TechnoLawyer: Online/Cloud

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a Web-based case management application (see article below), a mobile billing application, software that automates document drafting, a PDF annotation tool, and an add-on utility for the iPhone Mail app. Don't miss the next issue.

Case Management Hits the Web
By Neil J. Squillante

Did you feel that? No, it wasn't an earthquake. But the ground shifted. Web applications have arrived. It all started with that search box on Amazon and then Google. Webmail and online banking proved that you could manage highly sensitive information online. Law firms embraced intranets, extranets, and other lightweight applications. The next logical step? Practice management.

Caseload ... in One Sentence
Blackletter's Caseload is a secure Web-based case management system for solo practitioners and small law firms.

The Killer Feature
It's about time. Your practice that is. Not only do you bill your time, but the order in which events transpire also plays a key role.

Caseload offers lawyers a timeline-driven project management system. Every matter has its own timeline in which you and your colleagues can add events, documents, to-dos, issue outlines, and more, thus creating a dashboard from which you can see everything associated with a matter.

In ye olden days, a case file served a similar purpose — but with a fraction of the functionality. For example, Caseload displays information about upcoming deadlines, current todo items, and co-worker activity all in one place on the matter dashboard.

Other Notable Features
In addition to project management, you'll also find contact management, shared calendars, to-do lists, billing, and document management. Caseload also offers a system-wide search function for finding what you need.

All the functions integrate. For example adding an event to a matter's timeline also adds it to your calendar and vice versa. The contacts database lists the related matters for each contact. Etc.

Outlines never enjoyed mainstream success probably because most people don't write much. But lawyers love outlines because they write a lot. Knowing this, Blackletter built a hierarchical outliner into Caseload. You can quickly move items around and tag entries with issues. Like everything else in Caseload, you can attach outlines to projects so that they'll show up in your dashboard and timeline.

What Else Should You Know?
Caseload works in all major Web browsers on Macs and PCs. It does not require any up-front costs or any software installation. As you would expect, Caseload protects your data and transmissions using bank-grade encryption. Caseload offers four subscription plans ranging in price from $5/month for 3 users and 10 active matters to $50/month for unlimited users and matters. Learn more about Caseload.

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.

Originally published on November 24, 2008 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Do you Twitter? FriendFeed? If not, you are among the 98% of the legal profession that neither knows nor cares about the Web 2.0 flavor of the month. But this edition of SmallLaw is not about a fad or Johnny-Come-Lately development. Twitter, Friendfeed, and a variety of similar services are here now and offer a world of possibilities — no technical knowledge required.

Of course it's one thing to say these services can change the way we practice, but something else to explain how, or why we should bother. What is the justification, the use case as they say, for change? Let's start by looking at what these systems do and how you can put them to work.

Microblogging: Like Blogging But Much Easier

In 2004, a featureless text protocol called short-message-service (SMS) was poised to take over the world. While it certainly made a dent, costs prevented it from world domination.

Around this time, a plucky little company called Twitter stepped in to provide its own brand of instantaneous asynchronous one-way communication arranged in a chronological list: the microblog.

Today Twitter is bigger than ever, and its appeal keeps growing. Need I mention it's free. Its popularity has given rise to such me-too services as Jaiku, Pownce, and Yammer. Instead of trying to understand all the nuances of Twitter, let's see how you could use it in your law firm.

Use Case: Always in the Know

Imagine what would happen if you and your colleagues continually added comments, documents, pictures, etc. into one long, self-updating list that every contributor could see. The result, it turns out, is like being in 10 places at once. You can get the scoop from the office, the courthouse, the meeting, etc. all at once or categorized by sender, location, subject, etc.

Lifestreaming (Casestreaming)

In 2005 a Web site called Dandelife enabled users to enter information as if they were blogging, and at the click of a mouse switch to a timeline view. Early adopters consisted of self-absorbed Gen-Ys to discuss their life stories — hence "Lifestreaming."

But a funny thing happened in 2008 when a company called FriendFeed focused on combining multiple information streams about each user and presenting them as one master stream. This version of "Lifestreaming" was completely different and had vastly different ramifications.

Use Case: The Closing

Lifestreaming (let's call it Casestreaming for our purposes) obviously has a number of uses ranging from turning case information into an instant, scalable timeline, to viewing the interplay among parties, employees, judicial opinions, statutory developments, etc. in juxtaposition to one another in real time, and even for billing and time-tracking. An example might look like this:

• 1:00 PM Lawyer: Mr. Client can I see documents from your closing?
  
  
• 1:20 PM Client: Uploads 3 pictures and 10 documents from closing.
  
  
• 1:40 PM Lawyer: Here is the timeline of events leading up to closing.
  
  
• 1:50 PM Auto-Confirm: Timeline sent to client and wiki page for case.
  
  
• 2:00 PM Paralegal: Mr. Lawyer, the file will be ready for 3 PM meeting.
  
  
• 2:20 PM Reminder: Event @ 3PM meeting (receive file from Paralegal).

I could write more about these tools but why? All you really need to know is that microblogging and casestreaming are in their infancy, nobody has all the answers, and there are as many use cases to be made as there are lawyers willing to put these tools to work. Which is definitely how it should be. I invite you to take a look at your own small firm and figure out a use case of your own. I guarantee you'll find at least one. Then drop me a line and let me know what you've found. You can find me on Twitter.

Written by Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Fat Friday: Joseph Marquette explains why law firms should not build their own PCs, Chris Gibson explains how to copy and paste from Excel to Word, Edward Still criticizes challenge response software and shares his listserver pet peeves (plus we explain why spam dropped off a cliff this week), Edwin Eubank reviews Office 2007 on Windows Vista, and Leslie Shear writes in with additional concerns regarding importing data from Timeslips to Bill4Time. 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.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an online court rules service for small law firms (see article below), an application for reviewing discovery documents, a 24 inch monitor, a financial calculator for iPhone, and an information service for BlackBerrys. Don't miss the next issue.

If You Know the Rules, You Won't Lose Your Cool (or Clients)
By Neil J. Squillante

In a perfect world, courts and legislators would work together to create a simple set of procedural rules so that lawyers could spend more time on the key issues in their cases and less time worrying about arcane requirements. Here's a news flash — we don't live in a perfect world. That's why we have technology. When it works, it can simplify complex data sets such as court rules.

SmartRules.com ... in One Sentence
Practice Technologies' SmartRules.com provides step-by-step instructions for handling procedures in state and federal courts throughout the country.

The Killer Feature
Figuring out which rules apply to a given scenario such as filing a motion to dismiss often requires consulting multiple sources — civil procedure, rules of evidence, standing orders, local rules, etc. — some of which may conflict with each other or be out of date.

SmartRules.com eliminates the need to make sense of all these rules sources individually. Instead, just enter your jurisdiction and select your task. SmartRules.com then provides you with a SmartRules Guide — a step-by-step checklist for that particular task, including up-to-date drafting and filing requirements from all applicable rules sources.

Other Notable Features
SmartRules.com is not a 1.0 product. For the past six years, over 50 of the largest law firms in the country have used SmartRules firm-wide to manage their litigation portfolio. What's new is a Web version for small firms and sole practitioners.

SmartRules.com covers all courts in the country (state, federal, trial and appellate), with premium SmartRules Guides available for California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia and Federal District Courts.

Two forms of membership exist — Basic and Premium.

The Basic Membership gives you access to all the applicable codes, courts, and forms for every civil trial and appellate court in the United States. It also provides you with subpoena guides for most states as well as SmartRules Alerts to warn you in advance about rule changes.

The Premium Membership gives you access to SmartRules Guides for thousands of topics, which obviates the need for you to research the various rules.

What Else Should You Know?
The SmartRules.com Basic Membership is free. Premium Membership is sold on a subscription basis based on jurisdiction. A Daypass is available too for one-time needs. Learn more about SmartRules.com.

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.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a contract management application (see article below), a CLE courseware program, a cost recovery system, anti-virus software, a voice recording application for iPhone, an online store for BlackBerrys, and a case management application for Windows Mobile. Don't miss the next issue.

Cut Through the Mumbo Jumbo
By Neil J. Squillante

Management. The most overused word in legal software? First came case management. Then knowledge management. Contact management. Client relationship management. Etc. Cliche or not, this word underscores the growing need of the legal profession to, yes, manage disparate types of electronic information. Well, it's time to add new one to the list — contract management.

Mumboe ... in One Sentence
Mumboe is an online application that enables you to manage existing agreements and also store and share templates from which to create new agreements.

The Killer Feature
Most contracts drone on for pages and pages. This level of detail is necessary, but some details are more important and more likely to be referenced than others. Also, some details exist in virtually all contracts regardless of subject matter.

When you upload contracts into Mumboe for storage, Mumboe extracts the most critical data so that you can review it at a glance and also compare it across other contracts. It even extracts this data if you upload a scanned contract thanks to its built-in OCR technology.

What does it extract? The parties, addresses, term, choice of law, etc. You can review the data extracted and make corrections and remove details you don't want to track before saving. Mumboe refers to this information as "contract intelligence."

Other Notable Features
Like most online applications, Mumboe provides a dashboard from which you can access all of Mumboe's functions. For example, you can search for an agreement, view all agreements, and create an agreement.

Mumboe offers simple and advanced search. You can search the full text of agreements or just extracted data. The advanced search mode provides you with Boolean operators, date ranges, and other tools to narrow the results.

Mumboe also enables you to create reminders for important milestones, create tasks and assign them to others, bookmark agreements for quick access, and import contacts so that you can more easily populate agreement templates.

What Else Should You Know?
Like most online applications, Mumboe offers a free "gateway" version, Mumboe Express, which provides you with storage for 10 agreements. Mumboe Pro costs $24/month for 250 agreements. You can purchase additional storage at a rate of $12/month per 100 agreements. Learn more about Mumboe.

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 October 30, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Carolyn Thornlow explains how to use the Calendar Plan Template in PracticeMaster, Jonathan Steen reviews the Philips Digital Pocket Memo 9360 (now 9370), Brant Gluth shares a method for creating strong but easy to memorize passwords, Edward Zohn discusses free online calendars versus Microsoft Exchange, and Ed Walters reviews the Public Library of Law. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on 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.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a telephone broadcasting service, a social network for patent lawyers (see article below), and a social network for marketing your firm. Don't miss the next issue.

Reinvent Your Patent Practice
By Peter R. Olson

Did you know that two of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, were accomplished inventors? Among other things, Franklin developed bifocal glasses and the lightening rod while Jefferson invented a dumb waiter. Both men refused to patent their inventions, preferring to provide for the public good rather than personal profit. Fortunately for you, most inventors feel otherwise.

Patent Buddy ... in One Sentence
Patent Buddy is a social network for patent lawyers and patent agents designed to facilitate networking, recruiting, and client development.

The Killer Feature
More than the work product created by lawyers in other practice areas, patents can serve as an excellent marketing tool for patent lawyers.

Patent Buddy enables you to create a professional profile in which you can list your qualifications and list patents that you have successfully prosecuted. Because your profile resides on the Web, you can link directly to the patents so that prospective clients or other law firms can review your work.

Other Notable Features
In addition to professional profiles, Patent Buddy offers three other core services — job hunting, networking, and research.

The Opportunities feature enables you to stay on top of actual and possible patent job openings in your area. For example, Patent Buddy notifies you when a patent lawyer leaves a firm. By acting quickly, you could apply for that vacated position before the firm begins seeking a replacement.

If you're a managing parter, you can use a similar feature to keep track of the activity of competing firms — who they hire, which patents they file, etc.

Patent lawyers who often work with other firms that don't have any patent lawyers can use the networking features to stay top of mind with such firms. You can receive email notices from Patent Buddy showing when and how frequently people have accessed your profile.

Patent Buddy also provides a career news blog and job posting board. You can search for jobs by location, specialization, education, experience, and job type.

What Else Should You Know?
Patent Buddy claims to track 39,072 patent lawyers and agents and 12,967 organizations as of today. You can join for free, but you must have a USPTO registration number. Learn more about Patent Buddy.

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 today to Fat Friday: Tom Trottier reviews his favorite Treo apps, William Kellermann discusses the past, present, and future of legal tech trade shows, Paul Easton reviews Jott for cell phone dictation, Kristi Bodin comments on a recent response from LexisNexis about Time Matters, and Harold Burstyn shares his experience with Word/WordPerfect compatibility. 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.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a remote control service (see article below), and two new time-billing programs (one for Mac and one for Windows). Don't miss the next issue.

Work at Your Office Without Being There
By Neil J. Squillante

Sometimes you can't avoid working late. But that doesn't mean you can't make the best of a bad situation. Why stay in your office and ignore your hunger pangs when instead you can take a well-deserved break and finish up your work at home? Oh, that's right. Your computer at work has everything you need and your computer at home doesn't.

LogMeIn Pro ... in One Sentence
LogMeIn Pro enables you to access and control your work PC securely over the Web from any Internet-enabled PC.

The Killer Feature
USB thumb drives, file servers, and even the vaunted "cloud" have their limits. These technologies enable you to transport or access important files, but these files won't do you much good if you don't have the programs to run them.

Because LogMeIn Pro enables you to remotely use your work computer, you can use the software on that computer not to mention access any connected file servers.

Thus, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars outfitting your home computer with the same software you have at work. Plus you can use any computer, not just your home computer. The bank-grade 256-bit encryption keeps your sessions secure.

Other Notable Features
LogMeIn Pro features a simple set up that does not require the use of a consultant or an understanding of jargon like "VPN." You just create an account and download a small software component onto your office computer. Then, when you're at home or anywhere else you need access, you log into LogMeIn Pro using your Web browser.

In addition to remote access, LogMeIn Pro includes several other useful features. For example, "remote-to-local printing" enables you to print documents on your remote computer to your local printer.

You can also copy files and folders back and forth. In fact, if you need to send a large file to a client, you can create and email a LogMeIn file share link for that specific file.

Other features include online meetings with desktop sharing, file synchronization, mapping of remote hard drives to your local PC, remote sound (listen to your music collection), and a customizable ribbon menu to which you can add your favorite functions for one click access.

What Else Should You Know?
For the target PC, LogMeIn Pro supports Windows Vista, XP, Me, 2000, and Server 2003. You can access the target PC from any Web browser that supports Java. LogMeIn Pro is priced on a per PC basis with volume discounts for two or more PCs. Pricing for an annual subscription starts at $69.95. Learn more about LogMeIn Pro.

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 October 16, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Gray Strickland provides a comprehensive guide to digital dictation, David Crump reviews Loislaw for legal research, John Heckman discusses three considerations when choosing between Time Matters and PCLaw plus shares his thoughts on the CIC Consultants Forum, Morris Tabush reviews IBackup and MozyPro, and Rob Howard reviews Amicus Attorney 2008 and its integration with WordPerfect and Windows XP. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on 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.