TechnoLawyer: Collaboration/Knowledge Management

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an electronic signature service and repository geared at corporate counsel, a comprehensive suite of e-discovery tools, and a service that digitally certifies transcripts. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Electronic Agreements Deserve Electronic Signatures
By Dennis Kennedy
Going in-house was supposed to improve your quality of life, but thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley era in which we now live, your compliance workflow has kicked into overdrive.

For example, you need your worldwide salesforce to sign a compensation agreement with your new commission structure — and track who signed it and when. Similarly, you need to have your technical staff execute assignments of invention, again with archiving and tracking not to mention approval by their counsel. Many other headaches, er examples, abound, including the deployment of nondisclosure agreements by non-legal staff.

If only you could manage this workflow electronically. For several years now, electronic signature laws have permitted the use of electronic signatures, but the adoption of electronic signatures has not occurred because no one bothered to build a suite of tools to make it easier than using paper.

EchoSign's eponymous service may finally help usher in the revolution. EchoSign is a secure Web site for sending, signing, tracking, and storing documents — everything from retainers to nondisclosure agreements to assignments of inventions to deal documents. Instead of e-mailing a file, you just upload it to EchoSign.

To start, you set up a secure EchoSign account using any browser. There is nothing to install and no downloads. Even better, EchoSign's signature service is free.

EchoSign converts Word and other document formats to PDF, and then delivers the file to recipients with signature instructions. Recipients can either electronically sign the document or print and sign it the old-fashioned way. Even when they sign it on paper, the document remains within EchoSign thanks to a special fax number to which recipients return signed documents. No need to wait for these executed documents to arrive in the mail.

When you use EchoSign for signatures, you automatically create a repository of all of your signed documents. You can annotate, search for, review, share, and print them at anytime. With EchoSign, everyone on your team will know which documents were signed and when.

EchoSign's free signature service includes storage for your last 20 documents. To store more documents, you can choose from two plans — $12.95 per month for up to 1,000 documents (Pro) or $20 per user per month for unlimited documents (Enterprise). The Enterprise plan also includes a branded site and other extranet-like features.

Learn more about EchoSign.

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 June 30, 2006 to Fat Friday: Nerino Petro reviews his experience using the Hitachi Travelstar notebook upgrade kit, James Sayre reviews outlining tools Treepad and Keynote, and Rick Cloud discusses his method for keeping track of file creation dates. In addition, this issue features links to 10 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. Don't miss this issue.

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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.

Clint Pullin, Tips for Using Acrobat to Comment on Draft Documents

TechnoLawyer member Austin Barsalou asks:
"Hi, I have a question. The Property Owners Committee of the Texas Bar Association Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section is working on a draft of a uniform law for property owners associations and needs a way for a variety of interest groups to review and comment on our working draft of the Texas Uniform Planned Community Act ("TUPCA"). Are you aware of a reasonably priced software solution to deal with this type of application? Thank you for your assistance."

Adobe Acrobat Pro 7.0 allows you to send out documents for comment by the public by way of e-mail or by using an Adobe owned server for browser based review and commenting. The process resembles the track changes feature of MS Word, but appears more robust to me. It has check off functions to show that a comment has been reviewed, accepted, rejected, etc. You can color code comments by different people. For example, commercial building owners could be assigned one color while apartment owners or industrial property owners could have different colors assigned. Public comments can be made by people who have Adobe Reader 7.0. Adobe Reader is freeware, and a link to a download can easily be made in the document or e-mail.

R. Clint Pullin
Legal Assistant
Legal Division
Department of Insurance

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, a 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. You can subscribe here.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a new and improved version of a case analysis tool, conversion software for PDF and other files, and a handy utility for magnifying items on your screen. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Litigation Software that (Almost) Does the Thinking for You
By Jill Bauerle
Behind every open and shut case is a lot of hard work. To help litigators and litigation teams save time while producing even better results for their clients, LexisNexis CaseSoft has released CaseMap 6, the latest version of its popular litigation analysis tool. CaseMap 6 sports many new user-requested features and a "faster," "retooled" database engine that accommodates hundreds of custom fields. Also, its new look will make users of Microsoft Office 2003 feel right at home. Among the new features is the Intake Interview Jumpstart, which enables you to e-mail clients a questionnaire about their case. When you receive their completed questionnaire, you can import it into an existing or new CaseMap case file and even generate a ReportBook. Such automation seems to be everywhere in CaseMap 6, which also includes document index creation, bulk e-mail importing, and tight integration with the new CaseMap Bates Stamper. The revamped Issue Analysis Mode helps you decide when to file for summary judgment, and the MSJ Statement of Fact Creator helps you create the accompanying brief. Similarly, new tools exist for identifying privileged documents, and then creating a privileged log. Other new features include links to CaseMap Webinars for on-demand learning, the ability to create a fact from a document, batch copying of linked PDF files, and bulk updating of linked file paths and field values. LexisNexis CaseSoft has also enhanced existing features, For example, more options exist for creating and formatting ReportBooks, and you can now link to more applications than ever, including CaseLogistix, Interwoven WorkSite, Hummingbird DM5, and iCONECTnxt. Pricing for CaseMap 6 starts at $595; upgrade pricing starts at $199.  Learn more about CaseMap 6.

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.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a hot new bates stamping technology, a Web-based time-tracking application, and a virtual mall for malware-free software. Don't miss the next issue.

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

A Bates Stamper on Steroids
By Jill Bauerle
Once upon a time, lawyers manually affixed bates stamps to documents. Thanks to xerography, copy machines eventually replaced the hand stamps of old. Last week, LexisNexis CaseSoft announced the latest in bates stamping technology — CaseMap Bates Stamper. This nifty utility plugs into Acrobat Standard or Professional 6 or 7, and enables you to apply bates stamps to one or more PDF files. A wizard walks you through the bates stamping process, providing options along the way. You can use any combination of letters and numbers for the bates stamp (prefix plus number — up to 34 characters total), and then store that particular format for future use. You can use any font, position the bates stamp anywhere in the document, and even add a white background to ensure that the bates number will be visible. When batch processing, you can have the CaseMap Bates Stamper ignore documents that you've already stamped. This way, you won't have to select only the new files, which kind of defeats the purpose of batch processing. When you finish applying bates stamps, you can use the Send PDFs to CaseMap wizard to incorporate the documents into CaseMap. A new addition to this wizard enables you to list the documents in CaseMap by bates number. Once in CaseMap, you can create facts and issues from the documents along with the corresponding bates numbers and hyperlinks. As with all LexisNexis CaseSoft products, the CaseMap Bates Stamper comes with one year of free support. CaseMap Bates Stamper sells for $149, but the company is offering it for $99 until May 31, 2006. Learn more about CaseMap Bates Stamper.

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.

Sean Fosmire, Review: Correlate for Outlines and Flow Charts

TechnoLawyer member John P. Starkweather asks:
"I'm interested in creating flow charts for my practice. Ideally, it would closely resemble MindManager with its ability to incorporate Web sites and documents and its integration with Microsoft Office. However, MindManager doesn't map a process or a decision tree in the same way a flow chart can. For example, I'd like to map the process of taking a case from filed lawsuit to closure. One map could deal with service of process. We could check service by linking the chart to the court Web site. If service is effected, then the flow chart would link to our form motion to default; if not, it would link to our forms for appointing a special process server and creating an alias summons. Once service is effected, that piece of the chart would be completed. Any thoughts?"

In my opinion, an excellent candidate for this type of process is Correlate. Correlate allows you to create outlines that show relationships between things and to connect those with URLs, files on the network, or other linked items as needed. One sheet can contain one or many "trees" of outlined items, placed where you want them, so there is some degree of unstructuredness allowed.

M. Sean Fosmire
Garan Lucow Miller, P.C.
www.garanlucow.com
Marquette, Michigan

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, a 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. You can subscribe here.

Coming May 09, 2006 to TechnoFeature: Ever wonder how some law practices run so smoothly? In this article, attorney and legal technology enthusiast Bryan Sims discusses the technology he finds invaluable in his litigation practice. From hardware to software, Bryan covers it all. Find out how one lawyer increased his productivity by stepping up his tech savvy — and how you can too.

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Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a security utility that will nuke files for good, a discrete wireless Bluetooth headset, and a free tool for storing and sharing your bookmarks, Web clippings, and other information. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Hasta La Vista, You've Been Erased
By Jill Bauerle
Gone but not forgotten, remnants of old files can remain on your hard drive long after you've moved them to the recycle bin. The next time you have confidential documents to delete, try Eraser 5.8 from Heidi Computers. An advanced security utility, Eraser "shreds" magnetic remnants embedded in your hard drive by overwriting it numerous times in different patterns using Peter Gutmann's method. Without such a tool, deleted files sit on your hard drive until written over. Even then, forensic experts can reconstruct them, making you and your confidential files vulnerable. Eraser not only scrubs existing or "deleted" files and folders individually, it erases entire hard drives using the software's "Boot and Nuke" feature, and prevents file recovery applications from functioning. Eraser can also eradicate indexed, encrypted and compressed files, caches, cookies, Norton Unerase files, and more. If you're in a hurry, you can instead erase the first and last 2KB of a file, rendering it unusable. Once you download the freeware, Eraser's simple interface enables you to pick and choose your action on the spot or set up a schedule. Eraser is free and supports Windows 95 and higher as well as DOS. Learn more about Eraser.

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 April 27, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Olivier Oosterbaan reviews several document collaboration tools including Google's new acquisition, Writely, Caren Schwartz reviews QuickBooks for legal billing as does Christian Connell, CaseSoft CEO Greg Krehel discusses the benefits of Adobe Acrobat Professional versus the Standard version, and Clint Pullin offers up an Acrobat Bates stamping tip. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a 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.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covers a Web-based utility that stores and organizes your Web clippings, an eBay search engine for smarter and safer shopping, and an all-inclusive Web-based calendar and contact application to keep you and your world in sync. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Bye Bye Bookmarks
By Jill Bauerle
Too many bookmarks in your browser? Forgot why half of them are even there? Time for an account with Clipmarks. Whether you're researching a case, comparison shopping, or keeping track of celebrity gossip, Clipmarks is a Web-based utility that provides a permanent URL for storing and organizing Web clippings. Unlike a bookmark, which just takes you back to an entire page, a Clipmark enables you to "clip" a certain portion of a page and apply "tags" to that clip for easy retrieval. In short, it enables you to create a searchable database of everything you find on the Web. After creating your account and installing the required Firefox extension or Internet Explorer toolbar, the Clipmarks editing symbols appear in your browser. As you mouse over text on a Web page, just click on the paperclip symbol embedded in your toolbar and automatically enter editing mode. This tool actually "clips" text by copying paragraphs or photos into a Clipmarks folder once you click on the "Save" button. You can keep multiple clippings in one file. Each folder contains a link to the original Web page (in case you need to refer to the original source) plus searchable title, tags, and comments. Other tools include an e-mail button to share your clips, a bookmark button that sends your clips to services such as del.icio.us or BlinkList, and "cliprolling" (an RSS feed of your clip tags). On Clipmarks' home page, a "word cloud" shows the most popular topics in real time. Clipmarks offers four views: "Mine," "Public," "Board," or "Hot." For each clip you create, you have the option of marking it public or private. Check out what everyone else is clipping in "Public." See who's commenting on your clips in "Board." Or look at popular clips in "Hot." One possible use for Clipmarks is to draw attention to articles you've published on the Web. Who knows, maybe your clips will become the next hot topic! Clipmarks is free. Learn more about Clipmarks.

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.