Hi!
I'm Baaack! The sunshine and sound of the surf really does wonders for the soul!!
Our humble abode this year was right on the water so we were lulled to sleep and awoken to the gentle sound of waves breaking on the beach!!!
The quiet of the Memorial Day weekend was unnoticeable, but the alarm clock this morning was downright RUDE!!!
But it's nice to be back home again, even though my dog forgot who I was - not the smartest animal on four paws, but definately the cutest and most loveable!!!
Posted by David Swanner: “Howard Nations reminds us that sometimes the most important thing a lawyer can say is nothing.
The pause serves two major purposes for the orator:
First, the pause allows the statement immediately preceding it to soak in thoroughly; and secondly, the pause will recapture the minds of those who have strayed and cause those who have been listening to pay more close attention to the statement that follows the pause.
Often, inaction is the most effective means of nonverbal communication, i.e., the use of the emphatic pause.
Well said. Click on the link and read the rest of Howard’s well written article.”
Source: South Carolina Trial Law Blog, 19 May 2005
From the e-newsletter: “In an era of huge mergers, more and more attorneys are apparently becoming disenchanted with megafirm lawyering. Unhappy with what they perceive as corporate bureaucracy, impersonal treatment and fewer chances for career growth, some partners are defecting from big-box firms and heading for smaller practices, where, they say, they have more input and opportunities. And smaller firms are proving more than happy to welcome the refugees.”
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
31 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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From the e-newsletter: “Attorney and author Edward Lazarus discusses the shift in law enforcement tactics from publicly using the term "suspect" to publicly using the term "person of interest." He argues that because everyone knows "person of interest" is code for "suspect," the public use of the "person of interest" designation is just as destructive as public use of the "suspect" designation. Relying on several key examples of high-profile and lower-profile cases in which a "person of interest" was exonerated, Lazarus argues that the costs of using the label publicly are rarely worth incurring. He urges that the Department of Justice should adopt a policy under which the "person of interest" label would be publicly used only in rare cases, such as child abductions, in which danger to the victim remains, and time is of the essence.”
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Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
27 May 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
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From the e-newsletter: “Rutgers law professor Sherry Colb explains the issue in an important Fourth Amendment case that the U.S. Supreme Court recently opted to review. The case addresses the following fact scenario: Two spouses share a house. One refuses a request from police to search the house. But the police return later, and the other spouse consents to a search. Under the Fourth Amendment, is the search constitutional -- or illegal? Colb argues that the Court should deem the search illegal, but explains why precedent indicates the Court may hold to the contrary.”
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Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
20 May 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
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Genie Tybursky posts: “Ever wonder how the phishing scam artists find your e-mail address? This article details one technique, which highlights a security issue for Web sites that utilize e-mail addresses as login or password.”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
31 May 2005
Copyright: 1999 - 2005 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
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Tom Mighell writes: “Internet services company Netcraft has released its Netcraft Toolbar (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/), which is designed to spot and thwart phishing attacks (http://snipurl.com/f7fi). The toolbar helps to identify fraudulent sites that might be masquerading as PayPal or your bank site.
A product like the Netcraft Toolbar is great, but it assumes that the user has been fooled by the e-mail and clicked through to get to a web site. My hope would be that users learn how to spot a phishing attack at the e-mail stage, and never have to worry about getting to the fake web site.”
Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly
29 May 2005
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Sabrina posts: “Consumer Reports WebWatch Investigations - Wireless Networks Offer Flexibility, Potential Snooping, offers a quick overview of security issue and makes recommendations on enabling safety solutions for home and on the road."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
26 May 2005
Copyright ©2002-2005 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Tara writes: “There's a new search engine on the block, and while I appreciate the attitude and some of the aspects of the layout, I'm somewhat distressed by the relevance. The site is called BigClique and it's available at http://www.bigclique.com.”
Read the whole review at
<http://www.researchbuzz.org/new_search_engine_cliquesearch.shtml>
Source: ResearchBuzz #337
26 May 2005
Reproduced with permission of ResearchBuzz (http://www.researchbuzz.com).
Copyright 2005 Tara Calishain. All rights reserved.
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This will be my last post until after Memorial Day. We are going to the ocean for the long week - this time to Nags Head on the Outer Banks.
See you on the 31st!
Jim posts: “Attacks on the members of the judiciary have certainly been on the rise, whether by verbal assaults, courtroom incidents of violence or a recent tragedy of a federal judge's family being murdered. The American Bar Association has recently posted an online "toolkit" titled "Supporting America's Judiciary." This set of resources will be useful to those who wish to take some action in their communities to counter these trends and therefore this is our Website of the Week.”
Source: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog, 16 May 2005
Evan Schaeffer posts: “For lawyers learning how to take depositions, there's no better way to jumpstart the process than by reading old deposition transcripts. If you take this approach yourself, pay particular attention to depositions taken by the lawyers you are working for. Their own deposition styles will likely be used as models for what they'd like to see in you, meaning those styles would be good ones for you to imitate.
Have copies made of the old transcripts you're studying. Pay attention to how the lawyer taking a deposition introduces and uses exhibits, how he responds to objections by the other side, and how he follows-up on the fly to the answers the witness gives, rather than just reading questions from an outline.”
Source: The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, May 16, 2005
Sabrina posts:
· Researching Medical Literature on the Internet -- 2005 Update, by Gloria
Miccioli
· The Problem of Orphan Works, by Tobe Liebert
· FOIA Facts: GAO Issues New FOIA Report, by Scott A. Hodes
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
18 May 2005
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Ernie Svenson posts: “Toby Brown and Lincoln Mead have a new weblog for bar associations. It's called Barchives.org and it looks like a great resource. Their site will examine various aspects of operating a bar association, focusing on topics of interest to state, local and specialty bars. Check it out.”
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 17 May 2005
Kevin O’Keefe posts: “LegalTimes.com, tagged as 'Legal News from the Nation's Capital, reports (sub. req'ed) in their Corporate Counsel Column that in-house counsel are reading blogs as a legal resource. The column says "Web logs, dubbed blawgs, offer in-house lawyers a wealth of details on life, law, and what their company might be doing wrong."
And we still have legal marketing professionals who do not believe blogs are an appropriate medium to market their practice groups in large law firms. Simply amazing.
All you have to do is look at a resource like the Telecom Law Blog published by Davis Wright & Tremaine to see why in-house all across the country interested in telecom issues are getting telecom legal news from Davis Wright's Telecommunications Practice Group. In addition, their subscribers are growing each day by being ranked #1 at Google on a search for telecom lawyer or telecom law firm.”
Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 14 May 2005
Posted by Tom Mighell: “If you don't want to worry about removing spyware from your computer, there's a (relatively) simple answer: don't allow spyware on your computer in the first place. Easier said than done? Maybe. But this article on How to Avoid Getting Spyware is a pretty good guide on best practices to follow. I follow most all of these steps, and I have been spyware-free for months.”
Source: Inter Alia, 18 May 2005
Sue Altmeyer posts: “In Chief Justice Moyer's annual state of the judiciary speech, he announced that the Ohio Supreme Court plans to adopt the American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct. The ABA rules would make it easier for out-of-state attorneys to temporarily practice in Ohio. See Supreme Court Task Force on Rules of Professional Conduct, Proposed Rule 5.5. The Chief Justice also proposed eliminating mayor's courts. See Moyer Hints at Changes for Ohio Legal Rules, Courts by Kevin Kemper, Columbus Business First, May 12, 2005.”
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 16 May 2005
Posted by Bruce MacEwen: “Are lawyers suffering "arrested development," as the cheeky title of a dead-serious article has it at Legal Week? Professional development is one of the pantheon of gods whose worship is most often honored in the breach, or else by procrustean insistence that junior associates hastily choose a "specialty" in order to maximize their billable value.
In that and an accompanying editorial, the following question is essentially posed. Given that:
· Cash compensation alone is necessary but not sufficient for career satisfaction;
· So long as the billable-hour model reigns, time pressures will continue relentless; and
· Pressure to focus on a niche practice is unabated, then what can firms realistically do to address the "growing disconnection between employer and employee across the legal sector?" The traditional partnership pot-of-gold looks increasingly distant and improbable, and is no release from time and practice pressures in any event—"a pie-eating contest in which the award is more pie," as skeptics put it.
Business as usual is not an option: "The transition from gentlemen’s club to 21st century business will continue, at pace." So the pertinent question becomes not "what needs to be changed?" but rather the far more interesting one, "what skills do we need to develop in successful 21st-century lawyers?"
Technical expertise will always continue to be a given, your admission ticket. But as technology continues its innovative march, as outsourcing begins to loom up faster and faster on the horizon, and as regulatory reforms (notably, the Clementi Commission in the UK) open new frontiers in law firm structures, what remains the characteristic which cannot be readily cloned, imitated, or grasped by a "fast follower?"
Simply, what it's always been: Deeply trusting human relationships premised on the lawyer's ability to communicate with both sagacity and commercial and economic insight into the client's issues. This is all the best firms have ever had to sell, and it must remain emphatically more so as commoditising forces nip and cut from below.
And with this you get a "development" bonus: What could be more professionally satisfying?”
Source: Adam Smith, Esq., 17 May 2005
In the news: “In a trend accelerated by the Internet, law firms may be catching up with corporate America, shortening their names and dropping commas and ampersands. From a marketing perspective, a short name is easier to recall and looks good on a logo. Pruning can also prevent infighting. "You get away from all of the political issues and the legacy issues that obviously are very important to partners," says a consultant. And then there are the Texas firms that like to use diamonds, stars and state outlines.”
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
18 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Sabrina posts: "Encyclopedia Of The Supreme Court, by David Shultz. Publisher: Facts on File (May 31, 2005). For more details, see the press release.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
17 May 2005
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David Swanner posts: “I have a small office (myself, a paralegal and a secretary). One of the things I always do on an initial intake is introduce the client to both my staff members. I want the client to know who they’re talking to and be more comfortable when they call in. Even if my paralegal is in the middle of something, she can still raise her head, wave and say hello to the new client.
Another idea is to send a follow up welcome letter not from you, not from the firm, but from the paralegal. We use language like this:
'As the paralegal assigned to assist Mr. Swanner in the handling of your case, I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that I am available at any time should you have questions concerning your case. I wanted to introduce myself and let you know that we will work very hard on your case. If you ever have any questions or problems concerning your case please let me know so I can help you.'
If you feel it’s appropriate, you can also have them add that the lawyer is often out of the office meeting with clients, witnesses and investigators, taking or defending depositions, attending or presenting at conferences, and preparing for or attending court, but that the paralegal will be in the office and will be available to help them out.”
Source: South Carolina Trial Law Blog, 18 May 2005
Sabrina posts: "From today's WSJ free features, 'Evil Twins' and 'Pharming' - Hackers Use Two New Tricks To Steal Online Identities; Scams Are Harder to Detect.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
17 May 2005
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Posted by Diane Murley: “A few weeks ago in Advanced Electronic Legal Research, we were regretting the fact that FirstGov did not list all government RSS feeds on a single page, as it does for Government E-mail Newsletters and other News types. But now FirstGov has added a Government RSS Library. It is a nice collection of links to RSS feeds, some by topic and some by agency. The list will undoubtedly get longer, because there is a link to "Tell Us About More Government RSS Feeds." If you know of a feed they missed, give it a click.”
Source: Law Dawg Blawg, 17 May 2005
Bonnie Shucha posts: “CheapGas is a new site that combines the power of Google Maps and gasbuddy by creating maps that pinpoint the location of and fuel prices at gas stations in cities across the U.S. In Wisconsin, choose from Milwaukee, Madison or a view state wide listing.”
Source: WisBlawg, 17 May 2005
P.S. Just in time for my vacation!!!
In the news: “The explosive fight over filibustering judicial nominations comes to a head this week on the Senate floor. The battle is, in the view of liberal interest groups, a prelude to an ultimate showdown over a Supreme Court nominee. Losing the filibuster would rob liberal activists of the only real bargaining chip they have in the nominations process. As Richard Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, says, "If we don't put up a fight with the judicial filibuster, we'll have nothing to shoot."
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
16 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Larry posts: "According to Tim Stanley, Stamps.com Photo Stamps are coming back. The URL is http://photo.stamps.com.
PhotoStamps let you take your own photographs and turn them into real U.S. postage. To create PhotoStamps all you need to do is upload a photo, customize it using their easy-to-use interface, then place your order. Stamps.com, the company behind PhotoStamps, has been a USPS-approved provider of on-line postage since 1999.
Online, Tim shows some examples of Little Sheba his "Hug Pug" (http://hugpug.com) stamps from when photo stamps were available last
year: http://www.hugpug.com/sheba/sheba_stamps/. I have to say, Tim is a mighty lovesome for his pug, but they are awful cute.
It's a relatively inexpensive way to market your firm (or puppy) through the use of Official US Postage Stamps. I myself have an African Gray parrot and a Greenwing Macaw. What do you think -- should I use Harry the Macaw?”
Source: Larry Bodine’s Professional Marketing Blog, 17 May 2005
David Swanner posts: “Welcome to Blawg Review #6, a collection of the top legal blog postings in the last week. Since I have a newer blog that people might not be familiar with, I’m going to start with a quick primer of the highlights of the South Carolina Trial Law Blog. If you’re not interested, skip ahead to the posts.
This blog’s most popular posts have been How to Be a Better Trial Attorney, Starting Your Own Practice Out of Law School, Top 5 Things Paralegals Want to Tell Their Lawyers and Twelve Ways Technology Can Make You a Better Trial Lawyer (which was originally published on Evan Schaeffer’s Notes from the (Legal) Underground and was republished by Neil Squillante’s TechnoLawyer). The most searched for posts have been How to Prove a Negative (my first post), Digitizing X-Rays and Some Great Legal Quotes for Closing Arguments. If these topics interest you, stick around and check out some more..."
Source: South Carolina Trial Law Blog, 15 May 2005
From the blog: "Firms or companies wishing to implement blogging policies now have another useful precedent to work with from no less than IBM. Before we get to the policy, the following passage in a post from 16 May on an IBM website is interesting in and of itself:
"As has been reported on a variety of blogs around the net, IBM today is publishing an announcement on its Intranet site encouraging all 320,000+ employees world wide to consider engaging actively in the practice of "blogging".
As for the IBM Blogging Policy and Guidelines themselves, you can find them by clicking right here. Many thanks to Denise Howell (among others) for spotting these.”
Source: Feedmelegal, 17 May 2005
Posted by Tom Mighell: “Okay, maybe RSS isn't Shimmer, but it's certainly versatile. In fact, here are fifteen things you can do with RSS that I'll bet you didn't know you could do. Some cool uses of the technology here -- check them out.”
Source: Inter Alia, 16 May 2005
Kevin O’Keefe posts: “It's not another '360' service, Justia, the leading provider of search engine optimized web sites for law firms, has come up with the 'Justia Free Sixty.' It's 60 essential free competitive intelligence resources. That's not 'essentially free,' but free (costs nothing) essential resources.
Justia, on their Legal SEO Blog, tells law firms what they know, and a few things they may not:
To succeed in today's business environment, you must know more about your own business than your competitors do. And, you must understand more about your clients' businesses, than your clients do.
......
The first challenge is identifying sources of competitive intelligence. Thankfully, the amount of business intelligence available on the internet continues to grow. However, you must be able to effectively channel this flow of information to avoid drowning in an ocean of data.
Justia has compiled this list of 60 essential free competitive intelligence resources to help law firms harness the power of the internet. Here's highlights of Justia's first 11 but check out their post as they have a ton of screen shots that make things much easier to follow.
* My Yahoo. Heads this list because it offers a tremendous breadth of customized content with a clean interface. Furthermore, you can now place additional content modules into My Yahoo—beyond the default set provided—by taking advantage of RSS feeds.
* Google. Google your company, Google your competitors, or Google your clients. With over 8 billion web pages indexed, Google will likely provide you with some tasty morsel of information.
* Yahoo News. If you're just skimming the headlines of Yahoo! News, you haven't fully tapped into this essential resource. Yahoo News - RSS allows you to create custom news feeds based on search terms you've identified. You can then read these in an RSS reader or view them on My Yahoo!. Justia gives an example of tracking a Morrison Foerster news feed module on My Yahoo. This is an easy way to keep up with press coverage of your company, your clients or even your competitors.
* Google News. Google News doesn't offer RSS feeds, but you can set-up a Google Alert, which is similar in concept to the e-mail-based Yahoo Alerts. Given a choice though, Justia much prefers updates by RSS feed instead of e-mail. Don't like seeing too crowded an inbox.
* Company Background Reports
- Yahoo! Finance. For publicly-traded companies, Yahoo offers stock quotes, stock charts, news, company profiles, competitor data, industry data, analyst coverage information, ownership data and financial statements—all for free.
- Hoover's Online. Hoover's provides company fact sheets, news and financials on selected companies for free. Hoover's also offers additional business data, such as officers and employees, D&B reports and corporate family trees on a subscription basis.
- CNNMoney Company Research. CNNMoney offers stock quotes, stock charts, earnings estimates, insider trading data, SEC filings, financials and news. It also provides news feeds from CNN/Money, Dow Jones, press releases and Fortune.
- MSN Money. Offers much of the same content as above in a less attractive interface.
* RSS Feeds
- BNET - Company Updates. BNET features news updates for selected major companies.
- Yahoo - Company News. Generates an URL for publicly-traded companies in the RSS format. My Yahoo already allows you to subscribe to company news as a default feature. This alternative lets you see the same content using an RSS news reader.
- Moreover Technologies. Feeds Moreover features RSS news feeds by company.
Like the good folks at Justia say, 11 down, 49 more to go."
Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 12 May 2005
Sabrina posts: “Microsoft press release: Searching just got smarter with launch of MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search:
· "The MSN® network of Internet services today launched the new MSN Search Toolbar with Windows® Desktop Search, a suite of tools that helps people rapidly search across the Web or their PC and provides easy access to world-leading MSN services. The final version of the MSN Search Toolbar includes free enhancements for Windows® 2000 and Windows XP customers, providing a dramatically upgraded desktop search experience. These new innovations for Windows customers will make it easier than ever to find and retrieve documents, e-mail, images, video and more on their Windows-based personal computers."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
16 May 2005
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From the e-newsletter: “Columbia law professor Michael Dorf reminds us that the truest free speech heroes may not always be the most obvious ones. Judith Miller of the New York Times is risking jail to protect her confidential sources, in connection with the Valerie Plame leak investigation -- in a case that may reach the Supreme Court. Yet, Dorf argues, rather than choosing Miller as our free speech ideal, we would do better to look to Houston Rockets Coach Jeff Van Gundy, who has also sought to protect confidential sources -- whose reports challenge the integrity of NBA referees.”
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Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
13 May 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
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Robert posts: “Only 14 percent of Americans and 57 percent of newspaper and TV journalists can name “freedom of the press” as a right that is guaranteed by the First Amendment, according to a University of Connecticut study released today. I have more about the survey at my Media Law blog.”
Source: Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites, 16 May 2005
Posted by Ernest Svenson: “Kids today are busy, and they have a lot of communicating to do. They work in many media: cell phones, E-mail, instant messaging, text messaging etc. And they don't have time to waste on things that slow down the info-torrent they spew out. What kind of things slow down their precious communications?
Well, correct spelling for one.
I used to chastise my daughters for sending me emails filled with typos. I noticed that my complaints would immediately result in emails with perfect spelling. I’d like to picture them reaching this result by training their minds to develop a keen awareness of how words are spelled, and then thoughtfully applying this awareness to the E-mails they sent to their wise father. Instead, I know the reality is is more like this: they hastily typed out the E-mail and then huffed with frustration at having to run spell check right before they sent it.
Of course, all I saw when I read the E-mail was perfect spelling. And that’s all that counts, right? I don’t know. Lately, I’ve begun to wonder about my sage advice.
For example, the other day I was running spell check on one of my documents, beaming with pride upon learning that my masterpiece had very few typos. I always correct typos as I make them. But as I thought more about my great ‘spell check scores’ I realized that I’d certainly be more efficient off blasting through the document with no concern at all about typos, knowing I could fix them at the end.
Somehow, even though I know that, I can’t do it. I can’t break myself of the habit of fixing typos as I make them. Which means I’m not an efficient keyboardist, although I am a pretty good speller. And what about my kids?
When my kids are my age they’ll type much faster than I do, assuming that computers even need keyboards for data entry by then. Spelling errors will be obsolete, along with spell-check. What will matter is doing things efficiently, which apparently is something that most computer-savvy kids are learning now whether their parents know it or not.”
Source: Tech Feng Shui
Ron Friedmann posts: "The lead feature story of the Wall Street Journal today is Age of Discovery - How Morgan Stanley Botched A Big Case by Fumbling Emails (subscription req’d). If litigants have not already been put on notice about e-discovery, this article is the wake-up call.
Both the underlying dispute between financier Ronald Perelman and investment banker Morgan Stanley and the e-discovery problems have been previously reported. This article is noteworthy because it elevates to front page status the issues of managing e-mail in the discovery process. (The court found that Morgan Stanley “deliberately” violated production orders and, as a sanction, instructed the jury to assume the company helped defraud Perelman.)
Corporate America now stands warned that they have to get discovery right or face serious court sanctions. And the article does not make quite as clear as does the court’s decision the dangers of doing “home grown” e-discovery management."
Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 15 May 2005
Sabrina posts: “Can We Stop Zabasearch -- and Similar Personal Information Search Engines?: When Data Democratization Verges on Privacy Invasion, by Anita Ramasastry.”
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
14 May 2005
Copyright ©2002-2005 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Kevin O’Keefe posts: “From Mediapost's coverage of a Burst study:
Asked about their media consumption habits over the past year, 61 percent of the respondents said they spend more time on the Internet today than a year ago, with 32 percent saying they spend 'much more time,' and 29 percent claiming to spend 'somewhat more time' online.
The source of this post, John Battelle's Searchblog, also points out Fathom reports keyword prices are up 11% in April.”
Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 12 May 2005
From the e-newsletter: “As much as I talk about how to use information discovery tools beyond search engines, once in a while I find a new search tool that makes me actually *want* to do some web searching.
Exalead (beta.exalead.com) is a fairly new search engine from France, introduced in October 2004 and still officially in beta. Having passed the one-billion page mark in 2005, it's still 1/8th the size of Google or Yahoo, but what's a few billion pages among friends? Actually, after a certain point, size really doesn't matter. The key factors in evaluating a search engine should include timeliness, ability to handle ambiguity, and plenty of power search tools. Exalead does a great job, at least on two of these three criteria.
When you first get to the Exalead site, you'll see a stylishly minimalist page. But click through to the Advanced Search page to appreciate Exalead's search features.
Among the search tools you don't always find in search engines are:
* the option to specify that retrieved sites "preferably contain" all the terms you are searching for, in addition to "must contain" and "must not contain". You can also do this with the OPT operator, to indicate which specific words are "optional".
* proximity searching(!), in which the words you search must be within 16 words of each other. (No, you can't tweak the number of intervening words.)
* truncation, and this isn't just the word stemming that many search engines employ behind the scenes (a search for "pencil" will also retrieve "pencils") but true truncation, where you can search for "librar" and retrieve library, libraries, librarian, librarianship, and so on.
* phonetic spelling and approximate spelling, through which you can search for a word, even if you aren't sure of the spelling or if the word is frequently misspelled. Think "Arnold Schwarzenegger" for example.
* what Exalead calls "Regular Expressions", in which you can search for documents with words that match a certain pattern. Imagine, for example, that you're doing a crossword puzzle and have a word of 6 letters, of which the second is T and the sixth is C. By searching /.t...c/, you will retrieve sites with the word ATOMIC, perhaps the right word for your puzzle.
One gripe I have is that there is an option to limit your search by country but, unfortunately, this only searches by two-letter top level domain (e.g., .uk, .jp).This means that, for example, if you limit your search to Australian sites and search for Australian biotech associations, you won't retrieve AusBioTech.org -- a major biotech association in Australia -- because it does not have .au as its top level domain.
In addition to search power, Exalead has a rich search-results screen. In addition to the usual display of searchpages and snippets, each entry includes an image of the retrieved page. There is also a column along the left that displays relevant entries from the Open Directory Project, along with tools to select "related terms", to limit your search by document type, and to narrow the search by location (and, interestingly, this doesn't use the two-letter top level domain limit, but instead retrieves only pages from the Open Directory Project that have been categorized under that country.)
My one real objection to Exalead -- and it's a big issue -- is that it appears that Exalead has notupdated its index since the beginning of 2005. One of its advanced search features lets you limit your search by the date a file was last modified (note that you need to use the European format of dd/mm/yyyy), but repeated tests turned up no records from 2005. Yes, Exalead is in beta, and that sometimes means there are glitches, but a delay in over four months in updating the index is troubling.
Until Exalead gets its updating schedule back on track, use this search engine to find older material and/or to verify spelling, identify alternative meanings, and identify authoritative material from sites that have a track record. And show this site to the next representative of one of the value-added online services. The features in Exalead would add tremendous search power to, say, Dialog, Factiva or LexisNexis.”
Source: Mary Ellen Bates' Tip of the Month, 15 May 2004
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Sabrina posts: "Follow-up to my April 29, 2005 posting: New Justia Web Site Enables Consumers to Easily Track Auto Recalls:
"Justia, an innovative provider of legal marketing services and resources for law firms, today announced the launch of a comprehensive auto recalls center (http://auto-recalls.justia.com) with free RSS feeds of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration auto recalls for every make, model and year."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
15 May 2005
Copyright ©2002-2005 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Genie Tyburski posts: “Competitive intelligence researcher Arthur Weiss explains how to turn a corporate Web site inside out in order to find useful information. He mentions a number of helpful research tools, particularly for conducting research on U.K. based sites. In my experience, the coding of a Web site is one of the best places to look for clues. "Other things to look for on competitor sites are hidden links - links to other web-pages that are masked or hidden in some way, for example through using a single pixel image."
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
13 May 2005
Copyright: 1999 - 2005 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
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In the news: “More than 60 law firms have agreed to tell corporate clients the composition of assigned legal teams by race, gender, ethnicity and sexual preference. For several years, clients have asked firms to sign statements in support of diversifying the profession -- but under the formal agreement, firms will supply hard numbers. For law firms, failure to adequately diversify their teams could mean the difference between retaining business and being dropped in favor of more socially progressive shops.”
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
13 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Kevin O’Keefe posts: “The 'Scobleizer Speaks' is the title of a feature interview Forbes did with Microsoft's Robert Scoble. It's listed among Forbes' 'Ten Must-Read Tech Stories.'
Great brief video interview everyone should take a few minutes to watch. Covers, among other things:
· Why blogs? The answer being to get feedback and because bloggers are great amplifiers for your business and its products.
· Rules for blogs? "Be smart" is Microsoft's mantra. They hire smart people and expect them to behave professionally.
· Watch & read blogs? Of course, to know what is being said about one's company and your industry. Both by subscribing to the best blogs in your space or putting in keywords in PubSub or Feedster.
Wish I could be as succinct and express myself as well as Robert. Perhaps we'd have more law firms publishing blogs. But I'm getting there.”
Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 7 May 2005
From the e-newsletter: “The Center for Labor Research and Education at UCLA is part of the larger Institute of Industrial Relations (AIR) at that institution, and serves as a bridge between the scholarly work in the field and the labor community throughout Southern California. Scholars and students alike take advantage of their materials on campus, and the Web-browsing public can now do the same via this site. Many visitors will want to check out Center's publications, which include the archives of its own "Labor Education News" and a number of other timely reports such as those of NAFTA and a summary report on the situation of Asian Pacific Islander workers. Visitors can also peruse the listings of Center events and also take a look at the websites of some of its affiliates, including UCLA's own urban planning department.” [KMG]
Source: The Scout Report, Volume 11, Number 19, 13 May 2005
Copyright © 2003 Internet Scout Project.
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From Tara: "Techworld is reporting (http://dailynews.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/120756) that there are a couple of critical vulnerabilities in Firefox. Until a patch is made available they're suggesting that users turn off JavaScript. Here's how to turn off JavaScript in Firefox.
Go to Tools menu at the top of the screen.
Go to Options.
Choose Web Features on the left.
On the right you'll see several checkboxes. One of them says Enable JavaScript. Uncheck that box.
No JavaScript could break a lot of sites, so have a back-up browser handy, like Opera."
Source: ResearchBuzz #335
9 May 2005
Reproduced with permission of ResearchBuzz (http://www.researchbuzz.com).
Copyright 2005 Tara Calishain. All rights reserved.
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Ron Friedmann posts: “I have previously suggested (here and here) that business intelligence (BI) would become more important in large law firms. The Wall Street Journal yesterday carried an O’Melveny & Myers employment ad for a position where BI is critical.
I periodically skim the employment ads in the Wall Street Journal (Tuesday editions). Yesterday I noticed O’Melveny is looking for a “Director of Practice Development and Market Information” and a “Practice Analyst.” This is interesting in two respects. First, I don’t recall seeing many law firms advertising in the employment ads. And second, both positions appear to emphasize BI.
The Director position will focus on “competitive intelligence gathering for strategic planning, litigation spotting, competitive firm positioning” and “provide strategic practice development support to practices, offices and key client initiatives, as well as overseeing teams engaged in the collection, archiving and updating of CRM and other marketing-related data.” The Analyst will monitor economic performance and spot trends. I suspect the Director reports to marketing; the Analyst “reports to Practice Managing Director.”
I’m not 100% sure what these jobs entail, but they seem centered on doing more with business intelligence. If this represents a trend, CIOs will have another constituency to support.”
Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 11 May 2005
Bonnie Shucha posts: “The U. S. Courts have created a new map which delineates each of the 12 regional judicial circuits and 94 judicial districts within the federal court system.
Clicking on the map will lead you to the web sites of the circuit and district courts in that area. Links to PACER and ECF are also included.”
Source: WisBlawg, 11 May 2005
Edison Ellenberger posts: "The NewPR/Wiki has a collection of resources related to blogging, which include CEO blogs, corporate blogs, blogging policies, legal issues, RSS, and more.
Source: The The E-LawLibrary Weblog On Law, Libraries & Research, 11 May 2005
Posted by Bruce MacEwen: “Business Week asks "Has the job of CEO for a megacompany become too complex to handle?" We might well ask, "Has the job of Chairman of an AmLaw 50 firm become too complex? Is it asking too much to expect one person to occupy a position of stature and respect both within the firm and within the profession at large, to deliver ever-increasing revenues and profits per partner, to undertake expansions astutely and contractions humanely, all the while projecting a sunny personality?" Business Week's answer is "no," as is mine.
How can that be? Aren't the demands overwhelming? Wise leaders recognize their job is not to do it all, but to shape and communicate their vision for the firm, encourage and reward behaviors that serve that vision, and to get out of the way. This is leadership as "obstacle remover," as the article puts it. To quote a (perhaps composite) figure in the piece:
"My job is to take away any obstacles that keep you from succeeding. Then, it's just you and the goal line. If there's an obstacle between you and any of our targets, I need to know about it."
This is actually subtler than it appears.
On the surface, all it amounts to is Chairman/CEO as red-tape-cutter-in-chief. If the marketing department is stalling on delivering the presentation you've requested or IT is late with the report you need, just go to the Chairman and he'll get them in line, right?
But here's the genius of it: You're never actually going to do that. What you are going to do is work it out with marketing and IT, so you don't look like an extremely well-compensated crybaby. Yes, you have been deprived of the excuse that because "us vs. us" is getting in your way, you can't attend to "us vs. them"—but so has everyone else.
There are just two more things: This requires the leader to actually trust that the partners and key business-side people know what they're doing and can be let alone to do it; and it means any inherited dysfunctions within the firm need to be confronted even if it means breaking some china. But that's what you as Chairman are getting paid for."
Source: Adam Smith, Esq., 11 May 2005
In the news: “As a law student, Sarah Shullman observed 10 Supreme Court arguments and tallied the number and tenor of justices' questions. In a new study, she reports her system to be a surprisingly simple and accurate way of predicting high court outcomes. In all the cases, the justices in aggregate asked more questions, and more hostile questions, of the party that ultimately lost. Though Shullman's sample was small, her methodology has already been tested since the study -- and found accurate in 86 percent of cases.”
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
12 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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By Stan Stankowski
Evan Schaeffer posts: “It always seems like actually starting work as an attorney is forever away. You clerk, you get an offer. You accept it or reject it. You may decide to go clerk or find a different job. In any event, it is very likely that your first job in a law firm will have been obtained long before you actually start work. So, you accept an offer and finish law school or your clerkship and take the bar at some point. However, you always have this job that you are eventually going to start. They offered it to you two years ago. You have shot an email back and forth at least twice since then, you may have even attended a firm function at some point. So you are definitely set up and ready to go as soon as that specific day, set up as much as two years ago, finally rolls around. Aren't you? Then again, this is all a little strange, I mean, who the hell offers you a job years in advance? And really, you haven't talked to an attorney there in months. What if they forgot about it? Are you really just supposed to walk through a door one day and they will be there, expecting your arrival, waiting to pay you?
Oddly enough, that appears to be the case.
I know that I am not the only one who has found this arrangement a little odd when they actually started thinking about it. Nonetheless, there they were, expecting my arrival. Therefore, if you are in a similar situation, you probably still do have a job. Not only that, but they have all sorts of stuff for you. A brief list of the good and the bad:
Good crap that one receives when starting work: An office, secretary (floater until they can hire a new one), paralegal (What? What do they do? Can I ask it to make copies? ), a variety of free items (emblazoned with firm logo), probably various computers and a blackberry.
Bad Crap: Codes of all sorts for doors, clients, phones. Also in this category would be the really strange thing that the firm emblazoned their logo on (a tape measure? Do we represent Lowes?).
Worst thing one receives: Billable hours requirement.
That's right. A billable hours requirement. I am sure that some of you are thinking either (1) "but you knew about that before"; or (2) "Ha! If that's it, then no problem." Quite frankly, both groups are probably correct. I did know about it well in advance, and there are probably people out there who could care less about it, or think that they won't. However the thing that escaped me, and probably most people is that this is far different from any other sort of working scenario. For the first time, I can finish a huge project, clear my desk and feel great. For about thirty seconds.
That's about how long it took me to realize that even when you finish a particular task, there is no longer any satisfaction at all. Because you aren't finished. Instead, you have get up and go look for more.
Why? Well, good question. The truth of it is, you aren't even looking for something that needs to be done, you are just looking for anything at all. New case, old case, pleading, motion, brief, memo. Due in three years? All right, I will have it to you by Thursday. Why? (again?) because you are no longer measured on what is accomplished, you are measured on the amount of hours that you spend working; hours which can be billed to clients. In turn, these bills determine if you are a profitable asset. If so, you get to keep the job you didn't start for years for at least as long as you waited to start it.. If not, well, I can only assume a downward spiral begins, eventually ending in a polite suggestion that you find something else in three months time. Don't get me wrong, its not all bad. I mean, large law firms (or even firms like mine) do offer high profile clients. Thank God. I mean, if I were writing this summary judgment motion for some two bit local company instead of one in the Fortune 100, I would be bored out of my mind.
About the Author: Stan Stankowski is the pseudonym of a first-year associate working in a litigation firm somewhere in the South. For more details, read his introductory post, as well as Evan Schaeffer's introduction."
Source: Notes from the (Legal) Underground, 12 May 2005
Posted by Tom Mighell: “Since I reported on the new Google Web Accelerator, several privacy issues have been raised, including the concern that it can allow users access to the password-protected content of others. Google is working on a fix for that right now, but in the meantime, it has suspended downloads of the new tool, stating "We have currently reached our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support."
Source: Inter Alia, 11 May 2005
Genie Tyburski posts: “If you have had trouble understanding how to set up and use RSS feeds, this article is for you. "After discovering that the little orange buttons labeled with the cryptic message 'XML' wouldn't provide a one-click solution, I realized I couldn't surf through this [process of adding RSS feeds] without reading the instructions." The author discovered Bloglines and now, he "can't do without it."
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
12 May 2005
Copyright: 1999 - 2005 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
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Genie Tyburski posts: “A lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles alleges that West Publishing, Kaplan Inc. and PMBR, a company that helps students prepare for the bar exam, "made a series of secret agreements carving up the bar review market [Sub. req'd] into segments each company then controlled." The complaint was not online as of this writing. Check back with us later today or tomorrow. We hope to make a copy of it available.
SEE, Rodriguez v. West Publishing et al
C.D.CA, 2:05-cv-03222-R-Mc, filed 29 April 2005
(Complaint not online as of this writing.)”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
11 May 2005
Copyright: 1999 - 2005 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
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Jim posts: "In many ways for lawyers the initial client interview is like a first date. You do not know each other that well and hope to get better acquainted. There is often a bit of tension or wariness. There are lots of unanswered (and unasked) questions, and it may have its awkward moments. But both of you hold out the hope that this may turn into a long term, mutually beneficial relationship."
That was the beginning of an article I wrote on The Initial Client Interview some time ago. I believe this is still very worthwhile reading, particularly for young lawyers. It covers the agenda of the interview, good listening skills, the critical issue of what potential clients to avoid, attorney's fees and managing the information. There is even a link to a few sample client intake forms donated by Oklahoma lawyers.”
Source: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog, 11 May 2005
Dennis posts: “Knowledge management is definitiely one of the areas of legal technology where I feel like I don't get as many opportunities to speak, write and work as much as I would really like. It's a topic I really enjoy and some of the most gratifying responses to my work have come in the area of KM.
So, it was a nice treat today to get the chance to talk with one of my favorite writers who covers KM, Judy Lamont of KM World, about current trends and developments in KM in the legal profession for an article that will appear this summer.
My take on the subject is that there are a lot of new developments giving the area more momentum than many people expect. The reason can be summed up in two words: "practical applications."
Source: Dennis Kennedy.com, 10 May 2005
From the e-newsletter: "Greetings —
If you've ever considered putting Summation litigation support software to work in your practice, you should make plans to attend a complimentary Summation seminar. We'll be conducting several educational sessions in your region on May 25th and 26th. These seminars are designed to show you how Summation can help you take control of the evidence that wins cases. If you haven't explored lit support technology before, it will be a real eye-opener. Better yet, most of these seminars offer FREE MCLE CREDITS!
Brief descriptions and registration information are listed below:
CLEVELAND, OH MAY 26 — 1.75 FREE MCLE CREDITS
10:30am-12:30pm, Crowne Plaza Hotel — Cleveland City Center
Topic: Litigation Information Lifecycle Management: Making the Most of Summation's Workflow Tools (For those with familiarity with Summation)
Focuses on the tools and methodologies available in Summation for identifying and winnowing large collections of information for migration through the litigation support system to the hands of the trial lawyer.
Register here"
Source: TechnoRelease Tuesday
10 May 2005
Copyright © 1997-2005 PeerViews Inc. All rights reserved.
Subscribe on their home page at http://www.technolawyer.com/
Ron Friedmann posts: “If you view offshoring legal work as limited to low-value, repetitive work, think again. I recently spoke with the co-founders of legal Indian offshore service Pangea3, which has already moved beyond the routine.
Co-founders David Perla and Sanjay Kamlani say they help companies with patents, legal research, litigation support, and contracts. Contract work includes high-volume, routine items such as NDAs. It goes much further, however, to include negotiating and drafting one-off agreements. Workers in India sometimes even conduct live negotiations.
In effect, Pangea3 serves as the “contracts department” for some customers, including handling agreements for non-US jurisdictions. Perla says that “more than 50% of our revenue is high value work rather than routine, high volume work; this came as surprise to us but we handle it well.”
I asked if this makes them a US law firm with operations in India. They say no because they do not make legal decisions and because the company delivers its services only to in-house lawyers, who review the work prior to delivery to clients. Pangea3 employs US and Indian lawyers with industry expertise. The company now has five Indian lawyers for each one in the US but expects to ratio to move to 10 to 1 by year-end, assuming it meets it targets of over 100 lawyers. Perla and Kamlani are not sure that they have displaced any US lawyers – yet. But with associate starting salaries over six figures, they see a market ready for some dislocation. Kamlani says that the “market complains about costs - now that we are doing something about it, law departments are buying.”
I asked about the role of technology in the business. The company is initially focusing on tools to interact with customers, for example, VPNs, e-mail, and secure extranet. So far, they have not deployed document assembly software.
Reflecting on this conversation and the role of technology, I think it is likely that time saving technology such as document assembly will play an important role if offshoring grows. Sending legal work overseas is already a big change; adopting new ways of doing the work does not seem radical in comparison. Moreover, if cost reduction motivates the move offshore, then competition among offshore players to reduce costs further will likely drive the adoption of more sophisticated technology.”
Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 10 May 2005
In the news: “Just as U.S.-based law firms are exploring other countries, foreign firms are experimenting with different ways of setting up shop in the United States, including the San Francisco Bay Area. Though some of the foreign firms have larger ambitions, most are content to put just a few lawyers on the ground, with the goal of finding clients and sending some work home. But, as American firms learned when venturing overseas, it isn't easy to gain traction and get noticed in a crowded market.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
11 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Posted by Tom Mighell: “It appears that those dastardly phisherpeople have turned to a new device to infect your computer: keyloggers. These programs can be downloaded and installed on your computer merely by opening an e-mail, downloading programs online, or just by visiting a web site. Make sure you're running an anti-spyware program like Microsoft Anti-Spyware to catch keylogging and other nasty programs.”
Source: Inter Alia, 11 May 2005
By Brian J. Reed: "New legislation going into effect later this month will require the collection of a DNA sample from all convicted felons and those convicted of some major misdemeanors.
Cynthia Shannon of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office met with county sheriffs and deputies from eight southeastern Ohio counties in Pomeroy on Wednesday to discuss the benefits of Ohio House Bill 525, which requires the collection of DNA material from both adults and juveniles convicted of any felony, and violent misdemeanors, mostly sex offenses. The sheriffs and deputies from Washington, Athens, Muskingum, Coshocton, Gallia, Guernsey, Union and Madison Counties attended a monthly meeting of the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association’s Southeastern Ohio region, hosted by Meigs County Sheriff Robert Beegle at Sacred Heart Church.”
Source An e-mail from G. Baker, “New DNA Law,” 10 May 2005
Genie Tyburski posts: “An American Bar Association study shows that the number of malpractice lawsuits with claims exceeding $2 million in on the rise. The Legal Times speculates, "If claims continue to rise, firms may face much higher malpractice insurance premiums, higher deductibles and insurance carriers that are less willing to provide coverage."
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
10 May 2005
Copyright: 1999 - 2005 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
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Gary Price posts: “Summary of State Bad Check Laws (PDF; 958 KB) This publication contains a Table of Bad Check Laws that summarize various state laws concerning the issuance of bad checks. In addition, the Table provides information on service charges and civil penalties that the holder of a bad check or the courts may impose on the check's issuer. Legal proceedings may be necessary to collect service charges, and are necessary to collect civil penalties. Dated September 2004.”
Source: The ResourceShelf, 10 May 2005
From the blog: “It's hard to believe, but Information Week reports that, in exchange for a $3 Starbucks gift card, 85% of computer-users surveyed were willing to reveal their password or at least give hints about it.The survey was conducted by an Internet security and infrastructure company called VeriSign Inc, who questioned passers-by on San Francisco's Market Street.One wonders, however, if people actually gave their real passwords, and, if so, how many changed it immediately afterward. Interesting, nonetheless.”
Source: WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library, 9 May 2005
Sabrina Pacifici posts: "Declan McCullagh interviewed Harvard net researcher extraordinare Ben Edelman about his ongoing work to identify and inform the public about spyware and adware.
Related reference:
· Spitzer Sets Sights on Spyware - "New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the "sheriff of Wall Street," has ramped up the staff of his Internet Bureau, and seems to be readying to take on companies who use spyware and adware to do business."
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
9 May 2005
Copyright ©2002-2005 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Sabrina Pacifici posts: “From the New York Times, Internet Phones Arrive at Home (And Some Need No Computer)”
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
4 May 2005
Copyright ©2002-2005 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Posted by Tom Mighell: “It’s not immediately apparent when you search on Yahoo!, but all of your searches can now be turned into RSS feeds. If you’re using FeedDemon, just take the URL of your search results and use the Auto-Discover feature—it will find the corresponding RSS feed. If you use the Firefox browser’s Live Bookmarks feature, that will also pick up the feed. Works with the “Subscribe with Bloglines” bookmarklet, too.
This will make the second major search engine to offer the ability to create customized search feeds (MSN Search was the first). Where art thou, Google?”
Source: Inter Alia, 5 May 2005
From the e-newsletter: “Rutgers law professor Sherry Colb argues that controversial New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is right to call for repeal of the state's statute of limitations for the crime of rape. Like the crime of murder, Colb contends, the crime of rape should have no statute of limitations -- especially in light of the modern availability of DNA evidence, which, she points out, undermines many of the reasons the statute of limitations exists in the first place.”
Read the article
Source: FindLaw's WRIT Legal Commentary
6 May 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved
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Ron Friedmann posts: “The May issue of Corporate Counsel magazine reports in Hello, Good Buy that “a dozen companies confirm that they’ve directed their procurement departments… to review legal spending decisions."
The article reviews the pros and cons of purchasing experts helping to select outside counsel. If the trend continues, it likely will have a positive influence on law firm technology. My sense is that sourcing specialists will weigh many factors, including how service providers do their work. I can imagine a company sending a supply chain expert to a law firm to assess whether the lawyers are working efficiently and effectively. Some might protest this is too hard to measure. Perhaps. Contrast assessing this to evaluating results, relationships, and expertise and decide which is easier to evaluate. (For example, if two litigators are equally skilled in developing legal arguments, shouldn’t the rational GC - or purchasing agent - select the one who really knows how to use discovery databases effectively?)
I have previously suggested (here and here) that change in the legal market will require external forces such as the CFO stepping in. Procurement chiefs may be just as effective as stirring things up. From a large law firm CIO’s perspective, this shaking up would likely result in partners dropping some of their resistance to new technology and new ways of working.”
Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 8 May 2005
More notes from "The World is Flat"
Andy Haven's posts: "My advice to middle-school, high-school and undergraduate students thinking about a career in the law: switch to the sciences.
My advice to those in law school right now: learn to speak Chinese.
I'm now about two-thirds of the way through "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. It is fascinating, insightful and engrossing. I'll have an in-depth review later, but I'm on the section now that describes why America should be afraid... very afraid... of our future in the Flat World, unless we get our act together very quickly….
Friedman quotes venture capitalist John Doerr on the difference between the Chinese government's understanding of the situation and ours:
You talk to the leadership in China, and they are all the engineers, and they get what is going on immediately. The Americans don't, because they're all lawyers.
Bill Gates adds:
The Chinese have risk taking down, hard work down, education, and when you meet with Chinese politicians, they are all scientists and engineers. You can have a numeric discussion with them -- you are never discussing "give me a one-liner to embarrass [my political rivals] with." You are meeting with an intelligent bureaucracy.
The best line in the book thus far on this issue is as follows:
In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears -- and that is our problem.
Read full text
Source: Andy Haven's Legal Marketing Blog, 8 May 2005
Blink ›
Posted by Denise Howell: "Robert Ambrogi, on Blogging and the Bottom Line: "[B]logs serve as valuable means of keeping current — pocket parts for the digital age." Bonus link, also via Bob: A Journalist's Guide to the Federal Courts.
Source: Between Lawyers, 5 May 2005
"It Had to Happen: The Law Firm Meets Reality TV"
Reid Trautz posts: "NBC is touting a new summer TV series The Law Firm. According to NBC, Attorney Roy Black will manage 12 real lawyers handling real cases with real clients in front of real judges and juries, resulting in real consequences.
And presumably, real client bills.
One "legal eagle" will be eliminated each week until one attorney is left standing to collect $250,000. Twleve lawyers billing clients for 12 weeks of work? Gotta be worth more than a quarter mil!
I'm not sure if this series will be The Peoples' Court Goes Primetime or The Apprentice Meets Ally McBeal. Either way, I can't wait for the scenes of real lawyers filling out their time logs, running conflicts checks, reminding clients of overdue bills, and complaining about the lack of face time with partners and clients. After all, isn't it reality TV?"
Source: Reid My Blog, 7 May 2005
In the news: “One quiet Friday, when a poor soul came into Tom Alleman's office to complain the government was messing with his mind, Alleman and another clerk took the unhappy gentleman over to the Lexis terminal, typed in "Stop beaming rays at John Doe's head," and hit "enter." Doe left happily, inner voices now silent, and Alleman and his colleague resumed their work, knowing they had helped someone obtain justice in an imperfect world. But, as Alleman notes, some people prefer to file pro se suits in such instances.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
9 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Posted by Tom Mighell: "Here's a nifty way to generate tough-to-break passwords without remembering them: use this Password Generator. All you have to do is remember one password. Here's how it works: whenever you visit a site that requires a password, just head to the password generator, type in your master password and the URL of the site you're trying to access. It generates a strong password designed specifically for that site. The next time you visit the site, you only have to go back to the password generator, type in the name of the site, and your password automatically appears.
If you need a more visual description of how this works, check out this screencast."
Source: Inter Alia, 9 May 2005
From Sabrina Pacifici: “Press release from May 3, 2005: "Webroot Software, the leading provider of anti-spyware software and other security technologies for consumers and enterprises, today released the anti-spyware industry's first comprehensive report on spyware, The State of Spyware Report (reg. req'd), review and analysis of the impact of spyware, adware and unwanted software on consumers and enterprises."
· Related reference: The remedy for spyware–not anytime soon, part II
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici
4 May 2005
Copyright ©2002-2005 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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From the blog: “Revised Proposed Amendments to the Ohio Rules of Practice and Procedure will go into effect on July 1, 2005, unless the General Assembly adopts a current resolution of disapproval.”
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 5 May 2005
In the news: “Wireless technology has raised a new concern: Is text messaging being used to tamper with trials? That fear surfaced during a recent Michigan murder trial, when a judge heard that someone in the courtroom had used a cell phone to send a text message to a sequestered witness out in a hallway about testimony. "This is only the tip of the iceberg," said the prosecutor in the case, "and the sanctity of the courtroom could be tarnished as technological advances improve."
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire
6 May 2005
Copyright 2005 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Jim posts: "Time management is an issue for all of us. We all have good days where we get a lot of the right things done and bad days where at 5:00 p.m. we confront the fact that we've been so tied up in "putting out fires" that few of our real priorities have been touched. Anthony Cerminaro's BizzBangBuzz Blog pointed me to a Step-by-Step Guide to Time Management by Krissi Danielsson. Many of us have seen or read similar material before, but are we practicing these techniques? Beginning lawyers should especially take note.
Danielsson's steps are:
Step 01: Getting started
Step 02: Set clear goals and objectives
Step 03: Keep an activity log
Step 04: Handle e-mail and phone calls in batches
Step 05: Divide larger tasks into groups of smaller ones
Step 06: Prioritize tasks
Step 07: Set aside chunks of time to do nothing
Step 08: Don't overwork yourself
Step 09: Learn when to say no
Step 10: Know when you need time management help
Read the entire article here.”
Source: Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog, 5 May 2005
Jason Marty writes: "Taxonomy" is a hot word in legal knowledge management circles these days. Struggling to deal with the information boom, and exploiting the opportunities that new technologies have provided, many large law firms have embarked on global taxonomy projects in the last few years. And why not? A good taxonomy can help us organize and manage information effectively. In a business built on a foundation of classification, storage and retrieval of documents, improving our lawyers' access to know-how and work product with an agreeable global taxonomy can help a firm best use its knowledge. A global taxonomy sets the foundation for knowledge management in a law firm.”
Read full text
Browse KM White Papers
Source: FindLaw's MODERN PRACTICE
A Monthly Publication On Law Practice & Technology
4 May2005
Copyright (c) 2005 FindLaw, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Genie Tyburski posts: “This month's Search Snippets column spotlights two programs -- Onfolio and NetSnippets -- you can use to create a mini-archive of the Web pages you visit. It compares their features and outlines how they differ so that you can choose the right software for your particular project."
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
6 May 2005
Copyright: 1999 - 2005 Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. All rights reserved.
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Marius Eriksen posts: “My dentist told me I needed to floss more.
That's a big demand for a Googler's busy lifestyle. Where do you find the time to floss - less foosball, shorter lunches, skip out on ultimate frisbee? Hardly!
This calls out loud and clear for a way to optimize time. One mundane time-waster we all contend with, for example, is waiting for web pages to load. The tantalizing promise of a web page is only seconds away. But even on broadband, the wait's too short to do something else - and just long enough to be irritating. Let's face it, those seconds add up.
As you may have noticed, we're slightly obsessed with speed around here. When you search on Google.com, your results are returned to you within fractions of a second. And now comes Google Web Accelerator. After you download it, we hope you'll enjoy that same Google-fast experience across the rest of the web. After all, seconds add up to minutes.
Dentists everywhere will be smiling.”
Source: Google Blog, 4 May 2005
Pedestrian Accidents
From the e-newsletter: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) reports that each year nearly 5,000 pedestrians die in motor vehicle related accidents, and more than 78,000 pedestrians suffer injuries when hit by a car or truck. Thousands of non-vehicular pedestrian accidents also occur annually, due to poor property maintenance, sidewalk defects, construction, and debris on walkways. No matter what the cause, pedestrians who have suffered injury due to someone else's negligence should understand their legal rights. Click on the links below to learn more.”
Pedestrian Accidents - Overview
Pedestrian Accidents on Interstate Highways
Pedestrian Accidents FAQ
Pedestrian Accidents - More Resources
Source: FindLaw's PUBLIC ADVISOR
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5 May 2005
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From the e-newsletter: "This tool provides you with information on how well the hospitals in your area care for all their adult patients with certain medical conditions." Specific United States hospitals are compared with national averages in their treatment of the three medical conditions of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. Hospitals are searchable by name or by location. From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."
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From TVC Alert: “Available in both English and Spanish, the Web site of the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center provides news, reports, fact sheets and other information about issues related to capital punishment. Topics covered include costs associated with the death penalty, clemency, the execution of juveniles, mental illness and mental retardation, victims, and more. In addition to commentary, you will also find statistics. (et)”
Source: TVC Alert, The Virtual Chase
5 May 2005
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In the news: “In an attempt to defuse ideological litmus tests seen as fueling attacks on the judiciary and threatening its independence, the ABA has revised its guidelines for evaluating judges. While the old guidelines were meant mainly for self-improvement, the new proposals seek to educate the people who re-elect or reappoint judges. The guidelines ask that judges be judged by objective criteria, including a willingness to make impartial, difficult and unpopular decisions based on law and fact.”
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5 May 2005
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Dennis Kennedy blogs: “Anthony Cerminaro's blog Bizz Bang Buzz (feed) is a great example of a lawyer blog that consistently bring you great practical information. It's also a good model for a way you can use a blog to provide useful info that your clients and other lawyers will appreciate - guaranteeing that they will keep you in mind.
Recent postings for just one day included items on questionable employee interview questions, tips for managing a patent portfolio, a summary of business changes in the new bankruptcy act, the Sedona Guidelines for managing information and records, passion and business plan cover sheets. All of it was great. The title fits.
Highly recommended.”
Source: Dennis Kennedy.com, 4 May 2005
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “According to this article, A New Trend Among Firms: Comparative Advertising, Leigh Jones, NLJ (5/4/05), large firms are taking off the kid gloves when it comes to marketing, including Oblon, Spivak's ads that proclaim superiority over other biglaw competitors that are identified by name in the ad. That's funny, because over at Legal Underground, Evan Schaeffer is directing readers to this post at Gerry Riskind's blog on how the Florida bar came close to putting the kibosh on mid-sized firm Shuffield Lowman's ad campaign that depicts the firm's services as a double scoop of ice cream and its competitors as a single scoop. (unlike Oblon, Shuffield didn't actually name the competition). Apparently, Shuffield's ad was intended to suggest that the firm offers clients more than its competitors. But initially, the Florida Bar rejected the ad on grounds that Shuffield's claims of superiority were "unsubstantiated." The Bar reversed its decision on appeal.
I'm assuming that if Oblon's ads pass ethical muster from the bar is they're currently running and are the subject of an NLJ article. But just to be on the safe side, fellow solos, keep these articles handy. Call me paranoid, but I wonder how the bars will rule on an ethics complaint that's brought by a large firm against a solo or small firm with an ad or a website that lists the small firm's advantages over named biglaw competitors.”
Source: MyShingle, 4 May 2005
Andy Haven’s Answer: The same way you brand anything else -- by assigning and supporting the qualities you want the public, prospects, clients, partners and employees to associate with whole, above and beyond the qualities that are associated with individual people and specific events and elements of the firm.
One decent definition of "brand" is "corporate personality." So, the question becomes, what is the personality of your firm? What is it that sets you apart from other firms when you all get together to practice law? In many cases, for many firms, the answer is, sadly... nothin'.
Many firms have no rhyme or reason for their joining together beyond sharing office space and copiers. And that, frankly, makes a lousy personality. The truth of that brand could be summed up as follows:
Smith and Jones: We're convenient for us.
Doesn't that ring true for many firms you know of?
You can't "build" a brand out of nothing. You can, though, decide to market a brand, and change a culture to fit that marketing image, but it must be based on real qualities.
Is branding appropriate to "the profession?"
I once had a discussion with an attorney friend of mine who said that law firms couldn't be branded because advertising wasn't appropriate to the profession. I responded by telling him that advertising was in no way necessary for the promotion of brand. He asked me how I'd propose to brand a firm without advertising. I told him that a brand can be thought of as a consistent metaphor or personality that you choose to strengthen through your actions in order to build up an association that you hope will have a positive economic effect. He wanted an example.
"OK," I said. "I would imagine that a good brand association for a patent defense firm to have would be aggressive.' You want your clients to think of you as being aggressive in the defense of their patents, right?" He agreed with me. I went on to tell him that an aggressive patent defense firm would, therefore, need to structure all its client-facing processes (and many internal ones, too) such that they embodied the kind of aggressive, forward-leaning personality that they wanted their clients to associate with their firm.
"For example," I asked, "When do you contact clients about bills being past due?" He said he thought it didn't matter. Of course it matters, I told him. If you're aggressive, you don't sit on bills. You call about them on day 31. Same with faxes. You call to see if they went through. What time does your office open for business? 8am at the latest. Maybe even 7am. Why? It's aggressive. You need at least two, maybe three people at your front desk. Nobody should ever have to wait to be seen in your lobby. Nobody waits on hold in your phone queue. You get it? Right. Aggressive. Not rude, not pushy, not mean. But, DAMN IT PEOPLE! We need to get this stuff taken care of RIGHT NOW! We don't wait for the problem to manifest, we nip it in the bud!
Now... if you're a family law practice, and you want a brand that says, "We're careful, we're delicate, we're sensitive to the emotional nature of these matters and we want to help you get through them with as little pain as possible," you're going to do all the above things much, much differently. And none of that has anything to do with advertising. Of course your ads will reflect the same kinds of differences. And though individual clients will have individual associations with individual lawyers and cases and days and offices and decisions, they will, over time, begin to build up a general feeling about "the firm." And why is this valuable? Because, presumably, the firm would like to keep their business if the client's lawyer retires, dies or goes to a competing firm. And if the only thing the client cared about was the personality of that one, specific lawyer... well, the firm is outta luck when that lawyer goes a-losty.
The law is complex, and complexity brands well
A group of human beings, all working together on enormously complex intellectual and social tasks have an infinitely EASIER chance (in my estimation) of establishing and leveraging a brand than does a company that makes a "thingy" of some kind. With cola, shoes or gasoline, you need to create a brand and graft it onto the product. You need to form an experience around the acts of shopping and buying, around events in which the product might be consumed or used, around famous people using the product. There is no inherent drama in a beverage. And, for most of us, no real drama in sneakers or gas. We may watch an NBA player dunk or a NASCAR driver race while using these products... but it's a vicarious thrill.
A law firm, on the other hand... when you use its service, you're in there, baby! Every matter, every case, involves multiple interactions, often with multiple people. And even if every lawyer on the planet, and every firm in the world had to do the same thing in every case -- if the "what" was the same -- the "how" can be incredibly different.
I once witnessed a group of lawyers all responding to a crisis in a case they were working on. Some major change had just hit them via a Blackberry message, and four of the five attorneys were in panic mode. They were all talking at once and trying to figure out who was going to call whom, do what, say what, find what, send what, etc. Pandemonium. The fifth lawyer sat there, calmly, and waited until they'd all had a chance to vent and steam for about five minutes. When it was clear that nothing was being accomplished, he simply stood up. In about five seconds, the room fell silent. Everyone looked at him, and he said, "I will take care of this. I'll call the client. I'll take full responsibility. It doesn't matter whose fault it is. Someone has to be the bearer of the bad news, and it might as well be me. I'll let you know what the result is."
He left the table, and there was complete silence for about a half a minute, and then we pretty much broke up and went about our separate business.
What was the "brand" being communicated in that closed room? By one of the lawyers, it was calmness, responsibility, decisiveness and strength of character. By the other four? I don't know... maybe