I’m really excited to announce that MicroLaw has decided to become one of the first certified consultants for the award-winning cloud-computing based practice management system, Clio.

You can read the press release from today here which has a bunch of my comments about why we’ve made this decision, what it brings to our current and prospective clients, etc. I’ve been critical of cloud computing in the past and still take a very pragmatic view of its suitability for various practices. But the time is right, the systems are ready and MicroLaw will include Clio in the range of possible practice management choices it recommends, and can directly support for its clients.

Does this mean we’re pulling back on “terrestrial” practice management systems? OF COURSE NOT! MicroLaw has always been intensely independent about the products and services it recommends to its clients – no change on that front. We chose Clio because we believe in the company, the product and the concept – the same reason we have long-recommended industry stalwarts including Tabs 3 legal financial system, Tabs PracticeMaster, Adobe Acrobat, the Payne Group’s “Assistant” series of tools, Fujitsu scanners and the Worldox document/email management system among others.

Because these products are often the best choices – the benchmarks against which we can reliably measure and compare other products in order to provide our clients with sound, reliable, functional, profit-maximizing, client service-enhancing and quality-of-life improving systems for their practices.

All of us at MicroLaw are very excited to be working with Jack and Ryan at Themis and their Clio practice management system. For inquiries about whether Clio is suitable for your practice, or for any legal technology and law practice management guidance, talk to us – click here to email me directly and we can chat about your practice situation and how we can help!

To anyone near Hartford or who wants to view the live webcast online, the Connecticut Bar Foundation is putting on its annual Law Practice Management and Technology symposium tomorrow all day at the UCONN law school in William Starr Hall. The official name of the seminar is: “Connecticut Bar Foundation: James W. Cooper Fellows Law & Technology Symposium – Flash Forward or Lost: How Technology is Changing the Practice of Law, and What’s Next?”

One of the volunteers helping the program, Dan Schwartz has a post about it on his blog with a link to the program info here. I also posted about it last month as part of a series of CLEs I’ve been asked to do.

Here’s a link to a Word doc with full program details. If you can’t make the live program (starts at 830AM, registration onsite open at 745AM), the entire conference is being streamed live – go here to login tomorrow.

I’ll be doing a program at 11AM called: ““It’s Complicated: Technology for Non-Techies and How Technology is Changing the Practice of Law” – I’ll be introduced by our own Susan Carter Liebel of Solo Practice University fame. In addition, well-known speakers Kevin O’Keefe (from Lexblog) and Bob Ambroggi (from LawSites) are on the faculty – both are terrific speakers.

Hope to see some of you there – or if you follow along online, let me know!

Special thanks in advance to sponsors, Tabs 3 / PracticeMaster (www.tabs3.com) and Worldox GX2 (www.worldox.com) for their support of the event and for decades of support of the legal technology market in general!

Okay, time to head to the airport for what I understand is 80+ degree weather in Hartford today (yikes!)

As many of you know, MicroLaw has always been an independent consultancy – we recommend the products we believe best fit the needs of our law practice clients worldwide. As such, for many years, we have recommended the Tabs 3 and Tabs PracticeMaster legal financial and practice management systems.

Recently, more and more firms have been asking us to help them migrate away from other practice management and billing systems. One of you asked if I would post about how we can help other firms make this kind of move . . . so here we go!

It’s actually not that painful or even expensive to bail out of one billing/practice management system and move to another if you have experienced assistance and solid advance planning. Renee and I from MicroLaw have extensive experience helping firms of all sizes migrate from one system to another, including coordinating the transfer of all your billing and practice information into the new system so it’s ready to go.

If you’re frustrated with your present systems or worried about increasingly costly software support/maintenance fees from your present products, or worse – worried about the operational stability of your current systems and the vendor’s ability to competently solve problems, we should really talk. Click here to touch bases with me about this. We can discuss your practical options and together decide if making a move makes sense for your practice (or perhaps we can help you solve the problems with your present systems – not impossible necessarily).

We can determine in one phone call whether Tabs 3 and Tabs PracticeMaster, often combined with the Worldox document/email management system, are the right answer for your practice situation. We also offer flat project rates and special 25th Anniversary discounts to make the process very affordable, especially given that we know from experience that well-implemented systems will actually become a significant profit center for your practice!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about cloud computing for my clients. More and more questions are being raised about whether the web-based, hosted approach makes sense for small firms. In particular, for practice and financial management approaches. I’ve written two columns for Technolawyer’s SmallLaw column on the subject, the first of which is now posted at the blog site here and the second was distributed to subscribers this past Monday and will show up on the blog shortly. I’m curious to see what everyone thinks about my position on this. I’ve been bombarded with thoughtful responses to far and will ask the submitters for permission to publish their thoughts as well. This is an essential, timely discussion!

Hey NYC area Ross Ipsa readers – I’m going to be in Manhattan on Tuesday the 23rd for a full day of NYSBA CLE. Visiting Kodner1.html at Penn on Monday, then taking the train to the city Tuesday morning. I’m doing a seminar called “Tightwad Tech and the Portable Office” with full info here.

The program is taking place at the Concierge Conference Center at 780 Third Ave with afternoon and early evening sessions as follows:

PART I: 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EDT)

“Tightwad Technology for Tough & Trying Times: Practicing Smarter, More Profitably and Greener”

Session 1: From Paper to Pixels: Paper LESS Works, Paperless Doesn’t

• Who isn’t swimming in a sea of paper every day?
• Avoid ethical and malpractice risk by best tracking client files
• Learn about the only practical way to manage paper in your practice via document   management
• Move to complete, contiguous electronic case files, while still keeping paper
• Bill at least 15 more minutes every single day – or much more
• No more aggravating paper chases around the office looking for matter files
• A proven, twenty year field-tested process for every practice, large or small

Session 2: From Chaos to Cases: Practice Management Systems That Really Work

• Dates, deadlines, case notes – modern law practice is a dizzying swirl of information
• Practice management systems are the ultimate malpractice safety net
• Track…everything and access all case information from everywhere
• Recover at least 15 billable minutes every day
• Practice management systems are the central beating information heart of a practice

Session 3: Tightwad Technology: 60 Top Time-Saving, Practice-Protecting Tips for All Lawyers

• Learn how to better use the tech you already have without spending more!
• Free and cheap tools including conference calling and internet faxing
• Squeeze more out of Word, Acrobat, Outlook and your practice manager
• Information you can put to use IMMEDIATELY in your practice!

PART II: 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (EDT)

“The Portable Practice: Mobile Lawyering from Court, Your Balcony or the Nearest Starbucks”

Session 1: The Mobile Lawyer: All The Tools to Practice Anytime, Anywhere – Laptops, Netbooks, Smartphones, Cloud Computing and More

• Everything about portabilizing your practice
• Choosing the right laptops, netbooks and mobile gadgetry
• Smartphones and tablets – from iPhones to Blackberry to iPad, Android and beyond – how to choose?
• Practicing law in the “cloud” – tools and systems to practice anywhere, anytime

Session 2: The Mobile Lawyer: Better Using Microsoft Word 2007 and Adobe Acrobat in Your Portablized Practice

• Demystify Word 2007 – learn about styles, using “Lego” in Word to build documents
• The top (and necessary) Word tools – from revealing codes to numbering paragraphs
• Addressing the Word metadata issue, the PDF First approach and protecting your clients, cases and practice
• Acrobat – far beyond mere PDFing
• Legal PDF tools: Bates stamping, redaction, typewriter, PDF “electronic three ring binders” and more
• Securing your PDFs and removing PDF metadata

Session 3: The Mobile Lawyer and How NOT to Commit Malpractice With Your Portable Technology

• See how you could commit malpractice in a single mouse click or touchpad swipe
• Protect client confidences in a digitally scary world
• Practice securely and safely with online backup, internet syncing and safe email
• Avoid mobile security nightmares that expose case information and strategy
• Save your practice, save your livelihood, save your law license!

I’m also really grateful for the sponsorship of these companies whose generosity is making my appearance possible for the New York State Bar – we’ve talked about these products hear for years – I’ve been big fans of them for decades (literally) and many of my clients use them:

* Tabs 3 and Tabs PracticeMaster from Software Technology, Inc. with info here.

* Worldox GX2 from World Software with info here.

Hope to see some some of you there and would be happy to grab a drink or a bite to eat with anyone afterwards. I’m staying at the Marriott Eastside at 49th and Lex. Let me know if you’d like to try and get together afterwards.

. . . MicroLaw’s current and prospective clients! Yes, we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary this June. We’ve somehow managed to persevere through DOS, all manners of Windows silliness, the Mac life cycle and endless tech trials and tribulations to find ourselves finishing our first quarter century serving the tech and practice management needs of over a thousand law firm and legal department clients.

25 year – 1985 was a very different legal technology world. We were smack dab in the heyday of DOS, WordPerfect 4.2, early versions of Tabs 3 (wow – they’ve been around forever too) and a time when Novell, the network company was also being founded . . . and a company, still considered an upstart, had released its first Macintosh just a year earlier. In some ways, I think that legal technology was actually a bit more effective 25 years ago, but then the “good old days,” viewed through the therapeutic filter of time, were never quite as good as we recall them.

But I digress (he said, waxing nostalgically . . . ). Let’s talk about now. We’ve been trying to come up with some way to thank current and future MicroLaw clients – as we enter our second quarter-century of service. In these times, the best way to say “thanks” is with . . . and this may seem a tad crass . . . but with discounts (you knew that was coming).

From now – today – March 10, 2010, through December 31st of this year, we are offering a whole range of discounts on MicroLaw professional services (for work performed from this point forward). There are discounts on our award-winning legal technology training on everything from Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Windows and Publisher, to our core disciplines including Tabs 3, PracticeMaster, Worldox document management,  Acrobat and scanning, TimeMatters, Worldox and more. We’re also offering discounts on tech support and most importantly on something we’ve never offered discounts on . . . our practice technology evaluations and “check-ups.”

Who doesn’t want / need to save some money these days? Everyone, right? So not only can we thank you by saving you money helping figure out how to MAKE more money by smarter use of the technology tools you already have, but we can show you several field-proven ways to generate returns of 5-25% from just a few technology tips (including various iterations of our now 20 year old Paper LESS Office approach, through practice management use and more).

Every week we’ll offer a new discount on services your practice needs (we ALL need SOME kind of help, even if it’s just a kind and friendly ear sometimes, right?).

Our 25th Anniversary Deal of the Week:

This week through March 19th – get $25 off the cost of every hour of MicroLaw legal technology training courses! The savings can add up really quickly (you don’t need to be trained by the 19th, just schedule your sessions – which can be done remotely via our GoToMeeting system anywhere in the world).

So guys – ask me. We’re ready to help for the next 25 years!

Courtesy of Law Technology News on 2/1/10, my article on netbooks, as follows:

Netbooks — those diminutive minicomputers that you’re seeing in airports and coffee shops — have more power than you might expect. Your first instinct may be that a netbook might be a handy way to work when you’re stuck in coach with limited elbow room; or when you want a better way to check e-mail before you go to bed than trying to read a Word doc on your BlackBerry.

In other words, you might expect a netbook to be a part-time adjunct to a full-size laptop or desktop system.

But many netbook owners are finding that “occasional” has become “most of the time.” Netbooks can feel just as responsive as the bulkier, more costly full-size laptops. This raises the inevitable question: “Is there any reason I can’t use a netbook as my primary computer system?”

MATURING
One thing is certain: Netbooks certainly are maturing. A new generation of Intel netbook processors, the N450 “Pine Trail” series, was launched in December. The additional processing power of this main brain versus its predecessor Intel N270 chip opens up a range of desktop-replacement abilities that previously skirted the edge of practicality.

Most new netbooks follow the current standard of a 10″ display, a weight of about three pounds, and at least six hours of battery run time. Netbooks are also in operating system transition, from Microsoft’s Windows XP Home to Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The fundamental question when considering a netbook as your primary PC is processing capability: “Can I run all the programs I need to manage my practice, simultaneously, at a reasonable speed?”

For most of us, this includes at least four programs:
1. A word processor, likely a recent vintage of Word.
2. E-mail , with Outlook or Outlook Web Access the probable candidate.
3. Browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, or Apple’s Safari).
4. A practice/document management application.

MY EXPERIENCE
My own experience, with Lenovo’s S10 and Samsung’s NC20 (both upgraded, inexpensively, to 2 GB RAM), has been very positive when running five programs. The netbooks are often my primary workhorse systems, with my trusty Lenovo Thinkpad T61 full-size laptop relegated to my laptop bag.

Lenovo’s S10/S12 models cost about $300 to $450 respectively, with the 10-inch and 12-inch displays being the distinctive difference. The S12 model incorporates a top-notch keyboard. Some models have larger hard drives, up to 250 or even 320 GB.

COMPONENTS
The following components can turn any modern netbook into a fully-functioning stationary (and mobile) workstation for a lawyer:

• Docking device to connect the netbook to other devices — such as an LCD display, printers, keyboards, wired high speed internet, etc.

For example, Toshiba’s $149 Dynadock U USB or Wireless U models allow up to three video displays via a single USB connection to any netbook.

Budget about $175 to $200 for a 22-inch LCD display, and another $100 for a wireless keyboard/mouse kit.

• An external USB hard drive for data backup (potentially partitioned to allow additional storage space when docked in the office).

There are very attractively-priced 1 TB drives, such as Western Digital’s My Book Essential series, available for as little as $90.

At least three drives are preferable for an alternating media-based backup scheme. Use data backup software, such as Acronis’s TrueImage Home 2010 for daily backups (about $60).

• Power Protection : Use electrical protection, for your docked home/office setup — as well as a portable surge protector for your laptop bag. Never, ever plug in without it.

For the office, brands such as APC, Tripplite and Belkin offer multiple outlet surge strips for less than $30. Tripplite’s Traveler is a $20 two-outlet, compact portable surge protector that is intended for mobile systems.

• Portable scanners can turn physical paper into PDFs when connected to your netbook via the office port replicator. These can be powered via your netbook’s USB port. Fujitsu’s ScanSnap S300 tips the scales at three pounds with a cost of about $255.

LOW COST
This complete setup, sans only your program software and requisite system maintenance utilities (e.g., an anti-malware suite and anti-metadata tools), can cost as little as $1,200. This buys a system ready to dock at your desk and easily portable when you hit the road.

Personal preferences vary; our colleague Donna Payne, in a recent Test Drive column, finds netbooks still a bit clunky for her needs. But unless your legal computing needs require more than four or five simultaneously running applications, you just might find that a netbook can be a very cost-effective, very portable, very dockable alternative to a full-size laptop or desktop system.

Here are a few tips to help you select the netbook that is best-suited for your particular mobile law practice approach, with the least dent to your technology budget:

1. How big are your fingers? All netbooks are not created equal — it’s important to choose a netbook that is comfortable. Face it, if you’re an ex-high school linebacker with fingers as big as a bassoon, the only keyboards that might have a chance of working for you would be the larger 12-inch models. The 10-inch versions, with more compact keyboards, will frustrate you.

But if you have the thin, agile fingers of a pianist, a 10-inch netbook may hit the note. Before ordering a netbook online (no matter what brand), find one of similar proportions at a local retailer and try out the keyboard.

2. How good are your eyes? Those of us on the far side of 40 may struggle and squint at the smaller screens on 10-inch units. The extra two inches of screen real estate offered by larger netbooks might make all the difference. As above, scout out netbooks to be sure you’re visually comfortable with the displays and the size of the characters.

3. To tablet or not? Netbook-sized tablets are just becoming available. As with traditionaltablets such as theLenovo Thinkpad X series, and various Hewlett Packard and Fujitsu models, these netbooks have touch-sensitive screens that accept stylus input. This means you can jot handwritten notes and fill-in on-screen forms, and use tablet-friendly software tools such as Microsoft’s OneNote.

Netbook tablets include Lenovo’s newly announced Ideapad S10-3t with a 10-inch tablet display and Asus’ EEE T91-MT model with an 8.9-inch tablet display.

4. Where to buy? We all want to spend as little as possible — the economy makes it mandatory to be as frugal as possible.

Online options include Pricegrabber.com, C|Net’s Shopper.com and Google Product Search (google.com/products) to track down the best possible pricing for your netbook — as well as related accessories.

One example is pre-release pricing on the new Lenovo Netbook Tablet, the S10-3t. It is listed as $549 on the Lenovo website — but only $499 from Amazon.com.

Aside from Amazon, with a wide range of netbooks available, other netbook-heavy web merchants include NewEgg.com and Provantage.com — both with a solid reputation for service and responsiveness, in addition to routinely lowest-in-category pricing.

Happy shopping!

I’ve been deluged with emails about my most recent Technolawyer SmallLaw column entitled: “Ending the SaaS Stalemate in the Small Firm Market.” It will be distributed soon on the Technolawyer SmallLaw blog here if you didn’t get the regular distribution via email (and if you don’t receive them “freshly out of the oven” it’s free to subscribe here). Readers seem to be interpreting my statements regarding the need to focus more on core functionality of legal SaaS applications and just accept the fact that the logistical issues will work themselves out (i.e. ethical issues related to storing confidential client information with third parties, online accessibility and offline access, data security, business continuity in the event of entity failure, etc.).

To be clear – I am absolutely NOT suggesting we give SaaS applications a free pass on logistics issues. On the contrary, I feel as intensely strongly about those issues as I ever have, especially offline, real-world access to online data in the event of a loss of net connectivity or a business failure of the SaaS provider. My point is that it’s just time to stop letting the debate about SaaS getting mired in the muck about SaaS v. Installed Apps. My position is simple – if Salesforce.com can be a multi-billion dollar trusted SaaS provider to the enterprise corporate world, there’s no reason to believe that the young legal SaaS providers won’t address all the logistics issues. And of course, I want to see them addressed much sooner rather than later. I personally have a very hard time recommending a SaaS core application (i.e. billing or practice management) in the absence of an immediately usable offline module or capability.

But the improvement of the breed requires us to shift our focus from these near non sequiturs to the debate that matters: features. Do these applications have the functionality we need to accomplish whatever they are intended to do – to be the financial engine for our practices or the central beating information hearts of a law firm or legal department? That is the question we need to focus on – it’s what users ultimately care about. So blow away all the swirling smoke obscuring the real argument already guys – that’s what I was saying!

But SaaS folks – I’m not giving ANY of you a free pass on the logistics issues (take note Jack at CLIO – I think your blog post overstates my position here:  - get ‘em done – correctly and soon before many of us who influence others in the legal technology world lose patience.

With that said, I think it’s time to acknowledge SaaS is here, it’s not going away and that it’s on the verge of feeling “mainstream.”

Folks, I have the great pleasure to announce a four city CLE series beginning this week in Nashville, followed in short order by Boston, New York and then Hartford in April. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Tabs 3 / PracticeMaster and Worldox GX2, from Software Technology Inc. and World Software, respectively, I’ll be delivering a series of hard-hitting, ultra-practical, put-it-to-use-in-your-practice now CLE programs. Many of you know that, as one of the relatively few independent consultancies in the legal technology industry, MicroLaw has long believed in, and recommended the combination of the Tabs 3 legal financial system, the PracticeMaster practice management system and the Worldox document/email/paper management program. Together, they work as a tightly integrated team of functionality to power any law practice’s move to build and rely on completely contiguous electronic case files. More and more MicroLaw clients – practices of all sizes and types – are migrating from a variety of other systems to these products.

The two companies, led by Dan Berlin of STI and Ray Zweifelhofer of World Software, have long demonstrated a deep commitment to more than just hawking their wares (admittedly very competent, class-leading, multi-awarded wares), but to educating the legal market through their support of CLE events worldwide. I’ll be talking in large part about how the collection of integrated practice / document / email / financial management information, unified electronically by Tabs 3, PracticeMaster, Worldox and Microsoft Outlook have become the “efficiency engine of choice” for so many law firms and legal departments. I’ll be talking about a “day in the life” perspective of how lawyers and legal professionals can each realistically “buy back” at least 15-30 minutes of additional billable time every single work day by virtue of the use of a well-implemented mix of these software systems (and BTW, MicroLaw’s Renee Kodner and Abraham Liebsch, along with yours truly, have a quarter century of experience helping firms with just these kinds of transitions – click here to ask for more info and also about our 25th Anniversary current/new client promotions to help save money).

With that said, Tabs and Worldox bring us the following appearances I’ll be making over the next six weeks:

• Tennessee Bar’s LawTech 2010 in Nashville. March 5th with full information here: https://www.tnbaru.com/CLE/catalog_course_details.php?course=6217. I’ll be speaking on a variety of topics including my ever-popular Paper LESS Office topic which directly addresses the necessity of an integrated practice/document/email/financial management system. I’ll also be doing a really useful social media program with the King of legal internet marketing and dear friend, Greg Siskind.
• Massachusetts Bar’s AC10 LPM Track in Boston, March 12th with full information here: http://www.massbar.org/for-attorneys/calendar/mba-events/annual-conference-2010. Again, I’ll be speaking on the electronic case file approach as part of my Paper LESS Office presentation, as well as a rollicking 60 Sites program with Rodney Dowell, Alan Klevan and the inimitable Bob Ambroggi.
  
• New York State Bar LPM CLE in Manhattan, March 23rd with full information here: http://www.nysba.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Events1&Template=/Conference/ConferenceDescByRegClass.cfm&ConferenceID=3982. I’ll be presenting my Tightwad Technology for Tough & Trying Times and the Portable Law Office – six sessions throughout the day with the Paper LESS Office and Practice Management getting heavy emphasis.
  
• Connecticut Bar Foundation Law & Technology Symposium in Hartford at UCONN Law School, Friday, April 9th. I’ll be speaking on a broad range of tech topics along with other techno.pals, Bob Ambroggi and Kevin O’Keefe. Online info not yet available.

So be sure to stop by and say hi if you’re able to come to any of these four programs. And by all means, a tip of the hat to series sponsors STI (Tabs 3 and PracticeMaster) and the integrated Worldox GX2 document/email/paper management system from Word Software. See you around!

Yesterday I discovered the Twitter persona, FakeRossKodner at www.twitter.com/FakeRossKodner. Yes folks, it’s my very own unauthorized parody Twitter account!

To say that I’m flattered would be an understatement. After all, think about the kind of people who have an admirer / stalker / PW (personal whackjob) create a “fake” info source for them. The only person I can think of off the top of my head is Steve Jobs and the famous Fake Steve Jobs site (now at http://www.fakesteve.net/) that got tons of press for years. I actually can’t recall a single other person in the history of the legal technology world that has their own unauthorized fake site, fake Twitter feed, fake blog, fake social media account, etc. So for a major ego boost, who could ask for more?

So to think that I’m in the same kind of category – ANY kind of similar category to his Steveness is wildly flattering. On the other hand, Steve Jobs doesn’t exactly have the reputation of being a particularly nice guy and I do think I’m a pretty decent sort most of the time :-)

So to whomever has the extra time on their hands to write a parody Twitter feed of me (and I love the really frightening picture he/she found – I think it was taken during either a CLE I did in Montreal last year or in Chicago – it kind of reminds me, disturbingly, of the Nuremberg Rally . . . egads!), I salute you. As long as you don’t cross the libel line (in which case, I will press Twitter to remove the account), go for it – I got quite a good laugh yesterday and we all could use more humor in our lives, right?

Oh, in case you grassy knoll conspiracy theorist types might be wondering . . . no, it’s not me writing it (although I have to admit, I wish I had thought of it :-)).

As a Macbook owner, I have tended to be nearly fanatical about taking care of my svelte aluminum-chassis’d machine, wanting to preserve it’s factory-new appearance. I carry it in a Civilian Lab Gear Air Manila leather sleeve but a new Macbook cover caught my attention yesterday. It’s called the BookBook:

BookBook from TwelveSouth

It’s from TwelveSouth. It envelopes the Macbook in what appears to be a vintage leather hardbound book. So not only does it provide a safe and secure cocoon for your Macbook, it also serves as a disguise, discouraging thievery (other than from those on the prowl for first editions :-). $79.99 – and they just look cool, which is an intrinsic part of the Mac ethos, right?

Saw this announcement yesterday from the ABA Law Practice Management Section:

“ABA Law Practice Management Section Names New Director

The American Bar Association announced today that Pamela McDevitt has been named the new director for the Law Practice Management Section, effective March 22, 2010.

For the past four years, Pamela has served the New York State Bar Association as Director of Law Practice Management. In that capacity, she has developed a variety of continuing legal education programs, re-designed the State Bar’s Law Practice Management and Solo Practice Web pages, coordinated the development of practice-oriented books, and developed numerous articles and publications. Prior to joining the State Bar, she practiced law in a small firm for nine years, following a term of service as a Captain in the United States Army JAG Corps with assignments in Administrative and Labor Law, including representing the Department of Defense in EEOC hearings, Unfair Labor Practice Lawsuits, Merit System Protection Boards, and sexual harassment claims.

The section would like to thank H. Maria Enright, the Director of the ABA Professional Services Division, who led the search process for our new director, with input from me and chair-elect Andrea Hartley. We were very pleased with the quality and quantity of candidates for the position.

Between now and the end of March, Jill Eckert McCall will continue to serve as our interim director. Jill’s leadership and guidance of our staff has been tremendous—and she still has her “day job” as Director of the Young Lawyers Division. The help we have received from both Maria and Jill has allowed for smooth sailing during this gap in section directors.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, I can say that we are extremely excited about the ideas, energy and leadership Pamela McDevitt will bring to our section. Please join me in welcoming her to the ABA LPM family.

Micah Buchdahl
Chair”

So a new era begins! Congratulations Pam!

Alright, I agree, that was a pathetic effort at alliteration but it’s true! I’ve been writing a series of PDF-related columns for my Technolawyer SmallLaw contributions over the last couple of months. I’ve written detailed “how to” guides on:

• PDF Packaging - how to create “electronic three ring binders” to organize client and firm administrative documents. Examples include electronic versions of traditional estate planning binders, firm HR documents, discovery indices and much more. See the column here.
• Searchable PDFs – how to turn “image” PDFs into searchable or “accessible” PDFs. Most of you want and need to do this – it opens up PDF content not only to be searched but also to be leveraged by copying and pasting it into other programs, such as documents or emails. See the column here.
• Typewriters Begone! – how to use the Typewriter tool in Adobe Acrobat to fill in pre-printed forms onscreen, including full editing ability. See the column here.

In future editions, I’ll be writing about Bates Stamping, Secure Redaction and using the Commenting functions to review PDF documents. Watch for them with your free subscription to Technolawyer and specifically to receive the SmallLaw column, distributed weekly via email.

First, I want to thank all of you who have expressed concern at my “disappearance” for the last several months. Simple explanation: I was busy. Really, really busy. Still am. A mix of personal things (very, very positive!) and an increase in business which was unexpected (based largely on growing demand for assistance transitioning from one practice management system to others (largely an exodus from TimeMatters/BillingMatters to other products). I’ve also been busy writing my SmallLaw column for Technolawyer – which also has been very popular.

So those are my excuses for temporary invisibility.

So it’s now 2010 and Ross Ipsa Loquitur is back in business! I’m committed to bringing you the information, insights and commentary you’ve enjoyed for the last four years.

So stay tuned folks!

The title says it all. No, it’s not about legal technology. It’s about sports. And about decency, or lack thereof. My family have been Packers fans and season ticket holders since the dawn of recorded time. And like every member of the tribe, and like other Packers shareholders (yes, we have our single share of team ownership), we were devoted Brett Favre followers.

But this is an abomination. It is an affront to all that is decent or at least should be decent in sports. It is about spite, maliciousness, delusional and unjustified revenge, stunning immaturity and callousness and an utter and complete lack of any sense of sportsmanship or honor.

I, as had so many others over so many years, viewed Brett Favre as more than an icon – he was the Lou Gehrig of professional football. An iron man of iron character. A mensch from Mississippi.

I was wrong. We all were. Brett Favre is a modern sporting prima donna of the worst type. He masqueraded as a mensch and deluded so many of us into thinking he was something different . . . above the fray . . . a player who certainly made a very, very good living, but was motivated foremost by the sheer joy of being able to play his favorite sport. We saw it on his face with every touchdown and with every Lambeau leap taken by his targeted receivers over so many years. It was real . . . for awhile.

In the end, it doesn’t even seem to be about business – he doesn’t need the money. His motivation? Embarrassing the Packers and seeking the retribution he feels he is due for the “injustices” and “slights” he feels he suffered.

That loud sucking noise coming from Minneapolis and the Vikings training camp is the sound of the last shred of anything honorable disappearing from professional football.

Brett Fave isn’t a mensch. He’s just a football player.

He’s more of an abomination in my mind than Vista ever was. And my readers know, that says it all.

This is so terribly, terribly disappointing.

What a perfect day to start your digital week! Tigerdirect has an i-Inc 25″ LCD flat panel display for $189. To be sure, that’s a great price but what makes it a really exceptional deal is:

• 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Super-fast 2 ms screen response time fast enough even for mid-afternoon Flight Simulator spins (admit it, you know you do!)
• The best part – two HDMI inputs so you can connect a digital cable box, Blue-Ray or DVD player, Tivo HD, etc. for video

And of course, if one of these would be good, two would be better and three would unquestionably rock . Just be sure though that your video adapter is capable of 1920×1080 resolution so you can take advantage of all that screen real estate.

Here’s the link - as usual, the stock in these kinds of things don’t last long. If I could think of somewhere to put it in my home or office, I’d buy one – I’m just swimming with displays though. Happy hunting!

For my online CLE with Andy Adkins next week on August 20th at noon CDT (12-130PM CDT), I’ve just been told there is a $50 discount code available – the CLE info is here including online registration. The discount code to use when checking out is Z7745121. Every little bit helps, right?? Hope you can join Andy and me next week – we’ve got a ton of materials included! Everything about practice management systems including our thoughts on SaaS / Cloud Computing products.

I can always count on my pal Jim Calloway to cut to the core of issues that no one else seems to address. Jim’s got a great post at his Law Practice Tips blog ( the post is here) called “Online Reputation Management: First Rule is to Avoid Self-Inflicted Wounds.”  The money quote from Jim’s post is “We’ve all been there. I have one rather infamous e-mail in my past I’d still like to have back. If you tweet multiple times per day, you are going to hit a few foul balls. I’ll probably anger some people with this post. But, I think I am trying to make a point, which is let’s all be careful out there on the Internet, OK?” As usual, well said Jim – read the full post folks (and frankly, pretty much everything Jim blogs about – you’ll always take away something eminently practical and inherently useful.

I had the great pleasure of participating in the Digital Edge podcast with co-authors, techno.pals and friends Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway. The subje

ct was the new book the three of us will debut exactly one week from today called “How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times,” published by the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section.  Listen to the podcast here – I know you’ll find it’s exploration of the issues facing so many lawyers today to be immediately useful. The book itself is available for pre-order through it’s August 20th publication date at a 15% discount. In the spirit of the content of the book, every little bit helps!

My latest Technolawyer SmallLaw column is now online here. It’s called “Top Five BigSolo Mistakes: How to Destroy Your Fledgling Law Firm.” The column is a tongue-in-cheek perspective on the ways new solos, small firms or BigSolos (see my previous column for a discussion of the economy-driven BigSolo trend of BigLaw attorneys hanging out shingles in record numbers) can virtually ensure failure of their ventures. I explore the top five mistakes new small firms can make and by converse implication, how such firms should do precisely the opposite. Hope you find it useful!

See the archived prior editions of the SmallLaw column here, including those by my co-columnist Mazy Hedyat. And while you’re at it, if you’re not already a Ross Ipsa Loquitur subscriber and just visiting the blog, it makes sense to do what so many others in the legal community have done and subscribe (upper right corner of the blogsite – to get your RIL feed via Feedblitz emails – couldn’t be easier).

"The Technolawyer Community - subscribe, it's free and necessary for every legal professional." - Ross Kodner