Tag Archives: LexisNexis

Law Practice Management, Metadata, Miscellaneous, Technology

2010 ABA Legal Technology Survey

MC910216366 Nothing like a Friday afternoon to examine six volumes of law & technology statistics from the ABA.  I was somewhat amused when I accessed their page and discovered that they’d received an endorsement – from yours truly.  Somebody apparently liked something I said about last year’s survey and quoted me.

The ABA provided me with some excerpts, so I reviewed them and picked out a few that I thought would be of interest.

E-READERS

Ten
percent of survey respondents report the availability of e-book readers at
their firms. Solo respondents are most likely to report their availability
(16%), while large firm respondents are least likely (4%).

WINDOWS 7 vs. VISTA

Usage of newly released Windows 7 (9%) has
already surpassed that of Vista (8%, compared with 9% in 2009 and 4% in 2008)
as the second most frequently reported operating system on respondents’ primary
computers.

METADATA

Metadata removal software is available at 59% of
respondents’ firms, up from 46% in the 2009 survey. Large firm respondents
report the highest availability (92%, up from 86% in the 2009 survey), followed
by respondents from firms of 10-49 attorneys (64%, up from 51% in the 2009
survey). This increase in availability in metadata removal software is likely
due to the numerous ethics opinions addressing sender’s responsibility
regarding metadata exposure.

VIRTUAL OFFICE

When asked whether they have a virtual law
office/virtual law practice (i.e., do not typically meet with clients in
person, and primarily interact with clients using Internet-based software and
other electronic communications software), fourteen percent of respondents
responded affirmatively. Of counsel and solo respondents were most likely to
report having a virtual law office/virtual law practice (27% and 19%
respectively).

SOCIAL NETWORKS

When asked whether they personally maintain a
presence in an online community/social network such as Facebook, LinkedIn,
LawLink, or Legal OnRamp, overall, 56% of respondents answered affirmatively,
compared with 43% in the 2009 survey and 15% in the 2008 survey.

WESTLAW vs. LEXISNEXIS

Eighty percent of respondents (compared with 88%
in 2009) report using fee-based online resources to conduct legal research.
Fifty-four percent of respondents report using Westlaw most often (compared
with 61% in the 2009 survey), followed by LexisNexis (32%, compared with 28% in 2009).

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.