Legal Commentary

FIAT LUX

Posted on November 02, 2009
The Power of One: In late June, my boss Aric Press and I were comparing notes about what Yankee games we planned to attend, and he mentioned that he would be going to the stadium on July 4, with his college friend Michael Goldsmith. Aric is the polar opposite of me, as low-keyed and understated as I can be, well, "excitable...

SPOOKY

Posted on October 30, 2009
Saturday night's Halloween, so what better time to check out the latest ways to spend money frivolously! A quick Google search reveals a few options: ? You can dress yourself or your pet as a cell phone or iPhone. Check out the new iDog. ? You can transform your cell phone into an orange devilish jack-o'-lantern...

BEISBOL TECH

Posted on October 30, 2009
To celebrate the World Series and the 2009 season, I thought it might be a good time to highlight tech tools available to baseball fans. FutureLawyer's Rick George was the first to turn me onto ScorePad, which helps you score the game on your PDA. Says Georges: "The best thing is the daily MLBStats upload, which keeps the user current for every player every day...

FAST TURNAROUND

Posted on October 29, 2009
Sometimes, it takes a change in our routine to appreciate how fast we adapt to change. I had jury duty this week, which presented an abrupt change to my normal routine. I am also nursing a sprained ankle. So Tuesday, when I was ordered to report to 100 Centre Street (if you watch Law & Order, you know the building) I decided to splurge and take a cab to the courthouse ? rather than try to negotiate the subway (which has a lot of stairs)...

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SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Posted on October 28, 2009
For the third time in 11 years, I'm at 100 Centre Street (New York Supreme Court), for jury duty. (Eight million people live in New York City, and I get called three times since I left California? Oh well.) Some things are the same -- the jury assembly room; the sense of humor of the chief herder; the wonderful diversity of this city evidenced across the chairs...

AMBROGI'S OCTOBER PICKS

Posted on October 22, 2009
Web Watch: In the October issue of Law Technology News, Robert J. Ambrogi explores an array of new websites of interest to the legal profession, including WhichDraft.com, which helps users automatically assemble contracts and other legal documents. Users start the process by finding the type of document they want and then answering a series of simple questions...

LTN AWARDS: VOTING OPEN

Posted on October 22, 2009
Vote! Yes, it?s that time again ? for you to tell us which vendors should receive our 2009 LTN Vendor Awards! The online ballot is survey style, and will take just a few minutes to complete! Deadline: November 15. (You will need your account number, from your mailing label ? e-mail Kerry Kyle kkyle@alm...

ARMA-GEDDON FOR MY COMPUTER?

Posted on October 19, 2009
Priority Process: My computer died Friday while I was at ARMA (the long-established records management group holding its annual meeting in Orlando) -- and I had to rely on old-fashioned journalism to file my Friday Law Technology News Daily Alert -- I phoned it into the "copydesk" (a...

COLORADO EDD SUMMIT

Posted on October 19, 2009
Jeffrey Staal, litigation support manager of Denver's Davis Graham & Stubbs, checks in to let you know that the Colorado Association of Litigation Support Professionals will host its third annual E-Discovery Summit on October 30 at the Grand Hyatt Denver...

LOVE RIDE

Posted on September 27, 2009
For the third year in a row, Judi Flournoy -- CIO of Loeb & Loeb, and a member of LTN's Editorial Advisory Board -- is participating in the Harley Davidson of Glendale, Calif. "Love Ride," which raises money for 12 different charities, ranging from Special Olympics to Glendale Community College to the Muscular Dystrophy Association...

FIRST TIME

Posted on September 27, 2009
Magistrate Judge John Facciola was the first jurist to electronically signed an order, on August 26th. My colleague Sean Doherty details it on his blog, Legal Technology, here.

DIVISION CHAMPS!

Posted on September 27, 2009
Whooooopeeeeee!!!! Congrats, New York Yankees!

NOW THIS IS CUSTOMER SERVICE

Posted on September 26, 2009
Like most daughters, I share a lot of personality traits with my mom. I can "work a room" comfortably because I grew up with a mother who can talk -- and will talk -- to absolutely anyone at any time. Years ago, she emerged from a JFK-Manhattan shuttle bus and excitedly introduced me to a slightly befuddled and definitely disheveled man who had been her seatmate...

ADIOS EMBARGO

Posted on September 24, 2009
OK, this post is a bit "inside baseball," i.e., it will be of interest probably only to journalists and flaks (both inside companies and 3rd-party PR folks), but it hits me where I live ?and I'm going to immediately adopt the same policy: No more embargos on news -- except under the rare situation where LTN has an absolute exclusive...

REWARDS TRUMP RISKS

Posted on September 23, 2009
The theme of Monday's ALM program, "Social Media: Risks & Rewards" -- geared at corporate counsel -- was the question of whether the rewards of using new social networking technologies are greater than the risks of using these new tools. Actually, there's a second layer of risk analysis: Are the hazards of not using social networking so great that you simply must dive in? Based on conversations during the event, the over-riding consensus of the panelists and attendees at the day-long event, held at New York City's Harvard Club, was that the risks are indeed very real, and that savvy companies must not only protect their intellectual property, and brands ? but that there are opportunities to use these same tools to proactively promote their companies...

A QUICK REBUTTAL

Posted on September 22, 2009
Kevin O'Keefe has posted today on Real Lawyers Have Blogs , asserting that Law Technology News (actually he called us Legal Technology News) ran an article by marketer Larry Bodine that covers a bunch of social media options, and happens to deride Twitter as a "time-waster...

TESTING THE KITCHEN

Posted on September 22, 2009
We're all counting the days until The Capital Grille officially opens in our building (120 Broadway). I'm particularly excited because I often need to take visitors to lunch, and have yet to find many quiet, reasonably-priced places to conduct business lunches in out downtown neighborhood...

#LSMC SOCIAL MEDIA: RISKS & REWARDS

Posted on September 21, 2009
LTN's associate editor Theodora Blanchfield and I are at the Social Media: Risks & Rewards day-long program at NYC's Harvard Club. Chaired by LTN's Web Watch columnist (and Law.com Legal Blog Network co-author) Bob Ambrogi, (@bobambrogi -- right) it's been a fascinating day! Check out live tweets from @lawtechnews (Blanchfield's posts) or @commonscold (moi) @blawgreview ("Ed Post"), @nikiblack (Niki Black), @karasmamedia (Kara Smith) among others -- or do a twitter search for #LSMC...

EGGS OVER EASY

Posted on September 21, 2009
After a series of power failures, system cooling malfunctions and a flood, Boston-based intellectual property firm Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers concluded that housing its IT infrastructure inside their offices did not provide the uptime or data security necessary for lawyers and decided to relocate their data center down the street...

ORANGE CRUSH

Posted on September 18, 2009
OK, what's hands-down, the goofiest product we have ever reviewed in Law Technology News? But also breathtakingly kewl? The Sitness 5 chair by Germany's Topstar. It looks like a giant orange. What exactly IS it? "A kind of exercise ball rests on five chromed feet of light metal," says the German manufacturer...

VIRTUAL LEGALTECH

Posted on September 18, 2009
A launch date has been established for our new "Virtual Legal Tech" (a.k.a. VLT). The cyberdoors will open on November 19, and then it will be available 24/7/365, says proud papa Henry Dicker, czar of all things LegalTech. VLT will offer CLE-accredited programming, social networking and a unique sales interface for vendors...

iPHONE TRAIN APP STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS

Posted on September 18, 2009
From the Connecticut Law Journal, via LTN Daily Alert: By Douglas S. Malan The idea was born out of necessity. Greenwich, Conn., software developer Chris Schoenfeld was working irregular hours in New York City and needed access to updated Metro-North commuter train schedules for Grand Central Station...

PROBONO.NET CELEBRATION

Posted on September 16, 2009
Congrats to ProBono.Net, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sept. 15, with lovely dinner at New York City's W Hotel. The charismatic Mark O'Brien, co-founder and exec director, launched the dinner (great salmon, btw) before turning the mic over to Sullivan & Cromwell's of counsel, Michael Cooper; Phyllis Holmen, exec dir of Georgia Legal Services Program; NY deputy chief administrative judge Fern Fisher; Atlantic Philanthropies' Gara LaMarche (introduced by PBN's other co-founder, Michael Hertz, who flew in from London for the fete); and Allison McDermott, the group's deputy director...

FOUR YEARS

Posted on September 15, 2009
After Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, photographer Russ Curtis and I traveled to New Orleans to report on how our legal technology community was coping. One of our first stops was Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann to meet with IT director Janine Sylvas, (right) who won the 2005 IT Director of the Year award for her inventive and flat-out heroic efforts to keep both her firm and family afloat...

EIGHT YEARS

Posted on September 11, 2009
It is hard for me to fathom that today marks eight years after four airplanes fell from the sky and forever changed everything. I now work one block from the site of the World Trade Center. As I write this, despite a fierce rainstorm, a tight crowd of people (especially those in uniform) are somberly repeating the annual ritual of reciting names...

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Posted on September 10, 2009
It's official! We're "back to the future," reclaiming our ALM moniker, and parting ways with Incisive Media. Our CEO/President Bill Pollak writes about it on his Bill's Blog here. Press releases from ALM can be found here and from Incisive UK, here. Says Pollak (left): "For those who have been with the company for a while, this will feel a bit like "back to the future"...

MO' STRANGE TIMES

Posted on September 10, 2009
Can't get enough of the Socha/Gelbmann e-discovery survey report? Well, you have two different opportunities to hear more about it. We have produced both a podcast and a full webinar in which George Socha and Tom Gelbmann join me in discussing the always-anticipated report, which found some seemingly contradictory trends, including the simultaneous constriction and expansion of EDD services and a continuing shortfall in qualified support staff...

STRANGE TIMES ELABORATED

Posted on September 09, 2009
Can't get enough of the Socha/Gelbmann e-discovery survey report? (August Law Technology News' cover story?) Well, you have two different opportunities to hear more about it! We have produced both a podcast and a full webinar, both featuring George Socha and Tom Gelbmann discussing the always-anticipated report -- which found some seemingly contradictory trends -- including the simultaneous constriction and expansion of e-discovery services, and a continuing shortfall in qualified support staff...

INCREASE YOUR WING SPAN

Posted on September 09, 2009
I can just about guarantee that once you read Ross Kodner's arguments for using multiple monitors, you will be pulling out your plastic to make a purchase. Says Kodner, who is the president of Milwaukee-based MicroLaw, "Why are multiple displays so seductive? Because by using more than one monitor, you can create a large display area ? a wide virtual electronic desktop ? where you can display multiple programs simultaneously, each visible without overlapping the other...

SOCIAL MEDIA: RISKS & REWARDS

Posted on September 09, 2009
It's hard to believe that September is finally here! But yup, it's time to go back to school! (Well, for a day!) I hope you will join Bob Ambrogi and me at the terrific "Social Networking: Risks & Rewards" program at the Harvard Club in New York City on September 21...

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