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Law Technology

The Connected Lawyer

Advances in legal technology and the effects that it has upon the practice of law.
By Bryan Sims, Esq.

Post Frequency: 1.4/day

Last Entry: July 20, 2010 at 10:58:37

I was Recently Interviewed

Posted on July 30, 2009
Recently Peter Olson (also known as Solo in Chicago) interviewed me via email. Apparently I blathered on too much because he has broken my interview up into different parts. However, the first part of the interview can be found here. Incidentally, if you are not reading Solo in Chicago, you should be...

Good News from the FTC

Posted on July 30, 2009
The FTC has announced that it is delaying the implimentation date of the Red Flags Rules from August 1 until November 1. This is good, although not great, news. The FTC has not backed off its position that the rules apply to law firms. However, the delay does give the ABA some additional time to [...

Red Flags Options

Posted on July 24, 2009
In an attempt to combat a problem that does not exist, the FTC, has implemented rules that go into effect on August 1, 2009, requiring attorneys to have a written plan to identify and respond to red flags that indicate possible identity theft. Certainly these rules make sense for certain industries...

An Acrobat Question Regarding Form Fields

Posted on July 23, 2009
One of the things I love about Acrobat 9 is the ease with which you can create forms. Adding form fields is quite easy and makes working with pre-printed court forms a piece of cake. I was recently working on a form the other day, however, and realized that I wanted to create a field that [...

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Using a ScanSnap to Go Paperless

Posted on July 16, 2009
Anyone familiar with my blog knows that I am a big proponent of storing every document in every file electronically. When I talk about this, one question that many people ask is what kind of scanner to get. One of the most popular scanners is the Fujitsu ScanSnap...

Another Benefit of Being Paperless

Posted on July 15, 2009
Yesterday I was reminded once again of the benefit of keeping all of my documents electronically.* I received an email from a former client with a question about a case that has been over for more than four years. If I had to resort to the paper file, I would have had to retrieve the [...

Creating and Using and Index in Adobe Acrobat

Posted on July 08, 2009
Recently I posted about an article I had published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine about using Adobe Acrobat as part of my legal research workflow. I have received a couple of questions relating to the article relating to which version of Acrobat you need and how to create an index so that the research is searchable...

Formatting With Style

Posted on June 22, 2009
Few things drive me more crazy than trying to work on a document that someone else has created. This is because very few people understand how to use styles in Microsoft Word and instead try to format everything using the formatting buttons on their formatting toolbar...

The Mobile Practice of Law

Posted on June 22, 2009
I sometimes get asked why I scan every document on every case that I have. Or, why do I think an attorney should have a laptop computer. Or, why do I suggest that an attorney needs conveniences such as a virtual fax service or a smartphone. This is the answer to all of those questions: This [...

Another Convert to Multiple Monitors

Posted on June 17, 2009
I think that the single best thing you can do to improve your productivity is to add a second monitor to your desk. I was happy to see that someone else has jumped on this bandwagon. Michael Morse recently explained: I can tell you that out of all the new technology that I have introduced in [...

Nitro PDF Pro 5.5

Posted on June 16, 2009
Not long ago, I noted that I had a review of Nitro PDF Pro published by the ABA’s Law Technology News. One of the products I reviewed was Nitro PDF Pro 5.5.� I just received word that version 6 has recently been released. You can see a list of the upgrades here...

Using Excel to Keep Track of Your Time

Posted on June 12, 2009
A friend of mine swears that Microsoft Excel does everything that an attorney needs to properly bill his clients. I am a big fan of Excel, however, I am not sure that it is the perfect solution. Further, I am sure that it is not the right solution for many attorneys...

Improving Acrobat?s Document Compare Function

Posted on June 11, 2009
Adobe Acrobat has a really powerful document compare feature. This is a great feature in that there are times that you just can’t get� a copy of the original word processing document to run a comparison with it. One of the drawbacks of the feature, however, is that sometimes the amount of information that you [...

Using Adobe Acrobat in Your Legal Research

Posted on June 09, 2009
I recently had an article published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine. The topic is using Adobe Acrobat in your legal research. I know, an Acrobat article from me. What a surprise. However, if you are curious about what I have to say, you can find the article here.

ScanSnap Tips & Tricks

Posted on June 04, 2009
For many years, most people I know in the legal technology field have been suggesting the Fujitsu ScanSnap as a great scanner at a reasonable price. I too do not hesitate to recommend the ScanSnap to anyone who is looking for a scanner. If you are someone who uses a ScanSnap, you should check out the [...

JukeFly and Bubbles, A Great Combination

Posted on June 03, 2009
Let me admit now, this post has nothing to do with the practice of law. However, somedays I am still amazed at the things that technology allows us to solve our problems. In this instance, I have approximately 40GB of music sitting on my computer at home...

Acrobat.com Presentations

Posted on June 01, 2009
Recently I had the opportunity to preview a newly released product from Acrobat.com. This product, which is called Presentations, is probably best described as an online version of PowerPoint that is powered by flash. The product is still in development...

My Wife is Awesome

Posted on May 27, 2009
This week my wife and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary. Although we typically don’t do the gift thing for our anniversary, we decided to give each other a gift this year. Last night we exchanged our gifts. To my surprise, my wife bought me a Kindle...

Adding Exhibit Stamps in Acrobat

Posted on May 21, 2009
Rick Borstein comes through with another great way to use PDFs in your legal practice: Adding dynamic exhibit stamps. Rick explains: Since PDF is the defacto (or often mandated) eFiling standard, it didn’t come as a surprise that I’ve received a few emails on this exhibit stamping PDFs over the last couple of years...

Make Your Contact Information Available

Posted on April 27, 2009
A recent post on Business Writing caught my eye. In the post, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston relates a story about her decision not to recommend a person for a consultant job because she could not find her contact information. Gaertner-Johnston explains: But when I tried to track down Rita’s contact information to give to my client, I couldn’t [...

Don?t Let Your Software Control You

Posted on April 25, 2009
Every so often I read something and I say to myself, I wish I had written that. I had that experience recently when I read a post on PDF for Lawyers. In the post, Ernie explains: Remember this joke? �Guy goes into see the doctor, and the doc asks “what seems to be the problem?” The guy [...

Reviews of UltraMon and Nitro PDF Pro

Posted on April 17, 2009
Today I had two reviews published by the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section in their Law Practice Today webzine. The first is a review of UltraMon, a product I have used for years. If you use multiple monitors, you definitely need to check this utility out...

Synchronization Programs

Posted on April 14, 2009
For the last several years, one of my favorite programs has been Network Unplugged. Not long after I started using Network Unplugged, Mobiliti, the company that made it was acquired by Packeteer. At that time, the name was changed from Network Unplugged to Mobiliti...

Adobe Acrobat 9 Error

Posted on March 31, 2009
Is anyone else having this problem? I am using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. Starting last week, Acrobat keeps crashing on me. It almost always crashed if I OCR a document and then try to save it. Also, it will crash sometimes if I open a scanned document and then try to save it...

Afraid by Jack Kilborn

Posted on March 30, 2009
Jack Kilborn is the alter ego of J.A. Konrath, the author of the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series of crime novels. I am a big fan of those. Thus, I was happy when I was able to snag a review copy of his new book, Afraid. With Afraid, Konrath brings us a book that is quite [...

Thinking of Hanging Out Your Own Shingle? Please Join Us.

Posted on March 23, 2009
I am honored to have been asked to present for the Illinois State Bar Association at a seminar called Hanging Out Your Shingle (Without Hanging Yourself). The program will be presented at the Northern Illinois Conference Center at 8500 East State St., Rockford, Illinois on Friday, March 27, 2009...

Link Array

Posted on March 19, 2009
I have way too many links about a variety of things that I planned to blog about but I realized that I never will. Thus, I decided to throw a few up as a variety of links. The Connectict Legislature has raided the state bar’s Client Security Fund...

Online Access to Case Information

Posted on March 18, 2009
I know that I frequently complain about the glacial pace at which Illinois courts are finally adopting the electronic filing concept. At least in this arena, however, there is some progress. For example, DuPage County has implemented a very efficient efiling system...

A Great Way to Share Your Contact Info

Posted on March 17, 2009
As usual, Ernie the Attorney has another great suggestion: Whenever I go to an event I usually bring business cards. �Sometimes I remember to hand them out and sometimes I don’t. �Sometimes people to ask me for them, but usually they don’t...

Link Array

Posted on March 11, 2009
I have way too many links about a variety of things that I planned to blog about but I realized that I never will. Thus, I decided to throw a few up as a variety of links. The Library of Congress adds 3100 pictures to Flickr These pictures are really interesting...

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