Dennis Kennedy posts: "I might be biased because I am an editor, but the January issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine is a good one.
A few highlights include Tom Mighell's column on ABA TECHSHOW 2005 speakers who are also bloggers, Andy Adkins (Andy, when are we going to see a blog from you?) on case management software, Fred Faulkner on RSS, Desktop Search, and Collaboration Tools and the usual great collection of columns and articles on finance, management, marketing and technology.
My contributions are a reprint of my 2005 legal tech predictions article (thank you Law Practice magazine) and an article on avoiding disaster in your disaster recovery planning - a preview of my upcoming presentation on disaster recovery at ABA TECHSHOW 2005.
Law Practice Today is a great outlet for writers covering law practice management topics. If you have good articles, let us know about them and submit them for potential publication."
Source: DennisKennedy.com, 28 January 2005
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “When I started my practice back in 1993, I paid for a real listing in Martindale-Hubbell (as opposed to the cheapie listing in the front blue pages) that I kept for four years. By 1997, I'd not gotten so much as a phone call from the listing. Looking forward, I realized that my website (that I developed myself and went live in late 1995) was already generating more visibility for me than the M-H listing - and so I declined to renew it.
Seems that I was right, as this posting from Wired GC bears out:
When I was at the offices of one of my outside counsel this week, I noticed part of the 2005 edition of Martindale-Hubbell sitting in two huge boxes in a conference room. Not this many but still a hefty set. They do look good on the shelf (often a required back-drop for lawyer interviews), but their days have to be numbered. M-H does offer CD and online versions, as well as search through lawyers.com. All good information; but I haven’t used M-H in years.
A closed system used by Martindale-Hubbell doesn’t really work anymore. A9 is a threat, but the bigger challenge is a general counsel who calls a colleague for a referral, checks the firm website, and Googles them. Perhaps you check Martindale, but it’s no longer the gold standard.”
(from The Wired GC)
Source: MyShingle.com, 30 January 2005
Sabrina posts: "Press release: "Business.com... announced the addition of "People Search" to its core business search capabilities. "People Search" allows business professionals to easily locate and learn about sales prospects, potential business partners, and job candidates on the Web by searching summaries of 24 million business people via a database... (that) continually scans millions of corporate websites, press releases, electronic news services, SEC filings and other online sources so the information provided is always up-to-date and accurate."
Source: BeSpacific- Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
27 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Ernie posts: “Tingilinde has a great vignette that pits a clueless customer with a clueless sales representative from Best Buy. The sales rep's 'expert opinion' of what Apple computers can do is a classic example of self-mockery. From this report it looks like the sales reps at Best Buy might want to learn more about Macs, but hey what do I know? I'm not a computer expert like the sales reps at Best Buy.
Lastly, I just found out that my co-writer at PDF For Lawyers, Dave Fishel, is a Mac-enthusiast and thinks that Macs have a place in the legal world. I couldn't agree more. Macs have a place anywhere there are people who are tired of viruses and spyware and overall wacky computer behavior. I just want a simple, easy to use computer that I don't have to pay much attention to. It's interesting that there are sales reps out there that are actually trying to get people to upgrade their PCs by saying it's too much trouble to zap the viruses on their old machine. And what's even more amazing is that there are people who don't laugh out loud when they hear this sales pitch.”
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 28 January 2005
In the news: "A 9th Circuit opinion Thursday could make it harder to force convicted sex offenders into some forms of state-mandated therapy. Reversing a Montana district court's ruling, the court found a defendant could not be forced into "autobiographical" therapy or punished for refusing to undergo it, as participation posed "a real danger of self-incrimination." The court wrote, "We have no doubt that any admissions of past crimes would likely make their way into the hands of prosecutors."
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire, 31 January 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
From the e-newsletter: "Former counsel to the President John Dean discusses Chief Justice Rehnquist's report on the federal judiciary -- explaining how it sends a message to Congress to refrain from either impeaching federal judges for political reasons, or taking away federal courts' jurisdiction for political reasons. Dean contends that the report illustrates the difference between "reactionary" conservatives like Rehnquist, and "radical" conservatives like the members of Congress who are considering these options."
Read full text
Source: Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
28 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
Subscribe
From the e-newsletter: "With the rising costs of phone service, this handy application may be worth giving a try. Skype 1.1. allows users to make phone calls using the Internet for free, and can also be used to send instant messages and transfer files. The sound quality is quite good, and there is end-to-end encryption of all calls. This version of Skype is compatible with all operating systems running Windows 2000 and higher and Mac OS X 10.3 and higher. [KMG]"
Source: Source: The Scout Report
January 28, 2005
Volume 11, Number 4
Copyright 1994-2004 Internet Scout Project
Subscribe
Fred Langa writes: "By happy coincidence, noted computer author Brian Livingston covered anti- adware tools at the same time we were discussing them in recent issues ("Spyware Hype Vs Real Threats" http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-01-27.htm#2 ).
Brian's work, analyzing data produced by Eric Howes, an instructor at the University of Illinois, shows that "nearly every anti-adware application on the market catches less than half of the bad stuff." Brian's recommendation is to use multiple anti-malware tools, so each can catch what others miss; they can backstop each other.
Long-time readers will recognize this approach as the same one we've recommended in this newsletter many, many times. But I'd arrived at that conclusion empirically and anecdotally; Brian now offers statistical proof to back up my less-formal, seat-of-the-pants conclusion.
Howes' test results also show that Microsoft's free beta AntiSpyware, which we've previously recommended (http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-01-13.htm#2) is the current best of the bunch in antispyware tools.
Brian and I both recommend Microsoft's AntiSpyware as one of the tools everyone should have; but beyond that, his recommendations differ slightly from mine in that he includes commercial tools in his top slots. I actually agree with Brian that the tools he recommends (e.g. http://www.webroot.com/, $30) are good, but I know that far more people will use tools if they're free or nearly so. That's why my primary list includes only freeware and donationware--- to help ensure that cost isn't an excuse to avoid using these important defenses.
Brian's report appeared in his Windows Secrets newsletter; http://windowssecrets.com/050127/. Definitely worth a look.
BTW, my recommendations--- all free for personal use:
Microsoft Antispyware:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Spywareblaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Spybot S&D: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Ad-Aware Personal Edition: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/"
Source: The LangaList Standard Edition
31 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 Fred Langa / Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved.
Subscribe
Posted by Tom Mighell: “I occasionally get e-mail from readers who lament that when I offer word processing tips, I only discuss Microsoft Word. Unfortunately, it's the only wp program I use -- I haven't used WordPerfect for years. So I'm very happy to see my friend Jim Calloway is all over this WordPerfect stuff at the Law Practice Tips Blog. Check out his posts on A WordPerfect Lawyer in a Word World, The WordPerfect Lawyer -- Sharing Your Documents, and Advanced WordPerfect Macros. Great stuff, even if I don't understand it all...”
Source: Inter Alia, 28 January 2005
Sabrina posts: "A new First Amendment Center Online research compilation examines the ins and outs of filing requests for government information under the federal Freedom of Information Act. The FOIA article by Taylor Holliday provides an introduction to the act, as well as information on the Privacy Act, how to get started on an FOIA filing, what you can and can't obtain through FOIA requests, pitfalls, appeals and more."
· how to file a FOIA Request
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
27 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
From Charlie White: “The 2005 Law Day Planning Guide is in the mail. If you've ordered one, it should be on your desks by the end of the month. Can't wait that long? Access http://www.lawday.org/guidemain.html for a PDF of the guide, which you can download and use in your planning meetings.”
Source: E-mail from Charlie White, Division for Public Education (20.2)
American Bar Association
Subscribe to Law Day List
Genie posts: “I author a new Law Office Computing column on trends or developments in online searching. Titled "Search Snippets," the first article relates my personal experience with accessing Lexis and Westlaw via a BlackBerry device. I discovered many noteworthy differences between the two, which involved the accessibility of the services, their features and content.”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
28 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “Walt Mossberg illustrates how Answers.com differs from the major search engines. It strives to provide answers as opposed to a list of matching documents, making it potentially more useful for well-defined factual questions.”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
28 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “PC World reports on a dispute between technology news site Engadget.com and Microsoft. Engadget published information and a screen shot about a future Windows mobile operating system. Microsoft accused it of a number of intellectual property violations, including misuse of trade secrets.
The news account doesn't provide the details concerning how Engadget obtained the information. Instead, it quotes a statement from Microsoft, which indicates the information consisted of "stolen images that were obtained illegally from a Microsoft server."
This brings to mind Mary Ellen Bates' recent article in Online Magazine. In "What Makes Information 'Public'?," Bates raises several questions about the ethics of retrieving and sharing information you believe could be confidential. Is the general accessibility of information residing on an inadequately secured Web server sufficient to make it "public?" Should you share such information with a client? Is doing so like walking uninvited through an unlocked door? Or is it analogous to using an inside source, or peeking over the shoulder of someone reading confidential documents in public?”
EARLIER, Research Ethics
TVC Alert, 5 November 2004
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
26 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
TAXES AND THE IRS
From the e-newsletter: “With W-2s arriving in the mail, and 2004's financial records finalized, it's not too early to think about filing your taxes. By clicking on the links below, you can browse informative articles and answers to frequently asked questions in FindLaw for the Public's "Taxes and the IRS" topic, or download forms and publications from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).”
Taxes and the IRS: Articles
http://public.findlaw.com/taxation/articles.html
Taxes and the IRS: FAQs
http://public.findlaw.com/taxation/faq.html
IRS Forms and Publications
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html
Find a Tax Attorney Near You
http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/practice/Taxation%20Law
Source: FindLaw's PUBLIC ADVISOR
A Weekly FindLaw Newsletter Providing News and Resources for the Public
27 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
Pro Football Hall of Fame
From the e-newsletter: "This site for the National Football League (NFL) Hall of Fame (located in Canton, Ohio) provides information each of the inductees, including detailed biographies, statistics, and photos. Also features information about NFL history, visitor and enshrinement information, videos, and features on topics such as football's wartime heroes. Searchable; browse Hall of Famers by name, year, team, college, high school, birthplace, or position."
Source: LII Librarians' Index to the Internet
NEW THIS WEEK for 27 January 2005
Copyright 2004 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “Commercial current awareness service EDGAR Index announced the availability of free RSS feeds in 4 categories. The free feeds cover initial public offerings (IPOs), quarterly reports, annual reports and insider trading filings.
EDGAR Index's fee-based service lets you create custom feeds by company name, ticker symbol or keyword in the company name.”
Source: TVC Alert, 27 January 2005
In the news: "Gathering electronic data can be a daunting task, but knowing what you're up against is the best start to untangling the morass of e-mail and electronic files you may uncover. Taking an active role in collection planning is the important first step that will speed and simplify the process. Discover our keys to a solid plan.
Read full text
Source: Law.com’s Daily Legal Newswire, 27 January 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
Posted by Tom Mighell: that lawyer dude is really Anthony Colleluori, a Long Island trial lawyer who wants to provide a "family friendly site where kids and their parents can come to learn about the Law, Government, and the Judicial System."
Source: Inter Alia, 27 January 2005
From TVC Alert: “Foreign Law Research: A joint effort involving several major law libraries, the FLARE project works to improve access to legal materials and how people use them. It offers extensive research guides to the law in several countries, training courses and a list of library holdings for European legal gazettes. Currently, the research guides available cover Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the topic, public international law. (et)”
Source: TVC Alert, 27 January 2005
Posted by Tom Mighell: “An IT director for a law firm said to me a few weeks ago, "spam is here to stay." My immediate reaction was "duh!" but then I realized the truth within those words. Despite the best efforts of anti-spam software makers and anti-spam laws, spam is a problem we must make manageable, a little like a chronic illness.
Tom Spring at PC World helps in that regard with Spam Fighting Tips for the New Year. He has lots of great suggestions, many of which I'll be discussing in the session "E-Mail Emancipation" at ABA TECHSHOW.”
Source: Inter Alia, 27 January 2005
Robert Ambrogi posts: “Think you know everything about your computer? Find out with the free Belarc Advisor. This neat little utility builds a detailed profile of all installed hardware and software on your computer and displays it in your Web browser. It provides details down to the serial number of your main circuit board and the secondary cache of your processor. Best of all, it identifies every piece of software installed on your computer and shows you the directory where it is located. Try it and find out what you don't know about your PC.”
Source: Robert Ambrogi’s Lawsites, 26 January 2005
From Sabrina Pacifici: "New Research Shows That Identity Theft Is More Prevalent Offline with Paper than Online:
· "The 2005 Identity Fraud Survey Report - released by the Better Business Bureau and Javelin Strategy & Research as an update of the Federal Trade Commission's 2003 Identity Theft Survey Report and Javelin's 2003 Identity Theft Report - shows that despite growing fears about identity theft and online fraud, of the victims that know the identity and method used by the criminal, these crimes are more frequently committed offline than online. Internet-related fraud problems are actually less severe, less costly and not as widespread as previously thought."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
26 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Dennis Kennedy posts: CSS and RSS: Rivals or Partners? posted by Nick Bradbury: Nick Bradbury
When you consume/read blogs via RSS feeds, what is the role of blog design? What happens when your most important readers do not visit your blog? What does it mean to live in a feed-dominant world?
Nick's take on this topic is, as usual, wise and fascinating, especially since he lives in both the CSS and RSS worlds.
As the developer of FeedDemon, the newsreader I am a huge fan of, Nick Bradbury is my clear choice as MVP of the Blogosphere for 2004.”
Source: DennisKennedy.com, 26 Janyary 2005
Dennis posts: "I have two discount opportunities for readers of this blog - one runs out in a few days and the other is a brand new one that will start soon - watch for more details.
1. Until January 31, readers of this blog may go to http://www.eddixllc.com/landing/dmk.asp to obtain a huge discount on EDDix's EDD Supplier Landscape research report, which is essential reading for anyone who is really serious about wanting to learn about what is happening and what will happen in the electronic discovery industry. Reading this report will save any vendor in the industry hours and hours of research time.
2. Bruce Hause has put together a similar affiliate marketing arrangement in which my readers will receive significant discounts and I'll receive some commissions in connection with Quickscribe digital dictation software and related products. I'll be giving your more details soon.
Bruce says:
"Quikscribe has a number of unique digital dictation and transcription features that appeal to attorneys and law firms. Our "Intelligent Audio File" format allows the author to include attachments of text, images, or files embedded within the audio file. This means that you can reference a case citation from a legal database, highlight the text with your mouse, then press the "insert" button on the hand control to capture and copy the desired text. The attorney doesn't have to dictate or print the citation, and the secretary doesn't have to type it during transcription. We also have lots of info on our website for U.S. customers at www.digidictate.com."
Source: DennisKennedy.com, 24 January 2005
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “As many of my readers know, I often find that the sanctions meted out by bar disciplinary committees to be either redundant or heavy-handed, such as punishing an attorney where he's already been ordered to pay monetary sanctions by the court or sactioning an attorney for failing to apologize for an overly harsh criticism of a judge. But here's a sanction that actually find myself in agreement with - a thirty day suspension not simply for missing a court date, but for lying about it repeatedly. See Partner Suspended for 30 Days for Lying About Missing Court Date, New York Lawyer (January 25, 2005).
Personally, one of my biggest peeves is lawyers who lie. Partly because lying about missing a deadline or not paying a bill reflects an abrogation of responsibility that simply does not befit a professional. And partly because lying sets the worst possible example for our clients. I can live with lawyers who are, occasionally rude to judges (who after all, may deserve it) or even lawyers who don't return phone calls to clients who pester them several times a day or don't pay bills on time. But there's simply no excuse for lying - to the court or to a client. And that's why we shouldn't tolerate those lawyers who do."
Source: MyShingle, 25 Januray 2005
Posted by Jerry Lawson: “A Law.com article describes the controversy over a New York proposal that would expand the definition of "pro bono" activities to include:
• Service to individuals or charitable, not-for-profit, civic, governmental or public agencies "seeking to secure or protect civil rights, civil liberties or public rights, or to meet the basic needs of individuals of limited means ... where payment of standard legal fees would significantly deplete the recipient's economic resources."
• Participation in "activities for improving the law or the legal system."
• Financial contribution to "groups or organizations whose principal purpose is to address the legal needs of individuals of limited means, and of not for profit organizations."
All these are worthy things for lawyers to do, but my sense is that the net effect of the proposal would be to pretty much destroy pro bono as we have known it.”
Source: eLawyer Blog, 22 January 2005
In the news: “The nonprofit world greeted the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley two years ago largely with relief that the corporate governance law did not apply to them. But in the wake of scandals at The Nature Conservancy and elsewhere, more and more nonprofit GCs are rewriting corporate charters, redrafting conflict-of-interest policies, and performing costly examinations of their internal controls. Are they trying to do good or just hoping to fend off federal oversight?”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire, 26 January 2005
Copyright 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
From Scientific American, Seeking Better Web Searches: "Deluged with superfluous responses to online queries, users will soon benefit from improved search engines that deliver customized results."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
25 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Posted by Jerry Lawson: “Security expert Bruce Schneier reports his conclusions from a study showing Linux computers are much safer than Windows computers:
The Honeynet researchers deployed almost 20 vulnerable systems to monitor hacker tactics, and found that no one was hacking the systems. That's the real story: the hackers aren't bothering with Linux. Two years ago, a vulnerable Linux system would be hacked in less than three days; now it takes three months.
Why? My guess is a combination of two reasons. One, Linux is that much more secure than Windows. Two, the bad guys are focusing on Windows -- more bang for the buck.”
Source: Netlawblog, 23 January 2005
Jerry Lawson: "Thanks to Jeff Beard for the tip that FeedDemon 1.5 Beta is available. FeedDemon is the best RSS reader I've found, and while the upgrades aren't revolutionary, they do make a good product even better."
Source: Netlawblog, 23 January 2005
Posted by Tom Mighell: ”Gee, if you believe all the e-mail you might have received in the past month, the folks at Sun Trust bank must be having a terrible time with their online customer accounts. Well, not really -- it's just a phishing scam, and the Anti-Phishing Working Group reported that 85 percent of all phishing scams during December directly focused on Banks and financial institutions.
Remember: If you get an e-mail purporting to be from your bank, never click a link inside the e-mail to get to the bank. Open up a browser on your own and navigate to the financial institution's site by yourself, to see if it really has a message for you.”
Source: Inter Alia, 26 January 2005
Genie posts: "In response to a news story about a current U.S. Supreme Court case "concerning [the] ineffective assistance of counsel," Carolyn Elefant comments on the need for trust between attorneys and clients. "[A]ttorneys have an obligation to diligently investigate a client's case - but that's more to determine whether the case is feasible rather than to continuously question what our clients have told us. And when clients begin to realize that it doesn't matter what they say because attorneys can't take them at their word, the trust so integral to the attorney client relationship will diminish."
While I agree trust is crucial to achieve the best possible outcome, I've investigated the word of too many prospective clients to believe anything at first blush. Due diligence is sometimes necessary to protect the lawyer or the law firm. It's not just about the feasibility of a case.
RELATED, The Internet Archive and the Search for Integrity
The Virtual Chase, 25 October 2004
(How materials in the Internet Archive helped expose dishonesty.)
RELATED, Uncovering Hidden Intentions
The Virtual Chase, 11 November 2003
(A fictionalized investigation leads to the discovery of criminal activity.)
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
24 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
From the e-newsletter: “Attorney and author Edward Lazarus discusses the Supreme Court's recent decision, holding that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines will now be advisory, not mandatory. Lazarus predicts that the decision will have far less practical effect than many have suggested, for sentencing judges are likely to comply with even advisory Guidelines. He also explains a strange facet of the two-part opinion: One justice -- Justice Ginsburg -- joined both majorities, so that one might think she would have written the whole opinion but, in fact, she authored neither part.”
Read full text
Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
24 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
Subscribe
In the news: “In a pair of cases with potential pocketbook impact on lawyers and their clients, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the contingent fee portion of lawsuit settlements and awards is taxable to the client, even if the money goes directly to the attorney. Although a new law limits the ruling's implications, experts forecast more costly settlements for some types of commercial litigation, because winning plaintiffs may insist that the extra tax they have to pay be tacked onto the settlement.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire, 25 January 2005
Copyright 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
In the news: “In a pair of cases with potential pocketbook impact on lawyers and their clients, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the contingent fee portion of lawsuit settlements and awards is taxable to the client, even if the money goes directly to the attorney. Although a new law limits the ruling's implications, experts forecast more costly settlements for some types of commercial litigation, because winning plaintiffs may insist that the extra tax they have to pay be tacked onto the settlement.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire, 25 January 2005
Copyright 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
From Sabrina Pacifici:
**Deep Web Research 2005
http://www.llrx.com/features/deepweb2005.htm
Web search guru Marcus P. Zillman's guide extensively documents resources that include articles, books, websites, presentations, search engines, and technology applications that facilitate the challenging task of accessing information, published in many formats, that encompass the hundreds of millions of pages comprising the "deep web."
**Research RoundUp: Business Filings Databases -- Updated
http://www.llrx.com/columns/roundup29.htm
Kathy Biehl's invaluable guide for business researchers has once again been updated with the latest links to corporate and business filings available online from all 50 states.
**The Government Domain: THOMAS - New Congress, A Few Changes
http://www.llrx.com/columns/govdomain1.htm
Welcome to this new monthly column by Peggy Garvin author of The United States Government Internet Manual 2004-2005. Peggy will focus on tips and
techniques to efficiently and effectively mine the depths of information available on government websites, beginning with THOMAS, which is now
celebrating its tenth anniversary online.
**"Do you speak American cyberspeak?"
http://www.llrx.com/columns/metaforix11.htm
This commentary by Lois C. Ambash focuses on technology's growing impact on our everday speech and writing.
**Law Firm Marketing: The Transformational Role of Marketing
http://www.llrx.com/columns/marketing6.htm
Andy Havens suggests practical reasons CIOs and CMOs should focus their efforts on common goals.
**FOIA Facts: Making Effective FOIA Requests
http://www.llrx.com/columns/foia17.htm
Scott A. Hodes offers four concise and useful tips on how to speed up the processing your request.
**A Portable PC Backup Solution - Time Well Spent
http://www.llrx.com/columns/legaltech29.htm
Brett Burney's review gives the ABSplus portable backup drive a big "thumbs up."
**LLRX.com Bookstore - New suggestions on topics including Adobe Acrobat, grammar, blogs, privacy, web services, and PayPal.
http://www.llrx.com/bookstore/
**On LawProLinks, a posting from Michael Ravnitzky detailing the range of legal research guides used by the Dept. of Justice Libraries.
http://www.llrx.com/llrxlink.htm
Source: LLRX Update, 24 January 2005
Copyright © LLRX TM, Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
From the e-newsletter: “Former member of Congress Bob Barr explains why last year's bid by Congress to reform the organizational structure of the agencies that govern intelligence-gathering may not accomplish its goals, and may have some serious drawbacks. As Barr explains, the law Congress passed purports to put all the relevant agencies under the command of the "National Intelligence Director" or "NID" -- but because other agencies' powers are not abrogated, it's unclear to what extent power will really be consolidated. Barr also contends that the law may lead to civil liberties incursions.”
Read all about it
Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
24 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
Subscribe
From the e-newsletter: “Attorney and author Julie Hilden takes issue with those who have derided Sean Penn for his activism with respect to the Iraq War. Hilden contends that not only do celebrities like Penn have a proper place in politics, their role might have pleased the Constitution's Framers -- who anticipated that independent institutions and persons might serve as crucial intermediates between the government and the People.”
Read full text
Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
24 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
Subscribe
Sabrina posts: “From PubSub, news that they are tracking over 8 million blogs. This represents a huge increase within the past year in the number of blogs now available. Along with this increased visibility, ethical concerns about blog content.
· From Radio Userland, the Top 100 Most-Subscribed-To RSS Feeds (the list includes Wired, various sections of the New York Times and the Washington Post, CNET News, ComputerWorld News, and The Shifted Librarian.
And related to the popularity if newspaper websites, this New York Times article today, Internet News Sites Are Back in Vogue.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
24 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “CIO Magazine features an article on compliance with federal laws that require e-mail storage. A sidebar lists, and briefly annotates, the relevant laws.
"'E-mail has become the primary medium for how we communicate,'" says Jeffrey Schwarz, a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery. 'Four years ago we used paper and FedEx. Now almost everything is done over e-mail.' The consequence is that e-mail has become a de facto record repository, a burden that e-mail systems as we know them can barely handle."
Several federal laws and regulations mandate saving e-mail messages. "Different regulations target specific industries."
ALSO, You've Got Rules
CIO Magazine sidebar, 15 January 2005
RELATED, A Strategy for Corporate Instant Messaging in 2005
Darwin, undated
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
25 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “You may have noticed ADD/REMOVE options for Windows XP hot fixes or folders with names such as $NtUninstallKB810217$. If you are short on space, you can safely remove older fixes. This PC Magazine tips explains how to do it.”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
25 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
In the news: “Nearly two years ago, the congressional Feeney Amendment and its get-tough approach to locking up criminals and scrutinizing federal judges' sentencing decisions was the talk of the bench and the bar. Today, Feeney is dead, slain by the U.S. Supreme Court. In light of the Court's Jan. 12 decisions making the federal sentencing guidelines advisory, not mandatory, the Feeney Amendment has "ceased to be relevant," in the words of Justice Stephen Breyer.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire, 24 January 2005
Copyright 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
From Tara Calishain: “HighBeam Research has announced that their online research service will be free for a week -- from January 24 to January 28 -- to celebrate the first anniversary of the service. It's available at http://www.highbeam.com.
The HighBeam service is a keyword-searchable service that offers over 32 million documents from over 3000 services. The resources are grouped into documents, images and maps, and reference. Now, before the free services period, you can do simple keyword searches of the service to get a sense of what's available, though of course you won't be able to access the results.
During the free period, you'll have to fill out the free basic registration. The free basic registration requires a name, e-mail address, passwords, and a couple of basic demographic questions.”
Source: ResearchBuzz #319
21 January 2005
Reproduced with permission of ResearchBuzz.
Copyright 2004 Tara Calishain. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
Letter to Fred Langa:
“Fred, How come when I go to Informationweek.com, they set off my Spybot S&D for Avenue A and DoubleClick? I would think that an honorable publication like Information Week would not use these spyware programs to monitor their users, but they do, and quite often! --- The Good Doctor and long time reader”
Fred’s reply: “In most cases, when a banner ad triggers a spyware alert, it's more that your spyware is trying hard to impress you, than actually protecting you from any real harm.
You see, most so-called "tracking cookies" and "web bugs" are 100%, totally, utterly harmless. They function mostly as a turnstyle, counting the number of people who have viewed an ad, so the advertiser knows he's gotten his money's worth. It's an anonymous headcounting device; that's all. In most cases, the security risk is approximately zero! And in fact, these cookies and such actually benefit you by paying for the "free" page you're viewing!
But anti-spyware vendors give these simple counters scary names ("tracking cookies" and "web bugs") so you'll feel like their software's doing something useful.
Ironically, when overeager security tools block these counters, they lower the revenue to the web site owner, making it more likely that the free content will go away, or will be available by subscription only. So, blocking these simple counters can actually backfire, and cause you to lose access to free content.
Anyone who's read this newsletter for more than an issue or two knows that I'm slightly nuts about security--- there *are* real and imminent dangers out there, and you have to keep your guard up. But not all threats are equal, and in the grand scheme of online security, "tracking cookies" and "web bugs" are about the least important thing you need to worry about. Most times, they're utterly harmless; no more a threat to you than those hoses that highway engineers lay across highways to count how many cars drive past.
More info: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010621S0030”
Source: The LangaList Standard Edition
24 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 Fred Langa / Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved.
Subscribe
From Tom Mighell: “I mentioned last week the new Adobe Reader Speedup utility, which significantly reduces the time it takes to load the Acrobat Reader. But as alert reader (and utility user) Curt observes, this program is designed to disable all the plugins that open with the Acrobat Reader, including the ability to fill in forms. So if you like to fill in forms using the Acrobat Reader, you probably won't want to use the speedup utility. Thanks Curt!"
http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/prods/misc/index.php
Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly
Volume 6, Issue 4
23 January 2005
Subscribe
If you install it, then don’t like it, “the simple answer is: http://www.oldversion.com/ It's a site that houses a free library of the older, simpler, smaller, less-aggressive versions of many popular programs, letting you grab and install the version of your choice.”
Source: The LangaList Standard Edition
24 January 2005
Copyright (c) 2004 Fred Langa / Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved.
Subscribe
Sabrina posts: “Via ReseachBuzz, this posting with news that Google Search now supports queries using up to 32 words, a significant increase over the previous 10 word limit. Thanks to Tara for this information, as there does yet appear to have been an official announcement from Google.”
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
23 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Sabrina posts: “Almost a decade ago, PointCast was a cutting edge "push technology" that streamed updated, cutomized news feeds to your desktop. I sure liked it, although it routinely crashed my PC. Fast forward, and here is new twist on the application, from Yahoo.
· "The My Yahoo! Ticker (Beta) makes it easy to track your favorite information, by bringing the news and opinions you've subscribed to in My Yahoo! directly to your desktop as they're published...Choose from over 250,000 RSS feeds covering virtually everything on the Web."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
21 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “Even if you don't practice criminal law, you should be interested in the U.S. Supreme Court's eventual ruling in Rompilla v. Beard concerning ineffective assistance of counsel which was argued before the Court yesterday. (for details, see Justices Debate Lawyer Diligence in Capital Case, Tony Mauro, Washington Legal Times (1/19/05)). As with Florida v. Nixon, a Supreme Court case that dealt with an ineffective assistance of counsel claim where a client failed to expressly authorize his attorney's strategy (see our prior post), the Romilla decision will likewise have implications for how we attorneys relate to our clients.
In Romilla, the petitioner claimed ineffective assistance of counsel in a capital case because his attorneys failed to review court files documenting petitioner's history of alcoholism and poverty, his low IQ and troubled childhood. The petitioner argued that had this information been presented at trial, he would have avoided a death sentence.
Now granted, the attorney's conduct sounds pretty egregious until you read the briefs. Both parties' briefs state that the petitioner's attorney had asked him about his background and petitioner - apparently on several occasions denied his alcoholic history and troubled past. But even there, the attorney did not rely on his client's word alone - he also interviewed family relatives and sent the petitioner to experts in hopes of finding mitigating circumstances to spare him from death.
A court ruling finding the attorney rendered ineffective assistance won't just impact criminal practice - but will affect how all of us deal with our clients. Essentially, such a ruling would require the court to find that we cannot take our clients at their word. Now sure, attorneys have an obligation to diligently investigate a client's case - but that's more to determine whether the case is feasible rather than to continuously question what our clients have told us. And when clients begin to realize that it doesn't matter what they say because attorneys can't take them at their word, the trust so integral to the attorney client relationship will diminish.
Moreover, I want to empower my clients, not coddle them. Clients deserve as much. So, I take my time to explain the applicable law, why my clients must provide me with certain pieces of information and why that information must be accurate. But if we send a signal to clients that their input doesn't matter, and if they don't provide it, then the attorney and not the client will pay the price, we encourage them to remain passive bystanders rather than active participants in the judicial process. And that makes us attorneys caretakers rather than advocates.
I'm not defending the Romilla attorney's failure to check the court files. I suppose he could have been more diligent. But the reason that he wasn't was because his own client simply wasn't willing to provide his attorney with information that may have saved his life. In those circumstances, I don't think that the fault ought to rest entirely with his attorney either."
Source: MyShingle, 19 January 2005
Posted by Jerry Lawson: “Ron Friedmann will moderate a panel discussion between Christian Liipfert of BP America and Jeff Rovner of Clifford Chance at Legal Tech New York on January 31 on the topic of whether clients will pay for knowledge management.
My sense is that clients are already paying for knowledge management. They just don't realize it, because it's built into the present rate structure.
The problem with the existing system is that clients are paying much more than they should for knowledge management, because the way nearly all law firms handle it now is very inefficient knowledge management. The more important question is:
Which law firms can adopt business models that will support more efficient ways of operating?
The law firms that can do that--and help their clients understand why the new methods are mutually beneficial--can look forward to the prospect of a long range competitive advantage."
Source: NetLawBlog, 20 January 2005
In the news: “Advances in computer technology have brought a sharp rise in discovery disputes over which electronic data must be disclosed and which are simply too expensive or burdensome for defendants to produce. A rising chorus urging EDD reform has proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Some would curtail a lawyer's ability to read digital jottings over an opponent's shoulder. The battle lines are drawn."
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire, 21 January 2005
Copyright 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
"The DUIblog is presented by Lawrence Taylor, who is blogging about bad DUI laws, false evidence, and the New Prohibition.”
Source: Inter Alia, 20 January 2005
Sabrina posts: "Joshua Tauberer, a grad student at U. Penn, has created an amazing legislative tracking service, GovTrack.us, which won the top prize in the Technorati Developer's Contest. The site's automated monitoring services are free, and the data is obtained from federal sources including THOMAS and the websites of the U.S. House and Senate. Users may track bills, issues or committees, representatives, or topics. Daily or weekly email updates are available for registered users, as well as news feeds. The site also includes blog postings on legislation, by authors registered with the site to have their comments appear on the GovTrack Blog."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
19 January 2005
Copyright ©2002-2004 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “RSS search engine Feedster launched a search engines for finding work announced via RSS feeds. I was surprised at the number of jobs that resulted from a search for "librarian."
As with the main Feedster interface, you can save your search as an RSS feed, and then receive updates via your reader. Look for the orange XML button at the top of the search results page. Copy the URL and then paste it into your RSS reader.
SEE, Feedster Provides Online Resource for Job Seekers
Press Release, 19 January 2005”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
20 January 2005
(c) Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
Subscribe
Genie posts: “Law Dawg Blawg has begun publishing research tips. The first deals with an online research strategy: "If you have to look for a needle, look for it in the smallest haystack possible."
While this is indeed an excellent tip for online research, whether you are using the Web or a commercial system, such as LexisNexis or Westlaw, it pertains to the selection of starting sources and not the formulation of queries. It also pertains specifically to online research, although it might be a useful strategy for some library research. The point I want to make is this: In r