TechnoLawyer: CLE/News/References

You don't have time to track 100 business and technology magazines and blogs. We do. Below you'll find our latest discoveries.

One [Law Firm] Marketer's Trip Through Hell

Meet "Bloomberg Law"

11 Techniques to Increase Page Views on Your Blog

RSS Sucks

Victoria's Secret Kitchen Now in Wide Release
With more than 1,200 downloads, Victoria's Secret Kitchen is a bona-fide indie hit! By popular demand, this 6.5 minute homage to Rachael Ray featuring an easy-to-make secret recipe for eggplant is now available to a wider audience (QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media) thanks to the folks at iFilm.

The video iPod version remains available for download as well.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covered an application that converts one Linux PC into two virtual workstations, a utility that blocks unauthorized executable programs from invading your Windows PC, and a free, editable information resource on the Web for tax professionals. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Where's the Second Computer?
By Jill Bauerle
Providing a PC in your reception area is a welcome gesture for waiting clients, but if you have a busy reception area, you'll have to furnish two computers, doubling the cost. Not so fast. With Desktop Multiplier, you can transform a single Linux PC into two computers (Linux with Firefox works fine for Web browsing and checking Web-based e-mail). This free software add-on by Userful, developers of public computing software, can save your firm as much as $500 per station in hardware costs and hundreds to thousands in maintenance per year.  The software turns one computer into two virtual workstations — you'll need two keyboards, mice, and monitors. If your firm runs browser-based applications, you might be able to employ Desktop Multiplier beyond your reception area, saving even more money. At home it's an excellent way to "buy" the kids an extra computer. Desktop Multiplier runs on Linux OS and requires 15 MB hard disk space and a minimum of 64MB memory, a dual video card and extra USB keyboard and mouse. Learn more about Desktop Multiplier.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming January 20, 2006 to Fat Friday: Gregory Deatz reviews OpenOffice in a law firm setting, Mark Sullivan reviews his experience with OnlyMyEmail, spam filtering service, Todd Hill takes a stab at explaining why legal vendors don't provide executive bios on their Web sites, Don Springmeyer provides links to a plethora of calendaring programs for the law office, and Ruth Curcuru shares her list of five essential Web sites. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

To date, BlawgWorld, an eBook we published on November 30, 2005, has been downloaded 19,702 times!

As I reported previously, BlawgWorld was well-received by bloggers and non-bloggers alike. However, a small number of bloggers have criticized the eBook. One of them even deemed it a "failed project."

Fortunately, most of the criticism resides in one place — Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground blog. For a month, we watched the attacks pile up. Now that the activity has died down, I responded to all the criticism in one fell swoop.

Check out the entire thread, including my response, and feel free to add your own two cents.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Earlier this year, I participated in a roundtable discussion on e-mail marketing. The article summarizing this discussion as well as the transcript and recording require a paid MarketingProfs membership (worth every penny in my opinion if your job involves marketing).

Fortunately, NetConcepts CEO Stephan Spencer, who moderated the roundtable, has posted a few snippets from our discussion about RSS feeds to his blog, Stephan Spencer's Scatterings.

Read Will RSS Overtake Email as a Marketing Channel?

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

More than three months in the making, today we published BlawgWorld 2006: Capital of Big Ideas, a TechnoLawyer eBook designed to take you on a journey through 51 of the most influential legal blogs (blawgs).

The 51 essays in BlawgWorld were handpicked by each respective blogger as most representative of their blawg. As a result, you will likely find several blawgs worthy of your continued attention.

You cannot buy a copy of BlawgWorld. It's free, but available exclusively to TechnoLawyer members.

Earlier today, we distributed a free copy to all our members. Tonight, we're celebrating the launch of BlawgWorld with a party at Brandy Library in New York City (TriBeCa). We look forward to hosting about 40 of our tristate-area TechnoLawyer members as well as some special guests, including BlawgWorld contributor Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith, Esq.

Not a TechnoLawyer Member?

Join now using the form on this page or any other page on our site, and you'll immediately receive a free copy of BlawgWorld via email (membership is free).

Or visit the official BlawgWorld home page for more details, including two sample essays from the eBook. We hope you enjoy reading BlawgWorld as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

TechnoLawyer member Mark Lieb has helped many law firms with litigation support projects over the years. Now, those who cannot consult with Mark personally can still take advantage of his experience thanks to his new book and accompanying CD, Litigation Support Department.

According to Mark, "This book outlines standard operating procedures for running your litigation support department as a business. It does not matter if the department bills for goods and services. What matters is that it provide the legal team, firm, and third parties with a consistent experience of the highest quality."

TechnoLawyer members have already weighed in on Mark's book.

CaseSoft CEO Greg Krehel writes: "Mark has distilled his extensive real-world case management experience into a set of standards that make it easy for law firms to organize the litigation support function and shows us how to use technology to tame case complexity. Very impressive stuff!"

LexThink co-founder and e-discovery consultant Dennis Kennedy writes: "It's a thorough, hands-on roadmap of how to set up a litigation support department and how to make an existing department better, written by someone with actual experience in creating a successful lit support department. In short, it's exactly what you would like to have at hand when building a lit support department. It includes checklists, useful files on CDs and a detailed roadmap of the steps in the litigation process where lit support personnel can be employed effectively. If you have the task of creating, building or managing a lit support department, get a copy of this book as your starting guide. It'll take you a long way."

Read the Preface.

Review the Table of Contents.

Read an excerpt.

About Member News
TechnoLawyer members are among the most gifted and prominent in the legal profession. In the Member News section of TechnoLawyer Blog, we report on their latest accomplishments and success stories — everything from court victories to articles and books to new partner announcements — and much more. If you're a newsmaker, but not yet a member, join TechnoLawyer now, and then contact our newsdesk.

Two weeks ago, we announced free one year TechnoLawyer Archive subscriptions for all 35,000 members of the Canadian Bar Association.

Today, we're bringing this benefit home to the USA! The TechnoLawyer Archive is now free for all active members of these bar associations:

• State Bar of Texas: 75,000 lawyers
• Oklahoma Bar Association: 15,000 lawyers
• Cincinnati Bar Association: 4,000 lawyers
• Washoe County Bar Association: 1,300 lawyers

The first bar association executive I spoke to this year was Jim Calloway, Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association's Management Assistance Program. Thanks to Jim's enthusiasm, he won the approval of his colleagues just in time for the Oklahoma Bar Association's annual meeting this week.

Not long after I met Jim, Charles Awalt of the State Bar of Texas' GP Solo & Small Firm section and Jeffrey Lisson of the Computer & Technology Section inquired separately about free TechnoLawyer Archive access for their members. I suggested that we open it up to all Texas lawyers, and contacted John Sirman. Don't ask me how he did it, but John along with Patricia Moore, the State Bar of Texas' General Counsel, managed to secure approval in record time, which just goes to show that large bar associations can move quickly to serve their members.

Meanwhile, at this year's annual meeting for the National Association of Bar Executives, Peggy Gruenke, Director of Membership at the Cincinnati Bar Association, served on a panel about member benefits. Therefore, it's only natural that Peggy arranged for free TechnoLawyer Archive for Cincinnati Bar Association members.

Christine Cendagorta, the Executive Director of the Washoe County Bar Association, is also a big fan of member benefits. Plus, she's a power user when it comes to technology thanks to her tricked out Power Mac G5. She too jumped at the chance to secure free TechnoLawyer Archive for members of the Washoe County Bar Association.

I've truly enjoyed working with Jim, John, Patricia, Peggy, and Christine, and look forward to continuing to work with them now that the launch is officially underway!

More Announcements Soon. In The Meantime ...

If you belong to both TechnoLawyer and one of the above bar associations, just visit your bar association's Web site, and follow the link to TechnoLawyer for instructions on how to obtain your free TechnoLawyer Archive subscription.

If you would like your bar association to offer this benefit, please ask the executive in charge of member benefits to contact me (the bottom of every page on our site has a contact link).

A few months ago, we took some flack among bloggers (despite being bloggers ourselves) for publishing a TechnoFeature article entitled A Contrarian View of Legal Blogs.

Now comes a Forbes cover story entitled Attack of the Blogs that has generated a storm of controversy. The article discusses bloggers who try to sabotage companies, products, and people.

Fine, but just as many if not more bloggers also praise companies, products, and people without disclosing their financial ties in the same — an equally serious problem.

Transparency is always the best policy. That's what we aim for here in TechnoLawyer. Shills sometimes elude our "doesn't smell right" detectors, but we squelch most such attempts.

When it comes to blogs, no one can screen them for you so keep this advice in mind — if you cannot ascertain the identity of the blogger, don't trust what you read without corroboration from a trusted source. Common sense goes a long way whether you're reading a blog, newsletter, newspaper, prospectus, etc.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming November 4, 2005 to Fat Friday: John Hall pens a little pep rally for Amicus Attorney users, Charles Awalt vents about the three most prominent problems with technology today, Lester Proctor discusses how he used a three-monitor setup as a solo practitioner (Lester passed away shortly after contributing this Post), Rick Crowsey follows-up on a previous Post to explain the method behind his madness of freezing his laptop hard drive, and David Caracappa reviews the Time Matters AIC Listserver. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.