TechnoLawyer: Member News

According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 3.1% of Americans have Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes (a.k.a. Adult Onset or Type 2). Some of our own TechnoLawyer members likely suffer from this horrible disease.

Diabetes often leads to a myriad of complications, including Diabetic Retinopathy, an eye disease that can cause visual impairment and even blindness.

Fortunately, with early diagnosis, diabetics can control and limit the damage caused by diabetic retinopathy. Early diagnosis requires a fluorescein angiogram — a photographic study of the retina. Basically, a special camera hooked up to a PC takes digital images of your retina. Unfortunately, general ophthalmologists do not typically perform fluorescein angiograms.

Therefore, diabetics should visit a retina specialist who can perform this important, painless, and potentially sight-saving exam.

For those of you who live in the New York metropolitan area, it just so happens that we have a retina specialist in our midst — my father, Dr. Niel Squillante (yes, his first name is spelled differently than mine). He may very well be the only member of TechnoLawyer with an MD.

His office is conveniently located in midtown Manhattan, and he accepts most major insurance plans. His practice — Retinacare — is the antithesis of managed care thanks to his One Doctor, One Patient, One at a Time philosophy (i.e., you won't feel like you're on an assembly line).

To schedule an appointment, call (212) 759-5559 anytime, or use this confidential and secure online form.

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. .

Edward Poll, a nationally recognized coach, consultant, speaker, and author who presides over LawBiz Management, recently received a "Board Approved" designation in the specialty of Coaching to the Legal Profession by the Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC).

Only five percent of practicing consultants belong to the SAC, and only five percent of those members receive Board Approval. As if this weren't impressive enough, Ed is currently the only SAC Board Approved legal consultant in the United States.

Members eligible for this certification must demonstrate outstanding job performance and a strict adherence to a professional code of ethics for a prolonged period of time.

Ed has done just that, advising thousands of lawyers and law firms for more than 15 years. He also regularly shares his expertise with the legal world at large in our TechnoFeature newsletter and in his LawBiz Blog.

Read the press release.

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. .

Longtime TechnoLawyer member Dan Pinnington has published three articles in Law Practice Today — all of them on the important topic of legal malpractice.

Dan, who serves as Director of practicePRO at LAWPRO, has written and lectured extensively on this subject over the years.

In his latest trio of articles (see below), Dan explains how to prevent such claims, how to avoid fraud, and why it's wise to steer clear of offering legal advice to family and friends.

• Malpractice Claims Are Very Real — And Easily Preventable: The Key Is Improving Lawyer/Client Communications

• Fighting Fraud: Implement Appropriate Internal Controls

• Don't Be a Dabbler and Beware the Dangers of Acting for Family and Friends

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. .

We have movie stars in our midst! Fresh off their success with LexThink, TechnoLawyer members Dennis Kennedy and Matt Homann star in a video on laptops and tablet PCs produced by Intel. In the video, they discuss how they use Intel's Centrino technology in their practices.

Specifically, Dennis talks about the benefits of "taking your office with you," stating that with his tablet PC "the biggest competitive advantage ... is in client service."

Matt touts mobile computing as a "liberating way to do your work." He says that his tablet PC functions "less as a technological tool and more of a communcations tool."

Watch the video (requires Windows Media Player).

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. .

As reported in the Los Angeles Times and 50 other newspapers, TechnoLawyer member Joanne Frasca recently scored a major victory by persuading the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a $44.7 million jury verdict, one of the largest in California in 2002.

This litigation involves a dispute between sports agent Leigh Steinberg's firm, Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn, and David Dunn and his sports agency, Athletes First (Dunn was the inspiration for the "Jerry Maguire" character in the film of the same name).

Joanne, who represents Athletes First, convinced the Ninth Circuit that the trial court had committed reversible error by submitting a statutory unfair competition claim to the jury, and allowing compensatory and punitive damages to be awarded on this purely equitable claim. The Ninth Circuit held that this prejudicial error required the entire $47 million judgment to be vacated, including the award of punitive damages and attorney fees, and ordered the case remanded for a new trial.

The appellate court also held that the trial court made prejudicial and erroneous rulings, including the unenforceable noncompete clause in Dunn's employment agreement, and the erroneous admission of evidence concerning conduct protected by the litigation privilege under Civil Code Section 47.

With this case, Joanne and her small firm, Ducote & Frasca, P.C., along with solo practitioner Laura Sullivan, "took on and defeated one of California's largest firms — Morgan Lewis & Bockius." Joanne and her colleagues use case management and other legal software to help maintain their competitive edge.

You can download the court opinion and Los Angeles Times article here.

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 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. .