The Greatest American Lawyer

Technology Makes Perseverance Much Easier

Perseverance has always been a key differentiator between those who succeed and those who don’t.  Achievement can be like a drip of water.  A drip can become a puddle, which can become a stream, then a river and even a canyon. 

It occurred to me the other day that technology makes perseverance much easier.  Instead of a large number of large things that need to be accomplished in order to make things happen, technology makes success much more accessible.  Technology now ties achievement to the accomplishments of a large number of little things made easier.

The # 1 Client Complaint of All Time

We don’t need statistics to know it’s true.  We’ve heard it since we graduated from law school.  The number one complaint by clients is the failure to return phone calls and lack of information from their lawyer.  When clients don’t know what’s going on, they rightfully get pissed off.  What needs to be a relationship of trust becomes a relationship of mistrust.

Asking for a Malpractice Suit: Failing to Educate the Client

Over the course of my career, I would say that the vast majority of instances where a client came to a lawyer for advice, the lawyer essentially told the client what to do based on that lawyer’s own experience, expertise and knowledge of the law.  Under the “lawyer knows best” approach, the client is not expected to understand the legal intricacies or practical reality of his or her legal situation.  Even on the holy grail of settlement, where the client has to be informed of the offer and is the only one who can decide whether or not to accept or reject, the emphasis is often on telling the client to accept or reject rather than educating the client and letting them decide for themselves.

Technology allows us to push a lot of information and access to our clients.  Our model is devoted to helping the client understand the key legal principles involved and practical realities of the legal process.

Computer Monitors - Size Does Matter

In a recent blog post on the Business Technology web site, Ben Worthen notes in a study done by the University of Utah that the size of the computer monitor or using two or three monitors instead of one really does make a difference in your productivity.  In the study, it was noted that using a larger monitor or two monitors when transferring data helps to make the task go faster and more efficiently.  So when that employee comes to you asking for a larger monitor or even a second one, remember that it is for their own good and the good of the company.

Legal Technology Trends: 2009 Predictions

Dennis over at the Dennis Kennedy blog has published an article called “Nine Legal Technology Trends for 2009: The Year of Hunkering Down”.  In his article, Dennis observes the legal technology market and makes his predictions for legal technology trends in the coming year.  Here are his nine predictions:

Dennis Kennedy's Recommendations Concerning Technology Choices for Solo Lawyers

There is a great new blog post over on the Dennis Kennedy blog about implementing technology. 

"The legal profession is not exempt from the current economic turmoil. I wrote the introduction to this column before the last big wave of layoffs, so it feels even more true now than when I originally wrote it: "Given the current economy, odds are there will be many more lawyers in solo practice at the end of 2009 than at the beginning. Change might come about by choice or by circumstance—the “suddenly solo” phenomenon—as news stories are illustrating all too well."

In the column, I focus on how a new solo, especially one who is transitioning from a large firm, needs to think about technology and set priorities. I wanted to focus on the questions to ask.

I highlight three key questions:

First, what is your practice area?

Second, what is your expected volume of clients, work and documents?

Third, what is your budget?

Over the years, I've become convinced that "volume," meaning number, amount and the like, really does drive technology choices. Think about it."

Comparing E-fax and Electronic Fax Services

Every once in a while I get a question from one of our readers about incorporating an internet fax service into their business model.  These systems generally go by the description “electronic fax”, “internet fax”, “e-fax” and “online fax” services.  The major player in the market is a company by the name of eFax, although there are many other providers in the space who are nipping at their heals.  As is common in the internet space, the up and comers often offer more for the money than the big dogs.  It just so happens that one of our clients provides a extremely valuable comparison service which will allow you to take a look at many of the top-end electronic fax providers in the space, compare price, number of faxes, 800 numbers, free trials and the rest.  Check them out at www.faxcompare.com.

Using Mind Map For Advocacy

For those of you who have been following along, you know I’m a big fan of the Mindjet MindManager software.  Here is an interesting post from the Settlement Perspectives Blog titled Get To The Point, And Get It Across, With A Mediation Mind Map.  Here’s the money quote:

The Best Things in Life Really Are Free: A Thumbs Down To Copernic Desktop Search for Pay Version

Those of you who have been around for a while know that one of my favorite software products of all time has been Copernic Desktop Search.  Two years ago, I downloaded the free desktop and network search tool which essentially pre-indexes all of your emails and selected files so that you could search for virtually anything and the results would come back in less than a second.  In fact, my entire email process changed as a result of Copernic.  No longer did I file any emails, delete spam or otherwise.  I treated email as a big data drop and simply used Copernic search in order to almost instantly identify any single email, or group of emails. 

About four months ago, my Copernic stopped working.  The company apparently had decided to abandon its free version for network search (you can still apparently get a free version to search only your own computer) and start charging $49.95 per license for its professional edition and $59.95 for its corporate edition. 

Normally, this wouldn’t bother me at all.  Copernic deserves a license fee for its otherwise amazing product…except that it’s no longer an amazing product.  In fact, my new “for pay” version has barely worked since I installed it.  It is prone to crash, freezes up, and does not deliver returns nearly like it used to.  For whatever reason, I was never able to get it to index my Outlook archives, essentially rendering my email search process useless.  You can either “for sure” find what you’re looking for using this kind of tool or not.  If it’s not reliable, then you likely won’t use it at all.

The search tool that comes with Microsoft Windows has always been downright awful.  I am now left to wonder, is there a desktop and network search tool that will get the job done?

I’d be interested in anyone out there who has a good client and network side pre-indexing search tool that will pull all types of data files and integrate fully with Outlook.  In the meantime, my plan is to contact Copernic and let them know my problems.  I’ll let you know how customer support goes and whether or not my experience is the exception or the rule…

Unlocking the Key to Technology

Everyone just assumes that technology is a good thing.  They assume that technology is used to increase productivity. 

I hope you all know that’s not really the truth, is it?  Technology can empower people to waste more time than ever possible before in human history.  And there is one simple undeniable fact.  In order to work technology, you typically have to physically interface with that technology.  This means you have to sit at your computer.  This means that you have to have your cell phone on and your keyboard enabled at all times.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  You’re wondering “what’s wrong with that?”