Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 63 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:
This issue also contains links to every article in the January/February 2010 issue of Law Practice and the January 2010 issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss this issue or future issues.
How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to Answers to Questions: Robert Rice provides a detailed buyer's guide to Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) for law firms, Wandal Winn reviews Yahoo Calendar's synchronization abilities, Tim Smith explains how to play specific segments of audio during a trial, John Crossan has an update on Stamps.com's secret low-cost plan after reading about it in a previous Answers to Questions, and Douglas Thomas explains how to copy and paste text in WordPerfect without any formatting. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to TechnoFeature: Law firms manage documents in an ever-increasing number of scenarios — collaborating with colleagues, sharing documents with clients, creating online repositories for deals or discovery, etc. NetDocuments offers a Web-based solution for these and other document management tasks. In this TechnoFeature article, business lawyer and frequent TechnoLawyer contributor Mike Schley discusses how his law firm uses NetDocuments as a virtual deal room for due diligence and virtual file server for document collaboration and sharing. How's life in the document management cloud for Mike and his firm? Read his review of NetDocuments to find out.
How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to Answers to Questions: Paul Purdue explains what lawyers should consider when accepting credit cards, Todd Schlossberg reviews Stamps.com and explains how to obtain a secret low price, Product Director for Amicus Attorney Dale Wainwright answers a question about exporting time entries from Amicus Attorney, John Kennedy reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and A.J. Levy shares his tips for automatically updating cross references in Word and WordPerfect. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Having work-inappropriate content in your profiles — or in the Google search results for your name — can cause embarrassment or worse at work. And for unemployed law school graduates and former associates, an unsavory online footprint can inhibit job prospects. You may not think so, but BigLaw is watching. The tips below can help associates and would-be associates draw the online shades.
1. Monitor All Your Social Media Accounts
In your zest to put up a new profile, don't forget to make it private. Keep whatever profile information visible to others in Google searches conservative. Avoid featuring alcohol, suggestive clothing, or guns in your primary picture and review your "fan of" settings with a critical eye.
Also, remember to link all your profiles to email addresses that you check regularly so you can monitor information posted by others to your account (such as tagged photos, @username replies or comments).
2. Keep Your Friends Close and Your Co-Workers Further
Don't add partners or counsel as friends on Facebook or Twitter unless you intend to keep your profiles G-rated and business only. You should also think twice before adding co-workers who may not have your best interests at heart as friends or giving them full access to your profiles.
If you've already added colleagues that you wish you hadn't, put them on limited profile view settings retrospectively or even block or de-friend them. Most people have so many friends that when the "lose" a friend online, they can't easily determine the offender's identity.
3. If Your Firm Has a Group on Facebook, Don't Join It
Both officially sanctioned and rogue law firm Facebook groups are monitored by human resources and media relations. Your mere presence in the group alerts co-workers and the powers that be to your Facebook profile and reminds them of your greater online activity.
4. Think Twice Before Posting Under Your Real Name
Many associates have interests outside of law that they hope to keep invisible to partners and clients. Unfortunately, Google can't create multiple search results for your name. Once you publish an article on bird-watching, your colleagues may soon know about your avian hobby. So before you publish anything, decide whether you care if firm colleagues discover it. If yes, consider using a unifying pseudonym for your outside interests. That way you can build a separate trail (and a resume) for your "alter ego" without tampering with your name's Google search results.
5. Manage Negative Search Results
Unfortunately, you can't delete negative Google results for your name query (short of asking the webmasters of the offending sites to remove your personal information). However, profiles registered under your name on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other high ranking Google sites can help bury negative results that originate from lower ranked sites.
Creating a Google Profile can further help you combat negative information with positive information that you add, but it won't drive down negative results because it appears on the bottom of search pages.
How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw goes deep undercover inside some of the country's biggest law firms. But we don't just dish up the dirt. We also mine it for best and worst practices and other nuggets of knowledge. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to Fat Friday: David Estes shares his thoughts on why his law firm doesn't use document assembly software, Jack Newton discusses SaaS and the fading importance of offline access, Douglas Shachtman provides some tips for switching billing systems, Kenneth DiMuzio shares his thoughts on the health care debate, and Megan Harrison writes in with another holiday gift idea for lawyers. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to Answers to Questions: Eric Fagan shares six tips for new lawyers, Steven Schwaber discusses an alternative to postage meters, Tom Trottier provides a few tips for permanently destroying a hard drive, Brad Jensen shares his thoughts on the future of digital media, and Kerry Hubick reviews Gadwin's PrintScreen utility. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to TechnoFeature: Have you ever wanted to cut the cord and take your practice everywhere you go? Have you ever thought about all the money you spend on hardware and software? Practice management consultant Seth Rowland began hearing these questions from his clients a year ago. Ever since, he has searched for the best Web-based practice management system. In this TechnoFeature article, Seth reviews AdvologixPM, which is built on Salesforce.com's Force.com platform. What does Seth think? Read his review to find out.
How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to Answers to Questions: Jason Havens reviews Boingo's WiFi hotspot service, Jonathan Warshay shares two tips for saving Web pages on a PC or Mac, Tom Trottier explains how he uses Firefox to manage passwords, Mark Fellman reviews DYMO Stamps, and Steve Loewy compares OmniPage and ABBYY FineReader Pro. Don't miss this issue.
How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 66 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:
This issue also contains links to every article in the December 2009 issue of Law Technology News. Don't miss this issue or future issues.
How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.
