Use digital pens, keyboarding, or audio recording for greater efficiency. When you talk on the phone or attend a meeting, you must have a digital note-taking process in place. Otherwise you'll quickly default to ink pen and paper. Traditionally, lawyers take notes with pen and paper. This is still an option in an electronic office, but it’s not optimal. If you make handwritten notes, then you need to scan them into your system Scanning is inefficient and avoided when possible. Best pens for handwriting and scanning If you hand-write your notes, use solid-marking pens such as a gel … [Read more...]
Paperless Practice
October 20, 2009
Practice Management Technology For A Paperless Practice? To clarify, by "paperless practice" I don't mean 100 percent paperless. Some lawyers managed to use practice management techniques and equipment to get their law office 100% paperless (which is great), but that's not necessary. In fact, my law office isn't quite 100% paperless. Serving some of our clients requires paper. I advocate moving toward a paperless office. Specifically, I advocate embracing legal technology and getting all your documents in electronic form and working with electronic documents as much as possible. From … [Read more...]
Buying Practice Management Software? Answer these Questions First
November 8, 2009
Buying legal practice management software? Where to start and what to ask? Below is a list of questions to answer to find out the features you need in your legal practice management software. Answering these questions will help you create a shortlist of legal practice management products available for sale. Do you want it installed as desktop application or use it via access to Web browser (SaaS) similar to the Google Docs concept? Is the product an all-in-one package with accounting and billing software? If not, will it integrate with your present accounting/billing software? Be … [Read more...]
Stop Punching the Clock with Automated Time Tracking Software
November 14, 2009
If you're like many small firm lawyers or sole practitioners, you're juggling all the business activities including your files. It's a fun, exciting, and diverse way to make a living. My question to you is: do you know how much time you're spending on these various activities? I know you probably track your time on files, but how about your time doing marketing, human resources, practice management, etc.? I bet you haven't a clue how much time you actually spend on on non-file-related activities. I also bet you don't want to enter your start and end times into your time tracking … [Read more...]
Multi-tasking Technology for Lawyers | HP Pavilion DV7 Notebook Review
January 14, 2010
For lawyers who need a high-performance presentation, media, and application notebook, the HP PavilionDV7 3080 Notebook is your machine. This notebook is the ultimate litigation technology for lawyers. In fact it performs well enough to be your sole computer. Tired of waiting for your laptop to process tasks, especially when presenting or creating presentation? If so, read the specifications and details of the HP Pavilion DV7 3080 laptop below. What gives this laptop the power is Intel's latest i7 processor. HP Pavilion DV7- 3080 Notebook: Product Overview Size: … [Read more...]
A Virtual Law Office: Advantages and Disadvantages
January 24, 2010
The growth in the virtual law office concept is pretty big these days. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, but the biggest is that technology is now at a point where 100 percent of certain legal services can be delivered electronically. 1. What is a virtual law office? A virtual law office is a when legal services are delivered solely electronically via the internet, telephone, online meetings, video conferencing, e-mail, fax, and even cloud computing document storage and sharing websites. Some might argue that a pure virtual law office requires no verbal contact … [Read more...]