For Labor Day information including facts and statistics about today’s labor market go to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Facts & Features page.
Source: Librarians' Index to the Internet
NEW THIS WEEK for August 21, 2003
Copyright 2003 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, lii.org.
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Tom Mighell posts: "Still catching up on my backlog of links: Genie Tyburski was a guest writer on SearchDay earlier this week, and she wrote a nice article on searching for legal news. "
Source: Inter-Alia, 29 August 2003
David Giacalone writes: "The Insurance Defense Blog [27 August 2003] lists "Five Musts to put in Writing to a Client" (from Maryland Bar Journal Sept/Oct 2003, by Bar Counsel Melvin Hirshman, the text of which is not available online). EthicalEsq? Reminder: The documents can't just be CYA'S, but must be TLC'S -- Thorough Lawyering for the Client's Sake"
[See our posting from July 14 on improving fee and retainer agreements.] "
Source: ethicalEsq? advocating client-centered legal ethics, 28 August 2003
Mark Sindler writes: "If we're entitled to 15 minutes of fame, then mine came in early August when I was invited to appear on CourtTV as in-studio counsel. The network's daily programming includes "Open Court," starting at 9:00 a.m. and usually follows an ongoing case where notoriety, intrigue and emotional appeal are knotted together. In this instance, CourtTV has been devoting its daytime coverage to the homicide prosecution of a published author, Michael Peterson, accused of beating his wife in Durham, North Carolina." Read much more of this fascinating experience by following the link below!
Source: MyShingle.com, 26 August 2003
"The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR), a non-profit California advocacy group, is publicizing their purchase of personal data, including social security numbers and home addresses, of high ranking Bush administration officials, as a means of demonstrating the need for stronger privacy legislation. However, states such as California, which recently passed the strongest financial privacy law in the country, are concerned that proposed amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act may undermine these new protections.
· See also this related press release, California Privacy Act a Key Victory in Ongoing Financial Privacy Battle, ACLU Says."
Source: BeSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici, August 28, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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“Search and retrieval technology company Surfwax offers three useful fee-based services for legal researchers. LawKT-Lite provides a single interface for searching the Web-based publications of law firms as well as select government search engines, news sites and the Web. It also lets you capture, store and organize Web pages and other documents. LawKT-Pro includes LawKT-Lite and provides customizable search groups as well as features for sharing information. LawKT-Enterprise provides the search, collaboration and storage features of LawKT-Pro and customizes these for a law firm's Web site, intranet or extranet."
Read more about these services here.
Source: TVC Alert, 29 July 2003
COPYRIGHT: 1996 - 2003 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
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From the Utility Consumers' Action Network/Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Employment Background Checks: A Guide for Small Business Owners "This guide is intended to acquaint small business owners with basic information about screening applicants and current employees."
Source: BeSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici, August 27, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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From their e-mail newsletter comes this summary of a story in the Texas Lawyer: “In the post-Lawrence v. Texas world, many lawyers agree that the trend is moving toward acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered lawyers within the conservative legal community. But even though it's better than the bad old days, discrimination and bigotry haven't disappeared. Fear of not being accepted, or being discriminated against, still keeps some gay and lesbian attorneys from sharing their personal lives with colleagues and clients.”
Source: Today’s Legal News, August 14, 2003
Copyright 2003 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
In case you missed today's Plain Dealer article:
"The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that judges must announce their rationale in court when they hand down sentences longer than the minimum for first-time offenders or issue consecutive prison sentences, The Associated Press reports."
Source: Email from G. Baker from OHIO LAWYERS WEEKLY, 28 August 2003
Ray writes, "Someone would like to speak with you; please read:
As many of you are quite well aware, whenever you sit down at a conference or hotel or park or cafe or harbor with "open WiFi", your network activity is possibly being recorded and reviewed by someone else very close to you. It doesn't take a rocket scientist: it's trivial to do such things with tools such as this one.
Personal sniffing of open WiFi networks might ultimately be ruled legal, or might not. (Ask yourself: is there a "reasonable expecation of privacy" on open WiFi networks? Would you send attorney/client privileged information on an open WiFi network?) Of course, if you did it, I can assure you that you'd quickly come to the conclusion that doing so is of a questionable ethical nature: your jaw will drop as you see peoples' XML-RPC blog passwords and private email messages flying by.
WiFi sniffing is EASY to do, it is commonly done, and the real question is at what point will someone do real damage by using what they sniff, and when will this be brought to the public's eye by the courts or by congress?
Think about it. How long will it take before someone starts methodically wardriving in front of major politicians' or executives' homes, looking for open access points and sniffing interesting traffic by sitting in their car across the street each evening? Don't you think it's already happening?
In 1997, a cell phone conversation of Newt Gingrich was recorded by a scanner user and the tape was turned over to the media. This spawned bills HR1964 and HR2369 threatening to end scanning as a hobby. Would a major WiFi-catalyzed insider trading scandal, or political scandal cause new laws to be passed that might change the wireless data landscape as we know it? It seems like just a matter of time before we'll find out.
In the meantime, I've been contacted by a big-name business publication that is considering writing an article about this subject. But instead of talking to "industry experts", they'd like instead to talk to someone who is actively sniffing open WiFi networks for personal gain. Based upon the reputation of the publication, it seems quite likely that confidentiality will be preserved."
Source: Ray Ozzie's Weblog, 23 July 2003
From Ernie’s blawg: “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and so is the road to poor legal writing. To illustrate this point let's use a real-life example from a recent appellate court opinion. The opinion begins like this:
'A locomotive operated by Illinois Central Railroad Company (Illinois Central) injured Kelli Smallwood when it struck the automobile in which she was travelling.'
What's wrong with this sentence? First, the writer, acting with the best possible intentions, is trying to do too much at once. The writer is trying, in this opening sentence, to set the stage quickly and explain what the lawsuit is about. And, of course, the writer is trying to be meticulously accurate.”
[Ernie continues his blawg by discussing and dissecting this sentence – very interesting reading!]
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 28 August 2003
Posted by David Giacalone: “Homework Assignment: Be prepared, after Labor Day, to discuss the above question. [inspired by this article, via Overlawyered.com, and The Legal Reader, and MyShingle.]”
[Note that the Stark County Law Library Blawg, also blogged that article the same day]
“Read and Compare:
(1) Excerpt and posting from Sandefur's Blog (August 1, 2003) (emphasis added):
I know I’m new, and naïve and all that, but I think lawyers are the most ethical people there are. Obviously there are exceptions, just as there are unethical policemen or sports stars or whatever, but think about it—lawyers have to study ethics in school, must pass a test on it to get their license (in California, ethics is always on the bar, and you have to pass a separate ethics test, as well). Then throughout their career, lawyers must take continuing education classes in ethics, and they are constantly subject to disbarment if they act unethically. There are lawyers whose only job is to weed out unethical lawyers, and we have conferences and hotlines to handle ethics. There’s even an entire weblog devoted to legal ethics [Editor's Note: yikes!] — are there weblogs devoted to the ethics of plumbers or electricians?
We have the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, and the ABA Rules of Professional Conduct, and separate state codes of ethics, and, in California, lawyer’s ethics rules are actually written into the state statutes. (California Business and Professions Code §6068). As lawyers, of course, we are trained to ask “What does this word mean?”—and so we spend a lot of time covering ethical questions in that way. For instance, I am legally required to “preserve at every peril to [my]self, the secrets of my client.” Does that mean, to the point of death? I don’t know—I doubt it—but what other profession spends that much time figuring out their responsibilities and applying them? I bet none.
This brings me to this infuriating article by Dennis Prager. Now, I don’t know if Mr. Prager is a lawyer—he’s not licensed in California, anyway—but this article is written in total ignorance of the real world of the law.
(2) Excerpts and article from Dennis Prager, The legal system is now our enemy, (MensNewsDaily, June 3, 2003)
· I have come to fear almost everything having to do with law. Though there are many fine people in the legal profession, and though law is necessary to protect society from descending into chaos, I now fear the legal profession more than I do Islamic terror. I am far from alone. I believe that more Americans rightly fear being ruined by the American legal system more than being killed by a terrorist.
· Everything related to law has been corrupted.
· Law schools . Most people leave law school morally worse than when they entered. When they enter law school, most students think in terms of right or wrong. In law school they are taught to reject such thinking and to think only in terms of legal and illegal. This transformation of morals into legal categories, reinforced most especially in trial law, and particularly among criminal defense lawyers, explains the proliferation of amoral lawyers and the destructive role many trial lawyers play in our society.
· Lawyers . The best humor is almost always the truest humor. The funniest jokes I ever heard were those told by Soviet dissidents; the funniest today are about lawyers. Both types of jokes are so humorous because they come from the same place -- bitterness at one's helplessness against an overwhelming and oppressive power -- the communist system in the Soviet Union, the legal system in America.
Two More Cents from Jack Cliente: I bet it depends why you went to law school. Too many lawyers settle for being "more or less" ethical.
Source: ethicalEsq?, 27 August 2003
From Larry Bodine's article: "They're called Weblogs, blogs and "blawgs," and they're the hottest thing to come along in marketing since the telephone. In a nutshell, they are online diaries or chronologically-ordered journals on the Web. The beauty of blogs is that they allow any business person, including lawyers in big and small firms alike, to market themselves directly to clients and prospects.
Here are the compelling reasons for lawyers to start their own blogs:
· They are easy to set up and use.
· They are cheap. You get a month’s free trial of the software, and pay about $40 when you purchase it.
· They are highly visible and quickly draw visitors.
· They can be about anything. A blog can simply recount a person’s thoughts, viewpoints and news. They can also be used for firm announcements, client newsletters, legal updates, and answers to common client questions.
· They give the author instant credibility and expert status on the topic.
· If you fail to set up a blog on your special topic, someone else will claim it before you do. The attention and traffic goes to the early adopters, not the layers who wait to decide to join the trend a year later. You’ll be missing out on the hottest new trend on the Internet."
Source: FindLaw's LAWYER MARKETING NEWS
Marketing for the Legal Sector in the 21st Century
August 2003, Issue #33
Copyright (c) 2003 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved.
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By Andrew Zangrilli for Modern Practice: "Many legal blogs are more widely read the law journals. In this interview, David Maizenberg explains how the combination of mobile technology and blogging ("moblogging") can help lawyers establish credibility in niche areas of law across a wide geographic scope.
Source: FindLaw's LAWYER MARKETING NEWS
Marketing for the Legal Sector in the 21st Century
August 2003, Issue #33
Copyright (c) 2003 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Joy London writes: "This month's Harvard Business Review (September 2003) contains a case study—A Blogger in Their Midst. Halley Suitt (author of her own blog, Halley's Comment creates a fictional situation where a well-meaning employee blogs about her company—in negative and positive ways. The question posed is what, if anything, should the CEO of the company do about the blogging? David Weinberger, Pamela Samuelson, Ray Ozzie and Erin Motameni offer their expert advise.
Ray Ozzie, CEO of Groove Networks, shares his company's web log policy."
Source: Excited Utterances by Joy London, August 27, 2003
Essential Blogging
By Cory Doctorow et al., reviewed by Patrick O¹Keefe for Sitepoint
"One of the latest trends in publishing, blogs are frequently-updated Web sites, formatted in a date-stamped journal style. Cory Doctorow and the other contributors to this book discuss what blogging is, how to use it, and what has worked - and hasn't worked - for them."
Source: FindLaw's LAWYER MARKETING NEWS
Marketing for the Legal Sector in the 21st Century
August 2003, Issue #33
Copyright (c) 2003 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Update to the Guide - Rainmaking, Office Sharing, Turning Clients Down
Carolyn Elefant writes: “It's been a while, but we're finally updating our On Line Guide to Creating a Law Practice with a bunch of articles from the most recent edition (August 2003) of GP Solo .
The articles include:
(1) The Fine Art of Turning Clients Away, by Lonny Dolan on how to say no politely and without prejudice to a client or exposure to the attorney;
(2) Ethics Concerns in Shared Office Space, William I Weston and
(3) Rainmaking Tips from Solosez, Carolyn J. Stevens, brimming with marketing ideas ranging from the conventional to the offbeat.
Check out the articles and our On Line Guide to Creating a Law Practice – there's nothing else like this on line.”
Source: MyShingle, 26 August 2003
Carolyn Elefant writes: Via this link at David Giacalone's ethicalEsq? comes a link to an article by Joni Johnston, Balancing Life and Practice (lexisone - 8/2003) which asks why lawyers don't simply choose to be civil? Perhaps one reason, as described in this piece, Utah High Court Wants Lawyers to Be Nice, Elizabeth Neff, Salt Lake Tribune (8/23/03) is that most prospective clients prefer "the meanest mad dog SOB" to be found, believing that such an attorney will intimidate the opposite side into settling. But as the article discusses (and as most of us know), typically the opposite results: an aggressive, obnoxious opponent is more likely to bring out the worst in the even the most mild-mannered attorney, leading to confrontation and posturing to the detriment of both parties.
Source: MyShingle, 26 August 2003
Neff's article reports on some of the ways that Utah has attempted to address incivility amongst attorneys. One amusing "peer pressure technique" is described as follows:
Years ago, a column in the Utah State Bar's Litigation Section journal known as "The Uncivil Litigator" used embarrassment as an agent for change. Those who penned nasty letters ran the risk of seeing their prose featured as an example. One letter featured was from an attorney who wrote "a retarded monkey with Alzheimer 's could win this case," and told his opponent he was "damn lucky" his client was willing to pay.
Still, most clients who want a "mean SOB lawyer" are not likely to care if their lawyer is publicly humiliated in an obscure bar column. And even those clients who don't want an SOB, still want to see that their lawyer is a zealous advocate and not an apologist for the other side. Even some of the most reasonable clients can regard a lawyer's politeness as betrayal - for example, I (like most of us) have gotten dirty looks from several clients when I've greeted opposing counsel with a handshake at the start of a deposition or small-talked politely with a prosecutor while we waited for the case to be called. In short, solving the civility problem isn't as straightfoward as just enacting new rules or exerting peer pressure on attorneys for compliance - because ultimately, where there's a judgment call to be made (assuming all choices are legal), we lawyers must answer not to our peers or even the court, but a "higher authority" - our client.
"This local practicioner of mindfulness meditation is cheating. Look at the top photo in the news story. Can you see how?"
From the article: “It isn't easy to be silent. It's hard enough, for many people, just to set aside the time. And then to stop talking, and thinking about all the zillions of little things that people think about all day, and focus. Sometimes people just have to leave retreats because it's too difficult or too painful, leaders
said.”
[Author's Note: I have NO idea how this guy is cheating - if you get it, let me know - PLEASE!]
Source: Is That Legal, 22 August 2003
The Sobig.F worm was only one in a series of "Sobig" worms released since the beginning of the year. Computer experts expect that a new version of the pest could strike any day. Keep your anti-virus definitions up to date!
Source: Inter-Alia, 27 August 2003
"As a congressional committee and joint governmental task force begin probes of the East Coast's massive Aug. 14 electrical blackout, electric utilities and other key industry players are scrambling to line up attorneys. Managing investigative fallout is only part of the assignment. The major energy bill in Congress and last week's filing of a class against FirstEnergy Corp. will combine to keep armies of lawyers busy for quite some time."
Source: Today’s Legal News, 27 August 2003
With so many students starting college over the next couple of weeks,
adding this gem to your website is a no-brainer!
Crispen writes: “As a recently retired professional college student, I have a question for you: what do you need to know in order to be successful in college?
Tough question, isn't it? But it is an essential one to ask because most high school students have no clue what college is like and most college freshmen are shocked and surprised by the knowledge and skills that university professors expect of them.
The answer has been published in a free, 82 page booklet and accompanying CD-ROM titled "Understanding University Success." Included in the booklet is something called "Knowledge and Skills for University Success" [KSUS], “a comprehensive listing of what university faculty expect from students in entry-level courses. KSUS is divided into six academic disciplines: English, mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, second languages and the arts... “
To get a copy, point your Web browser to:
http://www.s4s.org/03_viewproducts/ksus/index.php
You can download the entire booklet for free in Adobe Acrobat PDF format or order the booklet (US$15.00), CD-ROM (US$5.00), or both (US$18.00), or, after the PDF file has loaded, click on the floppy icon in Acrobat (under your browser's address bar) to save the PDF file to your hard drive.
The booklet includes:
1. Foundations -- a macro-level look at the skills and attributes of successful students in this subject area.
2. Standards -- specific subject area knowledge and skill sets
The standards lists for each of the six subject areas are probably the most important educational documents to be produced in a long while. These lists show the skills and knowledge that America's research universities expect from entering freshmen. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if, over the next couple of years, most states begin to align their K-12 curriculum to align with the standards in this booklet.
By the way, one thing that the CD offers that the booklet doesn't is
“a library of more than 250 work samples and syllabi that
illustrate the quality of work that AAU-university professors
expect of freshmen in entry-level courses.”
According to David Conley, Director of the Standards for Success
project,
“We have collected real-life examples of student work from
freshman classes along with course syllabi, assignments, lab
exercises and tests ... Teachers can use the course syllabi,
assignments, and student work samples as reference points as
they devise their own curricula.”
Cool, huh? But what if you don’t want to cough up the five bucks for the CD-ROM? Well, you can download the university work samples for each subject area for free at:
http://www.s4s.org/03_viewproducts/samples/index.php .
Source: TOURBUS Volume 9, Number 6 -- 26 Aug 2003
Copyright 1995-2003, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
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From Ernie the Attornery: "I know a couple of people who are starting up at law school soon. They are busy gathering supplies and preparing for the novel experience or going to class to get grilled and lugging around weighty tomes. Speaking of lugging heavy law books, I recently saw a law school blogger post a radical idea (which my friend A.J. Levy would call an "out of the box solution"). He took his law books to Kinko's and had them slice off the covers so he could ring bind the pages. That way he could take just the pages he needed, which would save weight.I have another idea for law students who tote laptops. Scan all of your materials into PDF and buy a copy of Adobe Acrobat (the educational price for the full version is around $60 --and the regular price is $250). Then learn how to put stickie notes and how to annotate using Acrobat. When you go to class take notes right on the case (or statute) that you are covering. Later you'll be able to jump right to the pages with notes, and you'll be able to print your notes out. Most importantly, the notes will be attached to the materials that they relate to.Just a thought. Of course, you could lug the laptop and the extra 15 pounds of books. Maybe you need the exercise, I don't know.If you don't know how to scan find some techie law student to tackle the job and distribute the scans on CD-Rom."
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 31 July 2003
Straight from Patrick Douglas Crispen’s Tour Bus: “Our first stop is kind of "geeky." Well, no ... to tell the truth it is *REALLY* geeky. Really, *REALLY* geeky. But it is a cool kind of geeky.”
We all know that Google can now do math calculations, but the Tour Bus people and the other “geeks” have put Google to an amazing test. Read on…
According to Google, its calculator can: “The calculator can evaluate mathematical expressions involving basic arithmetic (5+2*2 or 2^20), more complicated math (sine(30 degrees) or e^(i pi)+1), units of measure and conversions (100 miles in kilometers or 160 pounds * 4000 feet in Calories), and physical constants (1 a.u./c or G*mass of earth/radius of earth^2). You can also experiment with other numbering systems, including hexadecimal and binary.”
Here are just a few of Crispen’s favorite Google calculator searches:
speed of light in knots
5 smoot - 2 angstroms
1.21 GW / 88 MPH
Answer to life the universe and everything
[Special bonus points go to those of you who caught the Back to the
Future and Hitchhiker's Guide references.]
“The folks at Waxy.org win for best search, though, for using Google's calculator to find the answer to
life, the universe and everything multiplied by the speed of light
divided by three teaspoons"
[I *TOLD* you this was geeky!]
For a pretty good list of every math function and unit of measure that
Google's calculator supports, check out: http://dustgun.homeip.net/weird_stuff/google_convert.txt
Source: TOURBUS Volume 9, Number 6 -- 26 Aug 2003
Copyright 1995-2003, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
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"The Canadian government has banned the public from smiling or frowning for their passport photos."
Source: LEGAL HUMOUR NEWS - August 27, 2003
Compiled Weekly by Daniel Strigberger
(c) 2003 by Daniel Strigberger. All rights reserved.
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Lifespan of CD-RWs Critically Short
"cdfreaks.com reports on a study by the Dutch magazine, PC-Active, involving tests on 30 separate brands of recordable CDs to ascertain whether data and audio tracks saved on the disks was still readable after a 20 month period. The very bad news was that despite marketing indicating data is stable for up to ten years, many brands cannot be read less than two years after they are recorded. (via Slashdot)"
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici, August 25, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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"A New Jersey lawyer's attempt to save a time-barred malpractice suit by wrapping it up as a federal RICO and civil rights case has drawn an unorthodox sanction: Rather than dock the lawyer for fees, the judge ordered him to take courses in federal practice and procedure, professionalism and legal ethics in order to "become familiar with the legal principles that have apparently escaped him during the course of this litigation."
Source: Today’s Legal News, August 26, 2003
"Ask Jeeves is expanding its smart search tools, enabling users to get even more information just by asking simple questions, like "weather in dallas" or "what is the zip code for Kalamazoo?"
Posted by: Tom Mighell at 6:29 am
Source: Inter-Alia 26 August 2003
"Businesses produce mass amounts of electronic documentation, stored in multiple systems and resulting in an unprecedented volume of information requiring review for relevancy and privilege. Thankfully, once this information is put in a searchable database, it's much easier for litigators to find their "smoking gun." The review process can cost producing parties big money, but relief is on the way, courtesy of recent federal court decisions."
Visit Automated Lawyer
Source: Today’s Legal News, August 26, 2003
"As a follow-up to my recent posting on radio frequency ID tags in consumer goods, here is an article, WhereWare, that describes how wireless devices (notebooks, PDAs, cell phones) will be used as location tools to track their "owners every movement."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
August 25, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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“Elsevier announces that has developed a healthcare reference package compatible with the 2003 release of Microsoft Office. The package includes Dorland's Medical Dictionary and Mosby's Drug Consult, an online database containing information about drugs.”
Source: TVC Alert, 22 August 2003
COPYRIGHT: 1996 - 2003 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
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“Imagine a finding tool better than Google. While many librarians could mention several in the time it takes to say Google, the media continues to portray the search engine as omnipotent. But if the theories behind the Semantic Web prove true, Google could soon be a search dinosaur.
Source: TVC Alert, 29 July 2003
COPYRIGHT: 1996 - 2003 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
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From Robert Amgrogi: "The Web site of the National Law Journal has a new look, but with the redesign comes a subscription wall blocking access to all but one main story a week. The design is more graphically striking than before (and I say that having helped design the prior site) and provides easier navigation to NLJ departments as well as to law.com products and services. It adds a daily news wire and the ability for readers to post their comments on the week's opinion pieces. A year subscription for online access is $19.95 for print subscribers and $69 for non-subscribers. (The NLJ is currently offering a 30-day trial.) Along with a subscription to the Web site comes a weekly e-newsletter highlighting the week's stories.”
Source: LAWSITES, 20 August 2003
”In the race for the White House, the crowded slate of Democrats is turning to a tiny clique in the election bar -- just two firms represent six of the nine declared candidates. Why? Few lawyers specialize in the arcane area of election law -- and many in the field will work only for candidates of one party, which means a very short list of lawyers who can both draw up an office lease and untangle Federal Election Commission regulations.”
Source: Today’s Legal News, 7 August 2003
“Lawyer X provides several research tips, including searching a listserv archive using listserv commands and tracking federal legislation with Web page monitoring software or services. Originally published as a Tyburski Files column, this article appeared in the Feb/Mar 2003 issue of Law Office Computing.”
Source: TVC Alert 30 July 2003
COPYRIGHT: 1996 - 2003 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
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From BeSpecific:
From the ABA Journal eReport: GOING BEYOND GOOGLE - Law Librarians Stress Legal Research by the Books.
"The article's author, Hope Viner Samborn, a lawyer, is co-author of The Legal Research and Writing Handbook (Third edition, 2003)."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
August 22, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Carolyn Elefant writes: "Here's an article on a Con Artist Convicted of Posing as a Lawyer. To Goldstein's credit, in most cases, he offered legal services on a pro bono basis. And guess where he learned the craft? In jail, filing appeals for himself and his jailhouse colleagues. Who says you need law school or a clerkship to succeed as a lawyer?"
Source: MyShingle, August 22, 2003
"Suppose you could sit at home and have complete access to your office? I'm not talking about getting Internet service at home and/or software to connect remotely to office computers. What I'm talking about would be essentially free, including broadband Internet at home. Interested?
We recently switched from Ethernet to Wi-Fi at our office and I was surprised at how easy the transfer from wire to radio was. All computers logged on to the router, had access to each other, and had access to our DSL Internet. Laptops now can be used anywhere in the office, including guests who come in with their own laptop. I can even use my laptop at Quiznos which is about a half block away.
Now for the next step. I live about a quarter mile from my office. What if I could direct my Wi-Fi router radio signal to my house? Wouldn't that give me exactly what I currently get, but limited at this time to a range of about a 300 foot radius?
Enter directional antennas. There are many types and styles available, some for really big bucks. I could even hook up my router to a Pringles can, believe it or not. This supposedly would give you a 30 degree directional antenna capable of about a 1 mile range. There are supposedly antennas in development that could give you up to a 12 mile range. But back to what is available now, and what is cost effective. How about getting under $40? The Cantenna looks promising. The design is based on the Pringles can, but with modifications. The antenna itself sells for $19.95, but is not much use without the $19.95 pigtail connector.
So here is where it stands, at least in theory. For about a $40 investment, and assuming you live reasonably close to your office, you can have home access to whatever broadband Internet service you have at the office. In addition, you could run your home computer as part of your office LAN. Just think of the possibilities."
Source: La-Legal Annotated 22 August 2003
From BeSpacific: Tools to Dress Up The Web Browser. "This brief article directs readers to several useful search engine toolbars and bookmarklets."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
August 22, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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"The Sobig worm is back with a vengeance, breaking virus speed records worldwide. There's even speculation that Sobig is amassing a Trojan army that will deploy on or about September 11. If you're running Outlook or Outlook Express, check out these ways to make rules that can help you manage the onslaught of Sobig e- mails. If you find yourself infected, use this removal tool from Symantec".
Source: INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY by Tom Mighell
Issue #123, August 24, 2003
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From John Palfrey: "The spam problem has reached epic proportions. Check out the many comments to this post. Spam fixing should move nearer to the top of the agenda, if it's not there already. I'm about to go to challenge/response, too, I fear."
Source: John Palfrey: From the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School
22 August 2003
Dennis Kennedy writes: "David Berlind on ZDNet.com has an article called "Why Windows Update desperately needs an update," a very good critique of the problematic workings of Windows Update.
Now that it has become vital to install Windows security patches, here's an interesting legal question: Because you can't download and install critical updates without "accepting" a clickthrough user agreement, is there any meaningful acceptance of the terms of that user agreement? Would or should a court find any of the terms of that user agreement enforceable, or, as a practical matter, does any updater have any meaningful choice in these contracts?"
Source: DennisKennedy.com
22 August 2003
“America Goes Back to School Program”
"From the e-newsletter: “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) presents a list of downloadable publications to help "protect the children of your community as they go to and from school or while they are at play." Includes product safety tips and fact sheets on bicycles, skateboards, in-line skates, playground equipment, and more.”
See: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/america.html
Source: Librarians' Index to the Internet
NEW THIS WEEK for August 21, 2003
Copyright 2003 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, lii.org.
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"This site "was designed to help people memorize information about various subjects" by displaying "a stack of virtual cards which contain information about a certain subject. Just like flashcards, you can review the information at your own pace discarding the cards you've learned and keeping the ones you still need to review." Searchable, or browsable by subject (such as geography or history). Users may also create their own card stacks (free registration required)."
See: http://www.studystack.com/
Source: Librarians' Index to the Internet
NEW THIS WEEK for August 21, 2003
Copyright 2003 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, lii.org.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SIGNING OFF OR ON THIS LIST are at: http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist
"This site "is a free on-line mathematics tutor designed to assist students from K-12, and their parents. ... All GoMath tutors have extensive teaching experience and hold degree(s) in science or engineering from top Universities." Questions may be e-mailed to the tutors (answered within 24 hours) or posted to a message board. Also includes a searchable question and answer archive, interactive tutorials and quizzes, and other study aids."
From an educational software company.
Source: Librarians' Index to the Internet
NEW THIS WEEK for August 21, 2003
Copyright 2003 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, lii.org.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SIGNING OFF OR ON THIS LIST are at: http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist
Simple suggestions to help your business -- and your relationships with tenants -- run smoothly.
1. Don't rent to anyone before checking his or her credit history, references and background. Haphazard screening and tenant selection too often results in problems -- a tenant who pays the rent late or not at all, trashes your place or moves in undesirable friends -- or worse.
2. Get all the important terms of the tenancy in writing. Beginning with the rental application and lease or rental agreement, be sure to document important facts of your relationship with your tenants -- including when and how you handle tenant complaints and repair problems, notice you must give to enter a tenant's apartment and the like.
3. Establish a clear, fair system of setting, collecting, holding and returning security deposits. Inspect and document the condition of the rental unit before the tenant moves in to avoid disputes over security deposits when the tenant moves out.
Read The Rest Of The Tips
Source: FindLaw's CONSUMER LEGAL TIP
A FindLaw Resource Covering Solutions To Everyday Problems
August 21, 2003, Issue # 10
Copyright (c) 2003 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved.
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"TechnoLawyer member Jim Simpson asks: "Perhaps I'm missing the point here. We use the change tracking tool, and find it very helpful in connection with developing successive drafts (although DeltaView is vastly superior in comparing one document to another). To avoid the metadata issue as it involves these editing changes, we simply save the v1 document, with all changes, as v2, then accept all changes. I believe that this solves the problem, and provides the necessary version tracking. Am I wrong?"
"Even though one accepts all changes in Track Changes, whoever opens that document can simply open Track Changes again and discover all the editing that was done on the document. As said over and over, Track Changes in Microsoft Word leaves a firm wide open to a variety of Risk Management issues. The only ways insure your firm doesn't disseminate its editing to the outside world is: (1) if Track Changes has been used, don't send it to anyone; or (2) don't use it. Number Two should be preferred. If you have DeltaView -- use it!"
Claudia Dwyer, Applications Trainer
Kimberly Y. Newport, Asst. MIS Manager adds, “… when hiding metadata is important, we convert the clean document to an Adobe PDF file.”
Source: TechnoLawyer’s Answers to Questions, 21 August 2003
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From the Oxford English Dictionary press release, news of the addition of 3,000 new words and phrases to their database of 350,000 entries, including the following techie terms: blog, bounce (as in e-mail), CD-RW, CGI, click rate, cyberstalking, data smog, DNS, DoS, and many more. A full list of the new additions and their definitions are available here.
Author’s Note: I was intrigued by the number of terms on the list that were not already in the dictionary. The “techie” terms I expected – they are relatively new, but actionable, inffluential, antidisestablishmententarianism (hope that’s spelled right – not in spellchecker), and that’s just the “A’s”!
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
August 21, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Fishing for Information? Try Better Bait.
Congrats to Tara Calishain whose book Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools receives much deserved recognition in the beginning of this article that focuses on advanced search features specific to the major search engines.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
August 21, 2003
Copyright ©2002, 2003 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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On August 20th Dennis Kennedy wrote: "Talking to a friend today whose law firm's network was shut down by the Nachi worm, I really began to wonder if, despite its installed base and market share, Microsoft can survive much longer as the onslaught against its vulnerabilities seems to strengthen every day. When people are developing software simply to help businesses manage Microsoft patches, you know that it's not funny any more.
To highlight the issue, Microsoft announced two more critical updates today.
What follows is a group of articles I've noticed just in the last couple of days. I think that it is important to read them as a group and decide how big these issues are and the patterns that continue to arise. And, most important, to come to grips with your answers to the question: what does it take to continue to live in a Microsoft environment?
"Microsoft cerebrates fifteen years of poor security" is a history of Microsoft security problems along with a explanation of some of the underlying technical issues, all of which leads to the conclusion that we will likely see more security problems.
Scott Berniato's article on CSOonline.com called "Patch and Pray" neatly sums up the issues of trying to cope with critical updates and the quandaries IS departments have in trading off security against stability. As the intro to the article says, "It's the dirtiest little secret in the software industry: Patching no longer works. And there's nothing you can do about it. Except maybe patch less. Or possibly patch more." Unfortunately, that just about sums things up.
Jaikumar Vijayan's article in ComputerWorld called "Patching Becoming a Major Resource Drain for Companies" also addresses the issues of the costs and the difficulties of implementing patches and updates.
Robert Vamosi on Anchordesk writes about the end of viruses, suggesting that firewalls and regular upgrades are becoming vitally important.
Ironically, many Windows XP users are unaware of even the firewall built into XP, let alone more industrial strength approaches.
As I mentioned above, the sheer number of patches has created a software business niche for patch management software.
I attended a Microsoft event last year where Steve Ballmer spoke directly to security issues and pointed out that many of the viruses and other exploits are written to vulnerabilities for which patches are available. Blaster and the recent round of viruses are examples of this and patches have been available, along with warnings to install them.
Our general laissez-faire attitude to security patches (in no small sense aggravated by the hours of time required to download patches over a dial-up connection) certainly does not excuse Microsoft, but the combination of Microsoft vulnerabilities and a completely unsuccessful system of patch delivery has create a warm and friendly environment for viruses to grow and play.
Still, when we hear that Microsoft is consider ways to force updates automatically, we get very nervous, especially after earlier updates hosed a good number of computers.
Add to that the other dirty little secrets of metadata or hidden information automatically stored in documents and weaknesses in how Windows handles passwords, and it seems like we are doing enough damage to ourselves that "cyberterrorists" really don't have to do anything.
There's really no end to the constant drip-drip-drip of security updates because Microsoft will not release a ServicePack 2 for Windows XP (presumably collecting all fixes) until the second half of 2004. This means that there will likely be a 2 year gap from SP1 to SP2. Will that help matters? I can't see how it would.
Expect to see even more articles like "Small Firms Ignore Security Protection," "Geeks Grapple with Virus Invasion," "Worm Exploits Weak Link: PC Users," and the like.
Finally, where are law firms today? One I know is completely down today due to a virus. According to Law.com, some of the most prominent law firms in the country have been hit hard by the recent series of viruses and worms. Given the preventability of these problems and the well-known refusal of many lawyers to learn even the most basic common-sense approaches to dealing with potential email viruses, firms that are shut down by these exploits really need to take a look at what they are doing wrong and get it addressed quickly.
[Author’s Note: Remember folks, there ARE other operating systems out there that are very good – (my favorite – Macintosh, Linux, Unix, etc]
Source: DennisKennedy.blog 20 August 2003
When “I’ve Got Your Back” Really Means “For a Target, Dearie”
"The ABA Journal reports on how the pressure of trying to succeed in a Big Firm sometimes leads associates to stab each other in the back to get ahead. Read all about it here."
Source: The Legal Reader
20 August 2003
Nina Platt's introduction to a very good article on KM: “Knowledge management became a buzzword in law firms throughout the world in the 1990s. As firms learned how acquiring and leveraging knowledge effectively within client organizations contributed to their successes, many firms began to embrace KM with full force. But in the current weakened economy, law firms are cutting back on KM initiatives in order to control expenses. Despite the retreat from the knowledge management arena, many firms still recognize that KM is not just a passing trend -- it is an integral information-management tool for law firm operations now and in the future, according to a recent informal survey.”
Click below to read the rest of this article!
Source: LLRX.com Features
July 21, 2003
Joy London writes: “In Knowledge Management Systems and the Large Law Firm, Cynthia M. Gayton's suggestions for a successful KM system are based upon four conceptual and management pillars:
Leadership: create an environment encouraging leadership in both identifying and rewarding good work, and, . . . support the strategic goals of increasing profit and improving reputation
Organization: support and create the required metrics as well as codify the work flow and facilitate communication
Technology: take advantage of existing software and available information requiring little, if any, additional technology to go to implementation
Learning: offer an exceptional opportunity for the analyzed practice group to learn more about the practice of law in the particular field, have available those documents and other information considered to be stellar through an evaluation process, and also give participants an opportunity to teach others
These four pillars are based upon the theories of Dr. Michael Stankowsky, Co-founder/Co-director of the Institute for Knowledge Management at George Washington University. Ms. Gayton is a practicing attorney and an adjunct professor of engineering law at GWU.”
Source: Excited Utterances
17 August 2003
From the TechnoLawyer: "There have been some posts about GLBA and the regulation of lawyers by the Federal government. The discussions have centered on bankruptcy lawyers' compliance with GLBA provisions. It was noted in Joe Dryer's original post that "most attorneys do not comply with the notification provisions of the GLBA, and are not aware of the potential liabilities of noncompliance."
This is likely the case and extends out well beyond bankruptcy lawyers. In addition to GLBA, there are a number of new laws with regulatory tentacles that have or will extend into the profession. The Patriot Act has reporting provisions that lawyers should note. HIPAA will likely impact lawyers practicing in the health car market and Sarbanes Oxley has obvious impacts on corporate counsel and those that work with them. What will this all mean? It perhaps represents a trend toward more government regulation of lawyers. Lawyers would do well to take a more active interest in all of these developments."
Toby Brown
Director of Communications
Utah State Bar
Source: TechnoLawyer’s Fat Friday, August 18, 2003
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