TechnoLawyer: Graphic Design/Photography/Video

For more than a decade, Sabrina Pacifici's LLRX has provided lawyers, law librarians, and others with tons of helpful legal research not to mention legal technology information. In particular, I've always liked the overviews of the legal systems of other countries as well as Brett Burney's Legal Tech Reviews column.

While the excellent content continued to chug along year after year, the site began to show its age and even get in the way. It was time for an extreme makeover, legal edition.

So Sabrina retained Web design firm Justia to redesign the site, and just as importantly, implement a modern content management system — in this case Drupal, which is open source. The result is a fast-loading Web site with several ways to find content of interest to you.

I especially like the featured articles on the top of the home page, the bookstore, the Google-powered search engine, the drill down subject categories to find content (though they can be a bit overwhelming to browse casually), and printer-friendly versions of all articles. Best of all for longtime fans, if you have a favorite author or column, you'll find it extremely easy to find all the back issues.

All in all, the new LLRX demonstrates the importance of user interface design in making information accessible.

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.

Publishing seems so glamorous ... to non-publishers. As many lawyers turned bloggers have learned, publishing is a grind in which you're only as good as your last article. While blogging software has dramatically reduced the amount of grunt work, it hasn't eliminated it completely. Therefore, I present to you my top five unglamorous legal blogging tips:

1. Write your posts in an HTML or text editor, not in your Web browser. Most of us post to our blogs using a Web browser. But browsers don't enable you to save your work with a quick Control-S, which means most bloggers don't save their work frequently. If you accidentally close your browser window, poof — all gone.

Instead, use an HTML or text editor to create a template for your blog posts. Write your posts there and use your browser only for posting. As an added bonus, you'll automatically have a backup of every post on your hard drive.

2. Consider using recurring features. Or as I call them — the difference between amateur and professional publishing. Recurring features provide personality and structure to your blog, and make it more likely you'll connect with people and build an audience. Give each feature a clever name and provide an explanatory blurb in the footer beneath each post (another good reason to use templates).

TechnoLawyer is, of course, a perfect example — we publish 6 different newsletters, and in our blog we have recurring features such as Ad Watch, Coming Attractions, TechnoEditorials, etc.

Over at the Databazaar Blog, which we ghost-write, we have Printer News, PrinTips, Review Roundup, DoubleSided, etc.

Obviously, you'll want to retain the ability to post outside of this structure. I refer to such posts as "freeform."

3. Grammar and spelling do matter! While you may want to use a casual tone in your blog, that doesn't mean you should ignore grammar and spelling (another good reason to use an HTML or text editor). In fact, consider having someone at your firm serve as your editor and/or proofreader. This person can check your posts not only for technical errors, but for more serious problems as well. Thanks to blog search engines like Technorati, it can be difficult to retract a post once published.

4. If your titles need to cover a lot of ground, help them out by using a subheading. Search engines pay most attention to titles so limit them to the essential keywords. If you need to convey anything else, do so in a subheading. You can also use a subheading to repeat very important keywords. We use this technique in every post on Databazaar Blog. For example, a recent post used the following title and subheading.

Title:
Matthias Wandel Wanted a Dot Matrix Printer So He Built One MacGyver-Style

Subheading:
DoubleSided: A Classic From the 1980s: One-Pin Homemade Dot Matrix Printer

5. Design your blog to accommodate photos and videos. Anytime someone in your firm has a public speaking gig, try to photograph or videotape it so you can post it to your blog. YouTube videos have a width of 425 pixels so give your blog a width of at least 500 pixels just to be safe. This width will also enable you to display photos at a size that won't require squinting.

Happy blogging ... and sorry to be such a bore.

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, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an online service for staying on top of court filings involving your clients, a free tool for clipping anything on any Web page, and timeline creation software for Mac users. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Your Link to Electronic Litigation
By Dennis Kennedy

We have moved past the days of sending associates down to the court house to check the latest pleadings. Electronic filing and access to court records over the Internet have changed the way we access and manage court records. Access to court dockets is only step one. We can now do much more than ever before with court information, moving from access to action.

LexisNexis' CourtLink service takes us further down the road of electronic litigation. It starts with access to court dockets, but adds a set of powerful tools to improve support functions and provide information to lawyers, litigation support personnel, clients, and other members of today's expanding litigation team. You can quickly retrieve the dockets and documents you need, but that's just the starting point.

CourtLink gives you a broad range of information tools. It enables you to stay up-to-date with your cases, access the court docket, and receive alerts about events in your cases. You can also monitor courts with other actions involving your clients. For example, you can learn about a new suit as soon as it's filed.

Using CourtLink's Strategic Profiles, you can obtain insight into trends, patterns, tactics, risks, and new opportunities. You can also review litigation history to learn about a judge's experience in a certain type of case and history of applicable decisions, the experience, success rate, strategies, and resolution history of opposing counsel, and much more.  In short, CourtLink doubles as a strategic litigation tool as well as business development tool.

CourtLink enables you to search by parties, types of cases, key words, docket numbers, patent numbers, and much more. You can search many courts in a single search. You can also set alerts to let you know about developments that interest you. Once you identify suits that interest you, you can use the tracking service to send you regularly-scheduled updates by email.

CourtLink enables you to see information visually using graphics and charts. In fact, because much of the information in CourtLink is timeline-oriented, you can import CourtLink data into LexisNexis' TimeMap 4.1 so that you can better visualize trends and create demonstrative evidence for settlement meetings and other purposes. CourtLink also seamlessly links to CaseMap to help you to build a successful case strategy.

LexisNexis offers CourtLink on a subscription or transactional basis. You choose the options you want to use. Contact LexisNexis for details on options and pricing. Learn more about CourtLink.

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 30, 2007 to TechnoFeature: A picture is worth a thousand words — so where better to use visuals than a courtroom?  In this article, graphics consultant Nicole Matthiesen discusses why, in our increasingly media-saturated world, the lawyer who utilizes visuals in court wields a powerful, persuasive tool — and has a distinct advantage over opposing counsel.  She shares her recent experience creating graphics for the Enron case, and how they impacted the jury and strengthened the prosecution's argument. Read on to see why you should consider adding visuals to your trial bag of tricks.

How to Receive this Newsletter
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, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an online store for legal-oriented prints, a Windows XP utility for managing open windows, and a space- and place-shifting device for recording FM and online radio programs. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Dress Your Office for Success
By Dennis Kennedy
For many lawyers, the "art" on the office walls consists of their framed law school degrees and state licenses. Most art galleries do not have a legal section. What if you could choose from a great selection of legal art prints to give your office a look both appropriate and unique?

LawGallery is an online store that focuses exclusively on legal prints for the legal profession. In the store, you'll find a large selection of prints depicting the practice of law. Many feature historical elements, including famous trials, lawyers, or courthouses. Less serious lawyers will find a variety of humorous prints.

Most prints date from the 1800s and early 1900s and will give your office a decidedly British feel. Examples of prints include drawings of the Royal Courts of Justice and Westminster Hall. You will also find prints of American cases like the "Trial of Guiteau for the Murder of President Garfield." LawGallery provides historical research and other information about each print and its subject matter.

LawGallery has made some of these reproductions itself and licensed others. The company uses "museum-grade" inks with a fade-free life span of 25-100 years depending upon their exposure to light. The company also employs archival processes when mounting and framing its prints. You can choose from many styles of mats and frames. LawGallery's own professional curator can even help you choose the most appropriate frame for a particular print and its location.

Prices vary depending on the print and framing option you choose. Most prices seem to fall between $200 to $600. LawGallery unconditionally guarantees each sale; you can return a print for a full refund. Learn more about LawGallery.

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, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a network appliance that makes short work of electronic discovery tasks, an online service that enables you to create multimedia presentations, and a handheld document scanner. Don't miss the next issue.

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

E-Discovery for the Rest of Us
By Dennis Kennedy
Electronic discovery can seem like a daunting world of software, services, and outside vendors, all combined with arcane technology issues. But what if you just want to work with a limited amount of e-mail and other electronic data?

Cricket Legal Technologies' Cricket Box may hold the answer. The Cricket Box is a dedicated electronic discovery appliance designed for law firms and litigation support consultants. It gives you a dedicated, turn-key solution with no software to install or configure. Just turn it on, follow the on-screen wizards, and start working.

A simple interface enables you to handle most of the standard tasks in today's world of electronic discovery. Just drag and drop your documents, and then use Cricket Box to filter, de-duplicate, and bates stamp your documents before exporting them to other litigation tools. Cricket Box can handle images, text, and metadata in many file formats.

The company claims that Cricket Box is easy to operate and can be used without IT support. It features a variety of powerful search and other electronic discovery tools. You can run Boolean, fuzzy, stem and other searches often used in electronic discovery.

Cricket Box uses a SQL Server database, which means it's fast. It can pull data from just about any source, including CD-ROM, DVD, flash memory, hard drives, etc. If you run into password-protected files, Cricket Box can probably crack them for you. The company claims that all these smarts mean you'll never miss a valid document, resulting in more accurate work product than competitive offerings.

When you're ready to export data, you'll find that Cricket Box integrates with Concordance, CT Summation, Ringtail, iConect, iPro, and other popular tools. Cricket Box is sold on a subscription basis. For a limited time, a one year subscription sells for $10,000.

Learn more about Cricket Box.

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.

Lawyers like words, but words don't make for memorable PowerPoint presentations. In fact, nothing turns off an audience more than reading from a slide. Your slides should not mimic what you say, but should instead support what you say. After all, the audience came to see you, not a screen.

The next time you prepare a PowerPoint presentation for a beauty contest, CLE seminar, or other purpose, consider doing what I do — skimp on the words and pump up the visuals. If your slides cannot stand on their own as a handout, you'll know you've succeeded. Yes, succeeded! Hand out your business card rather than the presentation — or create a video version with you speaking over each slide, and make it available for download from your site.

Most of the slides I create limit the use of words to the title and subtitle. The rest of the slide typically features photos and/or charts. Also, forget about using the stock photos that ship with PowerPoint. Nowadays, you can purchase professional photographs for as little as $1 each from sites like iStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, and Fotolia.

When I do need to use words, I use bullet points, and limit each bullet to 3-5 words (one line, no wrapping). These rules prevent me from writing my speech on the slide, and also enable me to use a larger font size, making it easier for my audience to read.

To make my bullets more interesting, I often associate each one with a different image. You can accomplish this effect by using "builds," which enable you to control the placement and timing of elements on a slide. Take a look at this quick example I mocked up (QuickTime format).

If you use the above tips, I guarantee your presentations will make more of an impact and outshine your competition.

Do you have any PowerPoint tips of your own 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 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 covers litigation software that enables you to review documents at warp speed, a cost recovery technology that tracks everything from photocopies to BlackBerry phone calls, and a free online content management system for creating blogs or entire sites. Don't miss the next issue.

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

Review 2,000 Documents/Day Without Breaking a Sweat
By Jill Bauerle
Imagine a technology that can sift through discovery documents and create a radar-like map, making it a snap to identify documents as responsive, nonresponsive, or privileged. Sound like a Star Trek episode? Actually, this technology exists today in the form of Attenex Patterns Document Mapper, which enables lawyers to analyze documents at warp speed (well, ten times faster) and with greater accuracy (2,000 document decisions per day versus 200 using traditional methods). The key lies in the "document map" Attenex Patterns Document Mapper creates of your universe of documents. The software analyzes the nouns and noun phrases and clusters like documents together to help reviewers analyze similar material, and make faster, more accurate document decisions. For example, Attenex Patterns Document Mapper can tie together related e-mail messages, identify key players and dates, and even provide an early risk assessment (especially helpful for regulatory matters). Armed with this data, you can better strategize, evaluate legal theories, and conduct a cost analysis. On a more nuts and bolts level, Attenex Patterns Document Mapper's suite of tools enables you to dynamically reorganize and categorize documents as you review them. Specifically, the "Document Viewer" enables you to review documents in their native format. You can assign up to nine configurable categories (such as responsive or privileged) to documents as you review them. You can also add annotations and perform additional document tagging (e.g., a reason for privilege). Attenex Patterns Document Mapper also features powerful search tools. Lawyers often dread reviewing documents. With Attenex Patterns Document Mapper, lawyers may soon request to be beamed up to the document review room.. Learn more about Attenex Patterns Document Mapper.

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 14, 2006 to Fat Friday: Mark Lieb reviews a handy password recovery program for use in e-discovery, Grady Thrasher discusses a workaround for integrating DeltaView PE with Worldox, David Hudgens reviews his experience with PCLaw, Michael Bates reviews the Web hosting and design company he used to build his firm's Web site, and Corey Rich discusses the convenience and cost of online public records. In addition, this issue features links to 10 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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.

TechnoFeature: Review: The SmartDraw Legal Solution
By Jill Bauerle

TechnoScore: 4.8 (Rated by 4 Users)
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score
www.smartdrawlegal.com

Introduction

SmartDraw.com's SmartDraw Legal Solution enables legal professionals without any design expertise to create professional-looking graphics to persuade clients, judges, juries and even opposing counsel. The SmartDraw Legal Solution includes more than 1,000 templates and 50,000 images for accident reconstructions, crime scenes, maps, medical diagrams, Gantt charts, organizational charts, timelines, and more.

Though just a year old, the SmartDraw Legal Solution has the feel of more mature software thanks to the fact that it was built atop SmartDraw, a business graphics program launched in 1994 and now at version 7. According to the company, more than half of the Fortune 500 use SmartDraw.

Pricing for the SmartDraw Legal Solution starts at $449 with discounts and volume licensing available. You can also find it bundled with other legal software from time to time. It comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.

For this review, we interviewed four SmartDraw Legal Solution users who rated it and discussed its use in their practice as well as its pros and cons. What did they think? Read on to find out.