Reporting live from ABA TECHSHOW 2012, here’s my broad impressions on the unofficial theme for this year’s conference, based largely on what the marketplace is doing. Based on the buzz and activity in the exhibit hall, there are three things:

1) Cloud everything – whether practice management, document storage, collaboration, discovery, financial and document systems, what gets the crowd excited are any kind of cloud initiative.

2) Mac v. Windows – it doesn’t matter anymore with lawyers able to use both interchangeably when drive by use of cloud apps and services – these serve as the great equalizer rendering one’s hardware platform choice more a matter of preference than anything else.

3) Push harder – in other words, get more out of the software and services you’ve already been using – time to stop fumbling with Word and trying to use it as a glorified, post-WordPerfect typewriter. Stop glossing over the deep range of capabilities within programs like Microsoft Outlook and Adobe Acrobat. Stop being a digital slob with electronic snippets of info all over the place and unify it with tools like Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. Stop accumulating and start really USING the products and services you’ve bought and paid for. A sound message I’ve been preaching for decades. And a message ideally suited to challenging times for legal economics.

These themes shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone – but thanks to ABA TECHSHOW and Chair Reid Trautz and his planning team,  as always for being smart enough, sharp enough and sensitive enough to current and emerging legal technology trends to provide a CLE curriculum that is focused on absolute practicality – information attendees can take back to their practices and immediately put to use.

Credit should be given when due. Hardware vendors like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. often take heat for what inevitably are normal, isolated poor service incidents. It’s rare that people take the time to write about the most positive service responses, so . . . I will.

At MicroLaw we were recently the victim of a building break-in. Thieves stole a new Dell server that was in its box waiting to be configured and prepared for a client. We were beside ourselves because we needed to deliver the server in the next few days for a client and realized we faced a typical two week build/ship time on new orders. It would have been a nightmare to try and reschedule the entire network upgrade project and adjust the timing for multiple lawyers and staff at our client’s office.

Enter Jeremy Webb, a Dell corporate sales rep who has services our account for years. Jeremy’s always been responsive, getting us great pricing on Dell services, desktops and laptops for our clients. But this time, Jeremy went above and beyond – he rescued us and our clients. We explained the situation we were in and the wall we were up against. Jeremy expedited the order, even lowering our price for the server to help us wash out the effect of the insurance deductible we had to absorb and we got the replacement server literally in a matter of days, rather than the usual two weeks – he even absorbed the overnight shipping charges.

In short, Jeremy made his employer, Dell Computers look very, very good. To Michael Dell – KEEP THIS EMPLOYEE, GIVE HIM A RAISE AND  A BIG PAT ON THE BACK FOR GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND! (Caps emphasis very intentional!). Thank you Jeremy and thank you Dell for rescuing our client project.

Thanks to Dallas lawyer/friend, Mike Koenecke today. Watch this – it really needs NO separate commentary. My only advice? Don’t drink milk or soda while watching, unless you relish the thought of it squirting out your nose :-)

SUBTITLE: What ELSE can you use your new decision tree or mind-mapping software for, other than visually laying out your case facts or litigation strategy?

What’s the tech connection? In legal technology and system design in particular, flowcharts help map out complex network infrastructure visually. With baseball season opening next week, if you haven’t yet found your favorite team to root for, check out this flowchart designed to help you logically, rationally and methodically decide on your new favorite team to root for.

My first thought was “WAY too much time on their hands,” but then, after reflecting for a few moments, I reconsidered and decided it was a lovingly hand-crafted work of decision-tree art. What do you think? Who’s your favorite? Nothing like objectivizing the purely subjective :-)

We’ve had a lot of interest from clients recently about moving their email services to the cloud.  This is in the context of most of our clients using a recent vintage of Outlook (most often integrated with their practice, financial and document management  systems). Of course, the gold standard for email data system management is Microsoft Exchange.

While most of our clients with five or more users have traditionally owned their own Exchange server or used the Windows Small Business Server network operating system which comes with Exchange at no extra cost, they are used  hosting their own email.  Exchange hosting with services like GoDaddy and Rackspace has been generating a lot of interest with our smaller firm clients because it has all the advantages of using Microsoft Exchange (i.e. shared calendars, tasks, contacts, even email and someone else to run it/back it up, update it, etc.). But for many firms, Exchange hosting, once you crossed the 10+ user range, could get pretty pricey. Recently, however, Microsoft has been pushing to become very active in the cloud services field and has turned Exchange hosting on its ear.

How does $4/user per month with 25 Gb mailboxes sound to you? It’s pretty much blown us away – compared to the more typical $8-$10/month with 2-4 Gb per mailbox that competitors offer.

You should definitely take a hard look at Microsoft’s newest Exchange hosting offering – we can help you go through the options.  For $4 per month per user, each user gets a 25 GB mailbox, and is able to send  huge attachments – up to 25 MB each (of course, it still depends on the maximum attachment size that can be received on the other end).  ActiveSync (for real-time wireless syncing to iPhone, Android and Windows phones) and Outlook Web Access (browser-based access to Outlook)  is also included for mobile users, and Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (anti-malware / anti-spam)  is included at no charge as well.  It’s a pretty nice package – for 60 mailboxes, that works out to $240 per month for a combined 1.5 terabytes of cloud-based email storage.  They also provide a 99.9% up-time commitment with a Service Level Agreement (terms to protect your info and confidences by contract) and 24/7 live phone support.

Of course, to users, they see NO difference whatsoever using hosted v. local Exchange Server – they just use Outlook as they’ve always been (but with LOTS more storage and no one badgering them to delete old email every week).

All considered, this is quickly becoming our primary recommendation to clients looking to move to Hosted Exchange (or ANY Exchange-based system – so if your current physical Exchange Server is getting a little long in the tooth, we can help you make the transition to a hosted system instead of buying a new “box”).  If you’d like us to assess what it will take to move your existing mailboxes into the cloud, let us know by contacting us here – this is an option that makes sense for everyone from solos to firms with hundreds of users.

Okay, so I’ve deeply involved in computer technology since the mid-70′s – for the most part, I get it at a level that lets me help my clients. But when it comes to home theater, I feel like a true naif, a digital babe in the woods, standing slack-jawed and baffled at the back of a new “receiver” (strange that we call it that still, isn’t it?) and its panoply of connections. The only things that make me feel comfortable, by the way, are the only two really familiar connections: ethernet and USB.

The New York Times comes to the rescue, at least a little, with this article which is a lucid and clear exposition of all the various connector types. It’s not a comprehensive home theater Ph.D study program. Rather, it’s a good place to start. Thanks NYT.

Also, a quick tip. Most modern home theater receivers can connect to your home network. Most, however, want to do this via a hard-wired Ethernet cable. Great, except for the fact that your router/switch might be in another part of your home and not exactly in a convenient place to run a long CAT 5e cable. Many receivers do support having a WiFi adapter attached, but generally want to sell you their own high-priced branded adapter, with the less than subtle implication that it won’t work unless you use their over-priced gadget.

A better approach is using ANY WiFi gaming adapter. While normally used to connect Wiis and Xboxes to WiFi networks, these will work perfectly with home theater receivers. So instead of Pioneer’s $150 WiFi adapter for my home theater receiver, I opted for an ioGear Universal Gaming adapter for $35 from Amazon – worked immediately (literally a press of its WPS button while pressing the WPS button on my WiFi router was all it took).

Also, I think I’ve blogged about this before, but you absolutely don’t need insanely over-priced HDMI cables from your local big-box retailer. They LOVE to pad their profits with $30-$100 cables. Not when you can get perfectly adequate HDMI cables for about $4 from sources like this.

Once you’ve digested the NYT’s connection basics, then home theater basics sites abound – here’s a good example. And of course, there’s always Home Theater for Dummies, which in usual “dummies” fashion, is a solid reference guide in plain language.

Oh, and of course you can either buy a long VGA cable or a long HDMI cable to plug in your laptop to work on that mega-70″ HDTV sitting in your living room – there’s the convergence factor, along with your TV and receiver connecting to your WiFi network to stream your PC and Mac content, connect to internet radio, stream your Pandora channels and of course, single-tap connection to your iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches via Apple Airplay. And then the ability to control your DirecTV (or other) tuner and your home theater system with iPad or Android apps.

So caveat emptor in the home theater world is the order of the day.  And as always, it’s just a matter of reading, learning and plugging things in. If they don’t work the first time, plug ‘em in somewhere else until you get a picture and sound :-)

So . . . crying about your failed bracketology attempts over this past March Madness weekend? My two teams – the UW Badgers and the Marquette Golden Eagles have both made it to the Sweet 16 – very exciting! Fingers crossed. I do have to confess though that when I was at Marquette Law School in the mid-80′s, they were still the Warriors and it’s hard to think of them as anything else :-).

My latest CLE materials are up and online at MicroLaw’s CLE downloads page here. These include four session sets from my guest lecture engagement at the Charleston School of Law this past week, as well as my PDFing materials from the Tennessee Bar’s law technology day last month. As always, the materials are free, searchable PDFs – feel free to share them with anyone who you think might benefit from the knowledge they’ll gain.

The latest materials are:

• Social Media Isn’t a Fad: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and YouTube and How to Use Them Responsibly and Ethically in Your New Practice
• The 2012 New Lawyer’s Low-Budget / No-Budget Technology Survival Guide
• Technology for Tightwads: 10+ Tips for Free and Low-Cost Law Practice Management and Tech Tools, Gadgets, Apps and Websites
• How NOT to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer (or Smartphone and iPad)
• The Secret Tech Weapon You Didn’t Know You Had: Acrobat and PDFing Tools, Tips, Techniques to Use Daily
• Increasing Cloudiness in Your Practice – Hardcore Realities of Web-Based Systems and Ethical Issues

Hope you find them useful. As always, if these materials look like they have applicability to your practice (hard not to :-)), feel free to contact me here to chat about it.

Seriously, I just spent the week teaching legal technology and law practice management classes at the Charleston School of Law – in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve done this at a number of law schools around the country over the years, but I have to say, this school stands out for me for many reasons – it was the single most positive experience I’ve ever had with any law school anywhere, including all three years at my alma mater, Marquette University Law School way back in the 80′s.

If you’re interested in viewing my course materials for my classes which included:

• Social Media Isn’t Just a Fad: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and YouTube and How to Use Them Responsibly and Ethically in Your New Practice
• The 2012 New Lawyer’s Low-Budget / No-Budget Technology Survival Guide
• Technology for Tightwads: 10+ Tips for Free and Low-Cost Law Practice Management and Tech Tools, Gadgets, Apps and Websites
• How NOT to Commit Malpractice With Your Computer (or iPad or Smartphone)

You can download the PDFs of the materials, along with all my other recent CLE materials here - feel free to share them with those whom you feel might benefit.

And it’s not just because they invited me to my favorite city in all of North America :-) (although that didn’t hurt). The reasons I was so impressed with the Charleston School of Law, in no particular order are:

• The intangibles – the sense of community between faculty, the administration and the students – not three distinct groups as I’ve normally experienced at law schools, but rather a genuine community of people who actually like each other and have a real sense of camaraderie. What better way to instill a future sense of law practice collegiality than to plant the seeds in law school.
• Genuinely, some of the warmest, nicest people I’ve seen in any academic environment – the administration takes very good care of their students. For goodness sake, they feed them pizza and lunch – that didn’t happen when I was in law school. I heard that in a typical year, the school spends into the five figures just feeding their busy students.
• An attitude of open-mindedness and willingness to experiment with new, progressive and practical ways to educate their students – something I’ve seen in short supply in most law schools who lean towards traditionalism. In a traditional city like Charleston, there’s an educational revolution happening here, especially with what appears to be a sorely needed and growing commitment to including practical aspects of law practice life – legal technology and law practice management – into the curriculum.
• The students I met and had the privilege of teaching were engaged, appreciative and seem thrilled to be learning not just about substantive law, but the practical side of what it will be like to actually practice law – and they seemed appreciative of their school’s willingness to make such classroom focus available to them. These students showed an intense passion and interest for absorbing information about the practical elements of law practice – clearly the initiatives taken by Dean Saunders and Judge Kosko – teaching lawyering skills and law practice management courses – are paying off – these students will be more ready than any I’ve seen to jump into firms and even their own practices after graduation and be functional, responsible and contributing members of the legal communities wherever they end up residing – very impressive “kids” (most did seem young enough to be my children, but there were plenty of second-career folks too).
• The administrators I met – Associate Dean Abby Saunders, Assistant Dean Mark Moore, Assistant Dean Jennifer Summers, Brett Barker, Roland Jones, Assistant Dean Jennifer Summers, Betsy Marchant and  especially Judge George Kosko, one of the founders of the school and a member of its board of advisors – were delightfully hospitable, engaging and fascinating conversation partners talking about progressive legal education and showed a touching level of affection and concern for the academic and personal well-being of their students.
• Being smack dab in the heart of Charleston’s famed Historic District certainly doesn’t hurt – with facilities ranging from restored, renovated and reclaimed historic structures like the city’s old railroad depot (transformed into an architecturally impressive law library and student center – a place I would’ve killed to be able to study in in my academic days), a wonderful art deco theater on vibrant King Street, among others. It’s hard to imagine students coming here and ever wanting to leave.

If any of my children wanted to pursue a legal career, it would be a privilege – and my first choice – to send them to the Charleston School of Law. I hope that I have the opportunity to help them in the future with further educational offerings for their students. If it seems like I’m completely enamored with this school, it’s because I am!

Special note of thanks to my dear friend and colleague, Courtney Kennaday, Practice Management Advisor for the South Carolina Bar. Courtney’s syllabus has served as the original base for the school’s efforts in injecting these elements of practicality into the curriculum and was instrumental in making the connections that yielded the invitation for me to be able to contribute. I think that the legal community in South Carolina is truly fortunate to have her as a law practice management resource.

As I reminded all the students I met, if any of you have any questions at all about the courses I taught, please don’t hesitate to contact me here.

Thank you to all my new friends and if it’s not too presumptuous to say, colleagues, at the Charleston School of Law for a rewarding experience. I just hope that your student body benefited as much from my classes as I benefited from the entire experience.

Oh, and if you haven’t been to Charleston, South Carolina, what’s wrong with you?! A magnificently preserved historic district, a city dripping with history from the Spanish colonial era through the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Civil Rights to its present day mix of spectacular and world class dining, wonderful weather (okay, it gets steamy in the summer), a seafood lover’s paradise, with beaches that delight children and the young at heart, it’s a perfect place for a family vacation, a romantic weekend, or a history buff’s adventure trip. Just go – trust me on this – I’ve been to the city more than 20 times and can’t wait to come back. Oh, and if you go, be sure to get reservations well in advance for Husk, voted Bon Appétit Magazine’s best new restaurant in the U.S. in 2011 – trust me on that one too. Or Grill 225 – truly the best I’ve had of a lifetime of steaks (no hyperbole or overstatement intended – it’s just fact – better than Peter Luger’s, better than Manny’s in Minneapolis, better than all the steakhouse chains – better than the classic “5 O’Clock House” in Milwaukee, my hometown) and . . . well, I could go on and on about the great dining, great sites, and all the reasons why a Charleston stay should be on your travel bucket list.

For the life of me, I routinely scratch my head whenever I see an iPad stand someone is peddling for some surrealy (can “surreal” be made into an adverb?) absurd price . . . like $99. Here’s an example.

Here’s what I’m baffled about - look at this. It’s $7.72. Or this. It’s $2.99.

C’mon folks, have we lost our fricking minds when it comes to iPadiana? (the answer is “yes’). Do you need a billet aluminum $100 stand to hold your precious iPad? My precious iPad is held up by a wooden tabletop photo easel I found when unpacking in our new home. I think someone gave it to me, so my cost was zero.

Here’s what a $100 iPad stand does: it holds up an iPad.

Here’s what a $2.99 iPad stand does: it holds up an iPad.

Here’s what my free iPad stand does: it holds up an iPad.

So exercise some common sense and spend money on things that actually matter . . . or even better, take the extra $97 you didn’t spend and put it in your childrens’ §529 plan for college. Or in your IRA for you. Or take your significant other out for a wonderful meal. Or spend it on apps if you really must. But seriously, don’t be stupid about iPad accessory prices. Your iPad is an inanimate chunk of glass, metal and plastic and it absolutely positively doesn’t care how it’s held upright. Really. I know you’re thinking, “No, you’re wrong Ross! My iPad deserves a $100 billet aluminum stand!”

But I’m not wrong.  Just don’t, okay?

Neil Squillante of Technolawyer fame reminded me that I had posted previously about best use of Word styles (in a Word 2007 context, but applicable to 2010 as well). The article is here and I think you’ll still find it quite useful. Our earlier post from last week about styles is here.

Thanks Neil for the heads up!

On the subject of the iPads being able to finally get over the air (OTA) updates starting with IOS 5.0, my friend and colleague, as well as renowned legal security expert John Simek suggested to me that caution is warranted:

“Frankly, I would NEVER update over the air. Main reason…there is no backup prior to the update. Even though iTunes is a crap application, at least it prompts for a backup prior to the update. Twice I’ve ended up with a bricked device when trying to update Sharon’s iPad 2. Thankfully, I had a backup each time although getting it back to a functioning sheet of glass took a couple of hours more than it should have.”

And John has all sorts of important initials after his name so I trust everything he says :-)

So, it appears that if I want to attract lots of comments to a Ross Ipsa blog post, I just need to write about, and ideally, criticize, an Apple product :-), as I did a few days ago here. I have to issue a “duh” on my observation that over the air updating of iPads (sans PC/Mac connection) should be possible. . . . because . . . they are! Amusingly, the IOS 5.1 update prompt popped up on my iPad One literally an hour after I posted about it (I momentarily thought, “Holy crap, these guys really listen!”). Since it was my first update since manually installing IOS 5.0, I didn’t realize the updates are not automatic if you adjust the Settings | General | Software Update to allow over the air updates. Yay.

But the display issue remains – it’s not enough for me to just mirror the iPad display on an external monitor – that’s not what I want – although the new iPad’s higher Retina Display resolution might make a difference, I don’t just want huge characters showing on an external 24″ or 27″ display – I want a real external display presentation like I’d get on a Windows or Mac system (hey, someone write an app for that!).

Anyway, thanks for all the comments folks – they are all approved and posted!

One question I frequently get asked when training clients how to use Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010  is whether it is better to use QuickParts or AutoCorrects for inserting pre-defined pieces of content into Word documents.  Both are useful, and can hold many paragraphs including formatting and other types of objects.  For example, a user could set up a signature block, complete with digital signature image, as either a Quick Part or an AutoCorrect.  Even an entire Motion to Supress or Summary Judgement Motion could be setup as a QuickPart.

The answer is that it’s really up to you!  QuickParts are easier to discover and remember, for people who like the way Word’s galleries work.  But AutoCorrects work just like WordPerfect’s text macros, and can’t be beat for speed.  Either way, building up a library of document building blocks is one of the key methods for using Word efficiently, and something that is part of our standard MicroLaw training on advanced Word features.

You can build an entire clause library in any given area of practice – say trust agreements, settlement agreements, commercial leases, etc. – and then “snap together” new client documents by selecting clauses, then doing final edits. It’s a “clause-based” document assembly system limited solely by your imagination.

Contact me here to find out more about how to best use Word’s QuickParts or AutoCorrect as a “clause-based document assembly” system in your practice. Spring discounts of 15% off our regular training rates should make this practice-enhancing / streamlining knowledge building irresistable.

I’m disappointed, actually, about two things. First, a broader sense of disappointment that Apple, while proclaiming iPads and the announcement of the “new iPad” as the “poster child for the post-PC world,” still hasn’t cut the tether to some kind of computer running iTunes in order to get OS updates to one’s iPad (I was reminded of this this morning when my iPad told me the IOS 5.1 update was available – which meant going to iTunes on my desktop and downloading it, updating the connected iPad, etc.). Isn’t that more than a bit hyprocritically non-sensical?

It seems to me that you can’t be the “poster child for the post-PC world” if you still need a PC to nurture its operating system regularly. Apple needs to cut the PC/Mac updating cord and allow the iPad to exist solely on its own, getting its OS updates directly from Apple and for that matter, not require connection to a computer with iTunes for anything. Of course, cynically, I see that Apple likes the idea of trying to sell a Mac of some sort with iPads for this purpose, and I can hardly fault them for that. But then don’t make BS claims of “post-PC worlds.” I mean, c’mon!

My second disappointment is the lack of a dedicated external display port (i.e. Mini DisplayPort) or something like that. For what? So I can use my iPad as a full-blown PC/Mac replacement, propped up in my Origami stand with my Apple Bluetooth keyboard, dock connector plugged in for power and then a full-size external display to show my iPad’s screen to work on documents, surf, email, etc. IDEALLY with full-blown multi-tasked windows arrangeable and all open. In other words, like the way everyone works. And “touch cursor control” would be nice too. This doesn’t seem outside of the realm of possibility.

Perhaps I will just have to wait for the “even newer iPad” next year.

http://www.fatwallet.com/1SaleADay-coupons/titan-fake-security-dome-camera-with-flashing-light-and-proximity-sensor/

‘Nuff said. Stick ‘em up on the ceilings all over your office and dissuade the cleaning crew from walking off with all your binder clips (and that iPad you left on your desk). Today only – $3 each.

With the flurry of ultrabook announcements, I’m reminded that what I really want in a laptop just doesn’t exist . . . still. And why the heck not? It shoudn’t be that tough. It’s kind of like what I’d been saying for years about automotive design: “why don’t automakers build luxurious SMALL cars?” It always seemed that if you wanted luxury, you got a landyacht. If you wanted small, you got an econobox. Well, automakers worldwide have finally gotten the message and whether American, European or Asian brands, we’re seeing a complete rethink of the auto luxury-size issue – plenty of well-equipped, near-luxury smaller cars.

So with laptops, why is it one extreme or the other? A 5 or 6 pound mega-performer or a 3 pound Ultrabook without the equipment level heavy-duty business users like me (and you too, I suspect) want. So as much as I think ultrabooks/Airs are utterly deliciously svelte and sexy, I want my current workhorse -a Thinkpad T420-to have some of the same characteristics. To be specific, here’s what I want in my mid-weight black-clad, red pointing-stick-equipped workhorse:

• No change in its existing specs – Core i7, 8 Gb RAM, 500 Gb 7200 RPM drive, great 14″ display, etc.
• I want a small SSD that has Windows 7 loaded on it to that I can get instant-on, super-fast bootups and shutdowns – probably just a 64 Gb SSD is fine and then the 500 Gb “traditional” hard drive would be for storage
• I want to able to remove the “ultrabay” DVD-writer and slip in a cover plate – cutting out a few ounces and not using any power, since I pretty much never use it

That’s it! Why is that so much to ask for. Do you hear me Lenovo? Dell? HP? Sony? Asus? Acer? Even Apple? I don’t want a super-svelte machine (at least not until they can match my workhorse specs). And no, “store it in the cloud” isn’t a perfect answer since I’m often working offline like normal people get stuck doing regularly. I just want the instant-on/instant-off capability of an ultrabook and common-sense load-lightening that shouldn’t be terribly difficult to provide for me.

C’mon laptop makers – are you listening? Hello? Class? Class? Buehler? Buehler?

I had an idea yesterday morning. I want to see the readership here on our technology/law practice management blog, Ross Ipsa Loquitur, to hit 2000 subscribers. We’re about halfway there at the moment. Aside from trying to write really useful, practical content (and there’s been a flurry of new posts in the last two weeks).

Also, the blog is irritation free – that means you can subscribe on the site to get the feed via the Feedblitz system using any email address with no contact information required. And there are NO ads on the site to distract your attention.

My idea is this – my family has been affected greatly by cancer – perhaps yours has too. My mother was taken by ovarian cancer at 57. My business partner Renee is a long-term breast cancer survivor (9 years this year). I’m a long-term Hodgkins lymphoma survivor (13 years this year). Like you, I’ve lost far too many friends and relatives to various forms of cancer.

For every new Ross Ipsa Loquitur subscriber this year (starting yesterday), I will personally donate $5 to the American Cancer Society.

The blog is at http://rossipsa.com (duh, you’re reading this already, but just in case . . . ) and you can’t miss the “Subscribe Here” column on the right which says: “FeedBlitz: Enter your Email” – enter it,click subscribe, and you’ll get a Feedblitz subscription screen with ”Email” as the preselected distribution option (or all sorts of other options like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to receive the blog posts - choose your poison and then you’ll get a verification email which you can then click on to confirm. I timed it – it takes under 2 minutes.

So if you’re reading the blog and haven’t subscribed, subscribe! And spread the word to others – I want to write a big, fat check to the American Cancer Society next week – so we can all do some good!

Everyone wins – we get more subscribers, the American Cancer Society gets a donation to help wipe out this damned collection of diseases and you getperiodic useful legal tech tips, ideas and content with no compromise of your privacy.

I’ll keep subscribers posted when I send in donations to the ACS.

That’s it. Time to do some good gang.

With clients scatttered across the globe, we like many consultancies, find it efficient and highly cost-effective to conduct legal technology training sessions remotely, via webconference. We use GoToMeeting and Join.me, others use these and also WebEx, to allow our client attendees to sit at their desks or around a projected system in one of their conference rooms to be trained on everything from legal billing systems to Acrobat to legal use of Word and Outlook, new practice and document management systems and more.

Advantages for training remotely include:

• Lower cost – no travel expenses
• Better for the environment – no travel-related pollution
• Immediacy – you could literally be trained five minutes from now if it was convenient for everyone
• Less coordination – since all your people can literally be at their computers / tablets anywhere – no need to corral folks into a conference room

It’s a pretty compelling case for remote training. But are there advantages to  ”old school” live training sessions that may be compelling? I think they are, and I’d summarize them as follows:

• Human interaction – still a very good thing where connections are made that maximize the learning experience for attendees – it’s a live human whose hand you can shake and who can smile at you when you say something brilliant – I think we are craving that more and more in the “Facebook Era” of human disconnection
• Effectiveness – when we train remotely, we can’t see that you look puzzled and need us to reinforce a key point, or that you look like you just had a great idea you could share with the group
• Instant “hand-holding” – after the session when you go back to your desk, maybe you want us to follow you to reinforce a point you just put into practice

So the bottom-line is this – we generally recommend that if it is at all affordable, that the first round of training on key systems such as financial, document management and practice management systems, and even for an upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010, it makes sense to do those first sessions live – human to human – old school. Then think about remote sessions for subsequent follow-up sessions.

Don’t underestimate the value of the human interaction and connections that are made – the goal is to maximize the knowledge your people gain so you can achieve the usage results from new or upgraded systems that drove you to acquire them in the first place. Don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish when it comes to training on how to use those systems. Sometimes “live” is the least expensive approach in the long-run.

MicroLaw has been very busy helping firms continent-wide in cleaning up their practice technology. With Spring just around the corner, more or less at least weatherwise (hey it’s going to be 68 in the “Frozen Tundra” of Wisconsin here early next week . . . we’ll take this kind of “late Winter” weather!), but definitely calendar-wise, it’s the perfect time to clean your practice technology house as we march towards the warmer months. Your practice’s profits can bloom and blossom along with the flora and fauna!

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.

And just like cleaning your home, office or garage in the springtime, it makes sense to schedule a check-up for your practice every couple of years.

• 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 explore the best way to integrate iPads and tablets into your practice – for everything from staying connected to litigating cases
• 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!) – including using time-capture tools like Chrometa to capture EVERYTHING
• 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 GX3 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 check to make sure your practice information is secure and you’re protecting client confidences in an ethically-compliant way
• We can help you determine if you’re taking a “green” approach to your office’s operations and technology use
• We’ll help you sort out your smartphone issues and how to get more out of your phones with the right apps
• We’ll examine your social media efforts to make sure you’re using services like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and others in an ethically responsible and effective manner
• 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, MyCase, 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 $185/hour (but you have to mention the “MicroLaw CARES “Spring into Spring” 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 “Spring into Spring” discounted rate is $165/hour – every little bit helps! Abe’s tech and Microsoft Office wizardry is normally $150/hour – his “Spring into Spring” rate for MicroLaw CARES work is $145/hour.

So that’s what we can do for you this Spring and into the Summer – as we’ve done for so many firms. And as we did this last Fall – 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 Spring/Summer MicroLaw CARES process scheduled before there are no slots left!

I’ve been doing work representing municipal legal entities and Bar associations / Law Societies for a number of years. While I may post more about this later, I wanted to mention that the practice/case management system that deservedly dominates this segment is the JustWare series of products by New Dawn Technology based in Logan, Utah. Full information on the various versions of JustWare can be found here.

We have a number of clients that have implemented the product in its various iterations. The product is endlessly customizable, the company if terrific to work with and is accustomed to working with consultants like me and perhaps most important, JustWare integrates with all sorts of systems and is compliant with a variety of DOJ data compatibility and interchange standards. Well worth your time if you’re in a prosecutor’s office, a legal association, a court system, or any type of municipal government legal entity.

JustWare gets a strong “thumbs up” from me as a deservedly dominate product in its segment.