TechnoLawyer: CLE/News/References

Family Law News, the official publication of the State Bar of California Family Law Section has published family law specialist and TechnoLawyer member John Harding's article entitled The Next Generation in Family Law Practice. 

The article, which appears in Volume 27, Issue 1, Fall 2005, deals with the implementation and use of practice management software systems in family law practice.

John is a certified family law specialist who has maintained a successful family law practice, Harding & Associates, in Northern California since 1989.

According to John, his firm "pioneered the use of legal software and other technology in family law." John and his staff "use cutting edge computer technology to manage cases, conduct legal research, and demonstrate facts and present evidence in court."

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. .

Coming June 27, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Ruth Vadi discusses her personal journey from IT professional to lawyer, Jimmy Brown discusses problems with printer paper trays when using WordPerfect, Kevin Grierson issues a spyware warning to fellow parents, Brad Jensen discusses online paralegal training, and Brian Garves explains how he made an end run around spyware. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a thrice weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Photoshop guru and TechnoLawyer member Jan Kabili, Esq. has published her seventh book through Peachpit Press, How to Wow: Photoshop for the Web. You can obtain an audio version of Jan's new book from Software Cinema.

A graduate of Stanford Law School, Jan practiced law for 15 years. Her legal background includes stints practicing at the Federal Trade Commission and Elscint, Inc. in Israel; she also worked on Superfund litigation for a law firm in Denver. She is a member of the California bar, Colorado bar, and Israel bar ("I passed the bar in Hebrew!").

Notwithstanding these accomplishments, practicing law eventually took the backseat to Jan's interest in graphic design. As a result, she returned to school to obtain a Master of Fine Arts degree in Electronic Media. In addition to her seven books, Jan keeps herself busy teaching Photoshop at conferences and universities, and beta testing software for Adobe. Also, she recently completed a series of online movies about Photoshop Elements available at Lynda.com.

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. .

In January 2005, TechnoLawyer member Geoffrey Gussis began writing InhouseBlog, an information resource for inhouse counsel. Only a few months have passed, yet InhouseBlog this week achieved a significant milestone — it has become a Law.com Blawg Affiliate. As a result, Law.com will feature posts from InhouseBlog in its Legal Blog Watch.

Geoffrey, a lawyer at Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti LLP, previously worked as a corporate counsel. There, he "accumulated links to a number of online tools and resources that made [his] job easier." Though he now works in private practice, Geoffrey felt compelled to share his accumulated knowledge with corporate counsel through InhouseBlog, which he writes in his spare time.

Check out some of his recent posts on IBM's corporate blogging policy and recent developments in electronic discovery.

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. .

TechnoLawyer member Toby Brown, along with colleague Lincoln Mead, recently entered the ever-growing legal blogosphere with Barchives: The Blog for Bars.

Toby, who works as the Director of Communications for the Utah State Bar, began Barchives "as a means for sharing information on bar operations," and also to promote BarAlliance, which Toby describes as "an effort to build a consortium of bars to share a bar-centric membership management system."

The posts cover a variety of technology and law practice management topics always maintaining, as Toby says, a "member benefit focus."   

Check out some recent posts on the law practice management trend, the proposed financial benefits of BarAlliance, and why Internet security should concern bars and lawyers.

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. .

Google has a habit of introducing new features without making accompanying announcements. Therefore, even if you use Google daily, you may not know about certain features. Today, I'll run through some of my favorites.

Longtime TechnoLawyer members know that I maintain my weight by counting calories. Sometimes, it's easier to calculate calories using grams (e.g., 100 grams of strawberries = 40 calories), and sometimes it's easier to do so using ounces (e.g., 1 ounce of cheese = 100 calories). If your kitchen scale limits you to ounces, Google enables you to convert from our system to the metric system (but not vice versa for some odd reason). For example, search for "3.5 ounces" and Google provides "93.5 grams." If you want an equivalent liquid measurement, enter "3.5 fluid ounces" and Google provides "103.5 milliliters."

A few months ago, Google released a service vastly superior to the competition — Google Maps. The maps are clear and easy to manipulate, and the driving directions are the next best thing to having a GPS navigation system. Google Maps also provides satellite images so take a look at your home.

Most people know that you can use Google as a dictionary. Just enter a word, and Google provides a link to a definition. If you misspell it, Google will provide the correct spelling. But Google recently overhauled this system to provide additional functionality such as a thesaurus and encyclopedia. The latter needs more work — it can provide a bio of Theodore Roosevelt, but not Bill Clinton.

For more than a year, Google News has provided a remarkable service that few people know about — simply run a search and then click on "News Alerts" to save that search and sign up for e-mail alerts. Thereafter, Google will e-mail you links to news articles that match your search. Recently, Google added the ability to receive e-mail alerts for Web pages that match your search as well.

Two weeks ago, Google unveiled Search History — a service that saves all your searches. The service is optional so ignore all the controversy. Furthermore, even if you sign up, you can pause it, which means you can use it only when conducting the kind of research you'd like to save. You can also delete any of your searches.

Do you have any little-known Google tips of your own you'd like to share?

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 here in TechnoLawyer Blog and also in our TechnoGuide newsletter, but they appear in TechnoGuide first. TechnoGuide also contains exclusive content.

TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante participated in MarketingProfs' Thought Leaders Summit on E-Mail Marketing on April 18, 2005. Among the topics Neil addressed: the hidden gotchas of the CAN-SPAM Act, the CAN-SPAM Act's multi-list suppression loophole, the difference between a mediocre e-mail campaign and a remarkable one, his top three most effective e-mail marketing tactics, and the impact of RSS on e-mail marketing.

The other participants in this roundtable discussion included Chris Baggott of ExactTarget, Eric Kirby of DoubleClick, Rok Hrastnik of Studio Moderna, Chris Price of Permission Marketing, Jim Sterne of Target Marketing, and Shar VanBoskirk of Forrester Research. Stephan Spencer of NetConcepts moderated the event, and will soon publish an article summarizing the discussion.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, listened in and commented as follows in her weekly column:

"[On April 18th], I participated in the third MarketingProfs Thought Leaders Summit, and... well, WOW....

"My role in the summit was limited — in fact, I was there only to introduce moderator Stephan Spencer. But I found myself hanging around to listen to the discussion, completely awed by the panelists' level of knowledge.

"The concept behind our Thought Leaders Summit is this: several such leaders (in this case, seven of them) gather virtually to discuss an issue in roundtable format. Yesterday, leaders from organizations like Forrester and DoubleClick, along with those with names familiar to the MarketingProfs audience (Jim Sterne, Rok Hrastnik and Neil Squillante) debated the current and future state of email marketing.

"I had no idea what to expect from the Thought Leaders Summit. But these panelists knew their stuff, and their discussion was rich.... The transcript will be available in our Premium library soon.

Interested in E-Mail Marketing?
If you're a lawyer or law firm marketing manager, check out MarketingProfs. If you're a legal vendor, do the same and also download a copy of our Media Kit. TechnoLawyer pioneered permission e-mail marketing in the legal market, and remains the leader today.

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.

TechnoLawyer member Arnie Herz has a number of upcoming seminars, including two at the Rhode Island Bar Annual Meeting on June 10th.

Arnie, quite the legal renaissance man, keeps busy as "a lawyer, mediator, speaker, author, and consultant nationally recognized for his practical and inspired approach to conflict resolution, client counseling, and improving the quality of life for attorneys."

At the Rhode Island Bar Annual Meeting, he will present Legal Sanity: Don't Be a Victim of Your Own Career and Lawyering in Balance: Rethinking Service Delivery to Optimize Your Career. You can find a complete list of Arnie's upcoming seminars for lawyers on his site. Make sure you also check out his blog, Legal Sanity.

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. .

Author Carole A. Bruno has named TechnoLawyer members Grace Carter, Celia C. Elwell, and Dwayne Krager as among the 15 most successful paralegals in the country.

Bruno's forthcoming book, Lessons from the Top Paralegal Experts: The 15 Most Successful Paralegals in America and What You Can Learn from Them, will feature words of wisdom from Celia, Dwayne, Grace, and 12 other successful paralegals, including the "techniques, tools, ideas, and methods that have helped them become the best of the best in their profession."

The criteria for determining the 15 finalists included "achievements that contribute[d] to [the] expansion of the paralegal profession and improve[d] the efficiency of performing paralegal duties." Congratulations to Celia, Dwayne, and Grace!

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. .

Coming April 20, 2005 to TechnoLawyer NewsWire: In this issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about a new set of Outlook add-ins designed to increase your efficiency, a Web site that compiles all the best deals on tech gear, a Google-like search engine that facilitates searching public records, a new service for cyberspace meetings and collaboration, and an intuitive e-mail filtering system.

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.