By Lawrence Pascoe Compared to other businesses, lawyers have not evolved in how they serve their clients Let's be honest; the way lawyers serve their clients has not changed much, not just from the late 1970s when I started practicing law but probably since the 1200s when England passed laws regulating the conduct of the legal profession. Lawyers have harnessed technology to do tasks...
Always good to have thoughtful checklists for hiring vendors, I say. And this quiz from Legal Technology looks very helpful:"There's a saying that starts, 'You know you're in trouble if ...' But sometimes, by the time you know you're in trouble, it's too late to start asking 'Why?' "One example of such a time is with e-discovery and legal technology projects. If you're halfway through...
Ah, the "trying to do my job, but people keep interrupting" problem. Do you have time management on the job under control? "If you've been living in the corporate world for some time, you've probably attended a training session where one of the exercises was to conduct a 'time spent' analysis in order to increase your efficiency. You cracked open your calendar, reviewed how you...
Interesting profile of Mark Chandler, senior VP, general counsel, & secretary for Cisco Systems Inc. This technology company (based in San Jose, CA), produces Internet protocol-based networking services:"Chandler is keenly focused on applying technology, some developed by Cisco and some that it has purchased, to lower in-house legal costs on repetitive but crucial work. 'If you are...
How many times have you asked this question when handed a new assignment? LawCrossing looks into why this happens & how paralegals can handle these situations:"Some projects—especially the most urgent ones—seem to demand time traveling as a requisite skill. Everyone wants work done ASAP, but there's only one you and 24 hours in a day. What's to be done? "Paralegals are the...
Author Tony DeLoera, the chief technology officer at Ice Miller, describes how to manage document imaging the right way: "Simplicity. This was the guiding principle in our selection of a document-imaging system. In early 2005, Indianapolis-based Ice Miller was overrun with paper. With 225 attorneys, and three branch offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Naperville, Ill., we decided to...
Another interesting blog post about day-to-day worklife from Web Worker Daily : "With a pen-like stylus and a 'physics-enabled' virtual workspace prototyped by BumpTop, you can organize electronic files into piles just like you do on your real desktop. I’m not sure whether this shows radical innovation or utter insanity; either way, it’s impressive. "We’ve considered the virtues...
Does this New York Times article sound like anyone you know? Yourself perhaps? "RECENTLY I’ve found myself annoyed by how busy my friends seem. Putting aside the possibility that they are avoiding me, some are so on the go that they barely have time to tell me they do not have time to talk. Every phone call, no matter how short, seems to be interrupted by several others. That is, of...
These helpful, common-sense tips come from Beth Dargis, a certified life coach & simplicity consultant: "Planning is the best time saver there is. At the beginning of the week jot down your goals that you want to accomplish, fun things you want to do, work that needs to be done, and appointments to keep. Then write out a loose schedule for the week ahead, balancing it out between work,...
Well, that sure sounds like a smart slap at not-so-tech-savvy firms, huh? "When Aon Corp. slashed its outside counsel roster from about 400 to 23 law firms in 2005, it quizzed the firms about their tech offerings. 'We asked them about extranets, e-billing and litigation management,' says David Cambria, director of legal operations at the Chicago-based insurance giant. "But Cambria says...
