Meg Spencer Dixon pulled three consecutive all-nighters before she began pursuing time management as a career. Now, she is a consultant in task management for legal professionals. In this edition of The Digital Edge – Lawyers and Technology podcast, Time Management for Lawyers, Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway invite Dixon to discuss her top tips for legal professionals looking to master project management, how to stop procrastinating, and more

(I really hate it when I forget to blog about something really great like this when it is posted. Must be a time management thing, huh?)

Stop by the Wall Street Journal website quickly and read “Very Candid Cameras: Autographer and Narrative Clip Are Watching You – Are Wearable Cameras Creepy or Cool? Either Way, They're Here” before the article disappears behind the paywall. While everyone will be thinking about the privacy and courtesy implications, lawyer’s thoughts will immediately turn to all of the potential evidence that is going to be created.

Sometimes lawyers are ahead of the techonology adoption curve. We have a higher percentage of smart phones than the general public, for example. But other times, not so much. So, I bet many of you are reading this post in Internet Explorer for simple reasons like it is familiar and already installed on your computer when you get it.

Your attention is directed to Customizing Chrome by Erik Mazzone, the director of Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar. In it he details his 11 favorite customizations for Google Chrome. Just reading of all of those customizations may make you more likely to try Chrome because these tools are really cool. Thanks for sharing a few of your favorite Chrome things, Erik.

For those of you who don't really want to be cutting edge, it is still OK to switch to Chrome. Check out Wikipedia's Usage share of web browsers, which contains lots of tables and maps that may surprise you about which browser rules.

As long as we are on the topic, check out Lifehacker's Most Popular Chrome Extensions and Posts of 2013.

And if you open lots of tabs in your browser, there is another shout-out to Chrome with Google Just Fixed One of the Most Annoying Things About Browsing the Web. Surely you, too, have opened several tabs and then had to figure out which tab is playing that annoying music or advertisement. Chrome is fixing that with a new feature in beta. But the article also points out the Chrome extension MuteTab will let you shut up one or more tabs.

Leadership and management are often used interchangeably in discussing law firm administration, but there are differences that require different sets of skills. My column in the January/February 2014 Law Practice Magazine is titled Leadership, Management and Herding Cats.

Here's a quote from the column explaining the title:

  • Discussions of managing lawyers often include the cliché of herding cats. Cats are notoriously independent, as are lawyers. But lawyers are also trained to be outspoken, to construct arguments, to pick apart weakness in others’ positions, to be perfectionists and to attempt to gain as much advantage as possible in any negotiation. Delegation is often a challenge for lawyers because it is drummed into us, starting in law school, that a lawyer is still ultimately responsible for the failure of any delegated task. When you think about it, herding cats sounds easy when compared to leading lawyers.

This is the management themed issue of the magazine and, if you are involved in law firm management at any level, you will want to read the entire issue. Of particular note to small firm lawyers is the cover story, Flying Solo, by my friend Bill Gibson.

 

Speech recognition has improved a lot over the years. I can make phone calls from and change the radio station in my car by voice command. The Google Chrome browser can now do voice-activated Google searches by adding an extension available from the Chrome web store.

In my column, Speech Recognition – It Really, Really Works, I write about how I use Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium 12 in my work. The improvement that got me to be able to use it much more effectively was my Blue Snowball Microphone, furnished to me by the Legal Talk Network for recording my podcasts. I dislike headsets and the convenience of having a high quality (yet inexpensive) microphone readily available on a tripod has been really great for me.

This may not be for you if you are a speedy typist, but read the article and see what you think. Very few lawyers can type faster than they can talk.

TechnoLawyer has released its Top 25 Products of 2013 Awards. They have an interesting selection method. The TL NewsWire that features new product releases contains links back to the original products web pages. So the most clicks counts as the most votes. That having been said, this method of crowd sourcing has resulted in a truly excellent list of products and I would strong suggest that you read it.

The TL Newswire is only one of a series of e-newletters produced by Technolawyer. They are free, but you have to register for them here. In particular, I recommend BlawgWorld, for a great easy-to-scroll-through list of over 100 important blog posts of interest to lawyers over the previosu week and, for small firm lawyers, the SmalLaw newsletter. (Trust me. You scroll through over 100 blawg post titles quite quickly and you will almost always find something of interest that you otherwise would have missed.)

Can Lawyers Be Luddites? it is sort of a trick question. If you don't know what Luddite means, there is a far greater chance that you are one. I'll give you more information about the origination of the term later in this post, but suffice to say that today Luddite means that you are anti-technology.

There has been a lot of discussion about how well lawyers need to understand technology since the ABA House of Delegates amended Comment 8 to Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 on Competence. The phrase in bold below was added to Comment 8:

To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.

Only a few jurisdictions have adopted this change so far. Oklahoma is not one.

Earlier this month Lawyerist ran a piece with the provocative title "Luddite Lawyers Are Ethical Violations Waiting To Happen." I'm certain it was read by a wide audience. It contains a link to a video clip from the George Zimmerman trial. It really is sort of stunning that the prosecutor in a trial that gripped the nation's attention didn't spend a few minutes asking one of the secretaries or younger lawyers in the office to explain to him how Twitter and Facebook worked before cross-examining a witness about her pages.

In the December 14, 2013 Oklahoma Bar Journal OBA member Darla Jackson addressed this issue, in her article: "Can Lawyers Be Luddites? Adjusting to the Modification of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct Regarding Technology."  She suggested many areas where lawyers have no choice but to understand technology and mentioned resources for them to learn more. Darla Jackson is the Director of the University of South Dakota Law Library. (And, on a personal note, I am pleased she overcame the disadvantge in her background of being my legal intern while in law school.)

Meanwhile, returning to the term Luddite, according to Wikipedia:

"The Luddites were 19th-century English textile artisans who protested against newly developed labour-saving machinery from 1811 to 1817. The stocking frames, spinning frames and power looms introduced during the Industrial Revolution threatened to replace the artisans with less-skilled, low-wage labourers, leaving them without work. Although the origin of the name Luddite …is uncertain, a popular theory is that the movement was named after Ned Ludd, a youth who allegedly smashed two stocking frames in 1779, and whose name had become emblematic of machine destroyers."

You do not have to be a Luddite to feel like smashing a misbehaving technology tool every now and then. And the 19th-century Luddites were not exactly wrong. A Google search today for "industries destroyed by the Internet" yields 6.5 million results.

Tom Mighell will be joining me tomorrow (12/18/13) at noon CST for an informative webcast and online demonstration about the various ways that a lawyer can use an iPad in law practice. Tom has authored 3 books for the ABA on lawyer's use of iPads: iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, iPad in One Hour for LItigators and iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers. We plan to have a discussion about our favorite iPad apps and tips. You can now go into court with nearly your entire case on this slim device, including depositions, exhibits, legal research. You can also use the iPad to take notes and keep track of trial testimony. But what are the best apps to do all of that? Learn how to get the most out of your iPad in your practice and whether it may be time for you to upgrade your iPad for a new model.

This webcast had been approved for one hour of Oklahoma MCLE credit. Those in other jurisdictions will get a certificate to submit to their MCLE authorities. The cost for this sixty minute program is only $50, a real bargain in online CLE. (It will be availble for re-viewing for 45 days after purchase.)

Register here.

Here's an item for your 2014 calendar. April 1 – Confirm we have no computers using Windows XP in operation at home or work. Now April Fool's Day may seem like a long time off as you read this, but running Windows XP after Microsoft ceases Windows XP support means that you are behaving like a fool. Be aware that Windows XP's "end of life" is coming in April. (OK, it is really April 8, but you might have trouble getting any IT help that week and isn't April 1 really easier to remember? Besides some lawyers like to buy new computers at year's end for tax reasons.)

So for those of you who have used XP all these years, avoiding the pain of the Vista and the first release of Windows 8, why would I call you a fool for keeping on keeping on? Because the end of support means no security upgrades and many of us, including Microsoft, are predicting a huge malware spike in the days following April 8. It really makes sense, doesn't it? A malware designer who has developed some atrocious thing to steal credit card numbers, hijack your computer or just make it inoperable who releases it now would likely be stymied by a patch or fix released by Microsoft the very next  "Patch Tuesday." But after April 8, it will be clear sailing.

Cynics may claim Microsoft is warning people about this to increase sales of new copies of Windows and new computer sales. Well, there could be something to that, but a thing can be true and still be good for sales. I have to give Microsoft credit in that they have been supporting XP since its release almost 12 years ago. They have planned a couple of times previously to end XP support, but have been deterred by public reaction. Other cynics would observe that if M$ really cared about PC sales that much, they wouldn't have released Windows 8, which combined with the growing popularity of tablets to really crater PC sales in 2013.

But today no law firm can afford to have its PC's gummed up by malware. Law firms run on their computer systems. Downtime is lost revenue and lost data is even more serious. Protecting the client's confidential information held on the firm's computers is extremely important, as well as is protecting the lawyer's personal credit card info. It will be quite a change to go from XP to Windows 7 or 8.1 for the user and some old "legacy" software may no longer work. But that is just how it is. I still prefer Windows 7 and note that most law offices do not have the touch screen monitors to easily make full use of Windows 8.

But this is a "drop dead' deadline. April 1 = No XP. If you are reading this post on an XP machine, make a note on your calendar– or just buy that new computer today.

In the latest edition of The Digital Edge, Tis the Season: Tech Toys for the Holidays 2013, Sharon Nelson, Esq. and Jim Calloway present their annual Tech Toys for the Holidays episode. Your hosts each present the top electronics on their wish lists and shopping lists for the gift-giving season. Tune in for inspiration and an update on the newest, coolest gadgets like smartphone spy lenses, doorbells connected via wifi, portable chargers powered by hydrogen and oxygen, and more. Links are included to direct you for your shopping pleasure. (OK, we know you can't Get Google Glass just yet, but most of these you can purchase.)

We are also pleased to note that our friend and colleague Reid Trautz has just published his 2013 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers as well. So you should have lots of links to share and ideas for that special lawyer in your life.