Took me a while to realize what was going on. The video below is basically a web/IT guy’s call with a sales guy who is having problems accessing the company’s website.
Click here for larger hi res version.
Fair warning: strong language!
Virtual Assistant for a Virtual Law Practice
June 25, 2008 By
There has been a lot of discussion lately concerning using virtual assistants and also running a virtual law practice. Our friends over at VLOtech has a very timely post called Virtual Assistance for a Virtual Law Practice. In the post, Stephanie Kimbro discusses how using a virtual assistant fits with their practice model, the Virtual Law Office.
Key points in her post include professional conduct concerns and how a virtual assistant in the virtual law office may be affected.
With any virtual assistant relationship, the VLO attorney must comply with his or her state bar association’s rules and regulations for professional conduct regarding management of nonlawyer assistants. Appropriate instruction and supervision should be given to any virtual assistant hired to work in a VLOTech virtual law practice. One of the safest law office practice methods for the VLO attorney to protect him or herself is to keep digital records of any communication of instructions to the virtual assistant from the beginning of the relationship.
And just as important, nondisclosure and security for the clients of a virtual law office.
If the virtual assistant will be working through the web-based VLO application, the attorney needs to emphasize the importance of nondisclosure and security for the VLO clients and that the virtual assistant should closely guard their username and password to their permissions-based VLO access. Again, most professional virtual assistants, especially those with legal training and experience, are more than aware of confidentiality and nondisclosure issues when working for a law practice.
Lawyers are Using Linkedin — So What
June 23, 2008 By
Kevin O’Keefe is mentioning this over at his post “lawyers use Linkedin : It’s becoming an avalanche”. Other bloggers are pointing to Kevin’s post and saying “Linkedin for lawyers on the rise?”.
In addition to that, social media sites and law firm marketing makes the statement that “Philadelphia firms, such as Fox Rothschild and Reed Smith, have as many as 45 percent of their attorneys and staff holding active LinkedIn accounts.”
So what, no one is saying how all these lawyers are using Linkedin to benefit them or their firms. Someone enlighten me and the readers of Home Office Lawyer.
Trial Preparation and Macs
June 21, 2008 By
Kern Lewis published an article earlier this week in the Texas Lawyer which discussed his firm’s transition to Macs four years ago and the benefits they have enjoyed since doing so. The Mac Lawyer has summarized Kern’s article below.
Kern writes that Macs are in law offices for a number of good reasons, including:
- Productivity. No more lost time for lawyers or staff due to a computer virus. They can also connect to new networks without any configuration. If a program locks up, only that program has to be restarted, generally with no loss of information; all other open programs are unaffected.
- Creativity. ‘Trying a suit should be a creative process; if it’s not, the trial lawyer needs a new process.” The Mac platform fosters creativity, rather than hindering it.’ Lawyers should focus on their clients’ cases, not how to make a program do what they want it to do.
- Better programs. While there is still a wider selection of legal software on the Windows platform, there are now numerous Mac programs can perform any task a law office might require.
- Apple’s iWork programs (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) cost about one-third of their Microsoft competitors but will still save their work files in Microsoft-compatible formats. No one who tries Keynote will ever want to touch PowerPoint again.
- NoteBook by Circus Ponies (available only for Macs) by itself justifies my firm’s move to Macs. I can literally try a case with that program and a legal pad — no files, no boxes, no binders.
- Marketcircle’s Daylite handles calendaring, to-do lists, contacts, and other case management functions for a fraction of the cost of most of the legal industry-specific case-management programs. It also syncs its information to a BlackBerry, Treo or iPhone.
- If there happens to be a Windows program that a lawyer just can’t live without, virtualization software (such as Parallels, VM Ware Fusion, or Boot Camp) enables a Mac to run Windows programs side by side with Mac programs.
- Trial presentation. Macs make a trial lawyer’s job much easier in court.’ They automatically recognize projectors plugged into them and can easily utilize them as an extended desktop, making it easy to present evidence to a jury or play video depositions.
- Beneficial.‘ Jurors have told Kern that the seemingly effortless organization on my Mac was persuasive — not to mention making him feel youthful, hip and laid back.
Thanks to Ben Stevens at The Mac Lawyer for the heads up and great summary of Kern’s article.
Ellen Freedman, Where Are You?
June 18, 2008 By
I’m a fan of Ellen Freedman, Law Practice Management Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Bar Association and management consultant. Good person, smart professional, and pretty good at her job.
Ellen and I have spoken in the past, so it was nice to see a comment posted from her on one of my recent posts. She didn’t agree with my position – vehemently disagreed, in fact – but that’s no problem. At least my post forced her our of exile, blogging for the first time in months.
But just like that, the post on her blog was gone. POOF!
Ellen, where are you? And why did you take down the post about formatting of email marketing messages? Did you change you position, take down the post because it was unsightly, or something else entirely?
I hope you didn’t remove the post because it came out against me, though. I love divergent opinions, especially from someone as smart as you.
Why Using Blogger For A Law Office Blog Is A Huge Mistake
June 18, 2008 By
Do you use Blogger for your law practice blog? It’s easy, free and gets you online in moments. And trust me, it shows.
Susan Cartier Liebel explains in a recent post on Build A Solo Practice, LLC exactly why you should not use Blogger for your professional blog. The upshot of the post is that it makes you look less-than-professional, a mere newbie in a sea of experts. After all, you’re using the blog as a practice management tool for your law office – is it somehow not worth the measly hosting cost of under $100 per year to do a passable job of it?
TypePad carries a minor cost, WordPress is free (I’m talking about the downloadable version at wordpress.org, not the hosted version at wordpress.com). And with many hosting companies offering a one-click installation of WordPress to help you along, it doesn’t get much easier.
Wait, you ask. Doesn’t Google index Blogger more quickly than other sites because Google owns Blogger? The simple answer is a resounding NO. Look, all Google wants is for people to get the best search results; if that search result is best met by a WordPress blog, that’s how it’s going to go. Because when people get good search results from Google, they’re more likely to come back to Google. And the more often people use Google to search, the more advertisers are going to pay to Google for the right to be on the search results page. Round and round it goes.
But my blog is really good, you say. You can’t tell me that having it on Blogger is going to cut against me. If I”m really good then the readers will come! True enough, but let’s face facts – you’re not famous. In fact, to prospects the likelihood is that you’re just another lawyer with a blog. You may be good, but you’ve got no brand. And the blog is your brand (at least, part of it). So why go with a Blogger brand when for $100 per year you could actually have you own?
Finally, remember – Google can at any time and for any reason at all simply delete your Blogger blog. Poof, and it’s gone. Years of work, thousands of words, tons of goodwill . . . all up in smoke. Want to read more about this phenomenon? Just check out Search Engine Journal’s article, Reasons To Not Blog Using Blogger or Blogspot.
Is this all worth saving a measly $100 a year?
Award Winning Software! — Bee Docs' Timeline
June 16, 2008 By
If you have not checked Bee Docs’ Timeline, you need to do so. This is a great Mac tool for the lawyer looking for a timeline program. And, it won a little award too.
Last week in San Francisco, Bee Docs’ Timeline 3D Edition was awarded ‘Runner-Up Best Mac OS X Leopard Application’ at the Apple Design Awards 2008. I made it one of my career goals to win one of these awards three years ago and am very proud to be recognized with this award.
The best part of receiving the award is to be in the club with so many other developers that I respect who have won the award in the past. Plasq, Delicious Monster, Panic, OmniGroup, Vara, Boinx, etc… These guys have been my inspiration. Thanks again to Gary who made all of the 3D timelines work in a few short months in order for us to make the award deadline.
Here are my kids wearing their Apple shirts to celebrate:
Source for Post Bee Documents Blog.
Be My Guest – And Save a Bundle!
June 11, 2008 By
Consumer bankruptcy lawyers all know Morgan King and his Bankruptcy Academy. For years, Morgan has honed his knowledge of discharging taxes in bankruptcy – and his studies have paid off. Morgan’s not only one of the smartest tax/bankruptcy guys out there, but he’s an incredible teacher. If you’ve heard him speak at the NACBA conferences you already know what I’m talking about.
I hate taxes – but in Morgan’s hands, even this subject becomes compelling.
Morgan is holding his newest program, Discharging Taxes Under the Reform Act of 2005, on September 19-20, 2008 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Livermore, California. Even if you can’t make it, Morgan’s making the seminar available via a live webcast.
As a pesonal favor to the readers of this blog, Morgan has agreed to allow my guests to attend – in-person or online – at a special discounted rate of 15% off the advertised rate. But this offer is good only for readers of this blog, and won’t be honored if you come from any other source.
So sit at the feet of a true master and learn all about Discharging Taxes Under The Report Act of 2005.
