Miscellaneous

Thanks to Adobe for Fixing my Problem with Acrobat X

Posted on April 01, 2011
Just a few days ago, I titled a post here, Maybe I Need to Give Up on Adobe Acrobat X Pro. As I explained there and in an earlier post, I was never able to install and run Adobe Acrobat X Pro. Try as I might, it crashed every time I tried to launch it...

LawPivot Matches Small Companies with Lawyers for Free Legal Advice

Posted on March 28, 2011
If a lawyer provides a company with a helpful answer to a legal question, at no charge, the lawyer gets a foot in the door to be hired by that company for additional business. That, anyway, is the operating principle behind LawPivot, a website where companies can pose legal questions and get answers from lawyers [...

Maybe I Need to Give Up on Adobe Acrobat X Pro

Posted on March 28, 2011
In a post here two months ago, I wrote about my problems with Adobe Acrobat X Pro. Adobe invited me to download and test a review copy. I was never able to run it. Each time I tried, it crashed immediately. After writing that post, Adobe said it would send me a boxed version and assured [...

ABA Shutters its Social Networking Site

Posted on March 24, 2011
After the American Bar Association launched its social networking site, LegallyMinded, in December 2008, I wrote a review that I summed up with this title: ABA Social Network Fails to Connect. Regrettably, it was a commendable idea but poorly executed...

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Two Sites of Interest to iPad Loving Lawyers

Posted on March 24, 2011
If you are a lawyer who uses an iPad, here are two blogs — one new and one not-so-new —  that can help you make better use of it and keep up with the latest applications: iPadmania is a new blog written by Anthony Paonita, editor-in-chief of Corporate Counsel magazine...

Next Week: GP/Solo Symposium on Strategies for Success

Posted on March 23, 2011
On Thursday, March 31, the Massachusetts Bar Association is presenting a special symposium for solo and small firm lawyers, Strategies for Success: 2011. I am among the line-up of presenters for this program. The symposium will feature a unique format — a series of seven, 20-minute sessions, “Pointers by the Pros,” on various aspects of marketing [...

News Flash: LinkedIn is for Networking

Posted on March 21, 2011
I am writing this post as a reality check. On a lawyers’ listserv that I follow, there is a currently a discussion thread about LinkedIn. Simply stated, the topic of this discussion is focused on how to get rid of all those pesky invitations from unfamiliar LinkedIn members...

Qwest General Counsel Rich Baer Launches a Blog

Posted on March 18, 2011
Rich Baer, general counsel and chief administrative officer at Qwest Communications, has launched Reliance On Counsel, a blog devoted to “tips, tech, theories and tall tales of an accidental general counsel.” Baer will use the blog, he writes, to discuss such issues as: The leadership and strategic issues with which general counsel are currently grappling...

The Supreme Court, Delivered 17 Syllables at a Time

Posted on March 17, 2011
Minimalism may be the latest fad in Supreme Court reporting. Last year, Connecticut blogger Dan Schwartz issued a challenge to tweet a notable Supreme Court case in 140 characters or less. Now comes Supreme Court Haiku, delivering “the law of the land in seventeen syllables...

New Site Offers Free Video ?Nuggets? of CLE

Posted on March 16, 2011
At the ACLEA annual meeting last summer, I gave a plenary talk, “10 Ways Technology is Rewiring Lawyers’ Brains … and What it Means for CLE.” Several times during that talk, when I wanted examples of online CLE sites that were engaged in social media, that were transparent about their products and pricing, that understood [...

For Sunshine Week, Links to Open Government Sites

Posted on March 16, 2011
In recognition of Sunshine Week, here are some websites and blogs that can help in the pursuit of open government: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. Electronic Frontier Foundation. FOI FYI. Media Law. Media Law Resource Center. National Freedom of Information Coalition...

Another Attempt at a Reverse Auction for Legal Services

Posted on March 14, 2011
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” the philosopher George Santayana once remarked. With its launch today, will Shpoonkle, the latest reverse-auction site for legal services, find itself suffering the same fate as its forerunners? Or is the time finally right for such a site? Shpoonkle’s shtick is to provide a forum [...

Catalyst Sets Up Legal Community Relief Fund for Japan

Posted on March 14, 2011
For the people who work at Catalyst Repository Systems, the disaster in Japan touches them directly. Catalyst has staff and offices in Japan, clients in Japan, and a number of partners with whom it works closely on e-discovery matters. In the wake of Friday’s tragic earthquake and tsunami and the continuing series of aftershocks, Catalyst [...

Mass. AG Begins Posting Open Meeting Law Rulings Online

Posted on March 10, 2011
As of this afternoon, determination letters issued by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in open meeting law cases are available online. These are the rulings the AG issues after investigating open meeting law complaints. You can find the letters on the AG’s website...

LinkedIn?s New News Service Doesn?t Link to Legal News

Posted on March 10, 2011
The professional networking site LinkedIn today announced the launch of LinkedIn Today, a social news aggregator that delivers customized news stories to users of LinkedIn. The stories you see are tailored to fit you based on the stories your connections and industry peers are reading and sharing...

LexisNexis Announces its Next ?Advance? in Legal Research

Posted on March 08, 2011
Back in October, I wrote a post here about Lexis Advance for Solos, the new, flat-rate legal research platform from LexisNexis for one- and two-lawyer firms. As I noted then, “Lexis Advance for Solos is an advance look at a line of products Lexis will be rolling out for various user groups...

Despite the Photo Spread, My Objectivity Remains Intact

Posted on March 04, 2011
Thanks to a reader comment posted to this blog, I became aware of an advertisement for Smart Litigator running this week in the print edition of the New York Law Journal that features a quote from my review of the product and a picture of me that looks big enough for a Times Square billboard...

New Site Provides Database of Mobile Apps for Law

Posted on March 04, 2011
A new website provides a searchable database of mobile apps for law and lawyers, You can use it to find apps compatible with any mobile device, whether you use an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android or Palm PC. The site, Mobile Apps for Law, says it includes more than 800 applications, with more being added [...

Podcast: No More Defense for the Defense of Marriage Act

Posted on March 04, 2011
On Feb. 23, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama administration would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in cases pending in federal court.  On this week’s Lawyer2Lawyer, we discuss the implications of this announcement...

New LexisNexis Practice Management Tool Comes out of Beta

Posted on March 03, 2011
The new Web-based practice management application from LexisNexis, LexisNexis Firm Manager, is now officially out of beta testing and available in a commercial version. The introductory price for those who sign up by May 1 is $44.95 a month per user. You can try it free for 30 days...

New Survey Profiles Lawyers? Use of Technology

Posted on February 28, 2011
Only a third of lawyers use a case, matter or practice management system — just a slight increase from a decade ago, when a quarter of all lawyers used such a system. Among lawyers who have not adopted a case management system, the most common reason they give is that their “current method works and [...

Podcast: New Film Documents 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

Posted on February 27, 2011
On this week’s episode of the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we look at the documentary, Out of the Ashes: 9/11. The film documents the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund. Created just 11 days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it remains the largest public entitlement program ever...

Larry Bodine Transforms His Marketing Site to All Video

Posted on February 24, 2011
For some 15 years, legal marketer Larry Bodine has operated the LawMarketing Portal as a free news and information site about marketing and business development in the legal profession. Over the years, that has added up to hundreds of articles by marketing professionals on a range of topics...

Another Legal Site Jumps on the Consumer Ratings Bandwagon

Posted on February 17, 2011
Some lawyers still squirm at the mention of Avvo, the website that purports to rate every lawyer in the U.S. (and now every doctor too). My belief is that ratings are a good thing, in that they help consumers make a better-informed decision. We all check consumer ratings and reviews when we buy other products [...

Watch CLE Video on Your Mobile Phone

Posted on February 15, 2011
The online CLE provider Lawline.com has launched a mobile-enhanced website that allows all of its more than 300 video CLE programs to be viewed on most mobile phones and smartphones. While it is not the first to provide audio of CLE through a mobile phone, it is the first to make it easy to view [...

Ambrogi Elected Secretary of Mass. Bar Foundation

Posted on February 13, 2011
I am honored to report that at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation on Jan. 25, I was elected MBF secretary. The MBF is the state’s premiere legal charity, committed to ensuring equal access to the legal system for all, particularly those most vulnerable and in need...

Law Practice Management in the Cloud: A Panel Discussion

Posted on February 09, 2011
The public beta release last week of LexisNexis Firm Manager adds yet another choice for lawyers to use Software as a Service, or SaaS, to manage their law practices. Already offering law practice management in the cloud are such sites as Clio and Rocket Matter...

New Site Helps You Pick an E-Discovery Provider

Posted on February 09, 2011
George Socha and Tom Gelbmann, two names well known in the e-discovery field for their annual Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey and for their roles in developing the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, have launched Apersee, a website that aims to become the premier system for helping litigation professionals choose e-discovery providers and products...

More Details on the ABA?s New Website

Posted on February 07, 2011
Following up on my post earlier today, Extreme Makeover, New URL, for ABA Website, there is an article by James Podgers in the ABA Journal that provides more details about the ABA’s current and future plans for the site. The article says that the redesign unveiled today is just the first phase of a longer-term effort [...

Extreme Makeover, New URL, for ABA Website

Posted on February 07, 2011
Call it “Extreme Makeover, Bar Edition.” The American Bar Association today took the wraps off a major redesign of its website and moved the site from its former URL, abanet.org, to a new address, americanbar.org. “The new and improved website includes a fresh overall design as well as improved functionality that offer simpler navigation, better [...

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