I spend a lot of time on this blog criticizing police and Prosecutors. It isn't that I don't like them. It is that I think that since they represent the "people" I think they need to be held to a higher standard of conduct than any individual person.
When they "get it right" (and they do get it right far more often than not) however, I think they deserve to be acknowledged. Athol Police Officer Todd Neale managed to track down the missing girl by obtaining coordinates of her cell phone from the phone’s carrier and using Google Maps and Google World to locate the motel where she was being held.
Nice Job Officer Neale.
Full story here
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Around the Blogosphere the Week of 12/14/08-12/20/08:Part II- Law Office Management
Continuing my trip around the blogosphere with you, we move on to the Second Part of our Journey Law Office Management and Tech posts.
1. Cornell Univ. Legal Information Institute is a really great service providing case law and statutory law for no cost (but you should donate)to users. LII has a new beta program for attorneys to get referrals from other LII users. Go to the NYS General Practice Section Blog for more information. Oh by the way, did I mention that it is free?
2. Susan Cartier-Liebel's Build a Solo Practice Blogis one of the most popular blogs in the legal world. Susan is the founder of the Solo Practice University a great resource for CLE, "bridge the gap" and "develop a new practice area" learning.
In this blog post she shares a new service that can help a solo (or anyone else) organize the business cards they get, loose receipts, as well as other information. Really it is a scanning operation for your stuff, but if you don't have the time to do it yourself, or you just are not going to do it (or you don't own a scanner) then this service is cost effective. It is called Shoeboxed and it looks pretty interesting. I will be checking out myself before the year is out. You may want to do the same.
3. Susan also has a second post that is very important as money for legal services begins to dry up. In her post "When Pricing Your Legal Services, Remember Your Client" Susan suggests that we might want to start understanding what our potential clients are going through financially, and start to think about how we can help them through this difficult stage in their lives. I think if we are just looking at this problem now, we may be too late, but while not answering any questions, Susan raises the issues that are on our clients pricing minds and makes us think about these issues too. Which leads me too our next post:
4. The Dirty Thirteen, or as the post writer (the modestly named Greatest American Lawyer) calls it, the Thirteen Worst Things About Hourly Billing.
As a long time fan of "Value" billing I see the last two posts going hand in hand. I will have my own Value billing post up in a couple of days (weeks?) and will discuss it further, but I want to say one thing now: In a time of economic uncertainty, the two things a client wants most is a fee certain, and a fair shake. Value billing provides both.
5.Allison Shields is the President of Legal Ease Consulting and is a business consultant for law firms. She also writes another really great legal business blog by the name Legal Ease Blog.(What else would you call it if you were she?)
In her recent post she talks about "When E-mail Isn't Appropriate."
I have to say that I disagree to an extent with Allison. In a day and age where time is money, and money is scarce; where clients complain that lawyers do not communicate enough, I think E-mail, text messaging, and now Twitter Direct messaging, can really reduce client anxiety. I will agree with her on one point however, if you will be bringing important information to a client by electronic medium, it is only fair to the client to make yourself or another in your office available to answer any questions your client may have thereafter.
I find the best way to do this is to send the e-mail late in the day so that the client will get it in the morning (if it is more urgent than that, I pick up the phone.) I then ask that they respond with questions which I can peruse while waiting in court; answer from my blackberry; or call my secretary or associate to help me respond. Then I return calls at the end of the day, or at least I try to. I am not perfect but I am improving.
6.Your best source of new business is your present client. If you are in a practice area that doesn't lend itself to clients who have other legal matters you could work on (like Criminal law for example)then you need to constantly look for new work or referral sources. This post on the Rainmaker Blog gives some excellent suggestions and ideas. It is worth the read.
Well that is two posts down but I have a few more to go. I will have more for you in a little while.
1. Cornell Univ. Legal Information Institute is a really great service providing case law and statutory law for no cost (but you should donate)to users. LII has a new beta program for attorneys to get referrals from other LII users. Go to the NYS General Practice Section Blog for more information. Oh by the way, did I mention that it is free?
2. Susan Cartier-Liebel's Build a Solo Practice Blogis one of the most popular blogs in the legal world. Susan is the founder of the Solo Practice University a great resource for CLE, "bridge the gap" and "develop a new practice area" learning.
In this blog post she shares a new service that can help a solo (or anyone else) organize the business cards they get, loose receipts, as well as other information. Really it is a scanning operation for your stuff, but if you don't have the time to do it yourself, or you just are not going to do it (or you don't own a scanner) then this service is cost effective. It is called Shoeboxed and it looks pretty interesting. I will be checking out myself before the year is out. You may want to do the same.
3. Susan also has a second post that is very important as money for legal services begins to dry up. In her post "When Pricing Your Legal Services, Remember Your Client" Susan suggests that we might want to start understanding what our potential clients are going through financially, and start to think about how we can help them through this difficult stage in their lives. I think if we are just looking at this problem now, we may be too late, but while not answering any questions, Susan raises the issues that are on our clients pricing minds and makes us think about these issues too. Which leads me too our next post:
4. The Dirty Thirteen, or as the post writer (the modestly named Greatest American Lawyer) calls it, the Thirteen Worst Things About Hourly Billing.
As a long time fan of "Value" billing I see the last two posts going hand in hand. I will have my own Value billing post up in a couple of days (weeks?) and will discuss it further, but I want to say one thing now: In a time of economic uncertainty, the two things a client wants most is a fee certain, and a fair shake. Value billing provides both.
5.Allison Shields is the President of Legal Ease Consulting and is a business consultant for law firms. She also writes another really great legal business blog by the name Legal Ease Blog.(What else would you call it if you were she?)
In her recent post she talks about "When E-mail Isn't Appropriate."
I have to say that I disagree to an extent with Allison. In a day and age where time is money, and money is scarce; where clients complain that lawyers do not communicate enough, I think E-mail, text messaging, and now Twitter Direct messaging, can really reduce client anxiety. I will agree with her on one point however, if you will be bringing important information to a client by electronic medium, it is only fair to the client to make yourself or another in your office available to answer any questions your client may have thereafter.
I find the best way to do this is to send the e-mail late in the day so that the client will get it in the morning (if it is more urgent than that, I pick up the phone.) I then ask that they respond with questions which I can peruse while waiting in court; answer from my blackberry; or call my secretary or associate to help me respond. Then I return calls at the end of the day, or at least I try to. I am not perfect but I am improving.
6.Your best source of new business is your present client. If you are in a practice area that doesn't lend itself to clients who have other legal matters you could work on (like Criminal law for example)then you need to constantly look for new work or referral sources. This post on the Rainmaker Blog gives some excellent suggestions and ideas. It is worth the read.
Well that is two posts down but I have a few more to go. I will have more for you in a little while.
Tony(c) Award for Best Legal Technology Blog: Dennis Kennedy & His Blog Get an Award and an Honor
From this day forward, the Tony(c)Award for Legal Technology Blogging is going to be named for its First recipient: Dennis Kennedy. Dennis is the author of the Dennis Kennedy.Blog
Dennis is responsible for starting me on blogging. It was an article he wrote for the Law Practice Management magazine, which talked about things that would be hot in 2004 that got me thinking about starting a blog of my own. Dennis was right about all of the things he said would be hot. Blogging was a great way for me to get my name out there and for others to think of me as an expert on the things I blogged about.
Over the years, Dennis became a friend. He encouraged my blog and my work. He continues to inform our profession about ideas, gadgets and processes to make our forays into the tech side of things easier. He makes technology fun for us non-techno geeks. He remains on the cutting edge of technology (see his twitter feed and his microblog) and he is a prolific author. He was actually holding tweet-ups before there was a Twitter by hosting blogger cocktail parties at the big tech shows.
Now I will be the first to admit, I don't always understand what Dennis is talking about. If you send him an e-mail however, he is always willing to help, which is actually a really good addition to a blog.
Finally, Dennis is a champion of bloggers. He started me on the idea of handing out an award for bloggers I file. His awards are called The Blawggies. That is what I mean, he has always championed the work of other bloggers. That is very cool, and generous.
I owe a lot to Dennis, and one of the ways I want to thank him for the difference he has made to my life, is to name an award after him, to honor his mentoring of me. So, from here on in, the Tony(c) award for Legal Technology Blogging is named the Dennis Kennedy Memorial Tony(c) Award for Legal Technology Blogging.
Some Fun on the Blogosphere: Kicking Back
Photo courtesy of The Perrysteins (Congratulations on the Baby!!)
This has not been a relaxing start to the Christmas season. Today was the first Sunday of Advent and I am not thinking Christmas Music. I am thinking death, destruction and doom. Hence it is time to change the Music in my head. Here are my favorite pick me up posts from this week.
Speaking of Music this post teaches you how to pimp out Pandora which is a pretty neat music site. Entitled 15 ways to get more out of Pandora. The writer saves a little surprise for you if you read the article to the end.
Staying on lists I thought these two posts were interesting:
A. This one has 8 hints on how to be a better blog writer. I will do my best to follow each of these tips. Hattip Copyblogger.com
B. This Post gives you a list of things you need to know to map out a successful marketing strategy. I think this one is not meant for guys like me, but it has a few ideas if you are marketing against another firm. I try to stay above that and market with less focus. Maybe I ought to rethink that. Hattip: the Rainmaker Institute
Here is bonus list:
From Matt Homman comes the list of Ten Rules of Legal Technology. Remember this you techie lawyers. There is some sage advice in these rules
Hattip: The Billable hour, which is where these rules actually came from. To the Person or people who write that Paralegal Prof site, learn to attribute. It is one thing to link or even republish, it is a whole other thing to Plagiarize!
Ok, moving right along, Blawgger extraordinaire Robert Ambrogi's Lawsites blog has the Top Ten List of ESSENTIAL PODCASTS FOR LAWYERS. I know that Robert's podcast Lawyer2Lawyer is always a very interesting show and he also acknowledges Monica Bay's Law Tech Now and the ABA Litigation Sections podcast as well. I have an Apple Ipod. Time to start downloading.
Hattip: Robert Ambrogi's Legal Lines
My last list post is my favorite list. It is the Fifty Things You Need To Know How To Do. The post names the 50 things and then links you to websites that explain how to do them. I already know how to do 20 solid and 10 more I am more than familiar with, however I could brush up. See how many you know and see if you think there is anything that should be added to the list. Let me know how you did. Hattip Marc and Angel Hack Life
Updated to reflect Matt Homman and the Non-Billable Hour blog as the true author of the 10 Rules of Legal Technology. Sorry Matt, Thanks for letting me know.
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