"AvoidAClaim" Blog

The legal market has recently experienced a dramatic shift as lawyers seek out alternative methods of practicing law and providing more affordable legal services. Virtual law practice is revolutionizing the way the public receives legal services and how legal professionals work with clients. If you are interested in this form of practicing law, Virtual Law Practice will help you:

• Responsibly deliver legal services online to your clients
• Successfully set up and operate a virtual law office
• Establish a virtual law practice online through a secure, client-specific portal
• Manage and market your virtual law practice
• Understand state ethics and advisory opinions
• Find more flexibility and work/life balance in the legal profession

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime (please email in advance)to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the American Bar Association Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

This annual guide is the only one of its kind written to help solo and small firm lawyers find the best technology for their dollar. You’ll find the most current information and recommendations on computers, servers, networking equipment, legal software, printers, security products, smartphones, the iPad, and anything else a law office might need. It’s written in clear, easily understandable language to make implementation easier if you choose to do it yourself, or you can use it in conjunction with your IT consultant. Either way, you’ll learn how to make technology work for you.

Topics include:

• Updated recommendations for hardware and software, including Mac products
• Navigating the minefield of social media
• The authors’ favorite utilities
• The rapidly evolving smartphone market
• Data security–what reasonable measures should you be taking in light of the new ethics rules?
• The Paper LESS office: Kicking the paper habit
• Cloud computing pros and cons
• Where the legal tech world will be in 2014

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime (please email in advance)to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the American Bar Association Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

Lawyers who enjoy this blog, or the other great law blogs you’ll find on our Blogroll, may be wondering about taking the plunge and starting a blog of their own. Or maybe you have one, and are looking for ways to enhance the look, feel, or content.

In either case you’ll want to read Blogging in One Hour for Lawyers, by Ernie Svenson. It will show you how to create, maintain and improve a law blog. It covers such topics as:

• Setting up a blog quickly and easily
• Writing blog posts that will attract clients
• Choosing from various hosting options like Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress
• Making your blog friendly to search engines, increasing your ranking
• Tweaking the design of your blog by adding customized banners and colors
• Easily sending notice of your blog posts to Facebook and Twitter
• Monitoring your blog’s traffic with Google Analytics and other tools
• Avoiding ethics problems that may result from having a legal blog

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime (please email in advance)to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the American Bar Association Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

This was the week we launched the LAWPRO Facebook page, and some lawyers may be wondering how they can create a similar Facebook presence for themselves. To help with that we now have Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers in our lending library.

This book is written for both novice and advanced Facebook users, and covers every step you’ll take: from creating a page, to ajusting the all-important privacy settings to reaching out to others on Facebook. Other topics covered include:

• Managing your Timeline
• Using Facebook search and navigation
• Joining groups and subscribing to feeds
• Establishing a business page
• Developing a Facebook strategy to grow your legal network

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime (please email in advance)to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the American Bar Association Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

This annual guide is the only one of its kind written to help solo and small firm lawyers find the best technology for their dollar. You’ll find the most current information and recommendations on computers, servers, networking equipment, legal software, printers, security products, smartphones, the iPad and anything else a law office might need. It’s written in clear, easily understandable language to make implementation easier if you choose to do it yourself, or you can use it in conjunction with your IT consultant. Either way, you’ll learn how to make technology work for you.

Topics include:

• Impartial best-of-breed recommendations for hardware and software
• A guide to social media usage by lawyers–its riches and risks
• How to access your data from anywhere–and be secure!
• An analysis of the evolving smartphone market
• The latest in case management, time and billing and document assembly programs
• Taking your practice paperLESS and improving your bottom line
• How to protect your firm from security threats, including viruses, spyware, and spam
• A look at what’s coming in legal tech during the next year

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

As more businesses move their IT systems into the cloud, lawyers need to ask if cloud computing is right for their firm. Cloud Computing for Lawyers features a discussion of cloud computing fundamentals, an overview of legal cloud computing products, and step-by-step instructions for implementing cloud computing in your practice–including practical tips for securing your data.

This book will help you:

• Understand the current state of cloud computing technology
• Weigh the risks and benefits of cloud computing
• Evaluate legal cloud computing applications like law practice management, billing, time tracking, e-mail, and e-discovery software
• Consider the ethical considerations of storing client data in the cloud
• Maintain security and privacy for your online data

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

As organizations create increasing amounts of digital data, electronic discovery costs for lawyers can skyrocket. For firms with limited technology budgets, or cases with small amounts of electronically stored information (ESI), e-discovery can be challenging. Electronic Discovery for Small Cases offers effective, budget-friendly solutions for collecting, viewing, and analyzing electronic evidence that will benefit any litigator. With an overview of e-discovery techniques and extensive reviews of software products, this book will help you:

• Determine if you should collect ESI yourself or hire a consultant
• Select the best–and most user-friendly–collection tool for your budget
• Make the most of your e-discovery software with step-by-step guidance
• Process, view, search, and analyze a mixed collection of files
• Learn about affordable cloud-based applications for litigation support
• Publish a searchable document collection on a CD, DVD, or flash drive
• Work with electronic records at mediation, arbitration, or trial
• Learn about emerging ESI trends

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

Microsoft OneNote may be less familiar than other programs in the Microsoft Office suite, but it now comes included with MS Office 2010 and its once lawyers realize its uses its popularity should skyrocket. What’s the best way to describe it? Think of old spiral notepad, but with a wealth of additional features.

Imagine your dog-eared yellow notepad, but with the ability to do the following (and much more):

• Search text
• Tag your notes as questions, to-do’s, ideas, etc
• Insert audio or images
• Share and collaborate with others by storing remotely
• Integrate with Outlook

This books shows lawyers how to learn the basics quickly and then put this software to use as a powerful tool for all the notetaking that is part of every lawyer’s daily routine.

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

In the paper world keeping client data confidential was easy and cheap. In the digital world, its difficult and expensive, and the job is never truly done.

The authors of Locked Down (Sharon D. Nelson, David G. Reis and John W. Simek) believe that law firms are not doing enough to protect electronic client data. The reason for this is a combination of ignorance of the IT world, expense and a belief that “it can’t happen to us”. As a result, law firms are being specifically targeted by hackers who consider them easy pickings.

This book is an attempt to explain the wide variety of information security risks facing law firms and how lawyers can best protect their data, whether they have a large budget or small. It covers such topics as:

• creating secure passwords
• working securely from laptops and smartphones
• developing information security checklists for your firm
• protecting mobile devices from theft

This is good reading to go along with practicePRO’s Managing the Security and Privacy of Electronic Data in a Law Office.

The practicePRO Lending Library is a free resource for Ontario lawyers of more than 100 books on a wide variety of law practice management related topics. You can see a full listing of our books here. You may borrow a book in person or via e-mail.

The practicePRO Library is located in our office at 250 Yonge Street, Suite 3101 in Toronto and can be visited during our regular business hours (Mon to Fri, 8:30 to 5:00). We invite you to come by anytime to peruse our selection. All titles in the practicePRO Lending Library can be shipped to Ontario lawyers at our expense, and returned at yours after three weeks.

If you would like to borrow this or any other book please email us. Most of our titles are also available from the ABA Web Store or the major booksellers here in Canada.

Again this year, the always exciting 60 Sites in 60 Minutes plenary session concluded ABA TECHSHOW 2012. Presenters Natalie Kelly, Dan Pinnington, Catherine Sanders Reach and TECHSHOW Chair Reid Trautz shared variety of serious and funs sites with the packed room. It was a lot of fun to do 60 sites. For those that could make it, here is a full list of the sites we presented:

Sites to help you do your job

• ABA Preview of Supreme Court Cases: Everything you want or need to know about what is happening at the Supreme Court, past, present and future. americanbar.org/publications/preview_home.html
• Fastcase and Mobile Sync: Legal research on your desktop, iPhone or iPad. Bar Association users can use the Mobile Sync feature to keep one research session going across all platforms. www.fastcase.com
• CellularAbroad is a helpful site to find the best mobile phone and coverage option specific to your phone and carrier when traveling overseas. www.cellularabroad.com
• Google Scholar adds treatment to citing cases scholar.google.com/
• Jureeka: Turn legal citations in web pages into hyperlinks that point to online legal source material in Chrome or Firefox jureeka.blogspot.ca
• TinyEye: Reverse image search: find out source of an image, other uses of it, higher resolution versions, etc. www.tineye.com
• Google Images lets you search by dragging and dropping an image www.google.com/imghp
• Meevsu: Have a live confrontation or debate via webcam, with the audience voting for the winner meevsu.com

Helpful information

• Law Practice Today e-zine archives is full of terrific articles on all aspects of law practice management www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine
• Room77: See what your hotel view is like, before you book the room www.room77.com
• Priceblink: Find lower prices while you shop and set notifications for desired price points. www.priceblink.com
• The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group exists for one purpose. You’ll have to see for yourself because you won’t believe it until you see it. www.horg.com/horg/intro.html
• PMA Pipe: Keep up with all the law practice management blogs feeds.feedburner.com/PmaPipe
• MarineTraffic: Watch the movement of ships around the world, tracked by GPS in real time MarineTraffic.com/ais/
• AllTop: See the top headlines on the most popular news sites and blogs alltop.com
• The World at 7 Billion: With seven billion people in the world, where do you fit in? Just enter your birthdate and find out! www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515
• Handsfreeinfo: See what your state’s cell phone and texting laws for drivers prohibit – or are about to prohibit. Handsfreeinfo.com
• WhoIsTheMostFamous:With just a first name, try to guess the most famous surname. WhoIsTheMostFamous.com
• Scoopertino is the parody blog of all things Apple (based in Coopertino, CA) that recently claimed Apple would replace the complete iTunes library with songs sung by Siri, starting with Stairway to Heaven! scoopertino.com
• US Department of State provides important travel information for every country in the world www.state.gov/misc/list/index.htm
• An American’s Guide to Canada tells you everything you want to know about life in the Great White North, including “Canadianisms” and how to immigrate. AmericansGuide.ca

Technology tools and sites

• Adobe provides great online tools for collaboration and converting and editing PDF documents acrobat.com
• Alternativeto: If you’ve decided to replace a software application, this site will recommend alternatives based on user feedback. alternativeto.net
• FollowUpThen: Schedule followups to emails you don’t need to deal with now, by simply forwarding them to this site. followupthen.com
• Snipreel: Clip YouTube videos so you can share just the best parts. Snipreel.com
• GreatApps: Helps you weed through the 1,000s of apps out there by featuring the best 25 at a time. greatapps.com
• “If This Then That” write “recipes” and tasks to automate actions between “channels” like Facebook, Twitter, Email, Dropbox, Evernote and more ifttt.com
• Thsrs Find shorter synonyms for longer words ironicsans.com/thsrs/
• Zamzar is an oldie but a goodie site that coverts computer files you upload into other formats; great for old WordPerfect docs you now need to access via MS Word zamzar.com
• Down for everyone or just me? Find out if a website is down www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com
• Ninite: Pick all the popular software you want to install right from one page www.ninite.com
• FacebookCheating: Read and share stories of cheating that happened via Facebook. Also access spying and therapeutic resources for online activity. facebookcheating.com
• Factory Reset Wiki: Find factory reset codes and procedures for all kinds of products. Factory-Reset.com
• Join.me is a free, yet robust screen sharing and conference call system that is extremely easy to set up and/or join. join.me/
• TextMechanic allows you to manipulate and play with text in all sorts of different ways (for example, pick a random line of text) TextMechanic.com/Random-Line-Picker.html

Social media tools & resources

• Visual.ly: Generate a cartoon avatar and infographic for your Twitter account visual.ly/twitter
• Tips to surviving the zombie apocalypse (and other disasters) from the Centres for Disease Control blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/
>MemoLane: emails you reminders of your social media past memolane.com
• Frequency.com is a video aggregator that provides a convenient platform to find and view informative and humorous videos in one place. www.frequency.com
• Twylah creates a visually great-looking website out of your tweets and the links they contained. www.twylah.com
• MyPermissions lets you examine and clean up all the permissions you’ve given social media apps to access your private data mypermissions.org

Law practice management

• HBS Elevator Pitch Builder The good folks at the Harvard Business School have created the on-line pitch builder to help you hone your, well, elevator pitch. Try it! www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch
• Thinkstock: A huge supply of the best stock images thinkstock.com
• 99Designs is a new on-line graphics marketplace to have law firm logos and website graphics designed at extremely low rates, thanks to the winner-take-all nature of the marketplace. 99designs.com

Online privacy and dangers

• Google Privacy Tools: All the ways Google gives you control over the information you share and store with them: google.com/policies/privacy/tools/
• ScamTrends: Keep track of all the constant attemps to scam you by email, social media, phone, etc www.scamtrends.com
• AvoidAClaim This blog about law practice management and claims prevention also features warnings about the latest fraud attempts against lawyers www.avoidaclaim.com
• FCC Small Biz Cyber Planner: Information on how smaller companies can secure themselves against cyber crime www.fcc.gov/cyberplanner
• SecretSync is a great way to easily share proprietary, sensitive information using online synchronization utilities getsecretsync.com
• StartPage: A search engine that doesn’t collect your personal data startpage.com

Non-billable Time

• MapCrunch lets you randomly teleport anywhere in the world via Google Streetview Mapcrunch.com
• MyExWife’s Wedding Dress: Family lawyers will especially get a kick out of this site started by a man whose wife purposely left behind her wedding dress when they separated, and what he did with it to get even. myexwifesweddingdress.com
• VeryFunnyAds: Pretty self explanatory! VeryFunnyAds.com
• AbsolutelyMadness: collects the funniest pictures on the internet absolutelymadness.tumblr.com/
• PhotoShop Disasters: A collection of the worst examples of bad Photoshop efforts PSDisasters.com
• Monk-e-Mail: In just a few minutes you can customize an animated message complete with your own voice to send a birthday greeting or other fun greeting. Hosted by CareerBuilder.com of all things, but why not? www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/default.aspx
• PoopSenders For friend or foe, res ipsa loquitor. www.poopsenders.com
• Craftastrophe:A collection of the tackiest examples of homemade crafts Craftastrophe.net
• WhySiriWhy? Amusing Siri quotes and awkward voice-text failures whysiriwhy.com
• AwkwardWorkplacePhotos.com. Go. Laugh. Get back to work! workplacephotos.com
• Devolve Me: Upload a photo of yourself (or someone else) and devolve it to see what you would look like 1.8 million years ago.www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php
• MultiPlayerPiano: Play the piano online with whoever else is on the site at the same time multiplayerpiano.com

If you liked these sites, you can see the sites that were featured in previous ABA TECSHOW 60 Sites in 60 Minutes presentations as well as the ABA TECSHOW 60 Sites in 60 Minutes Hall of Fame