Trust account management is an important subject for lawyers in private practice and our Digital Edge podcast Trust Accounting for Lawyers has some great information and tips from a Shelia Blackfordknowledgeable authority. Sheila Blackford is an attorney and practice management advisor for the Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund. She is also the author of an upcoming book from the ABA Law Practice Division on this subject.

Sheila is fun and engaging and brings her common sense approach to this topic. Sharon Nelson and I have known her for many years and were so happy that our friend agreed to be our podcast guest. Trust accounting is simple if you have a good process in place and Sheila discusses both manual methods of balancing the trust account and technology-based solutions. Thanks, Sheila.

Oklahoma lawyers who would like to learn more about trust accounting and modern tools for trust accounting are are invited to the Oklahoma Bar Center on the afternoon of December 6 for a CLE program Trust Accounting Essentials. The program is from 1:30 pm to 4:10 pm and features OBA Ethics Counsel Joe Balkenbush and OBA Practice Management Advisor Darla Jackson.The program will (1) describe the rules for handling trust funds and property; (2) discuss relatively recent changes to the handling of fees and trust transactions; and (3) provide practical guidance on how to use both print and electronic tools to produce client and general ledgers and to perform proper three-way reconciliation of trust funds accounts.

Early bird registration deadline is Tuesday November 29, so enroll by then for savings. But feel free to register anytime. This program will not be webcast.

Last week I had the extreme pleasure to meet with a delegation of Azerbaijan lawyers to discuss law office technology. I learned a couple of things that may be of interest to you.

These lawyers were visiting the United States as a part of the Open World leadership program and were sponsored by Rotary Club 29 of Oklahoma City. I was happy talk to them about law office technology. They also heard from our OBA Executive Director, General Counsel and Ethics Counsel. Their bar association is organized differently than ours, as a part of the central government Azerbaijani Lawyers visit OBArather the states or state courts. So we had a good discussion. I had little prior knowledge about Azerbaijan did a bit of online research before the meeting. I must say that this was one of the warmest, nicest and friendliest group of people you would ever meet. Meeting them was a truly great experience! They have much work ahead as their country's legal system continues its evolution. But I certainly plan on checking in on the news from their country from time to time.

But there were two interesting law office technology aspects to my talk with them. First of all, I decided to do a speech recognition demonstration for them using Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I use this tool almost every day and knew that moving from my office to our larger board room would likely have a negative impact on accuracy. In fact I have set up an extra profile in DNS just so it doesn't change my speech file based on different acoustics. I began my dictation with "Today I am visiting with a group of lawyers from Azerbaijan." 100% accurate transcription. Everyone of the group looked surprised. I paused the dictation and assured them this was the first time I have ever said their country's name into DNS. I dictated some more and DNS performed almost flawlessly.

The other interesting thing was during my brief discussion of practice management software tools and paperless work flow. Our OBA Practice Management Advisor Darla Jackson interjected that one of the tools, Practice Panther, was available in the Azerbaijani language, both the Cryillic and the Latin versions. I was aware they had developed a Spanish language version, but there are many other languages now included, even though unlike the Spanish language version, the others are done through machine language translation only. I'm not sure that they made any purchasing decisions after that but they did ask me to repeat the product name.

 

Last week many Oklahoma Bar members received an email with a subject line of "Oklahoma Bar Association Complaint." Of course it was a fake. Our General Counsel's office does not send out these types of official notices by email. But cyber criminals hope that the surprise and horror at reading a complaint has been filed will override judgment and generate a quick click on a Warning Viruslink or attachment. If you receive an unexpected email that makes you want to instantly click on something, ALWAYS pause and think.

Every year I place several phone calls or send emails (not replies) to lawyers asking "Did you really just send me that email?" I'm known as a technology expert and I am not embarrassed to make outreaches, so you shouldn't be either. The bad guys sending out these emails managed to obtain a lot of lawyer email addresses, because our General Counsel's office phone lines lit up as soon as the emails went out. We blasted out a warning email to every OBA member just in case.

But today I received an email about the status on an Amazon order I hadn't placed. You can click on the thumbnail at right to view an image of it. There were several warning signs. Why would I get a Amazon Spoofnotice from Amazon in the UK? The ZIP file as an attachment is another clear sign. And if you save your Amazon order number, you would be able to compare and see this order number didn’t match your order.

As the holiday shopping season kicks into full speed, a lot of people will be shopping online. You might want to send a warning to your staff and lawyers that these threats will be increasing so that they will be vigilant. Even if your IT department has perfect defenses to these threats, a reminder might keep one of your staff from having their home computer compromised.

If you would like some more tips on protecting yourself from these kind of threats, you should read Beware Ransomware: Data-Encrypting Software Continues to Extort by my friend Shelia M. Blackford, Practice Management Advisor with the Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund. Her tips on How to Spot a Dangerous Email and Prevention Practices are excellent, not just for ransomware, but for the whole range of email-delivered computer threats.

MaryVandenackThe American Bar Association's Commission on the Future of Legal Services Report on the Future of Legal Services was released earlier this year and some of its findings were controversial. For our Digital Edge Podcast this month, we interviewed Mary Vandenack, founding member of Omaha law firm Vandenack Williams LLC and a member of the commission for her Analysis of the ABA Report on the Future of Legal Services.

She outlined for us the major findings of the commission and also the many activities that the commission members undertook during the fact finding process.

It is uncertain what action the ABA will take in response to those findings and recommendations, but lawyers like to consider evidence and this report can help lawyers improve and prepare for the future of their law practices. The future may be uncertain in many ways, but the legal community's dedication to serving the needs of clients will be one thing that does not change. We hope you enjoy our podcast.

Attaining more diversity in law firms is a much-talked about goal. But it is much more than doing something because it is right and positive for society. Today diversity is an important business goal for several reasons. Corporate clients are very interested in being represented by a diverse legal team. We have learned that teams with more diverse members can come up with more creative approaches and solutions to problems. John “The Purple Coach” Mitchell is John Mitchellmanaging director of KM Advisors, LLC in Chicago. He spends his days advising law firm leaders about these issues and others. On our podcast Attaining Law Firm Diversity, he discusses the difference between diversity and inclusion, diversity fatigue, and factors within the industry that might hinder the advancement of diverse lawyers. While this subject matter veers away from our usual technology focus, John is a very informative and engaging speaker on this most significant topic.

Discussions about metadata used to be very common in law office management and technology circles. You do not hear as much about that topic today, primarily because Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect have built-in metadata scrubbers. But, as with other Donna Paynetechnology-based developments there are often new challenges and now is a good time to brush up on your knowledge of metadata. We asked Donna Payne, who is widely regarded as an expert on metadata, to be the guest on our Digital Edge podcast. The topic is Metadata Management and Daily Best Practices. Donna shared many great tips, including her checklist of the most common metadata mistakes that lawyers make and some daily best practices that lawyers can implement to help protect their data. Her firm produces and sells Metadata Assistant, a very well-regarded tool. But her podcast appearance was far from a sales pitch as she outlined many ways lawyers who do not have such a tool can manage metadata risks.

Law firms are businesses. Businesses should have the goal of being profitable. The September/October 2016 issue of Law Practice Magazine is the annual finance issue. The cover story is Law Practice Magazine SeptOct 2016Increasing Law Firm Profitability by Instilling Values by Katy Goshtasbi. This is a well-written “must read” piece which takes a bit of a different look at law firm profitability. Other articles include law firm budgeting, tips for getting paid ethically, alternative fee billing, managing debt for the new lawyer, creating a positive client experience and changes in banking relationships.

Every Law Firm Is a Technology Business is the title of my column on practice management advice in this issue. This column was actually inspired by the Wall Street Journal as I noted in the opening paragraph:

In early 2015 the Wall Street Journal, on the occasion of changing the name of its business section from "Marketplace" to "Business &Tech," stated that “[e]very business is a technology business.” Further, the newspaper noted that whether the business was taxicabs or taco delivery, it was nonetheless a technology business. Few doubted that the change in the name of the “B Section,” as it had always been called, was significant.

It is hard for many lawyers to appreciate that changes in the way business operates today force them to view their law firm as a technology business. But that is true today and will be increasingly true in the future. I hope this column (and this concept) provides valuable guidance for lawyers as they wrestle with everything from e-discovery to data analytics on their road to embracing being a technology business.

My conclusion is perhaps my favorite ending for anything I’ve ever written.

A general counsel addressing a group of lawyers stated that she still saw a lot of Flintstones versus Jetsons when addressing technology in firms she has dealt with. Be a Jetson.

We hear a lot about big data these days. But what about our "little data?" By that I mean the routine information that we discard because we have never thought of trying to capture it. Here's my post on Attorney@Work Big Data, Little Data: It’s All Useful Data where I discuss how using document automation on something routine, like client intake information, can actually be a way to become more efficient and capture client data for valuable reuse later.

Many readers are aware that I am a proponent of using checklist-style office procedures manuals in the law office. I urge all lawyers to read Atul Gawnde's The Checklist Manifesto.

But sometimes it is difficult to convince busy people that they should prepare checklists for tasks that they already know how to do and do frequently. Why take the time? Well, for one thing you Red checkmark are archiving your knowledge so that others in your business can adopt the best practices and don't have to reinvent the wheel. Not surprisingly some hear that as "we want you to dump everything you know into our procedures so it will be easier to replace you." For many people that would then sound like a poor idea. It is all in how you look at things, isn't it?

But checklists and procedure manuals are for you today − not some future generation. They let you perform routine tasks more quickly and more perfectly, freeing up time for more challenging − and valuable − pursuits. Preparing a checklist also helps you improve your process. There is something about writing it down in the proper sequence that helps you see ways to do things better.

So the National Law Review provides a great example today. Lawyers know that site visits to your client's business locations are good for client relations and help the lawyer better understand a client's business operations. But everyone knows how to pay a courtesy call, right? Please review Client Site Visits: Checklist for Success, This is great example of how even something "simple" like a site visit to a client's location can be significantly improved with a checklist. (You might want to visit promptly and print off or otherwise save a copy. I'm not familiar with NLR's paywall policy.)

Cyber Security for Small Firms and Solo Practices is a topic I was recently asked to discuss as a guest on the Digital Detectives podcast. As most of you know, I have co-hosted the Digital Edge podcast for many years with Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises. This time the tables were turned as Sharon and her husband John W. Simek hosted me on their podcast. Let me also add that discussing cybersecurity with John and Sharon is somewhat akin to teaching a class on religion to the Pope.

But the topic of cybersecurity is extremely important and many lawyers now know someone who has endured a serious data breach or digital disaster. We see almost daily news reports about businesses and other organizations being hacked and their private information exposed, so this is a critical topic for law firms of all sizes. Ransomware is a new threat that requires a good understanding of how to prevent these attacks and how to recover from them.

I include in the podcast my top five cybersecurity tips for solo and small firm lawyers along with a range of other topics. It is free and you can listen to the podcast via the Legal Talk Network or subscribe to it on iTunes. I hope you enjoy it.

LockedDown2nd-cBut there’s an additional opportunity to learn about information security and get some continuing legal education credits at the same time.  Locked Down: Practical Information Security for Lawyers, will be presented as a live webcast from the Oklahoma Bar Association on September 7 at noon Central Time.

The presenters will be John Simek and Sharon Nelson of Sensei Enterprises. They, along with David Ries, are the co-authors of the 2016 book, Locked Down: Practical Information Security for Lawyers, Second Edition. I’m grateful that Sharon and John are doing this for Oklahoma Bar Association members, but it is a live webcast so anyone can attend online. If you’re not an OBA member, to enroll you must place a phone call to our CLE registrar Renée Mongomery at 405-416-7029 during business hours, Central time.