In his November 20, 2011 article, “What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering,” David Segal understates his core issue. When I attended law school in the mid 1980’s (Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, WI), we didn’t have a single course that taught us anything whatsoever about how to run a law practice as a business.

Since becoming an attorney in 1986, I have devoted my entire career to being a law practice management and legal technology consultant. I chose that career path, in large part, because of what I perceived as a serious need to fill the educational and preparatory gaps created by an American legal educational system that has been focused almost exclusively on teaching “the law,” to the nearly complete exclusion of teaching students how to actually practice law.

My experience, after 26 years in the field educating and guiding lawyers in the better operation of their practices, is that the majority of attorneys I encounter are woefully under-prepared or entirely unprepared to successfully manage the business operations of their practices, to manage their professional and non-legal staff, nor even in many cases, be prepared to generate enough business to weather ordinary, if not unusually difficult economic times.

Like me, most lawyers I encounter came from liberal arts undergraduate backgrounds. My classmates nearly 30 years ago were English majors, Political Science majors, History majors and even one Philosophy major. I was an Economics major; about as far removed from the realities of the business demands of running a business as one could imagine. So if lawyers today are ill-prepared to be business people, I would say it’s fair that they come by that lack of background honestly.

However, I have long railed against what I view borders on utter neglect on the part of the American legal education system. The legal educational systems all too often falls back on the outmoded and backward tradition in failing to prepare lawyers to deal with the realities of the modern legal marketplace. While a graduate of a law school might be able to perform a mean footnote check reviewing a brief, and have an enviable level of mastery of using online legal research services, how many know anything whatsoever about how to manage anyone. Or how to negotiate a commercial lease. Or how to make sound decisions about the technology systems to drive their practices forward. Or anything about quality control systems to yield a “best practices” approach to serving clients. Or how to read a profit and loss statement or even what dual-entry accounting is all about. Or how to calculate their return on investment for a new multifunction device. Or that “customer service” isn’t something that professional organizations are except from. Or even to understand the essentials of electronic security in order to comply with the universal legal ethical requirement to protect confidential client information. In my quarter century of direct field experience, perhaps less than 20% of the lawyers I encounter are in any way prepared to make the right decisions related to the operation of their law practices as a business.

To be sure, some law schools make an attempt by offering what is usually an elective third year course on law practice management. But it’s not enough – law schools from the top tier Ivys on down – should feel a sense of obligation not only to their customers (a/k/a students) to prepare them to earn a living, but to the general public – to prepare them not to step into early malpractice traps because they just don’t know what the heck they’re doing in terms of the logistics or mechanics of modern law practice. Larger firms need associates to be a profitable leverage source quickly – there is little time to invest in training and the pressure to pay for their salaries is greater than ever.

In an economy where many law graduates have limited or no early employment prospects, to prepare them to survive – so at a minimum, they can work in a law practice capacity to start paying back their student loans. That’s not likely to happen if they’re stuck wearing a barista’s apron because they don’t have the practical skills to open a business and make it work in a tough economy.

It’s time for the American legal system to wake up and smell the coffee – elevating law practice business and management education to the level it requires – as important as taking courses in constitutional law or contracts. And to do it before their graduates are making lattés for a living and defaulting on their student loans.

This isn’t something I’ve done before, but I thought, what the heck? What am I talking about? I’m going to be doing an online CLE program called:

“Increasing Cloudiness in Your Practice: The Hard-Core Reality of Legal Cloud Computing – Tips, Tricks, Cost Comparisons, Practical and Ethical Concerns”

In other words, a blunt assessment of cloud computing for your practice. We’ll explore all the forms cloud computing takes including SaaS, self-hosted, third-party hosted and specialized cloud apps and storage. We’ll look at the realistic pluses and minuses of cloud computing to see if it fits your practice situation. We’ll explore the functional and ethical issues that swirl around the cloud concept. We’ll explore being partially in the cloud with services like online document stores and Microsoft Exchange Server hosting. We’ll explore the state of ethics rules/opinions on legal cloud computing and also what to do in the 48 states that have no such ethical guidance. In other words, a hard-hitting, plain-English language view of cloud computing for your practice today.

While no CLE credit is being specifically applied for, you can always apply in your own state and we’ll issue a certificate of attendance that you’ll receive via email after the session. This program was approved by Colorado CLE already and also by the ABA for multiple states so getting credit shouldn’t be a problem for most of you in your own jurisdictions. The program will run 75-90 minutes depending on the number of participant questions.

• When: Friday, November 11, 2011 at 9AM CST.
• Where: Online via webconference and voiceconference – information provided to all pre-registrants (we’re using the wonderful Join.me system)
• Cost: Free (how’s that for a deal??)
• Registration: Easy – just click here and include the phrase “Cloud CLE with Ross” in the subject line. Include your name, full contact information including email address – you’ll receive a confirmation email with connection instructions by November 8th
• Techie Stuff: connect with Windows and Mac systems, and also with iPads and Android tablets – instructions provided in your registration confirmation email

Registration is limited to the first 200 respondents – so don’t wait! This CLE was a big hit for the Colorado Bar and at the ABA National Solo & Small Firm Conference within the last two weeks – rave reviews from attendees including:

“Best CLE I’ve attended in 27 years of coming to these – thanks for coming back to Colorado to help explain cloud computing to us!”

“Finally, someone who honestly explained what cloud computing is and what it really costs – it’s about time.”

“I took one tip from a CLE Ross did for us two years ago and that tip helped my firm generate $21,000 more fee revenue last year! A pretty good return on my CLE dollars!”

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Looking forward t0 this folks – feel free to pass thing along. Who couldn’t benefit from plain talk about cloud computing for their practice? It’s a confusing area with many sound-alike options, real ethical and security issues and mind-boggling cost variations. But there’s also real benefit for some firms – the bottom-line is that you need to understand the options so you can make the right cloud choices for your practice. Don’t wait – register now!

Abe’s Legal Word Smart Tips – Quick Parts Edition

Does this sound familiar? Your find yourself daydreaming about a world where every one of your best clauses from all your best contracts, agreements and pleadings have been separated into “building blocks,” organized into a library and you could click on each clause and plug them into a new document, just like snapping together pieces of Lego? Of course you have – or you should have, because who wouldn’t want to do this? But of course, who has the time and how would you actually go about it? You probably wouldn’t, because it would just be too cumbersome and you’d never find the time.

But . . . maybe you could, if you knew something about Word 2007 or 2010 that I show our clients. Did you know that Microsoft Word (2007 and 2010)  has the ability to create documents by assembling them,  piece by piece or clause by clause?  Many offices have documents built from a standard set of stock paragraphs.  Many of our clients have been copying and pasting from form documents for a long time.

But with Word’s ability to save “QuickParts,” you can save the standardized pieces into a gallery that is always available, and build your document piece by piece, simply by pointing and clicking.  Since any kind of content, including tables and pictures, can be saved into a QuickPart, it also works well for creating a signature blocks along with digitized signature.  Now, any signature block, with perfect formatting, can be added to a piece of correspondence with a single click.

For information about learning more about getting the most out of Word 2007 or 2010 for your practice, ask Ross about our remote/web-based training (always with a live human :-)) or live on-site training options anywhere in the world.

Lots of new CLE materials available for downloading here. These include my most recent materials presented at the ABA GP|Solo National Solo & Small Firm Conference in Denver last week, as well as Colorado Bar CLE materials and also materials for this week’s Wisconsin Solo & Small Firm Conference (actually where I am right now).

Here’s the link to the materials including my cloud computing CLE program, my latest mobile lawyering session, a new program on my favorite legal iPad apps and another new program about the best technology for your support staff

Areas of particular attention include my detailed demystification of “cloud computing.” The terms murky, foggy and the phrase “as thick as pea soup” all apply when we consider what the heck “cloud computing” actually means. When you look at these materials, you’ll see that there are many variations of cloud approaches – in fact, in all likelihood, you’re already in and have been “in the cloud” for some time already (i.e. webmail accounts, remote access to your office systems, online photo stuff, etc.).

My latest pet peeve though is the growing range of misinformation about “cloud computing” being spewed forth from a virtual high-pressure fire hose. A lot of what passes for “education” about cloud concepts is nothing more than “speakers” shilling for the industry and/or cloud providers. I’ve witnessed this in the form of CLE programming – presenters with obvious bias who glow about all the “magic” of being in the cloud. They conveniently sidestep the myriad potential issues that need serious consideration as part of any due diligence examination necessary before moving confidential client and firm information to some part of the internet cloud.

So my approach in this particular program was to take a hard core and blunt look at the pros, cons and facts about different approaches law practices can take towards a “cloud strategy.” I’m not advocating for or against cloud computing for your practice – my goal is to help you become a thoroughly educated consumer who can look at any question that could have such significant ethical and business continuity ramifications through a healthy lens of skepticism and caution. You might end up fully or partly in the cloud, but it should be for the right reasons, at the right price with the right security and ethical precautions taken.

Hope you find these new CLE materials useful – as always, they’re free and feel free to share them with anyone who you think might benefit. Note that they are copywritten, however :-). And if you have questions and want to explore the question of “to get cloudy or not” for your practice, ask me – it’s part and parcel of all our MicroLaw CARES reviews.

Attention all MicroLaw Tabs 3 and Tabs PracticeMaster clients! (and there are a lot of you out there!)

The Tabs PracticeMaster Version 16 Upgrades are making their way to our Version 15 users’ offices.

Slowly but surely the PracticeMaster updates are getting shipped and happy dances are happening whenever one arrives (seriously, I saw someone do the “happy dance” when they saw the new features in Version 16).  I know we’ve discussed this before, but Version 16 maintains a separate and inclusive CONTACTS list – gone is the always a little confusing RELATED PARTY name. We now have “contacts” and they are linked to Cases (Clients) and appointments and tasks and each other – something we’ve all been waiting for!

The new release also gives us “Workflows” or triggered tasks to remind us of, or to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. Here’s a link to the full list of PracticeMaster version 16 new features – lots of them – we’re actively helping clients get their upgrades planned out and installed – there are so many new features, it makes sense to spend a bit of effort in this to take best advantage of all the new functions – most of which came directly from customer requests: http://support.tabs3.com/main/v16wn.htm.

The contact list feature will most likely require some clean-up if you are upgrading from an older version of PracticeMaster – we can help with this. Also, the new Workflows will need a little thought before you can effectively implement them – something else we can talk through together so we can get you using them effectively to automate your case-handling processes in the most effective way.  We can shortcut this process by talking in advance about your upgrade.  Let’s plan a time to get together and let the Royal Rumpus begin!

Also, Ross reminded me that you can save money by mentioning our “Fall into Fall” promotion – it can save on a block of time or on our hourly services – just ask Ross.

Many of our clients have used the Tabs 3 series of financial systems for their practices of all sizes, for many years.

We are huge proponents of the Tabs3 General Ledger and Accounts Payable modules.  If you have Tabs3, well why not keep it all in the family with these fully integrated financial modules that connect to the Tabs 3 time and billing system to form a single, integrated law firm financial machine.

The problem is that many startup practitces, smaller firms and even medium-sized firms are already using QuickBooks Pro because their accountants prefer it for a variety of reasons.  For many years, we recommended running QuickBooks and Tabs3 side-by-side, but the integration between Tabs3 and QuickBooks, though more  limited than integrating Tabs 3 with its companion Tabs financial modules, is worth setting up.

What do Tabs 3 and QuickBooks do together when integrated? Tabs3 will shoot payments received over to QuickBooks and debit/credit the appropriate accounts.  When writing an advance on behalf of a client – start that entry in Tabs3 and pop into QuickBooks to write the check.  You can still have the robust reporting of Tabs3 and the simplicity and of financial accounting in Quickbooks.

It is nice when two good things play together well and we can show you how. Just ask us.

Why am I feeling Andy Rooney-ish (sans the live caterpillars crawling on my brow thing)? Because I’m tired of getting terse, impolite, uncivil emails. In the legal profession, there’s already far too much incivility, not to mention adding the layer of technology-infused terseness those of us in the legal technology world face daily when dealing with ESL or ETL tech support personnel.

What I mean is this – email is correspondence, right? How many of you have crossed into that communication realm where 90+% of your correspondence comes to you and/or is sent from you electronically, without ever touching physical paper. For some of us, as I wrote about more than 15 years ago (so long ago that I can’t even find the piece online to cite), seeing a paper letter today feels sort of “exotic,” doesn’t it?

So if email is correspondence, two things occur to me:

1. Stop calling it email – there’s no such thing really, it’s just correspondence. And if it’s correspondence, which is just a type of document, stop treating it differently than all your other documents. I mean, why segregate your correspondence and let it hibernate in the bottomless black hole otherwise known as your email inbox and sent items folders? Shouldn’t it be stored with all the other documents on each case wherever those documents are stored and however you organize them? (ideally with a proper legal document manager like Worldox GX2, or its equivalent).
2. If it’s just correspondence, why do we tolerate the nearly universal lack of proper communication etiquette? How often do you get correspondence with no letterhead, no salutation (“Dear Whoever,” or “Hi Whoever”), no initial pleasantry (“I hope you’ve been well”) and no proper professionally courteous closing. Never. So why are these ingrained and time-honored correspondence conventions almost totally ignored when we send correspondence via email? I’m tired of terse messages from people and I suspect you are too.

So stop it. Be more polite when sending correspondence electronically (“ecorrespondence” is a much better term than email). Be nicer. You might be pleasantly surprised at the response. A little more civility could go a long way.

Very much looking forward to seeing some of you at the ABA GP|Solo National Solo & Small Firm Conference in Denver in a couple of weeks! The day before the conference, for our Denver area friends, I’ll be doing a mid-day two hour CLE for the ColoradoBar. Full info is here:

http://www.cobar.org/cle/item.cfm?EventID=LP102012.

MicroLaw has been very busy helping firms continent-wide in cleaning up their practice technology. With Fall well upon us, more or less at least weatherwise (hey it’s going to be 82 in the “Frozen Tundra” of Wisconsin here today so . . . we’ll take this kind of Fall weather!), but definitely calendar-wise, it’s the perfect time to clean your practice technology house as we march towards the end of the year.

To make this process easier – and less expensive, we’ve got a proposal for you. MicroLaw can conduct its detailed practice technology and practice management review for a flat rate based on the size of your practice. The objective? To critique your present technology use and the state of your systems and processes and then provide a highly detailed, yet plain English short-term and long-term plan on how to squeeze the most out of your current (and future) technology systems.

• We’ll spot weaknesses and gaps in your hardware and software mix and recommend how to fix them – this can include transitioning wholly or partly to Macs, but also reviewing local quotes for hardware/network upgrades and/or designing the next generation of your systems and figuring out the best way to get it done cost-effectively
• We’ll look for areas where you’re losing otherwise billable time because of inefficient technology tools and procedures that could be better tuned (or where procedures don’t really exist at all!)
• We’ll help you figure out the best way for your specific practice to build complete electronic case files and get to a single point of entry for client and case information – we can help using a variety of practice management and financial systems, such as the legendary Tabs 3 and Tabs PracticeMaster, as well as the Worldox GX2 document/email manager, among others
• We’ll help you become Paper LESS in a way that works for you
• Better use what you already have – stop under-using Word, Outlook and Acrobat, as well as your practice manager and financial systems
• We’ll help you sort out your iPad/Tablet/Smartphone issues
• We’ll help you figure out if web-based and/or cloud hosting of your data and applications makes sense including using services like CLIO, RocketMatter, Advologix, DropBox, Exchange Hosting, online backup and more
• We’ll help you chart out a path consistent with our “Five B’s” approach: using technology intelligently to achieve Best Practices, Battle Malpractice Risk, Be Ethically Compliant, Better Profitability and achieve a more Balanced/Blissful Life – seriously, if these aren’t your real objectives, what’s the point of continually buying new technology?

Our MicroLaw CARES review (CARES = Computer and Resources Evaluation and Study – clever, huh?) includes:

• Step One – Learning About You – Ross will conduct either live or conference-call interviews of everyone you feel has something to offer related to your present technology and how you use it / don’t use it
• Step Two – We Recommend – Ross will draft a detailed, yet highly understandable (our clients tell us that!) set of recommendations and plans for both technology and procedural improvement and how to best use your existing and future tech tools. We’ll leave no stone unturned in recommending software, hardware, services, support and how to get from where you are to where you want/need to be – with all costs very specifically projected and including a leasing analysis.
• Step Three – Let’s Do Lunch! We’ll meet remotely (or live – your choice) to talk through our recommendations and help you develop a specific set of phased action plan steps ready to act on.

While it’s always better to take a big picture approach and look at your entire practice to be able to give the best advice (see below), you can also buy blocks of Ross’ time just to talk about your situation and bounce ideas off of him (or have him comment on a locally-acquired proposal) – the MicroLaw CARES rates for this are discounted from Ross’ regular $245/hour to $195/hour (but you have to mention the “MicroLaw CARES “Fall into Fall” promotion – that’s the only catch!). OR, if you already happen to have programs like Tabs 3, Tabs PracticeMaster and Worldox, Renee from MicroLaw can help hourly as well – she’s normally $185/hour but the “Fall into Fall” discounted rate is $165/hour – every little bit helps!

So that’s what we can do for you this Fall and Winter – as we’ve done for so many firms. And as we did this past Spring and Summer – which was wildly popular, we’re offering a MicroLaw CARES discounted flat rate plan as follows:

• 1 person in your practice = Flat CARE rate –  Normally $1750, Fall Sale = $1500
• 2-5 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $2000, Fall Sale = $1750
• 6-10 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $2750, Fall Sale = $2500
• 11-20 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $3500, Fall Sale = $3200
• 21-30 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $5000, Fall Sale = $4600
• 31-50 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $6000, Fall Sale = $5600
• 51-75 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $8000, Fall Sale = $7500
• 76-100 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $11,000, Fall Sale = $9995
• 101+ people in your practice – ask Ross about it!  We’ve helped firms with hundreds of people chart their technology paths

The bottom-line is this – the most expensive business decision for any law practice is usually sticking with the status quo – and not being as profitable and client-service-centered as you can. So talk to Ross today and get your Fall/Winter MicroLaw CARES process scheduled before there are no slots left!

iSad.

This is a response I posted to a question on a local Bar listserve about whether a colleague should get a tablet for his practice and then if yes, what kind. Thought it might be useful for folks here:

Join.me is a fast, free and very intuitive way to share your desktop with another user.  Like GoToMeeting and unlike either LogMeIn.com or GoToMyPC.com, you can allow others to control your mouse and keyboard – essentially drive around your system.  It works equally well on PCs and Macs.  Does your Mom get lost when using Facebook?  Do a simple join.me session and help her out.

Both the popular logmein.com and join.me have premium or paid versions of the basic, free applications but frankly the advanced features aren’t all that necessary for regular use.

A good morning from sweltering Jackson, Mississippi where I’ll be delivery six CLE sessions today on a broad range of legal tech topics including cloud computing and Microsoft Word 2010. If you’re interested in downloading the materials, click here and feel free to share the PDFs with everyone in your office. Once you’ve read them and you’re ready to accomplish all these things, then a MicroLaw CARES Practice Technology Review is something to think about – click here to find out how we’re helping firms and legal departments continent-wide and have been for nearly 26 years.

MicroLaw has been very busy helping firms continent-wide in cleaning up their practice technology. With Spring upon us, more or less at least weatherwise, but definitely calendar-wise, it’s the perfect time to clean your practice technology house.

To make this process easier – and less expensive, we’ve got a proposal for you. MicroLaw can conduct it’s detailed practice technology and practice management review for a flat rate based on the size of your practice. The objective? To critique your present technology use and the state of your systems and processes and then provide a highly detailed, yet plain English short-term and long-term plan on how to squeeze the most out of your current (and future) technology systems.

• We’ll spot weaknesses and gaps in your hardware and software mix and recommend how to fix them.
• We’ll look for areas where you’re losing otherwise billable time because of inefficient technology tools and procedures that could be better tuned (or where procedures don’t really exist at all!)
• We’ll help you figure out the best way for your specific practice to build complete electronic case files and get to a single point of entry for client and case information
• We’ll help you become Paper LESS in a way that works for you
• We’ll help you sort out your iPad/Tablet/Smartphone issues
• We’ll help you figure out if web-based and/or cloud hosting of your data and applications makes sense
• We’ll help you chart out a path consistent with our “Five B’s” approach: using technology intelligently to achieve Best Practices, Battle Malpractice Risk, Be Ethically Compliant, Better Profitability and achieve a more Balanced/Blissful Life – seriously, if these aren’t your real objectives, what’s the point of continually buying new technology?

Our MicroLaw CARES review (CARES = Computer and Resources Evaluation and Study – clever, huh?) includes:

• Step One – Learning About You – Ross will conduct either live or conference-call interviews of everyone you feel has something to offer related to your present technology and how you use it / don’t use it
• Step Two – We Recommend – Ross will draft a detailed, yet highly understandable (our clients tell us that!) set of recommendations and plans for both technology and procedural improvement and how to best use your existing and future tech tools. We’ll leave no stone unturned in recommending software, hardware, services, support and how to get from where you are to where you want/need to be – with all costs very specifically projected and including a leasing analysis.
• Step Three – Let’s Do Lunch! We’ll meet remotely (or live – your choice) to talk through our recommendations and help you develop a specific set of phased action plan steps ready to act on.

So that’s what we can do for you this Spring and Summer – as we’ve done for so many firms. And for the first time ever, we’re offering a MicroLaw CARES discounted flat rate plan as follows:

• 1 person in your practice = Flat CARE rate –  Normally $1750, Spring Sale = $1250
• 2-5 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $2000, Spring Sale = $1500
• 6-10 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $2750, Spring Sale = $2250
• 11-20 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $3500, Spring Sale = $3000
• 21-30 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $4500, Spring Sale = $3750
• 31-50 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $5500, Spring Sale = $4750
• 51-75 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $7500, Spring Sale = $6500
• 76-100 people in your practice = Flat CARE rate: Normally $9500, Spring Sale = $8250
• 101+ people in your practice – ask Ross about it! We’ve helped firms with hundreds of people chart their technology paths

The bottom-line is this – the most expensive business decision for any law practice is usually sticking with the status quo – and not being as profitable and client-service-centered as you can. So talk to Ross today and get your Spring MicroLaw CARES process scheduled before there are no slots left!

As a long-time Worldox document/email management system consultant, I have long been bending the document manager to be more of a delegation system than it wanted to be; a player in our efforts to become more paper LESS and efficient.  Through the creation of specialized document tracking fields and saved searches, we could move documents around the office between professionals for team review and editing.  It worked, but of course, there were limitations and some frustrations because Worldox technically is not built to do this.

World Software has now taken a real swipe at those limitations with the release of its Productivity Suite option.  The Worldox add-on consists of up to six helpful tools to further the paper LESS process as well as document handling/review/routing efficiency.  The included new tools are: Workflows (to automate routing, review, notification, etc.), Task Reminder, Event Notifier and Instant Messaging.  For those firms with less than 25 users, World is also including document comparison functionality and PDF creation applications.

I see the Event Notifier and the Instant Messaging system as interesting, but not pivotal. However, two of the tools, Workflows and Task Reminders, make the Suite very worthwhile.  Workflows provides the delegation and tracking our more sophisticated users have been asking for. For example, the ability to say a certain document needs to be routed and reviewed by three people working together on a case. Workflows can be created for all sorts of document handling, routing, reminding situations – really limited only by your imagination in thinking of ways your firm can manage its documents.  It’s also a way to make sure that each responsible pair of eyes sees a document – a nice malpractice risk reduction benefit as well as a best practices ensurer.

The Outlook task integration Task Reminder affords is  really cool too! Iit allows users to tickle document related to-dos, deadlines, followups, etc.  I do wonder why World didn’t just build these features into Worldox GX2 and raise the per seat price.  World Software’s response : not everyone needs these new features.  This is a good argument and it is true and the sensitivity to reasonable and competitive pricing is appreciated.

The cost of the software is $99 per seat based on special introductory license pricing for 25 or fewer users (with $40/year/user for Worldox software maintenance). For 25 or more seats, the special introductory pricing is just $59 per seat (also with the same $40/year/user for software maintenance). We’re not sure how long the introductory pricing will be offered, but we suspect not more than just a few months at most.  Worldox Productivity Suite licenses must match the number of Worldox GX2 licenses currently in place and then must stay at a 1:1 ratio.

Give me a call at 414-540-9433 or send me an email (click here)  if you would like to discuss the Worldox Productivity Suite.  It’s nice to have a little excitement in my area of expertise and even our smallest Worldox clients will find it incredibly useful.

The late Spring, early Summer CLE schedule is BUSY! I’m on the road in May and June as follows and hope to see some of you around the country.

Upcoming legal tech and law practice management CLEs include:

• 2011 Mississippi Bar Technology Seminar: “Using Technology to Help Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times,” Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at the  MS Sports Hall of Fame Conference Center, 1152 Lakeland Dr.|Jackson, MS 39216. I’ll be delivering six CLE sessions covering a broad range of legal tech topics – come and watch to see if I’ll somehow avoid losing my voice by the end of the day! My old friend Ronnie Morton is chairing the program – I always have a great time visiting MS and look forward to seeing lots of old friends in Jackson next week. Here’s a link to the program description. And Alabama lawyers – why not consider stopping in too?
• 2011 Missouri Bar Solo & Small Firm Conference – Thursday June 9-11th at the Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, MO. It’s been three years since I’ve been to this granddaddy of all solo and small firm conferences and I can’t wait to see old friends Linda Oligschlaeger, David Ransin, Dennis Kennedy and all the regular MO Bar SASFC crowd! Full conference info is here: http://www.sasfconference.org/.
• 2011 Rhode Island Bar Annual Meeting - Thursday June 16-17th in Providence. I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Nancy Healey and Peter LaCouture on this program for the last few years – the Rhodey crowds are terrific and I hope to see clients and friends there before heading to Boston for a couple of games at Fenway against our own Milwaukee Brewers. Full conference information is here: https://www.ribar.com/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsId=100.
• 2011 Iowa Bar Annual Meeting - back to my old undergrad stomping grounds on June 23rd in Des Moines for several programs. Looking forward to the city where I spent four great years many moons ago! Full info is here: https://m360.iabar.net/event.aspx?eventID=28618.

Again, I hope to see some of you on the road in May and June! Lots of great legal technology and law practice management CLE!

Many of you know that we’ve been long-time advocates of document/email management systems as the engine that drives our Paper LESS Office process – that’s not new news. But what might seem new is this idea that many of our Worldox-using Paper LESS clients have been taking advantage of for years. The subject is the easiest way to electronically distribute the daily paper mail you get and get it organized electronically via Worldox.

Here’s the familiar scenario: for years, you’ve been used to having your daily snail mail deposited in a nice neat pile on your desk or chair, likely by your assistant. Your assistant may have already reviewed the inbound mail and diaried any key dates, studded the paper mail with sticky notes with comments to you, etc. A pile. Of paper. Irritating. Exasperating. But familiar.

The challenge in trying to make your mail piles Paper LESS boils down to a frustrating quandary. If someone were to scan all your inbound physical mail, where would they store the electronic versions of the paper mail? Where would all those newly PDF-ed pieces of once paper correspondence be stored? Presuming your assistant (or you, as the case may be, for the truly solo solo) has a rational penchant for organization, and further presuming you’ve carved out a sensible digital filing system, wouldn’t they be inclined to store the scanned mail in case/client/subject/project-applicable folders? That makes sense, right?

Well, it actually doesn’t. If they were ordinary documents, we’d applaud the organizational effort. But with inbound snail mail, the same organizational behavior could actually lead to malpractice (seriously!). Um . . . huh? What?

Here’s the problem that being organized creates. So let’s say that Sally is the assistant to lawyer Susan. Sally dutifully scans all Susan’s incoming paper mail today. Sally, being the well-organized and proactive assistant she is (Susan’s lucky to have her!), she stores each piece of scanned mail in proper electronic folders for each client’s matter file and the proper firm administrative folders for each “piece” of mail. But therein lies the rub – what will Susan then have to do to go and find all the electronic documents? How will she know they even came in today? Will Sally have to email Susan a list of links to all the newly stored digital mail? If she did, how much time will Susan waste clicking on all those links, flitting all over the network drive to find the day’s mail? How else would Susan know where to go and see all those distributed mail documents? What a pain? And a situation tailor-made for documents to fall between the cracks and get missed – likely in direct proportion to how important it is that that particular piece of mail be seen by a responsible pair of eyes – that day.

So here’s an idea – circumvent the electronic exasperation by creating a “digital mail pile;” a system of organizing scanned incoming paper mail in a way that replicates the experience of the physical mail pile. Ideally, using your document manager, such as Worldox GX2 which most of our clients use, create a folder for each person in the office who receives and reviews paper mail. So in our example, create a folder called “Susan’s Mail Pile.” Sally then scans all of Susan’s mail and puts in the “Susan’s Mail Pile” folder. In Worldox, create a bookmark for Susan so she can go directly to her “Mail Pile” with a single click. Sally can add “comments” to any piece of scanned mail to provide Susan with instructions, notes about how any key dates or deadlines might have already been posted in their practice management system, etc. Just as if Sally studded the mail pile with post-its with instructions/comments.

Procedurally, each day Sally scans Susan’s incoming mail into “Susan’s Mail Pile.” Susan then clicks once to look at her list of received mail each day. She then lets Sally know she viewed the items by clicking “Y” in a field in the Worldox Save As Profile called “Reviewed” and clicks “save.” Sally then can look in Susan’s Mail Pile folder at the end of the day and confirm which pieces of scanned mail Susan has reviewed and which remain unreviewed – a simple yet effective check and balance on complete and responsible communication. Sally then takes the reviewed mail and moves it to the correct client/matter/project/subject folders.

The end result is that none of Susan’s valuable and otherwise billable time is wasted having to navigate all over the system just to find what used to be in a nice, neat, easy to see/find paper pile in the middle of her desk. Yet the documents, through a smart division of labor, end up exactly where they are supposed to go, once they’ve been reviewed – directly paralleling the traditional paper process where Susan would have returned the perused paper mail pile and then given it back to Sally for physical filing.

This actually works – it’s a practical, field-proven way to bring common sense organization via a digital mail pile. And it’s as safer, more professional way to practice law at the same time. As Martha Stewart is so fond of saying, “and that’s a good thing.”

Recently, Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 has replaced Small Business Server 2008 as the current supported version of Microsoft’s server offering for small to medium-sized offices. The majority of MicroLaw’s small firm clients have long been using some version of the attractively-priced server software bundle from Microsoft, often coming with their new Dell or Lenovo servers.

The product is based on the much-improved Windows Server 2008, still the most recent server version of the Windows network operating system.  However, it now includes Exchange 2010, the newest version of Microsoft’s mail and personal information server – the underlying “engine” for network-shareable Outlook email, calendars and contacts.

While there are a number of technical improvements to Exchange 2010 behind the scenes, the main improvement from a user’s perspective is a new Outlook Web App for browser-based mailbox access that is almost as powerful and smooth to use as the actual Outlook desktop application.  MicroLaw’s clients have been increasingly interested in accessing all their practice information from anywhere, from any device (iPads, smartphones, netbooks, Macs, laptops, etc.). This is the perfect way to extend the reach back to the office calendars, emails, contacts and tasks.

Also, an update to the Remote Web Workplace (unique to the Small Business Server line) adds the ability to upload and download files from shared folders on the server, making it possible to access your saved documents through any ordinary browser with internet access – a boon for small firm clients who want to keep their own documents, securely within their own control, but still remotely access them from outside the office, as they might with a web-service like Dropbox or Box.net – but for free.

Following the success of Windows Small Business Server 2008, Windows Server Backup is now superb – more and more of our clients are using this built-in server backup function to backup their server content to fast, high-capacity and inexpensive USB hard drives – the tape backup era is dead, thank goodness. But now, so is the need to buy separate and costly network backup software with this new operating system release.

These two remote access features alone make it a strong improvement over Small Business Server 2008. MicroLaw is currently recommending Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 to all its small firm clients.

Ask us about Windows Small Business Server 2011 and Dell and Lenovo servers for your small firm practice – they’re really inexpensive, especially when using commercial leasing such as the services of companies like American Industrial Leasing, long a recommended financing source for our clients. And of course, with Windows Remote Desktop access, roll your own internet hosting cloud too!