is a regular contributor to GP|SOLO, a member of the Editorial Board of the Technology & Practice Guide issues of GP|SOLO, and the author of the TechNotes column in the

Technology eReport published by the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division of the ABA. He is an active member of the American Bar Association (Delegate, House of Delegates, 1996–; Member: General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division; Sections on Antitrust Law, Business Law, Individual Rights & Responsibilities, International Law, Labor & Employment Law, Litigation, Science & Technology Law, Tort Trial & Insurance Practice; Coalition for Justice (2007–)). He also is a member of the Los Angeles County (Trustee, 1991-1992), Beverly Hills (President, 1994-1995) and Federal Bar Associations; the California Association of Local Bars (President, 1998-2000); the Association of Business Trial Lawyers; the State Bar of California (Committee on Administration of Justice, 1990-1994; Task Force on Complex Litigation; Delegate to Conference of Delegates, 1977–); the National Conference of Bar Presidents (Executive Council,1996-1999); and

the Southern California Business Litigation Inn of Court (Master; President, 2003-2005). He currently also is Vice Chair of the TIPS Law & Technology Committee and the TIPS and GPPSF Committees on Technology. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the California Bar Foundation and a Director of the Beverly Hills Bar Foundation. Mr. Vittal earned his J.D. from U.C.L.A. in 1974 (after abandoning a doctoral program in artificial intelligence at U.C.Irvine to pursue the law), and his B.A. from Stanford University. He is admitted to the State Bar of California and to the bars of the United States District Courts for all California districts and the Northern District of Texas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

THE VITTAL LAW FIRM Dispute resolution and prevention for the 21st Century - whenever and wherever you need it.

1900 Avenue of the Stars, 25th Floor Los Angeles, California 90067-4506

Telephone: 310.339.2520 eFax: 603.484.5374

www.vittal.net

ROBIN PAGE WEST Robin Page West is a partner in the Baltimore, Maryland law firm of Cohan & West, P.C.. She is also the author of the book Representing the Qui Tam Whistleblower published in January, 2001 by the American Bar Association, and co-author with Dan Small of the ABA book, Letters for Litigators. Ms. West's qui tam cases have involved health care, defense contracts, government grants, pharmaceutical fraud and other areas where federal monies are used.

Ms. West represented the late Terry Fletcher in the whistleblower case of U. S. ex rel. Fletcher v. MetPath, the fourth largest qui tam recovery nationwide in 1995. Some of Ms. West's other qui tam cases include:

• Settlement paid by Ciena Healthcare Management Inc. and some of its owners/officers to settle allegations that they improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid for inadequate care and services to residents at four Detroit nursing homes.

• Settlement paid by AEPTEC Microsystems to settle allegations that the company overcharged the Navy on contracts for shipboard automation technology.

• Settlement paid by Johns Hopkins University and one of its teaching hospitals in a qui tam action alleging they overbilled the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for addiction research and other projects.

• Settlement paid by Cigna Corp. in a qui tam action to settle allegations it submitted claims for which it was not entitled to be reimbursed under its Medicare contracts with HCFA as a Part B Medicare Carrier and durable medical equipment regional carrier.

• Settlement paid by Quest diagnostics in a qui tam action to settle allegations that some regional labs ran tests and billed Medicare without physician authorization.

Ms. West's clients have been awarded relator shares as high as the statutory maximum of 30%.

Ms. West is also the author of "Handling the False Claims Act Case" published in the The Practical Litigator. She was on the faculty of the American Bar Association's Health Care Fraud and Qui Tam National Institutes for lawyers held in California and Washington, D. C. West has been interviewed on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" on the subjects of qui tam litigation and stopping health care fraud. She has been quoted on the subject of qui tam litigation in the American Bar Association Journal, the National Law Journal, the Washington Times, Baltimore's Daily Record, the Bureau of National Affairs' newsletter on Health Care Fraud Litigation, and other publications. She also co-chaired the qui tam subcommittee of the ABA Litigation Section's Health Care Law committee, and has twice been a featured speaker on that subject at the American Bar Association's annual meetings. She is currently a member of the Council of the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division and vice-chair of its Publications Board.

www.cohanwest.com, www.QuiTamOnline.com

DAY ONE Friday, October 5, 2007

Plenary 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

How We Earned Our Gray Hair: Wisdom of Solo and Small Firm (SSF)

Veterans

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

How We Earned Our Gray Hair: Wisdom of Solo and Small Firm Veterans

With

Bruce Dorner, Moderator Jeffrey Allen

Charles Driebe David Lefton jennifer rose

October 5, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

ON BECOMING A BRITISH SOLICITOR By Jeffrey Allen

In December 2004 I saw an ad that contained information about the procedure for an experienced American attorney becoming a British Solicitor. I checked into it and found out that the British had created a simple process to accomplish this end. First, you applied to the Law Society for permission to take the Qualified Lawyer Transfer Test, telling the Law Society about your background, providing it with evidence of your good standing as a member of the bar and references. After receiving certification to take the test, you have to pass it. If you do, the Law Society enrolls you as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. The test consists of what the British describe as “three Heads”. Each “Head” refers to a general subject area. Within the Head, the test covers a variety of subjects. One Head covers litigation and civil procedure. The second covers accounting, ethics, client care and the British regulatory scheme for financial services and anti money laundering regulations. The third covers estates in land, conveyancing, contracts, landlord-tenant, wills, trusts, probate and estate and gift taxation. You must pass each Head independently. Scores do not average from one Head to another. Except for the second Head, scores from within questions in the Head average together, even if they are denominated as separate tests. For example, the Third Head is called “Property”. It includes two tests, one on estates in land, conveyancing, contracts and landlord-tenant and the other on wills, trusts probate and estate and gift tax. Each test consists of three essay questions; you must answer two of the three, with one question identified as mandatory. The second Head is different as it includes two separate tests: one test covers accounting and the other covers the remainder of the subject matter. To pass the Head, you must pass each test separately. I have always had an interest in England and its history. I thought it might be interesting to learn more about the British legal system. More on a whim than for any reason in particular, I signed up for a review course on British law for the exam, requested and completed the forms to qualify to take the exam, filled them out and sent them in for approval. Several weeks later I received my certificate. As it turned out, you do not have to take the tests all at once. I found it worked much better for me to take one head at a time. As a result, I spread the studying and testing process out over a year, but that worked out in connection with the fact that I continued to practice law in California full-time while doing a number of extra-curricular activities (such as teaching, lecturing, writing, bar work and other community service work, including coaching soccer and futsal). I have now concluded the testing procedure successfully and have been told that I should receive the documentation for me to forward to the Law Society to complete the process of enrollment as a solicitor in the next week or so.

When people ask why I did it, I, somewhat glibly reply, “Because I could”. In truth, there is more to the equation. As we get older, it is important to keep our minds active. One of the best ways to do that is to learn something new. For that reason, many seniors return to college or take college level courses through extension programs. While continuing my practice certainly helps keep my mind active, I felt some dormant brain cells come back to life as I studied for a bar exam for the first time in over 30 years (I took the California Bar Exam in July, 1973). Aside from waking up a few brain cells, I felt that the license might create additional prestige, or at least interest, in my biographical information when I do a lecture or presentation or write an article. While I have no plans to move to England to practice, I recognize the license could result in some direct benefit to my practice by attracting some additional clients. Ironically, while I was in the process of taking the tests, I acquired a Canadian client because of the threat of litigation in California. While that client hired me because of my expertise as a California attorney, I believe the client’s comfort level increased when I mentioned that I was in the process of taking the qualifying exams to become a solicitor. Last, but not least, the license opens the door to additional classes (the British call CLE courses PDC (Professional Development Courses) to enhance and keep current my knowledge of British law. One unanticipated collateral effect: I now find “NO SOLICITORS” signs personally offensive.

Myth/RealityVoluntarism110704 1

This material will be published in How To Capture and Keep Clients: Marketing Strategies for Lawyers, © 2005 American Bar Association.

All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or downloaded or

stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association. Reproduced with

permission.

THE MYTH AND REALITY OF VOLUNTEERING

By Jeffrey Allen

Sam (an experienced attorney with 20 years in practice): (spoken sincerely, if a bit patronizingly) “John, you really impressed me in court today. I think you have a bright future as an attorney. I understand you practice by yourself. Can I give you some advice? If you really want to build your practice, you need to get better known in the community. You should join the Rotary/Elks/Lions/etc. club. By joining, you will find that you have access to a large group of potential clients…” It’s time to talk about THE BIG LIE (“the Big Lie”) of practice building. You have all heard it, probably many times. The Big Lie says that if you want to build your practice and increased your client base, you should join service clubs and volunteer your time. The Big Lie operates on the theory that the more people who know an attorney, the greater the number of possible clients or client referrers that attorney has. That reasoning seems pretty sound, creating the appeal of the Big Lie. Having gone along with the logic to this point, how can one argue with the concept that a lawyer should join available service clubs as each service club brings that many more potential clients and client referrers into the fold. When I first started practicing, I must have heard the Big Lie at least a hundred times from a variety of people, mostly experienced attorneys who told me that they had received and followed the same advice when they started out in practice. The Big Lie may account, in part, for why attorneys,

Myth/RealityVoluntarism110704 2

as a group, make up a very substantial portion of the membership in service organizations and why so many attorneys volunteer their time for community service activities (and you all thought it resulted from the kind and benevolent nature of attorneys). Kidding aside, I firmly believe that attorneys, like all other citizens, owe an obligation to give back to the community. I have followed that credo throughout my adult life. As a result, I joined a service club (Rotary International) and volunteered my time for a variety of community service activities and organizations. I have found that participation personally satisfying and emotionally rewarding. I strongly encourage you to make the time to undertake similar activities. “Now, wait a minute”, you say, “I thought we were talking about the Big Lie. First you tell us that joining a service organization to build your practice is the Big Lie; now you tell us to join service organizations. I can’t make sense out of this.” While my comments may, on their face, appear at odds with each other, I assure you that they do not conflict. I strongly encourage you to join service organizations and otherwise volunteer your time to community service activities. BUT, I want you to volunteer for the right reasons. If you do, I think you will find your participation rewarding. If you join for the wrong reasons, you will probably end up frustrated and unhappy. Undoubtedly many attorneys have augmented their practices through contacts made in service organizations. Understand, however, that simply joining a service organization does not automatically get you clients. To get clients through service organization membership, an attorney needs to actively participate in the organization’s work. Active participation requires an, often substantial, time commitment. Time spent working on community service activities has to come from someplace. Generally, it comes from your practice, your family or your personal time. If you look at participation in service organizations and volunteerism as a loss leader to get your name out and in front of more people that could bring you legal business, then you should analyze the time and money you will put into your participation as an investment.

Myth/RealityVoluntarism110704 3

You can calculate the cost of membership in the organization as your billable rate times the number of hours you spend on community service activities plus the out of pocket expenses you incur (travel costs, membership, etc.). The amount of your time that will go towards the volunteer activities will vary from attorney to attorney and depending upon the nature of the volunteer activity you choose. Service clubs generally charge membership fees and you will incur additional expenses through your participation. Additionally, service clubs generally get involved in fund raising and almost always look to their own members first for contributions. If you rise to a position of leadership in the organization (the product of great involvement and devotion of substantial effort and resources), you will learn that leaders need to set an example for the rest of the members by contributing often and much. In talking about the community service road to practice building, attorneys often neglect to do this investment analysis. If you do not consider the value of any time or money you contribute to the organization and its programs in the equation, anything you get back by way of collections from resulting work looks like a good deal. If you realistically estimate the amount of time and money you will end up devoting to the organization and apply that cost (investment?) against collections from work you get as a collateral result (return?) of your participation in the organization, you will likely find it hard to break even, let alone see any return on your investment. The return on investment analysis suggests that the theory of volunteering your time as a means of building your practice works poorly and inefficiently at best. That leads logically to ask where the theory breaks down and why it does not work. Several facts jump to the surface in response to such an inquiry. First, we know that attorneys have a high rate of volunteerism. Without regard to whether that results from civic mindedness or more crass motives, it means that you will probably not be the only attorney in the organization. While the ratio of attorneys to other members of the group will vary from organization to organization, it will probably result in a division of available work among the attorney members. If we assume that all attorneys who belong to the organization would happily accept work from members of the organization and that all attorneys who join and actively participate in its programs will get some work from members, the available work gets divided up among those attorneys. It may turn out that some of the attorney members have different focuses on their

Myth/RealityVoluntarism110704 4

practice than others. That may cause some shift in the proportion of the work that each attorney gets. Recognize that the attorneys best known and most respected in the organization will likely attract the largest share of available work coming out of the organization. Becoming well known, however, usually means raising the ante in terms of requiring more of your time to participate in activities so that your name gets around and you meet the other members. As your reputation increases within the organization, you may well get a request from the organization to do some legal work on its behalf—as a volunteer. Such a request likely comes from the president of the organization. If you don’t accept, your stock in the organization may suffer. If you do accept, you will spend yet more time on the organization’s work, increasing the amount of your investment, making it even harder to get to a positive return. If you work hard and become well known and respected in the organization (traits that will also get you some business), you may ultimately hold leadership positions in the organization. Generally people consider it an honor to hold such positions. If you joined to generate business, you will take the opportunity if it presents itself (you may actively seek it out) to enhance the likelihood that you will get such business as Properly done, such positions require that you devote considerable additional time to the activities of the organization in order to perform your leadership functions. As leadership positions in such organizations generally do not include compensation for your time, holding such a position increases your investment again, thereby making it harder yet to see a positive return on your investment. The investment analysis makes it appear that I received good advice from one senior lawyer who told me to eschew community service organizations and bar association participation as they did not generate fees and absorbed time like a dry sponge absorbs water. I have talked to many attorneys who joined community service organizations with the intent of generating business and found the exercise frustrating at best. I have talked to others that told me they joined initially for that reason, but stayed even though it did not generate the kind or amount of business that they hoped. They continued their involvement as they found other satisfaction from their participation in the organization.

Myth/RealityVoluntarism110704 5

Please understand that I am not telling you to not join community service organizations or bar associations. Neither am I suggesting that you do not participate actively in those organizations, giving freely of your time and resources. To the contrary, I strongly encourage you to join them. BUT, if you join, do so for the right reasons. I have actively participated in community service work and in bar association work for many years. I have devoted thousands of hours and considerable financial resources to such activities. It has produced its share of trials (not the court kind) and tribulations. If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I would still have volunteered my time and effort as I did. Participation in community service organizations can mean many positive things in your life:

1) It gives you the opportunity to meet new people, some of whom may become social friends. I have made many close friends over the years through such activities.

2) The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Community service work gives you the opportunity to help others. Doing it through an organization allows you to join your efforts with others in an organized manner that can result in a greater return for your efforts than you could have achieved on your own.

3) If you share my belief that each of us has a duty to give back to the community in return for the benefits we received from it, community service offers an excellent opportunity to discharge that duty effectively.

4) Many people (myself included) get great personal satisfaction from the community service work that they do.

5) Some types of community service work can become something for the family to share.

Participation in bar association or other professional organizational activities can provide all of the benefits of other community service activities, plus the knowledge that your work gives something back to your chosen profession and may result in other changes that positively affect the administration of justice. In short, as I have said for many years with respect to participation in community service organizations, “the money stinks, but the pay is great!”

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Bottom line, if you join community service organizations, do it because: 1) You believe in the organization’s goals. 2) You support the organization’s activities. 3) You want to participate in the organization’s programs because

you think that they are interesting or will achieve some positive good for society.

4) You like the members and want to join for social reasons. If you approach community service and participation in bar associations from the perspective described above, I believe that you will enjoy your participation much more than if you join in the expectation of increasing your client base. If you join for the right reasons and actively participate, you likely will see some business as a result of that activity. Accept the business as a fringe benefit resulting from your participation rather than as the primary reason for your involvement.

This material will be published in How To Capture and Keep Clients: Marketing Strategies for Lawyers, © 2005 American Bar Association.

All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or downloaded or

stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association. Reproduced with

permission.

Networking for Fun and Profit By

Jeffrey Allen The more people that know you and respect you, the more people that may either call upon you to represent them or refer someone that they know to you for legal advice. The simple and undeniable truth of that statement makes it axiomatic to the process of developing a legal practice. If you accept the importance of this premise, then you understand the need to establish networking patterns early in your practice and to continue them as long as you remain actively in practice and seek new client referrals. 1 While we can look at networking from the simplistic perspective of trying to get as many people as possible to know our name, that we practice law and that we have become pretty good at it, we should look beyond that to other aspects of networking as well. Properly and effectively employed, networking can provide us with new clients and additional work; but it can also give us a mechanism to better serve our client’s needs. It can also help us to practice law more efficiently and more effectively. It should come as no secret to you that over the last 50 years, the nature of the practice of law has changed dramatically. I have practiced for almost 31 years. During that time, I have seen many changes in the practice of law. Many of those changes have resulted in improved service to clients; some of have made things worse. When I started practicing, my mentor/employer

(later partner) had just shy of 38 years of practice experience. As a young lawyer, he entertained and educated me with stories of the evolution of the practice during his lifetime. Over the last 50 years, more and more attorneys have focused their practice on narrower and narrower areas. While such an approach enables an attorney to develop significant knowledge and skill in a limited area, it concurrently limits their expertise in other areas. While generally focusing one’s practice may prove helpful, there sometimes comes a point when it reaches the point of silliness. The best example I can give you of such a development is a true story from my own practice. A number of years ago, I represented a client in a dispute with the other shareholder of a closely held corporation. The individuals had managed to develop a great deal of personal animosity towards each other and each felt the other was taking advantage of them. A large law firm represented the other shareholder. During the early stages of the litigation I dealt with a partner in the other firm whose entire practice consisted of litigation matters. During the course of discovery (but relatively early in that phase of the matter, as I wanted to try to save the clients some money), I suggested a meeting to discuss the possibility of resolving the matter. I met with the attorney in a conference room in his office. We talked preliminarily about resolving some scheduling matters relating to discovery and then I broached the topic of settlement. As soon as I broached the topic of settlement, my counterpart interrupted me to tell me that he had to get someone else in on the conversation. As he explained it, he only did litigation. He did not handle settlement negotiations. He informed me that he had to bring his negotiating partner to handle the settlement discussions. He brought his partner in and remained himself. I soon understood why. As I started explaining the costs associated with the continuation of the discovery in the case, the negotiating partner turned to the litigating partner for verification of the legitimacy of the expenses as the negotiation partner appeared to have little concept of what litigation actually involved. As general practitioners, we pride ourselves in our ability to do a multiplicity of things for our clients. In truth, however, most of us realize that we cannot successfully master every area of the law and have learned that we do some things better than others and that some things we don’t enjoy doing or, for other reasons, really don’t do at all.

Larger law firms have often claimed an advantage over small firms and sole practitioners in representing clients due to the fact that they have lawyers with different abilities and emphases in their practices housed under the same roof, thereby enabling them to provide “full service” to clients. On its face, the claim by the larger firm to be able to provide more complete service to a client appears legitimate. In reality, however, a clever general practice attorney can likely provide better and more efficient service to a client through well-developed networking. While focus on a particular area facilitates the development of expertise in that area, it also fosters certain myopia. The attorney may see issues in his/her field of expertise with great, perhaps microscopic, clarity and detail; but that same attorney may miss related issues in other fields due to the bias of their perspective. Conversely a more broadly grounded attorney may lack the expertise of the focus-practice attorney in the field of focus, but may prove a better diagnostician of the problems that the client must address. The general practice attorney’s advantage comes from experience in multiple areas which enables the attorney to more easily identify problems and issues in a variety of areas than an attorney whose practice has a highly restricted focus. It may be highly likely that an attorney with a highly restricted focus in his or her practice will know that area better than attorneys who do not have that particular emphasis in their practice. For that reason, it may prove prudent for the general practice attorney to refer parts of the representation to other attorneys who have expertise in certain fields. I have often advised a client to take such an approach. In order to ensure that the client remains comfortable with the representation, however, I have developed a group of attorneys that I work with and that have expertise in areas that I feel will likely prove useful to my clients over time. Some of the attorneys on that list have general practices but emphasize areas other than those that I emphasize. Some are certified specialists in particular fields (California officially recognizes a handful of specialties for attorneys). I have known and worked with each of these attorneys for some time. I am confident in them and in their work. Otherwise, I would never refer clients to them.

When I call in one of the attorneys on my list, I often remain in the picture directly to ensure my client’s comfort with the situation and because I am doing something else for the client through which whatever required the additional attorney became an issue. I have found that my clients generally prefer such an approach. Because the attorneys on my list have practices focused differently than mine, they also refer clients to me when their clients have issues within my areas of emphasis. This form of networking enables a sole practitioner or small firm attorney to effectively provide full-service to clients, even though the expertise does not always lie within his/her own office. Such a procedure can have some advantages over the large firm version of full-service representation. For example, the large firm attorney will probably refer a tax matter to a tax partner in the same firm, even if attorneys in other firms have better qualifications or, for other reasons, may more effectively deal with the problem. Since I don’t have any partners, I don’t have to worry about whether my partners have full workloads; I am free to bring in the best tax person for the job, either from my list or not. The size and nature of the list you develop will relate directly to the nature of your own practice and the needs of your clients (present and future). I have found it helpful to include a marital relations attorney, a tax attorney (certified specialist), a labor attorney, a criminal attorney and a personal injury attorney on my list. You can easily expand the networking concept beyond other attorneys into other professions and services as well. Give some thought to what other professional services your clients will likely need. Determine which, if any, you feel comfortable working with and look for competent providers of those services. For example, as I work in real estate, my clients often have need for escrow services, title insurance and real estate brokerage services. My real estate and my business clients also often need the assistance of a CPA. By developing a list of providers of those services, I have the ability to provide my clients with referrals that I have confidence in and with whom I have well-established working relationships. As with attorneys, each of the providers of other related services that I have added to my list has clients that may from time to time require legal services

of the type and nature I provide. As a matter of fact, the most consistent sources of my referral business over the years include an attorney who works in an office that only handles marital or family law matters, a CPA and two escrow officers. It just so happens that I have represented both of the escrow agents, the attorney and the CPA personally in various matters over the time that I have known them. Accordingly, when they recommend me to a potential client, they can do so, not just as a result of my reputation and experience, but also on the basis of their personal knowledge of the way I work with and try to protect my clients. As an additional benefit from establishing such relationships, you now have a source of information if you need a quick answer about an issue that relates to an area of expertise of one of the people on your list. On the other hand, expect to get some questions from others relating to your areas of expertise as part of the arrangement. While this approach can prove very helpful to your efforts to build a practice, it carries with it some risks with which you should concern yourself. In some places you can incur liability for making a negligent referral. Whether or not you live or work in such a place notwithstanding, you would not want to make your clients unhappy by making a poor referral. Accordingly, if you want to use this technique to help grow your practice, be very careful about who makes your referral list. You will want to make sure that the list only includes individuals whose work you trust enough to have them represent you. If you think you have found someone that you want to work with this way, spend some time talking to the person about it. Find out how they feel about it. I suggest that you not approach it as a trade. I have never tried to bargain with respect to referrals. I have met with them, told them what I had in mind and explained that I would like to use them on a referral basis. In some cases the person I talked to was already referring business to me; in other cases, they recognized the value of the approach I proposed and inquired on their own whether I had any interest in referrals from them. As a further precaution, you should send a letter to your client confirming that they asked you to make a referral and that you did so and that while you based the referral on the best information available to you and your personal acquaintance with whomever you have referred the client, they maintain a separate practice (or do not practice law) and that should your client have

any disagreement or unhappiness with the referral, you will willingly assist in trying to resolve the problem, but that you cannot accept responsibility for the problem or for the actions of anyone not a part of your own practice. 1. A few words about my own practice as I think they will help you understand some of what I have to say later in this chapter. During law school I spent one summer working for the federal government and a second summer clerking for a medium sized law firm in the financial district of San Francisco. Those experiences convinced me that I did not want to work for the government and that I really did not like the idea of being the junior attorney in a larger law firm. As a result, I got a job clerking for a small law firm during my third year of law school and found that I felt more comfortable in that environment. When I graduated law school, I declined opportunities to clerk for a judge and to work for a large law firm and went to work for a small law firm and chose to work for a smaller firm. The firm I worked for had three partners and three associates at the time. I became the fourth partner within a year. I practiced in law partnerships (evolutions of the original firm I went with out of law school) until the beginning of 1996. My then partners and I decided to split the sheets, so to speak, and as of March 1, 1996 I no longer had partners, but I did have one attorney that worked for me. When I first started practicing, I did litigation of all sorts: business, real property related matters, personal injury, dissolutions, bankruptcy, etc. As time went on, I started doing more and more transactional matters and providing business advice and counseling to business people. Eventually, my practice evolved to the point that I did primarily real estate related matters and business matters. Within real estate, I handled most matters including litigation, transactional, lending, insurance, title, construction and joint ownership. On the business side, my practice included contract litigation, transactional work, business entity formation and providing legal advice and counsel to startup and ongoing businesses.

This material will be published in How To Capture and Keep Clients: Marketing Strategies for Lawyers, © 2005 American Bar Association.

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MINING YOUR OWN CLIENT RESOURCES

By Jeffrey Allen

Experienced lawyers have many means of attracting clients potentially available to them. The one method most often overlooked, however has proven the most effective in my practice. I have found that my existing clients generally my best source of new clients. Keep this rule in mind: A satisfied client makes the best source of referrals and new business. The logic of that rule seems fairly difficult to attack. Put yourself in the position of a prospective client. Assume you have a legal problem and have decided you need an attorney, but that you don’t know an attorney who does the kind of work you need done. On the other hand, you do know Mr. and Ms. Smith, your neighbors, who had a similar problem last year. In a conversation with the Smiths, you tell them of your plight. They immediately respond by telling you that you need to go see attorney Weiss. Attorney Weiss, the tell you, represented them in a similar matter last year and did a great job, for them. The Smiths are friends of yours. Will you:

A. Ignore the Smiths’ recommendation and look for an attorney in the Yellow Pages?

B. Ignore the Smiths’ recommendation and conduct an Internet search for attorneys?

C. Ignore the Smiths’ recommendation and call the attorney you saw advertising on the late show last night?

D. Accept the Smith’s recommendation? In my experience, most prospective clients would opt for choice “D”, take the Smith’s recommendation and call attorney Weiss.

Depending on how well you impressed your clients and upon their own personalities, you may even find their efforts on your behalf more aggressive than Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s. For example, I have regularly had all of the following occur in my practice:

1. Prospective clients call and describe themselves as friends of clients of mine that had recommended me to them.

2. Prospective clients call and tell me that so and so (a client of mine) told them that they really needed an attorney to help them with a particular problem and that I was the one they should see.

3. Prospective clients call and tell me that they heard from someone that I never heard of that I was very good in a particular area and then later find out that the person they heard that from knew a client of mine or someone else that knew a client of mine who had started that rumor.

4. Existing clients call me to ask if I would accept a friend/co-worker/colleague/neighbor/relative of theirs as a client.

5. Existing clients bring a prospective client to my office to introduce to me and get them set up with an appointment.

6. Existing clients call to tell me that they referred prospective client over to see me because the prospective client is in deep trouble and needs my help.

Now, in all truth, I don’t know a single attorney that will admit to not wanting to have satisfied clients. That said, we all know that:

1. Some attorneys do better work than other attorneys. 2. Some attorneys do a better job with client management than others; 3. Some attorneys do a better job with client relations than others.

So, if we assume that satisfied clients will refer other work to our practice, we have another strong motivation to develop systems in our practice to ensure that we have satisfied clients. Simply stated, we can keep clients happy without tremendous effort and often without regard to the success we achieve for them in any particular matter (although common sense tells you that if you win, you have an easier job of producing a satisfied client. INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND YOUR PRACTICE. When a prospective client comes into my office, I make it a point to tell them a little (maybe a lot) about my practice and myself during the initial discussion about their situation. I do that on the theory that they have not yet made their mind up about whether to hire my firm and that providing them with

such information may help them decide to hire us. If you have a firm brochure, this is a good time to give it to the prospective client. I also give the client that information in recognition of the possibility that the client may have other matters in other areas that requires legal assistance. If I don’t tell the client that we do that work, the client will not likely think we do. By letting the client know what type of work you do beyond the matter presently under consideration, you open the door to additional work and even to the possibility that the client does not hire the firm on the first matter, but hires the firm on another matter as a result of that discussion. In a similar vein, consider what you hang on the walls of your office. The choice you make represents you. I have seen many offices in which attorneys hang their diplomas and their bar admission certificates on the wall. I have never done that and have never had a client question whether I graduated from law school or was admitted to practice. I have a collection of lithographs that hangs in my office. I selected a well-known artist and a collection of pieces that showed locations from all over the world. In my personal office, I chose pieces that conveyed power and strength, such as a large steamship and a locomotive. I generally meet with clients in our library/conference room. In that room, I hung a number of certificates of commendation from the local courts for work in connection with Alternative Dispute Resolution. I have also hung in that room awards and acknowledgements I have received for my public service activities. I have had a number of comments from clients and prospective clients about those awards. I think that the acknowledgments from the courts help give the clients a good feeling about me as an attorney. I think that the public service acknowledgements help the client feel comfortable with me as a person. I believe that many clients perceive both as important to their decision-making process. CONVEY YOUR INTEREST IN PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS AND THEIR PROBLEMS. People generally come to see attorneys for one of two reasons. Some come because they want to avoid having a problem by getting legal help to assist them in acting in compliance with applicable law. Others come because they didn’t seek legal advice or assistance prior to creating a problem of significant proportions. Whichever of those conditions brings a potential client to your office, the client will want to feel that you are concerned about them and their problems. It always amazes me when I talk to a potential client who tells me that they seek replacement

counsel as their current attorney: (1) doesn’t really seem to have time for their matter; (2) won’t tell them about the status of the case; (3) won’t respond to telephone calls or letters. Often such conduct causes the client to think the attorney simply doesn’t like them or that they attorney does not believe in their case. Such beliefs never help an attorney retain a client. MAKE SURE THE PROSPECTIVE CLIENT KNOWS THAT YOU WORK TO SATISFY YOUR CLIENTS. In the course of my first meeting with a prospective client, I generally let the prospective client know that we try to help our clients by assisting in solving problems after they reach crisis proportions; I also like to let the client know that believe that generally help the client the most if I can provide prophylactic advice to keep them out of trouble in the first place. That point may not relate to the current situation, but it opens the door to other representation in the future. I think that clients want and need to know that you will work with them to solve their problems. They want to have some say in the outcome of your work. Explaining to a client how you will provide them with information on a regular basis and that they will play a major part in the decision-making process relating to their case often makes them feel much more at-ease. I have a number of clients that I have represented for many years. I find that knowing that fact often makes prospective clients feel more comfortable. Comments made in response to that information suggest that clients perceive that, effectively, as a recommendation. The fact that those clients have chosen to remain with me for prolonged time periods suggests strongly that they have been pleased with my work on their behalf. DON’T CREATE UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS. Do not oversell yourself when you meet prospective clients. Do not allow (and certainly do not help) them to oversell themselves on their case. If you encourage a client to believe you can magically turn their sow’s ear of a case into a silk purse filled with cash, they will not easily accept less. You make your case more difficult to settle as a result of such expectations. You also make it harder on yourself to succeed. If you do a great job and get your clients more than they had any reasonable basis to expect, you may still come up the goat as they expected more than they got. On the other hand if your clients understand the problems and risks associated with their case, they will more likely settle on a reasonable basis; and if the case does not settle, but you get them near the top of the reasonable range of expectations,

you come up the hero. Hero or goat, which do you prefer? I always prefer playing hero to playing goat. COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE. Over the last several years, malpractice insurance carriers have become more and more concerned about providing loss prevention information to their insured. The carriers have correctly perceived that if they assist attorneys in bettering their relationships with their clients, the clients will not as readily sue the attorneys. A reduction in lawsuits against insured attorneys reduces the carrier’s claims administration costs, defense costs and settlement costs. That can go right to the carrier’s bottom line. For a number of years, our malpractice carrier has sent us memoranda saying, in effect, that research has confirmed that attorneys that fail to respond to their clients in a timely manner generally have unhappy clients and that unhappy clients will more likely sue an attorney than will happy clients. Logic dictates that the flip side of that coin supports the conclusion that maintaining good and timely communications with your clients will help keep them happy. Clients do not like to feel that you are ignoring them or even not paying a sufficient amount of attention to them. It does not take a substantial leap to get from a perceived failure to pay sufficient attention to a client to a perceived failure to pay sufficient attention to the clients’ case. I have always followed several rules respecting communications with clients. They have worked well for me:

1. Always send the client a copy of every pleading; 2. Always send the client copies of discovery you receive; 3. Always send the client a copy of significant correspondence to

opposing counsel and, when necessary for perspective or otherwise appropriate, copies of correspondence from opposing counsel.

4. Always give your client plenty of notice of any date on which the client must appear somewhere. Clients will look at you contacting them to see if the appearance works on their calendar as a courtesy;

5. Always give your client plenty of notice of any by which the client must do something or provide something to you.

6. Respond to client phone calls the same day you get them if possible. Otherwise, by the next business day. If you cannot get back to the client directly, have your secretary call and explain the problem and tell the client you will get back to them

as soon as you can after you finish your trial/ return from your vacation/ etc.

7. Remember that the case belongs to the client. Include the client in the decision-making process with respect to strategy and economics. Document discussions, agreements and instructions in a confirming letter to protect yourself and ensure a low likelihood of misunderstanding or miscommunications.

8. Make sure that your bills explain what you did for the client. 9. If your client has a question about a bill, make sure you let the

client know that you will not charge them the time for addressing it with them.

10. If you become aware of a significant event in your client’s life (marriage, birth of a child, promotion, new house purchase, etc. send an appropriate message to let them know you thought of them). You may find it helpful to send all of your clients Season’s Greeting cards at the end of each year. It will serve to remind those you have not seen for a while that you are still around.

11. If you help a client set up a business entity and don’t hear from the client for a while, consider calling the client to see how the business is going. In talking to the client about the client’s business activities, you may discover areas where your services could help the client (such as in reviewing contracts or leases or in setting up form agreements for the client to use).

12. When you set up a corporation for a client, send the client a letter outlining those things that the client must do on a regular basis. As it comes time for the annual meeting, send the client a reminder notice; ask if the client would like to have you prepare and send out the notice to the shareholders and/or prepare minutes of the meeting.

SHOW PATIENCE AND SUPPORT FOR YOUR CLIENT. Your clients consider their work very important, even if it is a small matter by comparison to others you handle or one that does not present many complexities. In any disputed matter, as their lawyer, you are their knight in shining armor. The one that stands up for them, that defends them and advances their position. Some clients will show more anxiety than others. When they do, they need you to hold their hand and let them know you are on their side. Show them patience. Do not get testy with them when they call over and again to check on the same thing. Help them, be supportive

and let them gently know that you are concerned that their bill will be higher than you would like because of all of the time going over the same thing. Consider suggesting to the client that they send questions by email so that you can respond to them more thoughtfully. They will appreciate that effort and it may save you much time. LET YOUR CLIENTS KNOW YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE ON MORE WORK. In the course of your relationship, you can casually let your clients know that you can accommodate more work or that you would like to get a particular type of work. It plants the seed with them that they could recommend you to a friend/colleague/ neighbor, etc. Keep lots of your business cards around and pass them out freely to your clients. If they have more than they need, they just might pass them out to a prospective client for you.

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GPSolo Magazine - December 2005

Road WarriorGoing Mobile Against Your Will

By Jeffrey Allen

I have considered myself a mobile attorney for many years. I made aspecific choice to make myself into a mobile attorney to free up timefor bar association activities, soccer, travel, writing, and other thingswhile still practicing law full-time.

Recently, a large number of attorneys have found themselves forcedinto mobility in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Natural and man-made disasters can have that impact. It could affect any of us at anytime. I saw a number of attorneys put into that situation in the San Francisco Bay area in1989 as the result of a major earthquake. We saw a similar event as the result of a man-made catastrophe several years ago in New York. All such situations have one thing incommon: the displacement of attorneys from their normal working environment. For mostattorneys, that displacement means they cannot get access to their files or, for that matter, toany computers left in their office.

In essence, lawyers displaced by disasters find themselves forced to function as mobileattorneys under the worst possible circumstances. Consider what you would do if you woke upone morning to find that a fire had destroyed your office, or an earthquake had caused yourbuilding to collapse around it, or flood waters had reached the top of your highest file cabinet,or a disaster had made it impossible for you to get access to your law office for theforeseeable future.

None of us has complete protection from such disasters.

Most of us understand the importance of backing up our computer data and do, in fact, backup, at least at some level. Few of us back up our data as carefully or as often as we should. Ithought I had done a pretty good job of setting up a backup ritual in and out of the office, butdisasters like Katrina make us stop and think about what we generally fail to back up at all:the paper files in our office. The day may come when law practices do not depend on paperfiles, but for most of us that will not occur before we retire. Traditionally, lawyers store thepaper files related to their cases in metal file cabinets or filing shelves where they have almostcomplete exposure to loss or serious damage by fire or flood, or even a failure of theplumbing system or a sprinkler system in the office building.

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What happens to a practice when the paper files cease to exist in any usable form or simplybecome inaccessible?

Given the dire consequences associated with the loss of such files, attorneys should takesteps to protect their clients, themselves, and their practices against such a catastrophe. Whatcan we do to limit exposure to such a loss? Obviously we can consider the location of apractice. Some areas of the country have higher risks than others; some buildings will likelywithstand risks better than others. Those considerations, while worthwhile, do not solve theproblem. Simply put, lawyers will never completely insulate themselves against the possibleloss of paper files. Attorneys can, however, minimize the risk of such a loss by backing up thepaper files.

Given the amount of space (to say nothing of trees) consumed by paper files, it makes littlesense to suggest the complete duplication, in paper form, of paper files. Problems with suchan approach make it unacceptable, inadvisable, and simply unworkable.

The utility of a backup system depends upon the ability to restore quickly from that backupand to move a copy of the backup quickly and easily to a safe location. If you cannot easilyremove it to safety, you risk losing the backup in the same catastrophe that destroys theoriginal. If you cannot restore the backup to functional use, you have not saved anything worthhaving.

The Digital Solution

For some time I have considered digitizing all my paper documents as the best way to backthem up. I could easily take a copy of the digitized documents out of the office and movethem to a secure location. Likely all of the documents in my office would fit on a single harddisk drive, especially as the drives get smaller in size and larger in capacity. I already have a400 gigabyte (GB) drive that is the same size as a paperback book and weighs only about apound or so. I have a 100 GB drive that takes up no more space than the palm of my handand weighs only about 8 ounces. You can get large-capacity, portable, stand-alone hard diskdrives of 400-500 GB for less than $1 per gigabyte. You can get small pocketable 80-120 GBdrives for less than $3 per gigabyte.

In fact, having all the documents in digital form would allow me to keep a copy of my entirefile on a matter with me when I travel, so that, in addition to knowing that a fire, earthquake,or flood will not irreparably damage my practice, the digitization of the files would enhance myability to work effectively on the road by allowing me to carry files without adding anysubstantial bulk or weight to my briefcase. I already use the 100 GB drive for backuppurposes, and it leaves the office with me every day and travels with me on the road. Addingdigitized versions of all the files I might want to see during the trip would only take a momentor two (less time than I currently spend getting the specific documents I need and copyingthem to take with me on the trip).

Furthermore, digitizing the documents as searchable PDF files would allow me to find thingsmuch easier than I can with paper. The computer can search for a character string and find itmuch faster than I can locate the file and look through it for the specific document required.And that comparison assumes everything has gone smoothly with the assembly of the paperfile—imagine how much time you waste when a document has been placed out of order withinthe paper file or, even worse, has been placed in an entirely different file by accident.

Given the clear advantages, why haven’t we all digitized our files? Recognize that undertakingthe conversion of your paper files to digital files will involve a significant effort. Many of ushave considered the possibility in the past and decided that it would cost too much or that wecould not easily meet the demands it would make on our time and resources. Accordingly, wedid not do it. Has the world changed enough so that the concept works now? Perhaps. Or,perhaps we have simply come to recognize the inevitability of natural and man-made disastersand decided that it makes more sense to try to protect our clients, ourselves, and our

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practices than to just keep hoping that the next disaster strikes somewhere else.

Whatever the reason, the time seems right to take the plunge. Having decided to digitize myfiles, I needed to develop a plan to make it work. I also needed to make some decisions abouthow to accomplish this feat.

Taking the Plunge

Some years ago I inquired about the cost of having an outside group come in and convert mypaper files to digital. I got an estimate of approximately $40,000 and decided I had betterplaces to spend that money. The advances of technology have actually reduced the cost ofhaving someone come in and digitize your files. In some ways that choice makes good sense.The process will take some time, and by using an outside agency you get it done much morequickly—and without tying up your in-house staff. If you choose an outside group, you don’tneed to worry about equipment, staffing, training, or software for the conversion. The outsidegroup will provide it all.

On the other hand, financial considerations may make it more reasonable to do it in-houseand absorb the cost and the extra work over time. And even if you have an outside agencyconvert your existing files, you will need to keep creating new digital files in the future, so youwill need to invest in equipment, software, and training anyway.

Ultimately, I decided to do the conversion in-house for several reasons, including cash-flowconsiderations. By doing the conversion over time, I pay for it on what amounts to theinstallment plan. I suspect that many solos and small firm attorneys will reach a similarconclusion. If you do it yourself, you will need to acquire the necessary hardware (a scanner)and software (generally scanner drivers and software come in a package with the scanner),and an OCR (optical character recognition) program. Many scanners come with OCR softwareincluded. If you do not already have a full copy of Adobe Acrobat (which you should), you willwant to get one.

Scanners

The nature of the scanner you choose will depend on the size of your office and how manydocuments you anticipate scanning. Remember that you will not only be converting existingfiles, but also creating digital files for all your future work. In fact, you may want to considerhaving more than one scanner in the office. I have, for example, acquired scanners for eachperson in the office. At least one scanner in the office should have ADF (automatic documentfeed) capabilities. You may also want to consider automatic duplexing (the ability to do bothsides of a page in one pass).

Scanners come in two basic configurations: sheetfed and flatbed. A flatbed scanner allowsyou to lay an open book or an oversized page on the bed and scan it into a digital file. Asheetfed scanner can only take single pages. Scanning a page out of a book would requirethat you first photocopy the page (or tear it out of the book) and then run the single pagethrough the scanner. ADF works with sheetfed scanners. It does not work with a pure flatbedscanner. In the best of worlds, you would have both types available in your office or acombination scanner that includes both capabilities. Generally, a good combination scannerwith ADF will cost more than a sheetfed scanner with ADF. Fortunately, the cost of high-quality ADF scanners has dropped in recent years.

Here are some recommendations you can consider respecting scanners. I found myself quiteimpressed with the lower end of the Fujitsu line of ADF sheetfed scanners. Its ScanSnap listsfor under $500 and comes with a full copy of Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard Edition. If you don’thave a full copy of Acrobat, that package offers an incredible value. I have seen theScanSnap offered for even less online, and the last time I checked the Fujitsu site(www.fujitsu.com), I found a $50 discount coupon offered with the ScanSnap. The ScanSnaptakes up relatively little desktop space (it’s about the same size as a football). It scans

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documents directly into PDF files for you. The ScanSnap’s ADF holds up to 50 pages (thecloser you get to 50, the more likely it is to jam; but I had no problems with 30 to 35 pagesand only an occasional jam at 45 to 55), and it scans in duplex mode at up to 15 pages perminute in black-and-white. The ScanSnap does not have an ISIS or a Twain driver (standardscanner drivers), which limits its ability to interface with third-party software such as OCRprograms.

Currently, the ScanSnap works only with Windows machines (officially). Many Mac users havemade it work with a Fujitsu Japanese driver or with third-party software called Scan Tango.Fujitsu has announced that it will have a Mac version of the ScanSnap available soon (thesame hardware but with Mac OS software). Fujitsu already shows the Mac version on itswebsite. It should be on the market by the time you read this article. I am informed that it willsell for the same price as the Windows version and that it will come with the Mac version ofthe full Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard Edition.

Fujitsu makes a much more powerful (heavily featured and industrial strength) sheetfed ADFscanner that sells for about twice the cost of the ScanSnap. The Fujitsu 4120c looks like aslightly larger ScanSnap (about the size of a rugby ball). It also has duplexing capabilities andcomes with both Twain and ISIS drivers, making interfacing with third-party software quiteeasy. It comes with a full copy of Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard Edition as well as othersoftware to facilitate scanning and management of scanned documents.

The 4120c looks and feels more substantial than the ScanSnap. It has a faster rating (25pages per minute simplex and 50 pages per minute duplex). Like the ScanSnap, its ADFholds up to 50 pages, but I found the 4120c ADF to work a bit better at the higher end of itscapacity.

If you want a high-quality combination flatbed and sheetfed ADF scanner, take a look at theHP/Compaq offerings. Their 8200 series excels. The base of the series, the 8200, is a simpleflatbed scanner. The 8250 gets you an ADF top that attaches to the flatbed to create acombination scanner that holds up to 50 pages in ADF mode and scans up to 15 pages perminute. The ADF top for the 8290 also holds up to 50 pages, but it runs documents throughthe scanner at up to 25 pages per minute. All three versions come with Twain and ISISdrivers. The 8290 also has a high-speed SCSI interface. The 8250 costs $900, and the 8290costs $1,500.

All the scanners come with software that allows you to scan your documents into one or moreformats. With Adobe Acrobat, you can create searchable PDF files out of your scans. If youwant the ability to convert imaged files to word processor formats, you will also need OCRsoftware. You can acquire very competent OCR software for around $400. I am veryimpressed by DocuLex OCR for Lawyers ($399), ReadIris Professional Version 10 CorporateEdition ($399), and OmniPage 15 ($499, $199 as an upgrade), all of which I recentlyreviewed.

A Winning Game Plan

For your digital backup system to succeed, you will need a game plan. I have adopted arelatively simple one. I already have a set of electronic folders on a networked server for eachclient and each client matter. Instead of saving documents that go out of my office in Wordfiles, we will also create a copy of each document as a searchable PDF, giving us the abilityto freeze the document’s form and to search for it easily. As documents come into the office,my secretary will scan them to searchable PDF files, placing the digitized files into theappropriate client matter folders. That will apply to mail, pleadings, and documents brought inby clients. Effectively everything going forward will have an electronic existence to back up thepaper and to allow us to use it better and more efficiently.

Existing files will get converted over time. We plan to convert several files a day until wecomplete the conversion of all current, open files. If the process goes too slowly, I will hire

03/07/2006 11:28 AMGoing Mobile Against Your Will - GP|Solo Magazine - December 2005 - ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

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part-time help to assist in the conversion. At any rate, I expect that we will have completedthat conversion in the course of a few months. (Now, if we can only hold off that earthquakethey keep predicting. . . .)

I’ve not yet decided whether closed, warehoused files deserve the effort it would take toconvert them. And the older they get, the less value they have. Eventually, we would destroythem anyway (we have a written destruction policy that our clients sign when they retain us).One thing’s for sure: As we move forward, destroying paper files will create less angstbecause we will still have electronic backup for them.

In fact, I like this concept so much that I told my wife I want to do the same thing with ourpersonal files.

Jeffrey Allen is the principal in the Graves & Allen law firm in Oakland, California. Afrequent speaker on technology topics, he is the special issue editor of GPSolo’sTechnology & Practice Guide and editor-in-chief of the Technology eReport. He alsoteaches business law in the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the BusinessSchool of the University of Phoenix. He can be reached at jallenlawtek@aol.com.

Contact information:ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

321 North Clark StreetChicago, IL, 60610

phone: 312.988.5648fax: 312.988.5711

genpractice@abanet.org

MY LIFE IN SOCCER (in more than the 500 words they asked me to write) By Jeffrey Allen Those of you who know me likely also know that for many years, soccer was a big part of my life. I had three careers in soccer, running more or less concurrently: coaching, refereeing and administration. I had a short and unimpressive career as a player as well, but I don’t count that. When I moved from coaching recreational to coaching competitive soccer, I thought I should have the perspective of a player, so I played in an adult recreational league, primarily as a goalkeeper. While I did fairly well and the team ultimately won its league, I also tore an anterior cruciate ligament. That injury ended my career as a player. My First Life in Soccer- Coaching: I got involved in soccer the same way most parents do: my son (then in first grade) asked if he could sign up for soccer. My wife and I said he could. The next thing I knew, someone called me to ask if I would be willing to help coach as the league lacked enough coaches for all the kids that had signed up to play. I said no, as I knew little about the game and did not feel competent to teach it as I had never played it (except once in fifth grade). The volunteer recruiter hung on and refused to take no for an answer. I have always believed that we each should give something back to the community. I enjoyed sports and teaching and felt it was important to help children develop. Ultimately good will won out over good sense and I agreed to be an assistant coach for an Under-8 team. As it turned out, the “experienced” head coach that they agreed to place me with was a guy who a year before was recruited like I was. He knew little more about the game at that point than I did. As the two of us were both former football players, we followed the coaching models that we had as youngsters. Knowing little about the game, we started using football agility drills under the theory that agility couldn’t hurt. After looking at what we were doing for a few weeks I reached a conclusion that ultimately changed the way I lived my life. I concluded that if I was going to coach children in soccer, I owed it to them to learn how to do it right. I immediately began studying the game and going to coaching school. Several years later, I had accumulated every coaching license available at the State level and enrolled in a National Coaching License course. Ultimately, I collected State F, E, E/D and National D licenses, US Soccer National C and National Youth Licenses, and an NSCAA Regional Academy diploma. I continued my education as a coach by observing professional coaches and trainers. Eventually I became an instructor in the youth program and helped teach other coaches how to coach. My career as a coach exceeded 20 years. I coached my own children’s teams at first, and ultimately coached teams comprised of other people’s children. By the time I retired from coaching youth soccer, I had coached boys and girls teams, teams in every age group from U-8 through U-19 and in every level of play of youth soccer in Northern

California from Recreational to Advanced House to Competitive, to Olympic Development and Premier. My teams learned to play the game and play it well, winning a substantial number of trophies for competitive play in league and in tournaments. My teams did well in California and traveled to tournaments throughout the United States and ultimately to Europe. In one European tournament, my under 15 Girls’ team played as an under 16 Girls’ team. Notwithstanding their youth, the girls won the tournament, my daughter received the award as the “Outstanding Player of the Age Group”, one of the other girls on my team received the “Golden Boot” (a traditional award to the player scoring the most goals in the tournament (she scored seven) and I was honored as the “Outstanding Manager of the Age Group” (I think that was because my girls performed as well as they did. As much fun as we had winning, the most important things that came out of that trip were the bonds and experiences shared by the players. Although that trip occurred more than 10 years ago, the girls still talk about their experiences. Although learning the game had an importance associated with it, from my perspective, the life lessons my players learned had greater significance. They learned what it meant to play on a team, to support their teammates and work together for the success of the team. They learned the importance of training, hard work and discipline. They also learned the importance of giving back to the community. Many of my former players went on to play in high school, college, on Olympic Development Teams, National Teams and even professional teams. One of the things I taught my players was that, in helping them, I repaid a debt I felt that I owed to those who helped me in my youth. When they wanted to thank me for coaching them, I told these young people that they would repay what they felt they owed me by coaching the next generation of players and helping them develop as I had helped them. . Many of my former players went on to play in high school, college, on Olympic Development Teams, National Teams and even professional teams. Some of them did not wait very long to try to repay that debt. The youngest age you can get a referee or a coaching license is 12. At one point I had an Under 12 Girl’s Team that had 9 players licensed as referees and two licensed as coaches. All of the referees were helping referee younger players and the two coaches had a parent assigned to them as the team “Manager” for insurance purposes and were coaching an Under 8 Girls’ team. I found the experience of coaching and working with the children personally very rewarding. I always said, “The money stinks, but the pay is great”. Being a coach and working with players to help develop them as athletes and teach them life lessons is heady stuff. The coach has a special relationship with the players. To this day, I have young men and women who played for me as children that still come to me for advice or just to let me know what is going on in their lives. My Second Life in Soccer- Refereeing: After I started getting serious about coaching soccer, I decided to read the rules. We call the rules the Laws of the Game. It made sense to me that if I intended to coach the game; I needed to know the rules. That sounds very basic, however, you would be surprised at the number of coaches in those days that

had not read the rules. After reading the Laws of the Game, I noticed that many of the referees made calls that did not comply with my understanding of the Laws. Somewhat frustrated by that situation, I reached the conclusion that I should not criticize the referees too much until I had stood in their shoes. Next thing I knew, I signed up for referee school. I graduated, passed the test and became a referee. I went out and got a uniform and stood in the middle of the field ready to referee. I then discovered that the game moved a lot faster when you stood on the field as compared to when you stood on the touchlines. Eventually, I got the hang of it and became more comfortable with the role of the referee. As I did that I started progressing up the ladder of refereeing ability, ultimately acquiring my badge as a State Referee. By the time I acquired my State badge, I was past mandatory retirement age for a FIFA referee, so I understood that I had no chance of going to the World Cup finals, unless I bought a ticket. Nevertheless, I did enjoy refereeing and it was a good reason to try to stay in reasonable condition. As I continued to train as a referee, I also acquired licenses from US Soccer as a Referee Instructor (ultimately a State Instructor) and as an Assessor (ultimately a State Assessor). My third life in Soccer – Administration: I never really wanted to get involved in the Administration of Soccer, but I did know it was something I could do well. Ultimately I agreed to go on the Board of the League’s Competitive program as the Referee Coordinator. The next year I took over as the Competitive program’s Commissioner, which put me on the League Board. As time went on, I was elected to positions on the District Board and finally the State Board for the California Youth Soccer Association. I served a term and a half as Board Secretary, then two terms as Chairman of the Board and finally one term as the Immediate Past Chair. In all, I spent 9 years on the State Board. During the period I served as Chairman, I also served on the Regional Counsel and on several committees for the Youth Soccer Regional administration, US Youth Soccer and United States Soccer. I also served as the Youth Referee Coordinator and the Referee Coordinator for our District for a period of time. Later I served for several years on the State Board of the California- North Referee Administration. Sequel: My After-life in Soccer: After retiring from the administration of soccer, retiring as a referee and retiring as a coach, I continued to help coach a team for a few years. I also continued to teach coaching courses for the California Youth Soccer League. As I retired from my various Soccer lives, I got more and more involved in Futsal (5 a side indoor soccer). I have coached Futsal for about 10 years and for the last several years I have served on the Board of Directors of the US Futsal Federation, first as the Coaching Director and currently as the CFO.

Why did I do this to myself? Why do I continue to do it? Because I truly believe in the need and the duty to give back to the community and because I truly love sports and working with young people. I can only think of a few things in my life that I have found more rewarding than the work I have done in these areas. Someone once said to me that I must truly love soccer to have devoted so much time to it. To their surprise, I answered that what I truly love is helping young people. Because I also love sports, soccer became an excellent vehicle for me to help young people.

DAY ONE Friday, October 5, 2007

Programs 1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works! Outlook for Lawyers: The Case Manager You Already

Have

Track 2 – Manage Smart! I’m Done! SSF Retirement and Succession Planning

Track 3 – Have a Life!

15 Tips for Stress LESS SSF Practice in 60 Minutes

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Outlook for Lawyers: The Case Manager You Already Have

With

Ross Kodner Andrew Simpson

October 5, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

1

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Having a Better Outlook:Tips and Tricks on Serving Your Clients and Avoiding Malpractice

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 1

g p

Ross L. Kodner, Esq.

MicroLaw, Inc.

Andrew SimpsonAndrew C. Simpson, P.C.

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Your Faculty:Ross L. Kodner, Esq.

CEO / PresidentMicroLaw, IncMilwaukee Based, Continent-WideE-Mail: rkodner@microlaw.com,Web: www.microlaw.com

♦Marquette Univ. Law School, 1986 (Law Review)♦Founded MicroLaw, Inc. in 1985 / Factum, Inc. in 2006♦Legal Technologist, Educator, Author♦Technolawyer Legal Technology Consultant of the Year 1999, Contributor of the Year 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006♦ Founder/National Coordinator, HelpKatrinaLawyers.org♦Over 1000 law offices assisted across North America♦Frequent author and speaker nationwide on legal technology subjects

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 2

♦Chair, Wisconsin Law & Technology Conference 2002-2007♦Co-Chair, National Solo & Small Firm Conference 2006-2007♦Chair, Milwaukee Bar Association Technology Committee, 2002-2007♦Chair, ABA LPM Section Computer & Technology Division and Member, TECHSHOW 1997- 2001 Board, Co-Chair, LegalTech CLE Planning Board♦Founder, Annual Legal Consultants & Technologists Dinner (www.thedinner.net)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Your Faculty:Andrew SimpsonAndrew C. Simpson, P.C.5025 Anchor Way, Ste. 1Christiansted, St. Croix asimpson@viaccess net

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 3

asimpson@viaccess.nethttp://www.coralbrief.comt: 340-719-3900 x202f: 340-719-3903U.S. Virgin Islands 00820-4671

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

A New Outlook – Office 2007

• Office 2007 is here and Outlook 2007 takes major leaps forward for legal users

• Microsoft has a great overview of Outlook 2007’s

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

new features at: http://office.microsoft.com/enus/getstarted/HA100743061033.aspx

• I’ll explore the key new features in Outlook 2007 that will be immediately useful in your law practice

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

The Outlook 2007 Landscape –Familiar Territory

• Outlook 2007’s interface is thankfully similar to Outlook 2003 – it eschews the new (and useful but different)

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

new (and useful, but different) “Ribbon” used by all the other Office 2007 components

• Let’s take a look at the new Outlook 2007 “landscape” – it looks familiar . . . but cleaner . . .

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Getting a Feel for Outlook 2007

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

2007’s biggest visual difference is the new “To-Do Bar”

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New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007 Contacts: It’s About Who You Know!

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

Contacts in Outlook 2007 add the “Ribbon” for simpler access to contact control

functions such as categorizing

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007: Huge Calendaring Improvements!

New features may justify an upgrade:• Color coding of dates to add a “heat map” which

visually cues you to importance of dates such as

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

visually cues you to importance of dates such as court appearances and filing deadlines

• Ability to send entire calendars to others• Integration of calendar entries and to-do’s on the

same screen, much like legal practice management systems

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Send calendar

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

entries to others in the mostly universal “iCalendar” format to other Outlook users as well as Notes and GroupWise users, among others

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

Color-code calendar entries using a “heat map” – assigning colors to represent dates by category or by level of “criticalness” (i.e. red = hot, blue = cold, less urgent)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Need to Know My Docket? No Problem – I’ll Send it to You!

• A major new Outlook 2007 calendar feature is the ability to send

ti l d

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

your entire calendar to anyone, or even publish it securely on the web

• Great for sharing calendars with experts, co-counsel and clients!

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007: Two Ways to “Send” Calendars

• Outlook 2007 calendars can be “sent” into two ways:

You can adjust how much or how little

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

ways:• Snapshots – the

calendar fixed as of that moment in time.

• Subscriptions: can be sent and then regularly updated via a “subscription”service

calendar information you want a recipient to see when your send an Outlook 2007 calendar

3

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007: Two Ways to “Send” Calendars

• Outlook 2007 calendars can be “sent” into two ways:

• Snapshots – the

The calendar recipient can see just the day

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

Snapshots the calendar fixed as of that moment in time.

• Subscriptions: can be sent and then regularly updated via a “subscription”service

you send embedded in the email or have the ability to open your entire calendar

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Check out how the to-

Outlook 2007’s Calendar View and To-Do Bar – HUGE Visual Improvements!

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

do’s appear at the bottom of each day –about time!

Also note the color-coding which can visually cue you to the “criticalness”

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Out of Office Assistant –a Smarter Approach

• The new Out of Office Assistant can send specific messages to individuals groups

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

individuals, groups of users, specific listserves, etc.

• For example, tell clients you’re in trial, while everyone one else sees you’re simply “out of the office”

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007 Email Advantages Similar . . . Yet . . . Better

• New email features in Outlook 2007 include:

• Instant Search – the ability to do a “Google like” search of content in all

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

“Google-like” search of content in all emails and attachments that really works (ok, with a patch)

• Better Junk Mail Filtering and phishing protection (it was already pretty good)

• Smarter Out of Office Assistant with multiple messages to specific categories of individuals

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007 Mail Composition Uses the new “Ribbon”

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

• It’s the only place you’ll see the “Ribbon” that is in other Office 2007 apps

• Sure it’s unfamiliar, sure it’s different, but in this case, different actually = better

• Logical grouping of formatting and other features by category instead of the traditional pull-down, text-heavy menus in Outlook 2003

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007’s To-Do Bar – Get Control of Your Law Practice Life!• The new “To-Do Bar” can

appear on the right side of every Outlook 2007 view

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

• It shows the current day’s to-do items and looks ahead over the next days and weeks

• Excellent “At-a-Glance”approach to legal task management!

4

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007’s RSS Feed Reader: Get Your Daily Blog Fix… Inside Outlook!

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

• Blog feeds delivered as Outlook email• Can be filtered and organized into Outlook folders using powerful

“rules”

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007’s “Instant Search” It’s About Time!

• Saving Time in searching, that is!

• Instant Search is the new Windows Desktop Search function built into all of

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

Office 2007• It’s a fully-indexed text

search system much like Google Desktop, X1 or Copernic . . . or the Mac Spotlight system

• The best news – with an update patch, it really does work! (but be sure to patch it!!)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook 2007: Yea or Nay?

• The 64 Gigabyte Question: Do the new functions of Outlook 2007 justify moving to the entire Office 2007 suite?

• No . . . that wouldn’t make sense as a strategic rationale• However, when you are ready to move to Office 2007

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved

However, when you are ready to move to Office 2007 (and we all will eventually – after the second major service release?), the functional differences in Outlook 2007 take the most popular emailer/calendar/task manager in the world and make it much, much more effective

• Outlook 2007 comes even closer to the functions of legal practice management systems

• And this is coming from an Outlook 2003 fan – Outlook 2007 is…drum roll please…spectacular – the best upgrade in the Office 2007 suite!

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Email: The Ultimate Productivity Black Hole

♦Email – the ultimate double-edged sword of productivity♦We can’t live without it – can

i thi i i

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anyone in this room imagine business and law practice without email?♦But is there anyone in this room who isn’t routinely driven nuts by email issues?

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Email: Third Party Helpers May Be an Answer

♦Email – via MS Outlook/Exchange Server, presents daily functional challenges for both legal IT pros and lawyers/legal staff♦Focusing on Outlook based on its

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 23

gubiquitousness, the range of third party tools and utilities to bring sanity to emailing is extensive♦In this session, we’ll explore a grab-bag of useful (or necessary?) tools

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Worldox GX – The Ultimate Outlook Tool!Email and attachment profiling in Worldox - tightly integrated with Outlook, TimeMatters, Amicus

d P ti M t

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 24

and PracticeMaster –Organize Outlook emails with multiple attachments IN ONE STEP!

5

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Worldox GX and Outlook – Quick Tour

Emails (along with any attachments) are dragged and dropped onto Matter folders in Outlook that Worldox

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 25

Worldox automatically places there (they’re just links - it is an ingeniously simple approach, and fast)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Worldox GX – Quick Tour

When sending an Outlook e- mail, Worldox pops up and asks if it is a message you want to connect to a

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 26

OR . . .

to connect to a matter file (which connects it transparently to the electronic matter file

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook is No Substitute for a Real Legal Practice Management System, But . . .

Can you use Outlook as a practice management system? After all, it’s a calendar. It’s a rolodex. It tracks to-do items. Sounds a lot like parts of legal practice management systems? THE ARGUMENT AGAINST:

Because as a centralized law practice info center it just

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 27

Because as a centralized law practice info center, it just doesn’t cut it. Here’s why?

No client information database – where do you put all the case facts, case notes? How do you do a conflicts search that doesn’t take a month to finish?It organizes only “by person,” not “by file”It doesn’t organize the documents in your casesIt doesn’t let you assemble documentsIt doesn’t link to your billing systemYou duplicatively enter info into multiple systemsThere’s no ability to track and bill time

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook is No Substitute for a Real Legal Practice Management System, But . . .

However, if the odds against moving to a real legal practice management system in the near term are low, you CAN twist and turn Outlook to be more “legal smart.”Here’s the concept – use Outlooks ability to assign “Categories” to mail, calendar and other entries, then filter your views by those “categories” –where a Category = a Matter!

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 28

where a Category a Matter!THE ARGUMENT FOR:

If you’re effectively stuck using Outlook, you may as well add a layer of “case organization” to its default “by person” structure

Allows you to see all mail, calendar entries, contacts, to-dos, notes all organized by your clients’ mattersAll you need is the free Outlook 2003 or 2007 “Calendar View Add-In” to accomplish this (for the calendar part – the other Outlook features are ready to do this out of the box). Get the Calendar View Add-In from: http://tinyurl.com/yps3fx

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice ManagementLet’s look –download the free Calendar View Add-In firstThen let’s look at using Categories as

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 29

g“Client Matter” designatorsLet’s first create a new calendar entry for our client Sally Albert’s auto accident case

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice Management

Click on the Categories button in the bottom right corner – then we’re going to delete all th t d d

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 30

the standard, relatively useless “categories” and add new ones for each of our open matters

6

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice ManagementAdd and remove categories by clicking on the “Master Category List” button, then adding

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 31

then adding and deleting your list, one by one (drawback –this is really only suitable in a solo practice –this is NOT shareable info!)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice ManagementThen to view the new entries for any given Client’s Matter, select Tools | Calendar

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 32

Calendar Views | Add Filtered View

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice Management

The Calendar Views Add-In will appear and you can select the specific client’s

tt

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 33

matter you want to create a “filtered view” for

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice Management

Then to apply the view to see “Albert, Sally – Auto Accident” and only the calendar entries for her case, select the Manage Views i f h T l

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 34

item from the Tools | Calendar Views menu, select the “Matter” view you want and double-click

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice Management

Then, voila! You see the calendar with only the Alberts, Sally – Slip and Fall matter’s dates showing!An instant “case

l d !”

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 35

calendar!”

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Outlook as a Quasi-Practice Management

Do the same thing with mail, contacts, tasks, notes!To assign an email to a category, right-click any mail item, then select “M O i ”

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 36

“Message Options”Then click the Categories button and select the “matter” you want to assign the email to

7

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Alternative to “Instant Search” in Outlook 2007? Or Real Searching for Outlook 2003? Look at the X1

Search System

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 37

♦X1 indexes and searches every file on your local or network drive♦Fast, thorough – Starting at “free” from www.x1.com

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Backup and Even Transfer Outlook, IE, Outlook Express and MS Office Settings

♦BackRex at backsettings.com is a collection of utilities that can backup and allow you to protect or even transfer to another

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 38

PC your Outlook, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and even Word settings♦BackRex is an invaluable collection of tools - $29.95 for each version (i.e. Outlook, IE, Outlook Express, Office, etc.)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Acrobat 8 Trick – Archiving Entire Outlook Folders

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 39

•Acrobat’s PDFMaker toolbar for Outlook lets you select “Convert Selected Folder to Adobe PDF”• This will convert all the e-mails in the Outlook folder into a multi-page PDF (with live links to attachments, web links, “mailto’s”, etc.)

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Archiving Entire Outlook Folders

•When you select your folder and

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 40

“Convert”, after processing, you see your new PDF• All the e-mails in the folder are included, arranged by date, sender or message subject• All embedded links are live!

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Anagram – Killer Outlook Tool!Anagram from GetAnagram.com is the quintessential Outlook utilityHighlight contact info in any

d ith

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 41

program and with one click, turn it into a contact entry in Outlook – amazing!$29.95 and a free 45 day trial – go and get it and try it!!!!

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 42

Highlight the Highlight the contact info contact info

–– in this in this case, in a case, in a

WordPerfect WordPerfect documentdocument

Press CTRLPress CTRL--12 and it 12 and it instantly parses the fields instantly parses the fields and creates an Outlook and creates an Outlook

contact contact –– uncannily accurateuncannily accurate

BEST $20 YOU’LL EVER BEST $20 YOU’LL EVER SPEND!!!SPEND!!!

8

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Huge Outlook Attachments to Send? Sick of ‘Em Bouncing Back?

It can be very frustrating trying to send large e-mail attachments – many Exchange Servers are set to simply reject attachments over 2 Mb (which is not a very large file these days!)

YouSendIt.com comes to the rescue providing a free encrypted and

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 43

providing a free, encrypted and secure system for transferring files up to 1 Gb in size directly to the intended recipients (or larger files up to a whopping 100 Gb for $3.99 each)

YouSendit.com for instructions and to try it out – you’ll wonder how you ever used attachments without it

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Why Doesn’t Outlook have QuickWords? It Can With QuickTemplates

Another part of the Bells & Whistles tool kit, the Quick Template system allows you to create text macros

Insert anything – a word, phrase, an entire email

Indispensable utility that users

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 44

Indispensable utility that users will use multiple times daily

Why wasn’t this feature included in Outlook??

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

No Exchange Server = No Sharing? Think Again wih ShareO from 4Team

Just because your system doesn’t have an Exchange Server (or you’re running peer-to-peer, God forbid) doesn’t mean you can’t share Outlook folders and resources

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 45

resourcesShareO from 4Team Corporation

(available in the MS Office Marketplace) brings shared Outlook folders

That means shared email folders, calendars, notes, to-dos and more

Perfect for smaller Outlook installations (under 20 users, practically speaking) – for $40 per user

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Sperry’s Invaluable “Reply All” Monitor Brings an End to “Ohnoseconds”

How many times have you accidentally done a “Reply All” when you meant just Reply?

There’s a corollary that says “the more professionally and

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 46

personally embarassing it would be to Reply All, the more likely you are to accidentally do it”

This single feature has saved my reputation at least three times

Worth the $20 on its own

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Sperry’s QuickText brings Word’s QuickWords to Outlook

Another way to quick QuickWords-like functionality to Outlook.

Assign chunks of text to hotkeys, then insert them in Outlook email

One of those very simple

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 47

ideas that ends up getting used multiple times per day, every day

Actually easier to insert and juggle multiple signature blocks than Outlook’s built-in sig function

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

End the Dreaded “Vanishing Edits” Issue with Outlook Attachments

The ultimate digital black hole – isn’t that where Outlook attachments seem to be located?

Whether buried in an Exchange Server or endless strata deep in

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 48

the Silurian Age deposts of a PST file, how many of us have ever experienced “Vanishing Edits?”

That staggeringly frustrating situation where an attachment is retrieved and edited in place, then the edits seem to vanish

Attachment Save redirects attachments to folders of your choice

9

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

The Mother of All OutlookResource Sites: SlipStick.com

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 49

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Email: Stop Shooting for Compliance – WorkAround Human Nature

♦Managing email systems means managing “digital sprawl”♦No matter how much you might try and change the habits of your users, incentivizing discipline and “good email habits,” don’t expect miracles♦You can try to instill the RAFT method for

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 50

♦You can try to instill the RAFT method for contemporaneous email disposition (Refer, Act, File, Toss) – but most users will fail quickly, reverting back to the “everything in the Inbox” approach♦Workaround bad user habits by managing archiving, managing attachments, connecting Outlook content to matter management systems, etc.♦Build a strong collection of tools to help “finish” Outlook in your practice

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Thank You For Listening! Be Sure to Attend the 2nd Annual National Solo &

Small Firm Conference!

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 51

New York LegalTech • February 20042007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Thank You!♦ Thank You For Listening!

Ross L. Kodner MicroLaw, Inc.

Andrew SimpsonAndrew C. Simpson, P.C.

Having a Better Outlook©2007 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved 52

2320 W Camden RdMilwaukee, WI 53209Phone: 414-540-9433

Web: rkodner@microlaw.com

5025 Anchor Way, Ste. 1Christiansted, St. Croix asimpson@viaccess.net

http://www.coralbrief.com

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

I’m Done! Solo & Small Firm Retirement & Succession

Planning

Ellen Freedman, CLM Law Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar Association

Stephen P. Gallagher President, LeadershipCoach

Friday, October 5, 2007

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference Fall Meeting 2007

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division Philadelphia, PA

October 4 - 6, 2007

2

Structuring a Retirement Plan for Senior Lawyers by Stephen P. Gallagher

March 15, 2007

The traditional meaning of retirement has been a single event – “withdrawal” from the

workforce into leisure, relaxation, a slide into the end of life. Webster’s Dictionary

defines retirement as “removal or withdrawal from an office or active service; to seek

privacy or seclusion.” The word retire comes from the French word retirer meaning “to

withdraw,” the same root “martyr” comes from. Perhaps, it is time to revise what we

mean by retirement - indeed it may be time to re-examine the whole notion of age.

Instead of viewing retirement as an end-point in itself, lawyers need to begin thinking of

retirement as a series of developmental steps taken over an extended period of time.

Retirement today needs to be seen as more a journey than a destination. In order to more

effectively participate in this journey, retirees will need to learn new skills and

competencies well before they begin any type of retirement.

Retirement Planning as a Renewal Process

Over the past twenty years, I have worked with dozens of sole practitioners and literally

hundreds of senior attorneys in developing Exit or Retirement Plans. I have found that

those firms that prize the interdependence and mutual responsibility among the

generations are better prepared to help their pre-retirees through this period of transition.

These firms are more inclined to encourage their senior lawyers to tackle fresh

assignments designed to offer variety and challenge and to stimulate new skills

3

development. Senior lawyers in these law firms seem to approach retirement as a way of

gaining renewed purpose in their lives. They want something new, something different,

perhaps something novel, and certainly something interesting at deep personal levels.

Law firms play an increasingly important role in creating a firm culture that will allow

this transition to take place.

Richard P. Johnson, Ph.D. author of Creating a Successful Retirement: Finding Peace

and Purpose indicates that a new career developmental stage is emerging, which he calls

the "renewal stage." According to Johnson, this new stage of development starts for some

people around the mid-fifties and lasts well into the mid-seventies. The renewal stage can

be a time of great personal growth and development, or it can degenerate into just the

opposite. Johnson describes this stage as, “A time for capturing a dream that may have

lived in our souls for years but was unable to come out due to the obligations that pressed

in on us financially. Now, in the renewal stage, these long held-down desires can begin to

flow.”1

The renewal stage is a time when individuals begin taking a much more personal

approach to living. They are free for the most part from the press of billable hours. The

renewal stage is a time when even "hard-chargers" should begin re-evaluating how they

live their lives. In the right environment, senior lawyers should not have to prove to

anyone what they're made of. Now they should only have to answer to their own needs,

their own impulses, their own passion - and their partners. That's really what renewal is

all about ... pursuing your passion, your dream, your own goal—not someone else's.

Revising Strategy for the Aging Workforce

According to Jim Emerman, executive vice president of Civic Ventures, a San Francisco-

based think tank that focuses on issues of redefining the role of older people, “A better

way of looking at what’s happening is to see the biological, social, economic and political

trends at play as the elements of a new stage of life and work—one that falls between

1 Richard P. Johnson, Ph.D. Creating a Successful Retirement: Finding Peace and Purpose (Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Lifespan Publishing, 1999), 42.

4

midlife and true old age—and for which we don’t have a good name.”2 The key to

success in this new stage of life and work - renewal stage is how well a law firm can

change its culture to allow this transition to take place.

The aging of the workforce is a phenomenon that law firms can no longer ignore.

According to Ken Dychtwald, visionary on the implications of an aging population

www.agewave.com, this phenomenon is being driven by three demographic realities—

the disproportionate size of the baby boom generation, increasing longevity, and

declining birthrates.3

The Baby Boom Generation - Nearly one third of all Americans—76 million people—

were born between 1946 and 1964.4 The first of the boomer generation are approaching

their early sixties, so law firms throughout the country are facing new challenges with

traditional retirement policies and procedures that define retirement in terms of removal

or withdrawal. What this means is that law firms will have to figure out how they can

survive this massive exodus of skilled senior lawyers.

Many of these senior lawyers will be looking to gain, “a renewed sense of purpose,”

while too many law firms will be looking for removal or withdrawal from active service.

One of the first challenges law firms face today is how to create meaningful-purposeful—

roles for lawyers between midlife and true old age.

Nearly eighty percent of baby boomers say they want to work in retirement, and three

million of these baby boomers are expected to live to be 100 years old. Many boomers

have married late. They may have divorced, remarried, and started second and third

families. Increasingly, senior lawyers find themselves caring for infants and elderly

parents simultaneously, sandwiched between generations and playing multiple roles. For

many of these boomers, retirement in the traditional sense may not even be an option.

2 Jim Emermen, “On Life’s New Stage—and Its Challenge to the Field of Aging.” Aging Today: The Bimonthly Newspaper of the American Society of Aging, Sept– Oct 2006, 3. 3 Ken Dychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson and Robert Morison, Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006), p 3. 4 U.S Census Bureau, Population Division, Statistical Brief. Sixty-Five Plus In The United States, May 1995.

5

Increasing Longevity - Cornell University’s Retirement and Well-Being Study, showed

44 percent of retirees saying they would work for pay at some point after their careers. A

much larger percentage of the younger cohort is likely to work post-retirement (59

percent vs. 37 percent).5 The most popular reason for returning to work (89 percent) was

to keep active, not financial need.

Around 1900, the average life expectancy at birth in the United States was forty-seven;

now it is over seventy-seven6 (figure 1-2). The American Association of Retired People

(AARP) conducts a retirement survey each year showing the top four reasons for working

in retirement. Their 2003 survey results showed: staying mentally active (87 percent),

staying physically active (85 percent), being productive or useful (77 percent), and doing

something fun (71 percent). Other reasons given for working in retirement included:

needing the money (22 percent of respondents) and needing health benefits (17 percent).

It might be fair to say that the majority of today’s retirees work for pleasure, mental

stimulation, and personal fulfillment as well as for money and health benefits.7

Declining Birth Rates - After peaking at 3.7 in the mid 1950s, the average number of

children per women in the United States has declined to 2. Nearly twenty percent of

baby boomers will have no children, and another twenty-five percent will have only one

child. Declining birth rates guarantee a recurrent shortage of talented young workers – a

problem many law firms are experiencing at this time.

In 2001, the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), a consortium that

focused on identifying business best practices and innovative methods of transferring

those methods, explored links between succession management and company leadership

development process. The study pointed out that if economic growth continues at a

modest 2 percent for the next decade and a half, this would result in the need for a third

more senior leaders than there are today. Yet the supply of the age cohort that has

5 The Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study, Phyllis Moen, PhD Principal Investigator. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Online, 2000. 6 Health, United States, 2005, www.edc.gov/nchs/hus.htm. 7 AARP, “Staying Ahead of the Curve 2003: The AARP Working in Retirement Study,” September 2003.

6

traditionally entrance into the executive rankings (35 to 44 year olds) is actually declining

in the U.S. and will have dropped by 15 percent between 2000 and 2015 because of the

differences in the size of the baby boom generation and the much smaller Generation X.

So, law firm strategists will have to look for new approaches to attract and build

leadership teams.

Today, there are forty million people 65 and over (14 percent of the population). In 2030

there will be a whopping seventy million people (20 percent of the population) in this age

bracket. People over the age of 85 are the fastest growing age group. People are retiring

for the first time earlier and earlier. The average first retirement age has declined from

sixty-five, some fifteen years ago, to around fifty-eight today. Males today can expect to

live an average of 72-½ years, while females will live almost five years beyond that.

In a recent book on the talent shortage we are facing, Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the

Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, Ken Dychtwald and his coauthors Tamara J.

Erickson and Robert Morison recommend that employers look to phasing as a variation

on the traditional retirement model. They describe flexible retirement, as an approach that

encompasses flexible roles and work styles, attracting work assignments suited to one’s

experience and inclination, and reduced hours, flexible schedules, and more control over

one’s time—before and after the point of official “retirement.”8

Once a senior lawyer begins winding down a full-time law practice, he/she may need

time and possibly support as he/she moves away from the external, material, achievement

definition of self, toward the more personal, intimate and, for many, the spiritual

definition of self. The journey from full-time work to full-time retirement in its traditional

sense may take a number of years to accomplish. Attaining a particular age does not

miraculously give anyone the requisite tools, competencies, knowledge, and attitudinal

shifts to ensure that retirement will proceed smoothly.

8 Ken Dychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson and Robert Morison, Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006), p. 52.

7

Today, we are facing a shortage, not a surplus of talented lawyers, so law firms must

begin to phase out “retirement” as we know it. As a replacement, law firms need to

explore how a staged reduction in work hours and responsibilities ahead of full retirement

might work. Could it be that the same senior lawyers that many law firms are now

looking to sunset may become the untapped resources firms will need to lead the talent

pool of the future?

Flexible Retirement as Part of a Renewal Process

In my experiences with senior lawyers over the years, senior lawyers or pre-retirees are

clearly not looking to fade away. They want to find fulfilling activities. They want

enriching endeavors. Certainly they want to leisure... at times, and they naturally want to

have fun. But, contrary to the popular media view of retirement, the most important thing

lawyers anticipating retirement are looking for is their own fulfillment...their own sense

of purpose and meaning. The idea of a more flexible retirement option, would allow not

only partial retirement, so that senior lawyers can enjoy other pursuits, but also active

retirement, wherein seniors can remain productively and socially engaged in the

workplace. Going to a more flexible retirement option will demonstrate a fundamental

shift in the way lawyers of all ages live their lives.

Before law firms can begin looking at retirement as a journey or a process that may begin

for some individuals as early as the mid-fifties, law firms will have to re-examine how

they have been determining value throughout the whole organization. Many firms

determine partner value based almost exclusively on billable hours. Every partner may

have the same goal of billing 1,800 billable hours.

As more partners begin reaching senior status, it should be anticipated that more of your

senior people will be unable to keep up with targeted hours. When lawyers define

themselves by hourly rates and billable hours, one hour is not distinguishable from that of

a competitor's, so clients will begin thinking of you--and the services you offer--as

commodities. If you believe that all you can offer your clients is time, and you behave as

if logging hours on a timesheet is more important than actually servicing the needs of

clients by delivering results, you are ready to explore new ways to create client value.

8

Unless law firms are able to look at the creation of value for their senior lawyers in new

ways, law firms will never be able to change their cultures to allow this transition to take

place.

David H. Maister, widely considered to be one of the world's leading authorities on

professional service firm management says, “There exists in many large firms a Lost

Generation of professionals who become partners by keeping their heads down, putting

in vast numbers of billable hours on work generated by others, abdicating control over

their own work lives to “the machine,” and never being required to demonstrate

individual initiative.”9 These are not the senior lawyers who will be interested in staying

connected with the business they built.

In my experiences with transition planning, many senior lawyers may need outside

assistance to help them through this transition process. With the proper planning and

support, flexible retirement should hold up as a new prospect of growth for your senior

lawyers, their loved ones, and the entire law firm community.

Renewal Strategy to Gain Competitive Advantage

William Bridges, author of “Managing Transition: Making the Most of Change” defines

Transition as the inner process through which people come to terms with a change. The

process takes place over a period of time as they let go of the way things used to be and

reorient themselves to the way that things are now. Transition management is based on

the idea that the best way to get people through transition is to affirm their experience and

to help them to deal with it. In a law firm setting, managing transition means helping

people to make that difficult process less painful and disruptive. Many law firms have

been following the mistaken idea that the best way to get people through a transition is to

deny that they are even in a transition.

Getting through transition is not easy. Each individual will need to start where the

transition itself starts: with letting go of the inner connections to the way things were. As

9 David H. Maister, (1997). True professionalism: The courage to care about your people, your clients, and your career (New York: Free Press) p. 27.

9

we age, we will be faced with how we might cut back in full-time employment. What are

some of the things senior lawyers might have to let go of? Income will certainly be

affected; definitely there may be a loss of intellectual challenge; possible a loss of a

group of colleagues and friends; a regular place to go every morning; the familiar way

you have structured your time over many years. You also will be confronted with the

possible lose of professional identity. These are some of the things that leaving the full-

time practice of law will force the senior lawyer to think about losing.

In order for law firms to help senior lawyers through this transition/renewal stage of life,

they need an adequate change management plan in place. They should determine where

senior lawyers are in the transition process, and they will need to develop strategies for

helping people let go of the old way of doing things. Bridges talks of the need for guiding

people through the neutral zone, and utilizing that in-between state creatively. Only after

working through such a process will the firm be ready to fully appreciate the true value

senior lawyers can bring to the aging marketplace. People will only then be able to fully

embrace the new ways of doing and being.

Stephen P. Gallagher, president of Leadershipcoach.us, an executive coaching firm that works with attorneys, practice group leaders, and “high potential” individuals to develop exit strategies and Retirement Plans. Gallagher also works with management teams to help firms adapt to change, build a sustainable, more profitable law practice, that will support individuals in working less hours and thus achieving balance in your professional and personal life.

www.leadershipcoach.us

610-660-0218

Reference:

Johnson, Richard P. Creating a Successful Retirement: Finding Peace and Purpose (Liguori, MO: Liguori Publication, 1999). Leider, Richard J. The Power of Purpose: Creating Meaning in Your Life and Work (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishing, Inc., 1997). Sedlar, Jeri and Rick Miner Don’t Retire, REWIRE: 5 Steps to Fulfilling Work That Fuels Your Passion, Suits Your Personality, Or Fills Your Pocket (Indiana: Alpha Books, 2003), p. xiii

11

II’’m Done!m Done!Solo & Small Firm Retirement & Succession PlanningSolo & Small Firm Retirement & Succession Planning

American Bar AssociationAmerican Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm DivisionGeneral Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Friday, October 5, 2007Friday, October 5, 2007

1:00 pm 1:00 pm –– 2:00 pm2:00 pm

22

II’’m Done!m Done!Solo & Small Firm Retirement & Succession Solo & Small Firm Retirement & Succession

PlanningPlanning

Ellen Freedman, CLMEllen Freedman, CLM

Law Practice Management CoordinatorLaw Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar AssociationPennsylvania Bar Association

Stephen P. GallagherStephen P. Gallagher

President, LeadershipCoachPresident, LeadershipCoach

33

Changing Employee MarketChanging Employee Market

•• Generation Y is defined as adults between the age of 18 and 24 Generation Y is defined as adults between the age of 18 and 24 (Year of birth (Year of birth –– 1980 to 1986)1980 to 1986)

•• Generation X is defined as adults between the age of 25 and 39 Generation X is defined as adults between the age of 25 and 39 (Year of birth (Year of birth –– 1965 to 1979)1965 to 1979)

•• Baby Boomer is defined as adults between the age of 40 and 60 Baby Boomer is defined as adults between the age of 40 and 60 (Year of birth (Year of birth –– 1946 to 1964)1946 to 1964)

•• Mature is defined as adults age 61 and older (Year of birth 1900Mature is defined as adults age 61 and older (Year of birth 1900to 1945)to 1945)

44

Changing Employee MarketChanging Employee Market

•• The supply of the age cohort that has The supply of the age cohort that has traditionally entered into the executive rankings traditionally entered into the executive rankings (35 to 44 year olds) is actually declining in the (35 to 44 year olds) is actually declining in the US and will have dropped by 15 percent US and will have dropped by 15 percent between 2000 and 2015, because of the between 2000 and 2015, because of the differences in the size of the Baby Boom differences in the size of the Baby Boom generation and the much smaller Generation X.generation and the much smaller Generation X.

55

Four Ages in a LifetimeFour Ages in a Lifetime

•• 0 0 –– 2424 First Age of LearningFirst Age of Learning

•• 25 25 –– 4949 Second Age of WorkSecond Age of Work

•• 50 50 –– 7474 Third Age of LivingThird Age of Living

•• 75 +75 + Fourth Age of AgingFourth Age of Aging

66

Lawyer Retirement SurveyLawyer Retirement SurveyOregon Attorney Assistance ProgramOregon Attorney Assistance Program

June, 2006June, 2006

2424I don't know.I don't know.

33I plan to start my own business or go into business for myself. I plan to start my own business or go into business for myself.

3131I plan to practice law partI plan to practice law part--time or work parttime or work part--time mainly for the time mainly for the stimulation, sense of purpose, and satisfaction it provides. stimulation, sense of purpose, and satisfaction it provides.

1111I plan to cut back and practice law partI plan to cut back and practice law part--time for the income it provides.time for the income it provides.

22I plan to retire from the practice of law, but work fullI plan to retire from the practice of law, but work full--time for pay doing time for pay doing something else. something else.

1818I plan to retire and not work at all. I plan to retire and not work at all. 1212I do not plan to retire. I plan to practice law / work as long aI do not plan to retire. I plan to practice law / work as long as I am able. s I am able.

77

Why Retire?Why Retire?

•• Today, there are 40 million people 65 and over Today, there are 40 million people 65 and over (14 percent of the population), in 2030 there will (14 percent of the population), in 2030 there will be a whopping 70 million people (20 percent of be a whopping 70 million people (20 percent of the population) in this age bracket. the population) in this age bracket.

•• Could it be that the same senior partners that Could it be that the same senior partners that many firms are now looking to sunset may many firms are now looking to sunset may become the untapped resources firms will need become the untapped resources firms will need to lead the talent pool of the future?to lead the talent pool of the future?

88

Retirement is NotRetirement is Not……

•• a a ““withdrawalwithdrawal”” from the workforce into leisure.from the workforce into leisure.•• exclusively a financial consideration.exclusively a financial consideration.•• Something that happens to you after a certain Something that happens to you after a certain

age.age.

99

Retirement isRetirement is……

•• A commencement A commencement –– a beginning of something a beginning of something different.different.

•• A time when you change your focus from A time when you change your focus from ““doingdoing”” to to ““being.being.””

•• A time to redefine yourselves.A time to redefine yourselves.•• A time to shift from asking, A time to shift from asking, ““What am IWhat am I”” to to

asking asking ““Who am I?Who am I?””

1010

Retirement PlanningRetirement PlanningHow to Get StartedHow to Get Started

•• The New Retirement: Discovering Your DreamsThe New Retirement: Discovering Your Dreams, by , by Richard P. Johnson, Ph.D.Richard P. Johnson, Ph.D.

•• DonDon’’t Retire, REWIRE!t Retire, REWIRE!, by Jeri , by Jeri SedlarSedlar and Rick Minersand Rick Miners

• Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, by Ken , by Ken DychtwaldDychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson, , Tamara J. Erickson, Robert Morison Robert Morison

•• Turning Out Your Lights: Planning for Closing your Law Turning Out Your Lights: Planning for Closing your Law PracticePractice, North Carolina Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Association

1111

Retirement PlanningRetirement PlanningHow to Get StartedHow to Get Started

•• Planning Ahead GuidePlanning Ahead Guide, New York State Bar Association , New York State Bar Association publication publication

• The Way of Transition: Embracing Life's Most Difficult Moments by William Bridges

• Your Retirement, Your Way: Why it takes more than money to live your dream by Alan Bernstein, LCSW, and John Trauth, M.B.A.

• Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

15 Tips for Stress LESS SSF Practice in 60 Minutes

With

Sandy Bautch Deborah Matthews

Reid Trautz

October 5, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

StressBusters: Practical Tips for Enhancing Your

Performance in the Day-to-Day Practice of Lawby

Reid F. Trautz, Esq.

The life of a lawyer, especially a solo or small firm practitioner, is often stressful.Stress itself is not necessarily a bad thing; some people thrive on stress. Our body’sreaction to stress actually helps us to meet the sudden demands and extra tasks that weface as busy lawyers. However, too much stress too often–chronic stress--takes its toll onour physical, mental and emotional well-being. That, in turn affects or personal lives andour ability to serve our clients. The trick is to eliminate some of the stressors in life, andbuild our resiliency for the stresses we cannot change. Try to incorporate several of thefollowing practical tips into your daily routine in an effort to help you reduce your stress andenhance your performance in the practice of law.

1. DON’T LET YOUR CLIENT MAKE YOU WORK FOR FREE: Make sure you are the onewho decides which cases you will do pro bono, not your clients. Working for clients whocan’t or won’t pay their bills leads to frustration and anger, which can lead to you ignoringthe file and the client, which can lead to a disciplinary complaint. Working for non-payingclients is worse than not working at all. Remember to follow all procedures for withdrawingfrom the attorney-client relationship.

2. TAKE A VACATION EVERY AFTERNOON: Take a five-minute break each afternoonand practice imagery--a popular relaxation technique. Imagery is sitting back andremembering a favorite event such as a vacation or a round of golf. Try to use all of yoursenses–hear the sound of the surf, smell the salt air, feel the sun on your skin, see thecolors of the setting sun. Feel free to leave out the thunderstorm or the triple-bogey orother negatives of this memorable event. Enjoy the moments again, then get back to work!

3. COLOR CODE FORMS AND FILES TO MAKE THEM EASIER TO LOCATE IN YOUROFFICE: Develop a simple system within your office that everyone can use. For example,different types of immigration matters or different types of cases such as family law oremployment law may have different colored files–not just colored labels; this makes iteasier for people to locate files in a busy office. Also, forms such as conference notes,checklists and hearing/appearance memos can be printed on different colored paper tomake them easier to locate within a file.

4. PROMINENTLY DISPLAY YOUR LAW DEGREE, BAR ADMISSION, AND COURTADMISSION CERTIFICATES: Your clients will gain confidence seeing proof of your legalaccomplishments, and it will remind you how hard you have worked to get where you are.Take pride in what you have achieved as a lawyer. Bill accordingly.

5. GIVE YOUR OFFICE A STRESS-REDUCING MAKEOVER: Poor lighting can causeeyestrain and contribute to fatigue; another source of stress is tension and pain caused bybad chairs with poor support; an improperly positioned computer monitor and keyboard can

strain neck, eyes, and hands; noisy offices can inhibit concentration and add to frustration.Changing any or all of these can make for happier, healthier, and more productive staff.Finally, consider adding a water cooler in the office to promote increased consumption andbetter health.

6. EXERCISE REGULARLY: Yes, it’s tough to incorporate into your routine, but exerciseis one of the most effective ways to combat stress and the long term effects of stress onthe human body. Try to build reasonable steps to a new lifestyle of increased exercise.Start with short exercise sessions three times per week, then build to longer more frequentsessions. Do what you enjoy most: Walking, swimming, tennis, spinning, etc. Consult yourdoctor for further details before beginning.

7. EVALUATE THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF REPRESENTING EACH POTENTIALNEW CLIENT: Each client comes with financial and ethical risks. During the telephonescreening and initial consultation, evaluate the costs and benefits of representing eachpotential new client. This will help you identify problem clients before they become, well,a problem. Do they balk at advanced fee arrangements? Cancel one or more priorappointments? Not have their checkbook to pay for initial consultation? Are you latest ina string of lawyers? Did the client show up late with an unorganized bag full of papers?Did he or she endlessly complain about the current lawyer? If the answer is "yes" to anyof these, strongly consider saying "NO" to this risky client.

8. DEVELOP A DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN: They may seem rare, but “disasters”occur more often than we think: Fire sprinklers malfunction flooding computer andtelephone equipment; office fires (caused by other tenants in the same building) candamage documents and equipment, and prevent access to your office; severe storms candisrupt telephone (voice and data) communications for several days. Create a written planto recover essential business functions if a disaster occurs in your office. Organize andgather information that will make it possible to get your systems and personnel back up andrunning as soon as it is safe and possible to work. You’ll save untold stress the first timeyou have a need to implement the plan.

9. PLAN YOUR VACATION: Plan your time off from work to ensure that it is really qualitytime. Time away from the office for relaxation is fine, but your body and mind need at leasta week of vacation to clear out the accumulated stress. There is a relaxation benefit toplanning a vacation–read the brochures, look at the pictures, enjoy the images. And betterplanning leads to a more enjoyable vacation. But be sure to leave time in your vacation todo nothing but relax; rushing to do everything on vacation isn’t really a vacation!

10. USE NON-ENGAGEMENT AND DISENGAGEMENT LETTERS: Create these twoform letters and use them to protect yourself from a malpractice or disciplinary complaint.If you decline a prospective new client, send a non-engagement letter the person cannotlater say you are his or her lawyer. And at the end of each client matter, send a thank youletter to the client (save a copy for the file) and state that the matter is concluded and youare doing no further work on his or her behalf. Follow all proper withdrawal procedures, ifany, if the matter is still on-going.

11. PLAN YOUR DAY: Set a schedule for your activities each day. You should include timefor uninterrupted work. Assess your daily “body clock” to learn your high versus lowproductivity times (e.g. first thing in the morning, immediately after lunch, late afternoon,etc.). Schedule important tasks during periods of high productivity.

12. ENJOY THE PROCESS, NOT JUST THE OUTCOME: Many of us live for certainmoments or events. We ignore much of work and life between those special moments,causing us to miss much of life. And by so living, we become hurried and impatient tryingto get to another special moment or highlight. Consciously focus on the process of whatyou do; learn to enjoy each aspect in the process. Learn to enjoy life.

13. PRACTICE GOOD NUTRITION: Improved nutrition is a very important aspect of stressreduction. Proper nutrition helps your body fend off the effects of stress. Lighter meals andless excess weight yield increased energy. Increasing fruits and vegetables (even by oneserving per day) is effective. Research has shown that small achievable steps toward alifestyle change are more enduring and thus more effective than large changes.

14. ADOPT AN OFFICE PET: Whether you are playing with a cat, petting a dog, or staringat fish in an aquarium, the power of animals to reduce human stress is well-documented.Add an office pet to your daily office routine and watch the smiles multiply!

15. SEND YOUR BILLS TO CLIENTS ON A REGULAR BASIS: Make them clear,informative, and easy to read. Be sure to make a courtesy call to a client before sendinga large bill that might surprise or shock him. This will impress upon your clients that yourtake your business–and theirs--seriously. Your cash flow will improve and so will yourattitude!

16. SET SPECIFIC TIMES TO MAKE YOUR PHONES CALLS: Reduce your stress bycurtailing the game of “phone tag.” Studies show the best times to reach people in theoffice are between 9:15 and 11:00 a.m. and between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. If you are havingtrouble reaching clients, set aside an hour or two per day for telephone calls during thesetimes.

Reid Trautz is a lawyer and presently Director of AILA’s Practice & Professionalism Center, where he providespractice management information and consulting services to members. He is also a nationally-known speakeron important issues facing lawyers in the business of law, including financial management, clientcommunications, and risk avoidance. Reid can be reached via email at rtrautz@aila.org. ©2007 Reid Trautz

DAY ONE Friday, October 5, 2007

Programs 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works! Buy Right and Spend Smart: Law Office Technology

101

Track 2 – Manage Smart! The Lawyer as Employer: Hiring, Firing, Managing, and

More

Track 3 – Have a Life! Immigration Gotchas for Non-Immigration Lawyers

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Buy Right and Spend Smart: Law Office Technology 101

Jeffrey M. Allen

Graves & Allen, Oakland, California

Nerino Petro, Jr.

State Bar of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

J. Anthony Vittal

The Vittal Law Firm, Los Angeles, California

October 5, 2007

2 National Solo and Small Firm Conferencend

Fall Meeting 2007

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

October 4-6, 2007

1. © J. Anthony Vittal and Nerino Petro, Jr., 2007. This article is adapted by the authors from,

and updates, the article by Mr. Vittal entitled I Feel the Need . . . for Speed!: Shopping for a New

Computer, GP|SOLO (Vol. 18, No. 4, June 2001).

Buy Right and Spend Smart: Law Office Technology 1011

J. Anthony Vittal and Nerino Petro, Jr.

For the small law office, buying right and spending smart when it comes to

computer and other technology purchases is critical to ensure proper operation of your

office as will as preventing overspending on technology that will not be beneficial to your

operations and improve your efficiency. If you are looking to upgrade your existing

equipment, this paper will try to assist in providing guidelines for you to consider when

making your next computer or technology purchase. Breaking this information down into

several different areas, we will start with the computer.

Computer:

Why are you looking for new computer and technology equipment? Are you getting

tired of computing on your old clunker while your friends and colleagues, and perhaps even

your kids, are blazing away on their spiffy new Core™2 Duo machines? You just collected

that big receivable, took care of the bills, gave your assistant his long overdue bonus, and

what you have left is burning a hole in your pocket? Maybe now, you think to yourself, is

the time to get a spiffy new machine of your own! Which one should you get? What

options should you trick it out with? One question often asked is “What’s kind of computer

should I buy?” It soon becomes apparent, though, that what attorneys really want to know

is what system specifications they should be shopping for in a new computer. Generally the

answer is always the same: It depends on what use you’ll make of the system. To

determine that, involve your staff in the specification process, since they know best what

they can, can’t, and want to be able to do on their own workstations.

Today, there are more options than ever from which to choose, requiring decisions

to be made as to the type of central processing unit (CPU); the type of optical drive (DVD,

DVD+RW drive, DVD Dual Layer, or CD-RW); separate video card or onboard video; how

much memory (RAM) is needed and what size hard drive to get; and what operating

system (OS) to use.

-2-

You should start by focusing on what software will be run on the workstation and

to what other uses the computer will be put in order to select a suitable configuration. In

other words, “What Do You Use It For?”

If you commute two miles each way to and from the office; make the occasional trip

to the courthouse; and shlep the kids to soccer practice, music lessons, and the

orthodontist, you wouldn’t do it in a Ferrari —much as you might cast wistful looks every

time you see one – and you probably wouldn’t invest in one just to keep it in the garage.

The same principle applies to computers: first, analyze what you do or think you will do

(and be realistic) with yours.

If all you do is prepare legal documents, keep time records, create the occasional

spreadsheet, surf the Web, and the like, you don’t need to spend your hard-earned dollars

on a superfast quad core processor with 4 GB of RAM, the latest dual gaming videocard

setup and water cooling. On the other hand, if you are manipulating large databases,

creating and showing large-scale trial graphics presentations, using the workstation to do

large scanning jobs, and want to use speech recognition software like Dragon Naturally

Speaking, you may need to spend more on your computer. Each software application you

run on a workstation will have different requirements. You will want to not only consider

your current uses but those uses you think you will need over the next few years. With

the rapidly changing pace of computer technology, you should expect to get three years

of useful life out of a new computer system. Here are some guidelines and general

recommendations for a system that will provide the basic services in a small-office.

In the past, the only serious consideration for a CPU was Intel ; but that’s no longer®

true. While Intel recently has regained the performance crown with its Core™2 Duo and®

Core™2 Quad CPUs, AMD is still an excellent choice for value processors that are extremely

suitable for a law office environment. With the introduction of its latest quad core

processors, AMD has begun to again regain the performance lead – at least in this market

– in CPUs. The great thing about having choices with the CPU is that it provides the

consumer more options. Although there are those who are loyal to only one brand, both

companies offer CPUs that provide rock-solid performance suitable for the small law office.

One caveat: both companies offer entry level CPUs, the Intel Celeron and the AMD® ®

Sempron™. Avoid both of these CPUs, as the costs savings are not enough to justify the

performance loss you will experience.

The accompanying chart (below) reflects specifications that we consider to be the

minimum for a desktop computer that will be used in a typical solo or small law office. It

is capable of handling word processing, Internet and email, PowerPoint, time and billing,

-3-

practice management, and other typical non-graphic-intensive programs, as well as low

level scanning. If you go with onboard video, then increase the amount of RAM you buy

since it’s shared between the system and the onboard video. In total, such a system will

cost between $900 and $1,500, depending on where you live and the vendor you choose.

Item Intel AMD

CPU Core 2 Duo E4300 Athlon 64 x2 4800

Memory (RAM) 2 GB minimum 2 GB minimum

Hard Disk Drive 160 GB SATA II 160 GB SATA II

Optical Drive Double Layer ±R/±RW Double Layer ±R/±RW

Video Discrete Card with $128 Discrete Card with $128

Sound Onboard AC97 Compatible Onboard AC97 Compatible

Network Adapter10/100/1000 MBps

Ethernet LAN

10/100/1000 MBps

Ethernet LAN

PortsUSB 2, Dual Video, Sound,

network

USB 2, Dual Video, Sound,

network

Operating System (OS) WinXP Pro Service Pack 2 WinXP Pro Service Pack 2

Monitor $19” LCD Flat Panel $19” LCD Flat Panel

We still recommend that for the office environment you select Windows XP

Professional with Service Pack 2 (Win XP Pro SP2) as your operating system of choice.

Most major computer manufacturers still provide this option on systems designed for an

office environment. If this is going to be your only computer, then you should consider

increasing the amount of hard drive storage space that you have and may want to consider

incorporating a second HDD and RAID 1 (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, Level 1)

to mirror your primary drive to a duplicate drive to help prevent against data loss due to

hard drive failure. Also, to be ready to make the eventual move to Microsoft Windows®

Vista, it makes no sense to buy anything less than 2 GB of memory. If you run speech

recognition software, or are planning to do so, you need to have this much RAM to start

with.

-4-

Notebooks

If you spend a significant amount of time working at multiple locations, in whatever

combination of office, home, client offices, courtrooms, on the road, in airports, on trains

and planes, at the beach, etc., you may want to consider getting a desktop replacement

notebook with identical docking stations for home and office. At least that way, you will

never have to curse yourself for leaving the files you need on your “other” computer.

Expect to pay more for a solid notebook computer then you will for an equivalent

desktop. A well-equipped notebook will cost between $1,200 and $1,800 with docking

station. The same factors that apply to desktop systems also apply to notebooks; you’ll

need to adjust the feature set of the notebook to accommodate the software applications

you wish to run. You will want at least 2 GB of RM, a discrete video card with at least 128

MB of memory is always recommended for a notebook, and notebook hard drives with

rotation speed of 7200 RPM will provide faster performance than the slower 5400 RPM

models.

Modern notebook computers are already equipped with built-in wireless technology.

Most now include 802.11b/g connectivity, and many manufacturers such as Dell include

“Draft-N” connectivity. A 802.11b and g wireless card allows for backwards compatibility

with the “b” standard, but also lets you to take advantage of the faster “g” standard as

well. It also will allow you to take advantage of WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security

protocol to secure your home or office wireless network. The fastest processors for a

notebook computer today are the Core™2 Duo chips from Intel. AMD has its Turion line

of mobile processors which, while not as fast as Intel’s, generate less heat, use less power

and are generally less expensive than the Intel chips. Also, since notebooks are much

more difficult to upgrade after purchase, you want to buy a system that is forward-looking

– one that includes the largest amount of RAM and video card memory that you can afford.

You also need to be aware that many of today’s notebooks do not include what are

called “legacy” ports – i.e., a parallel printer port, a serial port, and PS/2 ports for

keyboards and mice. If your notebook doesn’t have legacy ports, you will want to include

a USB mini docking station or port replicator (providing the legacy ports) so you can

connect to older printers and other peripheral devices.

Once you have selected your computer, it’s time to consider what other technology

you should have in your office. Generally, you’re going to need a printer, scanner, a backup

device, and other peripherals that will make your life easier and your practice more

efficient.

2. If you intend to do this, however, be sure that your computer will support multiple monitors.

You may need to add an additional video card to do so.

3. An alternative to either color or monochrome laser printers – either stand-alone or multi-

function devices, consider the “dry ink” Phaser devices from Xerox Corporation. They use wax instead® ®

of toner and avoid the environmental contamination from toner dust.

-5-

Monitors:

Flat-panel monitors have become commodities. You should get the largest monitor,

with the highest resolution, that your budget will support. If you spend as many hours in

front of one as we do, the reduction in eye strain for you and for your staff is worth the

additional investment. Drop by your local Best Buy or other retailer to see what’s available

and compare models.

If you can do so and your budget permits, consider adding a second (or even a

third) monitor to your workstation. The increase in productivity will astonish you, just by2

not having to toggle between “windows” to be able to quickly see what’s in another

“window.” An alternative might be a wide-screen (“letterbox”) format display, giving you

some of the same functionality.

Printers:

No law office would be able to function without a good printer. From a cost and

quality standpoint, it makes no sense to use anything other than a laser printer for your

day-to-day printing needs. Not only is the per-print cost lower with a laser printer, in the

majority of circumstances, the quality will be far superior to that of an inkjet. If you do

limited color printing for things such as photos to place in the case files or to file its own

petitions, on a jet may be suitable for that purpose; however, with the rapidly decreasing

cost of color laser printers, you may be better served by a color laser and use it for all of

your printing needs.

If you’re just getting started and are not sure what your requirements actually will

be, one recommendation is to purchase a multifunction device (MFP) that will print, scan

and serve as a small production copier. Models such as the Brother MFC 8860DN (under

$500.00) or the HP LaserJet 3390 (under $600.00) are representative examples of this

class of device. By starting with an MFP, as your requirements grow, you can add a color

laser printer and still maintain the flexibility of having a multifunction for faxing and

secondary printing. Small office color laser printers for basic color printing can be found

for $350, while models with improved feature sets such as duplexing and networking are

available for under $1,000.3

-6-

Scanners:

From the perspective of getting the most from your technology dollar, the Fujitsu

ScanSnap S510 is a terrific buy and provides double-sided scanning, Adobe Acrobat 8

Standard edition, AAbby FineReader for ScanSnap OCR software, and one touch scanning

for under $450 before the almost permanent $50 rebate that’s available. However, with

this scanner, you must use the Fujitsu software for scanning. If you want to be able to

control the scanner using other software programs that meet the TWAIN standard, then

you might want to look at the Visioneer Patriot 430 for under $600.

Fax:

While we would all hope that faxing is technology that has seen its final days, the

reality is that faxing persists as a primary means of transmission for documents and

information by the majority of people. Multifunction devices, as mentioned earlier, can

serve as your fax machine. A better option, however, would be to utilize an electronic fax

service such as Maxemail (www.maxemail.com), eFax (www.efax.com), Fax2Mail

(www.premiereglobal.com/fax2mail/), Send2Fax (www.send2fax.com), or similar

services so that incoming faxes are received in PDF format in your e-mail, allowing you to

save them directly to a client file or folder and allowing you to receive them even when

you’re out of the office. These services can run as little as five dollars a month, and

generally, for under $10 a month, you can receive a hundred or more incoming pages and

even a toll-free number for clients and others to use when faxing to you.

Backup Device:

It used to be that the only backup device option was tape drives which, while

generally less expensive than any other solution, were slow, cantankerous, and prone to

failure. With the availability of external USB hard drives, increased capacities, and rapid

price drops, external hard drives are terrific backup device for the small office. With 250

GB external hard drives available for under $80, and 500 GB HDDs for under $100, a small

office can easily afford two or more of these drives to provide rotational backup storage

– and, typically smaller than a desktop codes volume, they are easily transportable. These

drives can be found at your local OfficeMax, Office Depot or Best Buy stores as well as

online from retailers such as Newegg.com (www.newegg.com), TigerDirect

(www.tigerdirect.com) and Edge Tech Corp. (www.edgetechcorp.com). Another option

is the Iomega Rev drive (www.Iomega.com/Rev), which uses interchangeable hard drive

cartridges about the size of a deck of playing cards. Rev drives can be found starting at

under $300 for internal models with additional cartridges generally under $50.00.

-7-

Just remember to unplug the backup HDD(s) and take it/them home with you at the

end of the day after backing up your system(s). You want to be sure the backups are

available to you in the event a catastrophe occurs while the office is closed, and you want

to be sure to protect the client information on them against theft, since these drives are

highly portable.

USB Flash Drive:

Your office technology wouldn’t be complete without a USB flash drive (sometime

known as a “thumb drive”). Available in sizes ranging from 64 MB to 8 GB, the flash drive

has become the replacement for the floppy disk drive and its successor, the Iomega Zip

drive. You can use a thumb drive as an impromptu backup device for your important data

files or use it to carry a copy of your client files with you wherever you travel. One caveat

to putting sensitive information on a thumb drive: you should either purchase one that

already has an encryption program on it, or use encryption programs such as Truecrypt

(www.truecrypt.org) to add this capability to the drive. While secure drives cost slightly

more, if you don’t want to have to install your own encryption software, they are well worth

the price. You can also obtain programs that will allow you to re-create your desktop, run

programs and surf the Internet all from the USB flash drive.

You can purchase a 2 GB flash drive for under $30 from online retailers such as

Newegg (www.newegg.com), with 4 GB drives being available for under $50 from the

same vendor. They also are available, at deeply discounted prices, at most Costco stores.

Other Considerations:

Lease versus purchase.

Depending on other equipment purchases you make during the year, you may be

able to get tax advantages by buying the equipment and deducting the expense in the

current year (if you qualify for the deduction). Check with your tax advisor before

spending your money - and remember that Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code,

which affords an annual deduction of up to $105,000, is scheduled to expire at the end of

2007.

If your firm is in a growth mode and you want to fix your equipment costs on a

per-person basis, consider a leasing program like Fortress, offered through Afinety

(www.afinety.com). The Fortress program equips you with HP hardware and software

of your choice, provides for automatic upgrades of software as released, can include full

tech support services, and allows you to replace the computers with new ones at the end

of each lease term, all for a fixed per-unit monthly price.

-8-

Brand name versus generic.

Because computers have become more like commodities, with most manufacturers

selecting component parts from the same group of vendors, branding is less of an issue.

Buying a name-brand system from a manufacturer with a track record in the marketplace

for reliability and service can give you a comfort level you may not have from a “generic”

manufacturer. A brand-name manufacturer commands purchasing power that allows it to

utilize volume pricing and pass those savings on to the consumer. However, brand-name

manufacturers incur substantial advertising costs that erode those savings. A trustworthy

local “wirehead” may be able to assemble an equivalent system, using the same

components, designed and equipped exactly the way you want it, for about what you

would pay for a branded system. Color coding contemporary components makes assembly

a snap (green plug into green socket, orange into orange, etc.).

Where to buy.

Now that you have made the decision to buy and know what you want, where do

you buy your new system? If you can make do with a pre-configured off-the-shelf system,

you can buy your new brand name system from a local retailer as easily as from a

direct-to-consumer manufacturer such as Dell. If, however, you “want it your way,” you

probably should go to a direct-to-consumer manufacturer or a custom systems builder.

The Internet has made custom buying almost effortless —and you never have to

leave your desk to do it. Just go to the website of the manufacturer you have selected,

pick the model you want, configure it the way you want it, and price it. Revise as

necessary. Put it in your electronic “shopping cart,” then add peripherals and software

(unless you find you can buy them less expensively elsewhere). When you are ready,

proceed to the check out (typically, a secure portion of the site), where you either complete

a lease application or credit application or charge your purchase to your credit card. If you

prefer, you can save your configured system to a file on the manufacturer’s website and

then deal with a sales representative to complete your purchase.

Through the Member Advantage program (www.abanet.org/advantage), the ABA

sponsors discount programs with Dell and Xerox for products from those vendors – another

benefit of ABA membership.

-9-

Additional Resources to Review:

Build the Ultimate Home Office (PC Magazine and PCMag.com)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2185283,00.asp

Print Wirelessly (PC Magazine and PCMag.com)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2114875,00.asp

Build It: a DIY Backup Server (PC Magazine and PCMag.com)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1937176,00.asp

PCWorld.com

www.pcworld.com

PCMag

www.pcmag.com

TechRepublic

www.techrepublic.com

ABA Legal Technology Resource Center

www.abanet.org/tech/ltrc/

ExtremeTech

www.extremetech.com

Daily Rotation

www.dailyrotation.com

Computer Power User

www.computerpoweruser.com

MaximumPC

www.maximumpc.com

CNet

www.cnet.com

-10-

Robert Cowart & Brian Knittel, USING MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL (Bestseller

Edition)

Danny Briere, WIRELESS HOME NETWORKING FOR DUMMIES

Carl Simmons, WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS FOR DUMMIES

Paul Heltzel and David E. Chamberlain, THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO WIRELESS

COMPUTING AND NETWORKING

9/16/07 4:47 PMGPSolo Magazine - Dec 2006 - The 2006 GPSOLO Techno-Guide to Holiday Gifts

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The 2006 GPSOLO Techno-Guide toHoliday Gifts

By Jeffrey Allen and Alan Pearlman

Technology has reached the point where evolution comes morerapidly than ever. Changes generally result in lower-cost andbetter-quality (or at least more fully featured) devices. Thisyear’s gift guide reflects some of that evolution as itincorporates areas that we have not addressed in the past.

Please note that the ABA does not recommend products. Theproduct recommendations discussed in this gift guide comefrom the authors’ own investigation and do not represent anABA endorsement. That said, we will give you our take onsome of the best technology on the market and some excellentgift choices for the holiday season. We have tried to include awide variety of gifts and gift prices to ensure that everyone canfind something they want to get for themselves or will want togive to a friend, partner, employee, spouse, paramour, child, orgrandchild.

A picture is worth 1,000 words. This year, we lead off withtools and toys for the photography buff. Digital photography hastaken the dominant position in photographic equipment today.You can find digital cameras in department stores, drug stores,variety stores, and even food stores. You can also find them inphotography specialty shops and on the Internet. Digitalcameras come in all price ranges now, and the quality of thepictures they produce will satisfy both amateur and professionalphotographers.

Several factors have contributed to the rise in popularity ofdigital cameras. The quality of digital pictures has improvedsignificantly, while at the same time the cost of digital camerashas decreased. Additionally, once you have acquired reusable

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Editorial BoardGPSOLO Magazine

Editor-In-Chiefjennifer j. rose jenniferrose@abanet.org

Editorial BoardJeffrey M. Allen Joan Burda Martha J. ChurchDavid Leffler Karen Renzulli Lynch Larry RamirezJames Schwartz Bryan S. Spencer Judy Toyer

Technology & Practice GuideIssue

Special Issue EditorJeffrey M. Allen jallenlawtek@aol.com

Editorial BoardWells H. AndersonDaniel S. Coolidge Bruce Dorner Kimberly T. LeeAlan PearlmanNerino J. Petro, Jr. jennifer j. rose J. Anthony VittalEx Officio: Ross Kodner

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memory media, digital cameras cost next to nothing to operate.The only time a digital photographer needs to pay anything(except for replacing a battery in a camera that does not haverechargeable batteries) is to print a picture rather than simplydisplay it on a screen. To make things even better, the cost ofthe digital media also has dropped dramatically.

Casio’s $399.99 EX-Z1000 (www.casio.com/home) is the sizeof a deck of cards, fits nicely in a jacket pocket, has a large 2.8”LCD super-bright viewing screen, and sports a 10-megapixelresolution (mega-pixels refer to the density of the image—themore megapixels, the better the resolution). In addition to stillphotos, the EX-Z1000 also takes short videos. The EX-Z1000features a 3x optical zoom; a 4x digital zoom allows furthermagnification, but at the expense of degrading the image. Thecamera takes clear, sharp images with rich color.

Casio’s Exilim line of cameras has a reputation for good qualityand ease of use; you should be able to find an Exilim camera ina price range and at a level of sophistication suitable for yourneeds. The EX-Z1000 currently tops this camera line. Casio isin the process of upgrading the line and has recently broughtout several other new cameras. If you want to spend a littleless, take a look at the EX-S770 or the EX-Z700. Both of thesecameras provide 7.2 megapixels of resolution, anti-shaketechnology, long battery life, and bright screen for easy viewingin daylight. Both take excellent still photographs and movies.The EX-S770 has a 2.8” screen and easily fits into a shirtpocket owing to its very thin body. You can get it in red, blue, orsilver for a list price of $380. The $299 EX-Z700 has a 2.7”screen and a thicker configuration (approximately the same sizeas the EX-Z1000). Any of these cameras would make anexcellent gift. You might even want to pick up one for yourself.

Most of the Exilims (including the EX-Z1000, EX-Z700, andEX-S770) use SD cards for memory. Recently the Internetvendor eCost (www.ecost.com) advertised a 4 GB SD cardrunning at 133x speed for $59.94 (after rebate). Earlier thisyear, 4 GB cards cost more than $200.

As the price of high-end cameras drop-ped, it compressed mid-and low-range camera price. You can easily find verysatisfactory digital cameras for $250 or less. Canon’s 5-megapixel PowerShot A530 (www.usa.canon.com) costs $200.Sony’s 6-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-S500(www.sonystyle.com) lists for $199.95. Nikon’s 6-megapixelCoolpix L2 (www.nikonusacom) costs $229.95. Moving up to aslightly higher price range, the authors like the Canon S3 IS (6megapixels, 12x optical zoom, list price $400) and itsPowerShot A620 (7.1 megapixels, 4x optical zoom, list price$400), as well as the Sony Cyber-shot W70 (7.2 megapixels, 3xoptical zoom, list price $299.95). Sony has recently announcedwhat promises to be another super 10-megapixel camera, the$449.95 DSCN2. It will come with a 6x Carl Zeiss zoom lensand a 3” screen.

In looking for a digital camera, remember that image quality

Lloyd D. CohenDavid Zachary Kaufman

ABA PublishingDirector of Publishing: BryanKay Editorial Director: SusanYessne Editor: Robert M. SalkinEditorial Assistant: OreatherMcLinDesign and ProductionDirector: Russell GliddenSenior Art Director: TamaraNowakPrint Administration Director:John RheadProduction Coordinator: SandyRogers

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represents a combination of resolution (megapixels), lensquality, and the photographer’s ability. Digital cameras generallyhave automatic settings that ensure a minimum level of picturequality. The more automated the camera, however, the lessindividuality and creativity for the photographer. Advancedphotographers generally prefer cameras that allow them tomanually override automatic settings. You will want to get atleast 4 megapixels of resolution. If you plan to print or projectlarge images, you will need more megapixels to get a qualityimage. Most of the cameras have zoom capabilities. Zoomcapabilities are either optical or digital. Many high-level camerasinclude both. Optical zoom produces a better quality picturethan digital zoom.

The best-known names in digital cameras include Canon, Sony,and Nikon. Canon and Nikon built reputations for creatinglenses. Sony gets to the same place using Zeiss lenses inmany of its cameras. Advanced users will likely prefer Canonand Nikon cameras, although Canon and Nikon also makebasic cameras for beginners and intermediates. Sony appealsmore to the midrange of experience but also makes someexcellent basic cameras and some that would appeal to theadvanced photographer. All three make digital SLR (single lensreflex) cameras, some of which have the ability to interchangelenses. Professional photographers and advanced amateursfavor SLRs because of this ability, as well as the framingcontrol they offer. The authors have a strong preference for theCanon and the Nikon digital SLRs (in that order).

Canon’s PowerShot line represents good selection over a wideprice range for both the beginner and the advancedphotographer. Nikon’s Coolpix line is the equivalent of theCanon PowerShot line. With Sony cameras, look for the Cyber-shot line. After the big three, we like Casio, Fuji(www.fujifilmusa.com), and Olympus(www.olympusamerica.com). Kodak (www.kodak.com) also hasproduced some very good beginning- and intermediate-levelcameras. All of the manufacturers have websites with imagesand specifications for their full camera lines. Spend some timecomparing features online and then go look at the real thing.

CNET (www.cnet.com) provides a good source of reviews tohelp you decide what to get. For a reasonably priced, good-quality SLR, we like Canon’s Digital Rebel XT ($800 for bodyand 18-55mm lens). By the time you read this, Canon also willhave released its Digital Rebel XTi, adding a few new featuresto the XT and increasing the resolution from 8 to 10megapixels.

Also remember that with cameras, the manufacturer’ssuggested retail price is basically just a suggested price. Theactual price will vary from vendor to vendor, and often you cansave a considerable sum by looking on the Internet.

How to put on airs showing your pictures. For an unusualpicture display, try a Suspending Picture Frame (available for$19.99 at www.kleargear.com/1907.html). Turn it on and watch

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the cube rise up and float in midair. This Suspending PictureFrame really is one of the coolest gadgets you can buy in the$20 range. Insert four pictures into the 2.5” x 3.5” framewindows, plug in the included base, and place the floatableframe over the base. The frame is pulled right out of your hand,suspended in midair, where it slowly rotates to display thepictures.

The silver base itself measures 6.61” (l) x 3.15” (w) x 9.45” (h).You can get larger sizes. Whether you’re buying this foryourself or as a gift, this unique levitating gadget is sure to bean instant hit.

Wow! This computes! Think about computers this holidayseason. The next several months may prove the best time everto buy a computer. The Pentium-class processors have servedas the mainstay of the Windows operating system for manyyears. Intel stepped up the microprocessor race by introducingits Core Duo processor that allows dual core functionality,resulting in a much faster computer and much higherperformance levels. Following the release of the Core Duoprocessors and their incorporation into computer construction,computer manufacturers and stores started discounting theirinventory of Pentium-class processors. The Core Duo has bothdesktop and laptop iterations, resulting in price reductions ofdesktop and laptop computers built with Pentium-classprocessors. During the last several months, most computermakers shifted their products into dual-core processors.

Intel recently announced the release of a new Core 2 Duoprocessor. By the time you read this, both desktop and laptopversions of the Core 2 Duo will be on the market. Computermanufacturers and vendors have already anticipated thatrelease by discounting computers with Core Duo processorsand further discounting computers with Pentium-classprocessors. You can find name-brand computers, laptops, anddesktops available at discounts of $200 to $300 for Core Duocomputers and as much as $500 for some Pentium-basedmachines.

If you get a Windows machine, look for one that is Vistacompatible (Vista is the new Windows system that should bereleased in 2007). Consider CD RW (read/write) and DVD R(read-only) as essential; having DVD RW is a plus. Get thebiggest hard disk you can; at least 60 GB on a laptop and 100on a desktop; bigger is better. You can easily find laptops with120 GB hard disks and desktop computers with 250 GB andmore. Look for at least two USB 2.0 ports on a laptop and fouror five on a desktop. Laptops should have slots for expansioncards: PCMCIA or Express 34 slots for air cards, extra USBports, etc. (for more on expansions cards, see under “Keepingin touch,” below). Also look to get built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth(short-range wireless). If you plan to use a laptop as a desktopreplacement, look at 17” screens or plan on getting an externalmonitor. If you favor mobility, look at the 12” to 13” screens. The14” to 15” screens offer a good compromise; they are largerand heavier than the 12” to 13” screens, but still fairly portable.

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Get at least 1 GB of RAM on a Windows XP machine. Get atleast 2 GB on a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo running XP. You willdefinitely want that much if you plan to run Vista. Also get atleast 2 GB on Macintosh computers, especially the Core 2 Duomachines. We particularly like the current crop of laptops fromLenovo (www.lenovo.com), HP/Compaq (www.hp.com), Sony(www.sonystyle.com), Toshiba (www.toshiba.com), Fujitsu(www.fujitsu.com), and Apple (www.apple.com).

Keeping in touch. Some of the newer laptops comepreconfigured to run an internal air card. An air card provides acellular connection that allows the computer to transmit andreceive data without any other connection to the Internet. Eachof these systems operates like a mobile phone—it has its ownnumber, and you get a bill for it. This technology has evolvedconsiderably in the last few years. No longer limited to veryslow connect speeds, it has gone to broadband (DSL) speedswith some carriers. The Verizon EVDO system(www22.verizon.com) has worked the best for the authors,providing coverage in most areas and broadband speed inmajor metropolitan areas. Sprint also provides EVDO, but it hasa smaller coverage area. Cingular’s Edge system(www.cingular.com) shows improvement over the slower speedsof yesteryear but has not demonstrated the speeds of theVerizon EVDO system to the authors.

If your laptop does not have a built-in air card, you will have toget a PCMCIA air card or an Express 34 air card to access thistechnology. Some computers have dropped PCMCIA slots infavor of the Express 34 slot. Currently, the only provider wehave found for Express 34 air cards is Verizon. If you havemore than one laptop, you will save money by getting a new aircard and not activating the card built into your laptop. The cardsdo not lock to a computer, and you can move them from onelaptop to another. That means one card can service a numberof computers one at a time. If you use the built-in card, it will belocked to that laptop, and you will either not have thetechnology for the other laptops or will need to purchase an aircard and a separate account for each machine.

If you use a Macintosh, the only air cards that will work on yourcomputer are available on the Verizon system. They have twoPCMCIA cards available, of which Kyocera’s KPC 650 ($179with a two-year contract; www.kyocera.com) works the best.That card also works well with Windows machines. Verizon alsohas one Express 34 card that works on both the Macintosh andWindows platforms.

If your laptop does not have a PCMCIA slot or you simply wanta network with Internet access wherever you go, take a look atthe $249.99 Kyocera KR1 Router (currently the subject of a $50rebate). The router works with the KPC 650 (or other PCMCIAcards). You plug the PCMCIA card into the router and itbecomes a wireless and/or a wired router, sharing the Internetconnection. The router will easily accommodate up to fourconnected computers with no significant loss of speed. It worksquite well. It will not work with an Express 34 card.

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Safe surfing on the Internet. Surfing the Internet withoutprotection can prove dangerous to your personal well-being—aswell as to your computer’s integrity. Friends don’t let friends surfnaked online! The people at Eli (www.trusteli.com) havedeveloped a device that will give you online protection. Thedevice, called TrustELI, provides a full-featured firewall, anti-virus protection, anti-spam protection, voice over Internetprotocol (VoIP) connectivity, DSL or cable modem connectivity,and content filtering. It creates an 802.11G wireless gatewayand provides a four-port switch. Although designed for homeuse, it can work quite satisfactorily in a small officeenvironment. The ability to keep a current database of viruses,spyware, and other malware requires continuous updating. Eliprovides a managed service for that function at a cost of $10per month or less, based on the term (one-year minimum). Thedevice itself costs $200.

How about some network-attached storage? HP has justreleased its Media Vault. HP designed the Media Vault with afocus on home entertainment systems. The vault serves as ameans of centralizing and backing up your photographs, music,and home video. The Media Vault comes in two models: the300 GB mv2010 ($379.99) and the 500 GB mv2020 ($549.99).You can expand it to 1.2 Terabytes of storage. The Vault hastwo bays, and when shipped, one remains empty for expansionpurposes. The Vault’s hard drives run at 7200 RPM. The 300GB version will hold up to 69,000 songs, and the 500 GB drivewill hold up to 116,000 songs. Once you have storedinformation in the Vault you can easily access it, transfer it to anew computer, and stream media files to your homeentertainment center or to another computer. It also works as aprint server to facilitate sharing up to three printers. The MediaVault supports file sharing among computers running on Mac,Windows, and Linux systems. The backup system works simplyand automatically. You can set it to store up to nine previousversions of a file. The Vault is not the only equipment availableto do what it does, but it does its job well and provides a goodpackage for someone wanting a plug-and-play setup.

Let there be music! Apple’s iconic iPod remains a top giftchoice. To make sure that you had the opportunity to givesomeone an iPod that they did not already have, Applereplaced all existing iPod models in September 2006. Applealso released a new version of the iTunes music software. Youhave to buy the iPods, but you get iTunes free. Even if youdon’t have an iPod, get a copy of iTunes. You cannot beat theprice, and it provides a great music center for your computer.

The new iPods cost less than previous versions, but theyprovide improved and additional features, smaller sizes, andbetter battery life. The current range runs from the shuffle($79/1 GB) to the nano ($149/2 GB, $199/4 GB, $249/8 GB) tothe full-sized iPod ($249/30 GB or $349/80 GB).

The full-sized iPods have 2.5” color displays that are 60 percentbrighter than previous models. They show your photos andmovies as well as play your music and audio books. They also

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show recorded TV shows (now available at the iTunes store),play games, and can function as a PDA as well as a backupdrive for Macintosh computers. The 80 GB full-sized iPodmeasures 4.1” x 2.4” x 0.55” and boasts 20 hours of playbackper charge. Its 30 GB sibling measures 2.4” x 4.1” x 0.43” andgets up to 14 hours of playback per charge. The nano has a1.5” diagonal screen and measures 3.5” x 1.6” x 0.26”. Thenano gets up to 24 hours of playback per charge. With the newnano, Apple returns to the multi-colored metal casing used withthe mini (replaced last year by the nano). That has theadvantage of moving away from the “oh-so-scratchable” smoothplastic finish of last year’s nano. Like its predecessors, the newshuffle has no display. The shuffle only comes in a 1 GB sizenow; it measures 1.62” x 1.07” x 0.41” (including the built-inclip).

Throughout the iPod lineup, each gigabyte holds approximately240 songs. All of the iPods play MP3 and AAC compressions,and you can use any of the iPods to store data other than yourmusic for backup. Apple will personalize iPods with two lines ofengraving at no additional charge. All of the iPods create veryfull, rich, and impressive sound, allowing the user to enjoy asubstantial music library on the go. All the new iPods haveApple’s “dock” connector, which enables them to share a largecollection of accessories.

Don’t forget that iPods have business purposes. You cantransfer CLE on CD to any iPod, along with audio books andyour music, using the iTunes software. You can get the iPodand an external speaker system and enjoy your musiccollection at work. The new full-sized iPods accommodatevideo, so you can transfer CLE on DVD (as well as movies) toyour iPod.

Although you can move your iPod from office to car to houseand everywhere else you go, many people have more than oneiPod and use them for different purposes. The small andlightweight shuffle makes an excellent exercise companion. Thenano will likely accompany many owners to work or shopping.The full-sized iPod travels well on long plane flights or drives. Ihave acquired several iPods through the years as I haveupgraded from one generation to another. Because I don’t needa photo iPod while driving, I use my third-generation model inthe car; I plugged it in one day and left it. It lives there all thetime. I carry with me my newer, fancier iPod that does pictures.

Accessorize that iPod. If your intended recipients already haveall the iPods they need, consider helping them accessorize. Thequantity and variety of accessories for the iPod continues togrow each year. Available accessories run the range fromexternal speakers to upgraded headphones/earphones tomyriad cases and any number of connectors to make the iPodthe heart of a music system for your house, office, or car. Youcan even turn it into a boom box. Some cars now comeequipped with iPod docks, and you have many choices of third-party portable and hard-wired docking solutions. HarmanKardon’s $200 Drive + Play (www.harmankardon.com) makes

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an excellent add-on to your car. Professionally installed, theDrive + Play looks almost built-in and does a great job movingthe music from the iPod through the car’s built-in stereosystem. You can also use a portable installation if you choose.

Apple provides a set of adequate earphones with the iPod. Youcan, however, find many better choices—the quality of yourearphones directly translates to the quality of the sound youhear. All of the iPods generate signals that will sound muchbetter on higher-quality earphones (or external speakers) thanthey will on lesser ones. On the relatively inexpensive side,Apple’s $39 in-ear headphones provide noticeably better soundthan those that come with the iPod.

If you choose to spend more, you can get much better qualitystill. Our favorites in the premium category, the Shure E seriessound-isolating earphones (www.shure.com), all cost more andperformed significantly better than the Apple earphones, andthey were better (often significantly better) than the otherearphones we tried. Shure sells the E2c for $109, the E3c for$199, the E4c for $319, and the E5c for $549. The E2c willwork fine for most people, providing very high quality sound.The E3c and E5c each improve on the sound from the lesserunits in the series. Shure designed its E4c specifically for digitaltechnology and it does a superb job with it. If you want a trulyamazing set of earphones, consider the newest iteration of theShure E series earphones, the E500PTH ($499). The E500uses a different sound technology than the E5c. The E5c runsdual live performance drivers, whereas the E500 uses triple-high-definition drivers (the E4c uses a single high-definitiondriver). For use with the iPod, we prefer the sound of the E500to the E5c. By the way, they call the E series “sound isolating”because it blocks out a substantial amount of ambient noise.The sound isolation uses a passive technology dependent onthe seal of the earphone to your ear. For that reason, theearphones come with several different sizes/styles of covers tomatch to the user’s ear. By the way, the PTH designation onthe E500 refers to its “push to hear” feature. That allows you topush a button, sidestep the sound isolation, and hear outsideconversations or other sounds.

The ER series from Etymotic Research (www.etymotic.com)offers another high-quality option. The top of the Etymotic line,the ER•4 costs $299 and provides exceptionally clear sound,blocking out a great deal of ambient noise using a passive sealtechnology. Etymotic’s ER•6 earphones cost $139 and provideexcellent quality, but with a lower range and responsivenessthan the ER•4. Etymotic has modified its ER•6 to create the 6i,which it designed specifically for the iPod and sells for $149.

You might also want to consider a noise-canceling system.Noise-canceling systems generate “anti-noise” that blank outsounds that you would otherwise hear from such things asairplane engines. Bose (www.bose.com) makes excellent noise-canceling headsets. Their QuietComfort 2 (QC2) ($299) toppedthe list for some time. This year, Bose introduced the Quiet-Comfort 3 (QC3) at $349. Although the QC3 offers some new

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innovations, Bose continues to sell the QC2 as well. The QC2earpieces fit over the ear. The smaller earpieces of the QC3 fiton top of the ear. Both versions fold and fit into included cases(the QC3 takes up less space). The QC3 weighs less than theQC2 (5.6 versus 6.9 ounces), making it somewhat morecomfortable to wear for long periods of time. The QC3’s noisecancellation, however, seems more pronounced and canbecome somewhat disconcerting after a while. The QC2requires a standard AAA battery to power its noise-cancellationtechnology. The QC3 comes with a rechargeable battery thatlasts up to 20 hours per charge cycle. Both headphones provideexcellent audio quality. Both work very well to reduce ambientnoise levels such as airplane noise. We think that the sound-isolating earphones reduce noise levels better, however.

Those wanting to share music with others, or just listen to itwithout earphones, will enjoy receiving a set of externalspeakers designed for the iPod. You have several excellentchoices in this category. One of the top-end external speakersis the Bose SoundDock, which costs $299 and provides a deep,rich, full sound. Apple sells its own iPod Hi-Fi for $349. TheiPod Hi-Fi generates a good, room-filling sound, but it lacks thesleekness of design we have come to expect from Apple.Perhaps the best value of the high-end dedicated iPod externalspeaker choices, the Klipsch (www.klipsch.com) iGroove HGlooks neat and provides amazingly good sound. It costs only$249.99. The Bose and Klipsch speakers now come in yourchoice of black or white exteriors. Apple gives you your choiceof any color you want for the Hi-Fi—just as long as it is white!

Altec Lansing (www.alteclansing.com) offers several speakersets for the iPod. Its M602 ($199.95) or the 0.67”-thick iM500for the nano ($129.95) both make exceptional choices. JBL’s$159.99 On Stage (www.jbl.com) makes another excellentchoice, providing big performance in a compact size.

If you want portable loudspeakers, the Altec Lansing iM-7($249.95) and iM-9 ($200) convert the iPod into a boom box forbattery- or AC-powered use almost anywhere. Incidentally, AltecLansing’s “iM” designation stands for “inMotion.” The inMotionline has a number of other pieces, so if we haven’t identifiedexactly what you want, you might check out some of the otherspeakers in the line.

If you want iPod accessories at a lower cost, you have a wideselection of iPod cases to choose from. The least expensive wehave found costs $5.95 (on sale) and the most expensive,Apple’s Italian leather case for the iPod 60 and 80 GB units,costs $99. We’ve not yet found a case that costs more, but wesuspect one is out there if you look hard enough. Many iPodowners have a collection of cases for different purposes. TryGoogling “iPod cases” to get a selection of vendors with a widearray of choices, including the Apple online store.

By the way, if you simply cannot decide which iPod-related giftto get, Apple sells gift cards for the iTunes store. The iTunesstore now sells audio books, television videos, and movies in

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addition to music.

An iPod alternative. If you want a music player but prefer not toget an iPod, take a look at Creative Labs’ ZEN V Plus(www.creative.com). The ZEN V Plus comes with a 1.5” OLEDcolor display (a relatively new and quite promising technology),FM radio, voice recorder, and even an alarm clock. CreativeLabs offers the device in three sizes: $160/4 GB, $120/2 GB,and $90/1 GB. It boasts compatibility with several online musicservices, including Yahoo, Music Unlimited, Napster to Go,Urge, and Audible.com. You can also download and transfermusic from your own CDs. The unit has eight equalizersallowing adjustment settings for acoustic, classical, disco, jazz,new age, pop, rock, and vocals.

The unit weighs 2 ounces and offers continuous playback timeof 15 hours; it also syncs with Microsoft’s Outlook, Contacts,Calendar, and tasks features. The ZEN V Plus comes in ascratch-resistant case in your choice of five colors.

Do you watch enough television? The big-screenphenomenon has taken over. High-definition (HD) programmingsignificantly upgrades the quality of the picture you see. If youhave not seen HDTV yet, go to an electronics or appliancestore and check it out. We believe it will impress you. LCD andplasma represent the two most commonly seen screens. Bothscreen types have dropped in price, with plasmas droppingfaster than LCDs. You can find 40” to 50” widescreen LCD orPlasma HD televisions starting in the range of $2,000 to $3,000for name brands such as Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Samsung, LG,Mitsubishi, and Hitachi. Smaller LCD TVs for an office orbedroom cost somewhat less, and you can find 15” to 20” LCDscreens, perfect for a dorm room, for less than $400.

Although many manufacturers have produced numerous modelsand sizes of very good big-screen televisions, some brandsstand out a bit more than others. Brands to look for in plasmascreens: Panasonic (www.panasonic.com) and Pioneer(www.pioneerelectronics.com). Brands to look for in LCDscreens: Sony, Panasonic, HP, and JVC (www.jvc.com).

Call me! Cell phones have become a fact of life for most of us.Many families have phones for each member of the family.During the last few years, the simple telephone has more orless ceased to exist, as phone makers have diligently worked tosee how many different features they can cram into a tiny case.If you want a phone that does nothing but make and receivecalls, you will have to look hard. Most phones today can sendand receive text messages, and some include cameras (somehave movie cameras and still cameras). Internet and e-mailcapability is also more common (including the transmittal ofpictures taken with the phone’s camera). Most phones havecolor screens to allow the user to play games and displaypictures taken with the phone’s camera. Some units have fullthumb board keyboards to facilitate text messaging or e-mailing.The newest additions to telephones include the ability to showtelevision shows and the ability to act as a GPS receiver and

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provide travel directions.

Choosing a phone has become more and more complicated.Features to look for in top-of-the-line phones include Bluetoothcapability (short-range wireless transmission for communicationwith computers or accessories such as earphones and separatespeakerphones); built-in speakerphones, good, crisp, clear colordisplays, and the ability to access the Internet. Some phonesare capable of working not only in the United States, but also incertain foreign countries. If your recipient travels internationally,that may become a significant feature. Most new cell phonesalso have contact and calendar capabilities, as well. Somephones have sophisticated PDA (personal data assistant)functions. Because cell phone pricing will differ from vendor tovendor and will, in part, depend on whether or not youpurchase the phone in a package with a new cell numberand/or the package you choose, we have not included pricingon some of the phones listed below.

If you use the Cingular system (www.cingular.com), look at theMotorola SLVR (www.motorola.com). The SLVR L7 is anexcellent phone with Internet capability, a camera, and theability to work internationally. Cingular offers significantdiscounts in connection with new accounts or extensions ofexisting accounts; the one I purchased for my son last monthcost less than $200 from Cingular.

Newer versions of the Motorola RAZR phones have had somedifficulties, but upgraded versions have proven excellent. TheRAZR V3i offers a good choice. The differences between theV3i and lower-level RAZR phones include a better screen, abetter camera (1.23 megapixels), video capture and playback,and the ability to use a memory card for additional memory. Italso plays MP3 music using iTunes and can receive news,sports, and other entertainment broadcasts. The V3i is a quad-band receiver that works internationally.

You can buy the SLVR and RAZR V3i from Cingular (otherGSM providers may also have the V3i by the time you readthis). You can also buy it without a service plan (or a serviceplan discount) from independent sellers in stores and online.The only reason to buy it from an independent is to get anunlocked version of the phone, but because you can generallyget a phone unlocked for about $30, it will likely prove cheaperto get a locked version (if available) with a service plan discountfrom a provider. That way you are sure to get all the provider’ssoftware. Once you get it, you can have it unlocked. (When youunlock a phone, you can simply remove your local provider’sSIM card and replace it with a SIM card from a provider inanother country and get local rates for local calls. Make sureyour phone uses the same frequency as the foreign provider.)

If you want the leading edge of telephone technology, Motorolahas an even newer and better version of the RAZR called the“MOTOKRZR K1” (“KRZR” for short). The only version of theKRZR sold by a U.S. service provider is a CDMA model fromVerizon (www22.verizon.com). As none of the U.S. service

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providers have the GSM version of the KRZR yet, you will haveto get it from an independent supplier. I found the phoneunlocked online for just under $400. The KRZR has all thefeatures of the RAZR V3i (including quad-band technology) plusimprovements and upgrades including: EDGE (high-speed data)capability, improved PDA capabilities, the ability to synccontacts and calendar information, a sleeker design, enhancedvideo recording and playback, and a 2-megapixel camera with8x digital zoom.

If you want a combination telephone/PDA, you have a growingnumber of choices. The Palm Treo phones (www.palm.com)have grown in popularity and desirability. The Treo 700P comeswith a full Palm OS PDA capability, a camera, the ability to playmusic, Bluetooth connectivity, Internet connectivity, and theability to receive and send e-mail. Unlike most other phones, itcan access the Internet at broadband speed using the VerizonEVDO system; you can even connect your computer to theInternet through the phone. It also has a built-in speakerphoneand a thumb board. Note that the 700P only works on Verizonand Sprint. If you want something similar using WindowsMobile, you can get the Palm 700w; it has all the samefeatures, but it runs on the Windows Mobile OS instead ofPalm’s operating system, and it does not work as a modem.The recently released Sprint version, the 700wx, adds modemcapabilities and increases memory to 64MB. If you do not useVerizon or Sprint as your provider and do not want to switch,the best you can do in the Treo line is the Treo 650, similar inmost respects to the 700P, but not capable of broadbandInternet access. We have seen the 700P at several differentprices from different vendors. You should be able to get one forless than $400 in a package with service.

If you want a phone without a camera that does a great job one-mail, take a look at Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 8700series (www.rim.com), which comes in configurations for mostof the major cell providers. Cingular sells it for $299.99 in apackage with a two-year service plan. The 8700 features asharp color display, Bluetooth, a built-in speakerphone, basicPDA functions (although with its own proprietary operatingsystem), and a thumb board. Phones in the new BlackBerry7130 series (also available for $299.99 in a package with atwo-year service plan) use a split key system—each keyshares two letters. The included SureType software helps thephone “guess” which letter you wanted from the context (youhave the ability to override); it works fairly well. The benefit ofthis system is that it gives the 7130 phones a smaller, sleeker,and more telephone-like “candy bar” shape, as opposed to thewider, more PDA-like shape of the 8700. The authors haveused a variety of RIM/BlackBerry devices through the years;the 8700 and 7130 have become our favorites. The 7130’sSureType technology does take some getting used to, but thecandy bar shape makes it much easier and more comfortable tohold. The full keyboard of the 8700 allows faster input ofinformation. Both are excellent machines.

HP has stepped up recently in this market with its Mobile

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Messenger series. The HP iPAQ hw6940 Mobile Messengerprovides all the essentials to keep your business running evenwhen you’re away from the office: phone, e-mail, and moresecure access to critical business information. It also includesGPS navigation. The 6940 uses quad-band GSM technologyand delivers high-quality mobile voice and data services withworldwide roaming capabilities. A variety of integrated wirelesstechnologies, including GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, letyou connect and communicate in and away from the office. AMini-SD slot allows you to add memory as you need it or toexchange files between your iPAQ and another device. The6940 comes with Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Mobile toplay your music and videos, as well as a camera and HPPhoto-smart Mobile Software to let you take photos and sharethem wirelessly. Although the unit is a bit pricey at $599 (listprice without a package discount), we really like its features.

The new kid on the block in the PDA/phone category isMotorola’s Moto Q phone. Slimmer than the BlackBerry 8700 orthe Treo 700P, the Moto Q appears to be an excellent phone; itfeatures e-mail capabilities, calendar/contact functions, andbroadband Internet access on Verizon’s EVDO system.Unfortunately, as of the date of preparing this article, we havenot had the opportunity to try it. Early reports indicate that it isworth checking out, however. Verizon offers it for $199.99 in apackage deal.

If you want a new phone but find the selection processoverwhelming, go tohttp://cellphones.about.com/library/bl_bw_q1.htm and take thetest. The answers will result in a selection of phones mostclosely meeting your ideal based on your responses.

As for accessories, you have many choices available to youfrom cases to travel chargers to automobile chargers to avariety of in-car portable speakerphones and wired and wirelessheadsets. If you carry a cell phone with Bluetooth capabilitiesbut don’t have a Bluetooth earpiece, you should get one foryourself. A welcome gift for almost anyone, the price range forsuch devices is generally about $30 to $180. We evaluated anumber of units with a variety of phones and prefer theMotorola and the Jabra units, particularly the Motorola RAZRH3 ($79.99) and HS850 ($99.99) and the Jabra JX10(www.jabra.com; $179.99).

The JX10 costs more because it uses digital signal processingtechnology to compensates for noisy surroundings byautomatically adjusting the volume control, makingconversations more audible. Noise- cancellation technology alsoblocks out background noises, so the user’s voice soundsclearer to the person on the other end. The sleek, compactdesign makes the Jabra JX10 one of the smallest and lightestheadsets available today. It weighs less than one ounce andmeasures less than 1.5” in length (4 cm).

Let’s print something. The new HP Color LaserJet 2605 dtnPrinter is a quality, compact model that gives you all that you

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need in a color laser printer. It comes equipped with two 250-sheet paper trays and features two-sided printing, networking,and a photo memory card slot. It prints up to 12 pages perminute (ppm) in black and white and 10 ppm in color, with thefirst color page delivered from a cold start in less than 20seconds. The built-in print server connects to a 10/100Base-TXEthernet/Fast Ethernet network. This is an excellent printer at agreat price: $629.99 (after HP’s online $70 rebate).

Printing on the go. The HP DeskJet 460wbt Mobile Printerprints up to 17 ppm in black and white and up to 16 ppm incolor. The machine uses HP thermal inkjet technology andgives you crisp and clean printed pages. You can print usingWi-Fi connections or from Bluetooth-enabled devices such asnotebooks, tablet PCs, digital cameras, or select mobile phonesand PDAs.

Backup devices worth keeping. CMS (http://cmsproducts.com)offers a wide array of backup drives. All these devices useCMS’s BounceBack software, which makes backup automaticand easy—files are saved in their native format, making accessas simple as plugging the drive into a compatible computer.You can duplicate your entire hard disk, creating a fullybootable drive and allowing you to carry your computer withyou. The portable ABS-plus USB 2.0 backup drives range inprice from $189 for 40 GB to $349 for 160 GB. There is alsothe FireWire ABSplus for Mac (same pricing as above). TheABSmini ($199 for 40 GB, $259 for 60 GB) is a pocket- sized,high-capacity USB 2.0 external storage device and one-touchbackup system that fits in the palm of your hand. CMS alsooffers desktop backup solutions for Mac and PC, including theVelocity Series (Serial ATA), with transfer rates up to 1.5 GBper minute. Prices range from $169 for 80 GB to $389 for 400GB. The authors both use CMS hardware and software forbackup.

How about some good vibrations? If the person you’re giftinggets lots of back pains and stress sitting in traffic, consider thegift of a personal massage. No, not at a spa, but right there inthe car. The IZON Car Massager attaches to your vehicle’sheadrest, plugs into the 12V socket, and provides eight differentrhythms. You can find it for $29.95 athttp://bumperbibstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=7.

Get control of those business cards. If you are anything likethe authors when it comes to business cards, then you havecollected a drawer or more full of them. We always collect themwith good intentions of entering them into our contact database.For years, that seldom happened. It just seemed that no matterhow hard we tried, we could not get the cards off the desk andinto the database.

We finally found a way to alleviate the situation: A cardscanner. The IRISCard Pro package from I.R.I.S. ($199;www.irislink.com) consists of their Cardiris software and a verysmall portable USB scanner designed to handle business cards

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and photos. Install the software and connect the scanner toyour computer, then feed the card and/or photo collectionthrough. The Pro scanner scans in both color and gray scale.The scanner creates a digital image of the card, which thesoftware then reads and exports to one of several majorpersonal information programs including Lotus Notes, MicrosoftOutlook, Palm, and ACT on the Windows platform andEntourage, Address Book, Now Contact, Outlook Express, andAppleWorks 6 on the Mac platform. The software can read andrecognize cards from more than 50 countries. Iris hasdeveloped a reputation for outstanding optical characterrecognition software, and the program generally has little troubleinterpreting the card’s image. It sure beats manually retypingthe information and using the card collection to find contactinformation. Alternatively, for $122, Iris will sell you its IRISCardMini. The Mini does the same thing as the Pro, but not in coloras it only works as a gray-scale scanner. I.R.I.S. makes bothscanners and their software compatible with Mac OS X and withWindows 98/2000/Me/XP.

Schleping your gadgets. Gear, gear, everywhere—so how doyou move it around? The simple answer: Get a good case (orseveral). The people at Targus (www.targus.com) get the awardthis year for creative case making. They have come up with avariety of well-designed and reasonably priced cases. Althoughyou can find computer cases for $400 or so made with bettermaterials, you will have to work very hard to find better-designed cases. As the Targus cases generally sell in the $100range, you could buy four cases for the price of one of the high-priced cases. As a general rule, the Targus line uses spaceeffectively, even recovering most of the space impinged uponby the handle in a rolling case. The Targus cases come withlots of pockets to hold your gear. Most of them also have aspecial holder for a bottle of water. Many of them also have adisc holder for CDs or DVDs. The Blacktop Roller case hasbecome one of my favorites. Targus calls it a two-in-one casebecause the back section can hold a change of clothes. In truth,I have never packed clothes in it—I usually travel with enoughgear to fill it up. It provides good protection for my laptop andseems to have plenty of room to hold my files, PDA, cell phone,backup and emergency disk, iPod, extra batteries, chargers,extension cords, USB, FireWire, Ethernet, and phone cables,and the other paraphernalia that I take with me when I travel.The Blacktop Roller comes in two sizes, a smaller model forcomputers with 15.4” or smaller screens ($89.99) and a largermodel for 17” computers ($99.99). The case is constructed with840D nylon and includes a padded shoulder strap, telescopingtrolley handle, and in-line skate wheels.

Targus also makes a number of non-rolling cases in backpack,messenger bag, and briefcase configurations. They evendesigned a special collection of bags for women. The bags runfrom about $30 to $150. Many of the bags do not look likeobvious computer bags, so they provide a bit of camouflage foryour gear. The bags have appeal for a wide range of agegroups. My son took one of the Targus Drifter backpacks($49.99) with him to law school.

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According to a recent survey, women buy more than 52 percentof all consumer electronics in the United States. As a result,the people at Mobile Edge (www.mobileedge.com) designed acollection of computer bags/handbags for women. Their GenevaTote provides style along with the security of a dedicatedcomputer protection compartment. The Geneva Tote isavailable in either black microfiber or a cotton Jacquard withfaux-leather trim. The smaller model ($99.99) accommodatescomputers with screens up to 14.5”, and the larger model($119.99) accommodates computers with screens up to 16.3”.Features include a detachable accessories/cosmetics wristlet,an exterior cell phone pocket, and a special pocket that protectswireless devices from data theft, spam, and viruses.

HAPPY SHOPPING!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Jeffrey Allen is the principal in the Graves & Allen law firm in Oakland,California. A frequent speaker on technology topics, he is the special issueeditor of GPSolo’s Technology & Practice Guide and editor-in-chief of theTechnology eReport. He also teaches business law in the graduate andundergraduate divisions of the Business School of the University ofPhoenix. He can be reached at jallenlawtek@aol.com. Alan Pearlman isa practicing attorney in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. He is theauthor of the nationally syndicated column The Electronic Lawyer and afrequent speaker at national legal technology seminars. He can be reachedvia e-mail at pearlman@theelectroniclawyer.com or on the web at www.theelectroniclawyer.com .

Copyright 2006

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GUESS WHO’S COMING FOR DINNER Or THE UNINVITED GUEST

By Jeffrey Allen I have dedicated this column to those of you that still think that spam is a type of canned lunch meat, that spy ware means a khaki colored double-breasted trench coat, a fedora and a Minox camera and that cookie means a baked sweet treat often involving chocolate chips. These days almost everyone spends some time on the Internet. Young people, old people, working people, students, blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, and professionals all use the Internet to some extent. Some of our collective uses of the Internet include research of all types, shopping and general communications (audio, visual, telephonic, instant messaging, email, fax and document and image transmittal). As time goes on more and more people will use the Internet for an increasing number of things as it becomes more and more central to our daily lives. Given the ways of the world, it should not surprise you to learn that the uses and the users of the Internet include the bad as well as the good. As more people find more uses for the Internet, the bad guys find more potential victims there and have started to use the Internet as a tool to ply their criminal ways. Most, if not all, of you have heard about computer viruses and the like and know that you should have an anti-virus program on your computer. The antivirus program should scan all things that you download (receive via email or take from a website) to ensure that they do not contain a virus that could cause damage to your computer or propagate itself by having your computer pass it along in emails and documents that you distribute to others.

Published in Experience Magazine 9/05. A publication of the Senior Lawyer’s Division of the American Bar Association.

We have dealt with virus invasions over the years. While new strains come up, requiring that you regularly update your anti-virus software, the concept of the virus is not new and the issue is well known. This column will address other issues respecting “malware” (spyware, adware, viruses, Trojan horses, worms, etc.).

First of all, let’s talk about spam. In computerese, “spam” refers to all those emails that you get offering you fantastic mortgage rates, cheap drugs (of the pharmaceutical variety), magic cures for whatever ails you and elixirs that will augment your sexual prowess and or raise your libido. Spam is the Internet’s answer to junk mail (unsolicited, unwanted and invasive advertising that you receive from a wide assortment of senders ranging from legitimate to illegitimate businesses operations. Most spam comes to you via email. Most email clients have the ability to accept rules, which serve as filters to your email. These filters, properly used, can shunt spam off into a spam folder for later disposition or dispose of it immediately. I strongly suggest that you choose the spam folder procedure and review the contents before deleting them as the filters are not perfect and, just like they may let some spam through to your inbox, they might filter out mail that you wanted to receive. While inconvenient, spam generally poses no serious threat to you or your computer (unless of course you choose to respond to it, in which case you put yourself at risk by providing personal information to the spammer who, in turn, may use it inappropriately). Spyware presents a threat of a different nature. We call the programs “spyware” because they (generally surreptitiously) invade your computer and (again usually secretly) convey information about your computer and/or you to third parties. Some spyware has an apparently relatively benign function. For example, many popular operating systems include programming that wants to advise the mother ship of the circumstances surrounding every crash in the system. Presumably that allows the discovery of program bugs requiring correction and other necessary or advisable modifications. Generally, such software from responsible

publishers gives you an option to send or not to send the report back to the mother ship. The publishers of the software/operating systems have built those “features” into the programs. Other spyware gets downloaded while you visit a website or in connection with other materials you download.

Many websites that you visit try to be extra friendly to your computer and give it a cookie. Cookies serve a variety of purposes from identifying you to the website to conveying information about you to the website monitors so that they can use that information as they choose. Many vendors use the cookie to get information about what you look at on their site and, sometimes, other sites that you visit. This information allows the site to tailor what it presents to you to those things that you may find more interesting than others. Often groups of vendors are serviced by a single information collection and servicing agent. That allows the vendors to share information about you with others in the group serviced by the agent. Most web browsers have security features that give you some control over whether your computer accepts cookies and, if so, what cookies it takes. You can choose to reject all cookies. While that puts you in the safest position, you will soon find that it precludes you from accessing certain websites and, additionally, that the response from a number of websites may be a lot slower without the cookies. If some of the malware downloaded to your computer seeks out and sends back personal information, financial information or your contact lists and information about your contacts

You need to know that a website can surreptitiously download spyware to your computer in the background while you browse through the site’s content. Because of this you and your computer are at risk if someone has used your computer to download documents, images, music, games or other content from the Internet or even visited websites on line. You need to know that cyber criminals who get access to your personal information through spyware or other techniques can cause you tremendous financial and personal difficulties. Individuals have had, for example, credit cards maxed out, identities stolen, and bank accounts raided. You need to know that if you have personal information of others on your computer, an invasion of your computer can put them at risk as well. You need to know that it can take a great deal of work to undo the problems created by cyber-criminals. The FTC has been quoted as determining that identity theft cost the average victim in excess of $1000. Warning signs. While not an absolute test, be aware that computers infested with spyware often suffer from one or more of the following symptoms: (1) the Internet connection shows a marked reduction in speed; (2) you open your browser and it goes to a strange home page (the first screen that the browser opens to is your home page); (3) your computer inexplicably crashes or freezes with increasing frequency; (4) your computer sends emails on its own; (5) your computer gets a lot of pop-up screens while you are on line (a pop-up screen is a new or changed window that you did not approve. Please do not misinterpret my message. I did not write this article to scare you out of using your computer on the Internet; any more than I would try to tell you not to drive because you might get carjacked or become involved in an accident caused by a fleeing felon in a high speed chase with the police or a drunk driver, or someone just like you or me who let themselves get distracted trying to drive and use their mobile phone at the same time.

I wrote this column to warn you about some of the risks associated with the use of the Internet and to give you some tips about how to minimize that risk as you surf the net so that you can more safely and comfortably enjoy the benefits that knowledge and use of the Internet can bring you. Keep in mind the relationship of advanced warning and preparedness. You can take actions to protect yourself. What you can do to protect yourself:

(1) Use a firewall. A firewall makes it much more difficult for an outsider to get into your computer. Many DSL and some cable modems have a firewall built into the modem. If yours does not, you can get them separately at places like Comp USA. You can find hardware and software firewalls. Generally hardware firewalls work best; but when you travel, a hardware firewall is generally not feasible. Best bet, have a hardware firewall at your home and your office as well as a software firewall on any computer that travels elsewhere. You can use hardware and software firewalls together.

(2) Install, maintain, update and use anti virus software. Anti virus software will require frequent updating of its virus definitions to keep the software up to date and best able to protect your computer. Have the software check all incoming files from every source. Some of the best known anti virus software manufacturers include Norton/Symantec and McAfee. You can find a comparison of several of the best known anti virus programs at on line at: http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=anti+virus+software. I have found Norton/Symantec quite satisfactory.

(3) Install, maintain and use anti spyware software. You can find a review of some of the anti spyware programs at http://anti-spyware-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=anti+spyware+software. You can find another comparative review at http://spywarewarrior.com/asw-features.htm. No single spyware program that I have found deals with all known spyware. This is one time that you might consider getting two different programs to do the same job in order to get overlapping protection. Names to look for include Webroot and Norton on the windows platform and Allume (formerly Aladdin) Systems for the Macintosh platform.

(4) Make sure to keep your operating system and browser software current. Microsoft and Apple both have released a number of security patches to their operating system to help close security holes. Check regularly for updates.

(5) Set your browsers to limit cookies. A reasonable compromise for cookies is to restrict them to the sites you visit. Another reasonable compromise setting, if it is available on your browser, is to require your approval before allowing the computer to accept any cookies.

(6) Disconnect your computer from the Internet whenever possible. Computers left on and connected to the Internet 24/7 have a greater risk than those not connected continuously connected to the Internet.

(7) Use a browser other than Internet Explorer. A great deal of the malware in cyberspace today focuses on security failings of Internet explorer. While Microsoft has released numerous patches for Explorer, it remains a malware target. Using another browser will help reduce your exposure. If you want to use another browser, Firefox offers a good alternative on both the Mac and the Windows sides.

(8) Consider using an email client other than Outlook. A great deal of the malware in cyberspace ties into Outlook to redistribute itself.

(9) If you are looking for a new computer, consider getting a Macintosh. The Macintosh platform currently has a far smaller problem with malware than do computers running on the Windows platform.

Originally printed in Experience Magazine, a publication of the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association.

SETTING UP A HOME OFFICE

By Jeffrey Allen

Many of us have or want to have home offices. We have or will set up such facilities for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons include:

(1) We want a home office to function as an adjunct to our law offices, giving us a place to work at home where we can function with reasonable efficiency.

(2) We don’t want to have to go to the office every time that we want to do some work.

(3) We can spend time at home where family interaction increases, while still doing the work that we need to get done.

(4) The home office provides a sanctuary where we can get some peace and quiet when the kids (and their friends) make too much noise.

Some of us will choose to run our practices partially or even entirely out of a home office. More and more self employed or solo practice attorneys have chosen to work out of their homes rather than incur the expense of setting up and maintaining an office. Many attorneys have worked out arrangements with their law firm or employer enabling them to work at home part or even most of the time. Sometimes as attorneys get older their perspective changes and they want to reduce the amount of work that they do, but not stop working altogether, such a reduced work situation can work well out of a home office, saving the expense of rent for a more formal office. Occasionally we get the opportunity to rebuild or set up a new home office, simply because we decide to move. This article will provide some ideas and guidance to you respecting setting up a home office. It will focus on planning for and implementing the creation of a functional home office.

You can establish a home office in any one of a number of environments. If you have sufficient land available to you, you can create a stand-alone building to function as your office. If not, you can convert a garage or an extra bedroom or den into a home office. In a smaller living area, you can even set yourself up in a part of a room. You should consider whether you will have people visiting you at the office; and, if so, how many and how often. If you will have a lot of people visiting your office, you would be best off with a separate building or, at least, a separate entrance to a ground floor location in your home for the office area. In that event, you should check with local zoning and building authorities as the increased traffic and changed use may run afoul of current requirements and you may need to seek a variance for a non-permitted use of your residential property to stay in compliance with the law. You may also need to have additional off-street parking available. If you won’t have people visiting your office or will only have occasional visitors, you will not likely have a problem with the zoning, but if you will have any clients coming to your home office, you should check that out. You should also check with your insurance broker to ensure that you have appropriate coverage. Adding home-office coverage to your homeowner’s policy should not prove too expensive (I pay about $100 a year for mine). If you do not plan on having clients come to your home office, you do not need to concern yourself as much about a professional appearance to the office and you can make it as comfortable and casual as suits your needs and tastes. If you will have clients coming, then the same considerations apply as would apply to any office environment. Home offices come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and configurations. Sometimes they occupy a portion of another room, such as a den or a bedroom, other times they occupy a room by themselves (and those rooms come in different sizes) occasionally, they occupy a converted garage or even a completely separate structure. Once you know where you will put your home office and the size of the office, you can look at furnishing and equipping the office. Furnishings will reflect a combination of your personal taste and needs. Some of you may choose to visit an antique shop and acquire an antique roll top desk and antique bookcases; others may choose more contemporary furniture. What

ever you choose, be sure that it accommodates your needs. The last time I built a home office, I moved in my roll top desk from my previous home office and hired a carpenter to build a work table to hold my office equipment and bookcases and cabinets to hold office supplies, reference books and computer program manuals. The cost of that construction proved quite reasonable when compared to buying decent quality furniture elsewhere and gave me the opportunity to have exactly what I wanted. Another possibility is to go to a modular installation such as you can order from a variety of office supply and furnishings dealers. Reliable Home Office (www.reliablehomeoffice.com) is a good example of a place to look for and obtain such modular furniture and build an office. Before you install all of your furniture, do an inventory of electrical outlets and phone jacks. Decide if you (1) have a sufficient number of each; and (2) if the current location of outlets and jacks matches up to your plans for the setup of your office furniture. You will find it easier to bring in an electrician or telephone technician to relocate a jack or outlet or to add additional jacks or outlets prior to the installation of all of your furniture. While many people buy extension cords and run them around rooms to change the location of a connection or to create additional outlets, having an electrician add additional wired outlets and/or circuits, if necessary, works better and generally presents less risk of fire or injury. Speaking of installations, you will most likely want high-speed Internet access, so you should arrange for the delivery of those services, installation and connection prior to outfitting your office. The cost of DSL or cable broadband service has dropped significantly in the last year or two. You can obtain it for quite reasonable costs now. Having such service gives you immediate access to email and to the comprehensive online libraries available through providers such as Lexis and Westlaw as well as access to all the other facilities of the Internet. To make your home office fully functional, you will want office equipment comparable in function to the equipment in your office. The basic equipment list includes: telephone, computer, printer, copier, fax machine and scanner. Ideally, you will get a telephone that has a built-in answering machine. Wireless phones add convenience at a reasonable cost. You have the choice of getting a separate fax machine, copier, printer and scanner or purchasing good quality and reasonably prices multi-purpose machines combining some or all of those functions into a single unit. The quality of

the multi-purpose machines has significantly increased in recent years and such devices have evolved into reliable equipment fully functional for the type of use typical of most home office operations. Most of the multi-function devices print through an ink-jet technology. You can find good multi-function devices from manufacturers such as Canon, Epson and HP in the range of $200-$500. You can find some laser printer multi-function devices as well, although at a higher price. Depending upon the amount and type of printing you do, you may wish to consider getting a relatively inexpensive laser printer as well. You can find laser printers for as little as $100 these days. Buying the multi-function printer/scanner/copier/fax machine has the advantage of saving considerable space in your office as the multi-function devices generally have a footprint smaller than any two of those devices placed next to each other. You will need a computer as well. The power available in laptop computers has dramatically increased and they now offer functional equivalence to desktop units. If you wish, you can counter any differences in size and functionality of keyboards, pointing devices and screens through the use of external monitors, keyboards and pointing devices. Prices on laptop and desktop computers have dropped. Desktop units generally remain less expensive than laptop computers (especially if you add in the cost of external monitors and keyboards). On the other hand, the laptop’s portability offers significant flexibility that a desktop cannot. Decisions about whether to use a laptop or a desktop computer will reflect individual preferences and needs. You will, however probably want to get a computer with at least the following specifications: Monitor: LCD/XGA or SXGA resolution/15”+ CPU: (Windows) Pentium 4 or equivalent [2.0 GHz] or Pentium Mobile (for laptops) [1.5 GHz+]; Macintosh G5 desktop or G4 laptop [both 1.0 GHz +]. Hard Disk: 40 Gb+ (more is better) RAM: 512 Mb + (more is better) Optical Drive: CD R/W, DVD or CD R/W, DVD R/W Communications: Fast Ethernet/56k Baud Modem/802.11g Wireless. Connections: USB 2.0 and/or FireWire (both if possible). Operating Systems: Windows- XP Professional; Mac OSX Version 10.3

You can find desktop computers and monitors meeting these specifications in the range of $900-1500. Laptops meeting these specifications should cost between $1000 and $2000. You can pay less and get close to the recommended specifications or more and get additional bells and whistles. If you intend to spend a lot of time working in your office, spend the money to get yourself a good ergonomic desk chair. My personal favorite is the Herman Miller Aeron chair, which now costs around $750 (you can pay more or less depending on what features you choose and where you purchase it) (www.hermanmiller.com). If that seems pricey, then note that it was around $1000 when I bought mine some five years ago. My five plus year-old Aeron (my regular office desk chair) has received heavy use in the last five years and remains in excellent condition. You also need to consider the software you will acquire for your computer. At the most basic level, you will want software compatibility with your office so that you can work effectively at home. That means that you should use pretty much the same programs in both places. Check the software licenses; in some cases the license will allow you to install the program on a second computer at home. In other cases, you will have to buy another copy to comply with copyright and license restrictions. Beyond these basics, personal tastes might induce you to augment the office with a few additional items such as a stereo (consider getting an iPod and speaker system) and a television set and DVD player. While you can create TV functionality on your computer and also use it as a DVD player, in the long run, you will find it easier and better to have separate units. If you have the space and really want to make the home office a “retreat”, consider adding a comfortable reading chair (preferably one with massage functions).

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GPSolo Magazine - December 2003

Road WarriorA Mobile Lawyer Tool Kit

By Jeffrey Allen

I define a mobile lawyer as one who does work outside of the office.Since almost all of us work at home, go to clients’ offices formeetings, go to other attorneys’ offices for depositions and meetings,go to court, or work from somewhere other than our office from timeto time, most lawyers today are mobile; it’s just a matter of degree.No matter how infrequently you actually work out of the office, you willfind some mobile technology helpful. The more you work outside ofthe office, the more essential you will find these items. With thatintroduction, let me introduce you to the mobile lawyers tool kit.

Telephone

You undoubtedly will use a cell phone more than any other tool in the kit. Today you havemany choices of phones and plans offered by an assortment of providers. Although mostproviders offer similar services, each provider has a different coverage area, so choose theone that provides the broadest and strongest coverage where you will use the phone themost (especially if you travel often). If you travel often enough, you may need more than onecell phone and provider to achieve satisfactory service.

Each carrier offers a variety of service plans; make sure you have enough time in the basestructure—carriers charge premium rates for extra minutes. Don’t fall prey to plans toutingthousands of minutes, most of which are unusable during normal work hours, unless you planto make the majority of your calls during evening and weekend hours. If you travel a lot, lookfor a carrier with a national plan that treats virtually all calls as local calls, wherever theyoriginate in the United States (the national plans use the continental United States as the “calling area” for billing purposes). That means you avoid both roaming charges and long-distance charges in most cases. Some carriers also have regional plans that allow you similarprivileges over a smaller, regional, area. If you don’t travel enough to justify a national or aregional plan, but you do a reasonable amount of long-distance calling, a plan that includesall calls from your home area to anyone in the United States generally is a better value thanper-call long-distance charges.

Phones sold directly by a provider generally have frequency locks so they work only on thatprovider’s network. Generally, those limitations are imposed by the provider, not themanufacturer. Many manufacturers make phones that will work across several networks, butfor the provider’s lock. You can sometimes buy unlocked phones, but you will pay a premiumfor them, if you can find them. Generally, the discounts offered by providers make theacquisition of the locked phone a better choice.

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Today’s phones have an incredible array of features, and those that I find most useful includethe following: (1) address book; (2) speed dial; (3) voice recognition dialing; (4) large displaycharacters; (5) color screen (provides better reading contrast); (6) ability to synch to acomputer address book (no retyping necessary); (7) headset compatibility (I’ve become partialto wireless Bluetooth headsets and prefer a Bluetooth-enabled phone); and (8)speakerphone. Most of the cell phones on the market include items 1, 2, and 7 (except forthe Bluetooth part). Beyond that, they vary. Additional features to consider include calendars,built-in games, built-in cameras, web access, and the ability to marry with a fully functionalPDA. I generally carry a phone with web access, which adds something to the monthly bill.The amount will vary from provider to provider and according to the access time youpurchase/use.

PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)

After my cell phone, I use my PDA more often than any other tool in my kit. At the presenttime, I prefer having a separate cell phone and PDA, although I use converged devices fromtime to time. I strongly prefer the Palm OS (www.palm.com) to the Pocket PC(www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/products/pocketpc), largely because of its almost trouble-free operation. Palm devices also seem to deliver better battery life and have a much largeravailable program library. I particularly like the new Palm OS 5, which brings much morepower to the Palm platform and allows programs and auxiliary devices to access morememory and use more powerful microprocessors. One of the reasons I prefer a separate PDAand phone is that no manufacturer has yet offered a converged device that operates on thePalm OS 5 platform (although three are promised by the end of 2003).

Prices for PDAs are all over the board. You can get basic PDAs for under $100 and fancyones for $800 or more. My current favorites in the market are the Palm Tungsten T3 ($399),the Tungsten C ($499) and the Sony Clie UX-50 ($799). All three operate on Palm’s OS 5,have excellent color screens (Sony’s is the best of the screens), considerably more memory,and faster processors than any of their predecessors. Additionally, the T3 has built-inBluetooth, the Tungsten C has built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b), and the UX-50 has both.

I firmly believe that all attorneys should have and use PDAs. I prefer them to paper calendarsbecause I can (and do) regularly back up all data by synching it with my computer.

Although I generally don’t like reading long documents on the PDA screen, I carry a largelibrary of information in my PDA in addition to my calendar and contacts. I carry the CaliforniaCivil Code, Code of Civil Procedure, and Evidence Code, just in case I want to looksomething up while I travel. You can find many state statutes and portions of the federalcode in electronic format, readable by PDA software. I can access periodicals and similarmaterials on the Internet and automatically download them to the PDA (Avant Go software,http://avantgo.com, facilitates this process). If you travel often, you’ll likely find that carrying afew games can come in handy to help relieve stress and/or boredom.

Laptop

Today’s laptops offer so many features and so much power that you can use them for virtuallyany aspect of your practice. Many mobile attorneys have opted not to have a desktopcomputer and simply use a powerful laptop, with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and dockingstation at the office (and at home in some cases). Having one computer that goeseverywhere with you and also serves as the desktop computer in your office definitely hassome appeal. The fact that laptops and desktops often have substantially the same powerand speed makes this option even easier.

I prefer having a separate laptop and desktop computer—if your budget allows, I recommendyou do the same. I believe in backup and redundancy when it comes to protecting my workand my ability to function in my practice. Laptop computers get knocked about andoccasionally dropped and tend to require repairs more often than desktops—at least mine do.Laptops can mysteriously disappear more easily than desktops as well. Whether I can’t use acomputer due to failure, damage, or theft, the bottom line remains that I cannot use it, whichsubstantially impairs my ability to work. If my office desktop fails for some reason, I canalways work on the laptop pending repair of the desktop.

This issue addresses backup elsewhere (see “Backup: Invest Now or Pay Later” on page 66),so I will just mention it in passing and not dwell on it here. You must do it and do it regularly.Use a two-stage backup process: (1) Back up the entire system (applications and data) on aregular basis (weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending upon how often you change yourprogram configuration); and (2) Back up data every single day. Make at least two backups,leaving one at the office and storing the other elsewhere for security. For both desktop andlaptop backup, I like disk cloning software that allows me to recreate the drive on a new drive(or the same drive after reformatting) without having to reinstall every program. For databackup, any one of a number of programs will handle the process for selected files (or youcan simply drag and drop).

For those of you who use more than one computer, the backup process can also facilitate thesynchronization process that allows you to keep data identical for use on more than onecomputer. For that reason, I will explain the process that I use.

Make the task easier by organizing the hard disk so the data needing backup is in a fewmaster folders. For example, all documents I create or save electronically from any sourceexist in client files on my hard drive, organized by content/matter/client, alphabetically. All myclient files live in a folder called “Documents.” Duplicating the folder covers 95 percent of theinformation that I need to back up on a daily basis. The other 5 percent lives in three otherfolders: accounting (includes billing and time records), PIM (includes calendar and contactinformation), and Palm (PDA synchronization backup files).

Those with small offices might consider backing up systems to a large-capacity hard disk,which can hold clones of several smaller hard disks. One 250 GB hard drive can carry theclones of six or more computers with hard disks of 40 GB or less. I strongly recommend asmall-footprint, large-capacity disk drive for daily backup of data, which also can serve as anemergency drive to keep you going on the road if you have a problem with your hard disk oryour operating system. I use a 60 GB hard disk (SmartDisk, www. smartdisk.com, $349) thatfits in the palm of my hand. It leaves the office with me every day and travels with me on theroad. I set it up with an operating system so the computer can boot to it as an external harddisk. I added key programming so I can work from it on the road (I included Microsoft Office,my billing and timekeeping software, an assortment of disk utilities, calendar, contactmanagement and communications software). I also back up all of my critical data to it on adaily basis. I can synchronize my computers by replacing the same four folders I discussedabove—it takes just a few minutes a day.

Presentation Technology

I find more and more reasons to have an LCD projector and a document camera inconnection with my work. Multimedia presentations can enhance courtroom presentations andarbitrations as well as assist in conveying information to other attorneys and to clients inmeetings. The cost of this technology has dropped dramatically in the last several years.

Projectors. LCD (liquid crystal display) and DLP (digital light processor) projectors haveshrunk in size, increased in power, and dropped in price in the last few years. For most smalloffice uses (other than courtroom presentations or presentations in large, brightly lit rooms), a1,000-1,500 lumen projector will suffice (lumens measure the brightness of the image). Youcan find good small-footprint units weighing less than three pounds in the $3,000 price range.I like Hewlett-Packard’s Xb31 unit ($3,495 and 1,200 lumens, www.hp.com) quite a bit. If youwant a unit for courtroom presentations and/or use in large, well-lit rooms, you will need atleast 2,000 lumens, preferably 3,000 ($3,000 to $4,000, between ten and 15 pounds). Lookfor continuing reductions in size and weight and/or price (generally this is a trade-off). As arule, heavier and lower-resolution projectors cost less than lighter and higher-resolution ones.DLP projectors tend to cost and weigh less and have smaller footprints than LCD projectors.Purists may argue that LCD projectors produce more vivid colors and a brighter image perlumen than DLP projectors. Although there is some truth to this, DLP projectors produce verygood images and have been the driving force in reducing size, weight, and cost.

Document cameras. Highly portable, very functional basic document cameras are availablein the $1,000 range from AverMedia (www.avermedia.com) and Elmo (www.elmousa.com),

for example. Full-featured but still easily portable document cameras cost approximately$3,000 (I’m quite partial to Samsung’s DLP-950 units, www.samsung.com; the standardmodel lists for $2,750 and the deluxe for $3,600). Document cameras enable projection ofpapers and 3-D objects that haven’t been or can’t be converted to electronic files.

Hauling It Around

The more gear you acquire, the more you will need viable ways to carry it with you. But you’llfind you don’t take all of it with you all the time. For this reason, you’ll probably end up with avariety of carrying cases of various sizes and features. A few points are worth keeping inmind as you assemble this collection. First, if you pack it, you have to move it—if you have alot of gear, get a case with wheels. You will travel faster, easier, and more comfortably.When choosing a large bag, look for one that allows some flexibility in packing so you canaccommodate different groupings of your gear. Also look for a bag with outside pockets foreasy access to the things that you use most, such as PDA, voice recorder, and cell phone. Ifyou choose to get a case without wheels, remember that backpacks are easier on youphysically than cases carried over the shoulder. If you do get a shoulder case, look for onewith a wide strap and a well-padded shoulder rest. Be sure the bag provides sufficientprotection for your gear. I’m particularly partial to cases by Brenthaven (www.brenthaven.com)and Swiss Army (www.swissarmy.com); both offer a number of well-designed cases forprotecting your gear. If your case lacks sufficient padding, supplement it with a goodcomputer envelope that fits inside the case.

Still More Tools

You may find additional tools that will help tailor your mobile office to best suit your practice.Consider the following:

Scanner. Some people like to carry scanners with them on the road. I have done sooccasionally but usually I can get by without one or use a hotel business center to fax or e-mail a document to me. When I travel with a scanner, I want a small one. Visioneer(www.visioneer.com) makes the very usable, highly portable USB-powered (Windows) Strobe100 ($199). The Travel-Scan 464 ($129) is also small, lightweight, and USB-powered andworks very well (Windows and Mac).

Printer. I generally don’t travel with a printer any more; I can e-mail files to myself, thendownload and print them at a hotel business center, another attorney’s office, or acommercial business center. If you need or want to travel with a printer, Canon’s new i70(www.canon.com, Windows/Mac) turns out good-quality copy at the fairly rapid rate of 13ppm for black and white and 9 ppm for color; but at four pounds, it weighs in on the heavyside. The i70 lists for $249. Canon’s older BJC-55 ($349 list) and BJC-85 ($249) (two andthree pounds, respectively) work at less than half of the i70’s speed but can double asscanners by replacing the print cartridge with an optional scanner cartridge. All three can workfrom batteries.

Text messenger. Although many cell phones now have this feature, using them as akeyboard is very awkward; I prefer to carry a RIM (Research In Motion) device like aBlackberry. Text messaging is useful at times, and with a little practice you can get quiteproficient with the “thumbboard” it employs. Such devices generally cost $300 to $400,depending upon features. They also require a service provider (another monthly charge thatwill be based on the service usage you purchase).

Digital recorder. The sound quality of digital recorders has dramatically improved in recentyears, as has recording time. The best units can be used for everything from general dictationto recording a meeting. I particularly like the units produced by Sony and Olympus; they’rereliable, and the higher end models work with voice recognition software. Remember that youcan send a recorded WAV file by e-mail to your office for downloading and word processingor by telephone to a transcription service.

Digital camera. I use digital photography in my practice regularly and find digital imagespresent better than do scanned film images. Excellent digital still cameras are available atreasonable prices from a variety of manufacturers, in sizes ranging from standard 35 mm

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SLRs to credit-card-sized units. In my last column (GPSolo, June 2003, “Road Warrior”) Idiscussed in some detail considerations for choosing a digital still camera. A basic digitalcamera should have at least two-megapixel resolution, optical zoom, an LCD display, andremovable storage media. Stay with a manufacturer known for quality and good optics: Nikon(www.nikon.com), Canon, Sony (www.sony.com), and Olympus (www.olympusamerica.com)are reliable and offer models for beginners and experts alike.

Digital movie camera. Newer models of DV (digital video) cameras reflect significantadvances in technology that have made them small, powerful, and reasonably priced. I havebeen very happy with a number of Sony, Canon, and JVC units. Go with optical over digitalzoom (the better cameras include both), good optics, a reasonably sized LCD display, and animage stabilizer. Many DV cameras also will record still digital images, but at relatively lowresolution, which makes the feature nice to have but not a replacement for a good digital stillcamera. If you get a DV camera with this feature, make sure it has a card slot for removablestorage media for still images.

Cables. You will probably want to carry some basic cables with you when you travel. I alwayscarry a retractable phone cord and a retractable Ethernet cable. If you take peripherals suchas projectors, scanners, printers, cameras, and the like, you also should carry the appropriateinterface cables.

Backup. A small footprint, high-density hard disk serves as an excellent backup device inand out of the office and can come in handy for keeping your computers up to date with newmaterial. FireWire or USB 2.0 transfer data at satisfactory rates for such purposes. For small,critical amounts of data, you might consider USB drives that are about the size of your thumb—they’re now reasonably priced (I have found them for as little as $39 after rebate for 256MB). Larger capacity drives are available but tend to be more expensive per megabyte. Thiswill change as the technology continues to advance and the larger units become morecommon. SmartDisk (www.smartdisk.com) and Other World Computing(www.otherworldcomputing.com) are good sources for online shopping.

Relaxing. The more you travel, the more you’ll need to take a break every once in a while.For that reason, I have an assortment of games on my PDA and in my computer and acollection of music on my hard disk. When traveling for longer periods, I often bring alongmovies on DVD. I recently started carrying an iPod as well—think of it as a pocket-sizedjukebox. Apple’s iPod (which works with both Mac and Windows computers) comes in severalstorage capacities (up to 40 GB) and stores a tremendous quantity of music. The iPod canalso function as an external hard disk to back up data as well as play music. If you oftentravel by plane or find yourself in noisy environments, consider replacing the earphones withnoise-canceling earphones or a headset. Sony offers very good quality noise-cancelingearphones, and Bose makes the Quiet Comfort II noise-canceling headset ($299).

Jeffrey Allen is the principal in the Graves & Allen law firm in Oakland, California. Afrequent speaker on technology topics, he is the special issue editor of GPSolo’sTechnology & Practice Guide and editor-in-chief of the Technology eReport. He can bereached at jallenlawtek@aol.com.

Contact information:ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section

321 North Clark StreetChicago, IL, 60610

phone: 312.988.5648fax: 312.988.5711

genpractice@abanet.org

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

The Lawyer as Employer: Hiring, Firing, Managing, and More

Ellen Freedman, CLM Law Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar Association 634 Meadowbrook Avenue Ambler, PA 19002-4920

E-Mail: lawpractice@pabar.orghttp://www.pa-lawpracticemanagement.com

Jim Calloway

Director, Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program

Oklahoma Bar Association P.O. Box 53036

Oklahoma City, OK 73152 jimc@okbar.org

Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips is online at http://jimcalloway.typepad.com

Harold M. Goldner Attorney-at-Law

One Belmont Avenue, Suite 703 Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004 USA

http://www.goldnerlaw.com

October 6, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4 - 6, 2007

The Lawyer as Employer

©2007 by Harold M. Goldner (except where otherwise indicated)

October 5, 2007

presented on behalf of the

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

for the

Solo & Small Firm Conference

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Types of employment discrimination:

RACESEXRELIGIONNATIONAL ORIGIN

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Setting for employment discrimination

AdvertisingHiringTerms and conditions of employmentPromotion and wage adjustmentFiring

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Less than 4 employeesLocal ordinances (e.g. Philadelphia’s ordinance)

Workers Compensation Act (e.g. 77 Pa. Stat. §1 et seq.)

Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. §201 et seq.)

State wage payment collection statutes (e.g. 43 Pa. Stat. §260.1 et seq.)

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Fair Labor Standards Act:OvertimeMinimum wageChild laborState equivalent laws (usually broader than Federal laws)

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Wage Payment Collection Law:Withholdings are limitedDo not withhold last paycheck!Statute cannot be waived.

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4 or more employees

State Anti-Discrimination Statutes (e.g. Pennsylvania Human Relations Act , 43 Pa. Stat. §952)Weaver v. Harpster, 885 A.2d 1073 (Pa. Super. 2005)

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15 or more employeesTitle VII of the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. §2000e et seq.)Americans with Disability Act (42 U.S.C. §12111et seq.)

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ADAA physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activityA record of such an impairment; OR Being regarded as having such an impairment.

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20 or more employees

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (29 U.S.C. §621 et seq.)

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50 or more employeesFamily and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. §825 et seq.)

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What is an “employee?”Hours worked over specified time period (20/week or more in most instances)Nature of control of ‘employee’ by employer

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Right to privacy in the workplace

Electronic Communication Privacy Act (“ECPA”), 18 U.S.C. § 2511, et seq.Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act (“WESCA”) 18 P.S. §§5701 et seq.Bohach v. City of Reno, 932 F. Supp. 1232, 1236-37 (D. Nev. 1996)Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a(d))

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Employment TaxesFederal Income TaxSocial Security Tax (“FICA”)Federal Unemployment CompensationState Income TaxState Unemployment CompensationLocal Taxes (e.g. Philadelphia wage tax)

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Sexual Harassment“Quid pro quo” (I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.)Hostile environment (I’ll show you mine anyway…. “Anita Hill” environment.)

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Sexual HarassmentImportance of having a ‘procedure’ to avoid strict liability“Constructive discharge” claims are viable.

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Sexual Harassment

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First steps…Get Federal forms: www.irs.gov

Get a W-4 from the employeeGet a Circular E, Employer’s Tax Guide

Call the Pa. Department of Revenue: 866-403-6163 or www.state.pa.us

Call your local municipality Dept. of RevenueCall your insurance agent

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And another “first” step…

Determine whether you need an I-9!!!!Fines of $100 to $1,100 for failure to complete form per employee.Civil penalties of $250 to $11,000 for knowingly hiring or continuing to employ.Pattern or practice = $3,000 per employee and/or 6 months of jail.

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Dollars and SenseEmployee HandbookPersonnel Policies & ProceduresAnnual reviews

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What policies should you have?DisclaimerAnti-Harassment PolicyEEO Statement

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Other policies to consider:Discipline and dischargeEmail, internet and computer useConfidentiality

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Purpose of employee reviewsImprove PerformanceProvide FeedbackCreate a record

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Procedure for employee reviewsWhen and by whom?Employee feedbackEmployee signatureForms

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EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION IDENTIFICATION: NAME OF EMPLOYEE DATE OF EVAL.: POSITION: EVALUATION PERIOD:__________________ EVALUATOR: START:___________ END:___________________ SCALE: 4 points Outstanding Shows unique adeptness or quality; unequaled by

most of his/her peers of comparable longevity and position

3 points Above Average Shows quality above the average of most of his/her

peers of comparable longevity and position 2 points Average Generally acceptable performance or quality of work.

Meets expectations for position. 1 point Below Average Substandard; requires prompt correction or improvement. 0 points Unacceptable If performance in this area is not corrected or improved

immediately and permanently, continued employment cannot be assured.

DIRECTIONS:

Please circle the number on the scale you feel is most descriptive in rating the following abilities, characteristics and traits of the employee. Evaluator should make entries in Evaluator=s column. The Employee=s column is reserved for the employee.

EMPLOYEE EVALUATOR 1. ATTENDANCE - Reports to work daily and

starts punctually and works overtime when 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0 requested. Does not give the impression that working here is an imposition.

2. COOPERATION - The willingness and ability

to work effectively with others. 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

3. DEPENDABLE - Accomplishes work assign- ments within required time with minimum 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0 of supervision and uses time wisely.

4. EXPRESSION - Ability to communicate in oral

and written form effectively, including 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0 telephone manner.

5. TYPING (If applicable) - Speed and

quality. 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

6. DICTATION AND TRANSCRIPTION - Speed and quality. 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

7. LEGAL KNOWLEDGE - Understanding of

legal procedures, terminology, forms and other 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0 requirements as needed by the position.

8. GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION - Accuracy 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

and correctness.

9. FILES STATUS - Maintains files in current and 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0 orderly fashion.

10. STABILITY - Ability to work well under pressure 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

Law Office of Harold M. Goldner

6 . D IC TA TIO N A N D TRA N S C RIP TIO N - Speed and qua lity . 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

7. L E G AL KNO W LE D GE - Understa nding ofle ga l procedures , term inology, forms and other 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0re quirem ents as neede d by the pos ition.

8 . G R A MM A R AN D P UNC TU AT IO N - Acc ura cy 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0and correctne ss .

9 . F IL E S S T A T US - M a inta ins f ile s in c urre nt a nd 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0orderly fashion.

1 0. S T ABILIT Y - A bility to work we ll unde r pres sure 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0situa tions and during c r is es .

1 1. W O RK A R EA OR GA NIZ A T ION - O rderlines s , c lea nlines s , a nd ne atnes s of pe rsona l work a re a. 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

1 2. C O MM O N S EN SE - A ble to judge c orrec tnes s of ac tions as a pplic able to the s itua tions 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0pre se nted.

1 3. AP P E ARAN CE - P res ents cons is tently prope r appea ra nce in offic e c onditions whic h br ings 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0credit in e ye s of the public .

1 4. INIT IA TIVE - D eterm ines ne eds and sugge sts me thods to re solve those needs in an 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0eff ic ie nt ma nner.

1 5. E F F ICIEN CY - In conduc t of w ork periods , acc omplis hes m a xim um work in tim e a llow ed. 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0M inim ize s offic e e xpens es by genera l conduc t and by m inim izing e rrors .

OV ER AL L EV ALU A TION : 4 3 2 1 0 4 3 2 1 0

P OINT A V ER A GE O F EV A LU A TIO NS 1 T H R O UGH 15

C O MM E N TS :E M P LO YE E :

E VA LU AT OR

S IG N AT U R E S :

E MPL OY E E : E V AL UAT OR

Law Office of Harold M. Goldner

Avoiding trouble….Do Not:

Use Defamatory LanguageUse discriminatory languageIgnore employee concerns

Law Office of Harold M. Goldner

Avoiding Liability:

Workplace violenceJerks (if the shoe fits….)Don’t be a toxic boss

Law Office of Harold M. Goldner Law Office of Harold M. Goldner

Keeping your Employees HappyRemain professional at all times.Most people do not love their jobs.They get to your clients before you do.Be the boss you wish you had.Treat everyone with DIGNITY and RESPECT.Loyalty -- the vanishing character traitDid you really have to write that memo?

Law Office of Harold M. Goldner

Clean up the mess!!!!Hiring proceduresRecordkeepingPersonnel filesHuman Resources Audit“Enlightened” HR

Questions/Answers

hgoldner@goldnerlaw.com

Let’s be careful out there!

Care and Feeding Of the Law Office Staff

By Jim Calloway

Director, Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program

© Oklahoma Bar Association 2006 The smaller the firm, the more hats the

lawyer must wear. These include a dual

role as management and labor, Chief

Executive Officer, Director of Finance,

Director of Marketing, Chief Information

Officer and so forth.

Today we will discuss the lawyer as

employer and as the Director of Human

Resources.

As a solo and small firm lawyer, you are an

employer. (You either should be an

employer or thinking about becoming one,

or maybe you should be in one of the other breakout sessions.) The problem with

many solo and small firm lawyers is that either they have never worked for

someone else or they didn’t like it. Hence it could be that they have never really

been a part of a positive employer-employee relationship, at least in their adult

careers.

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Some lawyers in solo practice make the decision to operate without staff. This

may be done for a variety of reasons. The lawyer may very proficient with

technology and not need secretarial assistance. The “virtual lawyer” is becoming

more common these days. The lawyer may want to have a limited or part time

practice and therefore not want to have to have the overhead that comes with

staff. They may have had so many bad experiences with staff that they simply

don’t want to spend their energy managing people or they may simply not

generate enough income to pay staff.

But many lawyers find having someone to help with filing, file management,

typing, telephone answering, scheduling and a host of other tasks makes them

more efficient and allows them to concentrate more on the tasks that only they

can do. In a small firm practice today, you and your employees must function as

a team. This will be even more important in the future. Being a good team

requires many things, but to use a clichéd sports metaphor, it generally starts

with a good coach.

You want team members with skill, education, intelligence and experience. For

the small firm lawyer, attracting and keeping the best talent is a challenge.

Generally speaking a solo or small firm lawyer will not be able to compete with

the largest law firms strictly on compensation for very good employees. (Luckily

those in smaller communities have a geographical advantage hiring the local

employee.)

So, assuming you want to develop excellent team members as employees, it

would seem that you have two options:

1) You can develop a system where there are clearly defined procedures and

training materials. Your system will allow replacements to easily step in

when the time comes. You can accept that employees will from time to

time move on, and capture as many of the office procedures and training

systems in writing as possible, or

3

2) You can develop a good place to work where employees feel well-treated

and fairly managed. You can provide a workplace where fair rules and

treatment are tempered with a bit of flexibility when it is needed to support

the employee’s personal and family life.

So, which office system do you want?

This is obviously a trick question. The answer is 3) Both of the above.

We’ll talk about both approaches, but first let’s talk about what motivates people.

A primary motivation for any of us to work is money. We work for our pay. There

are very few law office employees who would not leave tomorrow if offered a

chance to triple their salary. Luckily, that isn’t likely to happen. The most

interesting point is that surveys and studies of employees often produce results

with compensation as a surprisingly low ranked item. Security, possibility of

advancement, the enjoyment of the type of work and other factors often

outweighs pay. Benefits are also something that can be a motivating factor as

well. Medical insurance is an expensive, but prized, benefit today.

Some Sources of Motivation

1) Financial

2) Opportunity

3) Satisfaction

4) Loyalty

5) Avoiding discipline or other negative consequences

6) Pride in the law firm where they work

7) Internal, “self-starter”

Some Techniques Used to Motivate

1) Compensation and raises

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2) Benefits, particularly medical insurance

3) Formal performance reviews

4) Promotions/titles

5) Intangibles – atmosphere, attitude

6) Casual comments

7) Setting clear goals with positive consequences when they are

accomplished

8) Training

a. People who can do their jobs more effectively are happier

b. Eliminate the minor annoyances and day-to-day frustrations

c. For example, see my online paper and “cheat sheet” on keyboard

shortcuts http://tinyurl.com/45n5u

d. Can be bite-sized training pieces like a “learn and lunch”

9) Threats

a. Fear is destructive, not a great motivator over the long haul.

b. This is a dead end strategy

c. Far too many lawyers deal with their employees in the same way

they deal with a recalcitrant opposing counsel or a dissembling

witness.

d. The ultimate result from this practice is that the best employees,

who recognize that they have other options and move on, leaving

you with the less capable, the easily intimidated and those with a

poor sense of self-worth.

10) Bonuses/profit sharing

a. Objective vs Subjective Criteria

b. Employees tend to focus on what others received instead what they

did or didn’t do.

c. Some can see this as a system that rewards “sucking up”

d. “If you don’t do X, you won’t get a bonus” transforms this from a

reward to a threat.

5

11) Ethical issues of profit sharing. Can paralegals be paid based upon the

profitability of the firm?

a. Yes. Law firms may give paralegals pensions, profit sharing plans

and salary increases based upon the firm's profitability. These

benefits can be given based upon individual performance and/or

the firm's profitability. However, a firm may not base compensation

upon the outcome of a case. “ Practicing with Paralegals” Missouri

Bar pamphlet http://www.mobar.org/pamphlet/pracpara.htm

b. Several other jurisdictions agree with this conclusion. Philadelphia

Bar Association Professional Guidance Opinion 2001-7 (2001). The

Utah State Bar Ethics Advisory Opinion Committee UT Eth. Op. 02-

07, 2002 WL 31079593 (Utah St. Bar). The New York State Bar

Association Committee on Professional Ethics (N.Y. St. Bar Assn.

Comm. Prof. Eth.) The South Carolina Ethics Advisory Committee

SC Adv. Op. 97-02, 1997 WL 582907 S.C. Bar Eth. Adv. Comm.).

What do your employees want/need?

Most of you have no doubt heard of Abraham H. Maslow, who developed the

Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50's. His theory is that we must satisfy the

each level of need before moving on to satisfy the next one.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex,

sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and Love needs – co-workers, family, affection, relationships,

etc.

4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status,

dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

6

5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking

personal growth and peak experiences.

Others have added and modified Maslow’s work, to reflect their opinion of our

changing times:

5. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.

6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

7. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking

personal growth and peak experiences.

8. Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization. Significant portions of the above material related to Maslow were copied and/or adapted from the free resources website www.businessballs.com © Alan Chapman 2004. Not to be

sold or published without this attribution. Alan Chapman accepts no liability for any issues arising.

Personally, I think Maslow’s analysis still makes sense, with or without the

modern improvements. If your employee feels in physical danger because your

office is located in a crime-ridden part of town, it is doubtful that any incentive

package will persuade that employee to continue in your employ for long.

As management, you should love job benefits and incentives that do not cost you

anything out of pocket. Let’s talk about some of these non-cash and low-to-no

cost incentives.

Communications issues

1) Be polite and respectful to everyone. Never “chew out” an employee in

front of others. If correction or negative feedback is required, do it in the

privacy of your office. If the issue is of such magnitude that everyone has

to be informed or re-enforced about an office process, then first talk to the

offender privately and then inform them that you will be discussing this

procedure with the rest of the employees to make sure that everyone

understands. The message “you didn’t understand this and it was a

7

problem, so I have to make sure everyone else does” is a far more

positive one than “You goofed up and I’m going to make sure everyone

knows you did.”

2) Any major decisions can be viewed as threats if not communicated clearly

a. Establish official lines of communication where everyone gets

announcements to prevent misunderstanding. This could be by

meeting or memo or intranet.

b. Do have regular “all hands” meetings at least quarterly.

c. Even if you make up your mind just say “maybe or probably” until

you can announce it in an “all hands” meeting or via the established

official channel.

Job Stress- You know it. You live it. But let’s all say it together. A law firm is a

stressful place to work. You owe it to yourself and your staff to minimize the

stress- not maximize it. It’s very easy to blow up about mistakes, let off a little

steam on the miscreant employee and move on to the next projects, without

realizing that you have left a large burden of hurt feelings, guilt and anger in your

wake. Reducing your employee’s stress will increase retention, particularly with

employees who have worked in other law offices.

Use Stress Busters to achieve a happy office

1) Be positive.

2) Smile.

3) Do some things just for fun. Bring everyone together in the morning and

announce that it is “Well-tuned machine day” in the office and that will be

honored as being a well-oiled machine by demonstrating that they can get

everything they need to get done today by 3:30 p.m. so they can all leave

then. End with “…and oh, yes, everyone gets a $50 bonus today…well,

$50 less taxes” and you will have a guaranteed success.

8

4) “Take me out to the ball park.” Oklahoma City attorney Mark Robertson

was the Chair of the American Bar Association Law Practice Management

Section in 2004-2005. Every spring his office closes down the office for

an afternoon and everyone goes together to a baseball game. I am told

that all of the staff seems to enjoy and eagerly anticipate this “perk.”

5) Have a Staff Luncheon where everyone is not allowed to discuss any

aspect of work.

6) Birthday celebrations

7) Closing early on a Friday afternoon

8) Apologize if you lose your temper

Differences – age, gender, culture

1) Avoid thinking that your way is right and others are wrong. Even if you are

the sole employer, manager, hirer and “firer,” you have to accept your

employees for who they are. They are fallible human beings.

2) Generational differences – Do some study in this area. Accept that a 20-

something’s view on things will be different than those of wartime’s

“Greatest Generation.” The idea of personal loyalty to an employer just

because one receives a paycheck would be viewed very differently by two

focus groups picked from those generations.

3) Some people react very differently to stimuli based on their background

and culture. Ethnic differences may significantly impact communications

issues and reactions to being disciplined or corrected.

Bonuses, Profit-sharing, Retirement plans, Longevity pay and other financial

rewards.

1) These can be expensive to administer and run, but not nearly as difficult

as a few years ago.

2) Allowing only a percentage of the retirement plan to vest in the first few

years should provide some incentive for employees to continue

employment.

9

3) Bonuses are better than raises in that they do not have to be equaled

each year and worse than raises in that the employees feel that they

cannot count on them.

4) Profit sharing plans may not work where a lawyer wants to maintain

privacy about his or her income. You must decide the extent to which you

are comfortable with your books being open to employees and your

compensation being “open.” They are best when objective and based on

firm financial performance that everyone understands.

5) If you just want to award additional compensation based on profitability,

attitude and a number of other subjective factors, just call them quarterly

(or semiannual) bonuses. Always keep track of the “bonus history” of each

employee, you may not recall the past exactly, but they will.

Hugs – In my work, I go into lots of law office. Some of them have almost a

culture of hugging. “We’re like family. We hug all the time.” While this may be fine

with all individuals involved, there also may be someone who is made

uncomfortable by the practice. But you will soon find a Generation X employee

who thinks that hugging someone just because you work with them is an

absolutely alien concept. You might not like to hear how a trial lawyer describing

the office hugging policy in court should there be employer-employee litigation.

Some will view this as ludicrous, but cross-gender hugging in the office should

now be of the shoulder-to-shoulder “good job” type rather than the front-to-front

slow dancing type.

Office Policies and Procedures Manual – Even though many small firm lawyers

may dislike the idea of documenting office policies in writing, it is a critical part of

the “fairness” equation. The Twenty-First Century lawyer cannot afford to act as if

no disgruntled employee could ever successfully sue a lawyer-employer. It

happens frequently these days.

10

Draft a hypothetical fifteen or twenty year calendar and see what incentives will

be there through that time period. For example, your paid leave policy may

increase when an employee has been with you five or ten consecutive years.

One may vest fully in the retirement plan after four years. A twenty year

employee may have their voluntary retirement contribution matched 2 to 1

instead of 1 to 1 up to a certain limit. If there are years where there are no

incentive events, just make some up. (e.g. “Lucky 7- an employee who

completes seven consecutive years employment with the firm shall be granted an

additional two weeks pay to be paid in the next regular pay period after the

anniversary date of hire”….or some extra time off.)

The Personnel File – In a similar vein, you should keep a personnel file and each

employee and make entries in it, both positive and negative, as circumstances

warrant. Always provide a copy of entries made to the employee with a written

notice that they have ten days to provide a written response or explanation which

will also be a part of the file.

Overtime – Obviously paying employees for overtime work will be both fair and

popular. It may also be expensive. However, with the passage of recent federal

legislation, it also may no longer be as ambiguous a situation as it was in the

past. For an Oklahoma resource, see William Wells "The New Overtime

Regulations: Information for Attorney Employers and Employment Attorneys"

(November, 2004), online at http://tinyurl.com/bkkk9 .

THE BOTTOM LINE

1) Be a nice boss and a fair employer, attempting always to treat others with

respect and being quick to apologize and make amends when you fail.

2) Go out of your way to maintain a safe, positive, professional and non-

threatening workplace. Listen carefully to your employees’ request for

workplace improvements and err on the side of granting them when you

11

can (e.g. providing a bottled water dispenser even though the tap water

doesn’t taste that bad to you.) Pay special attention to office ergonomics

and the possibility of repetitive stress injuries. You want to avoid both

employees trying to work while in pain and possible worker’s

compensation claims.

3) Be aware of the fact that law offices tend to be stressful places to work.

Do your part to avoid unnecessary stress, both by your attitude and your

actions. You may be unconcerned about starting the final proofing of a

brief in the afternoon on the day it is due. Some seem to even get a little

adrenaline charge of out this. But it will drive your staff nuts; particularly

those organized and efficient types that we like to see work in our law

offices.

4) Handle employment matters in writing, starting with the letter that a new

hire receives on their first day congratulating them and outlining their pay

and their benefits with references to the office policy manual (and their “at

will” status, if applicable.)

5) The lawyer who has no written office policies manual or employee’s

manual has a fool for a Human Resources Director.

6) You may think preparation of an Office Procedures manual is a waste of

time, but you won’t think so when a valued employee is suddenly gone.

Investing a few hours in developing this each month can lead to significant

gains in efficiency. It will also make it easier to safely delegate tasks to

less-skilled junior staff. If an employee tells you they think you are

preparing this so you can easily replace them, tell them candidly that you

don’t want to lose them, but want to be prepared if you do. If you have a

long term employee who really seems offended or unhappy about this

office documentation project, refer them to my online article “Indispensible

People” at http://www.okbar.org/members/map/articles/people.htm. You

also might want to read the section titled “Protecting Your Client's Interests

in the Event of Your Disability or Death.”

12

7) Have regular reviews of each staff person. Discuss their shortcoming and

their successes. This is very difficult, but is a key to the employee

believing that their workplace is fair. It is a cliché but nevertheless true that

employees do what you inspect rather than what you expect.

8) It should be known within the office when raises are considered, whether it

is based on the employee’s anniversary date of hire or some calendar

date for everyone.

9) In the same way that it is known when raises are considered, it should be

known in the office when bonuses may occur. Mid- December annual

bonuses are traditional and benefit employees with extra holiday

expenses. You may decide on a quarterly or semi-annual schedule. One

exception to this rule is the large financial windfall to the firm. When this is

collected, it is generally good to “share the wealth” at the next pay period

with a bonus while everyone is excited about the good fortune.

10) Meet with a financial advisor about setting up a 401(k) or other firm

retirement plan. Set reasonable vesting requirements and make it easy

for a departing employee to transfer the balance to another entity for

management. With all of the recent talk about social security and

retirement, it becomes increasingly less likely that you will be able to

maintain qualified employees with no retirement plan no matter how good

the compensation you pay. The American Bar Association Members

Retirement Program offers plans appropriate for the small firm and ABA

membership is not required. http://www.abaretirement.com/

11) If you decide to do a profit sharing plan, it will focus everyone on the

firm’s profitability, both for better and for worse. You may have to defend

that three day business trip to Las Vegas for a CLE program.

12) Have a family friendly workplace. Recognize that for most employees,

their job is only a means to an end and their family is of primary

importance. Be as flexible as you can, understanding that other

employees may attempt to take advantage for themselves if you are too

generous with one.

13

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Immigration Gotchas for Non-immigration Lawyers

With

William “Bill” Stock Reid Trautz

October 5, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

Top Five Most Common Ethics Complaints in Immigration Practice

IMMIGRATION GOTCHAS FOR NON-IMMIGRATION LAWYERS

Reid F. Trautz Director, Practice & Professionalism Center American Immigration Lawyers Association

October 5, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4 - 6, 2007

Recently, Bar Counsel across the United States were asked to provide data on the

most common types of disciplinary complaints involving immigration lawyers. Although only five jurisdictions responded with substantive statistics, the data was remarkably consistent: Immigration lawyers tend to get into trouble the same way lawyers in other practice areas get into trouble. Here are the top five ways immigration lawyers get in disciplinary trouble, with practical ideas to stay out of trouble:

1. Lack of Communication (Rule 1.4):

▪ Failure to return the client’s telephone calls: Lawyers get busy and fail to timely communicate with clients. Immigration lawyers also may have language barriers that make phone conversations impossible or difficult. Schedule a block of time each day to return calls or emails. Delegating calls to a staff member with language skills can help, but should not lead to the unauthorized practice of law.

▪ Failure to explain the process to the client: Part of a successful attorney-client relationship is setting reasonable expectations and explaining both the legal process and possible outcomes. Lawyers who neglect this aspect of practice can be assured of a poor client relationship. Build in time from initial client intake through the end of the matter to educate clients on the process and range of potential outcomes. Create brochures, handbooks, or PowerPoint presentations to reinforce these efforts.

▪ Failure to follow client instructions: Listening to the client, especially when there is a language and cultural barrier is difficult. Document client instructions, and discuss if they seem unrealistic or worse. Taking time to confirm client instructions is well worth the investment of your time.

2. Lack of Diligence (Rule 1.3):

▪ Failure to timely attend to the client’s matter: Immigration practice is detail-oriented. Even an improperly completed form can cause adverse consequences for clients. Deportation deadlines make it difficult to repair mistakes. Take time to review your workflow processes. Is all work getting done in a timely manner? What procedures can be improved? What tools, such as computer software, can be implemented to make sure all client matters are timely completed?

3. Lack of Competence (Rule1.1):

▪ Failure to Know and Understand the Law: Competence to practice is the threshold question when accepting a new client matter. If you are

unfamiliar with an area of the law, seek assistance, co-counsel with a competent lawyer, refer the matter out, or decline it.

▪ Failure to deliver promised the results: Some lawyers feel the need to promise results or assure the client they are “in good hands.” This can lead the client to maintain high expectations. Most lawyers understand it is never a good idea to predict the outcome. It can also be harmful to imply your success rate or abilities are better than other attorneys, unless you are able to deliver on that implied promise. So don’t sugarcoat the potential result: Consider stating a predicted range of outcomes in an engagement letter or other writing to the client so there is a baseline for shared expectations.

4. Handling Client Money and Property (Rules 1.15 & 1.16)

▪ Failure to Return the Client’s File or Property: Most states bar ethics committees have opined that the client file in the lawyer’s office is property of the client. Except for a few narrow exceptions, those states require that a lawyer must promptly turn over a file to the client. State rules differ on issues whether the lawyer can make a copy and charge the client, require a receipt, or require payment of past due legal fees. See Rule 1.16(d) and state bar legal ethics opinions for further information.

▪ Fee Disbursement Irregularities: Intentional or negligent misappropriation of client monies from a trust account. Tracking fees and costs, billing clients, and properly maintaining trust accounts is the key to avoiding this type of complaint. If you don’t feel comfortable managing your trust account, then hire someone who can do it for you. Remember to check their work for problems or mistakes, because it is your reputation and license on the line.

▪ Failure to Fully Explain the Legal Fees: Many states require some type of disclosure or writing between the lawyer and client. It is always a good idea to have a fee agreement whether it is required or not. For non-English-speaking clients, consider having a translated version of your fee agreement. Also, remember when quoting a range for your fees ($1,500-$4,000) the clients almost always remember only the first number in the range. ▪ Failure to Understand the Impact of Dual Representation: Where the lawyer represents both an employee and employer in employment-based immigration or family members (often husband and wife) in family-based immigration, conflict issues can arise that impact on the return of client property, legal fees, and documenting the relationship.

5. Dealing with Client Fraud (Rules 1.6 & 3.3)

▪ While not nearly as common as the first four ethical complaints, severe trouble can result if fraud or potential fraud is ignored. If you or your staff have a “reasonable belief” that a client is not being truthful about important facts, prior filings, marital status, or other issues, you may have an ethical obligation to investigate further. Model Rule 3.3 states that a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer. ▪Discovering that a client has lied to a tribunal is a difficult balancing act between confidentiality (Rule 1.6) and candor toward a tribunal (Rule 3.3). Model Rule 3.3 states, in part:

…(b) A lawyer who represents a client in an adjudicative proceeding and who knows that a person intends to engage, is engaging or has engaged in criminal or fraudulent conduct related to the proceeding shall take reasonable remedial measures, including, if necessary, disclosure to the tribunal.

(c) The duties stated in paragraphs (a) and (b) continue to the conclusion of the proceeding, and apply even if compliance requires disclosure of information otherwise protected by Rule 1.6.

▪The balancing our ethical duties to both clients and tribunals is difficult. Reported cases are few, but the consequences to a lawyer’s reputation and career can be enormous. State ethics rules vary as to which duty is greater—candor to the court or confidentiality of the client. Be sure to read your Rules (and the accompanying comments) carefully when confronted with a possible issue.

© 2006 American Immigration Lawyers Association

Family Lawyers Need To Increase Their “Immigration Savvy”

IMMIGRATION GOTCHAS FOR NON-IMMIGRATION LAWYERS

By William A. Stock Klasko, Rulon, Stock & Seltzer, LLP, Philadelphia

October 5, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4 - 6, 2007

Did you know that your permanent resident client’s spouse made a contract with the United

States government to provide for the spouse’s financial support? Or that “adopted child” does not

mean the same thing in immigration law than it does under state law? Or that your client’s

separation from a U.S. citizen spouse does not necessarily doom an application for permanent

residence? If you regularly handle family law matters, and do not understand some of the basics

of family-based immigration, you may misadvise clients who are foreign nationals and miss

opportunities on their behalf.

Divorce Issues

When representing a noncitizen or a noncitizen’s spouse in a family law matter, a lawyer needs to

understand how important it is for the non-citizen spouse that the application for permanent

resident be allowed to continue, even though the marriage is on the rocks. Many couples are

under the misimpression that they must be living together and continue to be “happily married” in

order for the permanent residence process to be complete. In fact, immigration law provides that

the relevant inquiry is into whether or not the marriage was valid at its inception. Whether or not

the marriage is likely to continue after the person is granted permanent resident status is irrelevant

under immigration precedents. While it is important that the separation of the couple be disclosed

to the adjudicating officer, the officer should proceed to determine whether or not the marriage

was valid at its inception, and should not deny the application simply because the couple has been

separated.

When representing one of the spouses to such a marriage in the divorce proceeding, counsel

should be aware that the equitable assistance of the family court may need to be invoked by the

non-citizen spouse to order the citizen spouse to support the visa petition. The court’s order

would not be to misrepresent to Immigration that the marriage is still viable, but simply to

provide the true facts surrounding the circumstances of the marriage at an interview. Equitable

assistance may be sought to prevent the citizen spouse from defeating the non-citizen spouse’s

claim to spousal support or equitable distribution by forcing the spouse to leave the United States

and making it impracticable for the spouse to receive that which he or she would be entitled.

If there is domestic violence as part of the situation, family lawyers should be aware that in some

instances, a battered immigrant spouse may file to obtain permanent resident status without the

U.S. citizen’s assistance. Such a petition must be filed before a divorce is granted, but a divorce

after the filing will not invalidate the petition.

Even when the spouses are cooperating, it is important for family law counsel to understand that

an initial immigrant visa petition cannot be granted where a divorce has been granted. Family

law counsel should be sure to coordinate with immigration counsel to understand the time frames

involved in the permanent residence process, as well as the status of those proceedings.

Affidavits of Support

When a U.S. citizen files a visa petition for a noncitizen spouse, part of the process is an

“Affidavit of Support” under Section 213A of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That

Affidavit is a contract between the U.S. citizen and the U.S. government to support the noncitizen

spouse financially, especially when the noncitizen spouse is unable to support him- or herself.

The obligation under the Affidavit of Support continues until the noncitizen becomes a U.S.

citizen, works for ten years in the United States, or loses permanent resident status.

There are no published reports determining the contours of the support obligation in

Pennsylvania, although the terms of the Affidavit of Support make it enforceable by the foreign

national spouse or the U.S. government. By its terms, the obligations under the Affidavit survive

divorce, and it is not clear that the obligation could be waived by prenuptial or postnuptial

agreement. The obligation may be dischargeable in bankruptcy, however. Whenever an

Affidavit of Support is in effect, a family lawyer should be sure to take it into account when

negotiating a property settlement or spousal support agreement.

Conditional Residence

In order to deter marriage-based immigration fraud, the INA provides that a non-citizen who

obtains permanent resident status prior to a marriage’s second anniversary becomes a

“conditional permanent resident”. As a conditional permanent resident, the foreign national is

entitled to all of the benefits of permanent resident (green card) status, but that status expires in

two years. At the end of the two year period, the couple can file jointly to remove the conditions

on the permanent residence, or the non-citizen spouse can ask for a waiver of the joint filing

requirement. The joint petition or waiver petition provides the immigration services with a

second opportunity to review whether or not the marriage appears to have been entered into

solely to gain an immigration benefit for the non-citizen spouse, by seeing the parties’ actual

conduct after their full grant of permanent resident status.

A common dilemma arises when the couple is separated but not yet divorced, at the time the

conditional residence expires. A joint petition can only be filed by a couple who is married, and

only if both members of the couple agree to support the petition. It is possible, as with an initial

petition, for the joint petition to be filed even though the couple is separated. The joint petition

must be filed within a 90 day period that precedes the expiration of the conditional resident status.

There are three waivers under which the non-citizen may file for him/her self. The first waiver

applies where there has been a divorce, but the non-citizen can prove that the marriage was

entered into in good faith. If the couple was separated, the waiver cannot be filed until the

divorce becomes final. Other waivers are available if the noncitizen spouse was battered or

otherwise abused by the citizen spouse, or if there is a showing of extreme hardship to the

noncitizen spouse if the conditions on residence are not removed. Family lawyers need to

understand the importance of being able to get such a petition filed, either jointly or as a waiver,

because the filing of the petition preserves the noncitizen spouse’s status while the petition is

pending.

Adoptions

Immigration law does not treat all adoptions equally, so that a family lawyer representing a parent

who is not yet a U.S. citizen, or a parent who wishes to adopt a non-citizen child, will need to

consider both the parent’s and the child’s immigration status in deciding whether or not to

proceed with the adoption.

Immigration law treats adopted children very differently depending on whether the adoptive

parent is a U.S. citizen, and whether or not the adoptive child is a “orphan.” When a U.S. citizen

adopts a child from abroad, the child usually meets the orphan definition. The orphan petitioning

procedure is extensive, and is designed to provide Immigration with information about the

prospective adopting parents and the adopted child, in order to make sure the adoptive child is

unconditionally released by his or her parents for adoption, and that the parents are able to care

for the child. Procedures are in place to prevent international child theft or sale. Only U.S.

citizens are allowed to benefit from the “orphan” procedure, so that if permanent resident parents

with to adopt a child from abroad, another procedure must be used.

Immigration law recognizes a separate category of “adopted” children, but puts important

limitations on the ability of a citizen or permanent resident parent to provide an immigration

benefit to his or her adopted child. In order to confer an immigration benefit, the child must have

been under age 16 at the time the adoption was finalized. In addition, the child must have resided

with the adopted parents, and been in their legal custody, for two years prior to the child’s

becoming eligible for any immigration benefits. The limitations are meant to prevent immigration

related adoption fraud, and adoption counsel should be aware that Immigration will closely

scrutinize, even with these limitations, any adoption of a close relative such as a niece or nephew.

Adoption counsel should be aware that immigration law puts the adoptive parent in to a Catch-22

situation. When adopting from abroad, the child cannot reside with the parents in the United

States until the parent has resided with the child for two years; however, there is no

straightforward way to bring the child to the United States until the parent has resided with the

child for two years. There may, in rare instances, be unusual arrangements that can be made in

order to acquire the two years of residence, as such, humanitarian parole requests are granted only

in unusual circumstances.

Conclusion

Immigration concerns may be some of the most important issues in resolving a family law matter,

so practitioners should be sure to ask their client’s immigration status as a routine part of their

case intake, and should be aware of the problems and opportunities presented by those

immigration concerns.

DAY ONE Friday, October 5, 2007

Programs 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works!

E-Discovery for the Rest of Us: Essential Small Firm Primer

Track 2 – Manage Smart!

When Bad Things Happen to Good Firms: Disaster Planning Essentials

Track 3 – Have a Life!

Creating an Effective and Professional Online Presence

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

E-Discovery for the Rest of Us:

Essential Small Firm Primer

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., John W. Simek

Sensei Enterprises, Inc. 703.359.0700 (phone)

jsimek@senseient.com (e-mail) snelson@senseient.com (e-mail)

Vince Nalin

eMag Solutions LLC vnalin@emagsolutions.com

October 5, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA

Electronic Evidence Best Practices By Sharon D. Nelson and John W. Simek

© 2007 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

By rights, anything entitled “Electronic Evidence Best Practices” should be the length of an epic novel. This is not a short subject and trying to address it concisely means, necessarily, that the subject is being given short shrift. Nonetheless, the effort is worthwhile because so many lawyers continue to flounder whenever they encounter electronic evidence. Bearing in mind that we are only hitting “the top of the waves,” the guidance that follows may be of assistance in formulating your plans when electronic evidence is in issue. Look at all data (your law firm data AND client data) as possible evidence. Deal with litigation before it happens. What does this mean?

• Develop a document retention policy, assembling a team of inside and outside counsel, management, subject matter specialists (SOX, HIPAA), and IT folks to craft it.

• If you don’t need data, get rid of it. It’s just more chaff heading the wheat you may one day need.

• For the data you keep, make sure it is retained in such a manner that you can easily find and produce it if necessary.

• Ensure that you are in compliance with the law, federal and state regulations, your own policies and by-laws and industry standards.

• Enforce the policy, because it is useless if you do not. • Review the policy at least annually, because technology morphs rapidly, laws and

regulations are born more quickly than bacteria in a petri dish, and businesses themselves evolve and present new requirements.

• One of the very best resources for understanding records management is ARMA International, www.arma.org

STOP! STOP! STOP! When a litigation hold occurs, preserve the evidence. For some reason, this rule is honored in the breach. Do not have a panic response to a litigation hold because you will very surely “put your foot in it.” When does a litigation hold take effect? A rough guideline is that a litigation hold takes place when a lawsuit or regulatory action has commenced or when you know or reasonably should have known that such action was likely. Is that a little dicey to implement? Absolutely. When some nutcase says “I’ll sue you!,” you are probably not in a litigation hold. But when, as an example, someone has written several letters and/or retained counsel and expressed a credible grievance, it is certainly time to make sure that you are abiding by the rules of litigation holds as articulated in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg and its brethren. Now that you know there is evidence to preserve, what do you do?

• Have a Litigation Hold Response Team in place. Pre-identifying the folks will make things happen faster. Your team should include inside and outside counsel,

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management, IT folks and those who have specific knowledge of the facts at issue.

• If there are workstations that should be unplugged and taken out of commission (or you can use Norton Ghost to replicate the drive on a new drive and simply lock up the originals), do so.

• It is now time to cease defragging, disk optimization, deleting data, adding new programs, or doing anything that might overwrite relevant information.

• Do not “stomp on the evidence.” If you or client’s IT staff take a look at the evidence to see “how much trouble we’re in,” you will be changing the dates of last access, at the very least. Relevant evidence should be preserved, not explored, at this point.

• Consider carefully where all the evidence is – and don’t forget the Palm Pilots, BlackBerrys, cell phones, voice mail, etc.

• Become familiar (and yes, this is now an attorney duty) with the backup system. Take your bottle of Advil with you, but sit down and talk to the IT staff until you understand the backup process. Case law is now mandating that attorneys understand their client’s backup system so they will understand what data is where and what steps must be taken to preserve evidence.

• Do you need to take backup media out of rotation to preserve it? • If you have third party backup, they need to be notified of the duty to preserve. • Look at your document retention policy and alter it as needed for the duration of

the litigation hold. • Write a memo to all those potentially involved, paying particular attention to the

key players, spelling out the duties imposed by the litigation hold – and the fearsome potential consequences of spoliation, including huge fines, the inability to use some testimony, the requirement that you will have to pay for any remedial action, and, worst of all, the potential imposition of the dreaded adverse inference instruction.

• If you are instituting the litigation, make sure you write a clear preservation of evidence letter, identifying the issues, the people involved, and brandishing the sword of spoliation as a consequence of failing to comply.

• Do it again down the road. Case law now makes it clear that a single memo issued at the outset is insufficient. Lawyers, though not precisely expected to “babysit” their clients, are expected to monitor the litigation hold and to issue periodic reminders to make sure, insofar as they can, that it is complied with.

Gather the evidence with painstaking care. When you are responsible for finding the appropriate evidence in a case, you have a difficult duty. Most lawyers are not technologists, but the 21st century is now requiring that lawyers have at least a fundamental understanding of where electronic evidence may be, so that they can properly collect evidence in a case. Here are some tips:

• Get help. Someone who understands information technology will be invaluable. You may want to use someone from your own firm, if you have an IT department and you will surely want to use someone from your client’s IT department.

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• Evidence tends not to be in a single place. Your client may have a headquarters, but do they have branch offices? Is backup or storage of data outsourced to third parties? Who hosts their website? Do employees have laptops? Cell phones? PDAs? Do they work at home on their own computers? Don’t forget digital media cards, digital cameras, voice mail, etc.

• If you are crafting discovery, make sure all of the sources listed above are identified, as well as the names of the principals involved. The more you can identify the nature of the action and the folks likely to be involved, the more you have definitively placed the other side on notice about what must be preserved and produced.

• At all times during the gathering of evidence and the computer forensics process, make sure a proper chain of custody is maintained. A standardized form should be utilized. And yes, you can FedEx computers/cell phones/media etc. and maintain chain of custody using your form and the FedEx tracking numbers.

• If the other side is claiming that production is too expensive or unduly burdensome, you always have the option of looking like the “good guy” by agreeing to forensic “sampling” of the evidence. As an example, if you claim the defendant has in its possession information belonging to your client, it is child’s play for a forensic technologist to go in and find files, databases and potentially proprietary information as identified by your client. After that, the court is likely to be very impatient with the defendant’s counsel bleating about expense or burdens when relevant evidence (and pilfered data) is clearly extant.

The analysis of the evidence isn’t just for your forensic technologist – you need to get

involved too!

• Make sure you are getting a true forensic image, especially if you are potentially going to be in court. A genuine bit-by-bit image is not a copy or a Ghost image (made with Symantec’s Ghost product) but is made using specialized forensic software such as EnCase or the dd function of Linux.

• Be sure you understand the cost for the forensic services so neither you nor your client will suffer sticker shock down the road. Many forensic technologists will flat fee the imaging of anything that can be acquired in their labs. This is because they can begin the acquisition and walk away to work on another case. However, if the forensic imaging is done on-site, the technologist must “baby-sit” the acquisition. If the acquisition involves servers, this must frequently be done on a weekend to avoid business disruption. Expect to pay time and half for this service.

• Once everything has been acquired, analysis is usually performed at an hourly rate. Here, trust is required. Make sure you have good references for your forensic technologist. There are those who will tell you their hourly rate is $200 but they will start their clock when they arrive at 8 a.m. and turn it off at 6 p.m. when they leave without any regard for the time spent at lunch, chatting with their spouse, checking e-mail etc. They will also charge for the time a search is running, even though the process is automated and they can work on another case. Reputable technologists will only bill you for time spent working on your case. They may charge $350 an hour as opposed to $200 – and yet you will end up with a smaller

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total bill because the billing is honest. As with everything else in life, caveat emptor.

• Understand that your technologist isn’t going to be able to give you a very precise projection of analysis time (except in rare cases, such as where only a single piece of e-mail is sought) at the beginning of the project. Give them a day or two of analysis to see the “size of the elephant” and then they will be able to give you some sort of reasonable estimate as to the time that the project may require in all but the largest cases. Once search terms have been run, they will know if they have 10 hits or 10,000 and likewise will know how much data they will need to review and potentially extract for you. To give you some idea of general costs, we generally tell folks that analysis in small cases (e.g. divorce, criminal, small civil matters) will typically run $4000-$8000. If, after wading into the evidence, we find that more work is involved, we alert the client before spending more monies. Often the client will wish to review the evidence procured thus far before determining whether more funds should be allocated to the effort. The #1 complaint about computer forensics and electronic evidence companies is that costs spiral out of control.

• Search terms should be developed with the assistance of your technologist and, if the firm has a lawyer on board (which is very handy for litigation support), with that lawyer. This too will keep costs down because they will look at your proposed list of keywords and tell you which ones may not make sense. As a for instance, searching for common names, such as Joe or Mary, is likely to result in a boatload of irrelevant information. Likewise, if you search on the word “system” on a computer hard drive, you will be swamped with hits that are meaningless to your case.

• It is prudent to give your technologist a statement of the facts in the case or a copy of (at least) the initial pleadings. When technologists understand what is relevant, they are going to do a far better job for you. Once again, if there is a lawyer at the firm, he or she will help devise strategies for effectively searching the evidence and therefore cutting costs.

How are you going to manage and review the data?

• In small cases, lawyers can and do review the evidence themselves. It is simple enough if there is a limited amount of data. Your technologist will extract the relevant evidence from the proprietary (and very expensive!) computer forensics software (which you cannot read, not having the software) and put it in a form that you can read.

• Where the data is large or complex, you will need to determine whether you have the in-house resources to manage it, perhaps using software such as Summation or Concordance. If you have a fleet of paralegals to input everything, you may be just fine following this course.

• If you have a big case with terabytes of data and you lack internal resources, you will need to hire an electronic evidence company. Mind you, many companies, but not all, do both computer forensics and electronic evidence management. Here is the basic dividing line between the two fields. Computer forensics has to do

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with the preservation, acquisition, extraction and the presentation of evidentiary findings for the court via a forensics report and/or expert witness testimony. Electronic evidence companies generally manage the evidence after it is extracted. Costs here vary widely, and once again, referrals are your best bet to avoid runaway costs.

• Are you collaborating with colleagues from different offices on the case? If you are, you may also need to have a data hosting company, which can securely place the evidence on the Internet for review by authorized parties from any location.

• If you are the party required to produce data, you will need to make sure you understand what format it is to be produced in. The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, expected to be in place by December 2006, will require that you produce the data in native format, absent an agreement to the contrary. Producing in native format keeps the metadata intact, but can be problematic if the recipient doesn’t have the software with which to read the data, as often happens with proprietary programs. Production in TIFF format (essentially taking a picture of the evidence), which happens often, means the metadata (who authored the document, when it was created or last accessed, etc.) which accompanied the document, spreadsheet, etc. is lost to you.

• Make sure you are protecting privileged information when you produce documents. While the new Federal Rules will allow you to “call back” privileged information that was inadvertently produced, the horse has now left the barn. Far better to carefully review the evidence prior to production to screen for privileged documents and communications.

• If you are dealing with massive amounts of data, consider whether you want to do a “rolling production” so you can demonstrate that you are attempting to cooperate fully and quickly with any discovery requests. The process of data production in large cases can be incredibly time-consuming and judges are usually happy to work with a rolling production schedule, so long as timetables are met!

• If the discovery request is unduly burdensome or expensive, perhaps because the deleted data requested exists only on backup tapes or legacy systems, raise that issue early and be cognizant of the principles of cost-shifting as articulated by Zubulake v. UBS Warburg.

Is there a real gospel for best practices in electronic evidence? Not yet, but many groups are attempting to devise them. The Sedona Conference has done the best job so far and many legal entities, including the American Bar Association, are following in its wake. For more information about the work of The Sedona Conference and its publications, visit http://www.thesedonaconference.org/ In the meantime, following some of the bullet points above will give you at least a rudimentary map for proceeding through the e-evidence maze. If you should get lost now and again in the maze, don’t worry – you have lots of company. The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a legal technology and computer forensics firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) www.senseient.com

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Finding Wyatt Earp: Your Computer Forensics Expert

By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek © 2007 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

You are about to enter the OK Corral of litigation. The stakes may not be life and death, but they’re high. You have a litigation team – your own version of Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp. The other side is also formidable, the modern day equivalent of the Clantons and the McLaurys. Both sides are well armed and ready for bloodshed. In the ensuing battle, more often than you might imagine, the winning difference in cases involving electronic evidence is the skill level of the computer forensic expert. Whose expert will the jury or judge find more credible? It is at this juncture that you hope fervently that you haven’t bet your client’s monies and case on Ike Clanton. You hope your guy is Wyatt Earp himself, imperturbable, flinty-eyed, and deadly accurate. But where oh where do you find the Wyatt Earps of computer forensics?

Scarcer than rubies are talented computer forensics experts who are also skilled at writing expert reports and giving court testimony. So how do you find a good expert when you have electronic evidence in issue? This can be a daunting task and the right selection may depend upon a number of factors including what’s at issue in the case, the budget, the geographic location of the expert, and balancing the relative credentials of the experts under consideration. In short, reach for your bottle of Advil. Mistakes are frequent. Here are the extremes. At one end, you have the major players – with big price tags and a horrendous disparity of quality between their employees. At the other end, you have Joe, formerly a plumber, who fiddles with computers at night and thinks that computer forensics is cool. He takes a course in it, perhaps even gets a meaningless certification from the vendor, and then promptly hangs out his shingle, advertising his service at “blue light special” rates. Do you pay a fortune for the big name players? Do you take a chance on Joe and his brethren?

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Regardless of the size of the firm you choose, here are some of the factors you should consider in selecting the specific forensic technologist expert for your case:

1. Forensics certifications. Currently, the most prestigious certification available to private firms is the EnCE (EnCase Certified Examiner) issued by Guidance Software. Another certification rapidly gaining respect is the Certified Information Forensics Investigator (CIFI) issued by the International Information Systems Forensics Association (IISFA), a non-profit organization. More certifications are emerging and will gain credibility over time, but in the private sector, the EnCE and the CIFI are the certifications to look for. A caveat: many less than honest folks will claim certifications on their CV when the truth is that they took classes or had training courses – no real meaningful certification was granted, just a “certification of attendance.” If you see a certification you don’t recognize, find out whether a written exam was required. Did the applicant have to prove some minimum time that he/she had been involved in computer forensics? Was the expert certified in computer forensics or merely in the use of a particular forensics tool? What organization issued the certification? Who was on the faculty? Was a practical hands-on component part of the testing? Is there a recertification component?

2. Technical certifications. A good forensic technologist will have a lot of letters after his/her name, indicating a broad range of certifications with a number of different technologies. If you see no certifications, or a “base-level” certification (such as A+), you do not have an individual with a wealth of experience. If the expert is (just by way of example – there are many, many valuable certifications) a Certified Novell Engineer, Certified Cisco Network Administrator, Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, NT Certified Independent Professional and a Certified Internetwork Professional, you’ve got someone with an expansive technical background.

3. The CV. Get the expert’s CV early on and study it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Does it show that the expert has spoken at a lot of seminars and/or written a lot of articles? Those who present or teach frequently and have to answer questions on the fly tend to be excellent testifying experts. Also, teaching and authorship frequently add credibility with a judge or jury. What is the expert’s educational and professional background? Is this a broad-based technologist or someone who is a new college grad and wet behind the ears or with only a narrow sliver of technical knowledge?

4. The Jack of All Trades. Beware the individual who claims multiple disciplines. Whether a private detective, computer repairman, or software engineer, or some combination of many things, a forensic technologist worth having is generally billed as a forensic technologist and does not offer a Chinese buffet of services.

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5. Court Qualifications. The last thing you need as an attorney is an expert who hasn’t qualified as an expert. Good experts have qualified in multiple courts and they are all listed on the CV. Mind you, most cases of any kind tend to settle, so even the best of experts may only appear in court several times a year. However, it is wise to be wary of someone who has only qualified in one court – or none at all. You don’t need a greenhorn cutting his teeth on your case.

6. Confidentiality. Remember the line from the gossip columnist in the movie L.A. Confidential? “Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.” Not all cases are shrouded in secrecy, but a fair proportion of them are. There are well known figures getting divorced, major companies with proprietary information at issue, public figures in the headlines and people charged with felonies. Make sure the expert you pick has a confidentiality clause in the retainer agreement and don’t hesitate to ask the expert to sign your own confidentiality agreement. Remember as well that the expert may be working your case with others and that the entire firm should have an impeccable reputation for keeping client secrets. During the course of a major case where the expert has been identified, the press will undoubtedly come sniffing around the expert probing for information. A good expert knows the standard answer, “I’m sorry, I have no comment” and is as immoveable as the Great Wall of China.

7. Geography may not matter. How often attorneys forget that this is the electronic era! You can maintain chain of custody perfectly well by shipping a computer from California to New York if that’s where the best expert is located. While it is true enough that local experts are often preferred where monies are tight and travel expenses may be in issue, many lawyers lose sight of the value of having the best possible expert, irrespective of location. If the case has a significant amount at stake and/or may well end up in trial, it is a disservice to clients to restrict them to local experts. Those experts who are well known in the field have clients across the nation and beyond because their expertise is so often sought.

8. English 101 and 201. An expert MUST speak the English language. We have many wonderful friends who are of foreign descent and brilliant, but their English will not pass muster with a mixed ethnicity jury. Their accent is just too pronounced for many folks to comprehend, especially for those who may have learned English as second language. That’s English 101, being able to speak the language clearly. English 201 is being able to speak about highly technical matters in lay terms, with analogies that a judge or jury can understand. Geek-speak is worse than useless in a courtroom situation. You will come to revere an expert who easily makes analogies in terms of TV, cars, sports and other things that represent part of Joe Q. Public’s everyday life.

9. The price tag. Computer forensics is not cheap. Small cases may run in the $5,000-$10,000 range, but larger cases can hit six figures with astonishing rapidity. It is almost never possible to quote a probable final figure, because the technologist has not yet seen the “size of the elephant.” It will generally require

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some time into the case before it is possible to let a client know how much work will ultimately be involved. It is, as we all know, often the same predicament lawyers face when trying to give clients a rational estimate. As a general rule, the larger the forensics firm, the larger the bill. It is not uncommon to pay as much as $500/hour in the largest firms. In high quality but smaller firms $250-$300/hour may be a more common charge. If the firm you’re looking at charges less than $200/hour, you probably want to raise your eyebrows and seriously investigate the firm credentials, references, number of courts qualified in, standing in the industry, etc. Heed this advice well: some technologists bill fairly. They turn their clocks off while a process is running and go work on someone else’s case. They account for their time accurately and precisely. On the other hand, there are those (often with lower rates), who charge you for every moment they are at work – and sometimes beyond. We have seen countless invoices for 9-10 hours a day at work, with no time removed for going to lunch, bathroom breaks, chatting with colleagues, meetings, etc. Frequently, we have found that those with lower rates compensate by billing for more hours. A conundrum for a client. Is the lower rate really going to mean a lower bill? Or will the higher rate, accurately applied, result in a smaller total? In the end, getting references is your best bet here. Caveat emptor!

10. References, references, references. There is no better way to secure a good expert. Ask your potential expert for references and then make sure you follow up with those references. Did the expert do a thorough, professional job? Was the expert responsive when contacted? Was the work completed on time? What was the quality of the expert’s report? Did the expert make a credible witness? Was this an expert amenable to being “spun?” Experts who are “experts for hire” are a nightmare in court. If your candidate has the attitude that “the truth is the truth,” you may not want that truth in court, but at least you will know the realities of your case, its strengths and weaknesses. Did the expert stay within budget (not always possible) or at least alert the client of additional costs before incurring them? Perhaps the number one complaint heard about experts involved in electronic evidence is that costs spiraled out of control without notification to the law firm, resulting in a client highly perturbed with its bill --- and its law firm.

At the end of the day, you want a good result at a fair price. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. Pay good people good monies and you’ll have a credible result – you may not get the answers you want, but what you get will hold up in court. Make no mistake about it – in e-evidence cases, it frequently comes down to a duel between the experts. Your guy gets blown away or their guy gets blown away. What you want is for your guy to be Wyatt Earp and the other side’s guy to feel like one of the Clancy brothers staring down the barrel of Earp’s “Peacemaker.” You will be a lot happier in the courtroom’s O.K. Corral if you have the biggest gun! The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a legal technology and computer forensics firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) www.senseient.com

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ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY COMES OF AGE:

THE FULBRIGHT JAWORSKI STUDY By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek

© 2006 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Ah, the rites of passage. A young man turns 21, goes on the town with his friends, tosses back 21 shots, throws up and passes out. Happy Birthday son, if you can remember it. Variations on this scenario happen nationwide every day. Has Electronic Evidence come of age? If so, how has it marked its rite of passage? It was only six years ago that we began lecturing on the subject of electronic evidence. At the time, we ran one of a handful of computer forensics/electronic discovery companies across the nation. When we warned audiences that all lawyers would have to become familiar with e-discovery over the next few years, we were greeted with cavalier disregard. “I don’t think so – folks will pretty much go on practicing law the way they always have,” was a common remark. It was only three years ago that we lectured to a group of Circuit Court judges in Southwestern Virginia. While our hosts were uniformly gracious, they were also uniformly adamant about electronic evidence and courtroom technology. “Not in my courtroom!” several of them said firmly. My, how times change. Most federal court litigators have come to accept electronic discovery as a daily fact of life. While the use of e-evidence has seeped more slowly into state courts, virtually all litigators have now, however reluctantly, begun the process of educating themselves about electronic evidence.

The Fulbright Jaworski Study: ED Grows Up The recent release of the second annual 2005 Litigation Trends Survey by the international law firm Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. has made it eminently clear that electronic discovery has indeed come of age. Some things haven’t changed - to no one’s surprise, we are an intensely litigious society. The survey included 354 corporate counsel (50 from the U.K., the rest from the U.S.). These were not small businesses, to be sure. The median company reported annual gross revenues of $484 million. Still, it is startling to read that the average company in the survey juggles 37 lawsuits at a time. For $1 billion plus companies, that number grows to a staggering 147. Keep sending Jack and Jill to law school! Here’s the ED kicker: For corporations with over $100 million in revenues, the greatest concern of the responding general counsels and CEOs was electronic discovery. For

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those under that mark, the greatest worry was compliance issues. If you think about it a moment, failure to comply will almost invariably involve electronic evidence in the ensuing compliance actions or litigation. Taken as a whole, electronic discovery has indeed, in its own fashion, painted the town red – in this case, the color of panic. What a departure from the good old days the study reveals. 80% of the respondents now have document retention policies and 75% have litigation hold policies. Still, the respondents worry about the quality of their policies, the enormous costs of electronic discovery and the sanctions that may accompany a failure to live up to statutory, regulatory and case law requirements.

What Does All This Mean to Smaller Companies and Their Law Firms?

The big boys felt the impact of ED while most lawyers slumbered on, practicing law without a thought to electronic evidence. Only a fool would suppose that ED will stay in the stratosphere with the large firms and their clients. Inevitably, ED will drift downwards and seep into more and more small cases. Our current caseload of forensics/ED cases may be instructive. Currently, about ¼ of our cases are divorce cases. If you’re surprised, think about how often people e-mail, IM or text message their lovers. It’s where the evidence is. Next time you see someone using two thumbs on a BlackBerry, you might justifiably wonder if they are telling some special someone what kind of new erotic treats they have planned for their next rendezvous. Trust us when we tell you that people will write anything and everything to their paramours. Our eyebrows are permanently singed from reading their missives. Criminal cases comprise the next 25%. A depressingly large chunk of that is child porn cases, followed by everything from stalking to embezzlement to murder. Business litigation constitutes about 25% - software that doesn’t work as advertised, employees who are funneling company data elsewhere, competitors that have pilfered proprietary data, etc. The final 25% is a hodgepodge of everything from terrorist cases to defamation to people who have forged wills. Perhaps 3 or 4 of all these cases involve really significant dollars. The rest are really the everyday cases that comprise the law practice of the solo/small firm practitioner – with one notable difference. ED is now a critical component. No doubt this is the tip of an immensely large iceberg. We are in fact seeing the beginning of seepage of ED into everyone’s law practice. But make no mistake about it. Most cases in our area still go from A to Z without anyone thinking about e-evidence. But the times, they are a-changing. Fear is a Great Motivator Lawyers have not precisely embraced electronic evidence. Their trepidations about dealing with e-evidence have only slowly abated. Their new-found willingness to deal with e-evidence seems to stem larger from fear – that they will be guilty of ineffective

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assistance of counsel if they ignore it, or that the other side will find a “smoking gun” unbeknownst to them. If you want to be a good lawyer, and serve your client well and competently, there is no longer any way to evade the fact that e-evidence is a factor in a growing number of cases. Still More Statistics Statistics, as they say, lie. They can be manipulated to prove anything, and often are. However, no matter whose statistics you believe, all of the recent studies show that somewhere between 93-97% of all information is now created electronically. It is commonly accepted that less (some would say MUCH less) than 3% of that information will ever be converted to paper. That being the case, what lawyer worth his/her salt can afford to ignore at least the possibility of electronic evidence being relevant every time a new case is opened? We are now sending more than 4 trillion e-mail messages a day in North America. Worldwide, we are producing 1-2 exabytes of information per year. If you’re scratching your head wondering what an exabyte is, it is equal to roughly 1 trillion books.

You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide Electronic discovery’s rite of passage is ongoing. However, as the Fulbright Jaworski study makes clear, ED has arrived in force. Undoubtedly in the last several years, the general counsels and CEOs of major corporations have felt very much as though they had just chugged 21 shots, though not exactly in celebration of ED’s coming of age. More likely, they feel the headache/hangover effects of ED, which came on suddenly with all the force of a tornado and with nearly as little warning. Perhaps the best thing for solo/small firm practitioners to do is heed carefully the various disasters that have befallen their larger counterparts as they became the first to encounter the full breadth and depth of ED’s impact. On a smaller scale, the very same thing is likely to happen to anyone not prepared for electronic discovery. You can wish it away, will it away, even pray it away, but electronic discovery is here to stay. Just look at all the ED companies that have sprung up faster than chickweed. Mind you, many of them fail rapidly in this volatile new market, but for each one that fails, two seem to take its place. We all wish that electronic discovery were more settled, that laws and regulations were more uniform, that case law wasn’t all over the map etc. But ED is only just of age, brash, heady and volatile as any young man on his 18th birthday ever was. If you thought you could avoid ED and keep practicing law as you always did before, you’d better do a shooter or two yourself to ease the pain. ED is coming to everyone’s town! The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a legal technology and computer forensics firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) www.senseient.com

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Forensics Analysis By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek

© 2006 Sensei Enterprises, Inc. Below are the basic steps in forensics analysis.

• Verify and log as much physical information as possible. This includes any model or serial numbers for devices (computer, hard disk, Palm Pilot, etc.) and any observed irregularities (e.g. disconnected hard disk). Employ a form with all pertinent information. Should the case end up in court, all information is readily available. Also, if you have logged all pertinent device information available, you will be able to identify any particular characteristics or issues that may impact the methods by which the forensic analysis of the evidence must be conducted. Photographs will also help refresh your memory should there be a long delay before testimony.

• Verify the computer BIOS date/time to actual. This is used to compare/analyze the file

date and time stamps. If there is any discrepancy between the system date and time and the current actual date and time, your timeline has to be adjusted accordingly. It’s particularly important in trying to draw time relationships if evidence in a case spans time zones and/or multiple machines.

• Forensically acquire media. Make sure the original media is write-protected. Just

powering on Windows will modify a ton of file date/times. Use a hardware-blocking device like FastBloc or FireChief or mount the media in read-only mode. Acquisition must be in a bit-by-bit fashion and not a logical clone. Logical clones (for instance, using Symantec’s Ghost product line) merely copy the file and data structure as the operating system sees it and does not recover any slack space or unallocated drive space, where critical evidence is often found.

• MD5 (Message Digest 5) hash the target image and compare to the MD5 hash of the

original. They MUST be the same. Forensic technologists utilize this mathematical value based upon the exact content of the information contained in the forensic image copy of the seized computer media. This value is known as an MD5 hash value, which is very much like a digital fingerprint. Forensics software will verify that this value remains the same from the time it is generated. If ANYTHING is altered in the evidence, even a single character, the MD5 hash value will change. If the hash value remains the same, a court will be assured that the evidence has not been altered. By way of illustration, the odds of two computer files with different contents having the same hash value is approximately 3.4 times ten raised to the 38th power. For the mathematically challenged, if you write that number out, it is 34 followed by 37 zeros.

• Virus scan the evidence prior to doing any analysis. You want to scan the evidence data

in case viruses exist – you don’t want to extract any of the data, which may potentially launch a virus that might compromise the evidence. If you need to analyze files containing viruses, you can take whatever steps may be necessary (depending on the virus) to ensure that the evidence is not compromised. You would, of course, also notify the originating party of the virus’ existence, especially if the system is still in use.

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• Determine what operating system you are dealing with. Each operating system has different characteristics in how it manipulates file structures and corresponding dates. Locations for file-swapping, printing structures and program parameters are stored and organized in different fashions depending on the operating system. Knowing the OS will help you determine what information may be retrievable and where it may be located. It will also help to explain the meaning of file/date times as recorded by the OS.

• The complete analysis must be done in a non-invasive manner. The number one reason

why evidence is tossed out of court is because someone has “stepped” on it, often before it was forensically acquired, frequently by well-meaning friends or in-house IT staff. It is also frequently true that so-called forensic technologists are just plain sloppy or use inappropriate forensic methods that are easily challenged in court because they’ve compromised the evidence.

• Recover any deleted folders. Almost inevitably, the most salient evidence is to be found

in deleted files. This is not done, appropriately, by using such products as Norton Utilities, which will be likely to compromise the evidence by altering times and miss some files that are actually recoverable. High-quality forensics software is pivotal to recovering deleted files (and portions of deleted files) that may ultimately constitute court evidence.

• Expand the registry entries, if applicable, as there is a wealth of information there. There

you may find information about the specific users, specific program information, how the networking services are configured, and any operating system parameters such as time zones and daylight savings settings. You can get all this information without actually launching any of the applications on the computer.

• Use known hash sets to identify files that may have had their extensions altered to “hide”

their presence. This is particularly useful in child pornography cases where the same images have appeared over and over and there are known hash sets for these images. Hash sets are created in a controlled environment for specific known files. The most widely known collection of hash sets is “HashKeeper,” maintained by the National Drug Intelligence Center, available only to law enforcement authorities or by specific exception (yes, we have it). ☺

The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a legal technology and computer forensics firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) www.senseient.com

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COMPUTER FORENSICS FAQS By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek

© 2006 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

What is computer forensics? Simply put, computer forensics is the collection, preservation, analysis and presentation of electronic evidence. What kind of evidence can be found? Text files, graphic files, audio files, deleted files (if not overwritten), hidden files, system files, and e-mail. Correspondence, tax and accounting records, addresses and phone numbers, presentation files, business plans, calendaring information, task lists – all may contain significant evidence. Can deleted files be restored? Yes, if they have not been overwritten. If they have been partly overwritten, the answer is maybe. Special utilities can help in this regard. Is it possible to determine when files were deleted? Sometimes. It is possible to determine the file deletion date when they are in the recycle bin. Once that is emptied, it may be possible to recover evidence of prior deletions. What’s wrong with doing it in-house? If you have a competent forensics technologist in-house, you are very lucky indeed. Most firms do not, and end up relying on their IT staff, which is without a true forensics background. Unfortunately, well-intentioned amateurs frequently destroy or taint evidence when they acquire or search through it. There are few things as frustrating as finding a smoking gun, only to have it declared inadmissible. What can a forensic technologist do for me? As you might imagine, the facts determine the answer. However, in general, a forensics technologist can help evaluate such things as how data may have leaked, how e-mail may have been forged, how your network may have been penetrated, whether employees are making unauthorized copies of proprietary information or running their own businesses on company time, and whether keystroke logging applications have been placed on any of your systems. The possibilities are as endless as the fact scenarios.

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How can a forensic technologist help if litigation is involved? A forensic technologist can help draft discovery requests so that all pertinent electronic information is likely to be gathered. Once the evidence is produced, the technologist can sift through it, searching by means of keywords, dates, individuals, types of files, etc. and presenting the results in a user-friendly form. If necessary, the technologist can “acquire” (capture) entire hard drives, preserving the chain of custody, and being able to restore deleted files, recognize files which have had their extensions altered to hide their true nature, and the like. As needed, the technologist can provide expert testimony in court. Can password or encryption protection be cracked? Sometimes, but not always. Encryption cracking can also be extremely time consuming and is not always successful. Remember too that there are laws protecting privacy rights, and it is often necessary to get a court order before attempting to crack a password or defeat encryption. If I have had an office fire, run over my laptop with my car, or otherwise lost my files, can you get them back? Once more, the answer is usually yes, but not always. If you deleted files recently, they may still be whole and recoverable. The further back in time you deleted them, the less recoverable they are. You may be able to get substantial portions back, but not everything. Physical damage is another issue entirely. Miracles are indeed possible, but data recovery in the face of serious physical damage is very expensive, and generally only worthwhile for irreplaceable or extremely valuable data.

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Finding and Securing Electronic Evidence

By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek

© 2006 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Lawyers are notoriously slow to adopt change. The legal world has been a paper world for so long that adaptation to digital lawyering has proceeded slowly in relation to the digitization of the rest of the business world. In part, lawyers are simply so busy practicing law that learning the digital world seems oppressively time consuming. However, lawyers love to win cases, and so do their clients. With increasing frequency, the pivotal evidence is electronic – and no, paper print-outs will not suffice. The “metadata” (hidden data that shows such things as pathing, times, the ID that was used to generate files, etc.) that goes along with e-mails and files is often the most compelling evidence of all – and it will not show up in printed copies of e-mails or documents. Word processing documents often contain non-printable data (revisions, comments, etc.), which may constitute pivotal evidence. The trouble with this new world of electronic discovery is that it is an uncharted path for most attorneys. They don’t quite know what to ask for – or what to do with it once procured. Below are some suggestions to guide attorneys through what may be unfamiliar territory.

o If the hard drive or other media is in your possession (or your client’s), do NOTHING. Do not even power it up. Booting up a typical Windows operating system changes the dates and times on approximately 400-600 files. NEVER, EVER let your IT folks or your client’s IT folks do their own investigation. They are not forensically trained and will unwittingly trample on the evidence, changing what may be critical dates, such as the date of last access, modification, etc. The trampled evidence may not be admitted at all, or it may be regarded as suspect because it was not forensically acquired.

o Make sure you send a preservation of evidence letter. The other side is going to be

hard pressed to argue innocence when confronted with spoliation of evidence if they have received a preservation of evidence letter. Be as specific as possible in the letter and not overbroad, so that fair notice is given of the kind of evidence to be preserved. If you know or suspect where the information is located (on a particular machine or a specific media, or in a particular file location) say so. The more specifics you can give, the less excuse there is for having evidence that vanishes or is tampered with. Normally, you will be asking them to preserve 1) e-mail (electronic versions), along with header information, archives and any logs of e-mail system usage; 2) Data files created with word processing, spreadsheet,

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presentation or other software; 3) Databases and all log files that may be required; 4) network logs and audit trails; and 5) electronic calendars, task lists, telephone logs, and contact managers. Make sure you note in your letter that these things may exist in active data storage, including servers, workstations, and laptops and in offline storage including backups, archives, floppy disks, zip disks, tapes, CD-ROM and any other form of media. Caution that potentially discoverable data should not be deleted, moved, or modified. With respect to users who may have discoverable information on their computers, new files should not be saved to existing drives or media, no new software should be loaded, and no data compression, encryption, defragging or disk optimization procedures should be run until an image of the hard drive has been acquired. Ask that the normal rotation and overwrite of backup media cease until copies can be made. Also mention that no media storage devices containing potentially discoverable information should be disposed of due to upgrades, failure, or for any other reason.

o If the case seems to require it, get a protective order. Set out specifics here as well

so there can be no misunderstandings.

o Make your discovery illuminating and clear. Define everything at some length, encompassing all forms of media, all manner of things that may be considered responsive, and all possible locations.

o Use interrogatories to get relevant information about the target computer network.

What kind of network are you dealing with? How is the network configured? What operating system? What class of machines? What applications, both off the shelf and custom? What sort of back-up system is used? When are tapes overwritten? Who is the systems administrator? Are home computers used for business? Do they use laptops? Do they have Palm Pilots or other PDAs? Do they use a digital copier hooked up to their network? Do they use cell phones? Pagers? It is a common error to focus solely on the server and the workstations and to forget other data sources. Is there remote access? What sort of e-mail package do they use? Is a firewall used? Is there an e-mail server? Who is the Internet network provider? Where is e-mail stored for transmission, retrieval and archiving?

o Depose the system administrator and other parties in the IT department who are

likely to have relevant information about the computer system. Again, make sure you receive full information about the back-up system (often a treasure trove) and all possible data locations. It is common practice, though certainly not universal, to have monthly back-up tapes (or other media) going back six months to several years. Make sure you have information about the hardware/software used to create the back-ups. Your forensic technologist may need to recreate the native environment in order to restore data from the back-up media. Get a copy of the backup schedule for both incremental and full backups. How is the backup media rotated? Understand what logging is done on the network and what audit trails

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may exist. Users themselves are often unaware of the extent to which their activities may be traced. Audit trails may tell you what ID accessed the system, when, how long they were connected, what they did, etc. They may also tell you which ID copied, printed, deleted or downloaded files and when it was done. Does the company use any monitoring software? If so, there may be a wealth of information indicating programs used, files accessed, e-mail that employees sent or received and records of the Internet sites they visited. Find out also how security access is structured. Who had access to which files and programs? Who had read-only access and who had write access? For relevant individuals, get user names, logons, passwords, and e-mail addresses. Find out about any encryption programs that may be utilized and request the encryption keys.

o Ask every witness about his or her computing habits. Do they make individual

back-ups of their system? Do they use floppy disks, zip disks, CD-ROMs to copy some information from their system as a back-up or for portability reasons. Do they use their home computer to check their business e-mail? Do they do business work on the home computer? Where do they store their documents? For instance, does an attorney save his/her work on a secretary’s workstation? Do they use a laptop? A PDA? Cell phone? Pager?

o Request to inspect and forensically acquire any relevant data. Note the words

“forensically acquire.” This does NOT mean copying a drive and does NOT mean “ghosting” a drive. The acquisition should be done by a trained forensic technologist using specialized equipment and/or software. If there is an objection because of the time element and disruption to business, offer to perform the acquisitions outside of normal business hours.

o Bear in mind that “deleted” doesn’t mean deleted. In computer terms, deleted

means that the space on the disk once occupied by a particular file is now available to be overwritten. The pointers to the deleted file are gone, but bits and pieces of the file, or the whole file, will remain until they are overwritten. Whatever remains of the file (called “residual data”) may be recovered from the area of the disk’s surface that is not allocated to the current file (this is known as “slack space” and it is often contains valuable evidence if painstakingly searched). Again, residual data will not be captured in a file by file copy of a disk, but it is captured by an image copy of the disk, which duplicates the hard disk’s surface sector by sector.

o Also bear in mind that “wiping” a disk may or may not overwrite it to the point

that data cannot be restored. Very sophisticated utilities exist that effectively overwrite data, but there are plenty of unsophisticated utilities in use that may still allow recovery. Sometimes, attorneys are spooked by the presence of a wiping utility, but because using these utilities is a nuisance, it is often true that they are found on a machine and were only used several times before being abandoned as troublesome.

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o Maintain data integrity. Make sure that you write protect all media. A good forensics technologist will do the same thing as part of the acquisition, making sure that that nothing can be added, erased or altered. For the same reasons, your forensic technologist will virus check all media. If a virus is found, the appropriate response is to record all relevant information and then notify the producing party of the virus’ existence. The technologist will never clean the virus from the original media, but will do so from the acquired evidence instead if the virus impacts the data to be produced.

o Establish and maintain a chain of custody. Make sure you can track the evidence

from its original source to its introduction in court. This means being able to prove that no information was added, deleted or altered, that the forensic copy of the evidence is complete, that the process used to copy the evidence was dependable and repeatable, and that all media was secured. This harks back to preceding points. Write protecting and virus checking will help establish that nothing was added, deleted or altered. Making a pure forensic copy of the evidence (with matching “hash” values between the original and image copy) will help prove that the acquisition was complete. Both the hardware and software utilized must meet industry standards of quality and reliability. Good examples are EnCase, FastBloc and the dd function of Unix, which are all utilized frequently by law enforcement authorities. The copying process must be repeatable as a means of independent verification. The media written to should also be write-protected during analysis to prevent spoliation. As always, evidence in the case should be kept securely, with very restricted access.

o Why hire a forensics technologist?

o Speaking bluntly, amateurs step on themselves, almost inevitably, altering

data and, in the worst cases, making it inadmissible.

o Even at that, there are technologists and there are technologists – get a referral to a qualified technologist if you can, or ask the technologist for references. In this very new field, some folks simply hang out their shingle and pronounce themselves forensics technologists.

o A good technologist has a “toolkit” which will allow maximum recovery

and analysis of data. There is no single piece of software that accomplishes everything needed. The “toolkit” will contain many different types of specialized analytical tools.

o Technologists know where to look for the information you need, and can

help you tailor your discovery requests if you need to narrow discovery while procuring as much useful information as possible.

o A technologist is prepared with huge amounts of drive space and can

recreate all sorts of native environments as needed to analyze evidence.

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o Having an expert helps preserve the chain of custody and prove authenticity of the evidence – an expert is far better qualified than an attorney or an IT staffer to explain the technical side of computer forensics and defend against common charges that the evidence is unreliable or may have been tampered with. Also, make sure you have an expert that can speak English and not techno-babble.

In the last few years, courts have begun to routinely admit electronic evidence, though always warily, knowing that electronic alteration is often simple and proving it is often hard. Frequently, the battle over electronic evidence becomes a battle between forensic technologists. Make sure yours is painstakingly careful and fully documents the forensics process so any challenge in court can be withstood! The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a computer forensics and legal technology firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) 703-359-8434 (fax) sensei@senseient.com (e-mail), http://www.senseient.com (web site)

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ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE: THE TEN

COMMANDMENTS By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W.

Simek © 2006 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

1. Thou shalt not stomp all over the evidence.

It is no accident that this is the First Commandment. When computer forensics specialists get together and swap war stories, one recurrent theme is the unbelievable number of times that clients have fouled themselves up by trampling electronic evidence. Typically, as soon as a potential legal matter is recognized, a law firm or corporation authorizes someone from its IT department to “look through” the evidence. Unbeknownst to them, while their IT staff is busy finding golden nuggets of evidence, they are also changing the dates and times of the files they are accessing and possibly altering information that indicates which user ID did what. While it may not entirely discredit the case, you have now given fodder to opposing counsel at the very least – and you will have to spend more money on the forensic examination because unraveling dates and times and explaining “the stomping” effect is now part of the examiner’s job. It is a very foolish client that contaminates evidence by having in-house folks look at it – from a judge’s point of view, the client has a vested interest in that evidence. Far more credible is an initial, independent forensic examination by a certified third party. As a New York City police detective lamented at a recent seminar, many of his cases go “in the hopper” because of trampled evidence. He jokes that the first two officers on the scene are always “I Don’t Know” and “Not Me” because when he asks who stomped all over the evidence, those are always the first two answers he gets.

2. Thou shalt preserve the evidence. The first rule of thumb when you suspect a workstation may contain significant evidence is to “pull the plug.” No, the machine will not die by doing so. If the computer is powered up, forget the orderly shut down – this just changes dates and times again. Yank the doggone power cord. Also, savvy computer miscreants may plant a “bomb” so that shutting down without untriggering the bomb causes the drive to be wiped. Servers are different beasts – it is very important to preserve log file entries and operational events on a server and “pulling the plug” may corrupt these files. Here, an orderly shutdown is mandatory. Once a machine is taken out of commission, remove it and lock it up in a secure place. It is extraordinary how the machine will become the focal point of someone’s attention if it is still publicly accessible. Whatever you do, don’t adopt the attitude that someone else can still use the

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machine until you can get around to a forensic examination. Not only will usage change a world of dates and times, but deleted files which may be recoverable if the machine is decommissioned could be overwritten by continuing use. A word about back-ups. They are invaluable. Don’t continue rotating your tapes and lose evidence. Buy new tapes and take anything that may have evidence on it out of the rotation. If the evidence you need is in the other side’s possession, prioritize getting a preservation of evidence letter off to the appropriate parties. Courts are increasingly irritated with the spoliation of electronic evidence, so make sure the other side has early and clear notice of the evidence to be preserved, including back-up media!

3. Thou shalt not copy and thou shalt not “Ghost.” When you copy a drive, many of the dates are not preserved – not a good thing if those dates are important in court. By default, using Symantec’s “Ghost” means that you will not retrieve information in unallocated space (all the wonderful deleted e-mails and documents that so often win a case reside in unallocated space). This is because “ghosting” results in a logical rather than a physical image. If you are even remotely concerned that electronic evidence will end up in court, it is critical that a true forensic acquisition be performed. Using court-validated hardware and software such as EnCase, SafeBack, FTK and FastBloc means that your forensic image will be unchallengeable in court so long as the people that use them follow proper procedures.

4. Thou shalt not covet the smoking gun. As the country music lyrics tell us, “sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug.” There is nothing more gratifying than finding a digital smoking gun – it can be so exhilarating that we have been known to break into an enthusiastic if woefully off-key rendition of “We Are the Champions.” Those are good days, but not all days are good days. Sometimes, after hours or days of searching and analyzing, it becomes painfully evident that what the client hoped to find is simply not there. On those days, we are the bugs. Sometimes clients become agitated and even fixated on the notion that what they are looking for must be there. If you have a competent, certified forensic examiner, believe the examiner if they say they have followed all appropriate procedures and the evidence you are looking for is not there. Perhaps the evidence never existed at all, or it may have been overwritten (and therefore unrecoverable), or the drive/specific files may have been wiped, sometimes with a special utility or it exists on another device that wasn’t acquired.

5. Thou shalt not be stingy, lest thee be stung. When it comes to electronic evidence, clients frequently want the sun, the moon, and the stars – all for $3.78. OK, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but the truth is that most lawyers do not seem to comprehend how complicated and painstaking a computer forensics examination is. Just documenting the evidence and process, setting the equipment up, taking digital photographs of the physical equipment, and opening a forensic case file takes more than an hour if done properly.

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A corollary commandment might be: Thou shall not attempt to break the laws of physics. Imaging takes as long as imaging takes, and no amount of persuasion will make it go faster. Depending on the amount of data written to the media, the technology and methods that must be used to perform the acquisition, etc., the amount of time required will vary widely. Perhaps one of the least understood aspects of pricing is the difference between acquisitions that take place in a computer forensics lab and an acquisition that must be done on site. It is far faster (and therefore cheaper) to acquire in a lab. People who are unfamiliar with forensics assume that a forensic acquisition is the equivalent of “copying.” They are aware of the time involved to copy a drive and simply cannot comprehend why a forensic acquisition takes so much longer. Remember that a copy is a logical copy, whereas a forensic acquisition produces a physical bit-by-bit image. On-site acquisitions are not just a little longer but a lot longer, because the portable computer used for the acquisition doesn’t have the processing power or memory that the lab devices do. The data transfer rate for evidence storage is much slower because the evidence must now be held on an external drive versus one directly attached to a lab acquisition machine. By way of example, an acquisition that took 4 hours in the lab might take 8-10 hours on-site, though one can never pinpoint the exact time because it is unknown how much data is written on the hard drive or the impact of the speed of the subject computer. There are a lot of variables. Moreover, the technologist may run into specific issues where he/she needs to consult reference materials or needs a particular utility from the forensic toolkit. It is impossible to take everything on-site, so the expert will make a “best guess” based on the information that has been provided. Most often, technologists are asked to acquire servers on site, and the client will not obligingly ship them to the forensics lab. Clients have angst about letting servers out of their possession and sometimes are determined that the acquisition will be done on-site no matter how great the advantages of shipping them out. If this is the client’s determination, simply be aware that the costs are likely to be 2-3 times as great, even before travel is included.

6. Thou shalt not bear false witness, nor ask thy witness to bear false witness.

You wouldn’t think this admonition would need to be in here, would you? Lawyers are governed by codes of ethics, yes? Officers of the court and all that? And yet, it seems to be so tempting to constantly ask the expert to slant testimony. While there are clearly “experts for hire,” good experts are seekers of truth and will report their findings regardless of what those findings may be. Having a forensic technologist examine a drive can certainly be a double-edged sword. You may find exculpatory evidence – or you may find incriminating evidence. An expert can’t pretend a search on a particular term wasn’t conducted. You may put your expert on the stand and limit the scope of your questions, but if anything you’ve asked exposes a soft underbelly to the evidence and opposing counsel has the acumen to strike at it, well, so it goes. It is perfectly understandable that counsel would like its expert to say explicitly: “Mr. Jones sent this defamatory e-mail” when all the expert can really say is that “this e-mail was transmitted from this machine, which Mr. Jones shares with his wife and children.” Even if it was done under Mr. Jones’ ID, did any of his family members have access to that ID? In a large number of cases, the best you can hope for is testimony that the evidence in question came from a specific machine that a specific person had access to. While it’s certainly fair to ask “Are you comfortable testifying to blah, blah, blah?,” a “no” should be accepted gracefully, no matter how much “yes” was the answer you wanted to hear.

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Ditto for those expert reports – while all experts will labor to say whatever they can on behalf of the side that employed them, they will and should exercise extreme care in making sure they don’t say anything that they are not comfortable they can fully back up. The good news is that employing experts who are known to be precise and careful in their reports and testimony frequently means that they have added credibility. Note well that this is especially true in an area where judges walk in unfamiliar, alien territory, as most of them do in the field of electronic evidence.

7. Thou shalt not kill forests. Why, why, why do lawyers want to take electronic evidence and have us produce it to them in paper format? There is nothing more unwieldy than paper. It is stupefying that we are so often asked to produce boxes and boxes of paper when the complete forensic analysis report and supporting files can easily be held on a single CD-ROM. Moreover, paper production puts the attorney in the same miserable place they have always been with respect to reviewing documents. Our most comic moment came when a firm wanted the entire forensic report converted to paper (two big boxes worth!) and then insisted that we transport it all to a conference we were speaking at so we could review the paper in their stead in order to meet their looming discovery deadline. Good thing one of us is a lawyer! How much simpler it is to manage the evidence in electronic form, where it is filed, cross-referenced, indexed, etc. This can be done using standard tools available to law firms or using sophisticated document management software, such as Summation or its counterparts. Subsequent searching and manipulation of the evidence is a relative breeze compared to traditional paper methods.

8. Thou shalt not think like thy parents, but like thy children. How well one of the authors remembers the day when her 11 year old daughter called from elementary school the week before school opened. She had gone in for half a day to help the teachers get their classrooms ready. At noon, she called and said “Mom, I’m going to have to be here all day – the teachers all have new computers and they have no idea how to configure them. Can you pick me up at 5 instead?” Nearly everyone has marveled at how youngsters tool around the Internet, manipulate computer programs, and even master the simultaneous use of the four or five remote controls for the TV/DVD/VHS/Stereo systems we all seem to have. Those of us who come from the paper era seem to have enough trouble simply converting a paper function into an electronic one. Our kids, on the other hand, see the whole vista of new possibilities opened up by the electronic world. When you deal with electronic evidence, it helps to think like a child. Everyone knows that the kids are swapping music files with the like of Kazaa, Morpheus, and Bearshare, but it was out of the box thinking by our young interns, who said “hey, they might be using file-swapping to exchange other illegal stuff,” that led us to realize that those same fileswappers were used by pedophiles and others who wanted to swap contraband files rather than copyrighted music. It is the younger generation that cottoned to steganography first (hiding text files within minutely modified graphics files) and soon we began to realize that terrorists might also be using steganography. In time, it became obvious that all sorts of miscreants might have uses for steganography. Though it’s old hat now, it took a long time for law enforcement to realize what kids knew right along. If you want to hide particular kinds of files from mom and dad, give them innocent names and change the file extension so (for instance) your extensive .jpg collection of porn appears as .doc (Word) files bearing such innocuous names as historyreport.doc. These days,

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competent forensic examiners look for such mechanisms, which are very easy to discover. In the electronic arena, innovative thinking is frequently the way to unearth critical evidence.

9. Thou shalt not honor false prophets. Caveat emptor. The world of computer forensics is rife with “wannabes” who hang out their shingle and proclaim themselves forensic technologists. Be skeptical. Good forensic technologists have a lot of experience and credentials, have been involved in litigation many times, and are happy to give you referrals and to cite some of the cases in which they’ve been involved. Are they certified? By whom? Did they simply pay dollars for a certification that is essentially meaningless? What is their training and experience level? Have they been previously qualified as an expert? How many times? Which courts? Have they written expert reports? How many? Have they served as court appointed computer forensic experts? What certifications do they have? How long have they been engaged in computer forensics? How many cases have they personally handled? Make sure you carefully review their CV with all of the above in mind. Also keep in mind that certified forensic technologists generally charge somewhere between $250-$500 an hour. If the price is significantly lower, be wary and ask questions.

10. Honor thy expert. Though it might sound a little silly, it is astonishing how often lawyers treat forensics experts with cavalier disregard, as though they were mechanics engaged to change the oil of an automobile. Not only do they often want the world on a platter, and delivered to them yesterday, but frequently their own lack of timely preparation is foisted onto their experts, who must now abandon everything else on their dockets in order to produce what the attorney needs when he/she needs it or has promised the client/court it will be delivered. Making your expert part of the team can only help the end result. In a remarkable number of cases, forensic technologists are given directions for searching the evidence without any briefing as to the facts of the case. Needless to say, this is a patently absurd use of an expert. The more the technologist understands the case, the greater his/her sense is of the next logical step for achieving useful results. It is also striking that many attorneys fail to return calls from their experts. There are few things more frustrating than reaching a point in evidence analysis where guidance is required and being completely unable to get it. Just as attorneys have their favorite and least favorite experts, so experts have their favorite and least favorite attorneys. While most technologists will do their level best for everyone, there are some attorneys who are so consistently gracious, collaborative and responsive that the technologists will work 7X24 if necessary to be a part of a winning team. As with most things, success in the world of electronic evidence is a combination of the right people and the right process. If you’ve picked good forensic technologists, trust them, be responsive to them, and involve them in your litigation strategy. If you ignore the Ten Commandments, you do so at your own peril! The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a computer forensics and legal technology firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) 703-359-8434 (fax) sensei@senseient.com (e-mail), http://www.senseient.com (web site)

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The Gold in Them Thar Hills By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek

© 2006 Sensei Enterprises, Inc. What can your computer forensics team accomplish for you?

• Recover deleted files even if emptied from the “recycle” bin • Recover deleted e-mail messages from Outlook, Outlook Express and

other e-mail clients

• Retrieve files stored on a Novell server without the use of any administrator or user IDs

• Recover ICQ conversations

• Recover various IM (Instant Message) conversations

• Retrieve web-based e-mail such as Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.

• Retrieve Palm Pilot and other PDA data

• Reconstruct Internet surfing activities even if the cache and Internet

history are cleared

• Prove intentional deletion of files and programs

• Match phone records against phone numbers on the hard drive (as an example, a user who researches call girls on the Net before he travels and then calls them when he gets to his destination)

• Prove that proprietary information was copied or moved without

authority

• Prove that a particular machine was the source of, for example, a defamatory or threatening e-mail.

• Prove that financial records have been hidden or altered

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• Prove the existence of keystroke logging software or other “spyware” All of the above are just examples. Depending on the facts of the case, there is a rich vein of electronic evidence that might be mined if you consider what the individual(s) in question could have on their computers, PDAs, etc.

Always, always think about where the information might be – home computer, office computer, laptop, PDAs, zip disks, CD-ROMs, floppies, etc. Challenges

• Current versions of AOL mail (recoverable if accessed via a browser, but not necessarily if accessed via the AOL program)

• IM conversations

• Wiping utilities

• Encryption

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SPOLIATION OF ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE: THIS WAY BE DRAGONS

By Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek © 2005 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Ancient mariners navigated by maps that sometimes depicted dragons in uncharted waters, occasionally even bearing the legend: “This way be dragons.” Within the legal profession, spoliation of electronic evidence has constituted murky, dangerous and uncharted waters, and it is no exaggeration at all to say, “This way be dragons.” Then came Zubulake V, and the waters became clearer – but more fearsome. The fifth decision in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC et al (2004 WL 1620866 (S.D.N.Y), 94 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1, 85 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 41,728) came down on July 20, 2004 and its effects have rippled throughout the legal profession. In an otherwise routine employment discrimination case, plaintiff Laura Zubulake moved to sanction UBS Warburg for its failure to produce relevant information and for its tardy production of evidence. Warburg’s counsel had issued a litigation hold after Zubulake filed EEOC charges and had orally transmitted preservation of evidence instructions, but failed to mention backup tapes. A visibly disgruntled Judge Scheindlin noted that some employees deleted e-mails in spite of the instructions and others did not produce relevant information to counsel. The judge acknowledged that this was not the fault of the defense attorneys. However, she chided the attorneys for failure to request retained information from one key employee and failure to give litigation hold instructions to another. She admonished the attorneys for failure to talk with another employee about how she maintained her computer files. Judge Scheindlin was clearly irked by counsel’s failure to safeguard backup tapes that might have contained some of the deleted e-mail, thereby mitigating the damage done by the client’s e-mail deletions. Her decision provides a detailed list of the client and attorney shortcomings. Worse yet, evidence eventually recovered from the back-up tapes (and some had inexplicably “gone missing”) clearly showed that relevant evidence favorable to the plaintiff had been destroyed. As the judge noted wryly, the famous line from Cool Hand Luke was right on target: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” The result? UBS Warburg was ordered to pay the costs of plaintiff’s motion including attorneys’ fees, as well as to pay the costs of any other depositions required by the late production of the e-mails. Most distressing was the imposition of the dreaded “adverse inference instruction,” which Judge Scheindlin announced she would give to the jury. The judge considered but declined to award sanctions against the attorneys, citing the specific set of facts and the dearth of judicial direction in this area. However, she laid out a list of counsel responsibilities intended to give future guidance and made it clear that lawyers might be subject to sanction if they did not abide by them. The guidelines say that counsel must:

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1) actively monitor compliance so that all sources of discoverable information are identified and searched, noting that it is NOT sufficient to advise the client of a litigation hold and then expect the client to retain, identify and produce the relevant evidence;

2) become familiar with the client’s document retention policies and computing infrastructure, speaking with the client’s key IT personnel to do so;

3) communicate with all key players involved in litigation, inquiring as to how and where they store their information, and advising them of their preservation of evidence obligations;

4) ensure that a “litigation hold” is implemented whenever litigation is reasonably anticipated and periodically reissue the notice;

5) communicate directly with key players; and 6) instruct all employees to produce responsive electronic files and ensure that

relevant backup tapes or other archival media are safely stored. If some of this seems onerous, the Judge was careful to point out that the actions of counsel must be reasonable, noting that counsel cannot be obligated to monitor their client like a parent watching a child. Still, the judge observed that counsel is more aware of the legal duties surrounding evidence preservation and production, and therefore held to a high standard of involvement and monitoring. As a sidebar note, since Zubulake V came down, the American Bar Association’s standards have been revised to offer an updated and more pragmatic approach to preservation of evidence and production obligations. The amendments may be found at www.abanet.org/litigation/documents/home.html Will Zubulake’s clear reasoning and explicit standards be heeded? Commentators, the authors included, believe it will. Judges are showing increasing intolerance for spoliation, whether it is the open mockery of the system displayed by Arthur Andersen and Enron or the more subtle spoliation that comes from lassitude and a failure to energetically get (and keep) a handle on the preservation of electronic evidence. Hefty fines have become the norm (fines exceeding $1,000,000 are no longer rare), and the issuance of adverse inference instructions is also on the rise. Zubulake continues to spawn precedent-setting opinions with which all attorneys should be familiar. Zubulake V represents the first time that a court has set forth such explicit guidelines for attorneys managing the preservation and production of electronic evidence. The betting money is that courts will largely fall in like dominoes behind the principles of Zubulake with only minor modifications. If this is true, the waters will no longer be uncharted and navigation by legal counsel must be considerably more zealous and comprehensive than it has been in the past. If you ignore Zubulake V, you risk being scorched by a dragon’s breath as you flounder in perilous waters! Since originally authoring this article, UBS Warburg has come to realize just how detrimental electronic evidence spoliation and “adverse inference sanctions” can be. On April 6th, 2005, the jury in the Zubulake case returned a $29.3 million dollar

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verdict in favor of Zubulake ($9.1 million in compensatory damages and $20.2 million in punitive damages). This total figure is one of the highest sums that an individual discrimination plaintiff has ever won, and even if UBS were to successfully appeal it, these issues will only continue to become more rampant in this information age. Simply put, electronic evidence spoliation is a critical legal and technological issue that every entity threatened by litigation must properly address. If they do not, they risk suffering the same fate as UBS Warburg. The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a computer

forensics and legal technology firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) 703-359-8434 (fax) sensei@senseient.com (e-mail), http://www.senseient.com (web site)

3975 University Drive

Suite 225 Fairfax, Virginia 22030 (703) 359-0700 (phone) (703) 359-8434 (fax) Computer Forensics Lab

EVIDENCE CUSTODY FORM

Case No.: __________ Date: ____________ Time: __________

Evidence received by: Name: _______________________________________ Firm: _____________________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________________________________

Evidence received from:

Name: _______________________________________ Firm: _________________________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________________________________

Evidence received: Computers

1.) Manufacturer: _________________________________ Model: _______________________________

Serial No.: ______________________________________________

2.) Manufacturer: _________________________________ Model: _______________________________

Serial No.: ______________________________________________

3.) Manufacturer:_________________________________ Model: _______________________________

Serial No.: ______________________________________________

4.) Manufacturer: _________________________________ Model: _______________________________

Serial No.: ______________________________________________

Other evidence received:

Description:

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

When Bad Things Happen to Good Firms: Disaster Planning Essentials

With

Sandy Bautch Deborah Matthews

J. Anthony Vittal

October 5, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

When Bad Things Happen to Good Firms:

Disaster Planning Essentials

Checklist for Setting up in a Virtual Office When Staff Will Be Widely Dispersed as the

Result of a Disaster

J. Anthony Vittal

The Vittal Law Firm, Los Angeles, California

www.vittal.net

October 5, 2007

2 National Solo and Small Firm Conferencend

Fall Meeting 2007

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

October 4-6, 2007

CHECKLIST FOR SETTING UP IN A VIRTUAL OFFICE WHEN STAFF WILL BE WIDELY

DISPERSED AS THE RESULT OF A DISASTER

Basic Rules

! Plan for the most likely scenarios for your location. California is unlikely to have

devastating weather events (hurricanes, tornados, ice storms), but is likely to

have earthquakes and wildfires. Rural locations are unlikely to experience

significant acts of terrorism.

! Budget based on the cost (lost revenue; expense of recreating documents,

books, and records; malpractice expense; etc.) to you or your firm if you don’t

have a plan appropriate to your practice.

! Remember that your most valuable resource is your people; their safety and well

being and that of their families must come first.

! Key elements of any disaster recovery plan are (1) protection of information, (2)

redundant infrastructure, and (3) access to them.

! Expect the unexpected. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

! Set up your systems in advance and routinely test them to assure they will be

working properly when you need them.

! Train your personnel (including every new hire) in the use of your distributed

systems, and then run periodic drills to assure they know how to use them, since

your IT people likely will not be available for hand-holding.

Define Your Objectives

! What is your recovery time objective (RTO)?

G How long can your operation afford to be “down” before it must be back

up and running? Plan accordingly.

G Is your RTO different for “mission-critical” data and applications and less-

critical data and/or applications? If so, plan accordingly.

! What is your recovery point objective (RPO)?

G What data, if any, can you or your firm afford to lose?

G Assuming you can afford to lose any data, how much of that data can you

or your firm afford to lose?

G Plan accordingly.

Protection of Information

! Kinds of information to protect:

G Client files, working papers, and “knowledge base” information.

G Firm financial and accounting information.

G Time and billing information.

G Banking information and documents (checkbooks, etc.).

G Applications (the software your firm routinely uses).

! If you have not already done so, convert to a “paperless” office:

G Start with current files, papers, and information.

G When done, start converting closed and archived files and information.

Redundant Infrastructure

! Goals:

G Provide application and data redundancy using a remote failover center.

G Quickly re-establish access by your personnel to your applications and

data without waiting to rebuild your network.

G Enable your personnel to work from alternate locations by securely

connecting to your system or the failover system via the Internet.

G Provide mechanisms for your personnel to remotely access their

“desktops” – either the ones at the office or the clones on the failover

servers.

G Provide mechanisms for your personnel to continue to collaborate with

each other and your clients by e-mail, phone, and web conference.

! Creation of redundant infrastructure:

G Establish fully-equipped off-site “mirror” data center, at a geographically

remote secondary location to duplicate all your file servers, mail servers,

message servers, web servers, etc., and to act as a failover center when

your own server center goes down or goes offline. Secondary locations

must be sufficiently secure to protect the privileged nature of your data.

They can be located, for example at:

G Another office of your firm;

G An office of a family member; or

G A commercial co-location facility.

The failover center should be sufficiently remote from your primary facility

to assure continuity, but close enough to get your personnel there in a

reasonable time when needed.

G Decide which model of failover center to use:

G Active-Passive (failover center remains in “warm standby” mode

until a failure occurs).

G Active-Active (both are on-line at all times, and users connect to

the one with the least latency).

G Provide redundant components at both facilities:

G Redundant power supplies, including UPSes that will allow your

equipment to shut down properly when primary power fails.

G Fault-tolerant RAID arrays for data storage.

G Fault-tolerant network interface card teaming.

G Automatically back up all workstations and notebooks to your servers

using log-on, log-off, and timed synchronization of user files.

Providing On-Demand Access

! Decide whether to use VPN access by firm-owned equipment (such as

notebooks) to the firm’s server resources or to use another access infrastructure

solution, such as the Citrix® Access Platform.

! Advantages of an access infrastructure solution:

G Enables rapid access to applications and data using a standard Web

browser.

G Affords security over the public Internet, without regard to ownership of

the accessing hardware, since all processing occurs on the server, and no

data is stored on the accessing computer.

G Allows administrators to remotely monitor and control who is accessing

information and what actions any particular user can take.

G Provides a “shadowing” capability for remote technical support.

G Includes remote Web conferencing applications for collaborative

communications with colleagues and clients.

Personnel Welfare

! Point of Contact. Remembering that your most valuable resource is your people,

create a blog or some other similar mechanism – ideally on your own servers,

but potentially even on a public blog site – so that there can be a single point of

contact for all firm personnel to let everyone know how they are, where they are

located, and where they may be going, and to post temporary contact

information. You also can use this point of contact as a vehicle for posting

emergency relief information.

! Banking. Make sure you have the ability to make payroll and to pay mission-

critical vendors, such as your ISP(s), your telecommunications provider(s), your

CLR provider, and the like. That may require that you shift your business from

your friendly local bank to a major regional or national bank unless you are

satisfied with your bank’s ability to seamlessly continue operations after a

disaster.

Final Rule

Remember that, no matter how sophisticated your failover systems and infrastructure

may be, you can’t get your practice back up and running faster than you and your

personnel can learn to cope with the disaster at hand. Consider including collaborative

systems in your disaster recovery plan to enable everyone to help everyone get to

safety and re-established with the necessities of life. Keeping your “team” together

after a disaster strikes should be your top priority, and an effective failover system for

your firm will allow you to focus on that.

© 2007, Edward Poll, LawBiz® Management Company and Edward Poll & Associates, Inc.iv

Table of ContentsDedication .........................................................................................iii

Foreword ..........................................................................................vii

About the Author ...............................................................................ix

Section 1: Planning for Survival ...........................................................1Introduction: The Importance of Planning ....................................1The Price of Failing to Plan for the Unexpected ............................2The Benefits of Preparedness ..........................................................3A Question of When—Not If ..........................................................5Is Your Firm Prepared? ....................................................................7Definitional Overview .....................................................................9

Section 2: Defining Disaster .................................................................9Addressing the Disaster Hierarchy ................................................10Incorporating Security Procedures in Firm Planning ..................12Maintaining Flexibility ..................................................................14How to Conceive the Plan .............................................................15

Section 3: Creating the Process for Your Planning ..............................15How to Write the Plan ...................................................................18How to Select the People ...............................................................20How to Create the Acceptance .......................................................22How to Evaluate Organizational Readiness ..................................24

Section 4: Constructing the Disaster Recovery Plan ............................27Summary Approach: A Snapshot of Critical Elements ................27Detailed Process: Step-by-Step in Core Areas...............................29Emergency Communication Plans ...............................................38

Section 5: Planning for Insurance Coverage .......................................41An Issue of Balance ........................................................................41The Three Rs of Risk Assessment ..................................................42Business Interruption Insurance ...................................................43Hurricane Insurance ......................................................................49

© 2007, Edward Poll, LawBiz® Management Company and Edward Poll & Associates, Inc. v

Section 6: Data System Planning........................................................51

Comprehensive Steps to Reinforce Data Security ........................52

Specific Steps for Protecting Data and Files .................................55

Preparing the Information ............................................................63

Section 7: Communications Planning.................................................63

Executing the Plan .........................................................................67

Looking Toward Recovery .............................................................69

Section 8: Financial Planning .............................................................71

Establishing the Banking Relationship .........................................71

Mastering the Lending Process ......................................................72

Taking Advantage of SBA Loan Guarantees .................................75

Restoring Cash and Collection Management ...............................77

Section 9: Facilities Planning ..............................................................81

A Case Study in Facilities Recovery ...............................................81

The New Office Mind-set ..............................................................82

The Virtual Office as a First Step ...................................................83

Securing the Office Space ..............................................................84

Refining the TIBs ...........................................................................87

Inspecting the New Space ..............................................................88

Defining the Details ......................................................................88

Winning the Battle .........................................................................90

Ethical Considerations* .................................................................91

Section 10: Practice Planning .............................................................91

Document Management Concerns ...............................................93

CRM Functions .............................................................................96

Contract Lawyer Help ....................................................................98

Client Activity Databases ...............................................................99

A Case Study in Assisting in a Client’s Disaster ..........................101

The Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act .....103

© 2007, Edward Poll, LawBiz® Management Company and Edward Poll & Associates, Inc.vi

Section 11: Personnel Planning ........................................................105Helping Staff and Their Families through Recovery ..................105Help from a Virtual Assistant ......................................................106Help from Temporary Employees ...............................................108Help With Larger Firm Succession Planning..............................109Help With Small Firm Succession Planning ...............................111Help With Closing a Practice ......................................................113Professional Organizations ..........................................................117

Section 12: Getting More Information ..............................................117Legal Industry Resources .............................................................118Magazines and Journals ...............................................................120Special Reports .............................................................................120Web Portals and Other Online Resources...................................121LawBiz® Management Company Resources................................123

Appendix A Real-World Planning Example: A Quick-Start Summary .................127Munger, Tolles & Olson’s Business Continuity Plan .................127Universal Communication Hierarchy .........................................128Emergency Communication Tools..............................................128Disaster Recovery Authorization .................................................129Functional Areas and Activities ...................................................130

Table of Contents continued

Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Planning for Law FirmsBy Edward Poll(5.5"x8.5", aprox 150 pages, soft cover, Published by LawBiz Management Co., 2007)®

It isn’t a question of if your firm will face a disaster but when it will. How will you andyour people respond? Disaster planning is one of the most specialized, most overlooked, andmost vital business planning endeavors. The goal is to develop a recovery strategy to get yourfirm up and running again and thus ensure its survival. This volume gives you the critical steps,including:

! The essentials of a comprehensive recovery plan! How to create a team to plan the firm’s response! Where legal ethics and disaster planning intersect! Must-dos to safeguard and support your people

“This publication provides excellent guidance on how to develop plans to prepare for andrespond to all types of catastrophes, whether acts of God or of man, and whether local or nationalin scope. Such planning can be critical to the ability to survive following such events. I highlyrecommend it for attorneys and law firms as a basic document on how to be prepared to respondto and recover from disasters.”

—Michael Hirsch, Former FEMA Deputy General Counsel

“Although my firm is identified in these pages as a real-world example of a law firm withan effective recovery plan, Ed deserves much of the credit for the plan you’ll read about. In myview, Ed is the primary architect for my colleagues’ and my firm’s disaster recovery plans and hewas, is, and remains a driving force behind our plans. For that, we are deeply indebted.”

—Tom Edwards, Executive Director of Munger, Tolles & Olson

Softcover book $67.00 eachPDF file $79.00 each

Order on-line at http://store.lawbiz.com/books.php#disaster_preparedness

Identity Looters

By J. Anthony Vittal

After a disaster, storefronts and shopping malls aren’t the only targets for looters. So is your personal identifying and financial information. Below are suggestions for keeping this valuable data out of the hands of vandals and opportunistic thieves who may be rummaging through your home or office in your absence—as well as tips for what to do if you find yourself the victim of identity theft.

Safeguarding Your Identity

• Don’t leave personal identifying information—Social Security Number (SSN), bank and credit card information, passwords, etc., unsecured in your home or office.

• Don’t leave blank checks unsecured in your home or office. • Secure the above items in a safe, and then put the safe itself behind lock and key. • Neither print nor write your SSN or driver’s license number on your checks. • Make sure you use boot passwords to restrict access to your computers and a

Windows User password for each user of your computers. • Use well-constructed “strong” passwords (alphabetical and numeric characters

plus symbols and use of upper- and lowercase) and store them safely in an encrypted and well-protected file. Never write them down!

• If you use a PDA or similar device, store all passwords there in an application such as eWallet. (To see what applications are available for your device, go to www.handango.com and search under “password.”)

• To the extent possible, receive your bills electronically instead of by mail. This avoids a collection of paper bills at your home or office.

• Use online banking instead of checks to pay bills. • Confetti-shred all non-essential paper containing personal identifying information

and personal financial information. • Get yourself fingerprinted at your local police department and, based on those

fingerprints, get an affidavit from the police department on the back of the card attesting that they are yours. Make double-sided copies of the document.

• Keep photocopies of your credit cards, ID materials (driver’s license, passport, etc.), and other important documents in a secure place outside your home, such as a bank safe deposit box, together with the original attested fingerprint card.

o Provide a set of the copies under seal to at least one other trusted person in a remote location—far enough away to be protected from any disaster likely to affect your home town, but close enough to be able to get to them if you need to re- establish your identity.

o Each set should be enclosed in at least one double-seal Ziplock bag, sealed, in order to protect the documents from water.

• Write “Ask for ID” on the back of your credit cards instead of signing them.

• In the event of a disaster, make immediate arrangements with the U.S. Postal Service to hold or forward all your personal mail.

• Add identity theft endorsement to your casualty insurance policy. Most major insurance companies now offer it at no charge or for a small additional premium.

• You and everyone in your family old enough to have identification documents, credit cards, etc., should have several “fanny packs.” Keep one for each person near the door of your home, one in the car, and one at the office. In the event a disaster occurs, grab your wallet or purse or whatever else you use to carry your personal checkbook, ID, and credit/debit cards, and the fanny pack, on the way out the door. Transfer all these items and your emergency cash to the fanny pack, put it on, and keep it with you and secure at all times.

Restoring Your Identity

• If you never have been fingerprinted, served in the military, had a security clearance, or had a U.S. passport, you may find it difficult to prove that you are you. On the other hand, if your bar admissions process included fingerprinting and a background check, the bar admissions agency in your jurisdiction may be a place to start the process.

• If you have an identity theft endorsement to your casualty insurance policy, your carrier may be able to assist you.

• Try your financial institution; some have contracted with identity theft resolution providers, such as Identity Theft 911, LLC.

J. Anthony Vittal, the former general counsel of Credit.Com, Inc., and Identity Theft 911, LLC, is in private practice in Los Angeles, California. He can be reached at tony.vittal@abanet.org.

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Creating an Effective and Professional Online Presence

With

Brett Osterhout,

Eastern Division, Thomson FindLaw

October 5, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

1

Creating an Effective and Professional Online Presence

BRETT OSTERHOUTDirector – Eastern Division

Thomson FindLaw10/5/07 Title of presentation (Edit using

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About FindLaw

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Who is FindLaw?

• Web sites– Design– Custom content

• Directory listings• Online advertising • Search engine

marketing

Online client development services for law firms:

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Agenda

• Attracting qualified leads Search engine marketing and online directories

• Going beyond good looksEffective Web site design

• Providing content that delivers results Information that converts prospects and serves clients

• Getting your money’s worthEvaluating return on investment

• Ethical Considerations

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Components of a Successful Web Presence

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Visibility

• Visibility: You’ve got a Web site…– now make sure it gets noticed!

• Design• Content

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• 70% of American adults use the Internet regularly (vs. 51% in 2000 and 12% in 1995)

• 91% of college-educated people use the Internet

• 93% of homes with incomes above $75,000 are online

But with more people online — and more sites vying for attention — reaching your prospects in your target areas is more critical (and more challenging) than ever

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project — January 2007

Standing Out From the Crowd

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• Search engines

• Legal directories

How Do Prospects Find Your Site?

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Search engines help Internet users find information — Google, Yahoo and MSN are three of the most popular

Search engine marketing (SEM) means making changes to a Web site that increase the number of qualified leads who find you through search engines

• Higher rankings in search-engine results

• More “clicks” to your site

Search Engine Marketing

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The top three search engines account for more than 80% of all online searches submitted:

Source: ComScore Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings, January 2007

Optimize Your Site for Search Engines

Time Warner

Ask.com

Microsoft

Yahoo

Google

5.0%

5.2%

10.6%

28.1%

47.5%

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How Search Engines Work

• Search engines use “spiders” to visit Web sites and collect information, then index the results

• A Google search is a search of the Google index, NOT the entire Internet

• Web sites get spidered through free or paid submissions • Once a site is indexed, search engines use a complex —

and constantly changing — formula to determine relevance to a search query

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Current top 3 factors affecting ranking (in order of weight):1. Inbound links2. Title tags3. Indexable HTML content

The formula for successGeographic Terms + Practice Area Terms + Legal Terms

Search Engine Ranking Formula

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• Quality inbound links increase your chance of ranking high in search-engine results– FindLaw.com links– Bar associations– Alumni organizations

• Keep inbound links relevant to legal information

Elements of Effective SEM: Inbound Links

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8-12 word title for Web page

1. Used by search engines to rank page

2. Anchors text on search engine results page (SERP)

3. Used as the default bookmark/favorite label

4. Appears at the top of the browser

Elements of Effective SEM: Title Tags

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A Web page should contain:• At least 250 words of text • Targeted keywords and keyword phrases likely to appear

in a prospect’s search query– Specific terms, not generalities– Keywords in links, headings and subheadings have some

additional weight with search engines– Key phrases in content carry the most weight with search engines

Content that’s frequently updated and valuable to a visitorwill also be valuable in attracting search engines

Elements of Effective SEM: Content

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SEM is a process, not an event! • Measure Web site results• Analyze effectiveness via a Web site audit• Adjust by applying SEM best practices• Republish your Web site

The SEM Cycle

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Legal Directories

Legal directories — online sites where individuals and businesses can research a legal issue and find representation — are a powerful tool for connecting with motivated client prospects

• Reach prospects searching in your geographic area and practice specialties

• Use attorney-authored articles and other information to position your firm as a knowledgeable authority

• Take advantage of premium placement opportunities to ensure prospects see you first, in your best light

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FindLaw.com

• More than 4 million visitors monthly

• Premier site for locating legal information and lawyers

• Directory Profiles, Top Spots, Spotlights, Sponsorships

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Compare these attorneyprofiles …

Both have great credentials, but which tells the better story?

Directories Link to Attorney Profiles

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Design

• Visibility• Design: Capture attention with

design that does more than look good

• Content

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• Stay focused: Identify specific attributes that set you apart from competitors

• Play to your strengths: Stake a position in the prospect’s mind, factoring in the strengths, weaknesses, of you and your competitors

• Think big fish, small pond: Look for smaller markets you can own exclusively rather than a bigger market you have to share

• Essence of positioning is sacrifice: You must be willing to give up something to establish a unique position.

• Don’t try to be all things to all people

Position Yourself for Success

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Focus On Your Target Audience

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Easy Does It

A well-designed Web site makes it easy for prospects to:• Instantly grasp your unique message: You have just a few

seconds to make a strong first impression• Navigate to the information they need: Layout should be clear

and unambiguous • Follow up with you for next steps: Provide contact details on

every page of your site, if possible

“As far as humanly possible, when I look at a Web page it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory.”

Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think

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Content

• Visibility• Design• Content: Establish your

expertise with fresh, relevant information

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• Landing pages• Practice Centers / Practice Pages• Custom Pages

Position yourself as an expert at solving — and preventing — problems. Visitors come to Web sites for information.Visitors come to Web sites for information.Content really is king!

Establish Your Expertise

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Landing Pages: Highlight Practice Areas, Locations, Languages

bbb

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Practice Centers / Practice Pages:Typically the Most-Visited Area of a

Firm’s Web Site

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Custom Pages: Expand on a practice area, or present content in Spanish

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Evaluate your return on investment (ROI) from:• Web and online advertising, print advertising,

literature, brochures, direct mail, Yellow Pages, TV, radio

• Client entertainment and community sponsorships

Compare client-development programs:• ROI, quality of clients, anticipated return business,

value to law firm “brand,” ease of administration

Evaluate Your Investments

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• Where do they come from? • Is your lead tracking process formal or

anecdotal?• How many prospects are converted into

clients? • What is the value of cases that come from

different sources?

Track Inquiries From Prospective Clients

6

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• What is conversion?– E-mail contact– Phone call– Form submittal

• Factors affecting conversion:– Information– Call-to-action– Web site usability

• How to measure conversion?– Intake forms– Phone and e-mail

Track Your Conversions

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• Track and analyze site traffic via usage reports

• Track sources of traffic from referring URLs —are ad placements on other sites effective?

• Measure, then modify, your exposure strategy

Track Results with HitBox

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1. How are prospects finding your site?2. Where are they going when they leave?

Track Keywords and Exit Pages

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• Number of clicks to the campaign’s URL • Conversion rate • Average value of case • Cost of campaign

Clicks x Conversion x Value / Cost = ROI

Calculate ROI of a Campaign

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• 300 clicks • 1% conversion rate • $5,000 case value • $7,500 cost of campaign

[300 x .01 x 5,000 = 15,000] – 7,500 = 100% ROI 7,500 cost

With 3 cases at $5,000 each, less the cost of the campaign, the firm doubled its money on this marketing effort

•a campaign

Calculate ROI

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1. Is it drawing traffic?2. Does it capture people’s attention? 3. Does it showcase the firm’s expertise? 4. Does it help manage the law practice?5. Does it attract quality clients?

If it’s accomplishing all of the above,the answer is YES!

Does Your Web Site Deliver a Solid ROI?

7

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Ethical Considerations in Law Firm Marketing

Why it Matters:• Exposure to Discipline • Malpractice Implications • The Possibility of Fee Forfeiture • Expenses of Changing Your Brand

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1908 — ABA Canons of Conduct

1969 — ABA Model Code

1977 — Bates v. Arizona

1983 — ABA Model Rules

2002 — Model Rules Amended by “Ethics 2000” Commission

Historical Context

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Ethics Overview:State Rules

Links to ethics rules in all 50 states::www.abanet.org/legalservices/clientdevelopment/adrules

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Which State Rules Apply?

• Where you are admitted?• Where the firm has offices?• Where you seek clients?• Where your ad appears?

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Web Site EthicsBasic Guidelines

• Your Web site is an advertisement• Always use appropriate disclaimers• Avoid anything that can be construed as misleading• List office locations and bar admissions• Use care in linking to non-legal Web sites• Establish a member of the firm who take responsibility for ethical

compliance

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Practice Pointers

• Specify the jurisdictional limits of your firm• Avoid subjective, difficult-to-document claims

and statements• Apply the same standards you would with your

other marketing activities• Continue to educate yourself

8

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Resources

• ABA Web sites– Model rules:

www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/mrpc_toc.html– Links to state ethics rules:

www.abanet.org/legalservices/clientdevelopment/adrules

– News and updates: www.abanet.org/cpr/professionalism/lawyerAd.html

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Resources

• FindLaw.com ethics area:www.findlaw.com/01topics/14ethics/index.html

• State hotlines• Ethics opinions• Professional responsibility counsel

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Questions?

DAY TWO Saturday, October 6, 2007

Plenary 8:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m.

60 Tremendous Solo & Small Firm Tips, Gadgets, and Sites

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

60 Tremendous Solo & Small Firm Tips,

Gadgets, and Sites

With

Bruce Dorner, Moderator Ross Kodner

James Calloway Daniel Coolidge

Catherine Sanders Reach

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

1

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

60 Tremendous Solo & Small Firm Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 1

in 60 MinutesPanelists:

Jim CallowayDan CoolidgeBruce DornerRoss Kodner

Catherine Sanders-Reach

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Presentation Materials By:

Sandy Bautch, Easy Productivity SystemsJim Calloway, Oklahoma Bar AssociationCourtney Kennaday, South Carolina Bar

Ross Kodner, MicroLaw, Inc.

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 2

Nerino Petro, Jr., State Bar of WisconsinCatherine Sanders-Reach, ABA

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Get Fujitsu’s New “PDF Machine” - The ScanSnap

Wow - Fujitsu’s new ScanSnap Model fi-S510 is a sturdy 18/36 page per minute desktop scanner with a quiet and reliable document feeder

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 3

But the BIG NEWS is that for around $440 the scanner includes a full copy of Adobe Acrobat 78 Standard PDF Writer (normally about $250 on its own!) – new version with 8 coming this Summer!This makes the ScanSnap a “PDF Machine”! (And just about the cheapest way to get Adobe Acrobat for your practice!)

Caution – not TWAIN compatible thoughInfo is at: www.scansnap.com

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 4

The Complete Web 2.0 Directory http://www.go2web20.net/

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

An E-Discovery Resource…• Read what the Federal

Judges use:• Managing Discovery of

Electronic Information: A Pocket Guide for Judges

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

Pocket Guide for Judges• http://tinyurl.com/2n7sn5 • FREE PDF file!• Shorter and cheaper

than a lot of others out there

Cut to the chase!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

First Impressions• When you’re out, how is your phone being

answered?• Have friends call your office and give you

a report.He ain’t

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

He ain t here!

He’s never here before

10:30!

2

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Disposing of Old PC Systems: Beware the Ethical and Malpractice Traps!

Um what about all the confidential and

“We just got new PCs -we donated the old ones to the local hunger bank!”

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 7

Um...what about all the confidential and sensitive client data on the hard drives?Again: Recycle bin - when is it really gone?What about old media like floppy disks and backup tapes?Have you used a “destructive” file erasure process with programs like Ontrack’s Data Eraser?What about the software licenses?

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Ultimate Evidence Eraser . . . The Ethical Way to Dispose of Old PC Systems

Worried that data shredding software won’t eradicate your confidential client info?Here’s another approach that may work better . . . And

o ld be one heck of a lot

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 8

would be one heck of a lot more fun!Red Dragon’s Jet Torch kitsAs the website says “the closest thing to a flame thrower you can own” – ‘nuff saidAvailable at Ace Hardware stores everywhere from $60+

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

“Reprint” your published articles on your law firm web page.

• This gives your lawyers credibility.

• Have as searchable text

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 9

web pages rather than PDFs.

• Also note the CLE presentations your lawyers have done within last 5 years.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

• Mike Arkfeld’s Electronic Discovery & Evidence (the 2006-2007 edition)

New Discovery Rules – Top Recommended Resource

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 10

2006-2007 edition)• www.lawpartnerpublishing.com• Latest addition addresses the new

rules• Considered the seminal resource

on the subject, I rate it as a “must read” in light of the new FRCP related to discovery issues

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Fourth Generation Makes All the Difference: You Need a Smartphone!

It’s a phone! It’s a Palm! (or Windows Mobile!)Smartphones offer Palm or Windows Mobile versionsHot products: Palm 750w for Windows Mobile and the latest Palm 755p for Palm

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 11

Palm 755p for PalmDon’t pass on the Palm Treo 700p just yet – still plenty of life in it and bargains to be hadFrom $200 to $400 depending on the cell service providerE-mail, web and phone in one device – it just makes sense!

Palm’s complete Treo family – multiple 600

and 700 series models

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Sperry’s Invaluable “Reply All” Monitor Brings an End to “Ohnoseconds”

How many times have you accidentally done a “Reply All” when you meant just Reply?

There’s a corollary that says “the more professionally and

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 12

personally embarassing it would be to Reply All, the more likely you are to accidentally do it”

This single feature has saved my reputation at least three times

Worth the $20 on its own

3

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

End the Dreaded “Vanishing Edits” Issue with Outlook Attachments

The ultimate digital black hole – isn’t that where Outlook attachments seem to be located?

Whether buried in an Exchange Server or endless strata deep in

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 13

the Silurian Age deposts of a PST file, how many of us have ever experienced “Vanishing Edits?”

That staggeringly frustrating situation where an attachment is retrieved and edited in place, then the edits seem to vanish

Attachment Save redirects attachments to folders of your choice

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Survey Your Clients Regularly

• How did you find me?• How did we do?• What can we do better?

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 14

• Call or send a note of thanks to anyone who refers a client!

• Consider online surveys via surveymonkey.com or zoomerang.com

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Ultimate Web 2.0 Tool? Free Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Create and Word documents and Excel spreadsheets online for free with

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 15

online for free with Google Docs & Spreadsheets (docs.google.com)

No catches – it really does work, from any browser all on the web.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Scanning Tip: What Resolution?

The optimum resolution for most law office scanning is 200-300dpiIdeal for text recognition (300dpi)

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 16

g ( )Higher resolutions often give really poor results for text recognitionSo just because your scanner is capable of 2400 dpi, think of that level for photos only

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Connect To Your Office PC - Fast and Reliablywith GoToMyPC.com!

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 17

GoToMyPC.com offers something many of us have long been waiting for - cheap remote accessto our office PC systems that actually . . . well . . . works!Whether over modem connections or a high-speed line, securely connect directly to your own PC. . . over the Internet - control your PC as if you were sitting thereSure we’ve heard this before and sure, we’ve been disappointed beforeNo idea what kind of magic they are using, but it really does work - check out the free trial andsee for yourselfMonthly and annual subscription fees amount to about $170/year per “host” or $270 for a “twohost” subscription

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Get the Best Free Online Clipart

• Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media page

• Clip art, photos, animations and sounds

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 18

and sounds• Searchable by keyword topic • office.microsoft.com/clipart

4

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Eliminate Paper Faxing – Use Internet Fax Systems

• Eliminate faxes. By eliminating faxes and using electronic images you avoid the

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 19

problems of loose paper floating around the office and you gain the advantage of immediate availability from wherever you may be located.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Huge Attachments to Send? Sick of ‘Em Bouncing Back?

It can be very frustrating trying to send large e-mail attachments

Many e-mail systems simply reject attachments over 2 Mb (which is not a very large file these days!)

YouSendIt.com comes to the rescue providing a free encrypted and

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 20

providing a free, encrypted and secure system for transferring files up to 1 Gb in size directly to the intended recipients

YouSendit.com for instructions and to try it out – you’ll wonder how you ever used attachments without it

Thanks to Jim Calloway for this tip!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Outlook 2007’s “Instant Search” It’s About Time!

• Saving Time in searching, that is!

• Instant Search is the new Windows Desktop Search function built into all of

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

Office 2007• It’s a fully-indexed text

search system much like Google Desktop, X1 or Copernic . . . or the Mac Spotlight system

• The best news – with an update patch, it really does work! (but be sure to patch it!!)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Make File Closing Lettersan Absolute Must!

• Say “Thank You”• Note your efforts are

concluded

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 22

concluded• Mention you appreciate

referrals• Note all other practice

areas of the firm

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Totally Indispensable – TINYURL.comMake Short Work of Insanely Long URLsNotice how some URLs look

more like Welsh village names these days, sometimes with 100+ characters?

Simplify inserting URLs in documents articles

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 23

documents, articles, pleadings, etc. using TINYURL.com

This free service converts mega-URLs into nice, short, permanently available “Tiny URLs”

You’ll use it daily – why isn’t it part of every web browser??

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Backup and Even Transfer Outlook, IE, Outlook Express and MS Office Settings

♦BackRex at backsettings.com is a collection of utilities that can backup and allow you to protect or even transfer to another

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PC your Outlook, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and even Word settings♦BackRex is an invaluable collection of tools - $29.95 for each version (i.e. Outlook, IE, Outlook Express, Office, etc.)

5

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Outlook 2007 Contacts: It’s About Who You Know!

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

Contacts in Outlook 2007 add the “Ribbon” for simpler access to contact control

functions such as categorizing

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Develop a Written Marketing Plan!

• Plan for individual lawyer can be simple

• Easy weekly and monthly tasks

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 26

monthly tasks• Cheap!• Sample plan:

• www.practicepro.ca/ servicebooklet

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Belarc Advisor – Everything InsideBelarc Advisor (www.belarc.com) is a free downloadable tool that inventories all the hardware and software installed

PC Th kiTh ki

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 27

on a PCDown to the serial and license keys for the software to all patches installed to which RAM sockets are open, it’s all thereOh, and it’s free for single PC use

The skinny The skinny on Ross’ on Ross’

laptop from laptop from 9AM this 9AM this

morning . . .morning . . .

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Outlook 2007’s RSS Feed Reader: Get Your Daily Blog Fix… Inside Outlook!

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• Blog feeds delivered as Outlook email• Can be filtered and organized into Outlook folders using powerful

“rules”

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Outlook 2007’s To-Do Bar – Get Control of Your Law Practice Life!• The new “To-Do Bar” can

appear on the right side of every Outlook 2007 view

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• It shows the current day’s to-do items and looks ahead over the next days and weeks

• Excellent “At-a-Glance”approach to legal task management!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Move to Adobe Acrobat8.0 Professional

• More than just a PDF printer

• Search Features

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 30

• Redaction• Bates Stamp Utility• Web Conferencing

for monthly fee.

6

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Online Storage Vaults

• It’s important to know if the company you use is safe and secure

• Also important to know how you will get

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

the data back• Lawyers need help with what to ask online

storage vendors before uploading • Questions to Ask Online Storage Vendors• http://tinyurl.com/yr9ewp

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Woody’s Office Watch• Free email newsletters for all things

Microsoft and Windows• Tips, tricks, tools, and ideas

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

• Recent issues:• Use Gmail as your free spam filter• Putting Office 2003 menus in Office 2007• Effective Outlook Calendars

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Indispensable Gadget – Stay Clean on the Road with Tide-to-Go

Yes, this actually works and I’ve personally used it over and over . . . I always travel with two of them

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 33

themHow does it work? Beats me – it could be magic, it could be toxic waste – all I know is that for about $3.00 there are no embarrassing spots on my ties, my shirts – it’s a lifesaver!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Build a PDF Library• Print any document, web

page, PowerPoint, or spreadsheet into a PDF file.

• Save in Library Folder.

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 34

Save in Library Folder.• Search with Desktop Search

utility.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Why Doesn’t Outlook have QuickWords? It Can With QuickTemplates

Another part of the Bells & Whistles tool kit, the Quick Template system allows you to create text macros

Insert anything – a word, phrase, an entire email

Indispensable utility that users

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 35

Indispensable utility that users will use multiple times daily

Why wasn’t this feature included in Outlook??

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Case Managers are Adding Remote Syncing Capability

♦ As an example, TimeMatters from LexisNexis lets you synchronize your office

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

synchronize your office case management info with branch offices, laptops or home PC systems (and handhelds, of course) -connect with your aircardand stay up to date with the office network

7

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Anagram – Killer Outlook Tool!Anagram from GetAnagram.com is the quintessential Outlook utilityHighlight contact info in any

d ith

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 37

program and with one click, turn it into a contact entry in Outlook – amazing!$29.95 and a free 45 day trial – go and get it and try it!!!!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 38

Highlight the Highlight the contact info contact info

–– in this in this case, in a case, in a

WordPerfect WordPerfect documentdocument

Press CTRLPress CTRL--12 and it 12 and it instantly parses the fields instantly parses the fields and creates an Outlook and creates an Outlook

contact contact –– uncannily accurateuncannily accurate

BEST $20 YOU’LL EVER BEST $20 YOU’LL EVER SPEND!!!SPEND!!!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 39

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Desktop Search Products• Windows search is too slow and limited

• New products index your hard drive:

• Copernic Desktop (www.copernic.com)

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

p p

• X1 (www.x1.com)

• MSN Desktop (http://desktop.msn.com)

• Yahoo! Desktop (http://desktop.yahoo.com)

• Google Desktop (http://desktop.google.com)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Screen Capture on Steroids!Capture whole screens, areas

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,of a screen or even scrolling screens.www.techsmith.com. $39.95

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Making the Aircard Case

♦ With so many WiFi Internet hotspots today, is an aircard

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

y p y,necessary?♦ With one-day hotspot WiFi access typically $8-$12/day, the costs rack up rapidly - as few as three hotspot charges per month can equal the cost of a month of aircard service (and the aircardservice can be used every day, from virtually anywhere there is a reasonably strong cell signal)♦ Aircards, in fact, DO make sense for virtually all mobile lawyers!

8

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Wireless Security: Aircards are Superior to Wi-Fi Access

♦ SECURITY - A HUGE ISSUE WITH WI- FI!✔ Anyone can intercept an "unprotected" WiFi signal✔ Obviously ... you need a firewall protecting every PC on the wireless network - software firewalls or at least Windows

/ f / S

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

XP/Vista Defender/Internet Protection System♦ AIRCARDS ADDRESS THE SECURITY ISSUE FAR BETTER THAN WI-FI✔ Aircard signals, like cellular voice signals are secure - the issues with interceptibility of wi-fi signals don't exist for all practical purposes

♦ Wireless security takes many forms -with "common sense" being a major part of the equation✔ Don't forget about Identity Theft also -aircards offer a more secure approach than using public wi-fi hotspots

Ross

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Try Voice Recognition.• Finally ready for “prime time”• But not for everyone• Great for internal emails,

memos to file

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 44

• Get fastest computer with loads of RAM

• Naturally Speaking 9 Preferred

• USB headset, switch box

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

How’s Your Conflict Checking?• Just checking past clients and opposing

parties isn’t adequate• For a list of some of the names to check,

see

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

see• Types of Names to Track in a Conflict

System• http://tinyurl.com/2qgw6q

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

▪ Speed: Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo Dual Core models, AMD Mobile Turion X2 processors (ideally 2.0 to 2.33 Ghz)▪ RAM: 2 GB (the 512 Mb days are over!)▪ Sound: You have little choice in this (use a USB microphone from companies like Telex or Plantronics for voice recognition)▪ Display: 14.1" or 15"/ 15.4" wide-mode displays

The “Sweet Spot” Wireless Laptop

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p y p y▪ CD-ROM: DVD-Writers only today▪ Hard Drive: 100+ gig (up to 320 gig available) - 7200 rpm is better!▪ Network Card: Built-in with wireless 802.11g/n the norm, also consider built-in “aircards” from Cingular/AT&T▪ Weight/Size: A personal decision - from 2 lbs to literally 17 lbs.▪ Price: $800 to $2300 (spend less = regret, more = wasteful)▪ Brand: No Generics! First tier vendors like Dell, Apple, Toshiba, IBM/Lenovo, HP/Compaq, Electrovaya (Tablets), Fujitsu (Tablets)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Improve the Initial Client Interview

• Arguably the most critical part of the process

• Discuss fees “Early and Often”

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 47

• Trust Your Instincts (If you think he is lying, the judge/jury will too.)

• “It’s not the money, it’s the principle!”• Many, prior lawyers (Especially if they

were all “crooked.”)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 48

9

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Lojack for Laptops

• Laptop stolen every 53 seconds (FBI)

• From Absolute Software

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

Corp. • Software contacts the

monitoring center and reports location using the Internet

• Available for PC and Mac

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Quickly ZOOM Fonts for Easier Reading

• Need a bigger font for easier reading of a document or a webpage? Hold down the

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

p gcontrol key and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to easily enlarge the text, zooming in. This works with True Type fonts, so it will work most of the time.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Junxion Box + Aircard = No Internet Interruptions!

♦ The Junxion box is a wireless router that connects to the Net via your ATT/Cingular Aircard-which plugs into a slot in the box♦ All your users can then securely share the 3G Internet access until your primary Internet access

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Internet access until your primary Internet access is restored♦ For about $700, this is an essential law practice protection system that should not be considered optional, along with the available aircard service to support it♦ Not to mention other uses - an instant secure/private wireless hotspot in your mobile litigation war - room, for example!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Use Outlook Signatures for Things Other Than Signatures.

• You can use signatures to insert other text and info

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 52

insert other text and info• Eg "office directions“• Text and map graphic

• Simply click Insert, then Signature

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 53

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

How Stuff Works.com

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10

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Find Out What’s Running On Your Computer

First, Ctrl+Alt+Del to see your processes

Then, head to ProcessLibrary.com

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New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Ask For Your Client’s ID?

• This tip may offend some• You can do it discretely and

indirectly

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 56

• But several law firms and insurance companies have been “taken” recently by paying large sums of money to an identity theft scammer instead of the injured party

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Save $$ on Phone Calls

• Skype (www.skype.com)

• Free calls to landlines h h 2006

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through 2006

• Google Talk (www.google.com/talk)

• Also chat via IM

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Mapquest Multi-Stop

• No GPS – no problem!

• Build a driving route i M t

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

in Mapquest• Driving directions for

10 stops• Email results or print• Lots of customization

options

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Acrobat 8 Trick – Archiving Entire Outlook Folders

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 59

•Acrobat’s PDFMaker toolbar for Outlook lets you select “Convert Selected Folder to Adobe PDF”• This will convert all the e-mails in the Outlook folder into a multi-page PDF (with live links to attachments, web links, “mailto’s”, etc.)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Archiving Entire Outlook Folders

•When you select your folder and

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 60

“Convert”, after processing, you see your new PDF• All the e-mails in the folder are included, arranged by date, sender or message subject• All embedded links are live!

11

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Following are some additional “bonus” tips – we hope you find them

useful (or at least entertaining!)

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 61

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 62

http://www.lifehacker.com/

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Here’s how to learn those Keyboard Shortcuts that speed up your work

Do you use your Windows key?

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 63

yDownload Jim Calloway’s Keyboard Shortcut “Cheat

Sheet” fromhttp://tinyurl.com/45n5u

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Mother of All OutlookResource Sites: SlipStick.com

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 64

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Goofy Name, Great Product: The PowerSquid Multiplies Outlets

The name could qualify as one of the weirdest or creepiest for any gadget I’ve seen but . . . It’s incredibly useful!Never run out of power-strip outlets because of big power bricks don’t you hate that?

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 65

bricks – don t you hate that?Turn any single outlet into five with the “Squid”Fire marshals might not be thrilled so don’t tell them . . . $15 at places like Lowes, TrueValue, etc.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

HP has developed a new laptop accessory that is sheer brilliance – not because it’s so innovative, but rather, so

It’s Just Common Sense – Which is Why We’ve Never Seen it Before

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 66

obvious!It’s a docking system called NAS 3-in-1It’s got a 160 Gb hard drive built in so that when you plug your laptop in to dock it, it can automatically initiate a data backup.For HP business series laptops only

12

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Fight Utility Rate Increases!Higher electric bills at home and at the office these days?Drop that thermostat with i i !

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 67

impunity!The USB Heated Gloves and Footies are clearly the answer!$22 from USBGeek.com and $49 from Thanko.jp

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Password Protect Your Handheld Device

• Simple safety measure

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

measure• Protect cell phone,

Treo, Blackberry or other portable device

• Why make it easy for thieves?

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

No Exchange Server = No Sharing? Think Again wih ShareO from 4Team

Just because your system doesn’t have an Exchange Server (or you’re running peer-to-peer, God forbid) doesn’t mean you can’t share Outlook folders and resources

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 69

resourcesShareO from 4Team Corporation

(available in the MS Office Marketplace) brings shared Outlook folders

That means shared email folders, calendars, notes, to-dos and more

Perfect for smaller Outlook installations (under 20 users, practically speaking) – for $40 per user

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The 12 hp, Pull-Start iPod BoomBox (answering a question none of us had . . .)

At first I thought the Bosch iPod Power Dock was a generator …Then I realized this monstrosity had an iPod attached to it $170 b t lth iP ddi t

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

$170 buys you stealthy iPodding at your local construction site. What I wonder is: (a) does it run on regular unleaded? and (b) where’s the pull start. So if you’re looking for the antithesis to subtlety in your iPod boomboxing efforts, clearly this is the ultimate iPod accessory for you.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Rollyo (Own Search Engine)

• Free (beta)• Create a customized search

engine

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

engine• Add websites to a list and

then search only those sites• Does not work for “deep web”

or password protected sites• Share with others

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Art of the Voicemail• Be brief. Make your point concisely.• Leave your name and phone number

twice, once in the beginning and once at the end (or at least speak slowly &

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

clearly)• Think in advance about what you will

say if you get a recording.• End “phone tag!” If you have a simple

question or answer, leave it in the voicemail when appropriate.

13

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Get Your Grey’s Anatomy Fix From Anywhere

• Slingbox! Streams video from your home cable/ satellite, DVR anywhere in the world

• With a high speed Internet connection watch

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• With a high-speed Internet connection, watch your home TV from your hotel room

• Slingbox, AV, and Pro

• $199 to $299

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Many case management projects get in trouble because the customization process starts at the wrong point -the beginningInstead, it makes more sense to begin

Case Management Implementation Tip: Start with Your Documents and Work Backwards

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 74

Instead, it makes more sense to begin with the end in mind ▸The culmination of a successful case management project is the ability to assemble documents from all that data you’re now tracking▸The only way to generate the documents is to have all the data you need stored in your case manager▸So start the customization process by first inventorying the documents you want to generate and make a comprehensive list of all the fields of data you will need to be inserted by your case manager

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Roboform

• Fills forms• Remembers passwords

G t d d

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

• Generates random passwords• Roboform2Go for thumb drives• $30US for unlimited password

storage

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Train Smart, Get Payback FasterNo. 1 Training mistake = not trainingNo. 2 Training mistake = training poorlyDon’t make either mistake – implementing new technology without training your people properly usually creates more chaos than you had with the “obsolete” stuff before!Top Training Tips:

Go “TASK-ORIENTED” not “FEATURE-ORIENTED”

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 76

NO GENERIC TRAINING!Use legal-focused trainers/training content

PROFESSIONAL TRAINERS Knowing software doesn’t = training ability

TRAIN OFTEN, TRAIN GENTLYMake sessions as short as they can possibly be

MAKE TRAINING MANDATORYAttendance should be a pre-requisite for new tools access

LIVE IS ALWAYS BETTER, BUT IF NOT TRAIN ONLINEVia the web and your intranet (see below)

THE TRAINER’S PHYSICAL LOCATION IS IRRELEVANTUse tools like GoToMeeting and WebEx

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 77

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 78

14

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Novice to Novice to Advanced Advanced –– any any Word user not Word user not using CrossEyes using CrossEyes to really “Reveal to really “Reveal the Codes” the Codes” needs to ha eneeds to ha e

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 79

needs to have needs to have their head their head examined examined -- $50 $50 is lots cheaper is lots cheaper than a visit to a than a visit to a shrink!shrink!

www.levitjames.www.levitjames.comcom

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Major Distinction – IT v. LT• Everyone needs IT

(Information Technology) support – to keep PCs and networks running

• But don’t expect your IT geek to know anything at all about law practice –

l l ft

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 80

processes, legal software, etc.

• You need both levels of assistance – IT and LT (Legal Technology) support are both essential – the latter having far more impact on your practice than the former

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Belarc Advisor – Everything InsideBelarc Advisor (www.belarc.com) is a free downloadable tool that inventories all the hardware and software installed

PC Th kiTh ki

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 81

on a PCDown to the serial and license keys for the software to all patches installed to which RAM sockets are open, it’s all thereOh, and it’s free for single PC use

The skinny The skinny on Ross’ on Ross’

laptop from laptop from 9AM this 9AM this

morning . . .morning . . .

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Password Advice• Don’t let your browser save passwords• Use as many different ones as you can• The longer the better

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved

• Mix up letters and symbols• Keep it safe• Roboform www.roboform.com

Secret Password!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

3 Hour Conference Call – Free?

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 83

• FreeConference.com offers truly free conference calling. The only catch is that the free conferences use a long-distance number (so consider using your cell!)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Ultimate “Virtual” Printer – Print to FedEx Kinkos

I am TOTALLY enamored with the “File, Print to FedEx Ki k ” i

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Kinkos” serviceIn a nutshell: you download the “File, Print to FedEx Kinkos” printer driver, then select it and “print”You can then select from all sorts of paper and finishing options, and then have your materials printed at any FedExKinkos location anywhere in the worldIt’s how I created the program materials a recent CLE session – printed from Milwaukee, generated in Denver, delivered right to my hotel room!And they give a 10% discount for doing this online!

15

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

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New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The New Must-Have iPod: “Touch”♦ The new iPod Touch is essentially an iPhone without the phone functionality but with Wi-Fi capability - Perfect for listening to your legal podcasts!♦ Available in 8 and 16 Gb models, it dispenses with the iconic “click wheel” in favor of the revolutionary iPhone’s “touch screen” interface ($299 and $399(

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New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Those Wacky Japanese USB Wizards are at it Again with the . . . USB Butt

Cooler

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Squiring uncomfortably in your office chair on those 90 and 100 degree days?Have a nearby, available USB port?Then www.thanko.jp has the answer with the $49 USB butt coolerProctologists everywhere are jumping for joy!

Seriously, don’t even

ask . . .

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Bluetooth Retro Handset –The Next Generation

Last’s year retro handset was clearly not “out there” enoughWhat we didn’t realize we needed was the new Bluetooth edition of the

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Bluetooth edition of the 1949 replica Western Electric cellphone handsetAfter all, wouldn’t a 1949 phone experience make you instantly think . . . BLUETOOTH!$79 from ThinkGeek.com

See the little blue Bluetooth light?

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

USB Turntables Go Even Retro-er:Crosley’s USB Turntable

I’ve shown the USB Turntable concept previously – plug it into a USB port and you can “rip” your LP tracks to MP3 format for loading on your iPods or to your PC

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iPods or to your PCBut the drawback of the previous models is they had no element of “je ne sais quois”Until now – the $149 Crosley USB Turntable looks the part – straight out of your 3rd grade music class (circa 1964) or that groovy shindig hootenany!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Password Advice• Don’t let your browser save passwords• Use as many different ones as you can• The longer the better

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• Mix up letters and symbols• Keep it safe• Roboform www.roboform.com

Secret Passwor

d!

16

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Office Watch• Free email newsletters for all things

Microsoft and Windows• Tips, tricks, tools, and ideas

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• Recent issues:• Use Gmail as your free spam filter• Putting Office 2003 menus in Office 2007• Effective Outlook Calendars

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

MS OneNote

• Virtual Notebook• Works with Tablet PC... Or Not• Share with others

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Share with others• Integrates with MS Office Suite• Better than a yellow legal pad

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Better Writing Skills• Use “i.e” and “e.g.” correctly!• www.betterwritingskills.com/

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New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

What I Think You Said• 50% of people correctly interpret the tone of an

incoming email• 80% of people think they’ve correctly interpreted

the tone of an incoming email90% f d b li th h d th i

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• 90% of senders believe they have conveyed their intended tone

• Lesson 1: Review email before hitting “send”• Lesson 2: Don’t read too much in to an email• Lesson 3: Sometimes a phone call or face-to-face

is a better approach

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

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• Search the web with Google from any site • Eliminate pop-up ads • Fill in forms with one click • Highlight search terms on a page • Google search the current site only – so useful!!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Find Out What’s Running On Your Computer

First, Ctrl+Alt+Del to see your processes

Then, head to ProcessLibrary.com

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17

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Acrobat 8 Trick – Archiving Entire Outlook Folders

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•Acrobat’s PDFMaker toolbar for Outlook lets you select “Convert Selected Folder to Adobe PDF”• This will convert all the e-mails in the Outlook folder into a multi-page PDF (with live links to attachments, web links, “mailto’s”, etc.)

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Archiving Entire Outlook Folders

•When you select your folder and

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“Convert”, after processing, you see your new PDF• All the e-mails in the folder are included, arranged by date, sender or message subject• All embedded links are live!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

MeetWithApproval.com

• Meeting planning tool• Find a date that fits everyone’s

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schedule• Eliminates phone calls and emails• Fill out the form, invite your

colleagues et voila

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Personalize Google

• iGoogle• Add gadgets mashups RSS feeds your

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• Add gadgets, mashups, RSS feeds, your search history, Gmail, games, and more

• Easy to use, easy to customize• Tabs allow multiple pages for different

types of content

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Art of the Voicemail• Be brief. Make your point concisely.• Leave your name and phone number

twice, once in the beginning and once at the end (or at least speak slowly & clearly)

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• Think in advance about what you will say if you get a recording.

• End “phone tag!” If you have a simple question or answer, leave it in the voicemail when appropriate.

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Roboform

• Fills forms• Remembers passwords

G t d d

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• Generates random passwords• Roboform2Go for thumb drives• $30US for unlimited password

storage

18

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

eBlaster – Fulfill Your Forensic Spying Fantasies!

From eBlaster com it’s the ultimate digital spying tool

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From eBlaster.com, it s the ultimate digital spying toolAside from the picky legal issues, you can grab keystrokes, capture passwords, grab entire IM sessionsYour teenager (or spouse, or other “loved” one) will have absolutely no computer-based privacy whatsoever!Even better, you can email all the findings, unbeknownst to the poor “spy-ee” in the backgroundOnly $119 buys the ultimate violation of privacy

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Need an Ego Boost in the Office? How About Being Sir Galahad for the Day?

Yep, that’s right, it’s an actual chain mail tunic, just like the ones worn by your favorite Knight of the Roundtable heroFor only $99 from

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For only $99 from Thinkgeek.com, you can be a chivalrous knight for the dayJust think about the impression you’d make showing up in court, donned in full chain mail!Exception – avoid the TSA!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Perfect Complement to Your Chain Mail Tunic: Foam Core Warrior Stuff!

They may look like by-products of some Viking invasion but they’re really harmless and lightweight foam core “Office Warrior” weaponsBetween $49 and $59 from

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Thinkgeek.com, what could go better with the chain mail tunic you can’t resistThe key here is to stride confidently out of your office and NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT to your staff!Be sure to preview your state’s applicable involuntary commitment laws first …

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Need to Duplicate Your iPod? So What’s the Hitch?

The Hitch - an ingenious device that allows you to transfer digital files between two devices

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 106

two devicesFrom iPod to other iPodFrom digital camera to iPodCompatible with Digital Rights Management$99 from gethitch.com

Duplicate iPods – have a backup unit just in

case – never go without your Podcasts!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Clients Driving You Nuts? Drive Your Way Back to Law Practice Sanity!The $49 Gamester is the ultimate Playstation accessory for the Formula 1, IndyCar and NASCAR

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IndyCar and NASCAR crowdPacks into a subtle black carrying case to hide when associates are in your officeBut close your door, fire up ULTIMATE TEST DRIVE 4 and VRRROOOMMM!!!!

The last Playstation 2 model is so small, you can hide it under your desk!

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

The Japanese are SO Much More Sophisticated Than We Are . . .

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There’s nothing more to say other than I WANT ONE OF THESE!!!Yes, it’s the practical and stylish USB Tie Fan! Look Cool, Keep Cool – that’s my new motto!$49 (or about 5,600 yen) from thanko.jp

19

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Who Needs Yellow Pages Ads – Market Your Practice WITH BODY BILLBOARDS!

Why spend $5K per month on a Yellow Pages cover ad when you can promote your

ti l i

ABA GP|Solo Division©2007 Kodner, Calloway, Batch, Kennaday, Sanders-Reach, Petro, All Rights Reserved 109

practice leveraging scrolling LED technology??For as little as $8.50 get your law firm’s word out – in any crowd, all day longComputerGeeks.com

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Smarter Automotive iPodding with Scosche’s iPod Auto Remote

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!Plug your iPod into the remote receiver, strap the tiny black

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strap the tiny black remote controller to your steering wheel and save hundreds on costly “iPod Auto Integration kits”$79 from Scosche.com

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

For the Wildly Successful Lawyer Who Has Everything…

Slice things in style with the Swiss Army “Bonfort” series of pocketknivesOn the left is the

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On the left is the Yellow Gold model encrusted with 4 carats of near-flawless diamondsOn the right, the platinum editionCost? $56,000 and $70,000 respectively

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Sick and Tired of Flash Drives Hogging Your USB Ports?

Ritek’s new dual-port flash drives help you maximize your USB port complementPlug in the 1 gb and 2 b fl h d i

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2 gb flash drive models and you get two additional USB pass-through ports!Get storage AND more ports – what a world!$49 and $89 respectively from ritekdata.com

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Carry All Your Secret Passwords Securely – RoboForm on the Go!

With Pass2Go you can carry all your secret passwords and website login infoWith 256 bit

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With 256-bit encryption, it’s a secure way to carry around all your login info and not leave a trace on the host PC$79 with 1 GB of memory from www.pass2go.com

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

You Just Don’t Want this to Come Out in Your Client’s

DepositionEvidence Eliminator 5.0 does what it’s name implies It securely wipes out digital data

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implies . . . It securely wipes out digital dataBut think about this . . . Would you really want your deponent to admit on the stand that in response to the question:

“So what did you routinely do to maintain the computer which allegedly held all the information about the fraudulent financial transfers?”“Heck, I used EVIDENCE ELIMINATOR!”

$119 from Evidence-Eliminator.com

20

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Got Gadgets? Frontgate’s $149 Charging Station

Keeps the Juice Flowing to ‘Em All!

Thanks to the upscale geniuses as FrontGate.com, the $149 mahogany charging station will keep the power flowing to four mobile gizmos, with all the cords neatly

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tucked out of siteOr for $19, the pedestrian charging station from Radio Shack does the same thing

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

♦ Clearly a problem area - demand for remote access will only increase:

✔ It is time to move to a more robust remote access approach✔ The Citrix Presentation Server application is the most reliable and cost-effective remote access approach

▸ Bulletproof reliability and minimal support required

Citrix Access to the Office Systems

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p y pp qcompared to other remote access methods (i.e. VPN)▸ Minimal setup required on the user’s remote system - with significant tolerance for older technology or even Macs as client systems▸ Newer small firm package makes this MUCH more affordable for even the smallest firms - starts to make economic sense when you have 3-5 people outside the office who need to remotely access the office system at the same time (www.citrix.com)▸ Citrix Essentials for Small Business brings 5 user Citrix capability for about $1300

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

What Geeks Fantasize About . . .

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From DigitalTigers.com, from 2 to 8 displays From DigitalTigers.com, from 2 to 8 displays –– the model above the model above is on sale right now for $4699 is on sale right now for $4699 –– seriously, how could life get seriously, how could life get any better??any better??

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

But Shades of Days Past: The

Modern PC Keyboards are Pieces ofFlimsy Junk . . .

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VenerableNorthgate OmnikeyReturns - It’s theHarley-Davidson ofKeyboards!

Creative Vision Technologies for $189 www.cvtinc.com/products/keyboards/stellar.htm

New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Also Consider Using the LatestMicrosoft Keyboard!

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New York LegalTech • February 200460 Tremendous Tips, Gadgets & Websites in 60 Minutes

Thank You For Listening! Be Sure to Attend the 2nd Annual National Solo &

Small Firm Conference!

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DAY TWO Saturday, October 6, 2007

Programs 9:45 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works! Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice

Recognition that Works!

Track 2 – Manage Smart! All About the Benjamins: Billing Smart, Getting Paid

Track 3 – Have a Life! Sale of a Law Practice

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice

Recognition that Works!

With

Nerino Petro Jeffrey Allen

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr.

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works!

Attorney Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Practice Management Advisor

Practice411™ Law Office Management Assistance Program State Bar of Wisconsin

608-250-6012 npetro@Wisbar.org

www.WisBar.org/Practice411

2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference Fall Meeting 2007

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA

October 4 - 6, 2007

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr.

Table of Contents Introduction: Good Afternoon Hal. ................................................................................... 1 

Digital dictation................................................................................................................ 2 

What is Digital dictation? ............................................................................................. 2 

Digital Speech Standard .............................................................................................. 2 

Digital Speech Standard Pro ....................................................................................... 3 

Other Recording Formats ............................................................................................ 4 

Workflow...................................................................................................................... 4 

Why Digital dictation is important................................................................................. 6 

One Solution Example ................................................................................................. 7 

Suggested Steps in Selecting a Digital Dictation Solution ......................................... 11 

The Products ............................................................................................................. 12 

Handheld Digital recorders:.................................................................................... 12 

Wired microphones: ............................................................................................... 12 

Digital dictation software: ....................................................................................... 13 

Where to buy:......................................................................................................... 13 

Voice recognition........................................................................................................... 14 

The challenges. ......................................................................................................... 14 

Is voice recognition ready for the law office? ......................................................... 15 

Versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. ................................................................. 15 

Third-party add-ons................................................................................................ 18 

Conclusion. ................................................................................................................... 18 Copyright Notice: All materials contained in this paper are copyrighted 2006 by Nerino J. Petro, Jr.

No claim made to other than original works.

Acknowledgments:

All trademark, service marks and other identify names or symbols are the property of their respective

owners and should be treated as such

Microsoft, Windows, Office, Outlook are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a registered trademark of Nuance Communications, Inc.

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! NSSFC 07

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Page 1 of 18 Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin

Introduction: Good Afternoon Hal.

Amer. Good afternoon, Hal. How's everything going?

Hal. Good afternoon, Mr Amer. Everything is going extremely well.

Amer. Hal, you have an enormous responsibility on this mission, in many ways perhaps the greatest responsibility of any single mission element. You are the brain and central nervous system of the ship, and your responsibilities include watching over the men in hibernation. Does this ever cause you any - lack of confidence?

Hal. Let me put it this way, Mr. Amer. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error. (From 2001: A Space Odyssey)

Most of us have seen the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” in which HAL the computer

is able to understand spoken commands and interact with the ship's crew. While

technology is nowhere near the sophistication required to allow direct and unfettered

interaction between man and machine, it has made significant strides in the areas of

digital dictation and voice recognition. However, digital dictation and voice recognition

are often confused by lawyers. This paper will serve to define the differences between

digital dictation and voice recognition and provide a brief overview of some of the

equipment and software available.

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! NSSFC 07

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Page 2 of 18 Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin

Digital dictation

What is Digital dictation?

Digital dictation should be thought of as being the replacement for traditional tape-based

transcription units. Wikipedia (www.Wikipedia.com ), the Internet Encyclopedia,

describes digital dictation as "...a method of recording and editing the spoken word in

real-time within a digital audio format." While the speech is captured and played back in

a digital format using either your office computers or digital equipment and your network

is used to transfer the individual files, the computer plays no other role than that of

recorder and player: the actual transformation of the spoken word into text is still done

by a living person.

Digital dictation offers numerous advantages over traditional tape-based systems

including:

1. No more cassette tapes to carry/wear out/lose.

2. The ability to send files as soon as they are dictated;

3. The ability to go to any point within the dictated file;

4. The ability to either overwrite an existing portion of the dictated file or to insert

new language without losing anything already dictated;

5. The ability to transmit files not only across the office network but over the

Internet, including e-mail, allowing you to work while on the road and being able

to transfer files before you return to the office.

6. Work flow management advantages including prioritizing, sending to different

transcriptionists to manage work load;

Digital Speech Standard

While some digital recorders and computer-based digital transcription systems use the

.wav file format, most professional level digital dictation systems use the Digital Speech

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! NSSFC 07

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Page 3 of 18 Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin

Standard (DSS), which is a file format used specifically for speech recording

applications. Wikipedia has this to say about DSS:

Digital Speech Standard (DSS) is a proprietary compressed digital audio format defined by the International Voice Association, a co-operative venture by Olympus, Philips and Grundig. It was originally developed in 1994 by Philips and Grundig with the University of Nuremberg. In 1997, the digital speech standard was released, which was based on the previous codec. Its primary use is in digital dictation recorders. This file format is limited to basic recording functionality (such as recording, playing, rewinding, etc.) as well as the ability to record in either insert or overwrite mode. Essentially, file header information may include data such as priority mark, author, job type, etc.

The creation of DSS helped avoid the format conflicts experienced in other recording

formats such as VHS vs. Beta or MP3 vs. Wav formats. This standard allows law firms

to use different recording equipment and software, while insuring interoperability so long

as equipment and hardware use the DSS format. In addition to the advantages

mentioned above, DSS offers further benefits including:

1. Industry wide acceptance

2. Smaller files allowing more dictation in less memory.

3. Additional information attached to each file such as date, time, priority, length,

etc.

Digital Speech Standard Pro

With the ever growing reliance on the Internet and email to transfer transcriptions as

well as heightened concerns over security of confidential information, the International

Voice Association released the DSS Pro/DSS 2 standard in 2007 which includes two

major improvements: A) option for real time encryption while recording and B) improved

audio quality. With real time encryption, the handheld digital recorder encrypts the

speech file as it is recorded. This provides immediate protection for the file when it is

emailed without further steps to encrypt the file and also provides security in event the

memory card on which the speech file is stored is lost or stolen. One thing to note is that

if the recorder is lost or stolen with the memory card in it, the encryption will be

ineffective as the recorder provides the encryption and decryption/ To protect against

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! NSSFC 07

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Page 4 of 18 Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin

this possibility, the recorder itself must have the ability to require a Personal

Identification Number or PIN before allowing recording or playback.

Other Recording Formats

In addition to DSS, DSS Pro Wav and MP3, there are other recording formats that can

be used, including a format that allows for the embedding and attachment of text,

images and documents to voice files, which is known as the Intelligent Audio File (IAF)

from Quikscribe Digital Dictation & Transcription Systems of Australia and distributed in

the US by Digital Technology, LLC (www.digidictate.com). Even though IAF is a

proprietary format, it will download and import DSS file formats, allowing lawyers to use

portable recorders.

Workflow

The workflow in digital dictation usually involves a number of logical steps which get the

speech file from the attorney to the transcriptionist. Depending on the size of the office

i.e. the number of attorneys and available transcriptionists, there are a number of

intermediate steps in this process which usually follows the progression shown in Image

A below:

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! NSSFC 07

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Page 5 of 18 Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin

As shown in Image A, the first step is getting the digital dictation into the attorney’s

computer system while at the office. If using a microphone connected directly to the

computer, the attorney will generally use the transcription recorder to create a new file

Attorney

Computer

Image A

Server

Speech file recorded

Wired or handheld

Device

Transcriptionist assigned by default or by

Attorney selection

Talk to the Hand! Digital Dictation and Voice Recognition that Works! NSSFC 07

© 2006-2007 Nerino J. Petro, Jr. Page 6 of 18 Practice Management Advisor State Bar of Wisconsin

and then begin dictation. If the attorney is using a digital recorder, it works much the

same as with a tape based unit; the additional step is that the file must be transferred

from the digital recorder to the computer system. Most professional grade digital

recorders include options in their software to automatically transfer files from the

recorder to the computer once it is connected via a cable or placed in a cradle.

Once the digital file is on the computer, the attorney can then decide to make any

corrections or additions and if not, prepare to send the file to the correct support staff

member. In full-featured digital transcription software, workflow is a critical feature as

the attorney has the option of assigning a priority to the file, time when needed and

whether to receive a notice when support staff completes the file. The attorney can also

elect to send the file to his or her usual support staff person or a different staff member

to balance the work load. When the attorney sends the file, it is sent to the computer

that is acting as the transcription server which may be a true server on your computer

network or may be a support staff computer in smaller offices.

The dictation files will then appear in the player portion of the transcription software on

the support staff's computer. While the support staff can use on-screen buttons and

their mouse to operate the software, the preferred method is for the support staff to

utilize a traditional transcription foot pedal which is connected directly to the computer

usually via USB. One of the primary benefits of using a foot pedal is that the process for

support staff remains basically t he same as with the tape based units they are used to

working with, but also gain the advantage inherent in the digital files.

Why Digital dictation is important.

For those attorneys who are still using traditional tape-based transcription systems

Digital dictation is the next logical step in updating and improving their office systems.

For a large number of attorneys, dictating into a tape recorder is a fact of life. For many,

who are keyboard challenged, dictation is usually much faster for document production

then trying to type it themselves. These attorneys are never without their recorder

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whether it might be a Dictaphone, maybe an Olympus or another brand. Some

attorneys still use desktop dictation units. However, like an endangered species, tape

based dictation units are getting harder to find. Even for those attorneys who are used

to typing basic documents for themselves, Digital dictation can be used to transcribe

lengthier documents such as meeting or conference transcripts.

Also, replacing tapes, dealing with jams and support staff not understanding what the

attorney says because a section of tape was bad can get frustrating. Finding

replacement transcription units as the old ones wear out is an issue.

One Solution Example

My last tape based unit was an Olympus tape-based recorder, which was the best such

recorder I'd had in 10 years. However, one day it died and Olympus no longer made

that model. The new models were larger so I decided to switch to digital dictation based

on demonstrations I saw of products at an annual ABA TechShow. One product was

free, but you had to buy the foot pedal unit from them. There were some bugs, but the

company was very good at working with me to get everything functioning. There were

several drawbacks to this system. It relied on a headset connected to your computer for

recording with on-screen controls for recording, rewind, fast forward, etc; this proved to

be very cumbersome. The system also lacked work flow management tools that are

required for offices with multiple attorneys. This solution failed to offer simplicity and

usability features that were needed to make it a viable solution for anything other than a

one attorney – one support staff member office. At a later TechShow, I visited with

several vendors who demonstrated handheld microphones from Phillips with recording

and playback controls on them that seemed to make more sense and other digital

recording and playback software.

As a lawyer and technology consultant, before I would recommend a product I had to try

it and be satisfied that it was a reliable, trouble free item that would work for my clients. I

looked at a number of digital transcription systems including BigHand

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(www.bighand.com), WinScribe (www.winscribe.com), Start-Stop (www.startstop.com)

and others. As a Value Added Reseller (VAR), I had access to a number of these

products and have sold different solutions depending on the end users needs. All of the

products mentioned are suitable for use in a wide range of environments and firm sizes;

however, I was intrigued with Quikscribe, mentioned in the Other Recording Formats

section above, which allowed for embedding text and graphics in the speech files. I

selected Quikscribe for my own office and am still using it today.

Unlike some solutions using .Wav or DSS file formats, Quikscribe uses the proprietary

IAF format mentioned earlier. The benefit of this format is the ability to embed text and

images inside the dictation. For those attorneys that use their computers for research or

for drafting or markups, they can copy portions of electronic cases into the dictation

when drafting briefs, or embedding sections from prior work. When the transcriptionist

reaches this point in the file, he or she will hear a tone and can then paste this text or

image directly into the document being typed. Attorneys no longer have to dictate each

quote. Likewise, if an attorney wants to reuse a contract or other text, they can copy it

and place it directly in the dictation file – no more marking up a photocopy or trying to

tell the support staff member in the dictation what you wanted copied. You can also

embed graphics into the dictation and create training sessions that include the images

and the audio. Unlike tape, each dictation is its own file and you can modify them by

insertion or overwriting in the file. If you need one file finished before another, the

support staff can go directly to the file without having to hunt through a tape to try and

find it. Coupled with a Phillips SpeechMike or similar unit from Olympus, you can dictate

at your desk and send the dictation to the dictation server software and place different

priorities and requested completion times on each file. Additionally, you can have a

notification when the file is completed.

With a digital solution, you no longer have to worry about worn out tapes, problems with

the recorder or transcription unit since everything is computer based. Your

transcriptionist has a foot pedal just like the old tape based transcription unit. If

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necessary, you can send the file to another staff member if the workload becomes too

great and you can easily added additional attorneys.

The only limitation that I encountered was the fact that I had no way of dictating when I

was away from my office unless I used my notebook computer and wired microphone.

This issue was resolved with the purchase of a handheld digital recorder.

Quikscribe will import the industry standard DSS file format as well as others. Olympus,

Philips, Panasonic and Sony all make digital handheld recorders which use the DSS file

format. However, how they implement the controls on their digital handheld recorders

differ. Do not waste time buying digital recorders from office supply stores or online

vendors that do not include a four-in-one (4n1) slide switch. The 4n1 switch allows you

to record, playback, and rewind as well as to

overwrite all with a single sliding switch and is the

standard for the best tape based systems. An

example can be seen in Image B.

I purchased several units without this feature and

they all soon found their way to my discarded

gadget drawer.

These handheld units generally sell for over

$300.00, which for a small office may not be an easy purchase when combined with the

transcriptionist hardware and software, especially if multiple units are needed. However,

after looking back at experiences with less expensive and less capable digital dictation

units available, a 4n1 slide switch is a necessity in my opinion.

These handheld units are similar in size to the high quality tape based units, if not

slightly smaller. The key benefit to units with 4n1 switches is that they work in very

much the same way as tape based units allowing you to record, rewind and playback or

rewind and overwrite the recorded speech just as you can with tape. You can also elect

to have the recorder insert text while keeping the original dictation. This is something

Image B

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that is not available or difficult with less expensive digital handheld recorders. Moving

from a tape based unit to a Philips or Olympus digital model will take very little effort and

any differences rapidly become second nature.

Since there is no tape, you simply pushed an EOL (End of Letter) button to separate

each dictation segment. With replaceable memory cards, you can vary the amount of

recording time the unit holds which is helpful if you’re going to be out of the office for

some time. The dictation files can be emailed to your office or downloaded to your

desktop system. Products from Quikscribe, BigHand, WinScribe, etc., can be configured

to automatically download the speech files to a specified file folder, and if necessary, to

import them into the appropriate format such as IAF. You can then use the software and

a wired microphone such as a Philips Speechmike or even a headset and the onscreen

controls to make changes or to send them to your support staff member. You can also

email them to your staff member, who can open them on their desktop using their player

program to transcribe. Units such as the DS 4000 from Olympus and the Philips DPM

9600 include the software necessary to download the speech files to your computer and

to make changes to them. You can also purchase foot pedals and player (transcription)

software which is adequate for small offices that don’t require more full featured

workflow solutions from the recorder manufacturers.

The latest handheld recorder from Philips is the DPM 9600 which incorporates the DSS

Pro standard including real time hardware based encryption. All of the key units from

Phillips, Olympus and Grundig connect to a computer via USB (Universal Serial Bus).

Both the Olympus DS4000 and the Philips DPM 9600 include cradles that act as

docking stations to download files and to charge the rechargeable batteries. You will not

find these units at your local Office Depot or Staples stores. You will need to find an

authorized local dealer or on-line reseller. I have a Philips DPM 9350 that did yeoman’s

service for many years and I now have the Philips DPM 9600 which I am extremely

happy with and recommend it highly. A friend of mine, a Fellow in the American College

of Trial Lawyers has an Olympus DS4000 and has nothing but praise for it and how it

has revolutionized his practice. Both Philips and Olympus make equipment for recording

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and transcribing that I have no problem recommending. While other manufacturers such

as Grundig provide similar equipment, the Philips and Olympus lines are the most

widely sold and supported.

Quikscribe coupled with wired Philips Speechmikes and handheld digital recorders

provided a digital recording and playback solution that was straightforward and easy to

use; cost effective and scalable to meet the needs of a growing office whether there

was one attorney or hundred.

While this solution may not be right for every firm, there is a solution that will be right for

your needs available in the market today. The capabilities of these products continues

to increase and include the ability to phone in dictation; integrate with speech

recognition software; thin client compatibility; Interwoven and other product integration;

use with PDA and Blackberry capabilities.

Suggested Steps in Selecting a Digital Dictation Solution

1. Examine your current tape based system (if one exists) and determine if you will

need wired microphones, handheld recorders or a mixture of both.

2. Examine your current workflow system for dealing with transcription and

determine if you wish to keep this model or makes changes to it such as creating

a central transcription pool rather than use designated staff for each attorney.

3. Determine the number of recorders and players you will need.

4. Examine your current software mix and determine if integration with any existing

applications such as iManage is needed.

5. Determine if you will want the ability for attorneys to call in dictation.

6. Determine if you will want the ability to add speech recognition capabilities.

7. Determine if you want the capability to embed text or graphics in the speech file

or attach an existing file to the speech file.

8. Examine the level of reporting you want to have available such as current status

of jobs, jobs completed, priority of pending jobs, etc.

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9. Begin reviewing available product offerings and specification information to

determine which products appear to meet the needs identified above.

10. Determine whether you wish to self install, deploy and train or use an integrator

or VAR for this purpose.

11. Make the move.

The Products

As mentioned earlier, there are numerous digital dictation products including both

software and hardware available on the market today. The list below is not a complete

listing, but rather a guide to popular and available products.

Handheld Digital recorders:

Olympus DS 4000

(http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1117 )

Phillips DPM 9600

(http://www.dictation.philips.com/index.php?id=1581)

Both of these units come with basic software to download files to your computer;

however, you will need to purchase the transcriber software from these companies (or

from someone else) to obtain the full benefit of these products.

Wired microphones:

Philips SpeechMike (http://www.dictation.philips.com/index.php?id=57 )

Olympus (http://olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_vr_transcribers.asp )

Phillips offers a large line of SpeechMike's including both serial and USB port versions.

Some include integrated trackballs, traditional 4 in 1 slide switch as well as

programmable buttons. Olympus is now offering wired microphones with similar feature

sets to those of the high-end Philips SpeechMike's.

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Digital dictation software:

Quikscribe: (www.Quikscribe.com ) (www.digidictate.com )

BigHand3 (www.bighand3.com/)

WinScribe (www.winscribe.com )

Verdatum (www.verdatumsys.com/ )

Legal Easy (www.letechnology.com/ )

Olympus DSS Player Pro

(www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1182 )

Philips SpeechExec Pro

(www.dictation.philips.com/index.php?id=52&CC=US)

GearPlayer

(www.transcriptiongear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code

=GP0 )

Start-Stop (www.startstop.com/sst2.asp )

Where to buy:

www.transcriptiongear.com

www.digidictate.com/index.php

Olympus Dealers: smoltz.neotech.net/olympus_smoltz/dealers.htm

Philips Dealers: smoltz.neotech.net/philips_smoltz/dealers.htm

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Voice recognition.

Voice recognition is the technology whereby a person's speech is converted into text by

the computer using specialized software. This is literally the scenario of "I talk and the

computer types." Voice-recognition is more properly referred to as speech recognition

or automatic speech recognition. According to Wikipedia, speech recognition "...is the

process of converting a speech signal to a set of words, by means of an algorithm

implemented as a computer program."

Voice recognition technology for the masses was first introduced in the 1990’s, but it

always seemed to promise more than it actually delivered. The initial voice-recognition

systems were "discrete" systems which required a clear pause between each word

spoken. While these systems could capture speech it was more difficult than

continuous speech which is the way we interact with each other on a day-to-day basis.

However, voice-recognition has made significant improvements in the last year to the

point where it is feasible for many attorneys to use speech recognition in their everyday

practice. Commercially available continuous speech recognition products have reached

the point that they are "ready for prime time." These new products include not only the

ability to dictate documents in word processing programs such as Microsoft Word but

can also be used in programs such as Microsoft Outlook and others. You can also use

basic commands to navigate and edit within these programs.

The challenges.

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) faces numerous factors including:

1. Identifying the sound of words in the context in which the words are used;

2. Environmental variables such as background noise levels, machinery and other

noises present in the workplace;

3. Speaker variables including stress, a motion, voice quality and health;

4. Differences such as accents and dialects.

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What these factors really come down to is that the quieter the work environment, the

better the microphone and the clearer the speech the better the recognition will be.

Better quality microphones can overcome some background noise issues and an

extremely quiet environment can compensate for poor microphones. The ability of the

speaker to clearly enunciate their words is also critical.

Is voice recognition ready for the law office?

Until June of 2006 my answer would have been "no it is not ready for use in the law

office". However, in June of 2006 I obtained a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking

version 8 Preferred and began using it. The improvements over the prior versions I had

worked with were significant to say the least. Recognition accuracy was noticeably

better and its ability to recognize was also greatly improved. In August of 2006 I

upgraded to the newly released Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9 Preferred which

offers increased accuracy and recognition.

While there are several smaller companies providing speech recognition software and

while even Microsoft has added the capability to its Office products, the current champ

for speech recognition in the law office is Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance

(http://www.nuance.com/dragon/ ).

Versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes in several different versions progressing from the

least expensive Standard version, the midpriced Preferred version and the top of the

line Professional version. The professional version also includes medical and legal

specific versions. A partial comparison list is shown in Image C:

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Image C

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The Professional version also gives you the ability to create complex macros, provides

for a "roaming user" which allows someone else on a different computer to play your

voice file and edit the transcription, and more. However, as the Professional version

costs $800 or more, if you want to experiment with speech recognition, then the

Preferred version is where you should start.

The Preferred version sells for approximately $199.00; however, if you own a prior

version you can generally upgrade for $99. When you purchase Dragon

NaturallySpeaking Preferred you receive not only the software but a headset that plugs

into the sound card on your computer. Generally with voice recognition software we

recommend that you purchase a better headset that connects to your computer via a

USB port: this sidesteps your sound card entirely and removes any issues of

compatibility from the equation. Headsets from Parrott, Plantronics, Sennsenheiser,

VXI Corp., G. N. Netcom and Andrea electronics are approved for use and will generally

provide better recognition and accuracy. The Philips SpeechMikes can also be used

and have received high ratings for accuracy from Nuance. Dragon NaturallySpeaking

version 9 has also added support for Bluetooth wireless technology enabled

microphones. You can even use your handheld digital recorder if it has been certified

by Nuance to transfer dictation you take on the road into NaturallySpeaking. To see a

complete listing of equipment on the NaturallySpeaking hardware compatibility list go to:

http://support.nuance.com/compatibility/default.asp .

While Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9 can be used out-of-the-box without any

training, I strongly recommend that you do the initial training and then continue to train

the software each time you use it. This will give you a higher degree of accuracy and

will save you time in the long run. You have several reading options including

selections from the popular Dilbert cartoons.

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Third-party add-ons.

There are third-party products that are available to use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

One such provider is the Know Brainer website at: www.knowbrainer.com. Know

Brainer products include Advanced Scripting additions, a large number of new

commands, as well as legal and medical dictionaries. You will also find third-party

command files for Time Matters practice management software at Premier Software

(www.Premiersoftware.com).

Conclusion.

Digital dictation and voice-recognition are two entirely different concepts. Each now has

a place in all offices and if used appropriately can improve your efficiency and ease your

workflow. For those offices still working from a traditional dictate then transcribe model,

moving to digital dictation makes sense from both an economic and efficiency

standpoint. Eliminating the problems inherent in tape-based transcription including lost

tapes, the need to replace tapes on a regular basis, and the fact that the equipment

wears out over time are all overcome by using digital dictation systems and once

purchased you will never buy another tape again.

For the more daring, speech recognition is definitely worth considering for the smaller

office where the attorney is not a good typist or where physical issues such as carpal

tunnel syndrome are faced. With a minimal amount of training, an attorney can begin

using Dragon NaturallySpeaking in such a manner as to reduce the amount of actual

typing needed, allowing for greater productivity in the same amount of time.

Author's note: the majority of this paper was prepared using Dragon NaturallySpeaking

preferred version 9.

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Olympus DS-4000

Phillips DPM 9600Courtesy Philips Dictation Systems

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Volume 6,Number 2May 2007

Table of ContentsPast Issues

PRODUCTNOTESCalling All Dictators: Top-RatedDigital Dictating EquipmentReviewed by Jeffrey Allen

Most of us have had experience using dictatingequipment of one sort or another. Dependingon how long you have been in practice, youmay have worked with dictating equipmentusing reel-to-reel, standard cassette, and/ormicrocassette tape for its recording media.While you can still find some of that type ofequipment around, the last several years haveseen a major shift in the paradigm. Most of ususe digital dictation equipment now. Those ofus that don’t will likely do so in the near future.

Digital dictation equipment comes in manyforms. The portable units have become themost powerful,l as you can use them in and outof your office and in a variety of environmentsand locations. You can get relativelyinexpensive digital recorders that can functionas dictation units in the $200–$300 range. Youcan also get professional quality digitaldictation equipment. Granted, you will paymore for it; but the advantages in terms ofquality, reliability, longevity, and simpleconvenience of use far outweigh the pricedifferential. The professional modelsconsidered in this review all cost between $350and $500, but can often be found for less

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online. You can pay more for kits includingoptional accessories.

The portable professional digital dictation equipment considered in this reviewrepresent the units generally considered as the best by most vendors of suchequipment. The units considered are the Olympus DS-4000, the Phillips DPM9600, the Grundig Digta 4015 and Digta 415, and the Sony ICD-BM1. All of theunits share many common features, but each has some that distinguish it fromthe others.

1. All of the units have a collection of control switches on the front andor back, but share the traditional thumb switch as the primary controlmechanism for dictation. That switch resides on the right side of eachunit so that when the user holds the unit in their right hand, the rightthumb controls the dictation, review, stop, and play functions throughthat switch.2. Each unit has a backlit display screen that uses alphanumeric andgraphic symbols. The Phillips unit has the largest screen, followed inorder by the Olympus, Grundigs, and Sony.3. All of the units use flash memory media for expanded recordingtime. The Phillips and Grundig units use SD cards, the Olympus usesan XD, card and the Sony uses a memory stick.4. All of the units come with rechargeable batteries except the Sony. Itcomes with two standard AAA batteries. You can, of course, replacethem with rechargable batteries if you wish.5. All of the units record in DSS format except the Sony, which recordsin .wav format.6. The Phillips and Grundig Digta 415 screens are the easiest to see,with the Olympus close behind. The Digta 4015 and the Sony screensare the most difficult to read.7. All of the units have separate power switches. The configuration ofthe Olympus makes it the least likely to accidentally switch on or off.8. All of the units have metal cases except the two Grundig machines.9. All of the units come with cases. The Grundig units have cloth casesand the others have leather (a leather case is available for the Digta4015).10. Each of the units connects to a computer via a standard USB portfor file transfer.11. Each of the units has ports for external microphones andearphones.12. None of the manufacturers make the units in the United States.Grundig’s units come from Germany, Phillips’ units come from Austria,Olympus’ units come from China, and Sony’s come from Japan.13. All of the units are fairly easy and straightforward to use.14. All units have Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 compatibilitycertification except the Phillips. The Phillips has just been released andthe available certification lists predate it. The Sony unit has the highestcompatibility rating.15. Although the Olympus is the only united advertised as compatiblewith the Macintosh, the same software that makes the Olympus workwith the Macintosh also allows the other DSS devices (all but theSony) to work with the Macintosh.16. The Sony unit has been around the longest. The Olympus also hasbeen out for several years. The Grundig 4015 has been around for a

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while (but without U.S. formatting). The Digta 415 was released withinthe last year, and the Phillips is brand new, having been released inMarch 2007.17. The feel of the units in your hand is a personal thing. To me, theDigta 415 feels the most comfortable and the Sony ICD-BM1 the leastcomfortable. The Olympus DSS 4000 and the Phillips 9600 feel almostidentical in my hand and also quite comfortable.

The Sony unit costs $349, but I have seen it on line for as little as $250. It is theleast of the units in my opinion in terms of price, features, and desirability. Intruth, I included it in this list solely as a result of its compatibility rating withrespect to Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.

In terms of recording quality and clarity, the units are on a par with each other,but, to my ear, the Olympus and Phillips units have a slight advantage.

Size, Weight, and PriceThe $449 DS 4000 is 1.97” x 0.67” x 4.34” and weighs in at 3.63 oz.The $499 DPM 9600 is 2.0” x 0.7” x 4.6” and weighs 3.7 oz.The Digta 415 is 2.13” x 0.83” x 5.0” and weighs 3.63 oz.The $395 Digta 4015 is 1.97” x 0.91” x 5.2 “ and weighs 5.11 oz.

The bottom line: You will probably shift to digital dictation in the near future, ifyou have not already done so. The Olympus unit has generally been consideredthe best in its class for the last few years. The Phillips DPM 9600 and the Digta415 are new units that are worth considering as alternatives.

For the Record: The Marantz PMD660 and CDR 420RecordersReviewed by Jeffrey Allen

Marantz has a reputation for making outstanding recording devices forprofessional use. These two devices meet the expectation of excellenceassociated with the Marantz name.

The Marantz CDR420 can record and store up to 1800 hours of MP3 qualityrecordings or 24 hours of uncompressed 44.1/48kHz quality recordings on its 20GB hard disk. The Marantz CDR420 uses USB 2.0 for fast file transfer to acomputer; it also allows you to connect a computer keyboard for easy filenaming. The CDR 420 also allows you to move the files to a CD for easydistribution.

The CDR 420 records in both .wav and MP3 file formats to make it easier for youto make use of the recorded files. Although you can use external microphoneswith the CDR 420, it comes with a built-in microphone that works quite well formost uses. The built in speaker allows for playback with reasonable quality aswell, particularly for the recording of nonmusical events. Marantz built the CDR420 for field use in professional settings. It looks like it will take a reasonablebeating and keep on recording. I have used a Marantz cassette recorder formany years, and it has held up very well. The CDR 420 looks to be of the sameilk.

The CDR 420 has all the control necessary to allow a technician to maximize thesound quality, and you can flip it to automatic and get an excellent recording ifyou are not into the idea of being a sound techie. The recorder also has built-inediting capabilities.

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The CDR 420 does not give you a lightweight recorder. Rather, it is a substantialpiece of equipment approximately 11”x 9”x 4” in size and weighs in atapproximately 5.5 lbs. The unit lists for $1,499, but you can find it on line foraround $1,200. If that sounds like a lot of money for a recording device, youwon’t get any argument from me. On the other hand, if you have a need for adependable, reliable recorder that will produce CDs, you may find the featurespacked into this one justify the price. Potential uses for the CDR 420: recordingyour presentations when you teach CLE classes so that you can distribute thepresentation on CD, recording arbitration proceedings, administrative hearings,recording depositions, recording meetings of corporate boards of directors,recording conferences.

If you can’t (or don’t want to) massage your office equipment budget to cover thecost of a CDR 420 and/or you don’t need the ability to convert the recording toCD and/or you want a more portable device, look at the Marantz PMD 660. ThePMD 660 uses flash memory in a much smaller, lighter and more portablepackage. Also designed for professional field use, this device packs more easilydue to the fact that it only takes up 4.9” x 7.2 ”x 1.9” of space and weighs in atonly 1.1 lbs. You can power it from the AC line cord or run it with 4 AA batteries(about a 4 hour life).

The PMD 660 has two built-in condenser microphones and also works withexternal microphones, if you prefer to use one. It does have a built-in speaker,but for playback other than speech, you will be happier transferring the files to acomputer, burning a CD, and playing it back through higher quality speakers.

Recognizing that professional uses generally require editing, Marantz built editingfeatures into the PMD 660. In terms of recording time, the PMD 660 will recordapproximately 36 hours of monaural mp3 at 64 kbps or about 17 hours of highquality compressed stereo mp3 at 128 kbps.

It comes with a shoulder strap for easy mobility. While you can use it for almosteverything you can use the CDR 420 to do, the CDR 420 will handle manychores more elegantly and better than the PMD 660. If you plan to carry therecorder around and use it for recording witness interviews or informalmeetings/conferences, the PMD 660’s portability makes it the better choice.

The PMD 660 lists for $649, but you can find it on line for under $500.

On the Go—HP MobileMessengerReviewed by Alan Pearlman

For those of you who have had your eye on anew and more exciting form of communicationsoutside the office, without the hassles thatpreviously accompanied handhelds, I urge youto take a good look at the HP iPAQ hw6940Mobile Messenger series. The HP iPAQhw6940 Mobile Messenger provides all theessentials to keep your business running evenwhen you’re away from the office—phone,email, and more secure access to business-critical information. At the same time, let yourHP iPAQ keep life fun using GPS Navigation,

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© 1994-2007 Hewlett -Packard Company.All rights reserved.

the HP Photosmart Camera, and Microsoft®Windows Media Player 10 Mobile to play yourdigital music and videos.

It features quad-band GSM technology thatdelivers high-quality mobile voice and data

services with roaming capabilities across the world. A variety of integratedwireless technologies, including GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth let youconnect and communicate in and away from the office. You also have the abilityto transform your HP iPAQ into a personal guide to get you where you need togo with the built-in GPS receiver. When you deal with email you have the abilityto read and respond using powerful solutions that help maintain your business’security. A Mini-SD slot allows you to add memory as you need it or to exchangefiles between your HP iPAQ and another device.

For those out of the office times that you just want to have a little fun, you canuse the built-in HP Photosmart Camera take a quick photo and share itwirelessly from your handheld or your HP iPAQ keeps your life fun with MicrosoftWindows Media Player® 10 Mobile to play your music and videos. Although theunit is a bit pricey for the leading edge at $599, once you try it you will want tohave one. I take mine everywhere. I have been highly satisfied with it.

Neither the ABA nor ABA Sections endorse non-ABA products or services, andthe product reviews in the Technology eReport should not be so construed.

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Volume 6,Number 1April 2007

Table of ContentsPast Issues

ProductNotesEdirol R-09 RecorderReviewed by Jeffrey Allen

Over the years Roland has built a solid reputation for fine quality audio products.One of its most successful recording units, the R-1, has been a standard“portable” recorder for some time. Recently, Roland released a new and muchmore portable recorder that it calls the Edirol R-09. The R-09 provides many ofthe features of the R-1 in a smaller (pocket-sized), less expensive, and muchnicer looking package.

The R-09 comes in your choice of any color (as long as it is black, red, or white).It lists for $450, but you can purchase it online for substantially less. AlthoughRoland designed the R-09 for music (and it does a great job recording music),you can also use it to record speech. While you may want to use it for music inconnection with your personal life, no doubt the ability to record speech will comein handier in your practice.

The R-09 does an excellent job recording such things as meetings, hearings,depositions, presentations, lectures, and the like. Therein lies its utility toattorneys. The recorder does an excellent job picking up voices in different partsof the room and at different levels and tones. Use the AGC (automatic gaincontrol) feature to get the most out of the R-09 in such situations. The Low Cutswitch will cut out (or at least substantially reduce) ambient or backgroundnoises, such as HVAC units, fans, and motor noises. Do not get the R-09thinking you will use it for dictation. While you actually could do that, you will notlike it for that purpose, as it does not have dictation-friendly controls.

The R-09 uses a white on black display. The high contrast makes it fairly easy toread. The controls appear relatively straightforward and should not take you longto master. One of the nicer features of the unit, a level meter, makes it easy tosee when the recorder requires adjustment to keep the subject in range. It alsomakes it possible to use the recorder effectively in a wide variety of environments

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ranging from very noisy to quiet.

The R-09 measures approximately 2.5 x 4.06 x 1.25 inches and weighs in atless than six ounces with batteries. You can easily fit it into a briefcase, a purseor even a jacket pocket. The R-09 can save in .wav and MP3 formats. The R-09uses SD cards for memory. Using standard MP3 bit rates you can store morethan 16 hours of recording on a 1 GB SD card. For more information, go towww.edirol.net. The ability to record directly to MP3 has the added advantage ofallowing you to transfer files not only to your computer, but also to an iPod orother MP3 player for later review.

While it certainly costs more than some of the inexpensive digital recorders youcan find, once you record a board meeting or a homeowners’ associationmeeting with it and compare what you get with the quality of a recording on oneof the inexpensive general purpose recorders, you will likely conclude that the R-09’s performance justifies the difference in cost. If you want a digital recorder tomake a few notes on or for dictation, you have better choices available to you. Ifyou need a recorder to handle a wide variety of functions including meetings,depositions, hearings, lectures, and so forth, and want good quality recordings,the R-09 makes an excellent choice.

LaCie Rugged Hard DiskReviewed by Jeffrey Allen

In these days of changing security requirements for air travel, having tougherequipment and cases becomes a significant advantage. If you travel out of theUnited States, you cannot assume that you will get to keep your computerequipment with you on the plane. It may end up in the checked baggage, where,if and when you get it back, it will have had a much rougher trip than you did.

Even if you don’t have that problem, small hard disk drives tend to get bangedaround a lot. They generally do not have the peaceful luxury of resting on a deskday in and day out. They get carried from home to office to home or on trips tohere, there and everywhere. They get shoved into cases that often get thrownaround or dropped onto the floor. They get put on airplane trays and in otherprecarious places where they can get knocked to the ground. We all know thathard disk manufacturers don’t design them for dropping onto the ground. Well,mostly they don’t. La Cie, however, has recognized that, by design or not, theowners of its small portable hard disk drives may drop them on the ground.

In anticipation of this eventuality, La Cie has built the Hummer of hard disks; aruggedized hard disk that, while not intended for dropping, can take a fewknocks and keep on working. La Cie sent me one of their 100GB rugged harddisks to try out in connection with this review. When I unpacked the drive, thefirst thing that caught my attention was its bright orange rubber bumper. Thebumper functions to provide some protection to the drive if dropped on its edge.Its bright orange color also makes it stand out in your computer bag or briefcaseso that you can easily find it. The hard drive case has a scratch-resistantaluminum shell to help protect it, so it went into my case without a bag or anyother protection.

The drive works with both Mac and Windows computers. The 100 GB driveconnected with both FireWire 400 and 800 and with USB 2.0 ports. It worked aswell and more quickly than most of the other portable drives that I have usedbecause it ran at 7,200 RPM instead of the far more common 5,400 RPM usuallyseen in portable drives. LaCie says that the drive will withstand a drop of some35 inches while the drive is not operating (strong recommendation against

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dropping it while it is operating). While I did not drop mine off of a table, I did putit in a computer bag that I dropped off my shoulder to the floor and from my handto the floor on several occasions. It did not seem to phase the drive at all. It justkept on working.

The rugged hard drive also comes in 80 GB, 120GB, and 160GB versions inboth USB 2.0 and the triple interface. The 100GB drive does not come in aUSB-only configuration. You can also save a few dollars by choosing a USB-onlymodel over the triple interface that I had on mine. The drive is bus-powered inboth USB and FireWire configurations, so you do not need to worry aboutpacking a power brick, only a connection cable. The drives weigh in at just undernine ounces.

It should not come as a surprise that you pay a premium for the ruggedization ofthe drives. The triple interface drives list for $170 (80 GB), $299 (100 GB), $229(120 GB), and $249 (160GB). The 100GB drive costs more as it is faster thanthe other drives (7,200 RPM vs. 5,400 RPM). USB only drives list for $119(80GB), $149 (120GB), and $169 (160GB). The USB drives all work at 5,400RPM; the 100 GB 7,200 RPM drive only comes with the triple interface.

If you carry a portable hard disk around and use it regularly, this one belongs inyour bag.

The Lawyer’s Guide to FactFinding on the InternetReviewed by Jeffrey Allen

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amountof information on the Internet? Have you everthought that the Internet contained so muchinformation that nobody could possibly knowwhere or how to find it all? If you have not feltthis way, you likely do not understand thebreadth and depth of the Internet. If you havenever felt this way, you need to read the thirdedition of The Lawyer’s Guide to Fact Findingon the Internet (2006). If you have felt this way,then you probably already know how useful agood guide would prove. In 755 pages ofexplanation, authors Carole Levitt and MarkRosch present enough information on what you

can find on the Internet that might help your practice and how you can locate it tooverwhelm even those who thought they had some reasonable familiarity withresearching facts on the Internet.

The Internet contains more information than any of us will ever have reason toaccess during our entire lifetime. It also contains significant amounts ofinformation that will prove useful to us professionally, as well as in our personallives. The authors have provided you with a very useful tool: a guide that takesyou through the process of locating information on the Internet by telling youwhere to look and how to look to find what you need.

The book presents and discusses numerous sites, explaining what they offer,advising if it costs anything to obtain information from the site, and giving you theURL, allowing you to navigate directly to the site to obtain the required or desiredinformation. A fairly comprehensive table of contents helps guide you to the part

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of the book that will help you find the facts you seek.

To help you with the search process, an enclosed CD includes several checklistsfor specific types of searches. The CD also includes an extremely usefulsearchable PDF file containing some 78 pages of URL information about sitesand references to the pages in the book where the site is discussed. As each ofthe URLs functions as a link, copying the PDF file to your computer for futureuse makes it a valuable tool by itself because it allows you to quickly locate sitesand navigate to them without having to keyboard the URL.

The authors also publish a bimonthly newsletter, which supplements the book. Ifyou buy the book, they include a one-year subscription at no additional cost.

Despite the fact that the authors wrote the book in a style comfortable to read,you will not likely want to take the book with you for light reading on vacation. Itwill, however, serve you as a useful and timesaving resource and teach you aconsiderable amount about researching on the Internet. This book should be inalmost every lawyer’s library,

The Lawyer’s Guide to Fact Finding on the Internet (3rd ed.), copyright 2006by Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch and published by the LPM Section of theAmerican Bar Association, lists for $99.95 (but you can get discounts as amember or, often, by attending the ABA TECHSHOW held every spring inChicago).

The Electronic Evidence andDiscovery HandbookReviewed by Jeffrey Allen

Sharon D. Nelson, Bruce A. Olson, and John W.Simek have done a masterful job in assemblinguseful information including forms, checklists, andguidelines to assist you in handling electronicevidence and ediscovery. Published in 2006 by theABA Law Practice Management Section, you canhave The Electronic Evidence and DiscoveryHandbook in your own library for $129.95 (oftendiscounted for Section members and attendees ofthe ABA TECHSHOW).

If you do litigation, you will likely find yourself using electronic evidence anddealing with ediscovery in short order. If you are already an expert in this area,you probably don’t need this book, but may still find it useful. For those who donot already qualify as experts, Sharon, Bruce, and John have given you ahandbook on dealing with ediscovery, the forms to use as your master set and aCD to make your life even easier. I won’t tell you that it reads like a novel—itdoesn’t (isn’t that a novel comment?). I will tell you that I think you will find thefirst half of the book, the handbook and forms, useful and helpful.

The last half of the book consists of a case digest of 249 electronic evidencecases from all over the country. I thought the case digest in printed form wassignificantly less useful than the rest of the book. Each case in the digest isnumbered, and the authors provide information as to the case name and court,but do not include the case citation. You can find that information in the table ofcases at the end of the book, however. The cases each include keywords toassist in finding or following up with supplemental investigation or research. Theydo not, however, use the keywords (or at least all of them) in the index (nor does

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the index include references to the cases digested), thereby leaving you with noeffective way to use the printed digest except to thumb through it.

I qualified my criticism in the last paragraph to the case digest in printed form fora very specific reason. The authors include in the enclosed CD many forms fromthe book in Word format so that you can easily adapt them to your needs. Theyalso include a searchable PDF of the entire case digest and table of cases. Thesearchable PDF allows you to find what you need in the case digest and makes ita much more usable tool. I think that the PDF version would have sufficed andthat they could have saved some trees; but I tend to prefer lots of thingselectronically these days and freely admit to that bias.

All told, the book is well done, and even though I know quite a bit aboutelectronic evidence and ediscovery, I am glad I added it to my library.

Neither the ABA nor ABA Sections endorse non-ABA products or services, and the productreviews in the Technology eReport should not be so construed.

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America Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

All About the Benjamins: Billing Smart, Getting Paid

Jim Calloway Director, OBA Management Assistance Program

Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips (http://jimcalloway.typepad.com)

Monica D’Amore D’Amore Consulting 1003 Pinebrook Road Cherry Hill. NJ 08034 Phone:856-795-89008

2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference Fall Meeting 2007

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division Philadelphia, PA

October 4 - 6, 2007

Rethinking Attorneys Fees Materials supplied by Jim Calloway

Forward

Billing and getting paid are the lifeblood of any professional services firm. The idea of billing on

a basis other than hourly is nothing new. In fact, hourly billing is of relatively recent vintage. Lawyers

still routinely handle matters like bankruptcy or criminal defense on a flat fee basis. There is much

discussion now on the proper role of contingency fees.

For today’s discussion we will discuss some of the pitfalls of hourly only billing systems. But we

will also focus on how your internal systems and procedures can be integrated with the firm’s billing

arrangements to develop a process that better serves the client with predictability and superior work

product while delivering a more profitable service for the firm due to the minimized attorney time on day-

to-day tasks.

So while lawyer might be horrified at the idea of looking at Walmart for an example for the future

of their profession, in truth, there may be a lot to learn from the nation’s largest retailer.

Flat Fee Nation Leveraging Technology and Workflow

to Beat the Billing Squeeze By Christy Burke

©2006 Christy Burke

(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the June 2006 issue of the e-zine Law Practice Today – online at http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author. All rights reserved.)

As Managing Director of South Carolina-based Rogers Townsend & Thomas (“RTT”), Carol

Cummings is faced with simple but brutal mandate – leverage or perish. She must efficiently maximize

the resources of the firm to ensure its profitability and productivity. Cummings’ job is getting harder,

though, since two of the firm’s three divisions have been forced into accepting flat fee payment for their

2

cases. RTT is feeling the pinch of pressure from clients to fix their fees, more evidence to the fact that the

emergence of a Flat Fee Nation is in full swing.

According to Cummings, “The big question for firms with flat fees is how are we going to make

money while also meeting the ever-increasing demands of our clients? Both the Default Services

(Foreclosure) and the Real Estate/REO (Real Estate Owned)

departments have gone to full or partial flat fee billing now, meaning

that the same amount of money will come in for each matter, r

of the time spent completing the work.” Cummings observes th

is not alone, but is one of many firms adjusting to a national shift in the

law firm billing paradigm to flat fees. Clients are trying to contain thei

spiraling legal expenses by fixing fees, and law firms are figuring out

how to survive despite these requirements.

egardless

at RTT

r

The big squeeze takes place when clients demand flat or capped fees from their lawyers, and yet

at the same time firms are being forced to pay higher salaries to incoming associates and other personnel

to compete with their peers to hire the best talent. With profit margin per matter declining and expenses

increasing, it’s clear to see that firms have a major problem to address in order to sustain their businesses

and to compete against other firms.

“Unless you have your process systematized, you cannot

survive and you cannot make money – it’s that simple.”

According to Cummings, the key to maintaining profitability in RTT’s flat fee environment is to

streamline workflow and effectively use technology. The firm hired an outside process engineering

consultant to observe their business processes and make recommendations on how they could increase

efficiencies. The firm has since established a Technology Project Team, a division of their I.T.

3

department dedicated to doing workflow analysis, supporting applications, troubleshooting and process

advising.

Cummings remarks, “Unless you have your process systematized,

you cannot survive and you cannot make money – it’s that simple. Gone are

the days of divergent costs and unlimited hourly billing. We make money

on volume. Just like Wal-Mart, we make a little bit of profit on everything,

but since we’ve gotten smarter about how we work, we can handle more

volume to make up the difference. We have automated every stage as much

as possible. Any cases that have exceptions or are complex in any way and

cannot be run through the standard process are immediately routed to the Exceptions team so they can be

escalated to the attorney level right away.”

From a technology standpoint, RTT relies heavily on its matter management software, LawBase,

to be the central backbone of the workflow process. RTT assigns tasks to the person with the lowest skill

level required to complete that project piece. Generally, the most expensive time is that of the attorneys,

so that time is conserved as much as possible. Staff members enter data into LawBase and move the

process along, preparing the material for various “touchpoints” at which point the lawyer will review it.

Work is done simultaneously if at all possible – multitasking is critical. For example, when the

Abstractor is in the field doing the title search, the Complaint team is busy at the office preparing the

Complaint.

RTT is one of only two firms in South Carolina that is designated counsel for Freddie Mac. As

such, they are under enormous pressure to keep that designation. Maintaining expected timelines is

critical; Freddie Mac gives them a certain number of days to get the Complaint on record. The firm is

compared with other vendors to meet this timeline. If RTT cannot perform, they could lose their

designation.

Cummings says, “Our Complaint team uses HotDocs Document Assembly Software and

LawBase to generate the complaint. Since complaints are pretty standard, we have built a HotDocs

4

template for them and the necessary information is imported from the LawBase database to populate the

complaint form. Once the Complaint Team has prepared the form, this is a ‘touchpoint’ at which the

attorney will review the prepared complaint. At this point, the complaint is done – the lawyer reviews it

for accuracy, to ascertain that nothing is missed from the records provided.”

“The key here,” Cummings continues, “is that the information is all entered into the LawBase

system correctly. Then the data can be pulled out of LawBase into HotDocs. The success of this system

is predicated upon accurate entry by our support staff into LawBase so the data is perfect.”

While the Complaint Team is busily preparing the Complaint for the attorney’s eyes, the

Abstractor is executing the title search on the property. With 2000+ abstract orders per month on

average, RTT has a network of abstractors across the state. By equipping

each abstractor with PCs, scanners, DSL lines and connection via Citrix,

the abstractor scans in the title information with an encoded cover sheet

so the document routes directly into the firm’s iManage Document

Management System. This process used to take several days, but now t

use of technology enables them to achieve same-day delivery. Curr

the title documents are written by hand, but Cummings explains th

are working on a system whereby the abstract document can become a template that auto-populates the

LawBase system.

he

ently

at they

Once the Complaint is submitted and the Title report has been received, the next step is the

Service documents which are prepared by staff for another attorney touchpoint, and the process continues.

Cummings said that RTT’s system is an example of the lengths that today’s firms have to go to for

survival and success. “Technology and workflow are our best weapons in the battle for endurance. By

focusing efforts on maximizing and integrating our technology, we can stay in the game – and win it.”

Traditionalists will likely balk at the thought of law firms aspiring to be more like Wal-Mart in

any way. However, by pushing technology to its limits and tasking internal staff to enforce the process,

5

firms like RTT are living proof that adopting a business model of efficiency and process standardization

can be a proven road to success in a Flat Fee Nation.

Christy Burke is President of Burke & Company LLC, a marketing and public relations firm based in New York City. She can be reached at cburke@burke-company.com.

Alternative Billing for the “Main Street Lawyer”

by James A. Calloway and Mark A. Robertson

© 2004 The authors (This article is an excerpt from Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies That Work, Second Edition, by James A. Calloway and Mark A. Robertson, published October 2002. This article was republished in the September 2004 issue of the E-zine Law Practice Today. All rights reserved.)

The majority of lawyers in the United States practice in a solo or small firm setting. These

lawyers often face different challenges concerning pricing for their services. Yet, in many ways, a

smaller-size practice—with its lack of bureaucracy and certain institutional traditions—allows lawyers to

move more nimbly in adopting changes.

Solo and small-firm lawyers are not homogeneous. Many small firms operate in the same manner

as larger law firms and serve similar clients. This is particularly true for small firms that originally existed

as practice groups of larger firms. When lawyers who spent their early years practicing in large-firm

settings move to smaller-firm settings, they tend to continue practicing in the same way they always did.

But for many solo and small-firm lawyers, there is a significant difference between their practices

and those of their large-firm brethren. This difference relates to who or what might be a typical client.

Generally speaking, larger law firms spend most of their efforts representing businesses, and the bigger

the business clients are, the better. This is not to say that law firms of all sizes do not represent

individuals. But generally, corporate clients constitute the bedrock of a larger firm’s clientele.

There are significant differences between these typical small-firm clients and major corporate

clients. The smaller-business owner often has more in common with a consumer when making any type

of purchasing decision than a large corporate client engaging in business-to-business negotiations with a

6

large law firm. Small-town lawyers, suburban lawyers, and those in other practice settings who represent

mainly consumers have some history of the use of flat fees, contingent fees and various methods other

than the billable hour. For easy reference and lack of a better term, we shall refer to these lawyers

collectively as Main Street lawyers.

Hourly billing is an objective method of determining the cost of delivery of legal services and for

many years has served ad the benchmark for determining the price, or value, of the legal services as well.

But for the clients, or potential clients, of the Main Street lawyer, the billable hour may seem more like a

blank check payable to the law firm than a reliable method of determining a fee.

In consumer-oriented practices, lawyers deal with a greater percentage of relatively

unsophisticated clients; clients who are often inexperienced in dealing with lawyers. Whether a matter

concerns an adoption or an arrest, a will or a workers’ compensation claim, the simple fact is that a

consumer client may have no prior experience with the legal subject matter and had no prior need for a

lawyer.

Therefore, some of the techniques used in negotiating a fee with a client with experience in

purchasing legal services like an insurance company or a bank do not apply to the average consumer

client. There is no give-and-take discussion about various alternative billing methods when the client has

little or no understanding of the process.

For consumer legal services, fees are often based upon market forces

and lawyer experience, rather than negotiation with prospective clients.

But these unsophisticated clients are those who might most

appreciate the simplicity and clarity of many alternative fee

arrangements.

What Will It Cost?

Suppose a potential client makes an appointment with the lawyer about a relatively

straightforward probate proceeding. The Main Street lawyer discusses handling the matter and discloses

7

his or her billing rate. For many consumer clients, a statement of the lawyer’s hourly rate—the cost per

hour—is not sufficient information. Almost immediately, the next question is, “How many hours will it

take?” or, “What will the total cost be?” This is when lawyers often give a most unsatisfactory answer: “It

depends.”

It is not surprising that this can be a source of frustration for the potential client. After all, most

consumer purchasing experiences do not proceed like this. Throughout retail stores, price tags and signs

abound. There, the price is stated in advance. Imagine buying a refrigerator after being told that the final

price will be set only after you agree to make the purchase! Even a car dealer will make a firm offer. In

fact, the Main Street lawyer has a fairly accurate mental understanding of what an average fee for this

matter will total. But the estimate communicated to the client is often couched in broad terms, with many

disclaimers. The lawyer cannot give an exact quote when the number of total hours to be expended is

unknown to the lawyer, as well as the client.

Although some may view this reluctance as an attempt to conceal something from the consumer,

in reality, the lawyer is exercising time-tested judgment. The experienced lawyer knows that if an average

fee is mentioned, the client will focus on that number as “the fee.” If the lawyer quotes an estimate of

$2,000, the lawyer will view a final total billing of $2,165 to be right on target. But too many clients

would respond with, “No, wait, you said $2,000.” So the lawyer learns to express the estimate as a range,

with plenty of room at the top end of the range to ensure that the total fee will almost certainly be less

than the highest number mentioned. In this example, the lawyer, if pressed, would quote a range from a

low of $2,000 to a high of $4,000 or $5,000.

Imagine how much more consumer-friendly and non-threatening this transaction would be if the

lawyer simply said, “This probate case can all be yours for the low price of $2,450.” We are all

consumers. We understand the attraction of simplicity. We understand the value of limiting the risk of a

charge being much higher than anticipated. It is disingenuous to deny that we would prefer the certainty

of the fixed fee if we were the client.

8

“Wait,” many lawyers would cry, “there are many variables, and many contingencies.” These are

often outside the lawyer’s control. The lawyer understands that an unreasonable opposing counsel, a

procrastinating opposing party, or a recalcitrant judge can increase the workload by several orders of

magnitude. The lawyer does not want to bear that risk, and the hourly rate serves that purpose very well.

Whether it is a necessary party who cannot be located for service of process or an unanticipated and

complicated factual situation, if the matter becomes more burdensome, the lawyer invests more time and

the lawyer should be paid more.

But the lawyer does know the variables—far better than the client.

Lawyers know they will treat a client fairly, but they also want to make

sure they are not treated unfairly by working many extra hours without

additional compensation.

In fact, though, in a matter involving contingencies that might dramatically change the work

involved, the fee arrangement need not be based upon only one flat fee. The fee agreement may cover

numerous contingencies: if event A happens, one fee will be charged; if B happens, then another fee. The

most important thing is for the unsophisticated client to understand and comprehend fees quoted in this

manner, without referring to an hourly billing rate. The client no longer must ask, “How many hours will

it take?” Where the sophisticated and experienced business client may need a jointly developed plan

based upon the experiences of both the client and the lawyer, the consumer client often needs information,

explanation, and less uncertainty about the future. Written materials for the client to take home and

review are extremely useful in these situations.

For many consumer cases, so-called alternative pricing can be quite naturally incorporated as a

part of the overall case plan. Consumer clients desire certainty and as much information as possible about

the uncharted waters ahead. Hourly billing may be simple for the lawyer, but a consumer will appreciate

the clarity and certainty of a fixed fee—even if that certainty is embodied in a road map with a dozen

possible total fees, depending upon future variables.

9

Pricing Structure Can Be the Basics of the Office Legal Services System

The pricing structure, when properly communicated to the client, can provide the basis of the

attorney-client agreement and the case plan. The less familiarity the client has with the situation, the more

detailed the disclosure should be.

In the probate case example, the consumer may indicate she will likely hire the Main Street

lawyer. She then asks about the fees. In response, the lawyer produces not an intimidating document

entitled “Attorney-Client Fee Agreement,” but one called “Case Plan.” This document appears in the form

of a timeline, and may be more graphically designed than the standard legal document. The lawyer

explains the anticipated chain of events—drafting and filing documents, sending notices, and so on. The

document clearly notes the fees at each stage of the proceeding. The document or set of documents may

also include many typical provisions and disclaimers. Much of this form can be preprinted, but because

the matter may determine certain variables (such as sales of property within the probate), the form has

blanks that are completed during the interview.

Of course, there may be unknowns and unknowables,

in which case the lawyer makes a good-faith estimate in

writing. Yet, the end result is a complete document detailing

the entire course of the legal matter, the anticipated timing of

events, a likely date of conclusion, an estimated fee, and the

probable maximum fee.

Some lawyers object to attaching any estimate to an unpredictable fee. They may also disagree

with giving clients time lines for completion of tasks, no matter how general. After all, probate cases

sometimes drag on. But the message to the client should be that they do not “drag on” in this lawyer’s

office. The beauty of a case plan is that it is constructed to interlock with the lawyer’s office procedures.

The case plan provides a road map for the lawyer’s staff, detailing tasks and anticipated timelines. The

law firm’s system provides not only for the drafting of required documents, but for important

standardized client communications. Instead of receiving two-sentence transmittal letters, the client

10

receives detailed status reports accompanying file-stamped copies, which refer to events outlined in the

case plan. If contingencies occur and trigger a fee increase, the system generates a thoughtful explanation

and discussion of what has transpired, to accompany the request for additional fees. The client has a

reference guide throughout the matter to judge the lawyer’s performance against predictions.

With this approach, the Main Street lawyer is highly motivated to improve, embellish, and

streamline the system. Compared with other clients, the Main Street lawyer’s clients may receive

superior, regular, and more detailed communications, because the lawyer has judged that a few “extra”

letters are less expensive to the firm than receiving numerous “extra” telephone calls from the client.

And what of the estimate of the unknowable fee, when the fee was underestimated due to an

event that has now improbably occurred? Will the lawyer be judged by his or her own candor? (“Yes, I

stated probably no more $2,000, and the charges are now $3,500. But, . . . ”) This is yet another aspect of

the system that the lawyer should design and prepare in advance. When it becomes evident that an

estimated charge may be exceeded, a letter of explanation can be sent to the client immediately, not when

the final fees are requested. (“Please be advised that A and B have occurred, and the costs are exceeding

our original estimate. You may contact me at no additional charge if you wish to discuss this.”)

This is not to say there will never be a time when a consumer

manages to use a fee estimate against a lawyer, even if only for

bargaining position to compromise the final fee. But the system functions

to create understanding, predictability, and trust. A client is then

predisposed to view a contingency as something that happened in his or

her particular case, and not as the lawyer simply deciding to charge more.

The benefit for the Main Street lawyer is that the system

encourages and rewards efficiency. Exploring advanced document assembly methods holds no downside.

If the lawyer notes he or she typically receives a number of calls at a particular stage in the representation,

for which the lawyer receives no additional compensation, then the lawyer is motivated to improve

communications in that area proactively, perhaps by covering the area better in the initial interview or

11

perhaps by adding to the language contained in a standard client communication during this time frame.

The Main Street lawyer constantly hones and improves the system, while the clients benefit from an ever-

evolving model of client service, explanation, and communication.

As the system improves, it is possible that fees charged could decrease while profitability and

client satisfaction increases. But the converse is true as well. An in-depth examination of office

procedures and the tasks to be accomplished on behalf of clients compared with the local market rate for

certain routine services may drive a lawyer to conclude that certain practice areas are unprofitable and

should be dropped. It may also be true that to be a full-service law firm for consumer clients, a small firm

in a small community may need to handle some matters that are only marginally profitable.

But a Main Street lawyer cannot “wish away” market forces, the impact of technology on the

practice, or consumer attitudes. The simple fact is that many law offices have not arranged their

operations for maximum efficiency. A lawyer may believe that a certain matter requires at least ten hours

of lawyer time. But by fine-tuning and improving the system, the amount of lawyer time may be

drastically reduced. The lawyer can use technology-based systems and/or support staff to move into a

more profitable position. Some so-called routine legal services may be done for less and still be

profitable. And the lawyer will then have more time available to work on other matters.

Conclusion

For the Main Street lawyer representing mainly consumer clients, the decision to embrace

alterative billing is not as simple as changing from hourly fees to flat or fixed fees. Rather, it involves a

potentially painful examination of office procedures, use of staff, and use of technology. It involves an

understanding of consumer attitudes, even when the lawyer believes such attitudes are incorrect and

unjustified. It often involves changing the lawyer’s mind-set from a case-by-case approach to a system of

processes focused on efficiency. It involves presenting the client with a road map or case plan in advance

of representation. The result should not be a “cookie-cutter” or “assembly line” style of practice, but

rather a system where delegation and the creative use of technology free the lawyer from as much routine

12

work as possible, leaving the lawyer with more time available for sophisticated legal problems and face-

to-face client consultation and counseling.

In many ways, the search for the completely efficient, productive office system is like the quest

for the Holy Grail. Improvements and refinements can— and should—continue. But the promise is not

illusory. This quest can lead to an office where the clients are more informed and more certain about the

fees they will pay, where more information about the progress of a matter flows regularly to the client,

where the client is given realistic goals and expectations by which to measure the lawyer’s delivery of

services, where the lawyer is more confident that matters are being handled efficiently, and where the

lawyer is rewarded for efficiency by increased profitability.

This “Main Street Lawyer” article is an excerpt from Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies That Work, Second Edition, by James A. Calloway and Mark A. Robertson, published October 2002. This book is a great resource for the law office looking to free themselves from the quagmire of hourly billing! Learn the economic and client service advantages of alternative law firm billing methods, the various billing methods currently available, and how to select and implement the right alternative billing method for law firms of all sizes. A diskette is also included containing all the valuable forms, templates and proposals found in the book. ISBN: 1590311175 (320 pages)

Billing as Client Communication

It is important to understand that the bills that your clients receive have an impact on how they

view payment of them. J. Harris Morgan in his classic book “How To Draft Bills Clients Rush To Pay”

reminds us that bills should always communicate two things:

1) Effort on behalf of the attorney.

2) Value to the client from the effort.

Review the following two hypothetical bills and ask yourself which one you would be more

likely to promptly pay.

13

N. E. Lawyer 555 Courthouse Row

Oklahoma City, OK 73101 1-800-GOOD LAW

October 1, 2006 Mr. John Lee ACME Corporation 1234 Maple Drive Oklahoma City, OK 73999 RE: ACME Corp. v. Daystar Inc. Date PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RENDERED Hours Rate Amount 9/16/06 Conference with client - Re: Contract 1.50 $100. $ 150.00 9/17/06 Draft demand letter to Daystar .40 $100. $ 40.00 9/18/06 Telephone conference Daystar manager .75 $100. $ 75.00 9/19/06 Telephone conference with client .50 $100. $ 50.00 9/20/06 Draft Petition, Summons and Subpoena 1.00 $100. $ 100.00 9/21/06 Conference with client to sign Petition .75 $100. $ 75.00 9/22/06 File court documents .50 $100. $ 50.00 6.40 $ 640.00 DISBURSEMENTS 9/22/06 Copy Fees $ 2.75 9/22/06 Filing Fees $85.00 $87.75 Total Fees $640.00 Total Disbursements $ 87.75 Total Charges for this Bill $727.75

14

N. E. Lawyer 555 Courthouse Row

Oklahoma City, OK 73101 1-800-GOOD LAW

October 1, 2006 Mr. John Lee ACME Corporation 1234 Maple Drive Oklahoma City, OK 73999 RE: ACME Corp. v. Daystar Inc. Date PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RENDERED Hours Rate Amount 9/16/06 Conferred with Mr. Lee regarding terms of the contract and discussed options regarding non-compliance by Daystar. Discussed attempt to negotiate prior to filing suit. 1.50 $100. $ 150.00 9/17/06 Draft demand letter to Daystar regarding non-compliance with contract giving 10 days to respond to attorney .40 $100. $ 40.00 9/18/06 Telephone conference with Mr. Johns of Daystar. Attempted to discuss options. Mr. Johns advised Daystar had no intentions to negotiate. .75 $100. $ 75.00 9/19/06 Telephone conference with client (Mr. Lee) advising him of Daystar’s position that all terms of the contract have been met and their unwillingness to negotiate .50 $100. $ 50.00 9/20/06 Draft and review Petition, Summons and Subpoena Duces Tecum for clients review and signature 1.00 $100. $ 100.00 9/21/06 Met with client, Mr. Lee to review and sign the Petition and other court documents. Discussed service and initial stages of litigation. .75 $100. $ 75.00 9/22/06 File Petition with the Oklahoma County Court Clerk, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Have clerk issue summons and subpoena .50 $100. $ 50.00 6.40 $640.00 DISBURSEMENTS 9/22/06 Copy Fees $ 2.75

15

9/22/06 Filing Fees $85.00 $87.75 Total Fees $640.00 Total Disbursements $ 87.75 Total Charges for this Bill $727.75

16

Tabs3tm • PracticeMastertm • Time Matterstm

- Authorized Independent Consultant -

���������� ���������

1003 Pinebrook Road • Cherry Hill, NJ 08034Telephone: 856-795-9008 • Fax: 856-795-9038

All About the Benjamins: Billing Smart, Getting Paid

• Evaluate your current timekeeping and billing methods. Devise an approach thatwill streamline the procedure, is easy enough to incorporate into your daily routine,and which will allow you to start producing bills on more regular basis.

• Hire a bookkeeper or billing clerk whose primary responsibility is to ensure thetimely processing of monthly statements.

• Purchase legal specific billing software and hire a consultant/ trainer to assist withthe setup and implementation process.

• Consider outsourcing as a possible alternative to in-house billing.

• Work with a legal software consultant who can make recommendations and provideyou with realistic solutions.

Legal Specific Time & Billing Software:

The list below is comprised of some of the more recognized legal specific billingpackages that are suitable for solo and small law firms. Please be sure to consult withresources available through the ABA and your local ALA for additional softwarewhich may not be listed here.

• PC LawTM by Lexis/Nexis® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.pclaw.com

• Timeslips by Sage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.timeslips.com

• Billing Matters® by Lexis/Nexis® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.billingmatters.com

• Tabs3TM Time & Billing Software by Software Technology, Inc. . www.tabs3.com

DAY TWO Saturday, October 6, 2007

Programs 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works! Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Free and Cheap

Utilities

Track 2 – Manage Smart! Show Me The Money! Taking Your Firm’s Financial

Pulse

Track 3 – Have a Life! Balancing Your Life: Tips for Time Management and Getting It Done.

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Technology for Tightwads:

Our Favorite Free and Cheap Utilities

With

Bruce Dorner Daniel Coolidge

Ross Kodner

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

1

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 1

Cheap and FreeUtilities

Daniel Coolidge, Esq.Coolidge & Graves

Bruce Dorner, Esq.Dorner Law Offices

Ross Kodner, Esq.MicroLaw, Inc.

Track 1: Session 2 | Saturday, October 6, 2007 | 11:00-11:50AM

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Your Presenters:Ross L. Kodner, Esq.CEO/Senior Legal TechnologistMicroLaw, Inc.Milwaukee, WisconsinE-Mail: rkodner@microlaw.comWeb: www.microlaw.com414.540.9433

Bruce L. Dorner, Esq.Attorney / PrincipalDorner Law OfficesLondonderry, New HampshireE-Mail: bldorner@choiceonemail.com603.434.2230

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 2

Daniel S. Coolidge, Esq.Attorney/Chief License Compliance OfficerCoolidge & GravesUnity, New HamsterE-Mail: dancoolidge@ipbizlaw.comWeb: www.ipbizlaw.com603.542.2187

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Need to Search More than Google Desktop Does? Look at the X1 Search System

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 3

♦X1 indexes and searches every file on your local or network drive♦Fast, thorough – Free for individual use from www.x1.com

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Connect To Your Office PC - Fast and Reliablywith GoToMyPC.com!

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 4

GoToMyPC.com offers something many of us have long been waiting for - cheap remote accessto our office PC systems that actually . . . well . . . works!Whether over modem connections or a high-speed line, securely connect directly to your own PC. . . over the Internet - control your PC as if you were sitting thereSure we’ve heard this before and sure, we’ve been disappointed beforeNo idea what kind of magic they are using, but it really does work - check out the free trial andsee for yourselfMonthly and annual subscription fees amount to about $170/year per “host” or $270 for a “twohost” subscription

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Logmein.com – Free Remote Access that Really Works!

Logmein.com offers an alternative to GoToMyPC.com Free – free is

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 5

goodSupport is not the same as for GoToMyPC (which is a Citrix product) but for most, it’s a great option

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

EWIDO Anti-Malware – Zap All the Bad Things from one App!

EWIDO’s Anti-Malware suite nails viruses, spyware, trojans, and more – with a free online

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 6

scan and a downloadble version www.ewido.co

2

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo DivisionGo “Personal” with Google’s Personalized Pages at google.com/ig

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 7

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Anagram – Killer Outlook Tool!Anagram from GetAnagram.com is the quintessential Outlook utilityHighlight contact info in any

d ith

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 8

program and with one click, turn it into a contact entry in Outlook – amazing!$29.95 and a free 45 day trial – go and get it and try it!!!!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 9

Highlight the Highlight the contact info contact info

–– in this in this case, in a case, in a

WordPerfect WordPerfect documentdocument

Press CTRLPress CTRL--12 and it 12 and it instantly parses the fields instantly parses the fields and creates an Outlook and creates an Outlook

contact contact –– uncannily accurateuncannily accurate

BEST $20 YOU’LL EVER BEST $20 YOU’LL EVER SPEND!!!SPEND!!!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Belarc Advisor – Everything InsideBelarc Advisor (www.belarc.com) is a free downloadable tool that inventories all the hardware and software installed

PC Th kiTh ki

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 10

on a PCDown to the serial and license keys for the software to all patches installed to which RAM sockets are open, it’s all thereOh, and it’s free for single PC use

The skinny The skinny on Ross’ on Ross’

laptop from laptop from 9AM this 9AM this

morning . . .morning . . .

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

OK, But Google Desktop IS Cool

Th kiTh ki

Google Desktop is a free full-text search engine for your local PC hard drive

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 11

The skinny The skinny on Ross’ on Ross’

laptop from laptop from 9AM this 9AM this

morning . . .morning . . .

PC hard driveGet it from google.com/ optionsLightning fast desktop, web, email searchingLimitations on networking, kinds of files searched

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Explore Other Google Free Stuff

Th kiTh ki

Most people have no idea of the range of incredible free stuff Google offersSure it’s likely part of an insidiously clandestine plot to take over the planet, but even if that’s the case, they’re nice people and they have great free utilitiesExamples:

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 12

The skinny The skinny on Ross’ on Ross’

laptop from laptop from 9AM this 9AM this

morning . . .morning . . .

Examples:Google Desktop – full text indexed searchesGmail – the best web-based mail with Googlized searchingFroogle – terrific shopping / product pricing enginePicasa 2 – Ross’ favorite digital photo album systemGoogle Talk – IM without the AOL hasslesGoogle Calendars – shared online calendarsGoogle Maps – As good as Mapquest, et alGoogle Earth – so cool you just have to see this 3D satelite mapGoogle Toolbar – versions for both IE and Firefox

3

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

OK, But Google Desktop IS Cool

Th kiTh ki

Google Desktop is a free full-text search engine for your local PC hard drive

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 13

The skinny The skinny on Ross’ on Ross’

laptop from laptop from 9AM this 9AM this

morning . . .morning . . .

PC hard driveGet it from google.com/ optionsLightning fast desktop, web, email searchingLimitations on networking, kinds of files searched

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

TrendMicro HouseCallThe Dr. is Always Online

Trend Micro’s HouseCall system (housecall.trend micro.com) is a free online service from this respected anti-

i ht tilit

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 14

nightmare utility vendorPerforms a virus check, looks for spyware and moreOh, and it’s also free for single PC use

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Practical Reincarnation – RESTORATION Brings Back Files from the Dead

RESTORATION is a free utility that literally resurrects deleted files from the deadEven if you’ve emptied your Recycle Bin,

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 15

you ecyc e ,RESTORATION can bring the files backConversely, it can make sure that deleted files stay deletedDual purpose, totally free from http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Plan for the Worst-Case Scenario: Real-Time Backup with SecondCopy 2000

▪You do a nightly backup of your entire PC system or network, likely to tape or hard drives . . . that’s great - keep doing it!

▪But putting all your law practice eggs in one backup basket may be dangerous

▪Consider a second layer of protection

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 16

▪Consider a second layer of protection using Real-Time backup with the award-winning SecondCopy 2000

▪This $30 program works in the background to copy files, as you modify them, to a hard drive or DVD . . . maintaining a full backup that you can use as another restore source if need be

▪It’s not a substitute for off-site stored backups, but it’s another way to reduce your backup risks and downtime ▪www.secondcopy.com

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

How to Store . . . EverythingUse Google Notebook!▪Google Notebook lets you create

your own customized “web scrapbook” or “web notebook”

▪Google Notebook lets clip and store any web content and build into an organizable

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 17

build into an organizable personally-accessible notebook

▪Create notebooks for multiple subjects such as substantive legal topics, travel, technology, etc. and keep your snippets organized

▪Free of course, it quickly becomes totally indispensable

Download from google.com/notebook

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Showcalc v. Windows Calculator?Ruling: No Contest!▪Showcalc is a Windows

Calculator replacement that is much, much smarter than its brain-dead built-in counterpart

▪Showcalc’s biggest feature is the scrollable “tape” – why doesn’t the Windows

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 18

doesn t the Windows calculator have this? Scroll, copy, paste it – it’s a Godsend

▪Includes Scientific and Business calculator functions, viewable on demand

▪Free currently - Download from:

4

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

DESTROY ‘EM ALL! Darik’s Boot and Nuke is an Industrial Strength File Killer▪Darik’s Boot and Nuke is an

industrial strength secure file deletion tool

▪Use it to remove, as irrevocably as possible, information from a hard drive

▪Free since it’s an open source

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 19

▪Free since it s an open source product from SourceForge

Download from:

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Searchable PDFs Made Faster? Zoom Down the Autobahn (DX, that is)!▪”Cheap” is a relative term –

if a program saves a ton of money, even though it costs money, it may still be a tightwad’s bargain

▪Such is the case with Autobahn DX from

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 20

Autobahn DX from Aquaforest.com – a $1695 tool that will automatically find and convert any files on your hard drive(s) into searchable PDFs – and can be scheduled to run automatically each night

▪Saves a ton of time scanning to PDF and not having to create searchable files on the fly

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Grew Up With WordPerfect and Word Macros to Automate Everything?

Now Do the Same Thing in ANY Program!

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 21

▪Ever wonder why you couldn’t macro-ize EVERYTHING in Windows? Like formatting slide transitions in PowerPoint, or popping text into an Outlook email, or even finding something automatically on the web?

▪Windows macro tools like MacroExpress are something everyone should know about▪Record keystrokes and play ‘em back any time with a single click! Huge timesaver for $49.95

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Macro Express Macro Express lets you record lets you record keystrokes and keystrokes and play them back play them back with a hotkey or with a hotkey or

mouse click.mouse click.

More advanced More advanced users can write users can write

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 22

macro “scripts” macro “scripts” and modify them and modify them almost infinitely, almost infinitely, including setting including setting

them to run them to run automaticallyautomatically

It will be the best It will be the best $50 you’ll ever $50 you’ll ever

spend on spend on software!software!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Notepad is Dead! Long Live Notepad++!!

▪Windows Notepad is incredibly useful as a quick and dirty note-taking tool – I use it all the time to stick to-do lists quickly on my desktop or to temporarily hold text

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 23

temporarily hold text that I want to use but . . . Windows Notepad has an IQ of about 20 . . .

▪In comes the free Notepad++, an open source replacement that brilliantly fills all the stupid gaps in Notebook

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

For Windows XP Users – Hover and Pop a Scrollable QuickTray Calendar!▪Another one of those “why

isn’t this included in Windows” free utilities

▪QuickMonth Calendar will pop up a complete scrollable monthly calendar when you

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 24

calendar when you hover over the date/time in the Windows XP quicktray – getting around the aggravating easiness of accidentally messing with your system date when you double click on the tray icon

▪Free from esnips.com –you’ll use it every day!

5

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Attention Vista Sufferers: Get Your Sanity Back with TweakUAC!▪Vista users become

enraged at the millionth irritating popup courtesy of the absurdly over-

t ti “U

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 25

protective “User Account Control” (UAC) function

▪The answer is the free TweakUAC – it will let you easily tweak the UAC settings or turn off the wildly irritating popups entirely

▪Don’t use Vista without it – you’ll lose your ‘frickin mind!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Karen! We Love Your Tools!▪Karen’s Power Tools are an

amazing collection of free Windows utilities – all functions that SHOULD have been included in Windows XP and Vista but aren’t

▪Examples include the ability to

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 26

▪Examples include the ability to print the list of documents in a folder . . . or a desktop hotkey to shutdown and reboot without having to dig through the Start menu

▪Download and enjoy! Your Windows PC might become as good as a Mac!

Download: www.karenware.com

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Google’s Picasa for the Digital Picasso in Your Office

Picasa is a digital photographer’s dream tool – free from Google too (http://picasa.google.com/index.html)

Picasa organizes photos, searching for and categorizing all photos and graphics files on your hard drive automatically

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 27

automaticallyPicasa provides photo touch-up tools as

well as burning photo CDs and DVDs, providing an interface to online photo printing and album-making

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Picasa Picasa even even

brings brings back a back a

blast from blast from Techshow Techshow

past …past …

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 28

How about How about this gem this gem

from from Techshow Techshow

1998!1998!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Huge Attachments to Send? Sick of ‘Em Bouncing Back?

It can be very frustrating trying to send large e-mail attachments

Many e-mail systems simply reject attachments over 2 Mb (which is not a very large file these days!)

YouSendIt.com comes to the rescue providing a free encrypted and

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 29

providing a free, encrypted and secure system for transferring files up to 1 Gb in size directly to the intended recipients

YouSendit.com for instructions and to try it out – you’ll wonder how you ever used attachments without it

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Sick of Outlook’s Useless “Find” Function? Windows Desktop Search Works!

We all know it’s We all know it’s useless to try useless to try and find and find ANYTHING with ANYTHING with “Find” in “Find” in Outlook.Outlook.

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 30

Microsoft’s Microsoft’s answer in Vista answer in Vista is “Instant is “Instant Search” and Search” and the free the free Windows Windows Desktop Search Desktop Search for Windows XPfor Windows XP

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch/default.mspx

6

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Manage Multiple Monitors (More Are Always Better!)

Windows is Windows is smart enough smart enough to use several to use several displays but displays but really dumb really dumb when it comes when it comes to displa ingto displa ing

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 31

to displaying to displaying what you want what you want on each on each monitor . . . monitor . . . Enter Realsoft’s Enter Realsoft’s Ultramon Ultramon ––indispensable indispensable for multifor multi--monitors!monitors!

Control primary and secondary Control primary and secondary –– or or up to 8 displays, change left/right up to 8 displays, change left/right window movement and more window movement and more –– you you need it!need it!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Totally Indispensable – TINYURL.comMake Short Work of Insanely Long URLsNotice how some URLs look

more like Welsh village names these days, sometimes with 100+ characters?

Simplify inserting URLs in documents articles

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 32

documents, articles, pleadings, etc. using TINYURL.com

This free service converts mega-URLs into nice, short, permanently available “Tiny URLs”

You’ll use it daily – why isn’t it part of every web browser??

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Totally Indispensable – CCLeaner (“Crap Cleaner”) – Keep a Clean Windows House

Even the Felix Unger’s of the Windows world end up with messy systems

Accumulated detritus collects and clogs your systems –files not totally deleted, temp files bloated program

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 33

files, bloated program caches, etc.

All contribute to progressive system degradation – think of it as Alzheimer’s for Windows

CCleaner scours your Windows setup, cleaning every digital nook and cranny to improve system performance

Get it from www.ccleaner.com –it’s miraculous!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Info at Your Fingertips! Put Key Info on the Windows Desktop!

Just like a Bulletin Board -place a file or folder with key information you need all the time▸Your Fed Tax ID number▸Bank account numbers

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 34

▸Bank account numbers▸Employee contact info▸School info for your kidlets▸FedEx account info▸Court clerk phone numbers and e-mail addressesPut it right on the Windows desktop so it’s always just a quick click away!Simple . . . but a HUGEtimesaver!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Sync Your Laptop and Desktop!

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 35

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Word Sanity Pack – Metadata Ass’t, Numbering Ass’t, CrossEyes, Acrobat 8

Imagine life with Microsoft Word being as comfortable, efficient and downright enjoyable as it is/was with WordPerfect

Fantasy? Delusion? Good argument for Prozac?

With what I call the “Word Sanity Pack” it

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 36

With what I call the Word Sanity Pack it comes pretty close

This is a collection of essential Word utilities that plug the gaps, fix the oddities, and generally go much of the way to demystify Word’s foibles, traps and irritations

Save your sanity – make these utilities part of every Word user’s day in your firm

They’ll pay for themselves in productivity and tranquility in a matter of dayIncludes Acrobat 8, CrossEyes, Numbering

Assistant, Deltaview and Metadata Assistant

Typical Word using lawyer trying to format an appellate brief – ARGH!!!

7

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 37

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Novice to Novice to Advanced Advanced –– any any Word user not Word user not using CrossEyes using CrossEyes to really “Reveal to really “Reveal the Codes” the Codes” needs to ha eneeds to ha e

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 38

needs to have needs to have their head their head examined examined -- $50 $50 is lots cheaper is lots cheaper than a visit to a than a visit to a shrink!shrink!

www.levitjames.www.levitjames.comcom

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Numbering Numbering Assistant from Assistant from Payne Payne Consulting . . . Consulting . . .

Makes Word’s Makes Word’s autoauto--paragraph paragraph

b ib i

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 39

numbering numbering actually work the actually work the way normal way normal humans expect it humans expect it to . . . to . . .

Stop tearing Stop tearing your hair out your hair out --$79 = Word $79 = Word Sanity!Sanity!

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

OUR RECOMMENDATION FOR AN “Anti-metadata” TOOL

My Clients Use Payne Consulting’s Metadata Assistant

Payne Consulting’s Metadata Assistant can safely strip out potentially damaging Metadata from Microsoft Word

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 40

Microsoft Word documents.Info is at www.paynecon-sulting.com$79/license for smaller firmsSite Licenses available for larger firms

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

MaxEmail.com - better than eFax for Internet-based laptop send/receive Faxing with the advantage of the PDF format - about $7 per month starting

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 41

p g

New York LegalTech • February 20043rd Annual National Solo & Small Firm Conference – ABA GP|Solo Division

Thank You For Listening!

Technology for Tightwads: Our Favorite Cheap and Free Utilities©2007 Daniel Coolidge, Bruce Dorner, Ross Kodner. All Rights Reserved 42

g

Show Me The Money! Taking Your Firm’s

Financial Pulse

Presenter: Ellen Freedman, CLM

Law Practice Management Coordinator PA Bar Association

ABA 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference October 5-6, 2007 Philadelphia, PA

1

Show Me The Money!Taking Your Firm’s

Financial Pulse

Ellen Freedman, CLMLaw Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar Association

We’re going to discuss

n Creating the Financial Plan & Budget

n Factors Which Impact Profitability

n Financial Reporting & Monitoring

n Effectively Capturing Time

n Collecting What You Bill

Your Business Plan

n How you’ll start & manage your practice

n How you’ll measure progress

n How you’ll refocus an existing practice

n Communicate!

2

Financial Planning

n Part of overall business plann Projected income for 3 – 5 yearsn Lifestyle requirements (culture) impacts hoursn Owners 1400-1600n Associates 1700-1900n Paralegals 1000-1200

n What does the firm want to achieve?n Activities? Costs?n Goals? Objectives?

Budgeting

n Rolling 5 year averagesn Historical perspectiven Differentiate real growth from inflationn Work top down or bottom upn Zero basis or inflation basisn Automate with spreadsheets for “what if”n Month by month – 12 monthsn Fudge factor 20%

n Capitalizationn Who owns the firm? Bank or owners?n Whose $$$ should be at risk?

n Methods to build capitaln Annually as percentage of income withheld

(capitalized profits)n Owners who take the most out put the most inn Capital tied to percentage share of incomen Buy-in of new ownersn Reinvestment of depreciation dollars

3

Forecastingn Cash vs Accrual

n Forecast for future financial performancen Month by month – 12 monthsn Fudge factor 20%Seasonal variationsn Quality of clients has impactn Several scenarios from best to worst

revenue earned

expense incurred

cash received

cash paid

Transactions recorded when:

AccrualPure Cash

Anticipate Cash Flow

n Project your needs

n Know your monthly nut and timing issues

n Compare needs to anticipated receipts

n Act appropriately . . . Don’t react!

The 5 Levers of Profitability

nLeverage

nRealization

nProductivity

nRates

nMargin

4

Net Income Per Partner

NIPP = Leverage x (Billing & Collection) NIPP = Leverage x (Billing & Collection) Realization x Productivity x Rates x MarginRealization x Productivity x Rates x Margin

n Improving RATES

n Improving BILLING REALIZATION

n Improving COLLECTION REALIZATION

n Improving PRODUCTIVITY (Utilization)

n Improving LEVERAGE

n Improving MARGIN

Firm

Office

Department / Practice Group

Billing / Originating / Responsible Attorney

Client

Type of Matter / Client Division

The Profitability Pyramid

Financial Reporting

In the absence of good data one cannot make good business decisions!

5

Financial Reporting

n Less is more

n Track everything but only report on what you need at the time

n Be proactive about the numbers

n Remember to think accrual, not cash-basis –produce modified accrual reports for internal use

Exception Reporting

n Only A/R over $xx or older than xx days

n Only WIP over $xx or unbilled longer than xx days

n Only billing write-downs over xx%

n Only cost write-offs over xx%

n Only matters which deviate xx% from standard billing rate

n Only attorneys who are xx% under goal of hours

6

Bill Timely

Calculate Your Billing Turnover Rate & Improve$60,000 (Year end WIP)

= 3 months$20,000 (Average monthly billing)

What Does Your Firm REALLY Earn Per Hour?

Effective Hourly RateFees received

= EHRHours Billed Out

Get Out of Debt

Track Your Debt to Asset Ratio

n Monitor for trends

n Should trend lower over time

7

Handouts

nSpecimen Key Statistics ReportEllen Freedman, CLMFreedman Consulting

nFinancial Reporting EssentialsEllen Freedman, CLMPennsylvania Bar AssociationPennsylvania Bar News

nCash Versus Accrual Financial ReportingEllen Freedman, CLMPennsylvania Bar AssociationPennsylvania Bar News

Effectively Capturing Your Time

n Track ALL of Your Time -- Discretion leads to lost time

n Account for all hours at the office

n Non-billable time adds up – set limits for pro bono and even free consultations

n How much CLE do you have? Need?

n Set realistic billable hour goals

n Small missed increments = big lost dollars!

Training and Accountability

n Develop Good Habits Early

n Start new attorneys off right

n Make partners accountable

n Correct bad habits right away

n Monitor working hours vs. recorded hours

n Train in related ethical issues

8

Provide Tools for Tracking Time

n Manual time logs

n Time & Billing software

n Case Management software

n PDA or phone-based time tracking software

n Remote office time trackingn JOTT (www.jott.com)

Collecting What You Bill

Billing Methods

n Hourly

n Flat Fee

n Hybrid

n Contingent

n Kickers

Discuss alternativeswith clients

Demonstrate willingness to share the risk

Predictability is important

Value must equal price

9

Bill Clarity

n Layout

n Essential Elements

n Logical Sequence

n Remittance Copy

n Summary

n Contact info

Good Billing Habitsn Consistent cut-off

n Deadline for edits

n No self-editingn Appoint a

“billing czar”

n No “unseen”discounts

n Bill the right personn Resolve problems

immediately

n Offer payment schedules

n Credit cards

n Consistent billing date

What Happens to Your Aging Unpaid Invoices?

93.2%

72.3%

28.4%

12.5%

0.0%10.0%20.0%30.0%40.0%50.0%60.0%70.0%80.0%90.0%

100.0%

Percent Collected

1 Month 3+Months 1+ Year 2+ Years

Age

Collections Over Time

Source: Commercial Law League

10

Getting Paid

n Select the right person to follow up

n Start calls on due date

n No exceptions

n Aged receivable reports on demand

n Don’t accept lies – build in accountability

n Resolve problems immediately – don’t be defensive

n A slice of bread is better than none of the loaf

n Empower immediate resolution <10%

n No call ends without commitment

n Mark all commitments in calendar for follow-up

n Follow-up consistently with calls on every commitment date until you are paid in full

n Never let the client think a promise will “buy”them unlimited time

11

Handouts

nDialing for Dollars: Accounts Receivable Call ManagementEllen Freedman, CLMPennsylvania Bar AssociationThe Pennsylvania Lawyer

nGetting PaidEllen Freedman, CLMPennsylvania Bar AssociationPennsylvania Bar News

Additional Reading

n Accounting & Finance for LawyersRose Marie L. Bukics, CPACynthia M. Urbani, CPAAltman Weil Pensa Publications

n Results-Oriented Financial ManagementJohn G. Iezzi, CPAABA Law Practice Management Section

n Articles on the web sites of F Altman Weil (http://www.altmanweil.com)F Joel Rose (http://www.joelarose.com/) F Hildebrandt Consulting (http://www.hildebrandt.com/)F Freedman Consulting (http://www.PA-LawFirmConsulting.com)

Summary

n Good habits for

n Intake

nTimekeeping

nData Analysis

nBilling

nFollow-up

=

Table of Contents

I. Introduction.............................................................................................5

II. Creating Your Financial Plan and Budget................................................5

1. Write a Business Plan ..........................................................................5

2. Take a look at The Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Business Plan.........6

3. Define Success for your Firm...............................................................6

4. Communicate your Business Philosophy to your Staff .......................7

5. Build a Budget .....................................................................................7

6. Create a Billable Time Goal, and Measure Your Progress Toward It ......................................................8

II. Factors Which Impact Profitability .........................................................9

1. Determine Your Hourly Cost Structure................................................9

2. Breakdown Your Accounts Receivable ..............................................10

3. Learn Your Cash Flow Needs .............................................................10

4. Check Your Staff Leverage ................................................................10

5. Get a Handle on Billing Realization ...................................................11

6. Understand Collection Realization ....................................................11

7. Work Out Your Billing Turnover Rate................................................12

8. Figure Your EHR (Effective Hourly Rate) ..........................................12

9. Learn Your Gross Profit Margin .........................................................13

10. What is your debt-to-asset ratio? ...................................................13

11. Determine Lawyer Breakdowns Within the Firm ............................13

12. Produce a ‘Key Statistics’ Report ....................................................14

13. Take Charge of the Levers of Law Firm Profitability.......................14

14. Maximize your Profit Margin, Not Your Gross Revenue..................15

15. Reduce Your Firm’s Debt .................................................................15

16. Increase Your Firm’s Cash Reserves ...............................................15

17. Use Productivity Boosts to Improve Profitability............................16

18. Use Alternative Billing Strategies to Boost Profitability .................16

19. Put the Reins on Your Pro Bono Work.............................................17

20. Raise Your Hourly Rates..................................................................17

21. Fire Unprofitable Clients..................................................................18

III. Effectively Capturing Time ....................................................................18

1. Track your Time .................................................................................18

2. Account for the Entire Day - Every Day!............................................19

3. Teach Young Lawyers How to Properly Record Time .......................19

4. Use a Carrot, not a Stick, to Make Sure Time is Recorded and Turned in ........................................................19

5. “Touch” your time only once. ............................................................20

6. Select the “Right” Time and Billing System ......................................20

IV. Getting Paid: Collecting What You Bill ..................................................21

1. Pick the Clients Who WANT to Pay You.............................................21

2. Rehearse Turning Down Undesirable Clients....................................21

3. Create a Road Map for Your Clients with Your Fee Agreements.......21

4. Learn to Draft Bills that Clients Rush to Pay.....................................22

5. Read How to Draft Bills Clients Rush to Pay .....................................22

6. Bill Regularly......................................................................................22

7. Spread Your Billing Out .....................................................................23

8. Time Your Bills to Your Client’s Payment Cycle ................................23

9. Get familiar with the “line of gratitude” and bill accordingly. ..........23

10. Charge Interest on Past Due Invoices – And Give Discounts for Early Payment ............................................24

11. Allow Clients to Pay by Credit Card.................................................24

12. Remember That Client Satisfaction Drives all Financial Metrics ..............................................................25

13. Implement Regular Surveys of Your Clients ...................................25

14. Use your AR analysis to ferret out unhappy clients. .......................25

V. Conclusion .............................................................................................26

Show Me The Money!

I. Introduction The ultimately successful practice is a profitable one. When you turn out the light at the end of the day, you want to know that you not only satisfied the legal needs of your clients in an ethical way, but that you were also able to make a sufficient profit from your efforts to be able to support yourself and your staff, and were also able to put aside sufficient funds to be able to re-invest in the technology and other things you need to keep your business going for another year – and maybe even to allow it to grow. The only way you’ll really know if you’re reaching these goals is to regularly monitor the financial “health” of your practice and make pro-active changes as needed.

In this session you’ll discover tools to help you better understand the current financial health of your practice. Once you understand the numbers, and how to generate the reports you need, you’ll be able to better understanding your cost structure, know where your revenue comes from, where it goes, learn to capture more time, increase your realization rates, implement alternative billing, and collect more of what you bill.

II. Creating Your Financial Plan and Budget

1. Write a Business Plan A business plan is your roadmap to the financial future. It helps you assemble the information you’ll need for banks, suppliers or others you may wish to obtain credit from as you start, or expand, your practice. It will help you determine where you plan to go - and how you intend to get there. A well thought out business plan demonstrates that you have done your homework and you are ready to launch your practice or to move forward to the next level.

All successful businesses are planned on paper well before the doors actually open but, even if you’ve already been in business for many years, it’s not too late to sit down and draw up a business plan. Creating a business plan can also be a great way to refocus and revitalize a practice that has lost it’s way over the years. A law practice business plan is an organized explanation of how you intend to start your practice, and how you intend to ensure an adequate supply of capital as you move forward.

Business plans can be as simple or as detailed as you wish, but they always contain four essential elements:

• a general description of your business, including the services you intend to provide and the markets you intend to serve

• your financial plan, including a budget detailing anticipated revenues and expenses

• your management plan, with a description of how you will set up your office and support the delivery of your legal services

• your marketing plan, showing how you intend to keep existing clients and reach new ones.

This plan is essential in terms of thinking through the who, what, when, where and why that are an inescapable part of the running you’re an ethical and financially successful practice.

2. Take a look at The Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Business Plan A great resource for developing a business plan for a new or an existing law practice is The Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Software Package by Linda Pinson. Based on her award-winning Automating Your Business Plan, this software package has been designed specifically for lawyers so they can create a business plan without enduring a steep learning curve. The step by step program assumes that you know nothing about writing a business plan and leads you through the process while it uses spreadsheets to do the calculations for you. It also comes with a PDF version of the book Anatomy of a Business Plan, and is available from LPM Publishing through the ABA’s webstore at www.abanet.org. The LPM Section Member price is $149.95 USD. Non-Member Price is $179.95 USD. Item code is 511-0528. [Note: PBA members receive a discount. Please contact lawpractice@pabar.org for the discount code.]

3. Define Success for your Firm Everyone talks about success but what is it, really? Is it how much money you made or how many trips you were able to take this year or achieving a specific career goal?

It doesn't matter what it is, just define it and write it down. The answer to this question should be obtained from writing a business plan but, even with that, it isn't always clear how you know that "You've Made It." It can be as simple as saying "Our Firm will be Successful when. . . That's it, short and sweet. Keep it brief so that it is easy to remember.

While you are in this frame of mind take a few minutes to define what success is for you personally. It is easy to go through the daily routine, keeping busy every single day and then lose track of several years of your life. Take a few minutes to write it down so that when it happens, you will know that it happened and if you can forget, you can refer back to it one day.

4. Communicate your Business Philosophy to your Staff At least once a year, it is important to meet with the entire staff and review the Philosophies that guide your firm. Discuss openly with the staff about the things that are important to you as a business owner and let them contribute things that are important to them. At the conclusion of the discussion, document at least 10 Business Philosophies of your Firm that will ensure a strong and well respected organization and review this annually.

This document should be kept brief stating the topic and a single paragraph to describe the benefits to your firm. Format the document to fit on a single sheet of paper and distributed to all existing and new staff members. Examples of Business Philosophies could include:

a. Recruit and Develop Great People – At all levels, the caliber of our people will ultimately determine the success of the whole team. Therefore, we must hire top quality people from the start, train them to our high standards of knowledge, experience, resources and philosophy and help them to achieve excellence and success

b. Control costs – Controlling costs allows our firm to be more profitable. Everyone is encouraged to provide input on faster, easier, more efficient ways to improve the business. If there is waste it should be eliminated and we should take advantage of technology to help keep costs manageable.

c. Exercise Integrity – Integrity is the foundation of our reputation and our pride. Without it we are morally bankrupt. By always exercising integrity in everything we do, we build strong character…stronger relationships… and the strongest of reputations

d. Practice Professionalism – It is how each of us is judged by our peers, by our clients and by ourselves. To be the best, we must conduct ourselves at a higher standard.

e. Operate Efficient Systems - Being efficient allows us to serve our client's more…serve them better…and serve more of them. Powerful, yet simple, systems allow us to do more and do it the best way possible with less stress

5. Build a Budget A budget is a forecast or plan of your future financial performance. It’s the financial section of your business plan. Without a budget you are flying blind… and as the expression goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

A budget will provide you with insight into your expenses (a fair whack of the expenses can be determined in advance – your fixed expenses). Variable expenses – those that ride with the volume of business - can be guesstimated based on the expected revenues you will receive.

You should prepare a detailed, month-by-month budget for a 12 month period of operation of your practice (your fiscal year). You’ll need to include all known or anticipated expenses, and when they will come due. Factor in an additional amount (anywhere from ten to twenty per

cent is a safe bet) for unexpected expenses, since it is Murphy's Law that costs will always be greater than you expect, particularly as the volume of work increases. Build in marketing time and expenses, too, and don’t forget to include your draw. After all, if you don't look after yourself, no one else will!

If you have been in practice for a while and already have an earnings track record, look back for historical data to spot trends and seasonal fluctuations. If you’re just starting out, you can still make an educated estimate based on your marketing plan. Use a conservative estimate of how much business you will initially attract. Then, compare your estimated income and outgo on a month by month basis. If your estimates reveal negative cash flow for several months in a row, do you have the funds on hand to meet that need? If not, where will those funds come from?

Once you have set out well-defined income and expense targets, you will be able to judge for yourself whether you are meeting, exceeding or falling behind your goals. Review the goals you have set on an ongoing and regular basis and, if you find yourself failing to hit your target, take corrective action by cutting unnecessary expenses and thinking strategically about potential new business – before it’s too late.

The care and forethought you put into correctly anticipating your future income and expenses can mean the difference between success and failure for your practice. If you ignore the initial signs of trouble, you may find that you are quickly out of business and, possibly, facing even greater debts than when you started.

Even if you don’t put a lot of time and detail into budgeting, you are far better off with a simple budget document that you revise than not having one at all.

6. Create a Billable Time Goal, and Measure Your Progress Toward It All large firms have billable hour requirements, but many solos and small firms do not even set billable hour goals. As we’ll discuss later when we talk about leakage, if you don’t know how many hours you’re trying to bill each day, you’ll have no way to measure your progress on a daily basis, and you’ll be missing a valuable piece of information needed to make other financial measurements.

In setting your goals, it’s always nice to know what other firms of your size are doing. One source for this type of information is the Altman Weil Economic Survey of Law Firms. Prepared each year from the information obtained from a randomly selected group of lawyers and law firms willing to participate, the report provides information on firms of all sizes, and is broken down in a variety of ways, including by firm size, geographical region, and area of practice. Even if you can’t afford, or aren’t willing to pay for, the most recent survey report, you can find useful snapshots of information from previous years’ surveys in the form of sample survey pages on the firm’s website at www.altmanweil.com.

Other good sources of economic information for benchmarking are the Association of Legal Administrators (www.alanet.org) and, if your provincial law society or state bar has one, your practice management advisor. CPAs are accustomed to performing benchmark evaluations for other businesses, and some innovative CPA firms are beginning to gather benchmarking statistics for law firms, as well.

Most practices produce a full complement of financial reports on a regular basis. Income statements and balance sheets are de rigueur for any business, including a law firm, but by knowing what additional information to ferret out you can keep an active check on the vital signs of your practice to know what’s really going on “under the hood.”

II. Factors Which Impact Profitability

1. Determine Your Hourly Cost Structure Abraham Lincoln said that a lawyer’s time is his stock in trade, and it’s true. Although knowledge, creativity, and relationships are vital to the provision of quality legal services, the only way we’ve come up with so far to measure the cost to a firm to provide those services is to apply personnel and other costs across the number of hours of service provided. Thus, every lawyer and every firm should know how much it costs to provide an hour of legal services. Without this basic building block, you don’t know whether you’re making money or losing it.

If you have a fair fluency with Excel, it’s not too difficult to use linked spreadsheets to allow you to determine your hourly cost structure. Basically, you want to add up all direct and shared costs (including compensation) for each timekeeper, and divide the total by the timekeeper’s annual billable hours. This will give you the cost for that timekeeper to provide an hour of legal services.

Your first spread sheet will show overhead cost other than staff salaries and timekeeper compensation. These costs can be broken down into two types - fixed cost (such as rent, equipment costs, and support staff salaries) and costs that change with the amount of work you do (such as supplies, consumables, overnight delivery, and overtime).

Your second spreadsheet will gather timekeepers' support staff costs. Take all staff compensation (salaries, bonuses and benefits) and attribute them to each timekeeper. Whether you allocate individual support staff salaries directly to a particular fee-biller or simply lump all support salaries into general overhead will depend on staff assignment and usage in your firm.

Your final spreadsheet will show direct timekeeper revenue and compensation. The idea here is to calculate each timekeeper’s revenue over the budget year, taking into account different rates for different matters, delays in collection, write-down's, write-office and contingencies.

Understanding your hourly cost structure has enormous implications for examining the financial status of your firm and for determining your top-profitability lawyers (as opposed to top revenue generators… which may or may not be the same!). It then allows the firm to provide reasonably accurate estimates for repetitive tasks, and even to bill on a flat fee basis.

2. Breakdown Your Accounts Receivable While your total accounts receivable tells you the total amount of money owed to you by your clients, your accounts receivable report should also be aged 30, 60 and 90+ days.

Can anyone add any benchmarking information here about what percent should be in each category for a healthy firm?

Here it is also useful to look at trends over time. How has the over 90+ category changed? Has it gone up? Growth in your accounts receivable – and particularly in your over 90 days category – can indicate poor client selection, poor collection practices, too much billable time put into a file relative to its worth, or a combination of all three.

Regardless, growth in your over 90 days category should be examined closely to see if there is a cash flow crisis down the road.

3. Learn Your Cash Flow Needs Most practices live and die by cash flow. Accordingly, it is vitally important that a firm be able to forecast not only their expected cash revenues but also their cash needs – and to determine ahead of time whether there will be a shortfall. Your budget is the starting place here – it will tell you your expected expenses and their timing.

Also look at your work in progress (WIP) and what can be billed in the next 30 days. Of those short-term billings, how much can reasonably be expected to be collected? Will that amount be sufficient to meet your cash flow needs? If not, how will you make up the difference?

Delaying or deferring expenses can only be done for so long. Eventually you will lose your credit with one supplier, then all suppliers and, lastly, with your bank.

4. Check Your Staff Leverage Staff leverage is a key factor in law firm profitability. It is measured as the ratio of partners to associates and paralegals. Since you can only work so many hours each day, if you are billing by the hour there comes a point beyond which you cannot improve your income by working additional hours. Once you reach that point, your choice is to hire other timekeepers – associates or paralegals – and make additional profit from the difference between your cost to pay them and the hourly rates your can charge for their services. The more timekeepers you can feed work to, the greater your profits will be, assuming that they are properly managed and working the budgeted number of hours.

5. Get a Handle on Billing Realization Billing realization is the percentage of recorded attorney or paralegal time that actually ends up on the bill sent to the client. For example, if $1,000 worth of time is recorded on the time sheet, but is whittled down and billed out for $900, the billing realization rate is 90%, meaning that the firm has billed out only ninety cents of each dollar of time recorded as having been worked.

It is important for the firm to monitor not just the aggregate dollars written off as billing adjustments, but to additionally monitor the billing realization percentage.

Compare the firm’s billing realization to benchmark numbers in surveys. Try to reach or exceed the realization in the surveys. This is one area which can yield tremendous additional profit for the firm without individual members having to work harder, simply by tightening up billing practices.

Most attorneys are at first put off by the thought of someone else, like a billing committee member or “billing czar,” dictating the final content of a client’s bill. But it is always advisable to have another attorney – the “billing czar” as it were – make the billing attorney accountable for discounts given beyond a modest limit everyone agrees to in advance.

6. Understand Collection Realization Your collection realization rate is the percentage of your billed fees which is actually collected. Collection realization rates are often overstated because attorneys tend to leave uncollectible receivables on the books for extended periods of time, sometimes years, rather than admit that those receivables will never be collected.

To determine how the firm is doing, the firm has to acknowledge that there are only a few possible outcomes once a bill is sent: 1) collection; 2) partial collection with the balance written off; or 3) total write off.

According to statistics from the Commercial Law League, receivables in excess of 1 year have only a 28.4% chance of being collected. Receivables in excess of 2 years have only a 12.5% chance of being collected.

Evaluate your receivables using these statistics to calculate the likelihood of bad debt, and then compare what you have collected and what remains as collectible in your receivables against what you billed. Also compare these numbers to benchmark data. This is another area which can yield tremendous additional profit for the firm, without putting in longer hours, simply by tightening up or implementing good receivable management practices.

7. Work Out Your Billing Turnover Rate Your billing turnover rate is the length of time, on average, that it takes for a bill to be sent to the client after the work has been done. The figure is determined by dividing your year-end work in progress (WIP) figure by the average amount you have billed monthly during the preceding 12 months. For example, if a single lawyer averages billing $20,000 per month and has $60,000 worth of unbilled work (WIP) on the books at the end of the year, his billing turnover rate would be 3 months ($60,000 ÷ $20,000 = 3 months).

Some types of work are customarily billed only at the end of the matter, and this can throw the numbers off. Clearly, though, the lower this number is, the better off you are financially. Clients can’t pay your bill until you send it, and the sooner they get it, the greater chance it’ll be paid.

8. Figure Your EHR (Effective Hourly Rate) You determine the effective hourly rate of any file in the firm by taking the amount received in connection with the matter and dividing it by the hours actually spent on the file. Let us assume that a bill for 100 hours was sent, and that the lawyer’s billable rate was $200 per hour. Let’s also assume that the entire bill was paid in full. The amount billed was 100 hours x $200 = $20,000. To determine the effective hourly rate, we need to know not just the number of hours billed, but the actual number of hours worked on the file.

No, we’re not talking about padding the bill, but the normal write-ups and write-downs that occur during the preparation of a bill for legal services. If the lawyer actually put 200 hours of work into the matter, then the EHR was actually only $100 per hour ($20,000 ÷ 200 hours = $100 per hour), not the lawyer’s billing rate of $200 per hour.

Determining EHR illustrates why it’s especially important to keep up with all of the hours worked in connection with a particular matter – regardless of the way you bill. Your standard billing rate may be $200 per hour, but if you have recorded all your time in connection with contingent or flat fee matters you will be able to determine how much you actually earned per hour in connection with the representation. And if you are able to put in 50 hours on that same hypothetical matter for which you were paid $20,000, then your EHR would be $400 per hour ($20,000 ÷ 50 = $400 per hour).

Pretty good, indeed! Furthermore, determining your EHR has important considerations for moving to alternative billing.

9. Learn Your Gross Profit Margin Your income statement (also known as a profit and loss statement, or P&L) will show revenues, expenses and gross profit or loss (before taxes and draws). This is your most granular of profitability statements.

Your gross profit margin is your gross profit divided by your total revenues. For example, assume that as a solo your profits were $250,000 on revenues of $500,000. Your gross profit margin is $250,000 ÷ 500,000 = 50%. According to the Altman Weil 2005 Small Firm Economic Survey, looking at average income and expenses per lawyer in firms with one to 15 lawyers, lawyer income was 57% of revenues, with all other expense categories consuming the remaining 43% of gross revenues.

If your gross profit margin is substantially lower than this figure, then you should be taking steps to increase your profitability – now!

10. What is your debt-to-asset ratio? Your financial software can produce your Balance Sheet, which shows your assets, liabilities and equities. Take just your assets and liabilities for a moment and divide your total debt by your assets. Rather than looking at this for just one year compare how this has changed over time. Is the ratio getting larger (indicating that your debt is increasing relative to your assets) or is it dropping (indicating that your debt is decreasing relative to the growth of your business)?

11. Determine Lawyer Breakdowns Within the Firm No, this doesn’t have anything to do with nervous exhaustion or burnout. At a minimum, you will need to be able to separate out, by lawyer, the following:

• WIP (work in progress) • Billings • Receipts • Accounts Receivable • Bad-Debts • Draws • Unbilled Disbursements By compiling financial reports by lawyer you’ll be able to see if any lawyer is falling behind in any key financial measure so that you can take steps – now – to correct the situation, before matters get out of hand and you are facing a small financial crisis. Furthermore, by looking at these numbers by lawyer – regularly – firm management communicates to the firm that each and every lawyer needs to be concerned about his or her financial position and that of the firm. Participation in firm management is not optional – it’s required.

12. Produce a ‘Key Statistics’ Report Most firms spend far too many hours and kill way too many trees producing reports, month after month, which are rarely reviewed. The reality is that, in order to successfully manage the financial health of the firm, you only need to look at exceptions to the norm, not the norm itself. For example, for management purposes you don’t need to look at all of the current receivables each month. You only need to look at the ones which are over a certain number of days old or over a certain dollar threshold. As another example, you don’t have to look at all the cost write-offs – just those which exceed a certain dollar threshold or percentage of total costs on a file. Many time and billing packages have canned exception reports, where all you have to do is specify the criteria, and the reports will be produced at the push of a button. Your pile of reports will shrink considerably, as will the time you devote to them, and you will then be better able to focus on what really needs attention.

Most firms would benefit greatly from producing a one page report which summarizes all of the key statistics that reveal the health of the firm, both for the current month as well as year-to-date and for the prior year for comparison purposes.

Once you become familiar with this report, you will be able to determine in a matter of minutes what trends are occurring and whether any numbers are aberrational, requiring further investigation. This way you will be able to work proactively to maintain the financial health of the firm, rather than reactively.

13. Take Charge of the Levers of Law Firm Profitability Assuming that your costs are fixed, there are five variables (or profitability levers) that you can manipulate. They are hourly billing rates, annual number of billable hours, your realization rate (actual ratio of billings collected to billings sent) , your gross margin, and the leverage ratio (by adjusting both associate to partner hours on individual files and the number of associates supervised by each partner).

To really find out what is happening under the surface of your financial reports, you need to look not only at revenues collected but also at the breakdown (and allocation) of fixed and variable costs (overhead) between your different time-billers.

Once this data is at hand, you can build a spreadsheet and do ”what if” calculations to see how revenues, expenses, margins and profits change if you modify one (or more) of the four factors. In this way you can start to appreciate how a file should be shared among partners and associates.

14. Maximize your Profit Margin, Not Your Gross Revenue.

As a part of manipulating the four levers of profitability, work should be assigned to the lowest cost-per-hour staff member who is capable of doing it in a reasonable amount of time. While this may seem counterintuitive, here’s an example that will help make sense of it.

Imagine you have a partner who bills at $250 per hour and an associate who bills at $140 per hour. The partner could do a particular job in 7 hours, for a fee of $1,750. It would take the associate four additional hours keep the quality of the legal services the same – for a bill of $1,540. The obvious choice would seem to be to have the partner perform the job at the higher rate in fewer hours. However, if you factor in the information that, because of overhead and salary allocable to each lawyer, it costs the firm $200 for the lawyer to provide an hour of legal services and only $80 for the associate to provide an hour of time, then the profit on the partner’s time in the matter is only $350 ($1,750 - $1,400 = $350) against $660 profit in the matter ($1,540 - $880 = $660) for the associate to do it. Not to mention that the fee for the client will be lower and the partner will have those seven hours freed up to do more challenging work that the associate is not capable of doing, or to bring in additional clients.

For more ideas on how to increase revenue, read The Lawyer’s Guide to Increasing Revenue: Unlocking the Profit Potential in Your Firm by Arthur G. Greene. Published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section, this book cuts through the mystery of law firm finances by providing simple, easy to understand mathematical examples that show you where additional profit hides. At a scant 156 pages, it’s an easy Saturday read, and will arm you with the information you need to shake up the profit potential of a solo practice or small firm.

15. Reduce Your Firm’s Debt Law firms are like any other business; they need capital to operate and incurring debt is one way to obtain needed capital. Debt service can be expensive, however, and a firm can get caught in a bind if it routinely uses a line of credit to make up for sloppy billing and collection habits. A firm which is carrying a significant amount of debt and then experiences a true downturn, or loss of a key partner or client or a natural disaster, may find itself too overburdened to recover. This is especially critical for solo practitioners because a relatively brief period of disability can literally bankrupt a firm. Use debt judiciously as a part of your capital mix.

16. Increase Your Firm’s Cash Reserves If you don’t have a cash reserve – build one. Examine your monthly cash requirement and compare this to the average balance in your general account. Now accumulate cash to 2, 3 or even 4 times your average balance (place it in an account on which you can earn some interest but where it is easily accessible) to serve as a nest egg. The alternatives to not having sufficient cash if receivables take a hard hit – namely going to the bank for further debt or

taking drastic measures such as laying off staff – may not be possible or may have their own steep price in terms of reduced capacity.

17. Use Productivity Boosts to Improve Profitability Productivity is a key factor in law firm profitability. The more hours timekeepers work, the greater the profit. This is a target of limited opportunity, though, because the requirement for billable hours can only be increased to a certain point. Thereafter gains must be found elsewhere.

If the timekeepers at your office are already working as many hours as reasonably possible, then you should consider using technology as an alternative. Many software packages, like document assembly, practice management, document management, and litigation support software, can have a positive impact on the bottom line by enabling the lawyers and support staff at your firm to work smarter instead of harder, and thereby improve productivity.

18. Use Alternative Billing Strategies to Boost Profitability Alternative methods of billing (methods other than hours worked multiplied by hourly rates) are used to pair the client’s needs and expectations with the billing method that most equitably measures the value of the lawyer’s services. Firms which provide clients with alternatives to hourly billing before they are asked to do so, or the client goes elsewhere, can effectively cement relationships. An additional advantage to alternative billing arrangements is a firm’s ability to create financial incentives for efficiency.

One of the chief criticisms client’s offer regarding hourly billing is that it does not link value to payment, nor does it provide any incentive for the lawyer to improve efficiency. One of the chief criticisms law firm partners offer regarding hourly billing is that technology use can rob the firm of profits by shortening the time cycle to produce the same quality product, while at the same time increasing overhead for hardware, software and training. Use of alternative billing methods enables a firm to bill a predictable amount based on value and efficiency. Both client and firm benefit.

You can start implementing alternative billing now – provided you are willing to do a bit of homework.

For example, assume that you do divorces and that you can clearly identify ‘straightforward’ divorces from messy ones at the outset. Take a good sample of your past straightforward divorce cases and determine the average hours worked on these files (not time billed, but time actually spent on the files). Determine your average bill for these files. Divide your average bill by the average hours worked – this gives you an idea of your average effective hourly rate. Compare it to your average hourly rate – are you making as much on these files as you thought you were?).

Now do three things: First, decide to quote on future files at your average bill + 25%. Second, track all your time to see if you are falling above or below your long term average for these

types of files. Third, look for ways to deliver your services with the same or better quality but in less time.

By implementing fixed fee billing in this way – provided you continue to complete files at the same long term average hours worked per file or less – you have guaranteed yourself a 25% premium on your financial return on these files. Furthermore, you have a built-in incentive to look for ways to improve your effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, your clients will be happy because they will understand the fee for the matter at the outset. Don’t forget, though, to build in an escape clause just in case the matter does not turn out to be quite as ‘straightforward’ as initially presented, particularly if this is due to client actions.

See Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies That Work by James A. Calloway and Mark A. Robertson to gain a better understanding of available alternatives that work. It’s from the ABA Law Practice Management Section and full of great ideas. Product Code 511-0366.

19. Put the Reins on Your Pro Bono Work Many lawyers justify lax client screening and credit policies in the name of pro bono work. When they charge off a large unpaid balance as uncollectible, they say to themselves, “Well, at least I’ve done my share of pro bono for this year.” But the truth is they really haven’t done anything to provide access to the legal system for poor individuals if all they have done is work for nothing for a client who can afford to pay, but won’t. The decision to do pro bono work should be made in advance - not after the fact. There are much better ways to handle your pro bono work.

In order to keep a solid handle on all the pro bono work you do, Paul MacLaughlin, former practice management advisor to the Law Society of Alberta, suggests in his book Welcome to Reality: A New Lawyer’s Guide to Success, that from the beginning of your practice you implement the following rules:

1. At the beginning of each year, establish the number of pro bono files and the number of pro bono hours you are willing to take on during that year, write them down, and do not exceed the number of hours except to finish out the last case.

2. Keep a written list of your pro bono cases and a running total of your pro bono hours, and refer to these lists before you consider opening a new pro bono file.

This way, when you meet a client who can’t afford to pay, you will have a framework within which to decide whether or not to take the case, and, if you don’t take it, you will be able to have a clear conscience as you explain that, like many lawyers, each year you take on a number of cases at no charge or at reduced rates, but you have no openings on your list right now so you are not in a position to help them.

20. Raise Your Hourly Rates

This may seem obvious to some, but too many attorneys fear that raising their rates will price them out of the market. Pricing is more art than science. The time to raise your rate is when you have more work than you can handle. It’s better to have a little less work which is more profitable than more work at a lower profit rate. Raise your rates for new clients first. There’s no reason you can’t keep raising your rates as new clients come in the door. In fact, keep it up until such time as you can tell it has more of an impact on intake than you’d like. As long as you know the percentage of prospects which you “close” (e.g. convert to clients) you will easily know if your rate increase is having too great a dampening effect on intake.

For existing clients, be sure your engagement agreement allows for periodic or discretionary rate increases. At least once every other year, preferably each year, provide current clients with a thirty day warning of your rate increase before implementing it. For those far below your current billing rate, be sure to let them know they are still getting a “bargain” from your “new client” rate. That normally heads off complaints about increases.

21. Fire Unprofitable Clients Once you’ve determined your effective hourly rate (EHR) for particular clients and practice areas, you will know which are profitable and which are not. Rather than invest your billable hours -in clients and matters which are unprofitable, you should, instead, spend your time on the work of more profitable clients – or free up time to market your services to better quality clients. That means that you will need to periodically select some clients to fire.

Make that decision based strictly on the numbers – not emotions. When it’s purely a business decision, and not personal, it’s much easier to look the client in the eye and explain why you can no longer assist them. You may be pleasantly surprised to find out that they would rather face a rate increase than switch attorneys; sometimes they know better than you what a bargain your services are!

III. Effectively Capturing Time

1. Track your Time This is the starting point for performing any profitability analysis on a law practice. The only products law firms have to sell are time, information, and expertise as applied to any set of facts. Without accurate time records, you won’t know how much it costs you to provide a given legal service. You won’t be able to determine if you put 50 hours into a matter that paid $10,000 (effectively $200 per hour) or 200 hours (effectively $50 per hour). Track all time (even non-billable and administrative time) and you can create a baseline to see exactly how your time is being spent and then use this information to increase your financial return.

2. Account for the Entire Day - Every Day! Unless timesheets are completed at the time of the task performed, they will not be accurate. Those which are made up from memory at a later date become distorted, and as much as 40% of time can be “lost” if not recorded immediately. If you do not use practice management software or time and billing software which provides pop-up timers, you can use the Journal feature in Outlook. But however you do it, you need to record your time right away!

An easy way to make sure you do not lose time is to note each day your arrival time and departure time, and how much time was spent over lunch. If the billable and non-billable hours on your timesheet at the end of the day do not add up to the total of the hours spent at the office, you know you’ve lost time – at least some of which represents unbilled fees that you are owed.

The only real way to know where all your time goes every day is to write it all down!

3. Teach Young Lawyers How to Properly Record Time Healthy timekeeping habits should be established early on, and they are learned – not instinctual. It’s not effective to criticize an attorney for not working a sufficient number of billable hours. He or she is probably spending large amounts of time at the office and not properly recording it.

Teach associates various techniques to be more accurate in recording time. Remember that their habits, just like yours, will only worsen over time, not improve, unless you take measures to train them properly in this critical skill and then provide incentives for doing it right and disincentives for doing it wrong.

Sometimes something as simple as a different style of timesheet, or a timekeeping tool or case manager such as Amicus Attorney or Time Matters on the desktop, or a PDA with timers, or even a clock which displays time in six minute increments, can be enough to dramatically improve their habits.

4. Use a Carrot, not a Stick, to Make Sure Time is Recorded and Turned in

Regularly and On Time The failure to record and turn in billable time can have a devastating effect on a law firm’s profitability. Lawyers tend to prefer to focus on the actual practice of law instead of the administrative details of practice, even to the detriment of their own financial interests.

Some firms use penalties, such as withholding paychecks, to ensure that time records are turned in on time. Contrary to what you might expect, these penalties can actually have a negative effect because they create an adversarial relationship between the firm’s lawyers and whoever is administering the penalties – usually a managing partner.

Instead, implement a reward, even a payment – however modest - for those who turn in their time records in a timely fashion. Believe it or not, some larger firms find they really do get better results with the carrot, rather than the stick. Relations between the firm lawyers and management improve, time posting stays current, and the firm’s cash flow is improved.

5. “Touch” your time only once. Get a good billing program and learn to enter your time yourself. Don’t waste time scribbling stuff someone else has to come back to you to translate, and then has to type it in. Modern time and billing programs can be set up with macros that will make entering information about the things you do repeatedly on a daily basis a snap. With just a few keystrokes you’ll be able to enter detailed descriptions about all the work you do. And if you absolutely refuse to type, there are voice recognition systems that will allow you to dictate your time directly into your billing software.

When you touch your time only once you’ll also always have up to the minute information about time worked on a particular matter, and be able to render a bill at the moment the client will be most grateful for your services and, consequently, most willing to pay. More about that later.

6. Select the “Right” Time and Billing System No one time and billing system is “best.” What’s best depends on the needs of the individual firm. The following factors are most important in selecting a system which will be best for your requirements:

• Client requirements, such as special reports or task-based billing or e-billing

• The complexity of your rate structure and how flexible and easy it is to make changes as your needs change

• The types of bills you need to render, e.g. hourly, contingent and flat fee or all of these

• Your firm’s management reporting requirements

• The need for integration with other existing software, such as practice management software, and your plans for future automation

• Vendor stability and the availability of qualified independent consultants/trainers to assist your firm

• The firm’s current information management processes and the software’s fit with them

IV. Getting Paid: Collecting What You Bill This is where the rubber meets the road….all that intellectual effort you have put into your client’s files is for naught unless you can make a reasonable financial return for your efforts. This part of the paper delves into the hows and whys of making that intellectual effort sing straight into your bank account!

1. Pick the Clients Who WANT to Pay You Picking the right client is the first step to getting paid. Your business plan sets out the areas of practice that you intend to offer. Now – draft your client intake form so that you ask yourself – does this client meet your business selection criteria? Are they willing to ante up a trust retainer? Will they sign the client retainer agreement? Do they seem reluctant or uncomfortable with your outline of the fees and costs likely to be incurred in this matter? Do they talk about difficulties with prior lawyers? There are many warning signs that this may be a problematic client – your job is to make sure that you ask the kind of questions – up front – that will smoke out the undesirable ones – in order that you are working with – and for – clients that both want your services and are willing to pay for them. Oh, and don’t forget to contact their former attorney (with their consent of course) to determine if he or she was paid.

2. Rehearse Turning Down Undesirable Clients Often we see a problem client coming, but we take the case anyway because we think we need the work or we simply don’t like telling someone that we can’t help them.

If you have carefully considered and planned what business you’re in and you know who is – and who isn’t – your target client, you’re half way there. Next, prepare your “turn down” speech, and rehearse it just as you would an opening or closing argument. When you can say it forward and backward in your sleep, with feeling and compassion, it will be much easier to avoid the cases you know you really shouldn’t be taking.

3. Create a Road Map for Your Clients with Your Fee Agreements As we become familiar with the areas of the law in which we specialize, we forget that a divorce or personal injury case may be completely uncharted, and very scary, territory for our clients. Believe it or not, this is where your fee agreement comes in.

If you take the time to draft a good, simple fee agreement that adequately covers each type of case you regularly handle, and you supplement that agreement with a written general chronology of matter of this type or a frequently asked question sheet to guide your clients through the process, not only will you create a sense of security for the client, but you’ll help prevent unnecessary phone calls that waste your time and your clients’ money. You’ll also avoid time-wasting disputes over fees and other issues by starting early to shape your clients’

expectations about the procedures your office uses to facilitate client-lawyer communications and handle emergencies, the length of time it will take to complete the matter, including the number of steps involved, and what you expect in terms of billing and payment.

4. Learn to Draft Bills that Clients Rush to Pay Your bill serves two purposes. The first, and most obvious, is to make sure that you get paid. The second purpose is just as important but many lawyers don’t know what it is. It’s to leave the client with a favorable impression of the services he or she has received. In other words, your bill is another tool for client communication.

Clients seek value when they purchase legal services, just as we all do when we purchase any item or service. Your bills provide you with an opportunity to both meet your ethical obligation to communicate the status of the matter to the client and to also market your practice by demonstrating your legal abilities.

Provide as much information as possible about your billing practices, preferably in writing, at the beginning of the relationship. Then, bill in a regular and timely way, using statements which contain a full narrative of the work done and the goal accomplished by that work. This allows you easily provide status updates and also reinforce that every action you took on the case had a purpose in its speedy resolution. Also, because legal services are so very intangible, the more information you can provide about how hard you worked and what you accomplished through that work for the client, the more likely the client will be to perceive the bill as fair, and to pay it promptly.

5. Read How to Draft Bills Clients Rush to Pay If you’re not sure how to go about drafting bills that will convey value to your clients, then take a look at How to Draft Bills Clients Rush to Pay by J. Harris Morgan and Jay Foonberg. This book covers everything from building the client relationship through collecting the final bill. It also contains sample fee agreements and invoices along with an explanation of what works best, and why. It’s from the ABA Law Practice Management Section. Product code is 511-0495. [Note: PBA members can purchase this book at a discount. Contact lawpractice@pabar.org to get the discount code.]

6. Bill Regularly Clients are funny – if you establish a pattern with them, they will usually be willing to accommodate it. Accordingly, train your clients to expect to pay regularly for their legal services. It helps the client by breaking up the total amount that will eventually be due for the

services and spreading it out over time and it helps you with cash flow and by preventing your work in progress (WIP) from building up.

7. Spread Your Billing Out There’s no rule which says you can only bill at the beginning or end of the month. When you spread your billing over the month you even out your cash flow and take a burden off your bookkeeper or billing clerk. Whether you are a solo or a lawyer in a firm of hundreds of lawyers, try to send out 25% of your bills each week. Or, if you have partners, work out a schedule so that a given subset of partners bills during each week of the month.

8. Time Your Bills to Your Client’s Payment Cycle Timing is everything, or so the saying goes. Most of your clients have a payment cycle, whether they’re individuals and the cycle is based on paydays or businesses and the cycle is based on regular internal cash flow. If you know what your client’s normal bill-paying cycle is and get your bill there before the cut-off, it will be paid much more quickly than if it arrives right after the cut-off and is put aside for payment during the next payment cycle.

9. Get familiar with the “line of gratitude” and bill accordingly. There are several versions of this, but the general idea behind it is that there are points during the representation when clients are more psychologically ready and willing to pay for legal services. For example, at the first appointment the client is likely to be extremely anxious about the matter and willing to sign a fee agreement. If you put drafting and presenting the fee agreement off until the work is well under way, the client has less incentive to sign – you’re already working on the matter without it, after all.

The same is true for sending your bill. The sooner after the case has concluded that the bill is sent, the better your chances are of getting paid. So too, the sooner the bill is sent after you have achieved some specific measure of success for the client, the better your chances of getting paid. The longer you wait to send the bill, the more ephemeral your services, and the benefit of them, will seem to the client.

10. Charge Interest on Past Due Invoices – And Give Discounts for Early Payment Many attorneys include the ability to charge interest on past due invoices in their engagement agreements, but then fail to do so. Typically, an attorney will wait until an invoice is two years past due, and then, in exasperation, send an invoice for retroactive interest. That has no effect on payment, but can sometimes make the attorney feel better – briefly!

If you really want to make sure clients pay promptly, you should notify your clients that you will be charging interest on unpaid balances by including an appropriate, and conspicuous, provision in your fee agreement, point it out to the client when going over the agreement, and then set your time and billing program to automatically apply interest charges as soon as the invoice is past due. Remember, though, in Canada in order to charge clients interest you must notify them in advance (prior to sending the invoice) of your intention to do so, and you must state the amount to be charged as an annual percentage rate to comply with the Canada Interest Act.)

Some innovative firms even give discounts for early payment. Most clients will ride you for about 30 days, particularly if you do not include a due date on the invoice. By offering a small discount (such as 2% if payment is received in 10 days) you can encourage your clients to benefit themselves by paying you sooner.

11. Allow Clients to Pay by Credit Card It used to be an expensive proposition to take credit cards. The merchant account provider took hefty percentages, and you had to purchase or rent expensive hardware and software. That’s not the case anymore. Fees are generally very low and virtually all transactions can be completed by telephone or online.

Even corporate clients who can afford to pay immediately often prefer to pay by credit card in order to accumulate rewards like frequent flyer miles. And clients who may be too embarrassed to admit they cannot pay your bill in full, and feel they cannot send an “on account” payment, can pay you in full and then pay off the credit card balance as their cash flow permits. Collection then becomes the credit card company’s problem, not yours.

If you do decide to begin to accept credit cards, be sure to review the appropriate rules regarding the acceptance of payment by credit card before getting started.

12. Remember That Client Satisfaction Drives all Financial Metrics Client satisfaction is the ultimate key to profitability in the law firm. The only way to create a consistent and sufficient flow of revenue is to have a consistent and sufficient pool of clients who are wiling to hire the firm, pay their bills on time, and recommend the firm to friends and colleagues in need of legal assistance who will do the same. Some keys to creating this pool of clients are:

• Perform adequate intake

• Strive to understand the client’s objectives (both emotional as well as legal)

• Adequately explain the legal process

• Create realistic expectations (and eliminate unrealistic ones)

• Keep your clients constantly informed

• Stress client service among staff

• Seek feedback about your services and implement client suggestions

13. Implement Regular Surveys of Your Clients Lawyers are funny people – they often are *very* reluctant to ask clients what they thought of the services they have just received. Imagine going to a restaurant and not having the waiter or waitress come up to you and ask how is the meal (at an early-enough stage in the meal that would allow for a correction and needs satisfaction?). Yet time and time again lawyers will not ask their clients to tell them what went right, what went wrong and how they can do it better the next time. This is more than just basic courtesy – it is a wonderful way to find out how to be a better lawyer, how to have happy and satisfied clients and how to beat the pants off the competition by being better at client service and satisfaction! Design a short survey form and send it to all clients at the conclusion of their file – and read the results – carefully. However, one final warning – if you ask clients what you can do to make things better – you *must* be prepared to make real changes in accordance with their stated advice – otherwise you risk being insincere and perceived as only providing lip service to client satisfaction.

14. Use your AR analysis to ferret out unhappy clients. Often, you can spot unhappy clients by the fact that they don’t pay their bills. Review your accounts receivable on a regular basis (at least once a month) and immediately contact clients who are past due to determine why they haven’t paid.

Most lawyers tend to let past due accounts slide for several months before they address the matter, if at all. A client who hasn’t paid may be having financial problems or may be unhappy with your services. Either way, the more quickly you can determine the nature of the problem, the more quickly you can take steps to solve it – before you’ve gone too far to ethically withdraw from the case and gotten yourself into a money-loosing quagmire.

V. Conclusion As the saying goes, the only thing that is certain is change. Regardless of how well your firm is performing financially today, tomorrow will bring changing conditions.

In addition to keeping your ear to the ground for changes in the way law firms operate, revise your budget for this year and the next. In particular, reduce your forecast revenues and increase both your debt payments and your accounts receivable to see how these changes will affect your cash flow, your income statement and your partner compensation. Present these adjusted budget numbers at the next partners’ meetings and use this exercise as a way to adjust everyone’s thinking regarding a possible change in economic fortunes and let it serve as a catalyst for foresight and improvements within the firm.

As you can see, there’s magic in the numbers. The most important step toward improving profitability is to get to know your financial reporting system. Start to dive under the hood to see what reports and management tools are available to help you better understand the movement of time and money through your practice. After all, you have paid for your computerized accounting system – you might as well use it to increase your ROI and let it work for you as a planning tool rather than simply reporting on historical information.

©2007 Ellen Freedman (With gratitude to David Bilinsky, Laura Calloway, and Claire Barnes.)

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Business Resources\KEY STATS SAMPLE REPORT.doc

KEY STATISTICS FOR 2003 Current Mo/ Current Yr

Billable Hours

Fees Billed

Fees Received

WIP A/R Costs Write Off

Fees Write Off

A/R Write Off

Cash on hand

Change in cash bal.

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TOTALS

Previous Year

Billable Hours

Fees Billed

Fees Received

WIP A/R Costs Write Off

Fees Write Off

A/R Write Off

Cash on hand

Change in cash bal.

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

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SEP

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TOTALS

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Business Resources\KEY STATS SAMPLE REPORT.doc

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GETTING PAID

by Ellen Freedman, CLM Law Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar Association

There is no magic secret to ensuring you get paid for the work you do. Rather, there is a methodology you can and should follow. If you do, you will greatly improve your cash flow, and dramatically decrease the percentage of bad receivables.

What holds most people back from collecting their bills are a number of

emotional issues. Sometimes these are combined with poor client management. Let’s start by acknowledging that an attorney’s busy schedule leaves little room for dealing with administrative issues, of which collection of receivables is a big one. Often you find everything and anything calling out to be done in order to avoid dealing with the work which should be done. Calling for money is one of those unpleasant tasks which falls by the wayside at the slightest excuse. You are not comfortable making those calls. And if you’re honest, you’re probably a little annoyed that you should even have to make those calls. After all, you dropped everything to accommodate the client’s needs, and produced the desired results. Why should you have to call?

In addition, you know it’s near impossible to call for additional work and

try to collect on past due invoices at the same time. In today’s competitive market, you’d rather get additional work, and keep the faith that the older bills will eventually be paid. And some of them definitely will be. . . eventually, after you’ve had to dip into your line of credit to pay operating expenses. And then there are the many instances where you know the “inside” story of your client’s financial condition, and feel it would be inappropriate to ask for payment when you know the client is in a precarious position. You feel the client expects you to be understanding and get in the back of the creditor line.

Putting aside the emotional issues, there can also be instances where

clients are “surprised” in an unpleasant way when the bill arrives. This is a sure sign that the engagement agreement was not clear, and that communication between you and the client could be improved. And without

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knowing it, you could be delivering a message to your clients that you really do not care if you get paid on time, or maybe even at all.

Here are the steps you should take to keep the cash flowing:

1. Write a strong engagement letter which clearly spells out rates, costs, billing cycles, and expected payment terms, and allows the firm to disengage for non-payment, as well as apply an interest charge on past due balances and allows reimbursement of collection costs. Use this letter for every new client, and every matter for a client which is billed under a different arrangement from other matters, and do not proceed until the letter is returned signed. Pennsylvania rules require that the engagement letter be sent, but many attorneys overlook getting the signed copy back for the file. Learn a lesson on how to do this from your CPA. Likely he or she will not provide you with your final financial statement until you have returned the signed engagement letter. I can assure you he or she gets that signed statement back every time.

2. Take the time to find out what your client’s billing cycle is, and try to time your bill to arrive before the cut-off of a billing cycle, so that it does not wait around for another month’s cycle.

3. Try to get your bills out by the tenth of the month if you do them all in one batch. Receiving the bill early in the month communicates to your client that your bills are important to you.

4. If there is something on the bill that surprises your client, you have not communicated adequately during the month. Keep the client informed of unusual or unexpected expenses or time spent. Whenever possible, give the client a say in whether or how aspects are handled that relate directly to costs or fees. Consider having the client pay directly for large costs.

5. Designate someone to call the client’s bookkeeper whenever an invoice remains unpaid longer than 30 days (unless your agreement with the client stipulates payment in a longer cycle). This is a customer-service driven call, and can be handled by a bookkeeper, receptionist, or secretary, whoever has the best “people” skills. The person who makes the call needs to ascertain a) was the bill received? b) if so, has it been processed for payment? c) if not, is there a problem which needs to be addressed? d) if it has been processed, when will a check go out?

6. If the bill has not been received, a copy should be immediately faxed or sent by overnight courier. A follow-up call should be made in 24 hours to the

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same person as the day before to ask the same questions posed the prior day. This prompt action will communicate the firm’s desire to collect on the outstanding bill. It will transfer a sense of urgency. It will also eliminate any possible “stalling” tactics in the future. In addition, follow up calls should be made every one to two weeks until such time as payment is made, or a payment arrangement is made. The trite statement that “the squeaky wheel gets the oil” was probably invented when referring to successful collection strategies. Simply put, those who call most get paid first, and are paid more quickly in the future.

7. If there is a problem with the bill you must make contact with the client without delay to ascertain what the problem is, and resolve it. As an example, at one firm a client had a bill in excess of $30,000 which was over a year old. The client has not been contacted. Upon making contact a year later the client said that he had a question about the bill and had left numerous messages to that effect, but the attorney did not return those calls. (But to the attorney’s credit he apparently had responded to the same client’s request for additional work in the interim.) The managing partner met with the client and discovered that the client’s question concerned approximately $1,000 worth of time and costs. The managing partner told the client that if he were willing to cut a check on the spot, the questionable items would be written off. The client was as relieved as the managing partner to get the debt resolved. The client indicated that he felt so uncomfortable knowing the invoice was outstanding for so long that he could no longer contact the attorney for additional work. Past due bills can therefore evoke emotional reaction for both the client and the attorney.

8. If the invoice is approved but payment cannot be made due to financial constraints, it is time to work out a payment plan. It should not be acceptable for you to finance your clients. You need to be paid, as do your employees, and your bills. You need to communicate this clearly and directly to the client. No matter what your client’s financial situation, you are entitled to be paid for the work you do. You may ultimately not collect 100%, but you should be at the top of the line of creditors and get your fair share every step of the way. The only way to ensure that is to make sure the client knows that you expect to be paid for your work. Keep in mind that there comes a point in time, as the debt grows, when the “power” shifts to the client. For example, one firm found out the hard way when a client which accounted for about 17% of its annual revenues experienced a downturn. At first the past due balances were ignored, due to the fact that the client had previously been such a good paying client. By the time the firm contacted the client to inquire about the past due bills, the client owed a lot (over six figures) of money to the firm. The client agreed to a payment schedule, after being advised that the firm would not continue working if the schedule was not adhered to. The client made most of the scheduled

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payments, but also gave a lot of additional work to the firm, promising that payment would come from the revenues the additional work produced for the client. In a short time the client had actually doubled the debt. When the firm informed the client it was “putting the pens down” the client threatened not to pay at all. At this point the client’s debt was such a significant portion of the firm’s total receivables, it could not afford to alienate the client. Did the firm get paid? Ultimately it wound up writing off an even greater debt than if the firm had put the pens down and walked away.

9. Probably obvious from the previous point is that you must be ready to walk away from a client who cannot or will not pay. Certainly there are loyalty issues. You do not want to abandon a client who is experiencing a temporary setback and will eventually bounce back. But that doesn’t mean you can or should be their banker, either. And you also need to objectively determine the client’s capacity to catch up on your past due bills when they recover from the set-back. Equally as important, can your firm afford to keep investing $2 for every $1 you collect?

10. What about the quality of your clients? Do you ascertain whether they have the capacity to pay for your work before you proceed? What we’re talking about is the type of credit check our corporate counterparts perform. As you’ve probably discovered, an ability to pay a retainer to the firm is no indication of ability to take on considerable legal fees for litigation or transactional work. The best way to determine this is to have a frank discussion with the client before commencing work, and perhaps review their financial statement.

11. Lastly, there will come a time when you will have to consider whether you should sue the client for unpaid fees. This is a difficult decision-making process. Your professional liability insurance carrier will advise, emphatically, no way! They believe that the exposure to a counter suit for malpractice is just not worth the receivable. Take a look at your deductible and the client’s debt, as well as your prior claim history, before even taking a look at the file to see if there might be any “merit” in a counter suit. If the debt is lower than your deductible, or if your firm has already reported several claims in the past 5 – 7 years, you are best advised to walk away from the debt and client. This is not easy when your emotions are running high regarding the result you achieved for the client and your indignation at being stiffed. But reason must prevail.

In summary, in order to ensure you get paid, you must work for quality clients who have the capacity to pay for the work you are being engaged to perform, and who know the terms of payment. You must have someone promptly follow

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up on every past due bill, and to keep following up frequently until payment is received. You must intervene immediately if there are questions raised about the bill. If a payment schedule is arranged it should be carefully monitored by the person designated to make calls. Keep an eye on the client’s balance to make sure that they at least keep “even” if you continue to work, meaning that their payments equal or exceed current time spent. And finally, do not wait until it is too late to put pens down and walk away.

This article has appeared in at least the following publications and locations:

Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Newsletter American Bar Association’s GP Link Philly Lawyer Web Site home page Louisiana State Bar Association’s Sole Practitioners & Small Firms Section Newsletter Atlanta Bar Association’s Small Firms Newsletter Georgia Defense Lawyers’ Association Newsletter Lancaster Law Review

This article originally appeared in the January, 1999 issue of the Pennsylvania Bar News.

Ellen Freedman, CLM, has served as the Law Practice Management Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association since 1999. In that capacity she assists PBA’s members with management issues and decisions on the business side of their practice, including areas like technology, human resources, risk management, setting up a practice and so forth. Members are encouraged to contact Ellen through the 800 “Hot Line” at PBA headquarters, (800-932-0311 x2228) or through email (lawpractice@pabar.org). Ellen managed inside law firms for twenty years. Most of that time was spent in a mid-size (thirty+ attorney) firm environment. Ellen has achieved the designation of Certified Legal Manager through the Association of Legal Administrators. She holds a Certification in Computer Programming from Maxwell Institute, a Certification in Web Site Design from Temple University, and a B.A. from Temple University, where she also did graduate studies in Criminology. Ellen has been a frequent author and speaker on law firm management issues on a national, regional and local level.

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FINANCIAL REPORTING ESSENTIALS

Ellen Freedman, CLM

Law Practice Management Coordinator Pennsylvania Bar Association

Is one of the following a familiar scene at your firm?

Scene One: Each month-end the books are “closed”. Then reports are run and distributed. You receive a rather large stack of reports. The reports contain important information. Yet, aside from pulling out the work-in-process (WIP) for billing, the reports are barely touched. Generally, the bulk of the reports sit on the credenza or desk corner or floor until the next month, when the old stack is replaced by the new.

Scene Two: Month end does not really have meaning except for payroll tax liabilities, and expenses due on the first of the month, like rent. Your firm is small, and therefore your “needs” for financial information are limited largely to what you need to get a bill out the door, and how much cash is in the bank.

If either of these scenes creates a strong sense of deja vu, your financial

reporting could use an overhaul.

When it comes to financial reporting, most firms err by operating at either extreme noted above — too much or too little. It does not help you make good decisions to weigh you down with mountains of paper which you will never find time to wade through. Nor can you make good business decisions in the absence of data.

I suggest you prepare a one page synopsis which identifies and

summarizes each of the key statistics which should be monitored regularly in a law firm. It should show totals for the current month, year-to-date, and the prior year-to-date, too. All on one page. (The numbers are readily available off today’s Time & Billing software packages.) And because the key statistics report is so simple to understand and become comfortable with, it is

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guaranteed to become your most used financial tool —in some cases the only tool used. Following are the nine key statistics you should review monthly:

BILLABLE HOURS: For firms which still worship at the altar of the

billable hour, it is imperative to monitor hours regularly. Firms which work exclusively on alternate billing arrangements, like contingency, flat fee and such, need not monitor hours, and in fact may not even keep a record of hours.

FEES BILLED: One must be careful to note whether any adjustments

in the current month might throw off the total. BILLING REALIZATION: This area can dramatically impact

profitability. Billing realization is computed as fees billed divided by the actual value of the time which was billed. For example, if $1,000 worth of time (10 hours @$100/hr) is billed out for $900, the billing realization is 90%, meaning the firm has billed out at ninety cents on the dollar. Benchmark realization numbers can be obtained from the Altman Weil Pensa Survey of Law Firm Economics. If the firm is not attaining or surpassing the benchmark numbers for realization, efforts should be focused in this area. Improvement of even one percent overall can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line. Of course, realization can only be computed when time is accurately recorded.

FEES RECEIVED: This number will normally get the most scrutiny,

aside from billable hours. In firms where compensation is directly tied to receipts (e.g. “Eat What You Kill”), receipts will be looked at from several perspectives, usually by originating and responsible attorney. But it is not necessary to take such a detailed look at receipts every month. Generally, just tracking the overall volume on a month to month basis is sufficient.

WORK IN PROCESS (WIP): At some firms this report is called pre-bills

or bill drafts. It accounts for all unbilled time and costs incurred for clients. It gives an instant view of the firm’s active inventory. Old unbillable time and costs should routinely be written off, so the WIP is an accurate predictor of billings to come over the next 30 – 60 days for non-contingent matters.

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (A/R): If your receivables keep increasing

while your billable hours and fees billed remain the same, it means that you are not achieving the revenues you have worked hard to attain. Even though you review the aggregate total, you should still monitor individually any past due or unusually large receivables.

COST WRITE-OFF: This number represents the costs which are

written off or down or “adjusted” at time of billing. Well managed firms have thresholds established for write-offs, beyond which the proposed write-off must be reviewed by another partner. The details of write-offs must be dutifully

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reviewed each and every month. Keep an eye out for noteworthy-sized write-offs, even if the aggregate total is unremarkable. These should be footnoted on the Key Statistics Report.

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE WRITE-OFF: If there is a problem with

the bill, at least from the client’s perspective, there will likely be some accommodation made by the firm. No matter how happy the clients are or how well the firm follows up on outstanding invoices, there will always be a certain percentage of write-offs. The IRS is concerned that invoices not be written off until a reasonable effort is made to collect. In law firms I’ve always found that the opposite problem exists. That is to say that attorneys, for some reason, just can’t bring themselves to write off receivables. The firm is better off being more aggressive in writing off items which are highly unlikely to ever be paid. Then the A/R will more accurately reflect the cash revenue potential of the firm.

CASH ON HAND: This is the final number to monitor regularly. You’d

be a rare attorney indeed if you weren’t already asking for this number daily or weekly. If the overall numbers don’t make “sense”, this is one of the first places it will be evident.

The idea of looking at a one page synopsis of all the key statistics is to

get a quick glimpse at the overall health of the firm, and to develop a clear sense of the work-to-revenue cycle of your firm. If any of the numbers requires further exploration, and if you have time to do so, you can always look at a more detailed report. But why spend the manpower processing and printing reports you will never get to? On the other hand, if you’re one of those who has not been receiving reports, reviewing a one page report will not be too time consuming or difficult.

This article originally appeared in the Winter, 2000 issue of the

Solo and Small Firm Section Newsletter

Ellen Freedman, CLM, is Law Practice Management Coordinator (LPMC) of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. As LPMC she provides information and assistance to PBA members regarding problems and issues on the business side of their practice. She encourages you to contact her at 800-932-0311 x2228 or on the internet at lawpractice@pabar.org. Freedman received her B.A. from Temple University, Certification in Web Design from Temple University, Certification in Computer Programming from Maxwell Institute, and has earned the designation of Certified Legal Manager — one of only thirty-five in the nation to achieve this designation from the Association of Legal Administrators. She has managed mid-size law firms for twenty years, and is a frequent author and speaker on law firm management topics.

DIALING FOR DOLLARS: ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE CALL MANAGEMENT

Ellen Freedman, CLM

Law Practice Management Coordinator Pennsylvania Bar Association

Ever since I wrote the article entitled “Getting Paid” almost five years ago, I have been consistently called upon to do a seminar on the same topic from one end of the state to the other, at events ranging from bench bar conferences to luncheon MCLEs. Invariably, I am frequently contacted on the hot line following a seminar to ask me how to properly make the actual call for money. As a private consultant I have been hired on many occasions to provide on-site training in making these types of calls. I have gone over the script so many times with individual firms, I thought it would be helpful to diagram it, so I produced the flowchart which accompanies this article. Probably the best news I deliver during my seminar is that the attorney isn’t the right one to make the routine calls to follow up on receivables. First, it doesn’t make sense to invest otherwise billable hours pursuing past due billings if someone else can perform the same function just as, or more, effectively. Second, it is almost impossible for an attorney to contact clients seeking additional work while they are simultaneously trying to collect on past work. And finally, most calls are more of a customer service function than a “collection” function, and therefore should be handled by the most customer–service–friendly person at the firm. Finding the most customer–service–friendly person means, for most firms, that the bookkeeper is NOT the right person to make the calls. Think about it. Most bookkeepers are “rule followers”, and have little tolerance for those who do not follow rules themselves. Everything in their world has to be neat, tidy, and organized, in order to proceed on a schedule which is consistent from month to month. Their idea of making a call about a past due bill is to say, “Our terms are net thirty days — what part of that do you not understand?” Hardly the kind of rapport you want to establish! In small firms where options are limited, the most customer–friendly person is often the receptionist. In larger firms there are more options available. If the firm has an administrator, that person should have the requisite people skills to make the calls. Don’t assume that an office manager, especially without sufficient legal background and good people skills is suitable, though. I had one firm referred to me for counseling by the Disciplinary Board because their new–to–legal office manager was yelling at and threatening all their clients with law suits! That method may work in other industries, but is certainly not suitable in the legal profession.

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Calls should be made on each receivable as soon as it reaches the due date. Different types of clients may have different due dates, depending on their payment terms and arrangements with the firm. For example, insurance companies may pay quarterly, or in 45 days, whereas other clients may have bills due within ten days of receipt. If you have varying payment terms, tracking the date to start the calling process can be a little more complex. In order to make calls when required, you need a billing system which can produce an aged receivable report on demand, or you need to make a tickler entry for follow-up on each bill as it goes out, especially when the terms are other than Net 30. The actual call is placed to the client’s bookkeeper or accounts payable clerk. When the initial call is made, you just want to ensure the bill has arrived, and determine whether there are any issues concerning the bill which might hold up payment. A frequent “stalling” technique is to claim the bill has not arrived. If that is the response you receive, you should immediately — that day unless your call is made right before 5:00 p.m., in which case the next morning — fax and federal express a copy of the bill. I don’t normally recommend hitting a fly with a brick, but in this case you want to make sure that this excuse will never be offered to you again by this client. You will also convey a sense of urgency, indicating that your firm cares about whether you get paid on time. You should be back on the telephone the very next day to confirm receipt of the fax and hard copy, and to again ask whether there are any problems with the bill. If a problem or question exists, you must determine the nature of the problem. Try to get the client to specifically identify what charges are problematic. Ask the client to temporarily hold back that portion of the bill until you can respond, and to pay the balance in the meantime. Remember, it is always better to get a slice of bread even if you can’t get the whole loaf. Problems on bills should be researched and resolved as quickly as possible. This is definitely a customer service issue, and the client has every right to have their questions answered in a prompt and courteous manner. I usually counsel clients to “empower” the person making these calls to write off charges up to a certain percentage, if they feel the situation warrants it. For example, if the client expresses unhappiness with the efficiency with which a young lawyer has handled a matter, and the fees in question equal less than 10% of the overall fees on the bill, your employee should authorize the client to take a courtesy reduction, provided they send in their payment for the balance right away. When the costs or fees questioned are in excess of the percentage you set, this is when the attorney must get involved. You must contact the client to resolve the issues without delay. Concentrate on being open in your communications, and patient with the client’s lack of understanding as to what goes into managing their matter. Don’t be defensive, and certainly don’t make the client feel that way. You never want the client to regret that they raised issues. Their discomfort level might motivate them to seek another attorney to handle their subsequent matters. Some attorneys balk at the idea of empowering an employee to offer courtesy reductions. According to the Commercial Law League, receivables aged one month are 93.2% collectible; at 3 or more months they are only 72.3% collectible; at 1 year or more a bill’s collectability drops to

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just 28.4%; if your bill ages 2 years or more you can expect to recover only 12.5%! Would you take on a matter knowing you were going to provide a discount of over 87% on your normal rate? Keeping these numbers in mind, you want to do everything you can to keep your receivables from reaching that 90 day mark. Offering a maximum adjustment of 10%, which is what I usually recommend, is small compared to the write-offs you will ultimately incur if you allow the disputed bill to remain open and unpaid for too long. Before the call ends, you must secure a specific date on which the payment will be made. Often clients will not want to commit to a date, replying “I don’t know, I can’t say right now when I’ll be able to pay this bill.” There are two concerns here. First, is the client having cash flow problems? If this is an otherwise good client, and your instincts tell you they are just short on cash, it is up to you to offer them progress payment terms. Most clients do not think that they can send their attorney a partial payment. So they don’t pay the bill at all, rather than send a check on account. You must let them know that a partial payment is ok. Try to get a commitment for a partial payment right away. You do this by asking something like, “If you can’t pay the entire bill right now, can you send $2,500 on account at this time? Then we can work out a schedule to pay off the balance that works better with your cash flow.” If the client says no, ask again, lowering the payment to $1,000. Again, you want to get a piece of it as quickly as possible, and work out a payment schedule you can monitor, so that the amount which begins to age is increasingly smaller. Your other concern is to get a payment date promised before you allow the call to terminate. This isn’t easy. It’s not acceptable to end with “I don’t know when” from the client. You need to keep asking specific questions like “Well, can you get the check out in another week?” If the client says no you should then ask “Can you get the check out in two weeks?” And so forth. Keep asking about increasing time frames, until the client finally says yes or probably. Then repeat the date promised, and let the client know you will check back with them on that date to confirm payment has been made. The first time you have this conversation with the client, you may find that the client gives you an untruthful answer in desperation just to get you off the phone. As someone who used to manage the accounting departments of financially troubled companies, I know how to “avoid” making payment better than most people. I know that most people who call for money do so erratically. So any excuse to get them off the phone usually buys another two to six months of silence before they call back. Under those circumstances, anything which ends the call, even a lie, is a good trade for the extra time. That’s why it’s essential for you to immediately diary your calendar for the date promised, and follow up on that date without fail. When a client finds out that you will always follow up, rather than disappear for an extended period, they will stop making empty promises, and deal with you in a more forthright manner. And again, your persistence will indicate how important it is to you that your firm get paid. Follow-up is key. Always diary the client’s payment commitment. Always call when the check is supposed to go out to see if they are keeping the commitment. If not, negotiate a new

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date, and try to get a first or another progress payment. Diary the calendar again for the next promised payment date. Keep in mind that the client’s bookkeeper is a rule player. That person would pay every bill the day it is received, leaving the client’s company devoid of cash, if permitted. (Think about your own bookkeeper or payables clerk, and you’ll know I’m speaking the truth.) They really hate receiving your calls, no matter how friendly the context of the call. When they come to know that you will always make calls when the bill is due, they will do everything within their power to ensure YOUR bill gets paid before someone else’s who does not call, or calls only sporadically. Yes, when it comes to payables, it is true that the “squeaky wheel gets the oil.” Remember that SOMEONE is getting to be paid, and your job is to make sure it’s your firm, rather than someone else. Consistent and persistent follow-up, always with a warm friendly tone, will not only make significant inroads into shifting your receivables back toward the current column, it will also provide each client with the ability to voice concerns about bills, and work out payment terms when needed. It’s a win–win situation.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2003 issue of The Pennsylvania Lawyer under the title How to Collect Your Receivables

Ellen Freedman, CLM, is the Law Practice Management Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In that capacity she assists PBA’s members with management issues and decisions on the business side of their practice, including areas like technology, human resources, risk management, setting up a practice and so forth. Members are encouraged to contact Ellen through the 800 “Hot Line” at PBA headquarters, (800-932-0311 x2228) or through email (lawpractice@pabar.org). Ellen has managed inside law firms for twenty years. Most of that time has been spent in a mid-size (thirty+ attorney) firm environment. Ellen has achieved the designation of Certified Legal Manager through the Association of Legal Administrators. She holds a Certification in Computer Programming from Maxwell Institute, a Certification in Web Site Design from Temple University, and a B.A. from Temple University, where she also did graduate studies in Criminology. Ellen has been a frequent author and speaker on law firm management issues on a national, regional and local level.

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Managing Calls on Accounts Receivable

YES

Did you receive the bill?

NO Federal Express copy of bill same day. Call back next day.

Any problems with or questions about the bill?

YES

NO

Get full details of issues or questions.

Is amount at issue or in question more than 10% of bill?

NO

YES

If questions or issues seem reasonable, authorize client to write off amount at issue only if they will send payment right away. Get a commitment on when check will be mailed.

Ask client to pay balance of bill while you research the issues raised. Get commitment on when check will be mailed.

When will a check go out? Don’t let call end without a date being set.

Make note in calendar to call on date {first} check is to go out.

Offer payment terms if necessary, and work out a schedule.

Bring matter to attorney’s attention. Have attorney get back to client promptly with answers to resolve issues.

Call again about open balance once resolved.

page 6

Make call on date check is supposed to be mailed: Is check going out today?

YES

NO Find out reason check is not coming. Negotiate new date.

Make calendar entry to make call on date check is due.

Make note to double check in a few days — has check arrived? NO

YES

Make calendar entry to call when next payment is due if it was a partial payment. Repeat steps on this page until fully paid.

Check with client. Client confirms check was mailed.

Ask client for check number. Tell client you will want to have them stop payment and reissue if check does not arrive in next few days.

Client doesn’t want to pay stop payment fee. Ask when bank statement is due. Tell client you will call when statement comes in.

Make calendar entry to call 2 days after client’s bank statement is due.

Does client have cancelled check in bank statement?

NO

YES

Insist on stop payment and reissue. If client refuses turn over to attorney with copy of your notes of calls made.

Get photocopy of front and back of check. Correct firm records. If client does not send or refuses to send copy, turn over to attorney with copy of your notes of calls made.

OR

Client now says can’t or won’t pay. You cannot work out payment terms.

Refer to attorney for further action. Provide attorney with all your notes of calls made.

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CASH VERSUS ACCRUAL FINANCIAL REPORTING

Ellen Freedman, CLM Law Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar Association

I’ve never encountered a law firm which did not operate on a cash basis. That means that your revenues are not earned from a tax perspective until they arrive in the door. It doesn’t matter if you sent an invoice one day or one year ago. You have no taxable income to declare until you receive payment. And your expenses are not deductible for tax purposes until you actually pay them. So no matter how many past due bills you have from vendors, until you pay them, you have no deductions. The advantages of a cash business are many. First, most law firms wind up financing a good deal of client’s business by way of carrying receivables which are too large and too old. This often creates a cash flow problem for midsize and small firms. But just imagine having to pay income tax on those outstanding invoices before the cash actually arrived. That’s what commercial businesses, most of which operate on an accrual basis, have to do. Another strong advantage of cash-basis accounting is the ability to bring the books to “zero sum” at year end merely by paying more or less of the outstanding payables, and often distributing bonuses to partners. This is a common methodology to ensure there is no taxable income for professional corporations, and no K-1 income without matching cash to pay taxes within partnerships. Cash basis accounting does have some disadvantages. Because law firms operate on a cash basis, the accounts receivable and accounts payable do not show on the balance sheet. Therefore, they do not require any type of “audit” in order to produce a financial statement. Unfortunately, in many firms errors abound on these reports, and there is little incentive to spend the non-billable and administrative time to clean them up. Likewise, in a cash-basis business there is no inventory appearing on the balance sheet. And therefore errors on work-in-process reports are often overlooked for the same reasons. These reports tend to give partners a false sense of potential income

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when they are inflated due to accumulation of errors. Accrual-basis companies must “prove out” or audit their balance sheet items, which ensures accuracy over the long term. Perhaps the most serious disadvantage of cash basis financial reporting is a misalignment between income and the expenses incurred to produce that income. Simply put, your monthly cash basis financial statement does not give you an accurate picture of your actual profitability. Let me explain. Consider a month in which the firm is particularly busy. Billable hours are much higher than usual. Typically, expenses will also be higher to support the additional productivity. So expenses will be high. But income will not reflect the increase in the same month. It may not be reflected for several months, until it is billed, and ultimately collected. This creates the illusion of low income, or even a loss, on the profit and loss statement for the month in which productivity is higher. Months later, when the cash receipts arrive, the firm will show a larger profit than it actually has, because receipts will be up but the expenses showing on the profit and loss will be for the current period, not the period in which those increased receipts were created. Typically at year end, most firms push hard to collect as much of their receivables as possible so that bonuses can be distributed to partners. Profits become distorted as cash receipts collected from prior accounting periods far outstrip expenses during the current period. It is not uncommon for partners to be lulled into a false sense of security, because they equate bank account cash balance increases with increased profitability, when in fact they have only to do with collection efforts. The problem with the mismatch of income and expense is that it does not let a firm know each month how they are really performing financially. In fact, usually a firm will not realize it is not doing well until it is too late to do much about it, that is, when the cash flow stops or slows to a crawl, and vendor bills and/or payroll cannot be paid. Consider a scenario where a firm’s lawyers have significantly slowed in productivity. Perhaps certain practice areas are flat or declining. Maybe there’s an attorney out on disability or maternity leave. If the attorneys or firm administrator have been working hard to collect the past due receivables, and maybe even hold back on paying some outstanding bills, the profit and loss will reflect a healthy profit despite the decline in productivity. Continued activities along the same vein will effectively “mask” the firm’s actual monthly losses until months later, when the decreased inventory results in decreased billings, decreased receivables, and eventually a tight

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cash situation. And of course eventually the vendor bills will have to be paid. At that point in time, consider all the attorneys are back in the office, and working hard. They will be bewildered by the loss on the income statement when they are all working at peak productivity. Often they will conclude that there is “something wrong” with the numbers on the financial reports, because they just “don’t make sense”. And that’s true with cash-basis reporting. By the time the profit and loss actually starts to show a loss, it will take the typical firm months to rebuild the inventory, bill it, and begin to collect to turn the financial situation around. Firms which do not closely monitor all the key statistical factors, including amounts billed, hours worked, and so forth, can be easily misled by cash-basis financial reports, and therefore fail to take action when the timing is most critical. There are two choices. First, your firm can produce modified financial reports which includes increases/decreases to receivables and work-in-process and payables, such that you’re looking at your income statement on an accrual basis. Although this method is for internal use only, and not for tax reporting, it will match revenues against expenses for the same period and give a realistic view of how the firm is doing each month. It will not necessarily match the firm’s cash position. But like any accrual business, you will come to realize that profits will only match cash if you properly manage your receivables and work-in-process. If you do not have a good controller, however, the chances are you will not be successful producing a modified income statement unless your accountant assists regularly, and that can get pricey. A second choice is to produce a monthly snapshot of what I call Key Statistics. It should show your current month and year-to-date and prior year’s current month and year-to-date for all numbers which are key to monitoring the firm’s financial health. In no time you will develop a comfort level with this report, and in a matter of minutes will be able to assess how the firm is performing. You’ll have the best of both worlds — cash-basis accounting and regular review of accrual–type information. And you’ll be able to recognize problems and make course corrections long before your cash flow becomes problematic. For a sample of a Key Statistics Report, call me at 800-932-0311 x2228.

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This article originally appeared in the January 6, 2003 issue

of the Pennsylvania Bar News

Ellen Freedman, CLM, is the Law Practice Management Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In that capacity she assists PBA’s members with management issues and decisions on the business side of their practice, including areas like technology, human resources, risk management, setting up a practice and so forth. Members are encouraged to contact Ellen through the 800 “Hot Line” at PBA headquarters, (800-932-0311 x2228) or through email (lawpractice@pabar.org). Ellen has managed inside law firms for twenty years. Most of that time has been spent in a mid-size (thirty+ attorney) firm environment. Ellen has achieved the designation of Certified Legal Manager through the Association of Legal Administrators. She holds a Certification in Computer Programming from Maxwell Institute, a Certification in Web Site Design from Temple University, and a B.A. from Temple University, where she also did graduate studies in Criminology. Ellen has been a frequent author and speaker on law firm management issues on a national, regional and local level.

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division

Balancing Your Life: Tips for Time Management and Getting It Done

Margaret Spencer Dixon President, Spencer Consulting

October 6, 2007 2nd National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4 - 6, 2007

About the Author

Margaret Spencer Dixon is a consultant specializing in time management and stress management

seminars for lawyers and legal professionals. Meg came to the field of organization and time manage-

ment by way of a career in law, during which she practiced in the litigation and energy groups of Shaw

Pittman in Washington, D.C. She received her undergraduate degree, cum laude in economics, from

Princeton University in 1982, and got her law degree from Stanford Law School in 1985. After law

school she clerked for Judge Cecil F. Poole of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

in San Francisco.

In 1992, Meg left the practice of law to found Spencer Consulting, and since then has been giving

speeches, writing articles, and conducting seminars on many aspects of time management and related

subjects such as procrastination, project management, stress management, and how to run effective

meetings. She has presented seminars for numerous law firms, CLE providers, government agencies,

Harvard Law School, and organizations such as the Women’s Bar Association, the National Law Firm

Marketing Association, and the District of Columbia Bar. Her writings include articles entitled, “Yes,

You Can Learn to Keep Your Desk Clutter-Free,” “Time Management Habits: How to Develop Good

Ones and Kick Bad Ones,” and “Overcoming Procrastination: How to Get Things Done Despite Your-

self.” She has been chair of the Time Management Interest Group of the American Bar Association’s

Law Practice Management Section, authored the chapter on time management in the ABA’s book, “Liv-

ing with the Law: Strategies to Avoid Burnout and Create Balance,” and recorded the audiotape pro-

grams “Organize Your Time and Manage Your Paperwork” and "The Palm® Approach to So Little

Time, So Much Paper," for the ABA’s Center for CLE. Her book, "The Lawyer's Guide to Palm® Pow-

ered Handhelds," was published in 2004 by the ABA. Her most recent recording project was the audio

program, “So Many Meetings, So Little Time: Making Meetings Shorter, Better Organized, and More

Productive” for the ABA’s Center for CLE.

Meg is based in the Washington, D.C. area, and can be reached via Spencer Consulting's website

www.TimeManagementForLawyers.com, at MegSpencerDixon@TimeManagementForLawyers.com,

and at 301-949-2214.

"Balancing Your Life: Tips for Time Management and Getting It Done"

by Margaret Spencer Dixon, Esq.

Contents I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1

II. THE POWER OF EFFECTIVE GOAL-SETTING ............................................................1

III. TIME MANAGEMENT IN ACTION.................................................................................1

A. Creating a Bullet-Proof To-Do System..........................................................................1

B. Getting Down to Work...................................................................................................2

C. Honoring Your To-Do List ............................................................................................2

D. Managing Your Work-Flow ..........................................................................................2

IV. MAINTAINING YOUR MOMENTUM ...........................................................................3

A. Staying Motivated..........................................................................................................3

B. Keeping Your Life in Balance .......................................................................................3

C. Avoiding Procrastination ...............................................................................................3

V. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................4

Appendix A: Suggestions for Further Reading

Appendix B: Brainstorming Goal Ideas

Appendix C: Prioritizing Goal Ideas

Appendix D: Creating Your To-Do List Pyramid

Article Reprint: "Yes, You Can Learn to Keep Your Desk Clutter-Free"

Article Reprint: "Time Management Habits: How to Develop Good Ones and Kick Bad Ones"

BALANCING YOUR LIFE: TIPS ON TIME MANAGEMENT AND GETTING IT DONE I. INTRODUCTION Of all the elements everyone has to work with, none is more precious than time. Your ability to manage your time directly affects the standard and quantity of your legal work, the quality of your service to your clients, and your own job satisfaction. Especially in the current competitive legal environment, your time man-agement skills significantly affect the degree of your professional success. Three main goals of time management are efficiency (doing things right), effectiveness (doing the right things), and the ability to main-tain that efficiency and effectiveness over the long run, which requires both a certain level of satisfaction in your work, and certain degree of life balance.

It is important to realize that “time man-agement” is really self-management with re-spect to time. Therefore, a key component of time management is the ability to change your attitude and choices about organization and effi-ciency. There are only two underlying reasons why you use your time in a certain manner: ei-ther (1) you have made a conscious choice to use your time to engage in a particular activity in order to achieve a particular outcome, or (2) you have not made a conscious choice about your use of time, and are making your time use decisions by default by "going with the flow," and doing whatever occurs to you at any given moment. The more often you make a conscious choice to engage in activities that you believe will move you efficiently toward your desired outcome, the more efficient and effective you are likely to be. II. THE POWER OF EFFECTIVE GOAL-SETTING Setting goals (identifying objectives, defin-ing problems) is the necessary first step toward effective time management. Without goals, you

cannot evaluate the relative value and priority of various projects and tasks. The most effective goals are (1) specific and measurable, so you can tell for certain when you have achieved them; (2) in writing; (3) deadline-driven; (4) balanced between challeng-ing and attainable; and (5) your own – ones you are committed to achieving. Make sure you buy into organizational goals, and make them your own, so that you are willing to pay the price to achieve them.

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. His response was a ques-tion: "Where do you want to go?" "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter." --Lewis Carroll

III. TIME MANAGEMENT IN ACTION A. Creating a Bullet-Proof To-Do System Create a master list (or series of lists) that consists of everything you have to do, or that you want to consider doing, and incorporates all of your existing project plans. One simple way to maintain such a master list is to keep it in a word-processed document, categorized by case/project, and by headings such as "adminis-trative," "personal" and whatever else makes sense for you. Keep your categories fairly broad. Start each category on a new page. Don't prioritize the items within the individual categories. Keep a current index of categories and page numbers on the first page of the document. Insert an automatic "date-stamp" on each page, and include the page number on the upper or lower right-hand corner for easy refer-ence. Read through your entire master planning list carefully when preparing your weekly to-do list. (Don't delete an item from your master planning list just because you've included that item on a weekly to-do list; wait until you've actually completed the task.) Once you've cre-ated your weekly to-do list, forget about all the

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other tasks on your master planning list, and fo-cus solely on the tasks on your weekly plan. Read through your weekly to-do list when preparing your daily to-do plan. (Again, don't delete an item from your weekly list just be-cause you've included that item on your daily list; wait until you've actually completed the task.) Once you've created your daily to-do list, forget about all the other tasks on your weekly list, and focus solely on the tasks on your daily plan. Keep all of your to-do lists handy through-out the day, and as new tasks arise immediately handwrite them on the appropriate list. Update the entire document and print out a fresh copy only once a week (or even less frequently, if it doesn't get too messy). If you prefer not to handwrite your lists, it can be extremely efficient to use a software pro-gram such as Microsoft Outlook or Palm Desk-top instead (although it is certainly possible to do a fine job maintaining these lists using just pen and paper). If you do use software to man-age your to-do lists, keep it simple: create cate-gories for different projects, and know how to sort your list by category and by date, so that you can view your chronological to-do list for a specific project. Be sure to set up your list so that you view tasks well in advance of their ac-tual due date. B. Getting Down to Work

Invest the first few minutes of your work-day in planning. Preview your schedule for the day, and update your to-do list. Prioritize the top handful of items to help you accomplish your most important tasks. Be sure to keep your daily to-do list visible or easily available while you are working to help you stay on track. Set reminders or alarms for appointments and your "stop-working" time so that you can concentrate on work rather than watching the clock.

C. Honoring Your To-Do List Your goal should be to “honor” your to-do list – that is, to stick to your prioritized daily to-do list unless you make a conscious decision that circumstances have changed sufficiently to justify going off the list (or modifying the list to reflect the changed circumstances). In other words, use your to-do list to help you make con-scious decisions about how you use your time, rather than automatically and unquestioningly turning to new tasks as they come up. At some level, you should always be asking yourself this question: “What is the best use of my time right now?” Your to-do list should reflect what you thought was going to be the best use of your time, but you should always feel flexible enough to modify that decision based on what actually happens during the day.

D. Managing Your Work-Flow Dealing with the continuous flow of infor-mation through your office is a fact of profes-sional life. Who hasn’t experienced that sinking feeling upon seeing the enormous pile-up in the e-mail in-box after only a few hours away from the office? Without an effective plan for dealing with information, it can easily get out of hand, making it difficult and unnecessarily time-consuming to find the few truly important items. When dealing with the daily flow of infor-mation (whether via paper, e-mail, voicemail, or any other method), your goal should be to han-dle each item as few times as possible. If it's possible to fully process an item the first time you deal with it, do so. A reasonable principle is this: if you can complete the task associated with the item within two minutes or less, do the task the first time you handle the item (no mat-ter how minor or non-urgent the task). If the task would take more than two minutes, add the task to your to-do system (on today’s list if you plan to get to it today; on this week’s list if you plan to do it later this week; on your master list if you plan to do it next week or thereafter). Then file the item in the appropriate electronic

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or physical location (client file, working file, “to-read” file, tickler file, etc.). Modify the “two-minute” duration depending on how busy you are during any given day (i.e., on slower days, complete tasks that take, say, up to five minutes, the first time you handle the item). Here are some timesaving techniques spe-cifically for e-mail: • Fully process your e-mail before addressing any substantive issues. • Ideally, reserve your e-mail in-box for e-mails you haven’t read yet. If you don’t act upon an e-mail upon reading it the first time, move it to another folder (named something like “Action” or “@Action”) to await further action. • Unless you are expecting an important e-mail, try to check your e-mail no more than every hour or so, ideally when you are between tasks. • Manage expectations by acknowledging e-mail, and estimating time for substantive reply. Perhaps include a brief description of the steps involved in developing the substantive reply. Create templates for your most common situa-tions. • Brainstorm methods to streamline ways to deal with similar substantive e-mails from the same source. For example, instead of review and commenting on five similar contracts from the same person each week, arrange a weekly meeting or telecon so you can explain you re-sponses orally, and answer any questions in real time. Make and use templates so you won’t have to re-write similar responses. IV. MAINTAINING YOUR MOMENTUM A. Staying Motivated Stay motivated day after day by taking time for self-assessment. Review and revise your long term goals regularly. Visualize how you will feel when you have achieved them. If your

long term goals do not excite you most of the time, start the process of replacing them with ones that do. Ask yourself: "Am I happy (or satisfied)? Why or why not? What would have to change for me to be happy (or satisfied)?"

Keep a notebook or file of quotations and anecdotes you find inspiring or motivating. Read through them monthly and whenever you need extra fuel for the fire. Finally, realize that there is no "someday." If you are ever going to achieve your goals, now is the time to take the first step toward them. B. Keeping Your Life in Balance Create and maintain a list of goals for your life outside of work. "Sharpen the saw" by making a conscious choice to counterbalance work with regular rest, fun, recreation, and va-cations. Set aside one day a week to do no work of any kind. Take an "at-home" vacation once a month by blocking off an entire weekend and making no outside commitments. Develop and indulge regularly in forms of recreation that you truly enjoy. If you find it difficult to relax, con-sider this kind of rest and relaxation to be a stra-tegic investment of your time that will pay off in greater energy and motivation when you return to work C. Avoiding Procrastination Everyone procrastinates sometimes. The insidious thing about procrastination is that only you know when you are really procrastinating. Getting a cup of coffee, stopping by a friend’s office to chat, or even working industriously on a low priority project are typical methods of procrastination. For serious procrastination, try adjusting your thinking along one or more of these points. (This analysis is adapted from Neil Fiore, The Now Habit: A Strategic Pro-gram for Overcoming Procrastination and En-joying Guilt-Free Play (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1989), pp. 61-67.)

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Unhelpful Mindset Helpful Mindset

"I must...." "I choose to...."

"I have to finish." "When can I start?"

"This project is huge." "I'll do one small task."

"I have to be perfect." "I can be human."

"I'll have time for fun, "I make time for fun, rest and relaxation rest, and relaxation this project is done.” even when I'm busy.” Here are some more techniques for dealing

with procrastination:

• Start anywhere. Most work projects have many places to start, each of which is about as good as the other. Yet frequently we deter our-selves from starting at all because we can't de-cide on the best place to start, and lose sight of the fact that just starting anywhere is better than not starting at all. • Start even if you're not in the mood. You don't have to be inspired before you start on something. If you wait for inspiration, you run the risk that it might never show up at all. It's more reliable to train yourself to start to work at a specific time and place, then see if the ideas start to flow.

When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it --Sigmund Freud

• Realize that unpleasant tasks don't get any easier over time. If anything, unpleasant tasks become more so when we put them off. Even worse, the worrying and agonizing about not working on a project take at least as much en-ergy as just getting on with the task. • The “drive yourself crazy by doing noth-ing” approach. Assemble all the materials for your project, arrange them in front of you on your desk, and do nothing for seven minutes (by the clock). Don’t even write down any of the ideas that are sure to come to you during this period. By the end of the seven minutes, you’ll be itching to start. Incidentally, the reason for the seven minutes is to make sure that you sit

there for seven actual minutes. “Five minutes” or “10 minutes” tend to become concepts rather than actual time periods. • Schedule a "catch-up” day. Every month or so, set aside a day devoted entirely to those small tasks you have been putting off. • Work no more than fifteen minutes at a time. Set a timer -- a wristwatch alarm is a dis-creet alternative -- and decide to work full blast on the project for the next fifteen minutes. When the timer goes off, decide immediately whether to stop at that moment, or to reset the timer and work for another fifteen minutes. V. CONCLUSION There are no shortcuts to effective time management, but now you know the basic paths. Focus on improving one time management habit at a time. When you've successfully incorpo-rated that habit, start to work on another. Aim for slow, steady, continuous improvement over the long term. The more you improve your time management habits, the more likely you are to be successful in your career, and in your life.

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APPENDIX A

Suggestions for Further Reading Allen, David Getting Things Done. New York: Penguin Books, 2001. An excellent description

of the key methods for managing workflow, from processing information contained in paper, e-mail, and voicemail to developing an effective system of "next action" lists.

Covey, Stephen R. First Things First. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. An elaboration on

the time management concepts introduced in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Fiore, Neil. The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying

Guilt-Free Play. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1989. The best book I've seen on procrastination: practical, useful and realistic.

Linenberger, Michael. Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook: The Eight Best

Practices of Task and E-Mail Management. San Ramon, California: New Academy Publishers, 2006. Helpful ideas for using Outlook to manage your tasks and your e-mail.

Loehr, James E. Stress for Success. New York: Random House, Inc., 1997. Written by a sports

psychologist, this atypical stress management book recommends that "corporate athletes" forget about trying to reduce the stress in their lives, and instead explains how to apply standard training principles (such as alternating cycles of exertion and recovery) in order to increase their capacity to handle stress.

Available from the American Bar Association (telephone 800-285-2221; www.abanet.org):

• "So Little Time, So Much Paper," by Margaret Spencer Dixon, A Three-Tape Audio Program to Help You Organize Your Time and Manage Your Paperwork. Audio program (2 hours and 45 minutes) and soft-bound book. Product Code V00SLTC.

• "So Many Meetings, So Little Time: Making Meetings Shorter, Better Organized, and More Productive," by Margaret Spencer Dixon. Audio program (66 minutes) and soft-bound book. Product Code V05SMMC.

• "The Lawyer's Guide to Palm® Powered Handhelds," by Margaret Spencer Dixon. Book (260 pages). Product Code 5110505.

(Please note: www.TimeManagementForLawyers.com has links directly to the ABA store’s online pages for these items.)

APPENDIX B: BRAINSTORMING GOAL IDEAS Before you begin this exercise, consider this: Dr. Gerald Bell, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, surveyed 4000 retired executives. Dr. Bell asked the executives, who averaged 70 years of age, "If you could live your life over, what would you do differently?" Their most frequent responses were: 1. I would have carved out life goals and owned my life. 2. I would have taken better care of my health. 3. I would have managed my money a lot better. 4. I would have worked on my family a lot more. 5. I would have spent more time on personal development. 6. I would have had a lot more fun in my life. 7. I would have planned my career. 8. I would have lived at oneness with God and/or given more back to my community. To brainstorm goal ideas, think of things that you want to have (material goals), do (experience goals), or be (character goals) at some point in your life. Consider categories such as: • Career • Community • Family/Friends • Finances • Health/Fitness • Intellectual/Cultural • Recreation/Hobbies • Spiritual as well as any other categories that make sense for you. Now, as quickly as you can, write down as many goal possibilities for yourself as you can think of. Don't edit yourself at this point; just let the ideas flow. Including an idea on this list does not mean you are committing yourself to that idea as a goal; this is simply the first step in the process. You can always evaluate and refine your ideas later on.

* 1. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 2. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 3. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 4. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 5. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 6. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 7. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 8. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 9. __________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 10. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 11. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 12. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 13. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 14. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 15. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 16. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 17. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 18. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 19. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 20. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 21. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 22. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 23. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 24. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___

* 25. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 26. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 27. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 28. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 29. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 30. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 31. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 32. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 33. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 34. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 35. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 36. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 37. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 38. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 39. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 40. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 41. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 42. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 43. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 44. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___ 45. _________________________________________________________________ 1 3 5 10 ___

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. --Goethe

APPENDIX C: PRIORITIZING GOAL IDEAS For each goal idea listed in Appendix B: (a) Circle 1, 3, 5, or 10 to indicate roughly how many years it would take to achieve. (b) Put a star next to the goals that are most important to you. (c) Choose up to four important (starred) one-year goals, and rewrite them below. (d) Rank them from most important (A) to least important (D). (e) Repeat steps (c) and (d) for three-year, five-year and ten-year goals.

One-year goals Goal Rank __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____

Three-year goals Goal Rank __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____

Five-year goals Goal Rank __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____

Ten (or more)-year goals Goal Rank __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____ __________________________________________________________________________ _____

APPENDIX D: CREATING YOUR “TO DO” LIST PYRAMID

(1) Creating your Master Planning List In the middle column of the Master Planning List, write down, as quickly as you can, a list of everything you "must" do -- and everything you think you might want to do -- in every area of your life. Refer to your goal ideas to ensure this list is comprehensive. Get all these items out of your head and down on paper without thinking too much about any one item. If there's a specific deadline for a particular task, include that too. Use abbreviations freely. (2) When you cannot think of any more items to include in the middle column, go back through your list and, in the left column, write down the name of the case, project, category (such as marketing, professional development, administrative, etc.) or area of your life (such as household, personal, fun, etc.) to which each item belongs. Don't think too much about what to name any particular category; just go with whatever pops into your head first. (3) Creating your Weekly To-Do List When you have categorized all the items in your Master Planning List, go back through the list again, and identify no more than twenty items you want to focus on in the coming week. If you have more than twenty items you want to accomplish in the coming week, pick the twenty most important items. (You can always go back and add more items to your weekly list after you have completed the twenty most important tasks.) Each time you identify an item for inclusion in your weekly list, place a check-mark in the "Include in Weekly List" column. (Better yet, instead of using check-marks, write "1" for the first task you identify, "2" for the second task, etc., so that it will be immedi-ately apparent when you reach the twenty item limit.) Write these items in the Weekly To-Do List. (Try to insert the items in your weekly list so that items in the same categories appear together.) (4) Creating your Daily To-Do List Once you have completed your Weekly To-Do List, go back over it and identify no more than four items you want to focus on tomorrow. If you have more than four items you want to accomplish tomorrow, pick the four most important items. (You can always go back and add more items to your daily list after you have completed the four most important tasks.) Write these items in the Daily To-Do List in the order of their importance. (5) Tip: If you have your Master Planning List transcribed into a word-processing program such as Micro-soft Word, simply insert the items in the order in which they appear in the master planning list, including the name of the category before each item. Use the automatic "sort" function (in Word, click on Table, then Sort) to alphabetize the entire list, and all the items in each category will then appear together.

Master Planning List Category Task Include

on Weekly

List

Weekly To-Do List

Category Task (not in order of importance)

Includeon

Daily List

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Daily To-Do List Category Task

(in order of importance) Done

1

2

3

4

First published by the American Bar Association’s Lawyering Skills Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1993)

Yes, You Can Learn To Keep Your Desk Clutter-Free

Copyright © 1993-2007 by Margaret Spencer Dixon. All rights reserved.

by Margaret Spencer Dixon, Esq. Myth: A desk piled high with papers, notes, and reminders demonstrates that you are busy and pro-ductive. It is an effective way to keep on top of your work commitments, because “out of sight” means “out of mind.” Reality: In most cases, such clutter is a visual distraction that prevents you from concentrating fully on the task at hand. Those who work well at a disorganized desk probably do so in spite of the chaos, not because of it. Consistent use of a personal organizer, or at least a “to do” list and a calendar, is a more reliable way of keeping track of your projects and appointments. What does your desk look like right now? Is it a neat, orderly surface conducive to efficient work and clear thinking? Or is it a repository for papers, pro-jects, memos, advance sheets, legal magazines, Post-It notes, a half-eaten sandwich, and empty soda cans? Most likely, it vacillates between those two extremes. At times, it reflects the high-pressure, fast-paced nature of your practice. At other times (when the clutter has gone beyond the limits of what your eye can stand), it is immaculate – the result of sev-eral hundred dollars worth of billable time foregone while you tidied up the debris of your last few dozen projects. Unless you are one of the few attorneys whose natural orderliness (or that of a devoted assistant) helps you maintain a working area which is well-organized and free of distracting clutter, it is time to consider changing your work habits to include keep-ing your desk clutter-free. Consider these benefits: 1. A tidy, well-organized work area will help you

focus on the task at hand because there will be no papers, magazines, phone messages, or other items to distract you.

2. The items that you need to work on a particular

project will be easy to find, because they were filed neatly away when you cleaned up your desk.

3. You won’t have to worry about remembering

appointments or work commitments, because you brought your “to-do” list and your calendar up-to-date as you cleaned up your desk.

4. You will no longer misplace papers, invitations,

announcements, and other items whose tempo-rary or permanent disappearance results in lost opportunities, frantic races to meet deadlines, or even missed deadlines and the threat of malprac-tice.

5. You will no longer spend frantic minutes going

through piles of papers on your desk trying to find a crucial item that you must have to com-plete the project at hand. A survey has shown that people spend an average of 22 minutes a day looking for items on or around their desks. (Tracy, Declan, Clear Your Desk! Dover, New Hampshire: Dearborn Publishing Group, 1992 at 35.) At a billable rate of $150 an hour, this adds up to more than $12,000 a year.

6. Your desk will look, rightly or wrongly, as

though it belongs to someone who is on top of her work and able to handle her responsibilities.

7. Your desk will reflect the calm-inducing beauty

of orderliness, which in turn will reduce the level of stress you face every day.

Do these benefits outweigh the following costs of keeping an orderly desk? 1. It will take a measure of time and effort to

achieve a clutter-free desk initially, and it will take a few minutes a day to maintain it.

2. You will no longer be able to illustrate – to

yourself or to others – how busy you are based upon the height of the stacks of paper on your desk (and floor, credenza, shelves, etc.)

3. You will have to give up the adrenaline rush that

comes from the exquisite relief of finally un-

Article Reprint: Yes, You Can Learn to Keep Your Desk Clutter-Free Page 2 of 3 __________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright © 1993-2007 by Margaret Spencer Dixon. All rights reserved.

earthing a crucial document from the piles on your desk.

4. You will no longer have a ready-made excuse

for missing opportunities to attend professional functions, because you will no longer misplace the announcement or invitation, only to redis-cover it two days after the event has occurred.

How to Clean Up Your Desk (A Step-by-Step Guide for the Organizationally-Challenged) Have the following items at hand: 1. A few hours of low-pressure time during which

you are unlikely to be interrupted. Weekend mornings are good, as is the “recovery” time af-ter you’ve met a major deadline and your brain is not yet back in shape to deal with “real” work.

2. A wastebasket and recycling container. 3. A pad or two of sticky notes. 4. Two thick writing pads. Write “TO DO” at the

top of one pad and “WORK PROJECTS” at the top of the other.

5. A pen or pencil. 6. Your personal organizer, or at least a pocket cal-

endar. 7. One desk drawer with adequate room for office

supplies. A Plan Sometimes the task of cleaning up your desk seems so overwhelming that a major stumbling block is figuring out where to begin. For simplicity’s sake, here is an arbitrary plan that will take you over the hurdle: begin with the item nearest your telephone, and work clockwise around your desk until you reach your telephone again. Pick up the one item nearest your telephone. (The only things that do not count as “items” for the

purposes of this clean-up are: a telephone, a lamp, a computer, your pad of sticky notes, your two legal pads, your writing implements, and your personal organizer. That’s it. Everything else is subject to this clean-up.) Handle each item once, relocating it ac-cording to the chart on page three of this article. At the end of this process, your desktop will be clear, your calendar and Rolodex will be up-to-date, and your to-do list will be ready to be prioritized. All the paper that was on your desk is either in the wastebasket, recycling container, or in numbered or labeled piles on the floor. Use your WORK PRO-JECTS list to have file labels typed up for each pro-ject, and transfer the papers into the labeled files. The first character of each label should be the num-ber of the project on your WORK PROJECTS list, which has now become the primary index to your project files. (It’s a simple matter, using word proc-essing, to create secondary indices cross-referenced according to client, case, subject matter, etc.) Your “Hold” and “To Read” items can also go in files, or can stay in neat stacks on a shelf near your desk. Daily Maintenance Every day – ideally, just before you go home – quickly go through the basic procedure outlined above. Starting at your telephone, pick up every item you come across and put it in its proper place or file, making notes on your calendar, to-do list, and Rolo-dex as you go. This is also a good time to check your calendar for tomorrow’s appointments and to pre-pare your to-do list. With practice, you’ll be able to sweep through these tasks very quickly. And the real joy comes in the mornings, when you arrive at the office ready to being your work day at a tidy, clutter-free desk. --Margaret Spencer Dixon is a lawyer and consult-ant specializing in time management seminars and coaching for lawyers and legal professionals. She is the founder and president of Spencer Consulting (www.TimeManagementForLawyers.com) and can be reached at 301-949-2214.

Article Reprint: Yes, You Can Learn to Keep Your Desk Clutter-Free Page 3 of 3 __________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright © 1993-2007 by Margaret Spencer Dixon. All rights reserved.

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR THE ORGANIZATIONALLY CHALLENGED

IF THE ITEM IS A: DO THIS:

Knickknack, photo, clock, plant, mug, pencil- holder, set of plastic teeth that chatter when you wind them up, etc.

Put it on a shelf or any surface that is not part of your work area. (Ar-range your clock so you can see it from your desk, ideally just behind your guest chair so that you can glance at it discreetly.)

Pencil, pen, notepad, tape, stapler, staple-remover, letter-opener, paper clip, etc.

Put it in the drawer for office supplies. If you have stacks of writing pads, put them on a shelf within easy reach of your desk. If you have more office supplies than fit in your drawer, return them to the supply room.

Paper unrelated to a work project, such as invita-tions, announcements, dental appointment re-minders, etc.

Insert the appropriate information on your calendar, to-do list, per-sonal organizer and/or Rolodex, then throw the paper away. If you need the item to accomplish some action on your part, put a sticky note on the item saying “Hold” and place it on the floor. Add other “hold” items beneath the first one.

Potential reading material (unrelated to a specific work project)

Quickly skim the table of contents, decide which articles you want to read, and mark the appropriate pages with sticky notes. Put the item on the floor with a sticky note on top that says “To Read.” If nothing in the table of contents catches your eye, toss the item or send it along its routing path, as appropriate.

Paper related to a work project Start a numbered list on the pad headed WORK PROJECTS. Identify the project by client, case, and/or subject matter. Write the number of each project on a sticky note, put the note on top of the paper, and put the paper on the floor. Continue numbering and describing pro-jects on your WORK PROJECTS list as you pick up each piece of paper you come across. When you find a piece of paper related to a project you have already described, refer to your list, identify the pro-ject by number, and put the new item underneath the first piece of paper (so that you can still read the number on the sticky note). If the item requires action, make a note on your TO DO list; include a refer-ence to the number of the project (according to the WORK PRO-JECTS list you are creating) so that you will know where to find the item when it is time to work on it.

First published by the American Bar Association’s Lawyering Skills Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1994)

Time Management Habits: How to Develop Good Ones and Kick Bad Ones

Copyright © 1994-2007 by Margaret Spencer Dixon. All rights reserved.

by Margaret Spencer Dixon, Esq.

Habit is the flywheel of society, its most precious con-serving agent…. The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their proper work. There is no more miserable person than one in whom nothing is habit-ual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of deliberation. Half the time of such a man goes to deciding or regretting matters which ought not to exist for his consciousness at all.

-- William James All of us are creatures of habit. The $64,000 ques-tion is: do your particular habits help you or hurt you? It is equally important to question whether you have consciously chosen which habits to cultivate and which to avoid. Have you unwittingly fallen into patterns of behavior simply because it has not oc-curred to you to question whether it would be worthwhile to try to change them? This article will discuss three common habits that harm professional effectiveness: perfectionism, wor-rying, and postponing pleasure. Then, we will talk about how to change bad habits and cultivate good ones. When Bad Habits Happen to Good People Some of our most insidious bad habits sneak up on us because they are simply good habits taken to an extreme, or otherwise applied inappropriately. Here are some examples. 1. The habit of perfectionism. “I’m a perfection-

ist,” you confess (or brag?) to your colleagues. “I’d never have gotten this far if I weren’t.” Yet there is a difference between perfectionism and excellence, and it involves knowing when to ex-ercise your perfectionism and when good enough really is good enough. While it is impor-tant to spend your time and talent on producing a clearly written, well-polished brief, applying the

same kind of energy on a routine letter or in-house memorandum is probably not the most productive use of your efforts.

2. The habit of worrying. How often have you

spent a lot of time and emotional energy worry-ing about something that might – or might not – occur? And, how often has your worrying had any effect on whatever you were worrying about? If your concern led you to take some constructive action – such as making a difficult decision or taking effective measures to prevent the unwanted outcome – then your worrying was worthwhile. Yet how often do we limit our fret-ting to that amount necessary to spur us to ac-tion? Not often. We waste enormous amounts of time on fruitless worry – resulting in reduced productivity and increased stress.

3. The habit of postponing pleasure. Most law-

yers are so busy focusing on the next deposition, trial, or brief that all planned recreation and re-laxation is postponed until after that work is fin-ished. This approach works well – for a while. At some point, especially if you are extremely successful, you realize that there’s always more work on the horizon. If your approach is “no play until you’ve finished all your work,” it’s easy to become overwhelmed and depressed. Practicing law is a marathon, not a sprint. In the not-so-long run, you will be more effective if you learn to pace yourself by scheduling at least minimal R&R, even during the crunch periods.

How to Change Your Habits 1. Recognize your habits. The first step to chang-

ing a habit is to be aware of it. This step is par-ticularly important in connection with the three types of habits discussed earlier because these habits involve overusing traits which, when used appropriately, are necessary for professional success. Being aware of and concerned about problems and potential problems, paying atten-tion to detail, and deferring gratification can be

Article Reprint: Time Management Habits: How to Develop Good Ones and Kick Bad Ones Page 2 of 3 __________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright © 1994-2007 by Margaret Spencer Dixon. All rights reserved.

extremely positive traits. It is only when they are not kept within reasonable limits that they be-come negative habits. Realizing that our positive traits have developed into bad habits requires self-awareness, objectivity, and even some hu-mility.

2. Decide to change. The second step is simply

deciding to change the habit. Identify why you want to change, and point out to yourself both the advantages of changing (the carrot) and the disadvantages of not changing (the stick). Make a conscious determination that the costs of a par-ticular behavior of yours outweigh its benefits. This serves three functions: (i) it helps you un-derstand why you developed the habit in the first place; (ii) it buttresses your decision to change; and (iii) it motivates you to move away from the stick and toward the carrot.

3. Decide how you want to change. The third step

is figuring out precisely how you want to change your behavior. Determine the specific situations in which you want to act differently and how you will act differently in those situations. For example, if your habit is perfectionism, decide how much attention to detail is appropriate for a particular project and how that attention should be focused. An internal memorandum, for ex-ample, might justify only one revision for style and content (and as many revisions as necessary to correct actual errors), while an appellate brief would justify multiple revisions for form and substance.

4. Act on your decisions. The fourth step is acting

on these decisions. This is the tough part. Any change from the familiar is difficult, and it is particularly difficult to change behavior that is not appropriate in some situations while per-fectly appropriate in others. Returning to the perfectionist example, if you are used to apply-ing your high standards to all of your work, it can be very painful to decide that the effective use of your time requires you to refrain from fo-cusing this talent on the lower priority items. At these difficult times, recharge your motivation to change by reminding yourself of the costs of un-fettered perfectionism and the value of freeing

up your time and energy to focus on the truly important items.

5. Persist. The fifth and final step in changing a

habit is persistence. Do not expect that you will change completely, effortlessly, and overnight. Rather, expect that your progress will be spo-radic. From time to time you will regress despite your good intentions. If you resolve from the outset to continue making the effort to change despite the inevitable difficulties, your ultimate success is practically assured.

Habits to Adopt Now that you are on your way to eradicating your bad habits, here are some suggestions for good hab-its to adopt in their place. Use the same procedure to instill a good habit that you use to erase a bad one – decide, motivate yourself by articulating the benefits and costs of the habit, figure out how and when to change your behavior, act on your decision, and per-sist in acting on it despite setbacks. Consider adopt-ing any or all of the following: 1. Use a three item “daily action list.” If your “to-

do” list runs to multiple pages, try picking only the three most important items. Focus on work-ing on those items – and only those items – until you finish them. (Emergencies can muscle their way onto the list as newly-prioritized “most im-portant” items.) Keep your longer “to-do” list for ease of future planning.

2. Arrange for an hour or two of uninterrupted

time every day during your high-energy peri-ods. Have your calls screened. Hide out in the library, or come in early. You can get much more accomplished during periods of high con-centration, and knowing you can look forward to such times with reasonable certainty is a stress-buster by itself.

3. Keep your office organized. The costs of disor-

ganization – in terms of time, stress, lost oppor-tunities, and potential malpractice claims – are enormous. Set up a simple chronological filing system for your work projects, and a simple al-phabetical filing system for miscellaneous in-

Article Reprint: Time Management Habits: How to Develop Good Ones and Kick Bad Ones Page 3 of 3 __________________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright © 1994-2007 by Margaret Spencer Dixon. All rights reserved.

formation, and develop the habit of using them consistently.

4. Make minor decisions promptly. Much of the

paper clutter that builds up in your office is tan-gible evidence that you have been procrastinat-ing on minor decisions. Check out the paper piled on your desk right now. How many of the items will you eventually resolve (whether by filing, tossing, or responding) without needing any additional information? Usually, all you have to do is make a decision – whether to at-tend the event, subscribe to the publication, re-spond to the request for a donation, etc. Resolve to get in the habit of making minor decisions at the first possible opportunity.

5. Think on paper. This good habit is especially

useful in the following situations:

♦ At the creative stages of projects, have your own private brainstorming session on paper, including even your most outlandish ideas.

♦ For making decisions, draw a line down the

center of a piece of paper and make two col-umns: pro and con.

♦ For conquering the worry habit, write down

the answers to these questions: Precisely what am I worried about? What, if anything, can I do about it? What should I do about it? (Make a pro and con chart if necessary.) When will I act on the decision?

The Most Important Habit The habit of self-improvement is never-ending. The good news is that the moment you start working on reducing your bad habits or increasing your good ones, you have automatically begun the most impor-tant habit, that of monitoring your behavior in order to improve it – and yourself. --Margaret Spencer Dixon is a lawyer and consult-ant specializing in time management seminars and coaching for lawyers and legal professionals. She is the founder and president of Spencer Consulting

(www.TimeManagementForLawyers.com) and can be reached at 301-949-2214.

DAY TWO Saturday, October 6, 2007

Programs 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works! PDFing Your Practice: Acrobat and More

Track 2 – Manage Smart!

Keeping Them Satisfied: Exceeding Client Expectations Everyday!

Track 3 – Have a Life!

Writing Your Way to Fame: Getting Published and Noticed

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

PDFing Your Practice: Acrobat and More

With

Catherine Sanders Reach, Moderator

Daniel Siegel Rick Borstein

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

PDFING YOUR PRACTICE

Reducing Paper, Going “Less-Paper” and Accomplishing More in Less Time Daniel J. Siegel

Law Offices of Daniel J. Siegel, LLC

October 6, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4-6, 2007

Reducing Paper, Going “Less-Paper” and Accomplishing More in Less Time

The “paperless office.” Remember that concept? Like the idea that paper checks would

disappear, the promise of a paperless office remains a pipedream for virtually every business,

including law firms. After all, the mail still comes, faxes continue to fly out of the machine, and

those e-mail printouts never seem to end, right? While an office without paper is probably not a

reality for most lawyers, there are options that will reduce the amount of paper you use while

increasing your and your firm’s efficiency. At the heart of most “less-paper” is the pdf or

portable document format created by Adobe, which explains the history of the format:

Invented by Adobe Systems and perfected over 15 years, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) lets you capture and view robust information—from any application, on any computer system—and share it with anyone around the world. Individuals, businesses, and government agencies everywhere trust and rely on Adobe® PDF to communicate their ideas and vision.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html.

For law offices and other businesses, any effort to reduce paper will be focused on using

pdf documents. More importantly, any effort to go less-paper requires attorneys and their staffs

to stop handling paper. Every time you get up to get a file, every time you refer to the paper

document, you are “wasting” time, not in the sense that you aren’t doing anything, but in the

sense that you can do it more quickly and more efficiently at your desk – by opening the file on

your computer.

Using pdfs is easy – you just download the free reader from http://www.adobe.com. But

to benefit more fully from using pdfs, you will need hardware and software you probably have,

or may not even realize you have, including a scanner, preferably one with a sheet feeder, and a

CD burner. What you also need is the willingness to tweak the way you (and your staff) do

things.

Consider a typical client file. In most cases, your office prepares an initial intake. It may

be a detailed client interview, a case assignment sheet received from an insurance company, or

something a bit more complicated. Regardless, you should scan every document, and name each

so that you (or anyone else) can locate the documents easily. There are two reasons to do this.

First, it is all too easy to misplace documents, and scanned copies serve as insurance. Second,

when the client calls, you no longer have to place the client on hold, get up from your desk,

search for the file, and then, once you find it, rummage through the morass of papers to locate

the document you need. Instead, you simply locate the document on your computer, open up the

file, and you are ready to discuss the document in seconds. You are more efficient, and your

client is impressed by your ability to discuss the document and the case at a moment’s notice.

Let’s jump ahead a bit. Suppose the case requires you to obtain voluminous records. They

could be medical records, financial records, or copies of contracts in dispute. Regardless, they

encompass dozens, if not hundreds or possibly thousands of pages. In a traditional setting, you

would obtain hard copies of every document and would later supply paper copies to opposing

counsel. That is a lot of dead trees, especially for records that, for the most part, probably will be

reviewed only once; after all, only a small percentage of the records produced in most cases have

any relevance to the case itself. More and more, however, records are either produced – or they

are available – electronically, that is, in tif or pdf format on CD or floppy disk.

Why receive records electronically? There are numerous reasons. Your computer

generally comes with the basic software needed to review these files, so you are already setup to

do this. In addition, when you need to review the file, if you only print and highlight the truly

relevant documents, it will be much easier to find these documents instead of having to fumble

your way through reams of paper. Thus, I recommend doing an initial review of the documents

on your computer and printing only the pages that may be necessary.

Suppose, however, the matter involves litigation. Pleadings, discovery, motions, pretrial

documents, etc. For my nickel, every document should be scanned and OCRed (optical character

recognition). This process not only renders the documents searchable, it generally also allows

you to copy portions for use when preparing other documents. As a bonus, if you misplace a

document (which of course will “never” happen), there is a copy readily available. In addition,

when you file a motion, you can easily produce a CD rather than a case of paper, and at far less

expense. Moreover, if your case is in federal court (or one of the more progressive state courts),

you will have to file your papers electronically, so you are far more prepared to do so.

One of the most important reasons to scan litigation documents is the ability you should

have to OCR each one simultaneously. With the right software and a little effort, you will be able

to search virtually all of your documents in one pass, and finding that needle in the paperstack

will be far easier. Although most software can OCR handwritten documents, the results vary

based upon the legibility of the writing and sophistication of the software.

Consider this real-life example. In a recent case, plaintiff’s counsel had suddenly named a

new expert. Although he worked for the same company as another expert, we could not fathom

why his testimony would have any more relevance than the previously named witness. I opened

up my Adobe Acrobat index and searched for the witness’ name. Lo and behold, his name

appeared once in about 5,000 pages of documents. Where? In one document in which another

witness had cited the newly named expert’s treatise, which of course supported plaintiff’s theory

of recovery. Obviously, when he identified this witness, plaintiff’s counsel had intended to use

this treatise to bolster his case, without ever disclosing that “little” fact beforehand. Needless to

say, we promptly filed a Motion in Limine to preclude testimony by this new witness.

Jumping ahead, your case has now concluded. At that point, any closing documents,

settlement sheets, releases, etc., should have been scanned to your computer. Then what? When

you close the file, if you have saved copies of the pleadings, etc. on your computer, you can burn

a CD, store it with the files on it, and dispose of the documents. You will require far less physical

storage space and, should the need arise, you can quickly retrieve the documents from your

computer (or an archive) or directly from the CD you stored with the file.

Now that you have read what to do to reduce the paper in your office, the question

remains how to do it? The answer is by using a scanner, a CD burner, a tif viewer, and PDF

software, which most offices already have. In smaller offices, with only one or two staff

members, the idea of going paperless may seem particularly daunting. For those offices, I

recommend implementing these steps progressively. In most instances, once you begin the

transition to electronic storage, it becomes second nature.

Regardless how much of this process you adopt, you must also backup your computer

regularly.

Scanners

Scanners have become a necessity in most offices. A scanner analyzes a document or

other image and processes it in a way that allows you to save it on your computer. If the

document contains text, a scanner can perform an OCR, thus allowing you to search and,

depending on your software, use the text in other applications. If the document contains an image

(picture), the scanner can save it in a manner that allows you to alter or enhance the image, print

it out or use it elsewhere.

In recent years, scanning technology has improved dramatically. Sheetfed scanners have

become far more common and much more affordable, and allow you to scan large documents at

the push of a button. For around $300.00, you can purchase a scanner with a 35 to 50 page sheet

feeder, which is sufficient for most small to mid-size firms. In addition, large copiers generally

also serve as scanners. Either way, scanning is as easy as making a copy.

But the key to successful scanning is in the software. Most manufacturers supply all of

the software you will need for free when you buy a scanner. For example, Hewlett Packard offers

user-friendly software that makes scanning a snap. You open the software, click on the scan

button, and the scanning begins. Once the scanning is over, the software asks you what format to

save the images in, generally a pdf, and where to save it. Of course, if you need to save your

document as an image, such as a tif or jpeg, you can do that just as easily. The advantage of the

pdf format (rather than a jpeg or other “image” format) is that, with proper software, you can

search one or more documents for keywords.

After You Scan – You Need Software

Scanning documents is just the first step. After your documents are scanned, you need the

proper software to review them. Selecting the correct software for handling your documents is

crucial to reducing paper and increasing efficiency. If you save your documents as pdfs, you can

review them with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which allows you to view your documents, but

not much else. If you purchase more versatile pdf creation software, however, you can

accomplish much more. For example, Adobe Acrobat easily performs an OCR on a document,

allowing you to search its text, export it to Microsoft Word, or use it in other applications. Adobe

Acrobat is relatively expensive (around $300 to $500 per user/license, depending on the version),

and other companies offer less expensive alternatives, but without all of Adobe’s bells and

whistles.

One of the highlights of pdfing you office is creating an index of documents (Adobe calls

it a “catalog”). In the example above, the index encompassed over 400 documents, ranging from

pleadings to exhibits to legal research to correspondence. It took about three seconds for Adobe

Acrobat to find the one instance in which the newly designated expert witness’ name had

appeared in any of the documents. Without the index, we might not have learned until trial about

the witness’ treatise.

While Adobe is the standard for pdfs, the world of images (tifs, bmps, jpegs, etc.) is far

different, and requires image software, called a “viewer.” A viewer is a program that displays the

contents of an electronic (digital) file. A viewer may be a stand-alone program or a component

within a larger program. Generally, stand-alone viewers are more versatile than those contained

in other programs.

Windows PCs come with Microsoft’s viewer, which is extremely basic. If you plan to

view images frequently, then the Microsoft viewer, which requires a user to open and close every

image manually, is inefficient and will become a source of increasing frustration. There are many

other viewers that allow users to scroll from image to image without having to open and close

each document. Users tend to have their own preferences, and most viewers are relatively

inexpensive and generally offer free trials. Among the more popular viewers are IrfanView

(http://www.irfanview.com), which is free for non-commercial use, and ACDSee

(http://www.acdsystems.com), which is extremely easy to use, and sells for about $50.00.

File Naming

No matter how you implement your less-paper office, one factor critical to its success is

creating a file-naming protocol. Where possible, your office should use a protocol that makes

locating files easy, and allows any person to determine the contents of a given file. Document

management software (DMS) automatically performs this function, although many offices do not

have DMS. For those offices, files should still be organized in an easy-to-use style, generally by

client name (after all, who remembers every matter number?). There are then, generally,

subdirectories for correspondence, pleadings, discovery, medical records, etc.

After you establish a file organizational structure, you should define a file-naming

protocol. For example, save all letters as “Ltr to XXXX re YYYY, Date.” I recommend that

dates be in YEAR-MONTH-DATE format (2005-10-28) because it makes sorting similarly

named files far easier. Thus, if you have four letters to Attorney Smith about settlement, they

will sort in date order when you are searching.

CD Burning

If you intend to save and produce documents electronically, you will need the ability to

create (“burn”) CDs. Fortunately, almost all computers manufactured in the past few years come

with a CD burner and the software needed to the burn the disks. Generally, the software that

ships with a CD burner will be sufficient for most people’s needs. CDs are also an excellent and

inexpensive way to store documents without saving the hard copies.

Email & Faxes

More and more, lawyers and clients communicate by email. The volume of email in some

offices is overwhelming, and if the communication involves a client or case, you almost certainly

have to save a copy – not only of the email, but also of your reply, and the reply to the reply, and

the reply to the reply to the reply, etc. At times, the volume of email seems infinite. There is no

reason, however, to print out every email you receive. The ubiquitous Microsoft Outlook, and

virtually every other email program, allows you to easily store email on your computer. So,

unless the email is that important, don’t print; instead, hit the save button.

As for faxes, old habits die hard. Many offices continue to rely on the machine, but there

are better alternatives. For smaller firms, an online service such as efax (http://www.efax.com)

may be the answer. Efax assigns you a fax number and sends your faxes to as many as five

different email addresses, all for one annual fee, which is generally less than the cost of a fax line

for a year. For larger firms, programs such as Right Fax (http://www.captaris.com/rightfax) may

be the answer, albeit at a significantly greater cost. Using efax or RightFax, you can view an

incoming fax on your computer in a host of formats, including pdf and tif. If the fax is

unimportant, you can delete the email (without ever wasting the paper to print it). If it is

important, however, you can save it to a client’s file and, if necessary, print a hard copy. Most

electronic fax programs also allow you to send faxes, but for most users the real convenience is

the ability to receive and review faxes on their PCs.

Using pdfs is the cornerstone of an office with less paper. When implemented correctly, a

pdf-focused office allows you to relax knowing everything you need is just a moment away

without leaving your desk.

Adobe Acrobat and Legal Trends

Rick Borstein Business Development Manager, Legal market

Adobe Systems Incorporated Buffalo Grove, IL

borstein@adobe.com

Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1

Notable Industry Trends ..................................................................................................... 1

eFiling .............................................................................................................................. 1

eDiscovery........................................................................................................................2

Data and Data Representations...................................................................................2

Security ............................................................................................................................4

Metadata ......................................................................................................................4

Improper Redaction..................................................................................................... 5

Privacy..........................................................................................................................6

Protecting Work Product .............................................................................................6

Avoiding Misuse........................................................................................................... 7

Archiving..........................................................................................................................8

How will a Word 95 document open in Office 2014?..................................................8

Accessibility .....................................................................................................................9

eBriefs ............................................................................................................................ 10

PDF for Imaging .............................................................................................................11

PDF Packages..................................................................................................................11

PDF in the Courtroom ................................................................................................... 12

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PDF Review Workflows ................................................................................................. 12

Reviewing on Paper ................................................................................................... 12

Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 13

Additional Reading and Resources................................................................................... 14

Books.............................................................................................................................. 14

Video Training ............................................................................................................... 14

Web Resources............................................................................................................... 14

Appendix

Appendix A: (white paper) Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals

Appendix B: (article) Email Archiving with Adobe Acrobat 8

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Introduction

Adobe Acrobat is the primary tool used to generate Portable Document Format

(PDF) Files. PDF files are device-independent—they contain all the fonts (typefaces),

images and text necessary for the document to be accurately viewed and printed. The

PDF format is primarily intended as an archival view and print format. It is more

difficult to edit and change a PDF file than a word processing format such as Microsoft

Word or Corel WordPerfect.

The Adobe Reader—a free program used to view PDF files—has been installed on

more than 500 million personal computers worldwide—89.7% of all desktop computers.

The ubiquity of the free Adobe Reader has led to adoption by many courts as the defacto

electronic filing format. One consequence of this adoption is that legal professionals

have started to use Acrobat for a variety of tasks.

Notable Industry Trends

This paper discusses current trends in the legal industry for the use of Acrobat.

eFiling

Electronic Filing or eFiling—the use of electronic files sent to the court in lieu of

paper documents—is expanding rapidly. Over 20 million cases have been electronically

filed in the US Federal Court System. At this time, 84 district courts and 89 bankruptcy

courts offer eFiling.i A number of state and local jurisdictions offer electronic filing. For

example, over 130,000 documents have been served in Georgia’s Fulton County State

Court in the last 12 months.ii

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Adobe PDF is the defacto standard for eFiling. Electronic filing offers benefits for

both the courts and law firms:

• Reduced cost of printing and copying paper documents

• Electronic routing of documents

• Notification of filing via email

• Faster processing

eDiscovery

With so much information produced on personal computers, it was inevitable

that one of the greatest sources of discovery would be electronic documents. The sheer

volume of documents in eDiscovery cases precludes printing them out and sifting

through them to create relationships, timelines and a cast of characters.

A number of vendors—such as Lexis-Nexis Applied Discovery—offer eDiscovery

solutions that create searchable PDF files. Using tools in Acrobat, or in litigation

support products that support PDF, documents may be searched and categorized to help

find the “needle in a haystack”. Commenting tools in Acrobat may be employed to add

side notes and to highlight key passages.

Data and Data Representations

One major eDiscovery issue has to do with document formats. It is important to

understand that PDFs represent a view of data, but may not represent the data itself.

Most types of electronic files are suitable for conversion to PDF. For example, memos,

documentation, emails, web pages, etc., all can be converted to PDFs which faithfully

represent the original.

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While PDF files can reliably represent the output of reports generated from

databases, it is not in fact the data itself. For example, in a suit involving discriminatory

employment practices, you may ask the other side to produce the human resources

database. Unless you specify that you want the original database, you may instead

receive PDF output of the standard reports run by the defendant. Will these standard

reports offer the material you need to make connections and prove your case? Some

litigators have found that it is preferable to have access to the original database so that

new reports can be generated to correlate the data.

Recent federal rules changes strongly support the sharing of files in the original

document format so that both sides may view document metadata or other hidden

information. PDF files may contain document metadata which may be valuable in

discovery. PDF metadata may be viewed in the Document Properties window (File

Properties). One distinction to note is that metadata may become associated with a PDF

file two ways:

1. When an originating application—such as a word processing program—

adds metadata which carries through to the resulting PDF

2. When metadata information, such as annotations, file attachments, etc.,

are added in Adobe Acrobat or other program which can manipulate a

PDF file

The distinction above may be important in determining a custodial trail.

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Security

Computer users have been barraged of late with dire security warnings regarding

viruses, worms and other dangers of the internet age. The legal industry, too, has

specific security issues associated with documents.

Metadata

Metadata is information about a file that may or may not be visible in the file

itself. Examples of metadata include:

• File location

• File Name

• Author Name

• Editing Time

In the legal industry, the definition of metadata has broadened to include several

dangers associated with document preparation. One example is the use of hidden “track

change” information in Microsoft Word. Track Change information often includes

commentary from attorneys and paralegals about the document that could prove to be

potentially embarrassing or lead to an accidental disclosure. Track Changes can be

turned on or off, but the data still resides in the document making them dangerous to

send to clients or opposing council.

Many firms now take a “PDF First”iii approach. Converting to PDF avoids

virtually all metadata associated issues. PDF files only contain the part of the document

that would be visible when printed. PDF files do not contain Word’s track changes or

other hidden information.

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Acrobat 8 (Standard and Professional) offer the Examine Document function

which may be used to safely remove the following potentially dangerous information

from a PDF:

• Title/Subject/Author/Keyword

• File Attachments

• Annotations and Comments

• Form Field Information or Actions

• OCR Text

• Hidden Layers

• Embedded Search Index

Improper Redaction

Another area of security that can lead to accidental disclosure is improper

redaction. Redaction, by definition, means removing information from documents. In

paper workflows historically, Xacto knives were used to cut text from the paper and it

was then photocopied with a black sheet of paper behind it.

Recently, the US Military releases an improperly redacted PDF which led to the

disclosure of classified information.iv A user placed black annotation rectangles on top

of the document and added basic PDF security to the file. Unfortunately, covering up

information with an annotation does not delete information. PDF annotations reside in

a separate layer that is easily turned on or off. The original “redacted” text remained in

the document and was fully searchable!

To properly redact PDFs, use one of two methods:

1. Use Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional’s redaction tools which securely delete

metadata and other private information from PDFs

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2. Use an Acrobat plug-in from Appligent called Redaxv

Extra care should be used when redacting image-only PDFs. These documents do

not contain a layer of searchable text and must be scrutinized carefully.

Note that the previously mentioned Examine Document feature also checks for

improperly redacted files.

Privacy

Federal laws such as the Health Industry Privacy Protection Act, the Freedom of

Information Act and others mandate a high standard of care regarding private

information or state secrets.

Using redaction tools in Acrobat 8 Professional, PDF documents may be

successful redacted.

Protecting Work Product

Minor edits of PDF files are possible using tools in Adobe Acrobat Standard and

Professional products. Important contracts and other documents may be secured to

prevent changes and usage restrictions may be set.

For example, an attorney is preparing a lengthy trust agreement that the client

needs to review. The client has not paid for the work “up front”. Emailing a Word or

WordPerfect file is tantamount to giving your client intact work product. Clients may

willingly or unknowingly consider the email attachment as a final form document and

“forget” to pay the attorney. A PDF file may be secured so that it may be viewed on-

screen, but not printed. Using Acrobat Professional, the attorney is also able to enable

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the PDF file so that review tools appear in the free Adobe Reader. This allows for a safe,

electronic review workflow.

For security-conscious clients, Acrobat documents may be secured with a

password which is required to open the file. Acrobat may also be used in Private Key-

Public Key (PKI) environment. By exchanging public keys with the intended recipient,

only the intended recipient will be able to open the file.

Using server-based tools available from Adobe, or using the Adobe Document

Servervi—a hosted software application—it is possible to secure PDFs (and common

Office file formats) with advanced capabilities. For example, it is possible to revoke a

document so that it cannot be opened, even if it was copied to a CD or thumbdrive. PDFs

secured in this way “phone home” over the internet to check on their usage rights.

Avoiding Misuse

Attorneys need to be aware of security options in Acrobat to avoid potential

misuse. Discovery documents should be unencumbered. However, there have been

examples where security was attached to PDF files used in discovery as a delaying

tactic.vii

Attorneys should spell out in their work agreements with clients which document

types they will provide. Clients are interested in saving time and re-using documents, if

appropriate. Form agreements can be drafted and saved in PDF that allow the client to

fill in PDF form fields. Using Acrobat 8 Professional, attorneys may “Reader-enable” a

file so that additional capabilities are turned on in the free Adobe Reader.

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Capabilities that may be enabled for Adobe Reader users are:

• Form Save

• Commenting

• Typewriter tool

• Digital Signatures

The use of PDF protects clients from making accidental changes to documents.

Archiving

In most states, firms are obligated to maintain client records for seven years.

Practically speaking, however, firms need quick access to records for as long as they

have the client. These days, with virtually all correspondence, contracts and research

completed on computers, it seems “unnatural” to use paper as an archive media. The

cost and expense of printing, copying and storage is another consideration.

How will a Word 95 document open in Office 2014?

Word processing and spreadsheet files are interpreted files. Each time they are

opened, the program communicates with the operating system to assess if the correct

fonts and images are available. In addition, common office file formats change over time

such that pagination and layout may change. Indeed, many firms have struggled so

much with document conversions over the years that a slew of products and consultants

specialize in the problem.

PDF files are self-contained. All necessary fonts and images are available inside

the file. PDF files are designed to capture the visual representation of the printed

document for the long term.

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In September 2005, the International Standards Organization, finalized the

specification for PDF/A—PDF for Archivingviii. PDF/A is a constrained subset of the

PDF specification intended for long-term preservation of documents. The standard was

developed by an ISO working group with representation from government, industry,

and academia and Adobe Systems Incorporated. Several government agencies—

including the Federal Courts, the National Archives and Records Administration and the

Library of Congress—already have adopted PDF/A.

Firms looking for a best practice for client records preservation would be wise to

consider PDF/A as their format standard.

Accessibility

Firms that do business with the government or (potentially) work for clients, who

have government contracts, may be required to create documents that are accessible to

the visually impaired. Section 508 is the law that applies:ix

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘ 794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.

PDF files can contain structure—sometimes called tags – that allow assistive

technology such as screen reader software, to properly traverse documents for the

visually impaired. Instructions in tagged PDFs permit screen reading software to

properly follow column layout, ignore headers and footers, etc. PDF files created from

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Microsoft Office applications using Adobe’s one-button PDF creators contain this

structure by default.

Structured PDFs have the following additional benefits for any firm:

1. Structured PDFs enable Word PDF Word review round tripping,.

2. Structured PDFs reflow properly on handheld devices such as Palm and

Windows CE allowing them to be browsed efficiently.

3. Structured PDFs retain the structure when the document is saved back to

Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF).

eBriefs

Electronic filing has brought about a new term—eBrief. A well-written brief has

always been an advantage for firms in winning a case, but now firms must take into

account the non-sequential nature of electronic documents.

An electronic brief – or eBrief – is a PDF file of an entire motion or appellate

brief filing including supporting materials such as citings, maps, and drawings. A good

eBrief is hyperlinked and easy to browse. Judges now can instantly click on a citation or

reference to check arguments. Thus, firms have found that a well-linked brief which

facilitates review by the judge makes their case stronger.

PDF files can contain—in a single polished file—pages from a number of sources.

For example, a brief written in Microsoft Word, PDF case citings downloaded from

WestLaw, and perhaps in image of a car accident or plat of survey in question. PDF files

can also contain pages of different sizes and orientations.

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PDF for Imaging

Properly stored, paper can last for 500 years or more. Lawyers like working with

paper—it is comfortable and well-known. These days, however, both law firms and

courts need to marry paper and electronic processes. The paperless office remains a

distant goal, but the “less paper” office is a worthy objective for today’s firms.

Using a scanner, it is easy to convert incoming correspondence to searchable PDF

files and route them to the appropriate person in your firm. Client files may be scanned

and maintained on the local file system, or more robust document management systems

may be used.

In litigation, PDF is a well-supported file format for discovery documents. Most

scanning service providers can turn boxes of documents into PDFs. Many litigation

support products—such as CaseSoft’s CaseMap— offer special support for PDF.

PDF Packages

Attorneys and their firms often need to share sets of documents with clients. For

example, a closing binder containing all the documents related to a transaction. It is a

challenge to deliver these documents to clients in a usable way. Files often appear

scattered or disorganized when emailed or burned to a CD.

Acrobat 8 introduced a new concept called PDF Packages. A PDF Package may be

thought of as an envelope—or container document—that can hold PDFs or other types of

documents. The PDF Package offers a spreadsheet-like view which may be sorted in

useful ways. Additional column headings may be added that allows attorneys to

introduce additional columns into the spreadsheet. PDF Packages may optionally

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include a full-text index for fast searching across all of the PDF documents in the

package.

PDF in the Courtroom

Using a digital projector and Acrobat, judges and juries can view the documents

that help you make your case. Since PDFs are searchable and indexed, Acrobat allows

access to thousands of documents in seconds.

PDF files may be displayed with a minimal interface that keeps juries focused on

the “document story”. PDF files can bring together several file formats into a single file

that can be displayed in court. For example, a single PDF may contain scanned images

of letters and receipts, an Excel projection of loss of revenue, movies, sounds, even 3D

imageryx. Bookmarks can be used to quickly navigate from exhibit to exhibit.

PDF Review Workflows

Reviewing on Paper

Attorneys are always looking for ways to bill more hours. Increasingly, this means

maximizing time away from the office. Photocopies and faxing introduce generational

loss. Documents become harder to read each time a “generation” occurs.

Using Acrobat, paper documents may be scanned into a compact PDF files. Using

a variety of familiar tools, attorneys can highlight, indicate text edits, circle and annotate

documents. Once reviewed, PDFs may be printed, emailed, faxed or archived.

Transactional attorneys are often concerned about protecting work product

during the review process. Often, word processing files return from the other side with

unwelcome changes such as non-standard styles, re-ordered paragraphs and insertion of

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other “foreign” material. Still, when sending documents out to other parties, it is

important to be able to route comments back to the original document. Using Adobe

Acrobat, comments can be “round tripped” during the review process and unwanted

changes avoided. Comments may be read into Microsoft Word from a PDF and inserted

as standard Word comments and incorporated into the document.

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional introduced the concept of “Reader-enabled”

PDFs for commenting. Once a PDF document is “blessed”, hidden commenting tools are

“turned on” in the recipient’s free Adobe Reader software. A simple button allows

comments to routed back to the review initiator.

Conclusions

Driven by eFiling and the desire to get paper under control, PDF use is on the rise

in the law community. The use of Acrobat has progressed beyond PDF creation to

embrace collaboration, security, and courtroom presentation.

Once they purchase Acrobat, attorneys and firms look for ways to get more from

the investment they have made in the product.

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Additional Reading and Resources

Books

1. The Lawyer’s Guide to Adobe Acrobat David Masters Go to http://www.ababooks.org and search for Adobe

2. The Adobe Acrobat 8 PDF Bible By Ted Padova ISBN: 0470050519

3. The Adobe Acrobat 8 Classroom in a Book ISBN: 0321470850

Video Training

1. Total Training for Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional Tim Plumer http://www.totaltraining.com

2. Element K Training for Adobe Acrobat http://adobe.elementk.com/

3. Free Adobe Acrobat Tutorials http://www.adobe.com/products/tips/acrobat.html

Web Resources

1. Rick Borstein’s Acrolaw Blog http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw

2. Download the Free Adobe Reader http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

3. Free Adobe Acrobat Professional 30-day Trial Software http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/tryout.html

4. Adobe Events and Seminars http://www.adobe.com/events

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i See http://www.uscourts.gov/cmecf/cmecf_about.html

ii http://contentcentricblog.typepad.com/ecourts/2005/05/fulton_county_g.html

iii Ross Kodner of MicroLaw, a frequent CLE speaker, coined this term.

iv http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/20_9/news/26160-1.html, May 2005.

v http://www.appligent.com

vi http://www.adobe.com/products/onlineservices/documentcenter/

vii I personally discovered this in a meeting with a large east coast law firm which had received over 1000

secured PDFs in discovery with print restrictions set on the files. I advised them to go right to the judge.

viii http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=38920&scopelist=PROGRAMME

ix http://www.section508.gov

x Firms specializing in intellectual property may need to manipulate 3D models in discovery. The $995

Acrobat 3D, converts over 40 different popular 3D file formats into compact PDFs less than 5% of the

original file size. For information, see http://www.adobe.com/3d

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Adobe® AcrobAt® 8 for LegAL ProfessionALs

By David L. Masters

White Paper

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals �

White Paper

Adobe® Acrobat® 8 for Legal ProfessionalsWith the release of Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, Adobe Systems now delivers features specific to the legal profession, including Bates numbering and redaction. Building on a solid foundation, Acrobat 8 gives legal professionals the power to intuitively create and access PDF files, collect information, securely control access to information, and facilitate collaboration. The widespread adoption of electronic court filings and the growing practice of exchanging disclosure and discovery materials in electronic format calls for tools to perform those tasks. Acrobat 8 delivers a comprehensive solution for working with digital documents, akin to paper-based routines, with greater efficiency and portability. Acrobat 8 provides simple yet secure solutions for collaboration and exchanging documents with clients and other legal professionals using PDF (Portable Document Format), which has become the de facto standard for digital documents in the legal community.

Portable Document Format (PDF)Refined and perfected over 15 years, Adobe PDF lets legal professionals capture and view information—from any application, on any computer system—and share it with anyone around the world. PDF files can be viewed and printed on any computer system—Macintosh, Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX®, and many mobile platforms. Adobe PDF files look just like original docu-ments, regardless of the application used to create them. Paper documents scanned to PDF look just like their hard-copy counterparts and can be quickly turned into computer-searchable files. Unlike PDF files, documents scanned to Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) lose their original appearance when converted to searchable files. When it comes to long-term file retention, the PDF/Archive standard (PDF/A) enables organizations to archive documents electronically in a way that ensures preservation of content for later retrieval and reuse with a consistent and predictable result over an extended period of time in the future. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has approved PDF/A as an archive standard.

The federal judiciary’s Case Management and Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system has been implemented in almost all district and bankruptcy courts. CM/ECF allows the courts to have case file documents in electronic format and to accept filings via the Internet. CM/ECF systems are now in use in 89% of the federal courts: 89 district courts, 93 bankruptcy courts, the Court of International Trade, and the Court of Federal Claims. Most of those courts accept electronic filings. More than 27 million cases are on CM/ECF systems, and more than 200,000 attorneys and others have filed documents via the Internet.

The CM/ECF system stores case and related information as PDF files. Most legal professionals find the system easy to use—filers prepare a document using their word processor of choice, then save it to PDF for electronic filing with the court. Attorneys practicing in courts offering the electronic filing capability can file documents directly with the court via the Internet. When documents are filed electronically, the system automatically generates and sends a verifying

Table of Contents

� Portable Document Format (PDF)

3 The Acrobat 8 product family

3 Legal-specific features

4 PDF file creation

6 Combining files

6 PDF fundamentals

7 Enhancing PDF files with Acrobat 8

7 Search and find information

8 Gathering information

9 Collaboration

9 Secure information control

10 Information presentation

10 Closing Argument

10 About the Author

10 References

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals 3

receipt by electronic mail—no more waiting or paying for conformed copies. Other parties in the case automatically receive notification of the filing. There are no added fees for electronic filing in federal court (existing document filing fees apply). Litigants receive one free PDF copy of every document electronically filed in their cases, which they can save or print for their files.

CM/ECF also provides courts the ability to make their documents available to the public over the Internet via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) program. PACER offers users a fast and inexpensive way to obtain comprehensive case and docket information as PDF files from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts via the Internet. Electronic access requires registration with the PACER Service Center, the judiciary’s centralized registration, billing, and technical support center.

The volume of documents produced as PDF files through disclosure and discovery in litigation continues to grow. Recognizing the power and efficiency of electronic documents, attorneys employing best practices—be they co-counsel, opposing counsel, or in-house counsel—expect that documents will be exchanged as PDF files. Likewise, clients have come to expect legal professionals to provide documents as PDF files. When it comes to meeting those expectations and working with digital documents, the applications in the Acrobat family are the right choice for legal professionals.

The Acrobat 8 product family• Acrobat 8 Professional—Acrobat 8 Professional provides essential tools for the legal community

to create and combine electronic documents, manage reviews, build forms, and secure information. Acrobat 8 Professional also contains features specifically created for the legal community, including redaction and Bates numbering. With Acrobat 8 Professional, PDF files can be enabled to allow users who have only free Adobe Reader® 8 software to review, add comments, fill in PDF forms, and digitally sign PDF documents.

• Acrobat 8 Standard—Acrobat 8 Standard offers reliable ways to create, combine, protect, and share Adobe PDF files. Acrobat Standard generates PDF files that accurately represent the original document, whether paper or electronic.

• Acrobat 8 Elements—Acrobat 8 Elements, available through volume licensing (100 seats per order), enables professionals to easily and reliably create secure Adobe PDF files.

• Adobe Reader—The freely available Adobe Reader allows users to view, print, and search PDF files and it also makes PDF files freely shareable across multiple operating systems. More than 500 million copies of the free Adobe Reader have been distributed, making the ability to view a PDF file ubiquitous.

Legal-specific featuresWith the release of Acrobat 8 Professional, Adobe Systems has responded to the needs of legal professionals by including within the application functions for Bates numbering, redaction, and metadata removal.

• Bates numbering—To legal professionals, “Bates numbering” means applying sequential numbers to individual pages of documents, usually in the course of litigation. When docu-ments are produced in litigation, either through disclosure or discovery, you need to be able to say with certainty precisely which documents were produced—no more and no less. By numbering each page sequentially, often with leading text for more reliable identification, legal professionals can accurately identify the documents that were produced. Acrobat 8 Professional offers legal professionals the ability to add Bates numbers to individual or multiple PDF files. Electronic Bates numbering, using Acrobat 8 Professional, beats using a mechanical stamp or placing labels on paper documents hands-down.

“With the redaction features in Acrobat 8, we can accomplish in minutes tasks that previ-ously took days. When you’re redacting content from more than 2,000 documents, it is essential to have a tool that is easy to use and reliable. Acrobat 8 makes it easy to hide or permanently remove confidential con-tent and still preserve the original.” Rich Ramba Technical Litigation Support Director The Veen Firm

Valuable Acrobat 8 features for legal professionals• Bates numbering: Apply sequential

numbers to individual pages of documents during the course of litigation.

• Redaction: Mark text or selected image areas for permanent and secure removal from the PDF file.

• Metadata removal: Find hidden information in documents that you may not be aware of, including metadata, comments, file attachments, and other elements. Remove some or all of those elements with a single click.

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals 4

• Redaction—Legal professionals must often share documents with other parties. However, in many instances, not all information in those documents should or can be shared. Acrobat 8 Professional enables you to excise sensitive or confidential information in PDF files. In PDF files with text, words and phrases can be searched for and automatically marked for redaction; information in image-only PDF files can be manually selected for redaction. When Acrobat 8 applies redaction, the marked text or selected image areas are permanently and securely removed from the PDF file.

• Metadata removal—In addition to removing visible content from documents, legal profession-als also need to verify that no hidden information exists in their documents, including metadata, before those documents are distributed. The new Examine Document feature can scan through your document and alert you to hidden information that you may not be aware of, including metadata, comments, file attachments, and other elements. You can then remove some or all of those elements with a single click.

PDF file creationWith Acrobat 8, legal professionals can create PDF files in a number of ways, from simple “one-click” create PDF buttons in popular desktop applications to using the familiar Adobe PDF print driver. Any computer file that can be printed to paper with a conventional printer can be printed to PDF with the Adobe PDF print driver. Acrobat 8 users can “combine” various electronic file formats (word processor, spreadsheet, photograph, etc.) into a single PDF file. Legal professionals can digitally staple scanned documents, digital photographs, and word processing and spread-sheet files into a single, information-rich PDF file. The resulting PDF file can be shared with anyone who has the freely available Adobe Reader.

Legal professionals may find the “Create from Outlook” feature especially useful. Acrobat 8 adds PDFMaker and Attach As Adobe PDF toolbars to Microsoft Outlook. This lets you convert one or more electronic mail messages, or a folder of electronic mail messages (.PST), to a single PDF file. Converting Microsoft Outlook electronic mail to PDF brings order to chaos and a secure way to archive messages. With Adobe Acrobat 8, all correspondence (including electronic mail) can be associated with a particular client or matter in easy-to-search-and-secure PDF files.

Acrobat 8 Professional allows users to easily and securely mark text and images for redaction.

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals �

Electronic mail messages or entire folders of electronic mail convert to PDF with attachments, links, and automatically generated bookmarks with a spreadsheet-like view that can be sorted by sender, date, subject, and folder. The Attach As Adobe PDF toolbar lets you convert a file to a PDF document and automatically attach it to an electronic mail message for immediate delivery anywhere in the world.

With Acrobat 8 and a scanner, boxes and filing cabinets full of paper can be converted to PDF. With built-in optical character recognition (OCR), Acrobat 8 can turn paper documents and scanned image-only PDF files into files with computer-searchable text that retain an exact image of the original pages. Using the batch processing feature in Acrobat 8, the text in multiple PDF files can be recognized with a few simple commands.

Creating PDF files from websites has important if not obvious significance for legal professionals. In this day and age, many cases—from intellectual property disputes to family law to personal injury actions—are decided on the basis of expert witness testimony. Many experts maintain websites or publish their work on the Internet. Preserving an exact copy of website- or Internet- published materials early in the course of litigation, well before opinions are issued and deposi-tions taken, may limit the effectiveness of an opposing expert witness. The Create PDF from Web Page function inserts a date, time, and URL stamp as a footer to the resulting PDF file to facilitate authentication. Acrobat 8 offers legal professionals the ability to quickly and easily convert the results of Internet research, both factual and legal, to PDF files for later use. You can turn that ability into an advantage.

“Acrobat 8 software sets new standards for im-proving document pro-cesses. Capabilities such as redaction, Bates page numbering, and stream-lined completion of electronic forms improve document handling and provide greater control over workflows.” Stephen Bird Lawyer Legal Services Organization

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals 6

Combining filesAcrobat 8 gives legal professionals the ability to combine files of varying types into a single PDF file. For example, a collection of files consisting of Microsoft Word and Excel files, JPEG or TIFF image files, and PDF files can readily be merged into a single PDF file or assembled into a “package.”

Merging files combines them into one sequentially ordered PDF file. “Packaging” files wraps the separate files into one PDF package. In either case, the resulting file or package can be easily secured and sent via electronic mail. The PDF package feature offers an elegant solution for combining and organizing large collections of litigation documents. PDF packages may contain a full-text search index for fast text searching. Packages also offer a convenient method for batch printing PDFs.

PDF fundamentalsThe benefits of Acrobat 8 reach well beyond creating and sharing PDF files. With Acrobat 8, legal professionals are able to work with PDF files in ways they never could with paper documents. Original-quality documents, in the form of PDF files, can be distributed quickly—across town or around the world—at virtually no expense. Sending PDF files via electronic mail provides immediate delivery of high quality documents without the expense of courier services or the poor quality that comes with facsimile transmission. With Acrobat 8 Professional, PDF files can be enabled to allow users who have only the free Adobe Reader program to add comments or fill in and return forms. PDF files can be organized with a digitally linked table of contents in the form of bookmarks. Notes and other comments provide user-added information that can be summarized and published to PDF with just a few mouse clicks. Using the Text Edits tools in Acrobat 8, the text in a PDF file can be highlighted, underlined, or struck-through. Image-only PDF files, such as scanned images of handwritten medical records, can be annotated using note, text, and drawing tools. Text annotations to image-only PDF files can be searched from within the document or across multiple files.

Acrobat 8 enables legal professionals to work intuitively with digital documents in ways similar to what they are accustomed to with paper documents. Adding, removing, and copying pages or

PDF Packages are a secure container for PDFs and many other types of files. This example is a set of real estate closing documents.

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals 7

whole documents are familiar paper-based tasks that have intuitive counterparts in Acrobat 8. The typewriter tool provides a simple and effective mechanism for adding text to any PDF file. Using Acrobat 8, these familiar tasks are performed more efficiently, more effectively, and with greater mobility than can be achieved with paper-based information.

The Comment & Markup toolbar in Acrobat 8 includes sticky notes (think 3M Post It™ notes), highlighter, stamp, callout, and shape drawing tools. Each tool provides a unique method for conveying information. The drawing tools—rectangle, oval, arrow, line, etc.—allow you to visually mark an area of a PDF document with a graphic. Sticky notes, like their paper counter-part, provide a familiar way to add information to PDF files. Acrobat catalogs all comments added to a PDF file for yet another way to rapidly find information. Acrobat 8 and PDF files are, like text printed on paper, a way to display, organize, and annotate information. Acrobat 8 does not replace the word processor. The information on paper documents cannot be changed other than by adding markups; the same limitation applies to PDF files and Acrobat 8. While the real work of text editing remains in the domain of word processing applications, Acrobat 8 provides an application and operating system of neutral means for people to provide editorial markups directly on works-in-progress.

Enhancing PDF files with Acrobat 8Bookmarks, one of Acrobat’s easiest to use features, have many uses for legal professionals. PDF bookmarks act like a paper-based table of contents, but with the power of electronic hyperlinks. Just as a table of contents informs the person viewing a document what information can be found at a given location within the document, so do bookmarks in PDF files. A bookmark in a PDF file creates an electronic link; when the reader clicks on the bookmark, the referenced information instantly appears. Consider a paper-based trial notebook where a change in content requires rewriting the entire table. In contrast, the addition of new material to a PDF file requires only the addition of a new bookmark. Remove content from the notebook and the corresponding bookmark can be removed with a stroke of the delete key. If content is relocated within the notebook, the electronic link remains intact and nothing further need be done; in other words, bookmarks are sticky. A PDF trial notebook with bookmarks offers instant access to information during trial without the distraction of physically turning pages.

Bookmarks bring order to otherwise unruly collections of discovery documents. When many documents are combined into a single PDF file organized with bookmarks, Acrobat 8 acts like a three-ring binder that holds the pages together with an electronic table of contents that links table entries to the equivalent of divider tabs. Acrobat 8 also provides the sticky notes and highlighters for calling attention to specific information on the pages.

Links are the essence of electronic briefs; they let the reader jump to other locations in the same PDF file, to other electronic files, or to websites. Legal professionals should use links when they want their readers to have immediate access to related information. Links can also initiate actions, such as playing a sound or movie file. With Acrobat 8, documents filed electronically with a court can be much more than converted word processing files. You can add bookmarks, highlights, and links to increase the persuasive power of your documents and provide better advocacy for your clients. Links are not limited to static documents, such as cited authorities, but can include connections to images, audio, and video files. Legal professionals can now provide courts with briefs that permit immediate access to cited materials, regardless of whether the citations are to legal authorities or exhibits. Electronically filed documents, created with Acrobat 8, can be more persuasive by providing courts with more information in a format that facilitates review and enhances the decision making process.

Search and find informationLegal professionals often need to find information fast. Searching for and finding the informa-tion you need faster, using Acrobat 8, means greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Looking

“Adobe Acrobat and Adobe PDF are easy to use and have enabled us to advance the way we research and build cases. Adoption across the firm has been rapid, even by lawyers who are resistant to new technologies.” Scott Thomas Director of Technology Thomas & Kampsen Law Firm

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals 8

for information in paper documents is often slow, inefficient, and costly. In contrast, searching for information in digital documents is fast, efficient, and cost-effective. Acrobat 8 can search multiple PDF files that contain text for words or phrases. Comments added to PDF files can be searched regardless of whether the file contains text. Consider the synergy with clients and co-counsel when trial and deposition transcripts, obtained as text files and converted to PDF, can be searched for words and phrases. Scan an opposing party’s pleadings, responses to discovery requests, and motions to PDF, and use the OCR feature built into Acrobat 8 to create searchable files. The ability to search documents produced by other parties in litigation gives legal profes-sionals using Acrobat 8 a distinct advantage over their opponents.

Gathering informationForms can be either an efficient way to collect and deliver information, or they can impede work-flows. How do you gather basic client information, and fill out IRS W-9 and INS I-9 forms? Hopefully not with a typewriter. Manual forms (handwritten or typed) impede workflows. PDF forms streamline procedures. Acrobat 8 Professional leverages the power of PDF forms by allowing you to create your own forms, save and modify existing forms, and enable others to complete and save forms using the free Adobe Reader. Where forms are available as PDF files, Acrobat 8 allows you to fill out and save data in the form. With form field recognition in Acrobat 8 Professional, paper forms can be scanned and converted to PDF fillable forms with a few simple commands.

Forty of the fifty states have court forms available online as PDF files. The federal district courts and courts of appeal have hundreds of forms available through their websites. Likewise, the Internal Revenue Service, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and many other state and federal administrative agencies make their forms available as PDF files. Legal professionals who practice in an area where a government agency or court makes its forms available as PDF benefit from the form capabilities in Acrobat 8.

Client intake forms created with Acrobat 8 Professional offer advantages over their paper or word processing file counterparts. Information entered into a PDF form will always be readable, but the same cannot be said for handwriting on a paper form. Using a PDF file, the integrity of the form will not be inadvertently altered as can all too easily happen with word processing files. Adobe PDF forms can streamline client intake and other processes in the law office. With Acrobat 8 Professional, PDF forms can be enabled to allow anyone with the free Adobe Reader to

Appendix A

Adobe Acrobat 8 for Legal Professionals 9

fill in, save, and return a form by electronic mail. Information obtained through PDF forms can easily be exported to a spreadsheet or plugged into a database forfurther examination.

Collaboration

Joint-drafting and collaboration on legal documents present special challenges. Legal profession-als frequently need to send documents to other professionals for review, but in doing so must uphold their duty to protect client confidences. Sending a draft of a document to another professional for review and comment should not result in unintended disclosure of confidential information or surrender of work product. Sending a draft in the form of a word processing file may do just that. Microsoft Office applications can contain potentially damaging hidden data, not evident to the average user, that may be leveraged to the advantage of other parties. Acrobat 8 provides the means to collaborate on legal documents efficiently and securely.

Consider contract negotiations with drafts passing back-and-forth between attorneys. Legal professionals routinely add digital comments and questions to works-in-progress. You and your team of legal professionals do not want to share those comments with the other side. Exchanging drafts as PDF files can eliminate the possibility of inadvertent disclosure of confidential information.

Acrobat 8 offers easy-to-use review and comment tools. Anyone with the free Adobe Reader can review and comment on a PDF file that was enabled with Acrobat 8 Professional. Comments from all reviewers can be included in a single, unchanging PDF file. With Acrobat 8, you can receive comments from clients or opposing counsel and export the comments back into the word processing file. Comments can be sorted and checked off after they have been dealt with. Document reviews can be conducted either by electronic mail or through a shared network folder, SharePoint workspace, or WebDAV folder. With shared reviews, the initiator can track the status of designated reviewers and all reviewers can see one another’s comments.

Secure information controlSometimes legal professionals need to send documents out for review but are not at liberty to

“give” the document to the reviewer. For example, court reporters deliver transcripts for a fee with the expectation that counsel will not provide copies to other parties. With a PDF version of the transcript, you can send it to a witness, client, or another attorney for review without giving away the court reporter’s work-product by setting password-protected use restrictions that deny the ability to print and copy the file. Acrobat 8 Professional allows you to secure PDF files and

Appendix A

Adobe Systems Incorporated 34� Park Avenue San Jose, CA 9�110-�704 USA www.adobe.com

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Reader, and “Better by Adobe” are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

© �006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 10/06

Better by Adobe™.

enable them for commenting in Adobe Reader. With Acrobat 8, you retain control over docu-ment content. Concerns about the manipulation of original work product are controlled because you can impose usage restrictions that limit what the recipient can do with your PDF file. If you are concerned about providing the client with a document before you have been paid, or if you don’t want to give another attorney your 60-page condominium declaration, deliver your documents as PDF files that can be viewed only on screen and neither printed nor copied.

Information presentationAcrobat 8 includes a display function—Full Screen Mode—that can be used to present exhibits in court proceedings much like specialized trial presentation applications. In this mode, the toolbars, menus, and navigation panes disappear and exhibits are presented in full-screen view. In the courtroom, Acrobat 8 has distinct advantages: It costs substantially less than special purpose trial presentation applications and is more user friendly. The marquee and dynamic zoom tools allow you to quickly and easily focus the viewer’s attention on specific portions of documents and images. Trial presentation applications still have a place in document intensive cases (10,000+ pages) and for displaying synchronized deposition transcripts, but Acrobat 8—by virtue of regular use in daily work—offers second-nature ease of use.

When it comes to sharing copies of presentations, Acrobat 8 has advantages over Microsoft PowerPoint.™ Presentations converted to PDF can be viewed by anyone with the free Adobe Reader. You do not need to worry about whether the recipient has the right version of Power-Point or the fonts needed to view the file, and the file is easier to send via electronic mail because of its compact size. If your presentation includes full-page images from original documents, Acrobat 8 does a better job of displaying full 8-by-11 pages. Coupling full-screen mode with Acrobat’s ability to create a single PDF file from a mixed collection of PDF files and image files (.jpg, .tif, .psd, etc.) creates a powerful tool for legal professionals. The resulting combined PDF file or package can be further enhanced with bookmarks, links, comments, and Bates numbers. If you need to display and work with digital documents, then Acrobat 8 offers compelling features and ease of use.

Closing ArgumentAdobe PDF has become the de facto standard for the exchange of documents in the legal commu-nity and the de jure standard for electronic court submissions. Acrobat 8 offers legal profession-als powerful yet intuitive tools for working easily and efficiently with PDF files. Included are tools for creating, accessing, and enhancing PDF files; legal-specific tools for Bates numbering, redaction, and metadata removal; tools for collecting and securing information; and tools that facilitate collaboration. Download a free trial version of Acrobat 8. For more information, visit www.adobe.com/go/legal, call 1-800-833-6687, or visit Rick Borstein’s blog for legal profession-als at http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/.

About the Author David Masters graduated from the University of Montana School of Law in 1986. He operates a paperless law firm in Montrose, Colorado. He wrote: The Lawyer’s Guide to Adobe Acrobat 2d, American Bar Association (2004); Chapter 23, “Electronic Briefs,” Colorado Appellate Practice Guide 5d, Continuing Legal Education in Colorado, Inc. (2005); Chapter 34, “Adobe Acrobat for E-Filing and More,” Flying Solo 2d, American Bar Association (2005); Chapter 14, “Securing Your Documents: Encryption, Digital Signatures and PDF,” Information Security for Lawyers and Law Firms, American Bar Association (2006); and, numerous articles and presentations on the use of information technology in the practice of law.

References

1. Source, Electronic Access to Courts, http://www.uscourts.gov/cmecf/cmecf_about.html

2. Source, http://forms.lp.findlaw.com/

Appendix A

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Email Archiving with PDF By Rick Borstein, Business Development Manager, Legal Market Adobe Systems Incorporated borstein@adobe.com

Email Growth and Challenges The International Data Corporation estimates that over 8 trillion email messages will be sent in North America in 2007.1

Legal Professionals are accelerating their use of email messaging due to the proliferation of mobile messaging. Almost 90% of large firms offer the Blackberry or similar device. In 2006, 18% of solos and 30% of small firms reported that these devices were available to them.2

Email has become a primary pathway that firms use to communicate with clients and the courts. Increasingly, email is growing as a source of discovery data.

Properly managing and archiving email is a critical skill for attorneys. Large firms may use specialized archiving products which can cost in the six figures. Smaller firms need to take a more cost effective and proactive approach.

PDF and Email The Portable Document File (PDF) format has become popular in the legal industry.

PDF’s ability to render many different document types—scanned images, Office and other electronic documents, web sites—in a standard, hardware and operating system agnostic manner allows legal professionals to more easily manage information.

Beginning in Acrobat 7, Adobe offered email archiving from Microsoft Outlook in the Standard and Professional versions of the application. Adobe enhanced the email archiving capabilities in Acrobat 8.

Email archiving in PDF presents some benefits to legal professionals:

1. A single PDF Document can represent both the email message and contain the attachment(s) from the original message.

2. A single PDF Package can contain any number of PDFs—each of which faithfully represents a message.

3. A PDF Package is sortable. Users may sort on typical email message fields such as Date, From, Subject, etc.

4. A PDF Package is searchable. An embedded a search index allows for Boolean searches.3

5. Email folders may be automatically archived at intervals set by the user.

6. Email Packages may be batch printed

1 Worldwide Email Usage 2005–2009 Forecast: Email's Future Depends on Keeping Its Value High and Its Cost Low 2 2006 American Bar Association Legal Technology Resource Center Survey Report 3 Boolean search allows the use of operators such as AND, OR and NOT.

Appendix B

Uses for Email Packages Legal professionals have shared these anticipated uses for email packages: ■ When a matter is concluded, the email folder(s) associated with it is archived and saved to a

client matter folder. The original folders are then removed from Outlook to save space. ■ Auto-archival can be used for critical folders. For example, an matter folder may be backed

up daily to a server or backup device. ■ Batch Printing of multiple email folders ■ Electronic Data Discovery: Some users report that they can set up a “dummy” user on a

system and import Outlook mailbox files (PSTs) received as part of the discovery process. Care should be taken using this approach to avoid spoliation.

- 2 -

Creating an Email Package Acrobat 8 installs special integration with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. To create an email package, Open Outlook and select the folder you wish to archive.

Choose Adobe PDF Convert to Adobe PDF Selected Folder

A selection interface appears (see left) which allows the selection of multiple email folders.

Appendix B

Exploring an Email Package Below is a screen shot of an email package with accompanying call-outs:

1. The package “manifest” contains header fields which are sortable such as From, Subject, Date, etc.

2. An Options menu offers the ability to add additional headers for sorting. In this example, a Source heading was added.

3. The message is displayed below the manifest. 4. The Attachments Panel lists each email attachment in the message.

Email Package Notes and Limitations Keep in mind the following notes and limitations for email packaging:

■ A single PDF package contains multiple email messages and a full-text search index. Attachments are maintained within each individual PDF within the package.

■ Acrobat stores attachments in the original format included in the email. If a Word document was attached to the original message, it will be included in the same format in the resulting archive PDF.

■ Acrobat cannot convert attachments within messages to PDF. For example, Word or Excel files will be embedded as .doc or .xls files accordingly.

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Appendix B

- 4 -

■ Acrobat can search email messages and PDF attachments. Acrobat cannot search non-PDF attachments.

■ A PDF email package cannot be converted back to an Outlook folder (.PST file).

■ It is possible to extract messages from an email package as individual PDF files.

■ A PDF package may be secured with a password.

■ Additional files may be added to the package if desired

■ Acrobat 8 Standard or Professional is required to create the email package. Any user of the free Adobe Reader may view, print or navigate the resulting package.

Conclusions and Additional Information PDF Packages offer an interesting option for archiving and working with email messages.

Although beyond the scope of this paper, PDF Packages may be created ad hoc. Some interesting applications are real estate deal books and other document collections, litigation notebooks, etc.

Adobe Systems Legal Page http://www.adobe.com/legal

Rick Borstein’s Acrolaw Blog http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw

Appendix B

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Keeping Them Satisfied: Exceeding Client Expectations Everyday!

Ellen Freedman, CLM Law Practice Management Coordinator

Pennsylvania Bar Association 634 Meadowbrook Avenue Ambler, PA 19002-4920

E-Mail: lawpractice@pabar.orghttp://www.pa-lawpracticemanagement.com

Jim Calloway Director, Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program

Oklahoma Bar Association P.O. Box 53036

Oklahoma City, OK 73152 jimc@okbar.org

Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips is online at http://jimcalloway.typepad.com

October 6, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4 - 6, 2007

Keeping Them Satisfied: Exceeding Client Expectations Everyday!

By Jim Calloway

Director, Management Assistance Program

Oklahoma Bar Association

2

What creates satisfaction?

In our dealings with others we all know what we are satisfied and when we are

dissatisfied. In most endeavors, we are generally satisfied when we get what we

expect. (Well, that may not be true for the hard-core pessimists, and for some of them,

not being satisfied is actually what they do want.) No law firm would intentionally try to

dissatisfy their client base. On the other hand, when one’s expectations are not met,

one is dissatisfied.

Yet law firms often find that they need a more sharpened focus on client satisfaction

models than other types of businesses. With most businesses, much of customer

satisfaction can be measured by the bottom line. Satisfied customers purchase more

goods and services from the business. Lawyers by virtue of their training and

responsibilities are primarily concerned with the successful completion of the legal

matter at hand. Certainly a poor result will not make a client happy. But we find too often

in the legal marketplace that a successful resolution of a legal matter does not

automatically create client satisfaction. Indeed such factors as timeliness,

communication methods, delays in returned phone calls, and perceived rudeness may

overshadow a great legal result.

If meeting expectations is a critical component of client satisfaction, then an initial and

important element to the attorney-client relationship is to do your best to make sure that

the client has realistic expectations. It may be tempting when the new client is retaining

your services to err on the side of "closing the deal," but it is a poor long-term plan.

When the client predicts an unrealistic result, it may be tempting to say "Well, retain us

and let's see" or "Possibly." But be careful here. It is appropriate to explain that there

are many undetermined facts and/or questions of law. But starting the attorney-client

relationship with a client who believes that they are likely to get certain relief when that

is not that case is going down the wrong path.

3

You can leave predicting the future to the psychics. But you can't leave a new client with

a false belief.

Equally important are client expectations about how the

attorney-client relationship will be managed. Modern

technology allows us to be available to clients around the

clock. That might even be acceptable if you have only one

really well-paying client (who would have to sleep and

have a life of their own.) All of us need down time and all

of us have shifting priorities. Our clients need us to be

there for them when it is required, but not on every whim.

Let me direct you to some great resources.

Patricia A. Yevics, Director of Law Office Management for the Maryland State Bar, has

a great article entitled "Taming the Beast: Managing Client Expectations in a 24/7

World" in the June 2006 issue of GPSolo magazine. It is online at

http://tinyurl.com/nd4pe . She has great advice on establishing client's expectations

about communications with your office.

The great folks at PracticePRO have a great feature on dealing with the difficult client. It

has four parts, including a fourteen page paper on the topic by Carole Curtis. There are

also two extremely useful forms in MS Word format. One is an "administrative"

document outlining how the law firm operates, including many topics such as hours of

operations, how to make appointments and why you shouldn't just "walk in" to see your

lawyer. The other document is also in Word format and details billing rates and

practices in plain English. (Well, Canadian.) It is hard to overstate how beneficial these

documents could be if customized to your practice and given to every client.

4

I would strongly suggest that you visit the PracticePro site and download all of these

documents. The web address for this content is

http://www.practicepro.ca/practice/DifficultClients.asp .

We suggest that you read all of the information that is

provided in this paper or referenced in this paper and then

schedule a meeting with your staff and discuss how you

help your new clients have realistic expectations. With the

guidance of the forms noted above and your own experiences,

draft handouts that will be given out to every new client in your two largest

areas of practice. Implement the policy and set a review date for six months from the

meeting so you can see how you are doing.

Careful Screening of Clients

Veteran lawyers have generally learned which clients to avoid representing. Here are

some warning signs of potential problem clients. When a potential client exhibits

several of these warning signs, it is appropriate to ask yourself whether you should

represent them at all.

1. The client says “Money Is No Object! It is the principle at stake.”

2. The client has had previous lawyers involved in this matter.

3. You are being consulted on the eve of a critical deadline that the client is known

about for some time.

4. The client owes money to his or her previous lawyers and/or expresses

dissatisfaction with them.

5. The client is reluctant to sign a retainer agreement and has an excuse as to why

the full retainer cannot be paid immediately. (Never allow yourself to be placed in

a position where you are more committed to a client’s matter than the client is.)

6. The client has unrealistic expectations about the relief and/or results that they

may be seeking.

5

7. You have a "bad feeling" about this client that you just can't quantify. (Do you

really want to spent months working with them? Will a judge or a jury have the

same reaction when the client's credibility is at issue?)

8. The client didn't bring important, critical papers to the scheduled meeting with

you. This is a clear promise of things to come at best and intentional deception at

worst.

What Did I Just Get for My Retainer?

Paying a retainer fee to a lawyer is not inconsequential matter. In most cases it is very

significant both in the amount of money needed to retain counsel and in the significance

of the pending legal matter to the person's or business’s ongoing activities. So the client

may be forgiven for a bit of second guessing or at least reflection on what they just

received for their money.

For consumer clients in particular, one might consider a new client packet. This could

include a file folder with the attorney's name and contact information stamped inside

and a copy of the signed retainer agreement plus other information about the particular

type of legal matter. This material need not be in 8 ½” by 11” format with a staple in the

upper left-hand corner. Trifold brochures or booklets may well be more friendly for the

reader and less intimidating for the consumer.

The main thing that a client needs to leave the attorney’s office with is confidence that

the attorney will give his or her best effort toward assisting the client. Even though the

future outcome may be uncertain were the client may face dire legal consequences, the

thoughtful attorney should end the initial meeting on as positive and encouraging a note

as possible given the circumstances.

Communication is King What constitutes effective client communications in the 21st Century?

6

We have more tools to communicate with clients. Does that mean that we have better

communication now?

A few years ago, I developed a program called The Client-

Centered Law Practice, I presented this program at many

county bars across Oklahoma, at an Oklahoma Bar

Association Annual meeting and even at the ABA

TECHSHOW. There was also a two-part series published

under this title in the Oklahoma Bar Journal. (January 17,

2004 and February 14, 2004.)

You can find these papers here:

http://www.okbar.org/members/map/articles/client1.htm and here

http://www.okbar.org/members/map/articles/client2.htm (You can also find my

directory of marketing articles here:

http://www.okbar.org/members/map/marketingarticles.htm

I believe that there are some very important points from that article to bear in mind as

we discuss client relationships and client communications:

“When Perception is Reality”

“Implementation of a client-centered law practice rests on the understanding that the client is the sole judge of how good your law firm service was for their situation. You know you cannot please everyone. Many clients will be unhappy about having to be involved with the legal process. Many clients were forced to hire a lawyer due to events outside of their control. They may believe that they did everything right or "should" have the right to behave as they did. They may have a bad attitude. However, all of that does not matter. They are the sole judges of your practice for their matters as surely as the trial judge is the sole decision-maker when ruling on your case in litigation. The only difference is that with disgruntled clients, there is no appeal. So their perception is truly your reality. It is the clients' perceptions that will result in either future referrals or, perhaps, a future bar complaint.

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“Clients tend to base their perceptions of their lawyers on many things that were not covered in law school. Your brief may have been letter perfect and opposing counsel may have had an inaccurate statement of the law, but this may blow right by the client. On the other hand, if the receptionist is abrupt or you always sound like you are trying to get rid of your clients when you are talking with them on the phone, that they will remember! “Just as in the example of poor service in the restaurant, things that may be accorded great weight are the tone of a receptionist's voice, the amount of time a client is left on hold on the phone, the promptness of returned phone calls, the physical appearance of an attorney's office, or how quickly copies of pleadings and correspondence are routinely mailed to the client. Such factors may contribute more to your client's perception of the quality of services rendered than matters lawyers are trained to consider important.”

(From The Client-Centered Law Practice - Cited above)

The fact that the clients judge us on our communications and client service is important

to understand. We want our clients to be satisfied and

appreciative. We want them to refer us business. We

want them to return to us with their new business. In

today’s terminology, we want our offices to be user-

friendly. Therefore it is important that we set appropriate

client expectations and fulfill our clients’ needs and

expectations by communicating the good job that we are

doing for them.

Here are some ideas:

1. The Twenty First Century Law Office should be able to communicate with the

clients in whatever method they choose. Some clients will want to receive paper

and the traditional methods will be best for them. (If you represent many non-

sophisticated consumer clients, I recommend investing in an inkpad and a stamp

that says something like “For your information only, no response required” so that

you can routinely send them copies of correspondence without getting calls from

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confused clients thinking that they got the wrong letter.) Some clients will like e-

mail. Others may like to primarily to talk on the telephone with you, which is fine

as long as they are willing to pay for it and you still document important issues in

writing.

2. The Twenty First Century Lawyer should help set client expectations as to

communications and deal with unrealistic expectations at the initial client

interview. Just because it is possible to respond to an e-mail within a few

seconds does not mean that this is always a good idea, particularly (as many of

us have learned) if the e-mail triggers an emotional reaction. You need to bring

this issue up with clients before they send the first e-mail. Inform them that they

will likely have to wait for a response to e-mail and while there may be times

when they get an immediate response from you, but that will be the exception

rather than the rule. You may be in court most of the day some days and that

generally, except for an emergency; you try to deal with things on a “first in, first

out” basis.

3. The Twenty First Century Lawyer will seek the client’s input on reporting

frequency. Frequency of communications expectations should be established as

well. Some will want regular updates. Others do not want to be bothered unless

there is news. (But even those clients will likely appreciate, and deserve, at least

quarterly status reports.)

4. The Twenty First Century Lawyer will discuss appropriate delegation. Clients who

have little prior experience with legal services should be told about the law firm’s

staff and associates and how they are to be involved in the matter. It is particular

important to stress to clients that their receiving messages from a paralegal, for

example, is not an indication that the lawyer is not involved but an appropriate

client cost containment tool.

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5. The Twenty First Century Lawyer will guard client confidentiality in

communications. This means being aware of the security limitations of e-mail and

guiding the client as to whether all, or any, e-mail communications are

appropriate in their matter. In my opinion, the lawyer has to step outside of the

rigid boundaries of legal advice sometimes and let a client know that deleted

doesn’t always mean deleted and that an e-mail from person A to person B may

be stored for some time on several other computers along its way over the

Internet. Fax communications are another important issue. There are dangers in

just recording a fax number in a client information sheet without noting whether it

is a private fax line or a group fax shared with all of the client’s co-workers. One

needs to clearly cover with the client the dangers of mobile phone

communication, stressing the need for care when either lawyer or client is talking

on a mobile phone where the conversation can be overheard by others. It is your

obligation to protect the client confidences even when the client may not have the

foresight to appreciate all of the dangers.

6. The Twenty First Century Lawyer will be able to receive and read digital files in

any format that the client wishes. For most lawyers, these means that a universal

file viewer like Quick View Plus ( http://www.avantstar.com $35-$39) is a must

have utility, particularly if you deal with international clients. It generally means

that outbound documents that are e-mailed to client should always be saved in

PDF format so that the client can use any computer (even a home computer with

sparse software) to open and view the file. WordPerfect users can make use of

its “publish to PDF” function. Word users need to buy Adobe Acrobat or an

inexpensive third party PDF printer like PDF 995 or CutePDF. (I have to note

here that Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional is a great piece of software with many

features of use to lawyers like redaction, Bates stamping and built-in optical

character recognition.)

7. The Twenty First Century Lawyer will instruct his or her staff in the policies

concerning client communication and response time. Once the client

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expectations for communication have been set, the lawyer needs to make sure

that the staff understands them, particular if they deviate from the normal

procedures.

8. The Twenty First Century Lawyer will seek client feedback on how well the client

believes communications were handled with an eye to improving the office

processes in the future. The Twentieth Century lawyer might not have had to

concern himself or herself with client surveys, exit interviews and other feedback

processes. But the Twenty First Century lawyer appreciates that there is not an

inexhaustible supply of good clients who will pay their bills. Marketing for new

clients is an inexpensive and time-consuming process. So it is far better to hold

on to the clients you have and to obtain their referrals and return business.

Prepare a brief client satisfaction survey and provide it to some, if not all, of your

clients when their matter is concluded. The anticipation of the results may be a

bit painful, but nothing but good can come from it. Either you will get a good

report or you will have the opportunity to correct things or at least apologize

before they tell everyone in town they were unhappy with you or decide to send a

letter to the General Counsel’s office.

Client communication is now a critical function of the modern law office. You must

prepare to execute this function in the same professional way you prepare the

substantive side of cases you handle. Prepare “form letters” for client communications

at various stages of the matter in the same way you use office forms for contracts and

pleadings. Do not just send a one sentence letter reminding a client of a court hearing

when with a little effort you can send a two page letter starting with that first sentence (in

bold) which also includes reminders and instructions.

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Summary

The best way to have satisfied clients is to do what you said you

would do for them, within the time frame you said that you would

do it at a cost that is in line with your predictions.

It sounds easy when it is said like that. But we all understand that many conflicting

demands on a lawyer’s time and how easy it is to not get that project completed until

Friday when you said you have it done on Tuesday. In those always better to under-

promise and over-perform. If you have trouble making deadlines for clients, then

perhaps you need to give yourself more time such as by adding on an additional day or

two to the time frame in which you think you would be able to deliver the completed

work.

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American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Writing Your Way to Fame:

Getting Published and Noticed

With

Elio Martinez, Moderator Robin West Joan Burda

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

GPSOLO WRITER GUIDELINES Robert Salkin, Editor GPSOLO ABA Publishing 321 North Clark Street Chicago, IL, 60610 SalkinR@staff.abanet.org (312) 988-6076 Introduction The GPSOLO Editorial Board, select issue topics several years ahead. During the Editorial Board meetings, ideas for articles that mesh with the issue topic are hammered out. GPSOLO magazine welcomes article ideas. Send article ideas to the magazine's staff editor, Robert Salkin. Since the magazine is not a law journal, articles are written in an informal and conversational style. Interested authors may contact Rob Salkin to get a list of upcoming topics. The Board actively seeks Division members who may want to write an article. All articles are edited as needed for style, content and length. Authors who write for GPSOLO must sign a copyright release, transferring copyright to the ABA. Below are the GPSOLO Style Guidelines for Feature Articles and the Technology & Practice Guide. A. How The Process Works The Editorial Board is responsible for selecting issue issues and generating article ideas for each issue. GPSOLO is published four times a year. There are two “Best of…” issues and two Technology and Practice Guides issues. The Board meets four times a year: ABA Annual and Mid-Year meetings and the Fall and Spring Division meetings. The meetings are open and everyone, including prospective authors, is encouraged to attend. Once an issue’s issue is selected, the Board discusses ideas for articles and authors. This is when an interested author is essential. If you want to write for the magazine, make your interest known to the Board. Email the Editor-in-Chief, Rob Salkin or any Board member. Mention what you are interested in writing about. Be

sure to include your contact information, including mailing address and phone numbers. The issue editor or Rob Salkin will follow up on the offer. But, please, do not volunteer to write an article if you are not sure you can produce it. The magazine is on a printing deadline. The issue editor will explain the parameters of the article and its due date. Articles that do not come in leave holes in the magazine. Situations arise that may make it impossible to write the article. Tell the issue editor or Rob Salkin as soon as possible if you cannot write the article. The earlier the better so another author can be recruited. GPSOLO has a reader base in excess of 30,000 people nationwide. It is an excellent tool to get your name before thousands of solo and small firm lawyers. You become a published author and lawyers you’ve never met learn something they didn’t know before. It’s a powerful feeling. There are two ways to proceed from this point. Write a feature article for one of the four issues of GPSOLO or, if you’re technologically astute, write an article for one of the two Technology and Practice Guides. Above all, remember that everything published by the magazine is in a conversational format. B. Feature Articles The format and content of GPSOLO has been designed to appeal to the Division’s diverse readership. This includes lawyers and non-lawyers. Writing articles in a conversational and relaxed manner makes the magazine more useful to the reader. GPSOLO topics cover a broad range of substantive areas as well as issues related to practice management, professional responsibility, and quality of life. A successful feature article is one that provides practical, hands-on solutions to a problem or problems most general practitioners face. Practical information is valued over theoretical ideas. Style. GPSOLO is not a law journal, so use an informal and conversational style when writing your article. Don’t write in an abstract or legalistic way. Since it is not an academic journal, you don’t need to footnote. * Use citations only if they are really necessary. * Steer clear of trite metaphors and clichés. * Favor short words over long ones. * Write in an active, rather than a passive, voice (e.g., "Congress passed

the law" instead of "The law was passed by Congress"). * Don't use legal jargon if there is a clear conversational equivalent. * If appropriate, use anecdotes and/or humor to make your points. * Use gender-neutral language.

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Format. Feature articles are 1,750 to 2,500 words. The magazine issue editor will tell you if yours is an exception. Please submit your article as a MS Word file or an RTF file, either via e-mail or on disk to the issue editor. Editing. Your article will be edited as needed for style, content, and length by Rob Salkin. A proof copy is sent to you for review before publication. Please note that because of deadline pressures, you will not see the typeset pages until the article is published. Copyright. Before you begin to write the article, you will be asked to sign and return a copyright release, transferring copyright to the ABA. C. Technology & Practice Guide The Technology and Practice Guide offers valuable information about planning, setting up a computer network, software applications, going online, and the symbiotic relationship between people and technology. Articles are geared towards lawyers just entering the world of technology, as well as those already familiar with what technology can do for them but want to learn more. Style. Technology and Practice Guide is designed to impart information about technology as it relates to the practice of law. Therefore, you cannot write in an abstract, legalistic way or be too technical. Express your ideas informally and conversationally. * Use footnotes and citations only if necessary. * Avoid trite metaphors and clichés. * Favor short words over long ones. * Write in an active, rather than a passive, voice (e.g., "The lawyer

purchased a computer" instead of "The computer was purchased by the lawyer"). * Do not use legal jargon if there is a clear conversational equivalent. * Use anecdotes and/or humor to make your points, if appropriate. * Use gender-neutral language. Feature articles are 1,750 to 2,500 words. The magazine issue editor will tell you if yours is an exception. Please submit your article as a MS Word file or an RTF file, either via e-mail or on disk to the issue editor.

3

Editing. Your article will be edited as needed for style, content, and length. When you submit your article, it will be sent to the magazine's editorial board for review. The staff editor will incorporate the board members' queries and suggestions during the editing process. When they are finished with the manuscript, you will have an opportunity to review it for errors. Please note that because of deadline pressures, you will not see the typeset pages until the article is published. Copyright. Once your article is accepted for publication, you will be asked to sign and return a copyright release, transferring copyright to the ABA. GPSOLO Writer Guidelines 090407

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Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 1

BEING A MEMBER OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF

GPSOLO

The Magazine Our Readers Duties of a Board Member

Planning Article Solicitation Editing a Theme Issue

Publication Policies Articles by Board Members Book Reviews Corporate Sponsor Product Reviews Reprints Producing Revenue

Attachments 1. Past Issue Themes 2. Author Guidelines 3. Timeline for Issue Editors 4. GPSOLO Schedule 5. Form Solicitation Letter

THE MAGAZINE

GPSOLO is published eight times a year, including two special issues of Technology & Practice Guide and two special issues of Best of ABA. The Editorial Board is responsible for the remaining four issues of GPSOLO.

Most issues contain nine or ten feature articles. The board must identify and solicit 40 feature articles a year. The magazine is 64 pages plus cover. The magazine is printed in a four-color process. Most issues contain six pieces of art, many pieces of clip art, and several photographs. Columns and departments appear in each issue (as space permits):

• From the Editor (Joan M. Burda) • The Chair’s Corner (current Division chair) • General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division News (formerly Active GPs) • Being Solo (David Leffler, addresses concerns of solo practitioners) • In the Solution (guest columnist, addresses quality-of-life issues, substance abuse, mental

health, etc.) • GPMentor (expressly for law students and new lawyers, a series of interviews from

established GPSSFS members) • Product Review (West Group sponsorship obligation)

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 2

We are always open to consideration of ideas for new columns. In the past, legislative update, tax, advocacy, travel, ethics, and humor columns have appeared.

We currently follow a routine of “theme issues.” After the board selects a theme, one member of the board takes responsibility as issue editor. (See Editing a Theme Issue.)

OUR READERS

The magazine is delivered as a benefit of membership to the almost 13,000 members of the ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division. It is also sent to more than 14,000 law students, almost 300 ABA associates, and around 500 package plan and individual subscribers. We also benefit from a significant pass-around circulation. Subscriptions from libraries and law firms bring our circulation to more than 27,000.

The full text of the magazine is uploaded to the Division’s website at http://www.abanet.org/genpractice.

The ABA Membership and Marketing Handbook gives us a great deal of valuable information about our readers. These figures detail demographic information for the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division collected in 1995 from new membership applications and the annual ABA Census.

• 89 percent are in private practice • 29 percent of those in private practice are solo or small firm practitioners • 51 percent of those in private practice are in firms of 2-19 lawyers • 14 percent of those in private practice are in firms of 20-99 lawyers • 6 percent of those in private practice do so in firms of 100+ lawyers • 19 percent are women • 7 percent of those who responded to questions of race and ethnicity identify themselves

as belonging to a group other than Caucasian • The median age of Division members is 44; the average age is 46 • 30 percent are also in the Young Lawyers Division

According to a 1995 Division survey, members cited access to the magazine as the

paramount reason for initial Division membership. Plus, 44.7 percent report that the magazine is a very important reason (and 47.6 percent report “somewhat”) for their continued membership. Access to the magazine led other factors in member retention.

When asked to identify the type of article format they preferred, more than half of the

respondents (59 percent) exhibited a marked preference for practical, how-to articles with checklists. Division News was rated “very useful” by 8.3 percent and “somewhat useful” by 40.8 percent. Nearly all respondents rejected law review type articles and articles spotlighting Division members and activities.

When presented with lists of potential topics, more than 40 percent of the respondents

selected client development and practice management techniques; more than 30 percent

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 3

expressed interest in litigation techniques, marketing, technology, and value billing; and 29 percent claimed an interest in ethics and setting up and running a solo practice as desirable subjects for attention in Division publications. The General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division has implemented a “strategic approach to curriculum development” in recent years to better meet the needs and interests of its members, and it is focusing its efforts in periodicals, book publishing, and CLE programs on the areas of business law; estate/financial planning; family law; law practice management; litigation; and real property. The editorial board supports these efforts, and it attempts to engineer each issue’s theme to cover some or all of these areas.

DUTIES OF A BOARD MEMBER

The six primary responsibilities of a board member are:

• To participate in planning for the future of GPSOLO • To solicit articles for possible publication • To edit a theme issue • To subscribe to and participate in our listserv • To review articles submitted for publication • To perform such other tasks as requested by the editor-in-chief, issue editors, and bar

staff • To publicize GPSOLO to other entities

Planning

An important aspect of Editorial Board membership is participation in planning for the magazine. Planning normally takes place at the four Editorial Board meetings scheduled annually: the ABA Annual Meeting in August, at the GPSSFS Fall Meeting in September or October, at the ABA Midyear Meeting in January or February, and at the GPSSFS Spring Meeting in May.

The Editorial Board generally meets for three hours. The meetings are a unique combination

of structured discussion and free-flowing debate. An agenda is provided, and many topics must be covered. During the meetings, we identify:

• Potential article topics • Theme issues • Authors • Publication policies

Article Solicitation

Soliciting timely articles for publication in GPSOLO is one of the primary responsibilities of a board member.

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 4

• Board members brainstorm at editorial board meetings about the topics that might be of interest to our readers. We then contact authors who might have an interest in submitting an article on the topic. After each meeting, you will receive a copy of the meeting minutes to facilitate follow-through.

• Board members review the program materials for the Annual Meeting program (as well as any other programs presented by GPSSFS) and contact authors to determine interest in writing for the magazine. This is a very effective form of solicitation, since good CLE materials need very little effort to adapt for the magazine. Also, this approach supports the core curriculum process.

• Board members watch for new developments in their area of expertise, both within the GPSSFS committees and elsewhere, and contact people working on these projects to determine interest in submitting an article to the magazine.

• Board members propose, develop, and edit theme issues. Solicitation of articles is primarily the responsibility of the issue editor.

When soliciting articles, remember:

• The most effective way to contact potential authors is by phone or e-mail. • Never promise that an article will be published. Explain to the prospective author that the

article must be reviewed by the editorial board before it is accepted for publication. • We publish original, previously unpublished material. Criteria for publication of material

that has appeared elsewhere are: (1) form of prior publication, i.e., GPSSFS committee newsletter; (2) circulation of publication; and (3) amount of revision and updating the author is willing to do. Please confirm with your prospective author whether the material provided is original and whether it has been previously published elsewhere, in part or in its entirety.

• Forward all pertinent author information (name, address, fax, phone, title of article) to the staff editor, who will send a letter of confirmation, author guidelines (see attachment 2 for author guidelines), and reminder letter to your author, reiterating the topic and confirming the deadline.

• Ask if there are checklists, forms, or sidebars that might make their article more informative.

• We do not pay compensation for articles. • Copy the staff editor and the editor-in-chief on all solicitation letters and communication

with authors. • GPSOLO is fully copyrighted. The staff editor requests release forms from all authors

before publication. Editing a Theme Issue

A theme issue focuses upon one topic, publishing nine or ten feature articles in different areas related to a single theme. The themes are chose by the board. The issue editor is responsible for three steps in the creation of an issue:

• Generating topical ideas for articles • Recruiting authors to prepare the identified articles

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 5

• Riding herd on authors to assure deadlines are met Theme editors shall follow these guidelines (see also Article Solicitation):

• When selecting topics for your issue, include “hot” legal topics and the core curriculum. • Contact chairs of relevant Division committees for help in identifying topics and authors. • Seek the editorial board’s input through the listserv. • Find authors according to schedule. (See attachment 3 for a timeline for issue editors.) • Give authors a deadline as determined by the staff editor. • Solicit a diverse group of authors and an eclectic mix of articles. • Preference should be given to Division members and ABA members. • Don’t rely entirely upon e-mail. Use the telephone to personalize your contact with

authors. • Use the form solicitation letter. (See attachment 4 for an article solicitation letter.) • Memorialize telephone contact with e-mail. • Provide the author’s telephone and fax numbers, firm affiliation, mailing address, and e-

mail address to staff and to the editor-in-chief. The ABA staff editor sends a confirmation letter to each author, along with a copyright release.

• At least three weeks before the deadline touch base with the authors to remind them of the approaching deadline. It is not necessary to ask authors to provide an outline or rough draft of articles before submission.

• Potential authors will turn you down, and occasionally an author who has committed will withdraw. Don’t be discouraged. Ask the declining author if he or she knows someone to recommend in his or her stead.

Authors shall send articles to the staff editor, who will then send copies to the issue editor

and editor-in-chief. Review the articles as soon as they arrive, and consult with the editor-in-chief about any problems or needed changes. Watch for overlap between articles.

PUBLICATION POLICIES Articles by Board Members

Board members are allowed to write articles, and some write regular columns for the magazine, but we must avoid the appearance of a vanity press. The entire editorial board must agree in order to assign an article to a board member, and board members should write articles only in the rare circumstance when no other available author exists. Book Reviews

Book reviews are accepted on an ad hoc basis. We have not in the past solicited book reviews; however, if you know of a book that merits a review, please let us know, or solicit a review of the book from a Division member with expertise in the relevant area of the law. Generally, GPSOLO’s pages are better devoted to content other than book reviews.

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 6

The Board has refrained from publishing highly negative reviews. These reviews are obviously not much use to our readers and take space away from more informative material. It is the policy of the Board not to review any books published by the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division, or any books or publications that are published or created by columnists or members of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO. Corporate Sponsor Product Reviews

The editorial board has developed a separate policy for publishing reviews of corporate sponsor products. Reprints

Each feature author receives five copies of the magazine in which the author’s article appears. If an article is co-authored by two or more persons, each author will receive five copies. Reprinting individual articles is a costly and time-consuming process, and authors who request this service should seek outside assistance.

If an author requests additional copies of the entire magazine, or if we determine that

additional copies of a particular magazine are necessary, e.g., for membership solicitation, this decision must be made before the magazine is shipped to the printer. Any significant addition to the print run must be funded by a source other than GPSOLO.

Small numbers of extra copies of the magazine are available. They may be purchased by

contacting the ABA Service Center at 312/988-5522. Producing Revenue

A dues revenue producing vehicle. Since members report that access to the magazine is one of the foremost reasons they belong to the Division, it may be fair to attribute much of the Division dues collected each year to the magazine. Other revenue raised includes:

• Advertising revenue. • Corporate sponsor revenue. • Non-dues revenue. Any ideas that the editorial board has for revenue-producing

publications will be brought to the attention of the Publications Board. ATTACHMENT 1: PAST ISSUE THEMES ACCESS THE COMPLETE ARTICLE LIST AT THE WEBSITE: www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/past-issues.html April/May 2007 (24:3): Diversity March 2007 (24:2): The Best Articles Published by the ABA January/February 2007 (24:1): Best of Solo & Small Firm Conferences

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 7

December 2006 (23:8): Disaster & Recovery (Technology & Practice Guide) October/November 2006 (23:7): Bumps in the Road III September 2006 (23:6): Best of ABA Sections July/August 2006 (23:5): Do Something June 2006 (23:4): Mobility April/May 2006 (23:3): Law of Learning March 2006 (23:2) Best of ABA Sections January/February 2006 (23:1): Cyber-Law: Uncharted Waters December 2005 (22:8): Privacy and Security October/November (22:7); Professionalism & Civility September 2005 (22:6): The Best of ABA Sections July/August 2005 (22:5): Reinventing Your Law Practice June 2005 (22:4): The Internet and the Practice of Law April/May 2005 (22:3): Collections March 2005 (22:2): Best of ABA Sections January/February 2005 (22:1): Military Law December 2004 (21:8): High-Tech Collaboration October/November 2004 (21:7): Bumps in the Road II September 2004 (21:6): The Best Articles Published by the ABA July/August 2004 (21:5): We Are a Team June 2004 (21:4): The Digital Litigator April/May 2004 (21:3): The Client’s Business March 2004 (21:2): The Best of ABA Sections January/February 2004 (21:1): The Benefits and Burdens of a Diversified Practice December 2003 (20:8): How to Set Up a Law Office October/November 2003 (20:7): Litigation: Trying Times September 2003 (20:6): The Best Articles Published by the ABA July/August 2003 (20:5): Rainmaking

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 8

June 2003: Security and Ethics April/May 2003 (20:3): The Risky Business of Law March 2003 (20:2): Best of ABA January/February 2003 (20:1): Women in Law: Not Just a Women’s Issue December 2002 (19:8): Technology & Practice Guide October/November 2002 (19:7): When Clients Order Something Different; A Sushi Bar of Skills September 2002 (19:6): Best of ABA July/August 2002 (19:5): The State of the Estate June 2002 (19:4): Technology & Practice Guide April/May 2002 (19:3): How to Get the Job Done (Lessons Learned from Solo & Small Firm Days) March 2002 (19:2): Best of ABA January/February 2002 (19:1): Staffing December 2001 (18:8): Technology & Practice Guide October/November 2001 (18:7): Family Law September 2001 (18:6): Best of ABA July/August 2001 (18:5): Bumps in the Road June 2001 (18:4): Technology & Practice Guide April/May 2001 (18:3): The Dirt on Real Estate March 2001 (18:2): Best of ABA January/February 2001 (18:1): Getting and Keeping the Client of the Future December 2000 (17:8): Technology & Practice Guide October/November 2000 (17:7): Negotiation September 2000 (17:6): Best of ABA July/August 2000 (17:5): Federal Benefits June 2000 (17:4): Technology & Practice Guide April/May 2000 (17:3): Property Protection March 2000 (17:2): Best of ABA January/February 2000 (17:1): Sunsetting Your Law Practice

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 9

***************************GP Solo & Small Firm Lawyer is renamed GPSOLO************************* December 1999 (16:8): Technology & Practice Guide October/November 1999 (16:7): Beyond the Border September 1999 (16:6): Best of ABA July/August 1999 (16:5): Disability Law June 1999 (16:4): Technology & Practice Guide April/May 1999 (16:3): The Law of Leisure March 1999 (16:2): Best of ABA January/February 1999 (16:1): Tax Law December 1998 (15:6): Technology & Practice Guide October/November 1998 (15:5): Children and the Law September 1998 (15:4): Best of ABA July/August 1998 (15:3): Major Federal Laws ***TPG and Best of ABA get folded in The Compleat Lawyer, renamed GP Solo & Small Firm Lawyer** Technology & Practice Guide, Summer 1998 (2:1) Best of ABA, Spring 1998 (2:1) Spring 1998 (15:2): Elder Law Technology & Practice Guide, Winter 1998 (1:2) Winter 1998 (15:1): Malpractice and Ethics Best of ABA, Fall 1997 (1:2) Fall 1997 (14:4): The Firm Summer 1997 (14:3): Litigation Best of ABA, Spring 1997 (1:1) Technology & Practice Guide, Spring 1997 (1:1) ***************************************The Division publishes its first issues of Technology & Practice Guide and Best of ABA as standalone publications.*******************************************

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 10

ATTACHMENT 2: AUTHOR GUIDELINES

GPSOLO ABA Publishing ■ 750 N. Lake Shore Drive ■ Chicago, IL 60611 Editor Robert Salkin ■ 312/988-6076 ■ salkinr@staff.abanet.org

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

GPSOLO magazine (fka GP Solo & Small Firm Lawyer and, earlier, The Complete Lawyer is published eight times a year by the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division. This includes two special issues of Technology and Practice Guide and two special issues of Best of ABA. The magazine is distributed to approximately 30,000 members of the Division and subscribers.

A 1995 survey showed that 89 percent of Division members are in private practice; 29 percent of those in private practice are solo or small firm practitioners; and 51 percent of those in private practice are in firms of 2-19 lawyers.

The format and content of GPSOLO has been designed to appeal to a diverse readership.

Articles cover a broad range of substantive areas as well as issues related to practice management, professional responsibility, and quality of life. A successful feature article is one that provides practical, hands-on solutions to a problem or problems most general practitioners face. Practical information is valued over theoretical ideas. Feature Articles. Style. GPSOLO is not a law journal, so articles should be written informally and conversationally. Avoid abstract and legalistic jargon.

• Use citations only if they are necessary. • Avoid trite metaphors and clichés. • Favor short words over long ones. • Write in an active, rather than a passive, voice (e.g., “Congress passed the law” instead of

“The law was passed by Congress”). • Don’t use legal jargon if there is a clear conversational equivalent. • If it seems appropriate, use anecdotes and/or humor to make your points. • Use gender-neutral language.

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 11

Format. Feature articles are 1,750 to 2,500 words. The magazine editor will tell you if yours is an exception. Please submit your article as a MS Word file or an RTF file, either via e-mail or on disk. Editing. Your article will be edited as needed for style, content, and length by Rob Salkin. A proof copy is sent to you for review before publication. Please note that because of deadline pressures, you will not see the typeset pages until the article is published. Copyright. Before you begin to write the article, you will be asked to sign and return a copyright release, transferring copyright to the ABA.

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 12

ATTACHMENT 3: TIMELINE FOR ISSUE EDITORS

January/February issue

April/May issue

July/August issue

Fall meeting: issue theme developed for following year's January/February issue; issue editor chosen; brainstorming on possible article topics.

Midyear meeting: issue theme developed for following year's April/May issue; issue editor chosen; brainstorming on possible article topics.

Spring meeting: issue theme developed for following year's July/August issue; issue editor chosen; brainstorming on possible article topics.

Midyear meeting: issue editor prepares an outline of article topics; editorial board members suggest possible contacts or authors and additional topics.

Spring meeting: issue editor prepares an outline of article topics; editorial board members suggest possible contacts or authors and additional topics.

Annual meeting: issue editor prepares an outline of article topics; editorial board members suggest possible contacts or authors and additional topics.

6 months to plan theme

Spring meeting: issue editor prepares a refined and comprehensive outline with possible authors or contacts. Additional topics and authors are discussed at meeting.

Annual meeting: issue editor prepares a refined and comprehensive outline of possible authors or contacts. Additional topics and authors are discussed at meeting.

Fall meeting: issue editor prepares a refined and comprehensive outline with possible authors or contacts. Additional topics and authors are discussed at meeting.

3 months to find authors

(May-July) After input at spring meeting, issue editor follows up on leads by contacting committee chairs or experts in the field to find authors and get commitments.

(August, September) After input at annual meeting, issue editor follows up on leads by contacting committee chairs or experts in the field to find authors and get commitments.

(November-January) After input at fall meeting, issue editor follows up on leads by contacting committee chairs or experts in the field to find authors and get commitments.

A year and a quarter from idea to publication

4 months for articles to be written and edited

Annual meeting: issue editor prepares final list of all articles and authors; supplies staff editor with names, addresses, fax and phone numbers of authors. (Staff editor sends letter of confirmation, with copyright form, due date, and author guidelines.)

Fall meeting: issue editor prepares final list of all articles and authors; supplies staff editor with names, addresses, fax and phone numbers of authors. (Staff editor sends letter of confirmation, with copyright form, due date, and author guidelines.)

Midyear meeting: issue editor prepares final list of all articles and authors; supplies staff editor with names, addresses, fax and phone numbers of authors. (Staff editor sends letter of confirmation, with copyright form, due date, and author guidelines.)

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 13

January/February issue

April/May issue

July/August issue

4 months for articles to be written and edited (continued)

Mid-September: articles due from authors to staff editor. Staff editor sends a copy of all articles, unedited, to issue editor, who alerts the staff editor of problems, needed changes, and topic overlap. Issue editor also provides sidebars and checklists if necessary. Staff editor copyedits and substantively edits the articles, then sends the articles to the authors for their final approval.

Beginning January: articles due from authors to staff editor. Staff editor sends a copy of all articles, unedited, to issue editor, who alerts the staff editor of problems, needed changes, and topic overlap. Issue editor also provides sidebars and checklists if necessary. Staff editor copyedits and substantively edits the articles, then sends the articles to the authors for their final approval.

Beginning April: articles due from authors to staff editor. Staff editor sends a copy of all artiunedited, to issue editor, who alerts the staff editor of problems, needed changes, and topic overlap. Issue editor also provides sidebars and checklists if necessary. Staff editor copyedits and substantively edits the articles, then sends the articles to the authors for their final approval.

Mid-November: staff editor gives all copy to the designer for production. Ad lineup is finalized; designer creates page proofs; issue is sent to the printer.

End February: staff editor gives all copy to the designer for production. Ad lineup is finalized; designer creates page proofs; issue is sent to the printer.

End May: staff editor gives all copy to the designer for production. Ad lineup is finalized;designer creates page proofs; issue is sent to the printer.

A year and a quarter from idea to publication (continued)

2 months to design and produce the issue

January: publication

April: publication

July: publication

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 14

ATTACHMENT 4: GPSOLO SCHEDULE GPSOLO Magazine: Jan/Feb 03, 20:1 Mar 03, 20:2 Apr/May 03, 20:3 Jun 03, 20:4 Women in Law: Not Just a Best of ABA The Risky Business of TPG: Ethics & Security Woman's Issue Law Articles 9/12/2002 Articles 11/25/2002 Articles 1/2/2003 Articles 2/24/2003 Intake 10/28/2002 Intake 12/20/2002 Intake 1/24/2003 Intake 3/24/2003 Art Ideas 11/11/2002 Art Ideas 1/7/2003 Art Ideas 2/6/2003 Art Ideas 3/31/2003 Division 11/14/2002 Division 1/15/2003 Division 2/13/2003 Division 4/17/2003 Disk to 11/25/2002 Disk to 1/22/2003 Disk to 2/21/2003 Disk to 4/23/2003 Prelims In 12/4/2002 Prelims In 1/29/2003 Prelims In 2/28/2003 Prelims In 4/30/2003 Prelims 12/6/2002 Prelims 1/31/2003 Prelims 3/5/2003 Prelims 5/2/2003 Ad 12/4/2002 Ad 1/31/2003 Ad 3/4/2003 Ad 5/2/2003 Thumbnai 12/9/2002 Thumbnai 2/3/2003 Thumbnai 3/7/2003 Thumbnai 5/5/2003 Final 12/9/2002 Final 2/3/2003 Final 3/7/2003 Final 5/6/2003 1st Pgs 12/13/2002 1st Pgs 2/5/2003 1st Pgs 3/12/2003 1st Pgs 5/9/2003 1st Pgs 12/23/2002 1st Pgs 2/14/2003 1st Pgs 3/19/2003 1st Pgs 5/19/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 12/23/2002 Fnl/Sct.Ad 2/14/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 3/18/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 5/19/2003 2d Pgs 1/3/2003 2d Pgs 2/21/2003 2d Pgs 3/24/2003 2d Pgs 5/23/2003 2d Pgs 1/6/2003 2d Pgs 2/26/2003 2d Pgs 3/26/2003 2d Pgs 5/28/2003 To Printer 1/10/2003 To Printer 2/28/2003 To Printer 3/28/2003 To Printer 5/30/2003 Proofs In 1/22/2003 Proofs In 3/11/2003 Proofs In 4/8/2003 Proofs In 6/10/2003 Proofs 1/22/2003 Proofs 3/11/2003 Proofs 4/8/2003 Proofs 6/10/2003 Print and 1/28/2003 Print and 3/17/2003 Print and 4/14/2003 Print and 6/16/2003 Mail 1/30/2003 Mail 3/19/2003 Mail 4/16/2003 Mail 6/18/2003 Samples 2/3/2003 Samples 3/21/2003 Samples 4/18/2003 Samples 6/20/2003 Jul/Aug 03, 20:5 Sep 03, 20:6 Oct/Nov 03, 20:7 Dec 03, 20:8 Rainmaking Best of ABA Litigation TPG, How to Set Up a Law Office Articles 4/3/2003 Articles 6/3/2003 Articles 6/24/2003 Articles 8/14/2003 Intake 4/23/2003 Intake 6/25/2003 Intake 7/24/2003 Intake 9/16/2003 Art Ideas 5/7/2003 Art Ideas 7/10/2003 Art Ideas 8/7/2024 Art Ideas 9/23/2003 Division 5/14/2003 Division 7/17/2003 Division 8/14/2003 Division 10/9/2003 Disk to 5/21/2003 Disk to 7/24/2003 Disk to 8/21/2003 Disk to 10/17/2003 Prelims In 5/29/2003 Prelims In 7/31/2003 Prelims In 8/28/2003 Prelims In 10/24/2003 Prelims 6/2/2003 Prelims 8/4/2003 Prelims 9/2/2003 Prelims 10/28/2003 Ad 5/30/2003 Ad 8/4/2003 Ad 8/29/2003 Ad 10/24/2003 Thumbnai 6/3/2003 Thumbnai 8/5/2003 Thumbnai 9/3/2003 Thumbnai 10/29/2003 Final 6/3/2003 Final 8/5/2003 Final 9/3/2003 Final 10/29/2003 1st Pgs 6/6/2003 1st Pgs 8/8/2003 1st Pgs 9/8/2003 1st Pgs 11/3/2003 1st Pgs 6/16/2003 1st Pgs 8/18/2003 1st Pgs 9/16/2003 1st Pgs 11/11/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 6/16/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 8/18/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 9/16/2003 Fnl/Sct.Ad 11/11/2003 2d Pgs 6/20/2003 2d Pgs 8/22/2003 2d Pgs 9/22/2003 2d Pgs 11/17/2003 2d Pgs 6/25/2003 2d Pgs 8/26/2003 2d Pgs 9/24/2003 2d Pgs 11/19/2003 To Printer 6/27/2003 To Printer 8/28/2003 To Printer 9/26/2003 To Printer 11/21/2003 Proofs In 7/8/2003 Proofs In 9/9/2003 Proofs In 10/7/2003 Proofs In 12/3/2003 Proofs 7/8/2003 Proofs 9/9/2003 Proofs 10/7/2003 Proofs 12/3/2003 Print and 7/14/2003 Print and 9/15/2003 Print and 10/13/2003 Print and 12/9/2003 Mail 7/16/2003 Mail 9/17/2003 Mail 10/15/2003 Mail 12/11/2003 Samples 7/18/2003 Samples 9/19/2003 Samples 10/17/2003 Samples 12/15/2003

Being a Member of the Editorial Board of GPSOLO, page 15

ATTACHMENT 5: FORM SOLICITATION LETTER FORM SOLICITATION LETTER Dear ________, I'm issue-editor of an upcoming issue of GPSOLO, themed "Risk," which will be published in April/May 2003. And I'd like you to write one of the lead articles. The proposed slate of articles is shown below. Your article would be "The Limits of Funny." That, of course, is just a working title, and we'd hope that you would come up with something better. We would like the article to address: [Insert paragraph describing the article’s scope.] The due date is January 2, 2003. Author guidelines can be found at http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/author.html Archived issues of GPSOLO can be found at http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/archives.html. I'm really hoping that you'll take me up on the offer -- because I think you have something to offer that our readers will genuinely appreciate. Would you kindly let me know by [insert date 6 days after date of solicitiation]? And let me know your address, phone, fax, and e-mail so that the staff editor can send you a confirmation? Many thanks in advance for your assistance and attention. [Issue editor name, address, etc.] cc: Staff editor, editor-in-chief [by e-mail] Reviewed 09/04/2007

DAY TWO Saturday, October 6, 2007

Programs 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Track 1 – Tech That Works! How NOT to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer

Track 2 – Manage Smart!

Your New “Partner” Isn’t Your Partner: Contract Lawyering

Track 3 – Have a Life!

Don’t Worry, Be Happier: Using Case Management Software To Reduce Stress

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

How NOT to Commit Malpractice

With Your Computer

With

Ross Kodner Sharon Nelson

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

1

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

ComputerMaterials By:

Ross L. Kodner, Esq.MicroLaw, Inc.

www.microlaw.com

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Your Author:Ross L. Kodner, Esq.

CEO/Senior Legal TechnologistMicroLaw, Inc.Milwaukee, WisconsinE-Mail: rkodner@microlaw.comW b i l

♦Marquette Univ. Law School, 1986 (Law Review)♦Founded MicroLaw, Inc. in 1985♦Legal Technologist, Educator, Author♦Technolawyer Legal Technology Consultant of the Year 1999, Contributor of the Year 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006♦ Founder/National Coordinator, HelpKatrinaLawyers.org♦Over 1000 law offices assisted across North

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Web: www.microlaw.com America♦Frequent author and speaker nationwide on legal technology subjects♦Chair, Wisconsin Law & Technology Conference 2002-2007♦Chair, National Solo & Small Firm Conference 2006♦Chair, Milwaukee Bar Association Technology Committee, 2002-2007♦Chair, ABA LPM Section Computer & Technology Division and Member, TECHSHOW 1997- 2001 Board, Co-Chair, LegalTech CLE Planning Board♦Founder, Annual Legal Consultants & Technologists Dinner (www.thedinner.net)

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Practicing Law Without Technology . . .

An Impossibility Today . . .

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

But Technology Can Enable You to Commit Ethical Violations and Malpractice . . .

At the Speed of Light!

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

WHERE DO YOU GO FOR HELPThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪Now that you’re serious — sources on the web:▸Your State’s Legal Ethics Opinions

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Your State’s Professional Rules▸legalethics.com▸ABA Center for Professional

Responsibility (www.abanet.org/cpr)

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

2

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

E-MAILThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪I attached the final contract to the E-mail message. Just print it, sign it, and mail the original back to me.

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Client edits the “final” and produces her own version.

▸Client has other party sign the “revised document.”▸How can I prevent the client from editing the final?

Maybe PDF makes more sense▸Educate your clients about response time.

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

THE “PDF FIRST” APPROACHUnderstand Security Issues Sending PDF Files

▪Our firm has a “PDF First” approach for sending out electronic documents because the files can’t be edited, right?

▸More and more firms go “PDF First”

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

More and more firms go PDF First▸SECURITY! Without activing PDF security, PDF files

are highly editable!▸Procedurally, you need to secure all outbound PDFs as

standard practice▸Learn about PDF security and alert clients to the issue

as well

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Adobe Hits a PDF Home Run with Acrobat 8!They Listened to Lawyers’ Needs and Met Them

▪The new Acrobat 8 takes the PDF toolset from “utility” status to full-blown legal document generation “application”

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸New functions we need:–Smart Security - setup up security profiles you can apply to your outbound PDFs

with a single click–Security Reminders -be reminded to turn on PDF security when you create a PDF–Virtually instantaneous program loading–Smart bookmarks make eBriefing something any lawyer can handle–Enhanced editing, document comparison a lawyer’s dream

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Security in Acrobat 8 in One-Click▪Acrobat 8 answers a critical need▪Build security policies that you can apply with a single click

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

click▪Acrobat 8 reminds you to turn on security with every new PDF created

3

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Securing PDFs in 6 –More Steps

• Select “Document”, then “Security” then “Restrict

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Opening and Editing”

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

The Security Options

• Add a Password to Open• Add a Password to Change

Settings• Control Copying, Editing,

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

py g, g,Printing

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Limit Printing• None, Low Resolution or

High Resolution• Why do we care if someone

can print the PDF files we send?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

send?

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Limit Editing• Prevent Copying From the

PDF• Prevent Editing

• Prevent any changes at all!

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

E-MAIL SECURITYThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪Don’t worry about security when I send you this attachment - after all, who would be interested in reading legal documents?

▸Do you need to worry about Internet e mail security?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Do you need to worry about Internet e-mail security?▸What approach do you take to alert recipients of the

issues?▸What about the ABA’s statement on e-mail, security

and confidentiality?▸How can I protect my e-mail?

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

E-MAIL ADDRESSING

▪Wow! I just accidentally sent an e-mail to opposing counsel that should have gone to my client! This is NOT good!

B f th “A t l t ” f ti i d

Beware of the Dreaded “Auto-Complete” Function in Your E-Mail Software!

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Beware of the “Auto-complete” functions in modern e-mail software!

▸This means that you could intend to address an e-mail to your client “Robert Jones” by typing “Rob”

▸But instead it pulls up opposing counsel “Robert Allen” . . . and you click “Send” before noticing! OOPS!

4

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm ConferenceTURN OFF OUTLOOK’S AUTO-COMPLETE FUNCTION!

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

The Intersection of Technology and Substantive Law is Blurred Beyond

Recognition

Lawyers everywhere need to understand that new laws and

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

new techniques mean new knowledge is mandatory. This means understanding e-Discovery issues and the broad, sweeping (and chilling) impact and reach of HIPAA

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Practice Management SystemsThe Ultimate Malpractice “Safety Net”

Practice management systems such as Time Matters and PracticeMaster serve as the ultimate “Malpractice Safety Net” – think of them as “anti-malpractice” tools

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

malpractice toolsThese systems make it nearly impossible to miss key dates and deadlinesThrough a system of cross-checks and smart ticklers, systems can hound you relentlessly, ensuring key dates and deadlines are not missed

It is frankly irrational and irresponsible to practice law

without a case/practice management system

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: INVISIBLY LURKING DISASTER!

This is NOT the Kind of Surprise You Want!

▪What is “Metadata”?▸Metadata is hidden information contained

within certain types of files▸Examples most notably include Microsoft

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Examples most notably include Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Powerpoint files

▸Other programs have Metadata issues to a lesser extent

●Examples include Adobe Acrobat PDF files and Corel WordPerfect documents

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

• New York Ethics Opinion 782: The Metadata Bombshell

• This 12/2004 ethics opinion states: “Lawyers have a duty under DR 4 101 to use

THE “METADATA” BOMBSHELLNew York Ethics Opinion to Open the Floodgates?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

have a duty under DR 4-101 to use reasonable care when transmitting documents by e-mail to prevent the disclosure of metadata containing client confidences or secrets.”

• Expect this approach in other states over the next couple of years

• Doing nothing is no longer an option!• Read: www.hricik.com/eethics/3.2.html

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

• The ABA ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued a bombshell of their own

THE “METADATA” POSITIONABA Releases Model Opinion – November 2006

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

on 11/9/2006 regarding Metadata that says:

• Lawyers who receive electronic documents are free to look for and use information hidden in metadata – information embedded in electronically produced documents –even if the documents were provided by an opposing lawyer.

5

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

• Florida issues Ethics Opinion 06-2 takes an idealistically impractical position:

• The duties of a lawyer when sending an electronic document to another lawyer and when receiving an electronic document from another lawyer are as follows:

• (1) It is the sending lawyer’s obligation to take reasonable steps to safeguard the confidentiality of all communications sent by electronic means to other lawyers and third parties and to protect from other lawyers and third parties all confidential information, including information contained in metadata, that may be included in such electronic communications.

THE “METADATA” BOMBSHELLFlorida Ethics Opinion – Unrealistic and Impractical?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

• (2) It is the recipient lawyer’s concomitant obligation, upon receiving an electronic communication or document from another lawyer, not to try to obtain from metadata information relating to the representation of the sender’s client that the recipient knows or should know is not intended for the recipient. Any such metadata is to be considered by the receiving lawyer as confidential information which the sending lawyer did not intend to transmit. See, Ethics Opinion 93-3 and Rule 4-4.4(b), Florida Rules of Professional Conduct, effective May 22, 2006. 3

• (3) If the recipient lawyer inadvertently obtains information from metadata that the recipient knows or should know was not intended for the recipient, the lawyer must “promptly notify the sender.” Id.

• The foregoing obligations may necessitate a lawyer’s continuing training and education in the use of technology in transmitting and receiving electronic documents in order to protect client information under Rule 4-1.6(a). As set forth in the Comment to Rule 4-1.1, regarding competency:

• To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill [for competent representation], a lawyer should engage in continuing study and education.

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: THE RISKSSpecial Legal Requirements Make This Urgent

▪Disclosure of confidential information today could cause your clients tremendous legal difficulties -examples include:

Special Legal Requirements Make This Urgent

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

examples include:▸Electronic Discovery -information is

unknowingly produced as hidden Metadata

▸HIPAA -confidential healthcare information disclosure is a per se violation

▸Sarbanes-Oxley -disclosure issues abound

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: WHAT CAN BE SEEN?Many Types of Metadata Can Get You in Trouble

▪Metadata examples lurking beneath the surface of Word files include:

▸Built-in document properties▸Document statistics

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Last 10 author information▸Routing slip information▸Document versions and authors▸Tracked changes▸Hidden text▸Deleted document comments▸Font Size 1▸White Font

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: WHAT DOES MICROSOFT SAY ABOUT IT?

▪Microsoft’s position is one of disclosure -there are online “Tech Notes” on how to remove Metadata from Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 documents

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

2000, 2002 and 2003 documents▸The processes are so cumbersome as to

be absurd▪Microsoft released a Word “add-in” tool

to “Remove Hidden Data” in Word 2003▸Misleading! -only removes some, not all

the Metadata - not satisfactory

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

▪OPTION ONE: Don’t send out Word, Excel or PowerPoint files

▸PROBLEM: Not very practical -

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸PROBLEM: Not very practical -sometimes you just have to send out editable Word, Excel and PowerPoint files

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

▪OPTION TWO: Convert Word files to another format such as “RTF” (or even WordPerfect)

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

even WordPerfect)▸PROBLEM: Layout and readability

problems on the part of the e-mail attachment recipient

6

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

▪OPTION THREE: Send Word, Excel and PowerPoint files as PDF files

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸PROBLEM: Not editable (by most people), still security issues unless PDF/Acrobat Security enabled

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

▪OPTION FOUR: Use Metadata removal tools

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸PROBLEM: None

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

WIPING OUT THE METADATA THREAT

▪Payne Consulting’s MetaData Assistant can safely strip out potentially damaging MetaData from Microsoft Word

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

documents.▸Info is at

www.paynecon-sulting.com

▪$79/license for smaller firms (see MicroLaw.com)

▪Site Licenses available for larger firms

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

“METADATA”: BOTTOM-LINEDoing “Nothing” is Not an Option

▪ARGUMENT: It could be argued that disclosing Metadata in client matters, or failing to advice clients not to expose this information could constitute malpratice

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

co st tute a p at ce▪ARGUMENT: Breaches of client confidentiality

are inevitable in a document creation world driven by “boilerplate” generation

▪ADVICE: Educate your people and clients about Metadata issues and take proactive measures to stop disclosure NOW!

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

LITIGATION AND DISCOVERYThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪I deleted the file from the computer – it’s gone! No one will find out about the dirty pictures!

R l bi

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Recycle bin.▸Temporary files.▸Cache files.▸History files.▸Word processor back-up files.▸Word processor old versions of

documents.▸Back-up tapes and disks.

Data “scraps” are everywhere. They can either help you or

haunt you.

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

DISPOSING OF OLD PC EQUIPMENTThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice▪We just got new PCs - we donated the

old ones to the local hunger bank!▸Um . . . but what about all the

confidential and sensitive client data on the hard drives?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

on the hard drives?▸Again: Recycle bin - when is it really

gone?▸What about old media like floppy disks

and backup tapes?▸Have you used a “destructive” file

erasure process with programs like Kroll Ontrack Data Eraser?

▸What about the software licenses?

Careful because it also has the power to give your

confidential client and firm data to the entire world!

7

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

CELL PHONE SECURITY▪Bluetooth? Wasn’t he a famous

pirate?▸ Many cell phones today have Bluetooth

wireless capability▸ Connects phones to headsets, PC systems,

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

even your car▸ Massive security hole: think “Paris Hilton”▸ Anyone within 30-100 feet of you can pull all

your confidential information from your phone without your knowledge

▸ Turn off Bluetooth in public places!▸ Alternatively, set it to “Non-Discoverable”

state so it won’t be “seen” by other Bluetooth users (which sort of defeats the whole purpose . . .)

▸ Or get a phone without Bluetooth!

“Bluejacking” is the process of sending messages through

someone ELSE’S cell phone

“Bluesnarfing” is stealing info from another Bluetooth phone

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

==

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Why You Should be VERY Afraid of Bluetooth Cell Phones

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Cell Phones

Yikes!!

(From Gizmodo.com’s Archives)

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

INTERNET SECURITYWho You Should Fear: The “Inadvertent Hacker”

▪We’re a law firm - who would be interested in hacking into our network! No way! It’s too dull!

▸If you have a full-time, always-on or wireless Internet connection, you’re wide open to

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

, y pelectronic intrusion

▸You need a firewall product -hardware or software (or both)

▸Think about Internet Explorer and “permitted” connections

▸Plug remote access “leaks”▸Hacking attempts aren’t likely to be targeted -

they’re more likely “inadvertent”

Tommy, Age 11. 6th grader, virus-writer

and avid hacker

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

INTERNET USEThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪Everyone in the office loves the Internet. We don’t restrict access.

▸Is E-mail among employees private?▸Can those pornographic pictures really get you

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

Can those pornographic pictures really get you in trouble?

▸Can derogatory E-mails give rise to a claim of harassment?

▸Do you have an Internet use/abuse policy?▪Check out http://www.llrx.com/features/

wulffson1.htm

Ungoverned ‘Net use - the ultimate can of worms?

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESSWhat About Wireless Internet Access?

▪What about Wireless security?▸Activate WPA security (not the older

WEP system)▸Neither WPA nor WEP is not 100%

secure but is far better than doing

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

nothing ▸Turn OFF “SSID Broadcasting”▸MAC Address limiting - only

authorized accessors allowed!▸Don’t be discouraged by the wireless

concept - it is worth the effort to secure the system given the geographical freedom it permits

8

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

PASSWORDSThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪We don’t need passwords on our computers. Who cares about the data in our office?

▸Are client confidences safe and secure?

My password is

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Are your passwords shared with others?▸Are your passwords easy to remember?▸Are your passwords easy to crack?▸Are your passwords taped to your computer?▸Are your passwords changed periodically?●What happens when an employee leaves the firm?▸What if you forget your passwords?

password isGOLF

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

BACK-UPThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪We back-up once each month. That should be sufficient.

▸If you lose it, will you cry?▸Where did you put the back up?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Where did you put the back-up?▸Does the backup really work?▸Who knows how the backup works? Do you

run “test restores” at all?▸Do you run system disaster “fire drills?”▸Where are the original disks with serial

numbers?▸Is your back-up protected from virus attacks?▸Do you have a disaster plan?

Um . . . Ms. Jones? Remember that “Backup Thing” we were

talking about last week?

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

PORTABLE COMPUTERSThe Ethical Pitfalls and Traps of Electronic Law Practice

▪I love my portable computer. I take it everywhere, including on trips.

▸Is it safe at the airport?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

▸Who else is watching your screen?▸If it is stolen, can the data be replaced?▸If it falls into the wrong hands, will you get sued?▸If it breaks on the road are you out of business?▸If it crashes, how do you replace the data?

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

COPYRIGHTS & SOFTWARE LICENSING

▪Unless they ask for payment, all the stuff on the Internet is free to view and use, isn’t it?

▸Is there a copyright on that clip art you “borrowed” for your website’s home

?

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

page?▸Is there a copyright on that moving gavel

you took from another attorney’s web site?

▪I have one copy of each software program we use.

▸Read the license agreements! ▸If you buy, you must comply!

“If I don’t see a copyright symbol, it’s mine for the

taking, right?”

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

MALPRACTICE

Ross L. Kodner, Esq. – 2007 National Solo & Small Firm Conference

Thank You!♦ To help you practice safely, please contact

us – I’m ready to assist . . . Author:

Ross L. Kodner, Esq.

How (NOT) to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer ©2007 Ross Kodner, All Rights Reserved

, qMicroLaw, Inc.

2320 W Camden RdMilwaukee, WI 53209Phone: 414-540-9433

Email: rkodner@microlaw.com

HOW NOT TO COMMIT MALPRACTICE WITH YOUR COMPUTER

By Sharon D. Nelson and John W. Simek

© 2007 Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Technology makes everything easier and faster. In fact, it makes it possible to commit malpractice at warp speed. We can fail to represent diligently, lose our clients data, perform incompetently, and violate the rules regarding attorney advertising. All in sixty seconds or less. There are so many ways to potentially commit malpractice with technology that it is impossible to list them all. Still, let us make a credible stab at some of the more common missteps. 50 WAYS TO GET IN ETHICAL TROUBLE WITH TECHNOLOGY

1. Use illegal software. You know who you are. You buy academic versions of

software and use them in your law office. You buy a single license for an application and install it on three computers, contrary to the license agreement. You find a neat piece of software that is free for personal use, and you use it on your law office computer. “Naughty, naughty” is all we’ll say, but the Business Software Alliance (BSA) will say far more. Potential liability for EACH copyright violation: $150,000. Average out-of-court settlement: $80,000. Have they been in our area? Yes, at least six times that we know of. Yes, they’ve come to law firms. They come with a U.S. Marshal and immediate ex parte authority to inspect your computers. If you are in violation of the copyright law at the time of inspection, you are toast. Intent is irrelevant. The moral? Make sure that you are properly licensed – and if you have a reasonable size firm, conduct an annual software audit. For heaven’s sake, have all the licenses in a single file.

2. Give legal advice in your blog. Blogs are not the place to give legal advice. Moreover, if someone in your firm has a blog, you need to be very sure that it conforms to insurance industry requirements. A great many insurers will not insure a law firm if anyone in the firm blogs and more and more are beginning to offer specific statements as to the kind of blogs they will – and will not – cover.

3. Spam to market. It is very tempting to market using some sort of bulk e-mail, but it simply is not legal to bulk market to folks who have no pre-existing business relationship with you. The CAN-SPAM act has done little to control spam, but for a law firm, both real spam and the appearance of spamming can be deadly. This is a sure fire way to get your domain name blacklisted. This has happened to multiple law firms in our area – and to courts!

4. Get involved with a client via e-mail and give advice prior to the proper formation of a contract. This is all too easy to do, especially since many lawyers now have their e-mail addresses up on the Web. It is important to get the retainer

agreement signed before the advice is the given, lest complications arise. Remember that your e-mail will leave a trail, so exercise extreme caution with anything that remotely seems like legal advice.

5. Get in trouble with your state disciplinary board and decide to create your own defense by falsifying a document. Lest you think this far-fetched, a Fairfax County attorney did exactly this. After a complaint was filed for failure to take any action in a case and letting the statute of limitations lapse, the attorney created a back-dated letter, purporting to show that he wrote the client closing the case, supposedly upon her specific instruction. The metadata that accompanied the document proved that the letter had been created two days before his response to the disciplinary board was due. He is no longer practicing law in Virginia.

6. Keep slipshod trust account records. The rules here are no different than they were in the paper world. We’ve seen attorneys who took in guns, jewelry, cars, etc. which were duly reported in their electronic trust accounts, but without any attempt at valuation. Moreover, the electronic records speak eloquently when attorneys fail to reconcile them, or dip into them when fees have not been earned. Worst of all are the many cases where attorneys put monies in the operational account, when they clearly should have been escrowed. If the firm uses a good accounting package, such as Quickbooks, any attempt to “fiddle the books” will be logged. Honesty remains the best policy.

7. Send a document to a client to sign and don’t PDF and lock it. All too commonly, clients take it into their heads to alter a document sent to them by their lawyer. THEN they sign and send it back. Be careful – PDF and lock down all important documents – the exception is when you are working on drafts of a document, when it is easier to use Word and the “Track Changes” feature. However, once done, PDF and lock the document before it is sent around for signature!

8. Miss a court date because the e-mail notice was trapped by your spam filter.

Don’t laugh – this just happened to a respected firm in Colorado. The court was not amused by counsel’s failure to show up and assessed sanctions against the firm, requiring it to pay for the opposing counsel’s time. For heaven’s sake, whitelist the domain of the court – and important client domains at well. Remember that you cannot shift the blame to a third party service provider, however much you might like to. Why? Because court rules say you can’t.

9. Don’t proofread. The difference between “I will consider a $100,000 settlement”

and “I will not consider a $100,000 settlement” is vast. This is but one of many examples of how attorneys get in trouble by not proof-reading. At the very least, they often sound like hapless sixth graders who haven’t got a grip on the simple declarative sentence, much less the spelling of fairly complicated words. You wouldn’t send out a real letter that way – don’t send out an e-mail that way. This is especially true if you use voice recognition software. Although the programs

are good at what they do, they are not perfect, by a long stretch – in fact, many judges cite the failure to adequately proof documents generated by voice-recognition software as a chief peeve.

10. Open an attachment from someone you don’t know or from someone you do

know but where the circumstances are suspicious. Dumb, even if you DO have a good antivirus program. Just because you have good, even great protection doesn’t mean you can’t be the first kid on your block to get a virus for which there is not (yet) an anti-virus signature to defeat it. E-mail addresses can be spoofed – easily. Therefore, if you get an e-mail from a client that contains an attachment and you were not expecting it – and there is no explanation in the text of the message that makes sense, don’t open it. Call the client and verify that they sent you something.

11. Go to a place on the Internet you wouldn’t like Mom (or the Senior Partner)

to know about. This is precisely how spyware gets on your machines. Adult sites are particularly notorious for doing this, but many sites (even those with screensavers, computer utilities, recipes, etc.) do this to make extra money. Even a judge once called us after opening a “farm girls and their animals” e-mail attachment. He found himself trapped in an endless barrage of pop-up porn which refused to go away. Understandably, he was somewhat reluctant to call the courthouse IT staff. Enough said? ☺

12. Use the Auto-Complete function with abandon. This feature is so helpful and

so potentially deadly. It is incredibly easy to let this function go and send an e-mail to someone other than the intended recipient. At best, the result is embarrassing. At worst, it is a genuine problem where you have perhaps sent confidential data to an unrelated third party or, the nightmare of nightmares, to opposing counsel.

13. Use weak or non-existent passwords. Passwords are critical defenses, so do not

use your pet’s name, your child’s name or the name of your favorite sports team. Make your password complex, including numeric characters. A good tip is to do a short sentence that you won’t forget.

14. Write in anger. An old chestnut, and still one to bear in mind. The unfortunate

part of electronic communications is that when someone writes us something idiotic, we can immediately reply and point out the complete lunacy of what has just been transmitted. This is particularly tempting when a lawyer is under attack. Don’t do it! Cool off. Go take a walk. Do anything other than reply immediately with words that cannot be recalled and may live forever and come back to haunt you! Remember, there is no “do over” key for e-mail.

15. Hit the “Send” button quickly. We’re all so busy that hitting the send button

promptly after composing an e-mail seems so natural. Done with this . . . on to the next thing. There is an inherent danger here. Look at the message one more

time – is it going to the right people? Have you proofread? Is there anything wrong with the tone or substance? Just pause a minute. Remember – each time you send an e-mail, you must see it on the front page of the Washington Post, on a billboard on Route 95, and in front of your mom’s face. If it can be in all three places without causing embarrassment or a problem, you’re probably ready to hit “Send.” Did we mention a warning about the lack of a “do over” key?

16. Make it impossible to find your own files. Files should be named appropriately,

including the client name and the kind of document, perhaps the date. Having a good, descriptive name, you must now create a structure (one of your own or through a case management system) that makes it easy to find what you are looking for. If you do not have a case management or document management system, make sure that you have electronic files named by client, with descriptive titles for each file, including the client name in case you mistakenly move the file to another folder.

17. Rely completely on your computer calendar. So what happens when your

Internet goes down? Or your server crashes? The authors are devoted adherents of the tech world, but it is always prudent to have a secondary calendar that can provide a fallback measure.

18. Leave your computers on at night. Are you nuts? Do you personally know each

member of the cleaning crew? Can you vouch for each of them? Robbers who broke into an entertainment complex in Colorado recently found themselves unable to open the safe even though they had the code. Perplexed, they looked around and found a computer that was on and Googled information about the safe. Moments later, the safe was open and they left with $12,000 – so you see, it is very helpful to have computers on at night – helpful for all the wrong sort of people.

19. Don’t change the defaults. Every script kiddy and macho hacker knows the

defaults of all common computer-related devices. In fact, they are posted on the Internet. If you don’t want a burglar in your house, you always, at a minimum, lock the door. Changing the defaults is locking the door.

20. Don’t secure your wireless network – at home or at work. Wherever you work,

your wireless network should be secure. This means that you must change such things as the SSID and the default admin password. Disable the advertisement of the wireless network and enable some sort of encryption for the cloud. Create MAC filtering rules to limit connections to those that are predefined. After all, you shouldn’t be in the business of creating the neighborhood hotspot.

21. Don’t have adequate anti-virus and anti-spyware software. This is “bare

bones” protection these days. You should have one good anti-virus solution and preferably two anti-spyware solutions these days. If you have a subscription, don’t let it lapse.

22. Don’t backup – and almost as bad – don’t do “test restores” of the backups.

Most lawyers should be doing incremental (or differential) backups daily and full backups at least weekly. If you’re doing less, think again about the potential danger. Also, backup media fails over time, so don’t assume that you have a good backup without doing periodic test restores. In case after case, we’ve seen lawyers rely on backup tapes only to find that they were corrupted when disaster struck and those tapes held the only backup of the law firm data. External hard drives increase reliability, but should also be changed in rotation just like tapes.

23. Use an online backup system. This one is controversial. There is nothing

inherently wrong with an online backup system from a technical standpoint. WE hasten to add that we have seen several total failures when it comes to restoring backup from online backup providers. Even in the best scenario, someone else is holding your data. What will you do if they belly up? What if they have a disgruntled employee who sells your data? What kind of REAL recourse is there in a situation like that? At the very least, encrypt the data before you send it offsite!

24. Don’t have a disaster recovery plan. Do you think the lawyers caught in Katrina

ever imagined that they would face a disaster that was so large it would involve both their home and office? Many of them had backup media at home and lost that media as well as the computers/server at work. This was compounded by not having power or cell phone towers. The communication breakdown was further aggravated by food and water shortages, office buildings being declared closed by authorities, etc., etc. In our world, where natural disasters present plenty of hazards, the ante has been upped by our realization that no one – anywhere – is safe from acts of terrorism as well. Many of the Katrina lawyers lost their practices forever because they were not sufficiently prepared. When it comes to disasters, an ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure.

25. Fail to have an employee termination policy or fail to follow it. We sometimes

chuckle that the only way to have a safe employee termination is to issue a blindfold and cigarette and execute the employee. Our cynicism comes from the number of ex-employees who have caused technological havoc by accessing the law firm network once their authority to do so has expired. When you are ready to terminate someone, never let them have access to their computer post-termination. Immediately cut all access to your systems from the outside and forward all of their business e-mail to someone else. Collect all their keys. Change the security codes if necessary.

26. Have a laptop without a power-on password, encryption, or biometric access.

In a world where laptops are the #1 stolen item at airports (and they rank in the top five at hotels, from cars, etc.), you must take precautions. The new “finger-swipe” biometrically accessed laptops are no longer out of anyone’s price range. Encryption of the data is no longer difficult. At the very, very least, make sure no

one can get on your laptop at all without that power-on password. It is surely malpractice not to take this most elementary of precautions.

27. Put client data on an unencrypted thumb drive. Look at the size of a thumb

drive. Smaller even than our now very small cell phones. How often do we lose cell phones? About 50% of us have lost one at one time or another. Here we have an even smaller device. It is critical that data on a thumb drive be protected either by requiring a password or by encrypting a portion of the drive which carries client data.

28. Have client data on a cell phone that doesn’t require a password. As our

business frequently forensically images cell phones, it always strikes us as remarkable how few cell phones we see that require a password. It may well be that we are simply the “hurry up” generation that doesn’t have time for that extra step, but if there is client data on the phone, it certainly seems like we MUST take the time to ensure that client data cannot be accessed if we accidentally lose our phones in a cab!

29. Don’t scrub the metadata. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this.

Court briefs have actually been filed with metadata intact. In one memorable comment, an attorney asked if anyone thought that the “yo-yo brain judge” would understand what was being argued. As you can imagine, the judge was not amused as he viewed the comment in the electronic document. Our favorite metadata scrubber is Metadata Assistant, by Payne Consulting (about $80 per seat). www.payneconsulting.com. Already own Adobe Acrobat? Convert your document to PDF and that will strip out almost all the metadata, usually everything you’d care about. Can you look at the metadata in opposing counsel’s documents? The ABA says yes, New York says yes, Florida says no, and Virginia hasn’t spoken. We agree with the ABA opinion (Formal Opinion 06-442).

30. Redact PDF with black boxes. Even the federal government has pulled this

gaffe, thus exposing the placement of troops in Iraq. More notable to the legal community, a law firm involved in the infamous suit against AT&T for intercepting citizen e-mails and sharing them with the government made the same error in one of its briefs. Ordered by the court to release some documents but with certain sensitive information redacted, the firm clumsily used black bars to do so. Journalists promptly pounced on the black boxes and stripped them out, revealing incredibly sensitive data which seemed to confirm the allegations of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. If you are going to redact information, use professional software such Redax or upgrade to Acrobat 8.0, which includes redaction and Bates stamping ability.

31. Donate your old computers to charity (or otherwise dispose of them) without

wiping the hard drives. As much as you’d think this was obvious, every time a college student does a new study with hard drives purchased on eBay, they find law firm data. If you have someone who is IT competent, it is a simple matter to

wipe the drives effectively. If you do not, it might cost you $100 per drive to have it professionally wiped. A small price to avoid a big security hole.

32. Be a “chatty Kathy” online. We have become a society of online chipmunks,

happily chattering away in chat rooms, in blogs, on listserves, and via IMs and e-mails. You should assume, at all times, that whatever you transmit electronically will live forever. Remember, deleted isn’t deleted and the power of computer forensics to recover deleted data is fearsome. If you don’t want to answer for what you’ve written three years later, don’t send it!

33. Don’t have an Internet and e-mail usage policy for your office. Are you daft?

Do you know what these people do, especially when you are not in the office? All of the things we tell you not to do in these tips is exactly what they will do. They will check what’s going on in their soap operas, visit the celebrity gossip columns, etc. Not to mention the temptation to post things on a listserve (with your law firm signature attached of course) that may not be precisely the representation of your firm that you would choose. Make a policy and then enforce it.

34. Don’t have a policy about what data may and may not leave on removable

media (thumb drives, iPods, phones, PDAs, etc. This is precisely how much of your confidential data leaves the office. If they don’t e-mail it, they download it. So have a policy – there are even utilities to help you monitor anything being downloaded via USB drives.

35. Don’t train your employees about computer security. There are few ways to

get more “bang for the buck” than by training those who work for you. Most of them don’t know how to spot a phishing attack – or how to recognize social engineering over the phone that might persuade them to give up a password. Give them the benefit of safe computing training and policy training and you have built a worthy moat around the castle which contains your client information.

36. If you have a disgruntled employee you’re thinking about firing, don’t think

too long. This is a common scenario – you know you have someone who is angry or disgruntled. Perhaps you didn’t give them a raise, perhaps they don’t like your demeanor – the reason doesn’t matter. Once you are aware of a potential problem, the likelihood of misconduct increases exponentially. As soon as you have your “employment law ducks” in order, let them go. If they do any work on your network whatsoever, this is an especially firm rule. As one law firm system administrator boasted, “I can bring this firm to its knees anytime I want.” Believe him, for he speaks the truth!

37. Fail to encrypt your e-mail. OK, this is a red herring. No one requires

encryption. Very few lawyers use it. It isn’t hard, but it takes a little extra time. Still . . . the real message here is that important things (such as proprietary data)

should not be transmitted electronically without being encrypted. Think before you use e-mail!

38. Converse via e-mail with your client using the client’s work e-mail. This is

always a troublesome area, since it is not yet fully clear whether the attorney-client privilege will apply to e-mail sent from a work machine, whether via a work e-mail address or a personal e-mail address. In at least one case in Virginia, the judge found that there was no privilege between attorney and client for anything sent from a work computer. Period. As experts, we believe that decision was wrong, but that doesn’t change the current practical implications for lawyers. Better reasoned decisions from other states have indicated that the privilege would not be lost if the client took reasonable measures to protect the privilege (e.g., not using the work e-mail address, keeping attorney-client e-mails segregated on the hard drive in an appropriately named folder).

39. Fail to address e-mail correspondence in your retainer. Given the paragraph

above, the perils of e-mail correspondence should be evident. Many lawyers believe, and we agree, that there should be a separate paragraph in your retainer pertaining to e-mail, in which the client specifically agrees that e-mail communication is acceptable or not acceptable. It should discourage the client from communicating from work and also stress the importance of not divulging sensitive data in e-mail. A number of lawyers, including one of the authors, makes sure that this paragraph is separately initialed so that it is abundantly clear that the client understood potential risks before using e-mail as a vehicle of communication.

40. Have a file sharing program on your computer or network. C’mon, fork over

the money for the new Elton John CD. Or for the new “Harry Potter” movie. File sharing of protected works not only constitutes copyright infringement, but it leaves your computer/network wide open to the Internet. If you have kids at home, and work from home, you may not even be aware that your kids have installed file sharing programs. We have six kids, and yes, it happened to us. Forewarned is forearmed!

41. Enable file sharing between the workstations at your office. This is a tough

one. Microsoft allowed peer-to-peer file sharing among Windows computers. Disable this feature if you have a server. Small offices will use file sharing to keep costs down and still allow access to client data from multiple computers. If you must use file sharing, limit and restrict the access. Require user IDs and passwords to get to the data. Don’t configure unrestricted access to your data since that’s what the hackers love.

42. Use copyrighted images on your website without a license. This is done all the

time. It is incredibly simple to get royalty-free clip art or photos on the Internet. If you want something classier, the prices to get a license are generally quite modest. Folks are searching for infringing materials on the Net all the time these

days and there are sophisticated tools to help them. Don’t help the infringement bounty hunters!

43. Call yourself a specialist or an expert on your website. Come on, we know you’ve read Virginia’s advertising rules. You know better. .

44. Appear to promise results on your website. See number 43 above. If you even describe results of cases, you must explain that results are dependent on individual fact scenarios and state that case results do not guarantee or offer a prediction of the same result in another case. It must do this in bold type, in caps, and in a font size as large as the largest size font used to describe the case results. See Rule 7.2(a)(3).

45. Don’t have a disclaimer statement in your e-mail. This entry is here under protest. It is probably a good idea to have one, but most experts agree that disclaimers are pretty worthless and provide almost no protection. However, it is nice to put in the tagline that tells people what to do if they receive an e-mail message in error. Remarkably enough, most folks actually want to do the right thing and will tell you that they received your message in error. All things considered, it is better to know than not to know!

46. Decide you don’t need to know about electronic evidence. Sorry, but this is no

longer possible. You can no longer make a deal with the opposing counsel that “I won’t go there if you won’t.” In a world where 95% of the data is created electronically and only a fraction of it is ever reduced to paper, you have no choice but to consider whether ESI (electronically stored information) may be a part of your case.

47. Mishandle or spoliate ESI. Until recently, lawyers were getting away with this on a regular basis, but no longer. Judges have had enough, and are beginning to hand out sanctions like penny candy, mostly against clients, but now and again against the law firm as well. You must understand your client’s technology well enough to avoid spoliation and to determine where relevant evidence may be in order to preserve or produce it. If you are not up to speed, it is time to get there.

48. Violate password protected data. Outside of the workplace (where employers have the right to monitor what transpires on their networks), passwords create a right of privacy. It doesn’t matter who owns the computer. The right of privacy applies between spouses as well. Why? Because the law says so. If we had a $1.00 for every time a spouse argued that they had the right to search their partner’s e-mails, we would be rich. If you, as an attorney, violate this right, you too are guilty of a crime. Interception is prohibited under the federal and state wiretap act – any other form of accessing private data is prohibited under the Virginia “unauthorized access” statute. You may “freeze” the data (either party in a marriage can make a backup, after all) but you may not access it without consent of the party or a court order.

49. Accept or use telephone records obtained by pretexting. This is against the law

in Virginia. If you know the records have been obtained by pretexting when they slide those records across the desk and you nonetheless take them, you have violated the law.

50. Counsel your client to put a GPS tracking device on someone’s car without

fully knowing the facts. These gadgets provide great evidence, but in the state of Virginia, it is illegal to put a GPS tracker on a vehicle unless you are that vehicle’s owner. There are no reported cases thus far, so we cannot tell you whether it is ok to put a GPS tracker on a car which both parties have purchased but which is still owned by the bank because there is a car loan. These are not dice we wish to roll.

This list could go on and on and on . . . but hopefully, it is clear that there are significant dangers in the electronic world, waiting to trap the unwary lawyer. Here, at least, is a good starting point for making sure you’ve covered as many ethical bases as you can. Want some extra help? Go to www.legalethics.com, www.abanet.org/cpr or www.findlaw.com/01topics/14ethics/index.html The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a legal technology and computer forensics firm based in Fairfax, VA. 703-359-0700 (phone) www.senseient.com

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Your New “Partner” Isn’t Your Partner:

Contract Lawyering

With

Carolyn Elefant Lisa Solomon

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association  

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Divisiom      

When Your New “Partner” Isn’t Your Partner: Contract Lawyering 

   

Practical Tips for Aspiring Contract Lawyers         

Lisa Solomon, Esq. Lisa Solomon, Esq. Legal Research & Writing 

Ardsley, New York        

October 6, 2007 Second National Solo and Small Firm Conference General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division 

Philadelphia, PA October 4-6, 2007

About the Author Lisa Solomon was one of the first attorneys to recognize and take advantage of the

technological advances that make outsourcing legal research and writing services

practical and profitable for law firms of all sizes. Since 1996, Lisa has limited her

Ardsley, New York practice to assisting attorneys across the country with all of their

legal research and writing needs, including preparing and arguing appeals and drafting

substantive motions and trial memoranda. She has worked in almost every area of law,

and has developed particular expertise in insurance coverage, negligence, family law,

trusts & estates and contract matters. Her website is at http://www.QuestionOfLaw.net.

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

How to Market Yourself as a Contract Lawyer ................................................................ 1

The Big Picture ..................................................................................................... 1

Pros and Cons of Various Marketing Activities ..................................................... 2

Communicating the Contract Lawyer Value Proposition....................................... 5

Ethical Issues in the Contract Lawyer Relationship......................................................... 8

The Hiring Lawyer’s Duty to Adequately Supervise and Oversee the Contract Lawyer ........................................................................ 8

Conflicts of Interest............................................................................................. 10

Disclosing the Existence and Details of the Contract Lawyer Relationship With the Client ................................................................... 10

Additional Resources .................................................................................................... 12

Table of Ethics Opinions Relevant to the Contract Lawyer Relationship....................... 13

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net

HOW TO MARKET YOURSELF AS A CONTRACT LAWYER

Marketing your services as a contract lawyer to other attorneys presents two

main challenges. The first is figuring out what kinds of marketing activities attract the

most, and best, prospective clients. The second is convincing those prospective clients

of the advantages of outsourcing projects to you—in other words, convincing them to

become your clients.

Since starting my contract lawyering practice (which focuses on legal research

and writing) in 1996, I have tried almost every type of marketing. Some marketing

activities take a lot of time; others require more of a financial commitment. Not all have

been equally successful.

The Big Picture

First, some general principles. The great thing about being a solo contract

lawyer is that you need relatively few clients to be successful. Since every lawyer who

has to make a court appearance; review documents; take or defend depositions;

perform legal research; or draft a motion or an appeal is potentially a client,

concentrating your efforts locally or county-wide is likely to produce a sufficient client

base (unless you practice in a locale with few other lawyers). Conversely, if you decide

to specialize in legal research and writing, you can apply those skills to the law of any

jurisdiction (not only the jurisdiction where you are admitted); therefore, you have a

virtually unlimited pool of potential clients nationwide.

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 2

Second, keep in mind that one of the obstacles you face in getting work from

clients is that their need to hire a contract lawyer may be sporadic. When the need

arises, potential clients might not realize you’re out there, and past clients might not

remember you’re out there. So it is important to make frequent contact with both

potential and existing clients.

Pros and Cons of Various Marketing Activities

Some marketing activities lend themselves to developing a local client base,

while others have a broader reach. The activities you focus on will depend, to a large

extent, on the nature of your practice.

If you want to focus on covering depositions and court hearings for other local

lawyers, networking at bar association functions would be a wise investment of your

time. Even if you are not involved in the leadership of a bar association, regularly

attending bar association events gives you an opportunity to meet lots of potential

clients. Meeting people face-to-face helps develop trust and also allows you to address

at the outset any questions or concerns about outsourcing that a potential client may

have.

There are a number of ways to maximize the benefits you derive from

networking. One way is to make networking a two-way street: think about what you can

do for potential clients, not just about what they can do for you. For example, I know a

lawyer who consults with firms on the business aspects of their practices. I

recommended him as a speaker for a solo and small firm symposium in New York City,

which was organized by an attorney I know through my local chapter of the Women’s

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 3

Bar Association of the State of New York. In turn, he interviewed me about how a firm

can increase its profitability by outsourcing legal research and writing for an “audio

magazine” he publishes. After the audio magazine came out, I submitted a notice about

the interview for publication in both the local and statewide Women’s Bar newsletters,

which gave both me and my interviewer additional exposure at no cost to either of us.

The speaker referral also helped my colleague from the Women’s Bar, who now has a

qualified presenter for future programs.

Another way to derive the greatest benefit from networking is to network with

people who themselves have many contacts. Get to know the leaders of your bar

associations and the folks who just do a lot of schmoozing: they’ll have the most

opportunities to recommend you to their colleagues. Since law is a personal service

business, a recommendation from a respected member of the local bar goes a long

way. Similarly, if you decide that you want to broaden your circle of contacts by taking a

leadership role in your bar association, try to get involved with a committee that

naturally brings you into contact with a wide swath of the local legal community, such as

the membership or law practice management committees.

If you specialize in legal research and writing, consider presenting continuing

legal education courses or writing a legal writing column for your state or local bar

association newsletter. You could also start a blog about legal writing, or about appeals

in your state. These activities give you a chance to demonstrate your expertise directly

to your potential clients.

The time commitment networking, writing and speaking require can be balanced

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 4

by other types of marketing that call for more of a financial investment. If you choose to

run print advertisements, it’s best to focus primarily on local bar association newsletters.

Advertising locally is much more affordable than advertising in publications with a wider

circulation. Local bar newsletters generally come out monthly, so, unlike daily legal

newspapers (such as the New York Law Journal), they generally “hang around” on a

prospect’s desk for a good long time. Also, many of the people who see your ads will

have met you in person, making the ad another “touch” to reinforce your meeting.

You may also want to consider distributing promotional items. For example, I

distribute custom notepads printed with my name, logo, contact information and “tag

line” (“Comprehensive legal research and writing services for attorneys”). These

notepads have a variety of marketing uses. Bar associations are always looking for

donated items for convention or golf outing gift bags. I have focused on getting my

notepads distributed in this manner to members of associations to which I belong, since

it is likely that they have heard about me, or even met me, before. I also include a

notepad in every package I send out to prospective clients. The notepad provides a

daily reminder that I’m available to help – at least until all the pages are used up!

You should, of course, put up a web site. In this day and age, a web site helps to

establish your credibility and permanence, regardless of your profession or your area of

expertise within that profession. A web site is particularly important for legal research

and writing specialists who are interested in reaching a nationwide audience.

Communicating the Contract Lawyer Value Proposition

In addition to the “how” of marketing your services as a contract lawyer, there’s

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 5

also a “what.” To successfully market your services, you have to overcome three

different hurdles. First, you need to convince potential clients of the benefits of

outsourcing some of their legal work. Second, you need to convince potential clients of

the benefits of hiring a solo practitioner, rather than working with an agency that places

temporary attorneys. Finally, you need to convince potential clients that they should

work with you.

When you meet a prospective client, be prepared to discuss the benefits of

outsourcing work on a project basis. Since one of the primary reasons lawyers consider

outsourcing is because they have too much work to do and not enough time to do it, you

should focus on the use of outsourcing to free up an attorney’s time and thus to help

relieve the stress that accompanies overwork.

Position yourself as a smart alternative to hiring an(other) associate. Point out

that hiring an associate requires a significant long-term investment in both time and

money and immediately adds to a firm’s fixed expenses, but that, when a firm hires a

contract lawyer, it pays only for the time it takes to complete the project (or,

alternatively, pays a flat fee for the project), and undertakes no long-term obligations.

Remind potential clients that an employee adds to their administrative burdens,

especially if they are sole practitioners. Note that hiring an associate will result in

increased malpractice rates, and subject them to all the financial and legal

responsibilities that accompany “employer” status.

If you are a legal research and writing specialist, find out if your potential client

has ready access all necessary research materials. Does the potential client have the

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 6

expertise necessary to write an effective appellate brief? Does the lawyer enjoy doing

“outside” work, such as trials, depositions and client meetings, more than research and

writing? Probing all of these areas will help you determine which additional “selling

points” are important to the attorney with whom you are speaking.

A potential client may think outsourcing is an all-or-nothing proposition, or may

be uncomfortable delegating work. In these circumstances, ease the lawyer into the

concept of outsourcing by suggesting that you work on only the particular tasks at which

you excel (for example, taking depositions or performing legal research and writing).

You can even break these tasks down further by, for example, offering to perform legal

research and send the results to the hiring attorney, who can then use those results in

drafting a brief.

A potential client may be familiar with the concept of outsourcing, but might be

more inclined to look to an agency that places temporary lawyers than to an

independent contract lawyer. Here, if your potential client is another solo or small firm,

take advantage of the camaraderie of “solo-ness.” With all potential clients, stress the

“personal touch” that a solo can provide.

Finally, sell yourself. Arrange with two or three current clients to serve as

references for you. If you specialize in legal research and writing, make writing samples

available on your website or offer to e-mail them to prospective clients. Send potential

clients a package of materials about your practice, including (at a minimum) your

business card; a letter or brochure describing the different types of projects that can be

outsourced, your background and your substantive areas of expertise; and reprints of

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 7

your publications (whether written by you or about you). Since getting repeat business

requires less marketing effort than developing new clients, once you have landed

clients, provide high-quality, responsive service to keep them coming back. Satisfied

clients will also do your marketing work for you by referring their colleagues to you.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE CONTRACT LAWYER RELATIONSHIP

Lawyers who are interested in hiring a contract attorney for the first time will likely

have a number of questions concerning the ethical issues involved in the contract

lawyering relationship. As a contract lawyer, you should be familiar with, and ready to

address, these issues.

The Hiring Lawyer’s Duty to Adequately Supervise and Oversee the Contract Lawyer

It is common for contract lawyers—especially those who specialize in legal

research and writing—to work on cases pending in jurisdictions in which the contract

lawyers are not admitted to practice. If you perform work for a lawyer who is admitted in

states where you are not licensed to practice, you will be considered a “non-lawyer”

under the ethical rules of the hiring lawyer’s jurisdiction. And, of course, even if you and

the hiring lawyer are both admitted in the same state, the hiring lawyer retains the

obligation to adequately supervise you—just as the hiring lawyer would bear the

responsibility to oversee and supervise an associate. (Hiring lawyers who prefer not to

maintain this responsibility may want to consider a referral or co-counsel relationship

instead of an outsourcing relationship.)

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 8

Conflicts of Interest

Most types of contract legal work require the contract lawyer to know the identity

of the ultimate client, as well as specific facts about the case. Although it is possible for

a contract lawyer to perform certain legal research and writing tasks without knowing

the identity of the ultimate client, it is much more efficient for solos and small firm

lawyers to be able to freely share all information when working on an outsourced project

than to have to redact documents. Thus, assuming that the hiring attorney will be

sharing all relevant information about each case with you, you should treat conflicts

issues as if you were an employee of the hiring attorney’s firm.

Disclosing the Existence and Details of the Contract Lawyer Relationship With the Client

Another question is whether you must disclose to the client your use of a contract

attorney. Although, under ABA Op. 88-356, a hiring lawyer is not required to disclose

the use of a contract attorney or obtain the client’s consent to such an arrangement

where the contract attorney is working under the direct supervision of a lawyer

associated with the firm, disclosure is required if the contract attorney is performing

independent work for a client without the close supervision of a lawyer associated with

the firm. Furthermore, many state and local bar associations have issued ethics

opinions requiring disclosure under some circumstances, and others mandate

disclosure under all circumstances. Thus, the safest route (particularly if you practice in

a state that has not issued a governing ethics opinion) is for the hiring attorney to

disclose, and obtain the client’s consent to, the attorney’s use of a contract lawyer. If the

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 9

hiring attorney will be billing your services to the client at a rate lower than the attorney’s

own, this process can actually be an opportunity for the hiring attorney to demonstrate

commitment to achieving the best possible result for the client at the lowest cost.

Finally, we come to financial issues. With one exception, all of the bar

associations that have addressed the issue—including, most notably, the ABA—have

determined that an attorney may charge the client a premium or reasonable measure of

profit in excess of a contract lawyer’s cost to the attorney, as long as the total charges

to the client are reasonable. (The sole exception is the Maryland Bar Association, which

did not give any reason or cite any rule in support of its position). Additionally, as long

as you are not working on a contingent basis, the hiring attorney is not required to

disclose the billing arrangements between the two of you; in other words, the hiring

attorney need not reveal the amount of profit (if any) the attorney is making. This

position makes sense: after all, if an associate (i.e. an employee) were working on a

client’s matter, the hiring attorney would not be obliged to reveal the associate’s salary

to the client.

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 10

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Edward A. Friedland, et al., Legal Research Management, in 1 Successful Partnering

Between Inside and Outside Counsel §19:31 (2006)

Peter J. Gardner, The Economics and Ethics of Hiring a Temporary Lawyer, 31 Vermont

Bar J. 37 (Spring 2005) Steven D. Hallock, Contract Lawyers: What Place in Oregon’s Legal Profession?, 63 Or.

St. B. Bull 13 (Oct. 2002) Del O’Roark, Contract Lawyers in Kentucky, Bench & Bar, Vol. 61, No.2 (Spring 1997)

©Lisa Solomon 2007. All rights reserved. www.QuestionOfLaw.net 11

ETHICS OPINIONS RELEVANT TO THE CONTRACT LAWYER RELATIONSHIP

Temporary Lawyers, ABA Formal Ethics Op. 88-356 Ethical Considerations when Billing Clients for Contract Attorney Legal Services, Alaska

Bar Ass’n Ethics Op. 96-1 St. Bar of Cal. Standing Comm. on Prof. Resp. & Conduct, Formal Ethics Op. 1992-126 Opinion on Temporary Lawyers, Colo. Bar Ass’n Formal Op. 105 (1999) Advising and Billing Clients for Temporary Lawyers, D.C. Bar Ethics Op. 284 (1998) Fla. Bar Ethics Comm. Advisory Op. 88-12 Ill. St. Bar Ass’n Advisory Op. 98-02 Oliver v. Board of Governors, Kentucky Bar Ass'n, 779 S.W.2d 212 (Ky. 1989) Temporary Lawyers - Temporary Lawyer Placement Agency, N.H. Bar Ass’n Formal

Op. 1995-96/3 N.J. Sup. Ct. Advisory. Comm. on Prof. Ethics Op. 632 (1989) Ohio Bd. of Comm’rs on Grievances & Discipline, Op. 90-23 South Carolina Ethics Op. 91-09 Sup. Ct. of Texas Prof. Ethics Comm., Op. 515 (1996) Temporary Lawyers Working Through a Temporary Placement Service, Virginia Legal

Ethics Op. 1712 (1998) Ethical Considerations in Outsourcing of Legal Services, L.A. County Bar Ass’n Prof.

Resp. & Ethics Comm., Op. 518 (2006) San Diego County Bar Ass’n Ethics Op. 2007-1 Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Formal Op. 2006-3

Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Formal Op. 1989-2

Elefant – Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

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AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

OUTSOURCING FOR SOLOS AND SMALL FIRMS: HOW AND WHY TO USE CONTRACT LAWYERS AND STAFF

Carolyn Elefant

Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant Washington D.C.

www.carolynelefant.com www.myshingle.com

October 6, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia PA

Outsourcing for Solos: How to and Why to Use Contract Lawyers and Staff This paper is excerpted from Chapter 12, Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always

Elefant – Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

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Wanted to Be – Carolyn Elefant, published by Decision Books (January 2008). In recent years, outsourcing – in the form of research, paralegal and secretarial work, and document-review – has gained real traction among large law firms. Routinely now, BigLaw is using contractors throughout the country and abroad. Even as far away as India. Solos, though, have been slow to embrace contract lawyering and enjoy its cost-efficiencies. For one thing, many solos are unaware of the robust and reasonably-priced freelance market, and, for another, I believe there is a mind-set among solos that they must handle everything on their own. This attitude is neither efficient, cost-effective ... or healthy. How might outsourcing benefit your law practice? Consider: Profitability – Outsourcing projects can increase your firm’s profitability. It allows you to take on new cases you might otherwise turn down because you’re overwhelmed with other matters. Just as important, outsourcing can rescue you from the consequences of uneconomic cases that you may have accepted out of desperation. For instance, suppose you agree to represent a client on appeal for a flat-fee of $2,500 but the case takes double the 25 hours you originally estimated. Your effective billing rate is reduced to $50/hour. If you’re beginning to attract more work at your rate of 150/hour, you’re better off outsourcing the lower-paying work to a contract attorney for $50/hour and clearing it off your plate. In fact, some solos leverage outsourced work to generate extra profit for their practice. Consider the advice of Lisa Solomon (QuestionOfLaw.net), a New York-based legal research and writing consultant: “ ... Outsourcing legal research and writing projects can help your firm's bottom line. With one exception (Maryland), all of the bar associations – including the ABA – have determined that an attorney may charge the client a premium, or reasonable measure of profit, in excess of the research and writing provider's cost to the attorney as long as the total charges to the client are reasonable. Regardless of whether or not you choose to charge your client more than you pay for legal research and writing services, outsourcing is still cost-effective for your client, since even a rate that includes a reasonable profit to you will generally be less than your own hourly rate.” Flexibility – Once you’ve practicing awhile, you’ll get a better sense of the ebb and flow of your workload to determine whether to invest in a full-time associate or staff. In the meantime, outsourcing legal research and writing on a project basis lets you ramp up when your caseload is heavy and cut back when it isn’t. But if you hire a full-time associate or paralegal in anticipation of several long-term proceedings, and those cases settle a few months later with no other billable work in sight, you’re left with a salary to pay and no revenue to cover it. Malpractice protection – When you juggle a caseload, there is a greater likelihood that some matters may get overlooked or given less attention than required resulting in missed deadlines. In fact, the majority of bar grievances arise out of cases neglected by solo and small firm lawyers who couldn’t find the time to work on them. Outsourcing now and then to catch up on your files might save you from a malpractice complaint. Greater productivity – Back at your law firm, there were specialists to help you every step of the way. Among them, there was a crack IT team to baby your computer, and a marketing professional to help you identify new business opportunities. Most solos don’t have the resources to hire full-time IT or marketing support. But by outsourcing these – and many other tasks – you pay only for what you need ... and often get better quality than if you tackled it yourself. Stress reduction – Solos are often reluctant to outsource because of the need to squeeze every nickel from every case. It’s understandable, but wearing all the hats takes a heavy toll. Outsourcing helps relieve the stress that comes from long hours, relentless deadlines, difficult clients, contentious adversaries, and the lack of vacation. Just one example: instead of avoiding your problem cases, consider outsourcing these matters to a contract attorney who can act as an intermediary and deal directly with problem clients or attorneys. BigLaw partners frequently delegate the task of communicating with annoying clients to associates. By outsourcing, you achieve the same result.

Elefant – Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

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Tasks Suitable for Outsourcing

Almost any legal matter can be outsourced, so long as your client does not expect that you will personally handle the matter, or the matter does not involve an obscure expertise that you are uniquely competent to handle. Matters suitable for outsourcing include: Legal research and writing – Legal research on specific questions raised by your client during the course of a case, or to evaluate the strength of a new client matter. Besides memos, you can outsource cite-checking and editing to a law student who has worked on a journal, or to a junior attorney who is generally capable of performing these tasks. Litigation practice – Briefs and motions: Many attorneys outsource appellate brief writing because they lack appellate expertise, or are too close to the case to objectively identify the strongest arguments. Appellate work is also readily severable from the underlying matter. You can also outsource drafting motions. – Court appearances: Rather than spend three hours waiting for the judge to convene a status hearing, outsource your court appearances to a contract attorney. If you do, provide the attorney with the case file and your phone number in the event the judge decides to inquire about substantive issues. – Depositions: Defending depositions does not require extensive familiarity with the facts of the case and lends itself well to outsourcing. By contrast, the task of taking depositions is less cost-effective to delegate because your hire will need time to learn the case or may miss an opportunity to ask important questions because of lack of conversancy with all of the details. – Document review: For years now, large firms have been successfully using contract attorneys for document-review, and many now offshore document-review projects to India. With most documents now in electronic format, a contract attorney can handle your document-review offsite. – Discovery requests and responses: For simple litigation matters, a contract attorney with a litigation background can review your complaint and prepare discovery requests, work with a client to provide responses, or identify which requests are objectionable. Practice management – Administrative: A virtual assistant can perform a wide range of administrative and secretarial tasks such as billing, bookkeeping, and marketing support. – Secretarial/document preparation: A secretary or transcription service can convert dictation into written work, or format and finalize your already-typed drafts. – Answering service: A service can handle incoming calls and assist in scheduling. – Creating, ordering, scanning client files: Contact document-scanning professionals if you want to run a “paperless” operations. You’ll still have plenty of files that require organization, and when they get out of control, hire a student, administrative assistant, or professional organizer to put things in order. Marketing – Market research and analysis: Interested in expanding your practice into a new area of law but don’t know much about the economic potential? Outsource the task of market research to a law student with a business background.

Elefant – Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

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– Branding: Increasingly, lawyers are recognizing the power of branding – that is, the package of images, concepts and slogans – to distinguish their firm from others. Outsource this task to a professional marketer. – Public relations: At the outset, you probably won’t be handling cases of public interest or matters of high media visibility that would warrant having a PR consultant. Still, as your caseload grows, or if you suddenly find yourself handling a sensitive, high-profile matter, it would be wise to seek the guidance of a PR professional. For state-specific consultants, seek out the long-established Public Relations Society of America at prsa.org. Back-office management If you have employees or a high-volume practice, you would benefit from outsourcing the following accounting responsibilities: – Accounting: To balance the books, reconcile client payments and trust amounts, and to manage documents for tax preparation – Payroll: Many lawyers use payroll companies to cut employee checks and send them to direct-deposit accounts. – Invoicing: If you can’t find the time to invoice clients regularly, outsource the preparation of invoices to someone who can spend a few hours each week or month converting your time records into invoices, transmitting them to clients, and following up on collection. Technical needs – Computer networking set-up: You can probably set up your own computer. But outsource more technical needs, such as networking multiple office computers, integrating computer and phone systems, or installing additional memory and back-up. – Practice-management systems: Some attorneys prefer to set up and learn for themselves how to use a practice-management system. If you’re short on time, or you want to customize your system for special applications, hire a consultant. – Web design: At craigslist.com, guru.com, elance.com, you can find many competent Web designers and developers in your area. For basic Web templates (and domain registration), go to godaddy.com, dotser.com, and register.com, among others.

How to Select and Work With Outsourced Staff

Hiring outsourced labor is different than hiring full-time employees. In some ways, you can afford to be less particular because, if it doesn’t work out, you can always find someone else. At the same time, you must be more particular because you need someone who doesn’t require training before getting started. A few considerations before outsourcing: Is the candidate self-sustaining? – Some solos have office space for a contract worker, others prefer to make virtual arrangements. If you’re outsourcing offsite, make sure the candidate has reliable computer equipment and standard word processing and software. And any candidate offering legal research should also have access to a law library and online legal research system, or – at a minimum – the ability to use whatever reference resources you use. Outsourcing a short-term project generally isn’t worthwhile if you need to teach an applicant how to use a research tool or a piece of software. Find someone who has the skills to start right away. What kind of work has the candidate done in the past? – Take the time to review the candidate’s portfolio. For legal research, evaluate the candidate’s writing style, and analytical and proofreading skills. Many lawyers believe their law school class in legal writing qualifies them as a specialist. In truth, few lawyers have superior legal research and writing skills. Make sure you check the candidate’s work product to verify any claims of expertise.

Elefant – Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

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What are the candidate’s references? – The qualities you’re looking for are reliability, honesty and cooperativeness. The strongest applicants will have endorsements and contact information from multiple sources. How do the candidates present themselves? – The impressions given by candidates – on their resume and on their Web site – are often quite revealing. For example, some contract attorneys boast of writing skills but maintain Web sites riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. Verify that the person you hire can talk the talk and walk the walk. Does the candidate have the right attitude? – More than anything, a successful outsourcing candidate is one committed to freelancing. There are those who handle outsourcing assignments who are biding their time until a better offer or permanent employment comes along. For this reason, they may be less motivated to satisfy you because they’re not interested in repeat business. Other candidates have an employee mentality, and may nag you for extra work or more permanent hours. If you want a satisfying outsourcing experience, find a candidate as devoted as you to being a successful free agent.

Working With Contractors Be precise – Many lawyers give only a vague description of research projects they want to outsource, and then blame the contract attorney for an unsatisfactory result. When you outsource work, be precise; describe exactly what you want. For legal research projects, prepare a memo describing the matters you want researched, or identify the issues for inclusion in an appellate brief. And be clear about what you expect. In some cases, a hiring lawyer wants a contract lawyer to just list cases and summarize them rather than prepare a memo. If that’s what you want, say so before the contract attorney runs up a huge bill for drafting a full memo. For marketing materials or design, think beforehand whether you want to choose from a variety of designs, or you would rather have the developer create one proposal based on your specifications. Establish reasonable deadlines – Establish deadlines for deliverables as well as a timetable for certain goals. Remember, your contract hire may be juggling projects for other clients, and will need to prioritize matters with firm deadlines over those without deadlines. Request status reports, but be reasonable. Don’t insist on a three-day turnaround on a project you know would take at least a week to complete. Set a budget – When you work with a freelancer, ask for a budget or an estimate. Freelancers have different billing policies; some (like graphic designers or Web developers) charge flat fees and will spend as much time as necessary to develop a logo or site that satisfies you. Others bill by the hour. Where your freelancer cannot estimate the time involved, either ask for progress reports at designated intervals or cap the hours you want the provider to spend. What to pay – Contract rates depend on location and years of experience. To determine the going rate for contract attorneys in your area, ask colleagues what they pay for comparable work, and call a temp agency to find out what they would charge you for someone with so many years of experience. Note: an attorney just out of school needn’t be paid the same as an experienced attorney; rookies will probably require more oversight and need more time. The etiquette of payment – Just as you don’t like working for free, neither does your temp. Don’t balk if you’re required to put down a retainer or a deposit. And, when the work is done, pay on time ... and don’t make payment contingent on your ability to bill their time to, and collect from, the client. Contract attorneys don’t earn enough to bear to risk of non-payment.

Where to Find Qualified Contract Lawyers & Consultants

Referrals – The best way to find competent outsourcing candidates is through good old-fashioned referrals. If a colleague raves about a contract attorney, get the individual’s name and contact information. In this way, the hiring lawyer reduces the risk that a candidate is unqualified

Elefant – Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

6

or irresponsible. Go online – Many outsourcing candidates maintain Web sites or blogs with online portfolios. A contract attorney or other outsourcing candidate who takes the initiative to set up a dedicated Web site is likely to offer solid professional service, and a well-designed site will provide writing samples, past work experience, and endorsements. Caution: some online entities use the Internet as a front. They advertise that they handle legal research but send the work overseas. Check to make sure that they’re providing the services they claim. Other online sources for legal freelancers – listservs and online mailing groups. Local universities – Law students are eager for hands-on experience and the chance to earn some extra money. Virtual clerkships and project work are especially appealing. To find willing law students, post ads with the law school’s career placement office, or e-mail one of the professors teaching a course on your practice area and ask him to announce job openings at the end of class. A college’s general placement office is also a good source of administrative support and other non-legal assistance. Note: college placement offices may take several days to run your posting through various levels of approval. And don’t expect a timely response during exam time. Craigslist – As a pool of talent for outsourced project work, craigslist.com is an extraordinary resource that reaches into all 50 states and 14 world capitols. Craigslist does not charge for ads nor impose a limit on how many ads you can place. And because the site draws from such a wide audience, you’re likely to receive multiple responses within a few hours of placing the ad. It goes without saying that because Craigslist operates only online, you can count on the candidates being computer-savvy and capable of handling online assignments. If you’re offering a decent salary or interesting work, Craigslist will probably generate more responses than you can reasonably review. Blogs – Posting a job on a popular law student blog, or a blog in your practice area, is another option. Posting ads on blogs is inexpensive, but if a blog doesn’t get much traffic your ad will be slow to attract prospects. Bar association newsletters – Bar publications don’t charge much to place ads, but there’s usually a long lag time between submission of the ad and publication. Bar newsletters make sense only when you don’t have an immediate need for a short-term project.

1

Outsourcing for Solos and Small Firms

Perspectives from the Hiring Attorney and Contract AttorneyCarolyn Elefant, Lisa Solomon

Questions for Discussion

• What kinds of projects do contract attorneys typically work on?

How Can A Solo Attorney Find A Contract Lawyer Position?

• Selling experience– What kinds of credentials and

experience make a contract attorney desirable?

• Selling need for contract work– What are the benefits of contract

attorneys to (a) clients who hire them or (b) attorneys who handle contract assignment?

Contract Lawyering as a Career

• Is it possible for a lawyer to sustain a career as a "career" contract attorney, i.e., taking only contract jobs rather than working full time at a firm or starting a law practice?

• Can contract law positions lead to other law related careers?

Drawbacks

• What are some of the drawbacks to (a) hiring contract attorneys or (b) handling contract assignments?

• Do lawyers treat contract lawyers as "second class citizens?

• Are contract assignments worthwhile for attorneys with their own practice given the lower rates for contract work?

Considerations in Hiring Contract Attorneys

• (a) confidentiality;• (b) marking up rates;• (c) bar licensing;• (d) compliance with IOLTA/attorney trust

requirements• (e) conflict of interest

Do the same ethics rules governing attorney-client relationships apply in the contract attorney/hiring attorney relationship?

2

Malpractice Issues

• What kind of malpractice policies apply to contract attorneys?

• Is a contract attorney covered by the hiring firm's malpractice policy - or do contract attorneys have their own malpractice coverage?

Offshoring

• 7. Is offshoringﾓ (sending contract work overseas) a viable alternative for solo/small firm attorneys?

• What are the benefits and drawbacks?

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Don’t Worry, Be Happier:

Using Case Management Software To Reduce Stress

With

Andrew Simpson

Daniel Siegel

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association

General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPIER: USING CASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE TO REDUCE STRESS

Case Management Software

Daniel J. Siegel Law Offices of Daniel J. Siegel, LLC

October 6, 2007 2nd National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Fall Meeting 2007 General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Philadelphia, PA October 4-6, 2007

Think about all the types of information lawyers must track. There are calendars, clients,

opposing parties, phone numbers, home business and email addresses, all kinds of deadlines,

billing information, documents, accounting data, correspondence and, of course, statutes of

limitation and conflicts of interest. You name it, lawyers need to keep track of it, and to do so

efficiently.

It was not very long ago that lawyers maintained their records using index cards,

Rolodexes, notebooks, and/or rudimentary computer programs. With the advent of the computer,

many law offices created their own hybrid tracking systems using programs such as Microsoft

Word, Microsoft Excel, Corel WordPerfect, and Microsoft Outlook. While those makeshift

systems were (or are) better than nothing, they are not comprehensive and cannot generally link

the massive amounts of data that lawyers must track and associate with a particular client matter.

Fortunately, there is a solution to all of these needs – Case Management Software (CMS).

Designed to permit convenient storage and retrieval of client and case information, CMS is a

necessity for almost every law firm. Unlike programs such as Outlook, which are people-

focused, case management software is matter- or case-focused. In addition, a good case

management system will revolutionize the way an office operates, generate tremendous

efficiencies, and can pay for itself in time savings in a matter of weeks or months.

Implementing a CMS is one of the most important and often one of the more expensive

long-term decisions your firm can make. Because it is such an important decision, and one not

easily reversed, you should walk, not sprint, when purchasing case management software. When

buying CMS, the options are seemingly endless, and it is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. In

fact, CMS that works wonderfully for one firm may be a disaster for another.

Most CMS vendors are reluctant to admit that the vast majority of case management

programs perform similar core functions, and many do so efficiently. Where these programs

differ, however, is in their emphasis. There are some CMS programs designed for specific

practice areas, other that focus on litigators, and others designed for transactional attorneys. Most

CMS programs are more general, however, and try to be all things to all attorneys regardless of

their practice areas. In general, however, all CMS will include most of the following features:

! A centralized calendar of:

" Appointments

" Filing deadlines

" Trials, court appearances and depositions

" To do lists

" Reminders

! A centralized database containing the names, addresses and phone numbers of:

" Clients

" Opposing parties

" Insurance companies and adjusters

" Witnesses

" Counsel

" Medical Providers

! Email capabilities:

" Externally by full or partial integration with email programs,

including Microsoft Outlook and Novell GroupWise

" Within the firm by permitting staff to send and receive messages,

either through a CMS-specific program (often called groupware) or using

the firm’s email software

" In all instances, permitting email and messages to be stored

automatically and linked directly to cases in the CMS database

! Automated document creation (generally using Microsoft Word, Corel

WordPerfect or document creation software) of:

" Letters

" Memoranda

" Pleadings

" Discovery

" Settlement packets

" Other documents

! Linking documents, medical records, investigative reports and other items with

each client’s case

! Standard and customized reports, including:

" Statutes of limitations

" Deadlines, including

- Filing deadlines

- Governmental notice requirements

" Mailing lists and labels (based upon various criteria, including zip

code, occupation, etc.)

" Case aging (e.g., how many files have been open for various

periods of time)

" Case activity (e.g., showing all work that has been or needs to be

completed for one case, selected cases, or all cases in the database)

" Conflicts of interest

! Checklists, including pre-litigation and litigation “to do” lists

! Daily reports of all items scheduled on a particular date or within a specific time

period

! Central storage of all memoranda and notes for a particular case, allowing easy

access and review by all staff

! Integration with legal research services such as Lexis and Westlaw

! Integration with business and trust accounting software

! Integration with time billing software

! Remote access capabilities (permitting staff to use the CMS while traveling or at

home)

As a result of implementing CMS, your firm should reap significant benefits in terms of

productivity and efficiency, including:

! Cost reduction

! Elimination of the time wasted searching for files

! Electronic document retrieval, allowing users to review documents without

switching to another program

! More efficient management of your business

! Simplification of routine tasks

! Attraction and retention of talented staff who prefer to work with cutting edge

software

! Improved efficiency without adding staff

! Reduction of the time devoted to producing and generating reports

! Reduction of the time devoted to producing and generating mailing lists and

labels

! The ability to implement standardized procedures

! Assuring greater uniformity in the appearance and content of letters and other

documents

When you boil it all down, however, three features remain the hallmark of a quality case

management program – Client Information; Calendaring; and Document Management:

Client Information – First and foremost, your CMS is the repository for information

about your clients. In my experience, the more information about a client – phone numbers,

addresses, background information, medical history, employment history, etc. – a CMS can

store, the better. Plus, once the information is stored, you have it whenever you need it.

For example, you need contact information to get in touch with your client. Think of all

the other information you can obtain, thus making every aspect of dealing with the client easier,

from preparing answers to discovery to preparing the client and you for deposition. A quality

program will offer the ability to store information about opposing counsel and law firms,

insurance adjusters and insurance companies, witnesses, and other persons involved in your

cases. Thus, when a law firm or insurance company relocates, one change to the CMS database

updates the information for every user in your firm.

E-mail – Most law offices use Microsoft Outlook or other similar programs to send and

receive email. Many also use it for calendaring, maintaining addresses and mailing lists, and a

host of additional functions. The difficulty is that, in many firms, there is no central electronic

storage location for this information, and individual staff members do not have access to every

other user’s information. Thus, when a client moves or changes his or her email address or some

other information, the change may be made in only one user’s Outlook database, with an email

or memo sent to others in the firm advising them to change their records. This system is fraught

with problems, which arise when other staff attempt to contact the client at a stale address or,

God forbid, send a birthday card to a client who has died.

Most CMS programs, like most law offices, work with Microsoft Outlook, and any

quality program with fully integrate with Outlook. This integration permits central storage of

client contact information. Even more important, it allows users to save every email about a case

either instantly or with the click of a button – no more Outlook folders, printed emails or other

makeshift methods. Many firms also use their email programs for calendaring, maintaining

addresses and mailing lists, and a host of additional functions. A quality CMS program will have

seamless integration of this data.

You should ask every CMS vendor how its program integrates with your email and

whether it allows users to share addresses and other information easily. One product, for

example, allows firms to use either its proprietary email program, which is very poor, or

Outlook. When a firm elects to use Outlook, however, the program no longer stores any case-

specific dates, such as depositions, hearings, trials, etc., in a client’s file, nor does it provide a

means to obtain a comprehensive case calendar.

Calendaring – Tracking deadlines, appointments and other key dates is one of the most

important responsibilities of CMS. First and foremost, your CMS should have a system for easily

tracking statutes of limitations. In my opinion, it is a fatal flaw if a case management program

does not or cannot be programmed to require a user to enter a date of injury/incident and either

automatically calculate the date on which the statute expires when a file is opened or require the

user to enter statute date manually. Sound far-fetched? It is not. One program, for example, does

not require users to input the date of the injury or accident, leaving the field blank instead. As a

result, any case without an inputted injury date does not appear on any statute of limitations

reports, or any other report (such as governmental notice deadlines) based on the injury/incident

date. Such a flaw is an invitation for malpractice.

CMS calendars should permit users to link every scheduled event to a particular case,

thus allowing any CMS user to view all events linked to a particular case. They also permit staff

to view multiple attorney and staff schedules, so that appointments may be scheduled without the

need for multiple phone calls or emails to “check” each person’s availability. As noted

previously, some programs will not link dates to client files unless you use their proprietary

software, thus losing the benefits of integration with Outlook.

In addition, CMS should easily show the schedules of all staff, and allow other users,

such as secretaries and support staff, to place certain appointments in an attorney’s calendar.

Your program should also permit users to create “private” appointments. In addition, if attorneys

and other staff use Blackberrys, PDAs and other portable devices, you should ask how, or if, the

software works with those devices to avoid having staff maintaining multiple calendars.

Document Management – The third key focus of CMS is the way it allows users to

create documents. Generally speaking, the format of letters, memoranda and other documents is,

or should be, standardized in most law firms (or any other business). This allows the firm to

display a uniform appearance/image to clients, counsel, judges and the public. By utilizing CMS,

a firm can standardize not only the appearance, but also the content, of letters, pleadings and

other documents. For example, if a firm wants all correspondence formatted in a certain manner,

document management programs should accomplish this goal with ease. Similarly, if the firm

uses form letters, it should feel comfortable knowing that every attorney is providing the

information the firm believes is relevant, whether it is a welcome letter to a client, a letter of

representation to an insurance carrier, or a letter rejecting a case. On the other hand, if every

attorney uses different letters, uniformity is lost and, if the letter fails to provide correct

information, the likelihood of future problems, particularly with case rejection letters, increases

dramatically.

The most significant benefit of integrating document management with CMS is the

ultimate savings in time and efficiency, and the concurrent reduction in the number of errors by

being able to create documents using CMS. Most case management programs allow you to create

letters and other documents using information stored in the system. Some case management

programs have their own document creation software, which work with the Microsoft Office

Suite or Word Perfect, while others are compatible with third party document management

programs.

When evaluating CMS, you should preliminarily determine which features are essential,

which are desired, and which are unimportant. For example, if your firm uses Microsoft Word,

do not waste time evaluating CMS that does not integrate with Word. Similarly, if your firm does

not perform any time billing, or it is a minor aspect of your firm’s activities, then it is likely of

little import whether CMS will integrate well with time billing software. On the other hand, if

you have a diverse practice in which time billing is an important component, then you should

purchase CMS that offers seamless integration with your billing software. Similarly, you must

determine whether, and to what extent, your accounting software will work with your CMS.

Often, firms keep the components completely separate, although others grant CMS users limited

access to accounting data, such as case costs.

Without question, when you buy the right case management program, virtually every

aspect of your firm’s operations will improve, as will your staff’s morale. Firms that properly

implement case management systems consistently agree that it was the best decision they could

have made. On the other hand, hastily buying CMS can be a disaster. One mid-sized firm

purchased a case management program based upon the recommendation of one partner, who had

used it before joining the firm. Unfortunately, the software was not user-friendly, was

implemented without sufficient training, and had numerous flaws. As a result, most of the staff

either do not use the program, or use it at such a rudimentary level that it is virtually worthless.

Buying CMS requires time, patience and the same level of preparation you would devote

to an important case. Regardless whether your office is evaluating CMS for the first time, or

deciding whether to switch to a new program, you should make this decision carefully, and only

after evaluating various alternatives. I do not recommend purchasing CMS based solely upon

recommendations from friends or colleagues, because although their needs may appear to be the

same as yours, if they are not, you may have wasted large amounts of time and money. Similarly,

you should not rely solely on the recommendations of a consultant, particularly those who are

affiliated with one or more CMS vendor.

By assessing all of your options, you will greatly increase the likelihood that your CMS

project will be a success. On the other hand, if your staff resists, because they were never

consulted, because they hate the product, or for some other reason, you will not see many, if any,

benefits. In virtually every case in which CMS implementation has failed, the culprits were a

lack of planning and poor firmwide implementation.

When considering CMS, the first question to ask is “What type of CMS does my office

need?” A small percentage of firms, with relatively basic needs, may not need to install CMS.

Others utilize Microsoft Outlook or similar programs to manage client information, schedules

and deadlines, and believe that these options meet their needs. While programs such as Outlook,

Microsoft Access, Corel Quattro Pro and others can perform basic case management functions,

they are neither designed for nor are they easily customizable to handle the requirements of most

law offices. Thus, if your firm has been using a general non-CMS program like these, you

should evaluate whether the existing system is, in fact, meeting your needs and, if so, whether it

will continue to do so one, three and five years down the road. Another possibility is that your

office is already using an older CMS program that has not been updated in years, or fails to meet

your firm’s present needs – this category includes programs your staff abhors and avoids using

whenever possible – or one that is not capable of addressing your firm’s future needs.

In most cases, an honest assessment will lead to the conclusion that your office will

benefit from implementing some form of case management. Where to begin? The first thing to

do is create a committee representing a reasonable cross section of your firm, including

attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, computer support staff and accounting staff. The committee

should be given a reasonable timetable and specific goals. The firm may also employ a legal

technology consultant, but, as noted previously, you should not grant that individual carte

blanche to make decisions.

The committee’s preliminary obligation is to determine your office’s infrastructure, i.e.,

its current hardware and software configurations. If your firm has more than one location, the

committee must consider how the various offices communicate electronically and how each will

access the case management system. This evaluation step is vital for determining whether a new

CMS will require upgrading the firm’s hardware (including networks and servers) and any

operating systems, as well as the cost of doing so.

After assessing the firm’s hardware and software, the committee can focus on its core

role – creating a basic outline of what CMS features your office requires. For example, some

firms prefer a stand-alone product, while others want a program that offers integration with

programs such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Word. Still other firms want a program that

does “everything.”

Once you have determined your firm’s specific needs, the committee should methodically

evaluate the many options available. Because one size will not fit all, you should consider

numerous alternatives. Most vendors will allow you to test their products with a limited group of

users in your office before you make a final decision. This is important because not every

program operates as advertised, and you need to feel confident that the system you choose can

withstand your firm’s particular demands. You should also obtain feedback from current and

former clients of the vendors whose products you are considering. Ask vendors for lists of these

clients – and call them; if a vendor refuses to provide such a list, particularly of former clients,

then you may want to think twice before purchasing their product. Ask the law firms what they

like about the program or why they stopped using it. Also, ask about the quality of training and

customer support, including the long-term costs of using the software (e.g., annual technical

support costs, upgrade fees, and costs for customizing program features).

Finally, you should create a plan for implementing your new CMS. A new case

management system requires a great deal of data input, because it is generally difficult to migrate

all, if any, of the data from whatever programs you were using to the new one. Thus, you must

determine how data will be input, and how much information to include. While all client

information, and any information about ongoing cases, should be included in the

implementation, most firms generally add more historical information on an ad hoc basis. The

final determination will depend upon whether your firm will have access to its prior system (for

referencing historical data only!), and how much time and money it has allocated for the cost of

converting data.

In addition to converting data, you should inquire how easily you can import documents

into the system. In other words, can you “drag and drop” all of a client’s documents into the

CMS and have them instantly linked to the matter? Or, do you have to retrieve old documents

separately from those created with the new CMS? You should also consider how well the

program will allow you to go paperless. Remember, your goal is to have everything under one

software “roof,” and you cannot accomplish this if your staff is going back and forth from one

program to another.

Installing new CMS also requires a commitment from the entire firm to the program’s

success, which means that everyone from the managing partner to your file clerks must be

committed to using the system. This therefore requires your committee and the firm’s leadership

to serve as an internal “sales staff,” explaining why you are installing the new CMS and the

specific benefits users can expect.

Before installing CMS firmwide, I recommend performing a test installation for a small

group of users. This allows you to test the efficiency and quality of any data conversion and data

input, and to locate any glitches that would hinder firmwide implementation. Once you are

comfortable that the program will work throughout the firm, you should create an

implementation schedule, outlining how and when the conversion to the new system will occur,

and how it will impact each staff member. Some CMS companies provide on-site training, others

offer telephone training, while others offer no formal training. If you choose a program with

limited training, or one that will require training on an ongoing basis, you should factor in the

likely cost of hiring a trainer for on-site assistance.

Staff should also be provided with a training schedule, and information about additional

available support after the initial training is completed. Remember to find out if any attorneys

have upcoming trials or other significant events; you do not want to install a new case

management program on the weekend before a group of attorneys is preparing to begin a one-

month jury trial.

Training must be mandatory, and comprehensive. Every person who will use the CMS

must attend the sessions, and the firm (in conjunction with the CMS vendor) should assess each

user’s skill level upon completion of the training. Attorneys are notorious for making excuses

why they cannot attend training. The firm must emphasize that training is mandatory and, while

the firm will accommodate staff scheduling conflicts, staff must adjust their schedules as well

and attend and participate in all training sessions.

There are a host of additional issues to consider before writing a check for your new

CMS. One is compatibility. In addition to integrating with the Microsoft Office Suite or similar

programs, some CMS integrate with Westlaw or Lexis, while others will work with medical

records retrieval services or similar products. Ask vendors about these types of program

compatibility, because if you have a program that everyone likes to use, and it is working well,

you do not want to have to stop using it because your CMS is incompatible. It is also a good idea

to ask CMS vendors about what programs (generally called “add-ons”) work with the company’s

software. In many cases, add-ons can be enormous timesavers and have the added advantage that

the companies have worked together in their development, thus reducing (but not eliminating)

the possibility of program incompatibility.

Another highly important, and often overlooked aspect of CMS are reports and other

customizations. Very few people use software in exactly the form in which it was installed.

Whether the tweak is small or large, users make changes so that software works better for them.

If you do not believe me, consider almost any piece of software you use. Did you change the

background? Did you change the way the items appear on the screen? Did you add features? Did

you customize the toolbar? Almost certainly, one of these answers is “yes.”

The same is true for CMS. Very few firms will use the software in the exact format it is

installed “out of the box.” More likely than not, your firm will need to make some changes to

program. You need to ask whether users can make those changes. If not, can your firm’s IT

department (if the firm even has one) make the changes, or must the software vendor? In the

latter instance, you need to ask what the changes will cost, and what the time frame is for

accomplishing them.

A good example are the program’s reports. Most case management systems contain

standard reports, addressing a wide range of generic issues, from statutes of limitation, to trial

dates, to mailing labels to marketing data. But without fail, your firm will want to run a report

that is not part of the standard package. What happens then? Can you create the reports by

yourself “on the fly?” Is there a “wizard” to help you along? Or, must either your IT department

or the vendor have to create the report? The answer to these questions represents both time and

money.

If you can easily write the reports, great, but if not, how much will it cost, and what is the

turn around time? One case management program, for example, requires users to create custom

reports using SQL, a complex database programming language that is extremely difficult to

learn. (I actually saw users cry trying to write these reports.) As a result, the vast majority of

users are unable to create custom reports in this program; instead, companies using this CMS

must rely on their IT staff – if the firm is fortunate enough to have an IT person who knows SQL

programming – the software vendor or consultants to draft any non-standard reports. Of course,

if you need to contact outside consultants or the CMS vendor to create a report, you will incur

additional charges, and the turnaround time will be far greater than if you could merely follow a

wizard and generate the report instantly.

One often overlooked factor when purchasing CMS is technical support. There are

numerous questions to ask. Is there a fee for technical support? Are you required to purchase

technical support? If you do not purchase technical support, what are the charges for “per

incident” support? Is technical support live, or do you send an email or leave a phone message

and wait until the vendor responds? What is the quality of the online technical support? Is there a

comprehensive, searchable knowledge base? Is there is a User’s Manual? What hours is technical

support available? If the technical support staff is on the East Coast and you are on the West

Coast, or vice versa, will there be periods when no support is available? Does the price of the

software include “fixes,” service releases and upgrades and, if not, what do they cost? How often

are upgrades released? How many persons are available to provide technical support? What is

the average length of employment for the vendor’s technical support personnel and how

extensive is their training? When speaking with current and former clients of the CMS vendors,

always ask about their experiences with technical support.

It goes without saying that every law firm has its own “personality,” and many firms are

filled with “personalities,” each of whom wants to handle his or her files with his or her own

software and without anyone else dictating how to do anything. In addition, there will always be

naysayers. Do not ignore them. Their mindsets are impediments to the successful implementation

of CMS. When problems and complaints arise, address them.

Implementation of case management software is the cornerstone of how you can

transform your office into a more modern and efficient operation, saving lots of time in the

process. And time is money. Consider the following example of how much case management

software can save an office. If CMS saves every user 15 minutes per day (and it should save a lot

more time than that), that’s over an hour per week, or 60 hours per year per person. If your

firmwide average billing rate is $150.00 per hour, and you employ 10 staff and attorneys, that’s

$90,000.00 per year, far more than the cost of buying 10 CMS licenses and training your staff.

In conclusion, case management software will dramatically improve your office’s day to

day operations. As with any major purchase, buying CMS requires careful research and planning.

With clear-cut goals and a firmwide commitment to the success of a case management system,

your office will experience significant increases in efficiency, productivity, morale and, most

importantly, the bottom line.

The formal name used for this session is “case management” rather than1

“practice management.” I forget who first drew my attention to the distinction, but Isubscribe to the belief that these types of software programs, when properlyimplemented, manage more than just cases – they manage your entire practice. Thus,I’ve changed the name of the program in my materials to “practice management.”

Top Ten Reasons My PracticeManagement Program Makes Me Happier

Don’t Worry, Be Happier:Using Practice Management Software to Reduce Stress1

2007 National Solo & Small Firm ConferenceSession Four, Track Three, Saturday, October 6, 2007

Andrew C. SimpsonAndrew C. Simpson, P.C.5025 Anchor Way, Ste 1

Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands 00820asimpson@viaccess.net

www.coralbrief.com

My practice management program changed my life. It made the practice of law

easier, more profitable, and more enjoyable; and, it reduced the stress associated with

my hectic, litigation practice. It does everything those pharmaceuticals sold via spam

email do. Well, almost everything . . .

As long as you stick with an established software program, it doesn’t matter

what practice management software you use. Any of them will accomplish the above.

They all do the same fundamental stuff. Each has some features that others don’t have.

Some are more geared towards certain types of practices. But the real difference

between practice management programs lies in the “feel.” Some are warm and fuzzy

and some are more cold and clinical. Which will work best for your practice depends

upon how you and your staff react to the feel.

When considering your practice management program options, do not make the

mistake of ignoring the preferences of your staff. You may not want to give them veto

power over your choice, but at least let them test drive the programs you are

considering and get their input. They know the in’s and out’s of your practice and may

discover reasons why one program will be better than another for your practice. Also,

if they have a negative reaction to the feel of a program, it won’t do you any good to buy

the program if they won’t use it.

Another key to being happy with a practice management program is training.

Although you can use most practice management programs out-of-the-box, it is a huge

mistake to try to do this. Practice management programs are not learn-as-you-go

programs. They need to be properly set up from the beginning to avoid having to make

expensive and substantial changes down the road; and if you don’t have the experience

I do not mean to suggest that those who are consultants and make this same2

recommendation are acting out of self-interest. But I’ve heard that accusation madeoften enough that I think it is important to point out that a member of the “rank andfile” of solo and small firm lawyers holds the same opinion.

with the program, what you don’t know will hurt you. The theme of this session is how

to use practice management software to be happier. Trust me on this: If you don’t use

a professional to help you set up your software and train your staff, you will be putting

off the reward of being happier by many, many, months, if not years. That’s coming

from a practicing lawyer with lots of technology background. And I’m not a consultant,

so I can’t be accused of making this recommendation out of self interest.2

With that said, here are my top ten reasons why using practice management

software will make you happier and reduce your stress.

Reason No. 10

No more time spent looking for files or documents.

How much time do you or your staff spend each month looking for files or

documents that should be in the appropriate filing cabinet? If you are like my office

used to be, 90% of the time, the document was on someone’s desk (or spare chair; or

stack on a credenza). Usually, it was the person’s desk who was looking for the

document!

With practice management software and a paperless office (these days, a

minimalist paperless office only requires a scanner and a copy of Adobe Acrobat 8

standard), those days are over. Oh sure, the files are still buried on my desk (and my

spare chair, and my credenza) but that doesn’t matter any more because I just pull

them up on my monitor.

Reason No. 9

Practice Management Keeps You Organized.

Not losing your documents and files is the first step towards staying organized.

But practice management does so much more. When a document that comes in that has

a deadline, it gets calendered. Hopefully, you do that if you only use a paper calendar,

too. But when you pencil that entry in to your Day Timer, does it automatically prompt

you to set aside time earlier in the week or month to work on the document so that you

aren’t trying to write it at the last minute? By entering it that one time in the Day

Timer, does it create an alert 7 days before that flashes on your computer when you log

on in the morning? These are the simple things that practice management programs

can do that help you get and stay organized.

When you open a new matter, are you prompted to enter the billing rate you

negotiated? And the statute of limitations? And is a “to-do” created to remind you to

send the engagement letter to the client? Is a to-do created to tell your paralegal to

begin drafting an answer to the complaint?

Have you ever scheduled a deposition but forgot to schedule a court reporter?

When I put a deposition into my calendar, a to-do is created to get a court reporter and

issue a deposition notice. I send these to-dos to my paralegal and then can forget about

them.

Practice management programs can automate almost any office routine to keep

you better organized.

Reason No. 8

Lower Malpractice Premiums/I Sleep Better at Night

Before implementing my practice management program, I used to frequently

wake up in the middle of the night wondering, “Did I file XYZ?” or “Did I miss the

deadline for QRS?” No more. Truly, those days are behind me. My practice

management program keeps me so on top of things that I really no longer worry about

missing deadlines. And on those rare occasions when I do have a question, or am trying

to remember what day of next week a deadline falls on, I simply check my Treo for the

calendar that I’ve synchronized to it.

My malpractice carrier sleeps better (on a pillow stuffed with dollar bills, no

doubt). I don’t really care how well my carrier sleeps, except for the fact that it results

in lower insurance premiums.

Reason No. 7

Email is Associated with Files!!!

No longer is an email you receive, or a staff member receives, hidden from

everyone else working on the file. You are no longer required to print the email and

stick it in the file so that others will know about it. When an email comes in, I save it

to the Client-Matter and now anyone who “picks up the file” [opens the matter on the

computer] has instant access to that email.

Reason No. 6

My staff loves me. They really love me!

Okay, they really love the practice management program, but I can feel the love.

More important, they don’t want to work anywhere else, because they love the way the

program makes their jobs so much easier and more productive. (Very few of my

competitors use practice management programs.) The program gives me an edge in

retaining employees and keeping my employees satisfied.

Reason No. 5

Integration with all of my Computer Programs

When I start up my computer in the morning, the first thing I load is my

practice management program. In essence, this program becomes my desktop. My word

processing programs, Adobe Acrobat, Case Map, email, everything operates from

within the practice management program. This seems like a small thing, but it really

helps with the workflow and is very efficient.

Reason No. 4

My Clients Think I Love Them

How many times have you encountered this: The Client calls and wants to know

the status of her file. You fumble around a bit, trying to remember what who she is and

what her file is about. The answer isn’t coming to you quickly enough, so you put her

on hold to “find the file” and then you scramble to find the file. But the file isn’t where

it is supposed to be. So you take her off hold and say, “Mrs. Client, can I call you back?

I’ve got a judge calling me on line 3 and I have to take that call.”

With my practice management program, I’ve got the file available at the click

of a mouse. I can instantly tell them what is happening in the case. The client is left

with the impression that I’m on top of things and he case is getting the attention it

deserves and not languishing somewhere.

Reason No. 3

Simple Document Assembly

With my practice management program, simple document assembly is a snap.

It won’t create a set of real estate closing documents, but it will drop names and

addresses into a letter; it can put parties’ names into a caption; or counsel’s names into

a certificate of service.

This is not only a time saving device for creating documents; it also ensures

consistency. When information changes (client’s mailing address changes, counsel

switches to a new law firm, etc.) you only make the change once – in the contacts for

the practice management program. This ensures that who ever needs the address the

next time has ready access to the correct information.

Reason No. 2

Accurate and Timely Bills Get Paid Faster

With a practice management program (assuming that it integrates with your

time and billing system), it is much easier to bill your time and do so accurately. If you

have a meeting with a client on your calendar, all you do is click on the calendar entry,

tell the program to create a billing record, maybe add some additional information, and

send the record to your billing program. The client-matter information is already there,

as is some of the verbiage you will use. Same thing with an email record or a document

record.

You reduce the number of keystrokes it takes to create a billing record. You don’t

have to rely upon someone else to input/interpret your handwriting. This means fewer

errors in your pre-bills to correct and makes it easier to get a bill out. Accurate bills get

paid faster. Bills sent close in time to the date of the work get paid faster. Getting paid

makes me very happy.

And the Number One Reason to use a

Practice Management Program:

Capturing more billable time makes me more profitable.

$$$$

I spent a tidy sum purchasing licences for my practice management program and

flying a consultant to the Caribbean to install it and train my staff. It was money well

spent. I am confident that I recovered all of that cost within eight months, just in

billing entries that would have otherwise gone unbilled. It’s amazing how many short

phone calls and emails can go unbilled. I’m not an advocate of “dinging” the client with

every call or email; but even exercising billing discretion, I still am amazed at how

much time I captured once I started using my practice management program.

Your cost recovery time will be faster because you probably will not have to fly

in a consultant. Take my word for it: A properly implemented practice management

program will make you money. Making more money doing the same amount of work

with less effort makes me very happy indeed.

Saturday, October 6, 2007 Closing Plenary 3:40 p.m. – 4:40 p.m.

Solosez Live! Q&A With Solosez Stars

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference Philadelphia, PA

October 5-6, 2007

American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division

Solosez Live!

Q&A With Solosez Stars

With

Bruce Dorner, Moderator &

Various Solosezzers Answering Audience Questions

October 6, 2007 2nd Annual National Solo and Small Firm Conference

Philadelphia, PA October 5-6, 2007

Solosez Live!

compiled by Bruce L. Dorner

Solosez is an online community of over 2700 lawyers and others interested in solo and small firm practice. Although it is sponsored by the ABA GPSolo division, one need not be a member of the division, or even the ABA, to join. Be aware, however, that this is a high-volume electronic mailing list and you might consider subscribing under an alternative e-mail address rather than your primary e-mail address. For more information or to join the community, go to http://www.abanet.org/soloseznet.

The Solosez community lives a high-speed lifestyle. Questions are posted and responses often appear in minutes. Most threads last only for a day or two. However, full archives are available so you may research any question and receive the benefit of the thoughts of attorneys from around the globe. Two sample threads are printed below. Some of the text has been removed in order to save space. This thread was captioned: Strategy when OC continually fails to receive documents This interaction lasted about 24 hours. Responses are very prompt. My opposing counsel in a heavily litigated case has repeatedly argued that she has never received certain documents -- first they were documents sent via U.S. Mail which took 2 weeks to get across town, then it was a facsimile, now it is documents served at her office (which is a Mailboxes Etc. type of store where she has a p.o. box, but someone is there to sign and that had worked in the past.) I far prefer to avoid arguments that remind me of school children (I sent the papers. No you did not! Yes I did! No you did not!) but this is going on too long. Plus, this opposing counsel calls me a liar (really, she says "Ms. Kleinpeter deliberately lies under oath" in her last filing) at least 3-4 times at each hearing.

My goal in this litigation has been to be the sane one, but I do not want to be a wimp and just let these claims that I never serve required documents to go unanswered. Any advice would be much appreciated! -- Amy Kleinpeter -- NEW ADDRESS! Clark Kleinpeter Law 1489 E. Colorado Boulevard Suite #207 Pasadena, California 91106 626.507.8090 (f) 626.737.6030 www.amykleinpeter.com Providing caring counsel and relentless pursuit of justice Contact me with your questions on debt collector harassment and identity theft! Courier service. Usually they don't cost much. The courier delivers whatever to the address o/c uses on her pleadings. When you have a court hearing coming up, ask the courier to attend. Tell the judge that if there is any question that o/c got the documents, the courier can testify. Pretty soon the judge will figure it out, if he/she hasn't already. Chances are this lawyer never (!) gets anything from o/c in any of her cases. JV Jimmy Verner Dallas, Texas www.vernerbrumley.com www.northtexasfamilylawblog.com Amy In a situation where other counsel is constantly making false claims, don't take any chances. *Document Everything*. When sending something to OC send

it via first class mail, fax, email and certified if necessary. Print out the fax log, have the email request an email receipt and keep the certified receipt. I know it is a little old school, but I still send a mail copy of important faxes, even where counsel is not playing fast and loose with the truth. Stack the deck and make it dificult to claim that multiple means of transmission all failed. Then just sit back and wait, it may take months or years, but sooner or later you will see the name of less than ethical attorney show up on the bar discipline page and you will smile. It is really a small world and reputation's for dishonesty or being dificult to deal with does get around. After all how many times can an attorney claim in court the other side is a liar before it becomes apparent that the attorney making the claim is the one not to be trusted. Marty Sable Serve via FedEx, with signature required. You'll then have a signature of the employee receiving the docs, as well as a receipt for date of shipment. Send everything USPS Certified or to her fax with printed confirmation and make sure to request those costs when you apply for prevailing party fees and costs. Don't sweat it, just do it and get on with the case. Best regards, Arthur B. Macomber Attorney at Law Coeur d'Alene, Idaho In-state: 208-664-4700 Toll-free Domestic U.S.: 866-511-1500 Facsimile: 208-664-9933 www.macomberlaw.com I agree - you could also do certified and/or R.R.R. mail, which would be cheaper. And any delays attributable to such would be her fault. Or email w/delivery and read receipts enabled followed by hard copy. You could also use one of the certified email delivery services. Mitch Matorin Matorin Law Office, LLC 200 Highland Avenue

Suite 306 Needham, MA 02494 (781) 453-0100 Mmatorin@matorinlaw.com Brother and Dell, and probably some other brands too, make fax machines that print out a confirmation that includes a copy of the first page that was faxed. Get one. I keep almost everything in pdf. Therefore, it is very little effort to furnish copies by email or by computer fax program. If my opponent will accepet email, I copy everything by email. If not, I copy everything under 30 pages by fax. At worst, that ties up a computer for 30 minutes. Either way, you can get a confrimation. Attorneys who use paper faxes sometimes complaint about receiving such lengthy faxes. I honor their wishes, because I consder that to undermine any claim that they do not receive docs. We had one of these OC's in a case a few counties away not too long ago. To top off the "I never got it" method, she also had a habit of checking into the ER the night before any hearings. My solution was to communicate with her by one method only - certified mail, return receipt. It was a PITA and drove up costs, but gave me the paper trail I needed. -- Mark Lyon, Law Clerk Ringer & Simmons 601-845-7349 mark@ringerlawfirm.com http://www.ringerlawfirm.com Messenger them over to her? Tell her that you need an actual physical address for her "office". The mailbox place won't work. Put that in a letter to her and cc: the court. Not bcc: That way she knows that the judge is now on notice. Sorry about the late response, but my ISP piled up about 24 hrs. worth of SoloSez messages.

Tom Simchak Law Offices of Thomas G. Simchak 5424 Katy Freeway Houston, Texas 77007 TEL: 713/864-6822 FAX: 713/864-6592 tomsimchak@sbcglobal.net I honestly keep a list of opposing counsel that shall receive no benefit of the doubt or extra consideration in the future, after stunts like these. Everything is sent certified mail. I make sure that we are 110% compliant with deadlines, so I can jump all over OC as soon as he or she crosses the line. I hate practicing this way (on the other hand I love getting to know new OC and resolving issues in a respectful and cooperative manner). But there are currently three attorneys on my "list", and I will not risk jeopardizing a client's interest because an OC wants to play games rather then let the merits decide. I had an incident recently when OC showed up 15 minutes late for a 30 minute hearing. The court is notorious for maintaining schedule. As the petitioner, he started presenting his case, and it was clear after 11 1/5 minutes that we would have to continue. Status quo is in his client's favor and we could not get a new date until Nov 29. Was this a stunt? I'm not sure, but I'll be on my toes the next time. Doug Douglas D. Jeschke Jeschke Law Office, P.C. 9744 Olympia Drive Fishers, IN 46037 (317) 577-8325 fax (317) 577-8353 www.JeschkeLaw.com Certified mail to address works. Fax confirmation works, at least under Texas rules. Attacks on your person tend to show opposing counsel in poor light if handled correctly. Your rules determine whether something is served correctly. Follow them. It is not your problem if she uses a Mailbox Etc. location and does not get her mail. It is only your problem if you send it to an incorrect location. Mostly, going toe to toe on these issues makes the judge want to throw both

of you in jail. It is like wrestling with a pig, in that you get muddy and the pig enjoys it. When someone goes down this path, I revert to one phone call, one letter, set a hearing regarding any confer requirements. I keep motions and letters devoid of any personal issues or insults or inferences, but I keep a straight paper trail and attach evidence of receipt with follow-on motions. Some judges choose to not take it on, but I have had a judge on occasion look at the other side (party and counsel jointly) and tell them that if another hearing is set they need to bring their toothbrushes and not plan on going home. I have also seen awards for extra costs associated with obstreperous behavior but do not count on it. I have also had my twelfth motion for contempt on the same refusal to provide discovery refused, so when I say that some judges will not enforce things I mean that sincerely. One deals with it best one can. ============================================ Darrell G. Stewart Law Office of Darrell G. Stewart, PLLC 8531 N. New Braunfels, Suite 100 San Antonio, Texas 78217 Ph: 210-826-3063; Fax: 210-826-3069 mailto:darrell.stewart@abanet.org Since the private mailbox store has "someone to sign", I assume you have used certified mail. It seems to me that if he is going to use a private mailbox, then he has the responsiblity of checking his mail. You could hire a process server serve the documents at the lawyers physical office (or home). An extreme option: Notice a Deposition. At the deposition Have the court reporter get the names and addresses of the lawyers present. Identify each document. State that you are now handing a the document to opposing counsel, and then get opposing counsel to state on the record that he has received the document. Thank you everyone for your many ideas and advice! It makes me feel better partly just to know everyone has been in this position. I just hate feeling like a 6 year old in front of the court! It turns out that OC was arguing she received everything mailed and faxed to her, just not the one important page (which was in the middle, not the last page). I was very polite and argued that unfortunately OC seemed to have

overlooked that page, which was in the interrogatory responses, request for production responses, and in the responses attached as an exhibit to my opposition. I said I had gotten the copy from the court website and verified it WAS attached as an exhibit and OC interrupted to yell about how she had not gotten it. So I tore the page from my copy and handed it to her on the record. I am really hoping the fact that the judge looked like he would rather throw himself out the window then be there was because of her, but the fact is -- it does rub off! The judge continued the hearing and sent us to mediation. I really hope we settle! -- Amy Kleinpeter -- NEW ADDRESS! Clark Kleinpeter Law 1489 E. Colorado Boulevard Suite #207 Pasadena, California 91106 626.507.8090 (f) 626.737.6030 www.amykleinpeter.com Providing caring counsel and relentless pursuit of justice Contact me with your questions on debt collector harassment and identity theft! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This next sample exchange started and finished in less than one hour. It was captioned: “Bates” numbering in MS Word I'd like to create a bunch of stickers to put on pages being produced pursuant to a document production. They'll have my client's initials on

them, and then I'd like to use numbers to consecutively number the pages. Is there any easy way to do this in Word? A macro or template? Thanks. Scott If I wanted to create a sequential list that combined fixed and changing elements, I'd probably create it in Excel and paste it into a Word table. You can download appropriate templates from Avery.com if you want. The better bet is probably to get Acrobat Professional, which will do the Bates numbering for you. Erik Hammarlund Hammarlund Law Office 10 State Rd., P.O. Box 2487 Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 (508) 696-7700 phone (508) 696-7705 fax Scott, if there is an easy way, I'd love to know about it. In the past I have created a .txt file using Excel with the numbers I want and then done a merge in Word onto return address labels, formatting them with the prefix I need. It is a royal PITA. Great free utility from Payne Consulting does that. http://www.payneconsulting.com/products/bateslabel_free/ Jim Calloway Director, Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program jimc@okbar.org ABA Member since 1997 Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips blog is online at http://jimcalloway.typepad.com/lawpracticetips And I'm a Payne client! This is perfect. Thanks, Jim. Scott