Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

Implementation, Law Practice Management, Management, Strategy, Technology, Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks: The Office: Lexis Partners with Microsoft

0000000540_20060919015544_paper The partnership I'm referring to was recently revealed at LegalTech in New York, but the benefits won't be available until later this year.

Nevertheless, this is exciting news for anyone with licenses to both LexisNexis and Microsoft Office 2007.  Lexis will be integrated into the Office 2007 suite of products (which includes Outlook and SharePoint) and will be available for Office 2010, when it's released.  This means no more back & forth between the Web and Office when performing legal research.

The new product is aptly named, "Lexis for Microsoft Office".  One interesting item of note; many firms use WordPerfect because of its outstanding legal tools and have been understandably reluctant to migrate to MS Office.  It'll be interesting to see how this new partnership influences the future direction of law firms.

Let me give you my position.  I'm someone who, as a Consultant, is always attempting to travel the shortest distance between two points (which, as we know, is a straight line).  With that in mind, when I've gone into companies, if they have an established suite of products, unless there's a glaring need to change, I try to keep them within the same parameters.

This has absolutely nothing to do with which products I find superior; it's purely in an attempt to limit the number of vendors, and it has a practical purpose (you IT'ers out there know exactly what I mean).  To illustrate (and I'm not pointing fingers here…), how many of you have contacted vendor support for two products, say, Lotus Notes living on a Novell server and had support from both companies deflect from addressing your issue by saying "it's their problem"?

If you have Microsoft Office living on a Microsoft Server, that problem is eliminated because all they can do is point fingers at themselves.

In that context, if a firm is already heavily-invested in LexisNexis and Microsoft products, but still holding on to WordPerfect, perhaps someone in IT thinks this is the time to make a change.

Ever since I joined the executive committee of the State Bar of California's Law Practice Management & Technology Section, my thought processes have modified somewhat to thinking more about 'law practice management' along with the 'technology' aspects.

Education, Law, Miscellaneous, Technology, Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks: BarMax: California Exam Prep for iPhone/iTouch

IPhoneBarMax The next presentation of the California Bar Exam begins Tuesday, February 23rd.  In sympathy with all law students who will be sitting for the exam, I happened across this nifty BarMax: California Edition application for the iPhone.  It incorporates essays, MBEs, performance tests and flash cards all into one.

Most California students use BARBRI to prepare for the Bar exam, but I didn't, save for their excellent  PMBR MBE books.  They bring new meaning to the term "Red State/Blue State", which, by the time I'd spent two months studying, referred more to my state of mind from one minute to the next than the color of the book covers.  I also used Finz for MBEs and in my opinion, they're even harder than PMBR Blue (the book cover is orange; as in "A Clockwork…").

Let's put it this way; if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, an extra $1,000 available and excellent eyesight, this certainly could be a viable option.  When I took the exam in Ontario (that's California, not Canada), every nook and cranny in every hotel I visited was filled with students and their laptops/flashcards/books, cramming for the next session.  It'd be a lot easier to use an iPhone or other device.

I do find it amusing that the California Edition was developed by "Harvard lawyers".  No matter…just meet Buffy & Skip on the veraaaandaaah or in the yaaaaaahd for a cocktail – and don't forget your argyle…

(I was doing ok until I mentioned argyle, wasn't I?  Overkill, I think…)

ArgyleBreechPinkBack

Miscellaneous, Technology, Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks: UltraVNC: You Seem so Distant…

UVNC What a week!  Legal stuff…plus, I had a blown laptop and had to stage a new one (in order to bring you my rapier wit, theoretically)…and I have to prepare for a new client on Monday.  This one's a law firm.  It's a completely different experience working with large, corporate clients as opposed to large, corporate law firms.

This post is relevant to you if you're a techie who will be accessing a lot of PCs to accomplish your e-discovery due-diligence.  I use a lot of remote access software and since I was staging this new PC anyway, I needed something that would work not only with XP, but with Vista and Windows 7.

There's nothing more frustrating than constantly having to go from one PC to another because you forgot a file or some such nonsense, your network permissions aren't cooperating, it won't print and you end up wasting more time troubleshooting that issue instead of just connecting remotely and dealing with it…and that's all in the same house, let alone bringing other locations into the mix.

By luck, I came by this terrific software called UltraVNC (aka uVNC).  Folks, this is just a great little product!  Not only is it compatible cross-platform, but they were very smart about access control.  You can have no password, you can set a password for view-only access and you can set a separate password for take-over access.  That's what makes it great in a formal environment.

And here's the best part; it's free.  I'm going to be putting it through the paces, but I just thought I would share.  I haven't been this excited about a piece of software since…er…well…

Oh…never mind…

Education, Technology, Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks: CLE Mobile for iPhone

J0442867 This one is for lawyers.  There's a new free application, CLE Mobile, that allows attorneys to get their continuing legal education credits on an iPhone (and an iPod Touch).  In order to use it, you must set up an account at West LegalEdcenter.  Note, the app is free, but you must purchase the CLE programs.

I have an iPod Touch.  I also have an account at West LegalEdcenter.  Furthermore, the press release says I can get a free ethics CLE program if I download the app.  I happen to be one-hour short of my ethics CLE requirements.

Hmmm…are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Technology, Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks: snitch.name

J0408911 I've finally got definitive proof.  Santa Claus is a fake!  You ain't gettin' that Maserati for Xmas!

When I speak to litigators, many of them tell me that as part of vetting a claim, a web search on the background of the principal is now standard practice.  And I don't just mean the potential adversary; they search on their potential client as well.

If you're going to perform a search anyway, you might as well do it in as few keystrokes as possible.  Obviously you'll use a search engine like Google, but the reason a "scouring" program like snitch.name is helpful is, not only does it allow you to select multiple platforms to search, when it finds results, it produces them in graphic format on a single page.

It's an excellent companion to standard search.

International, Law, Tips & Tricks, White Papers

Tips & Tricks: Trilantic EU Data Protection Rules

125px-Flag_of_Europe It's "International Week" here on e-Discovery Insights.  Hey, Discovery Channel can have Shark Week.  I can have International Week…

First of all, I know nothing of Trilantic.  As I'm sure you've all experienced, there are a lot of companies out there who offer some pretty good resources – and all they want is your name and email address in exchange.  Like you, sometimes I think it's worth it & sometimes I don't.

In my opinion, this is definitely worth it.  In exchange for your basic contact information, Trilantic will deliver to you a white paper in PDF format that covers European Union Data Protection Rules for up to 27 countries!  Furthermore, they give you the option of opting in or out as to receiving any further correspondence.

I requested the rules for all 27 countries and received a 163-page document.  I'm now prepared to handle documents in Slovenia…assuming they ever call me, of course…