There was a great symposium in recent days on the future of law practice. Didn't you get your invitation? Well, that is because it just happened online without apparent advance planning or coordination.  While I was attending my son's high school basketball banquet last night, Jordan Furlong was writing the blog post I intended to write about this. He published his post The Stratified Legal Market and its Implications this morning. While I could feel "scooped," I primarily feel like Jordan saved me an hour or so and probably created a finer product. Here's his lead:

"An extraordinary conversation has emerged among multiple authors in the blawgosphere over the past few days. It revolves around a pressing question: in light of the huge changes in the marketplace, what will become of law firms? … No fewer than seven articles by six writers have explored this subject so far, and I recommend you take 10-15 minutes and go read these pieces."

Please take the time to read Jordan's post. My criticism is that Jordan must be a speed reader if he thinks anyone can find, read and digest all of those fine posts in 10-15 minutes.

Well, actually, I have another criticism  of Jordan. He failed to note that this week also saw the release of the Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology podcast 41st Edition where Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway "discuss a number of trends that impact the future of the legal profession. They outline several challenges and then give strategies and tips for dealing with these challenges. As Yogi Berra once said, 'The future ain't what it used to be.' A resource list is included in the show notes." The podcast and show notes home page is here.  (Note: Those of you who usually get the podcast on iTunes may not be able to due to the aftermath of the launch of the new ABA website. So visit the link instead.)

Of course, this was recorded before any of the articles noted above were posted. It is very interesting how many people are thinking similar things at about the same time.

I have put together an Oklahoma Bar CLE on this topic that many of you may find of interest. It is called Supercharge Your Law Practice and will be held May 18, 2011 in Oklahoma City and May 19th in Tulsa. But everyone reading this post is invited to attend via the live webcast on May 18. Put it on your calendar now. You can always register for a webcast at the last minute. (Although you should just register now. We know what happens to those open days on a lawyer's calendar.)  Webcast info.

I have been thinking about this program for a long time and then I met a solo practitioner from  Guthrie, Oklahoma, Tim Green, who has given me some great insight into designing law office production systems. I am so glad Tim has offered to share his knowledge with all of you. We're going to go in depth on systems, methods and tools.

So, read the articles noted about, listen to the podcast and enroll in our OBA CLE. Don't let the future sneak up on your practice and your livelihood.

Later this week I'll be heading south to New Orleans for the Louisiana Bar's 4th Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference.  Here's the schedule of programming. I think it is beneficial for small firm lawyers to review schedules for these conferences and see what the hot topics are, even if you cannot attend. I've got quite an exciting personal opportunity as I open the first day of the conference with remarks on The Future of Solo Practice. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of our profession and I sense some major sea changes ahead.

I'm also doing a presentation on the Perils of Metadata with Catherine Sanders Reach, Director of the Legal Technology Resource Center at the American Bar Association. I'm also doing programs on "Keeping 'em Happy: The Secrets of Client Satisfaction" and "Billing Strategies in a Changing Economy." Sixty Tech Tips in Sixty Minutes will conclude the conference. My friend, Ernest Svenson, will join me and Catherine for the tips program. There are also a couple of sessions that I want to attend.

I'm very excited about the opportunity to make new friends and renew some relationships in the Big Easy. I've done programs in Louisiana several times; most memorably, the disaster recovery programs after Katrina. I know many law firms in Oklahoma and around the world updated their backup procedures and disaster recovery plans after Katrina. Ernie Svenson took me on a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward before there was much in the way of rebuilding and recovery. I hope to see more signs of recovery this trip. But mainly I look forward to enjoying the hospitality of people who know how to entertain well.

This month in the Oklahoma Bar Journal, my column is Speech Tools for Lawyers in 2011. I covered many ways that lawyers can use their computers and their smart phones to prepare documents and do other tasks with their voices working with their computers and smart phones. I have tried to keep up in this area, but I am sure I have probably missed something. You may find some great new ways that you didn't know existed to use your voice to accomplish things faster. Who knows? You might even find a special bargain. Download SpeechTools4Lawyers2011.Calloway.OklaBarJ

Sometimes it is easy to forget that the most important thing in your office is you!  (Well, you and all the other living, breathing people in your workplace.) Hopefully this "thing" is also important to others outside of work as well.

So your attention is directed to a pair of really nice blog posts.

A Recipe for Law Firm Innovation in 2011 by Allison Wolf was posted this week on slaw. You have heard some of this before, but her Fact and Practice format is very easy to read. I promise you that even if you do not benefit from this personally, then you will instantly think of a lawyer or loved one to whom  you wish to send the link.

Attention Divided: Avoid Multi-Tasking by Beverly Michaelis, Practice Management Advisor for the Oregon Professional Liability Fund hones in on another issue that impacts most all office workers. Regardless of whether the scientists say it is possible or not, we all multi-task or attempt to multi-task sometimes. There are some good thoughts and pointers here.

Many of you are familiar with my friend, Ernie the Attorney, because of his well-known blog. But this week he posted a lengthy piece about his law firm called Little Big Firm. This should be required reading for every recent law school graduate contemplating opening a law practice because for many of them this may well be their road to success. Ernie's style of law practice may not be for everyone, but it looks like a strong model for a solo practitioner to me.

I've been thinking a lot about one of the aspects of what Ernie discusses. That is the ability for small firm lawyers to plan in advance to ramp up and ramp down their support services as needed, allowing them to keep overhead low during slower times while still being positioned to take on major matters. This requires advanced planning. It is like adage of the swamp and the alligators. When you are in the middle of an emergency, you are too busy to plan. Reviewing your options in advance allows you to step up to Level 2 or Level 3 when the need arises.

But Ernie and many other members of the Louisiana Bar Association will get a chance to hear me discuss some of these issues in two weeks when I speak at the bar's 4th Annual Solo & Small Firm  Conference.  I'm going to do the opening plenary session on The Future of Solo Practice and there is a great schedule of speakers and presentations. Hope to see some old friends there and make some new ones.

Greetings from SNOW-klahoma!  Had lots of extra time to surf the Net, but I found better uses for my time. Still I have a fair amount of reading to pass on.

NYT Writer David Pogue Ins and Outs of Calling via the Net http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html?src=busln  This is a great review of the various services and how well they work– at least how well they worked for Pogue.

11 Reminders Why You Need to Save Your Receipts (There are more who might want to see them besides you, your accountant and the IRS.)  http://moneyning.com/money-tips/11-reminders-why-you-need-to-save-your-receipts

The Client-Lawyer relationship – Can we fix it?  http://uklegaleagle.blogspot.com/2011/02/client-lawyer-relationship-can-we-fix.html?

The Reason Your Website Isn’t Attracting New Clients http://divorcediscourse.com/2011/02/03/the-reason-your-website-isnt-attracting-new-clients/

Lawyers: What Can We Learn From Zappos? http://www.zenlegalnetworking.com/2011/02/articles/legal-marketing/lawyers-what-can-we-learn-from-zappos/

Are you creating value … or just punching the clock? http://www.cpasuccess.com/2011/01/are-you-creating-value-or-just-punching-the-clock.html

SmallLaw: Review: LastPass Password Manager  By Erik Mazzone http://blog.technolawyer.com/2011/01/smalllaw-lastpass-review.html

The Virtual Law Office: Engineered for Efficiency By Joseph Kashi  http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/2010/dec/solo-lawyer-virtual-cloud-efficiency-practice-management.html

In Search of a Paperless Office By J. Anthony Vittal, with the assistance of and comments by Yvonne M. Renfrew http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/magazine/2010/dec/solo-lawyer-paperless-scanner-acrobat-practice-management.html

PACER, RECAP, and the Movement to Free American Case Law http://blog.law.cornell.edu/voxpop/2011/02/03/pacer-recap-and-the-movement-to-free-american-case-law/ There's a good bit of drama between PACER and these open law advocates.

Rupert Murdoch has predicted that tablets will be laptop killers.  Some may think this is crazy. But Murdoch is crazy like a fox (pun intended.) A good headline-grabbing quote can spread the word of the newly launched The Daily iPad app. There are a couple of interesting technology trends here.

First of all, I see the explosion of iPads and the other tablets as the future salvation of large national newspapers and other media companies. I get so much for free online from the New York Times, for example, that it never made much sense to subscribe to their premium online content. If they locked up everything behind a paid firewall, then they might lose their relevance and role. If newspapers Athrough D publish a certain degree of news content for free, then if E and F decline to do so, they may just find no one cares. So most outlets have published much content online for free and hoped in vain that online advertising revenue would grow. But an iPad app, that lets me load the entire newspaper on my iPad before I board a plane, that lets me look back at a week's worth of archives and provides me links to videos, websites with more information and more picture than were in the print edition all with a slick interface and search capability. Well, that may well be worth paying for. The largest newspaper in Oklahoma has launched an iPad app and my guess is all big city papers are (or should) be rushing to do the same.

My guess is that reports of the death of the laptop are premature. For me, the laptop is still the superior device for writing a term paper or a legal brief. What will probably save the laptop for a good number of years is that it is (somewhat ironically given the name) still the superior device for working at a desk or a table.

But the tablet is superior in a number of other ways: best for using on an airplane, best for reading an e-book, best for using while reclining on a sofa or in bed, to name a few. My initial impression is that those individuals and families who can afford it will have various computer devices for various uses, including a smart phone for immediate access. As they upgrade their devices, the old ones won't go away, but will be used by those who couldn't afford or didn't choose to invest in the higher-priced new versions.

it should be interesting to watch this trend quickly develop. For lawyers in trials, it may also not be an either/or situation. The second chair or paralegal may be seated at counsel table with a powerful laptop while the lawyer at the podium questioning the witness will likely use an iPad or tablet because a laptop could be distracting to the finder of fact. And of course, the lawyers at counsel table will be able to feed questions, comments and documents to the lawyer who is speaking. The lead counsel maintaining focus will be a new skill set to master.

I'm going to try something new here. Actually for those who have used the online service now known as Delicious by Yahoo or seen Dennis Kennedy's experiments with microblogging, it might seem  old school (well, old INTERNET school anyway.)  Here's my "problem." Due to Twitter and other resources I have cultivated, I come across a fair number of online articles about law practice management and technology. Some I read and save for future reference. Some I scan. Some I tweet or retweet. Some I disregard. Some I would like to pass along with my comments via this blog. The problem is I often get very busy here and when I get back to an article much later, I sometimes feel it is too late to blog about it. Plus much new material has come in.

So this is your notice that when you see a post on my blog titled Great Reading. It will be a lot of links to articles I found worth passing along. Mostly they will have been posted that week, but sometimes they will be older. The category for these will be "Productivity Tips" even though they will be all over the map because the blog already has too many categories. So, here we go…

DimDim is DimDone: Alternatives for WebConferencing in the Aftermath of Salesforce’s Acquisition of DimDim by Jared Correia  http://masslomap.blogspot.com/2011/01/dimdim-is-dimdone-alternatives-for.html?spref=tw

How to Prevent 'The End of Lawyers –  Law Technology News http://tinyurl.com/4wzxk6x

MANAGING YOUR CLIENT TRUST ACCOUNT: Where the Buck Stops By Sheila M. Blackford http://ht.ly/3GAHS

21 Insanely Cool Add-ons To Rock Your Firefox http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/01/05/21-insanely-cool-add-ons-to-rock-your-firefox.html

Happy New Tech Year: 4 First Steps for the Next 365 Days by Dennis Kennedy ABA Journal http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/happy_new_tech_year/

How and Why I Use Evernote http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2011/01/27/how-and-why-i-use-evernote/

Clouds are Starting to Part Over Legal Biz. Wall Street Journal blog http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/01/28/clouds-are-starting-to-part-over-legal-biz/ (Don't take took much solace from  this one. Be skeptical.)

I'm one of those who believes that almost every lawyer in private practice should have a smart phone. There are simply too many time-saving tools and techniques available via a smart phone that can be useful to the time-challenged lawyer. But I'm not unmindful of the dangers of overuse of smart phones and other technology. There are certainly some addictive aspects to technology–particularly mobile technology.

We've heard of many dangers, such as texting while driving or the time wasted in pointless online activities. But many have pointed out more subtle dangers such as an increase in shallow thinking with no time for deep thinking, reflection and analysis. We all find that we are often interrupted by technology whether it is the ringing mobile phone or the feeling that maybe we should check out e-mail because something important might have come in during the the last fifteen minutes. And we've all felt a little slighted when we were discussing something important with someone in person and they suddenly had to grab their phone because an e-mail or text came in.

Access to information is important. But mere information is not knowledge. Information and knowledge are still not synonymous with wisdom.

I'd like to recommend a television show to you if you have not seen it. "Crackberry'd: The Truth About Information Overload" was shown on CNBC this morning and will be repeated Friday, January 28, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. CST. There is a lot of important information there for high school and college students as well as people in business. Set your DVR to record this one and watch it with your family. Maybe you can discuss it afterwards.

The documentary has a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/DigitalDummies). Here's another resource: The 13 Steps to Breaking a CrackBerry Addiction.

I encourage all lawyers to think about how much time they allow themselves to deeply focus on the work. It seems like a good time management tool to check e-mail while waiting for a dentist appointment. But I have concluded that the same thing is not a good idea when waiting to take a deposition. Then you need to be focusing on the task ahead and not run the risk of being distracted by an e-mail on an entirely different matter.

Today's observation and rant is inspired by the Columbus Dispatch, a newspaper that quite literally changed a man's life and whose management then couldn't figure out how to leverage that accomplishment to its own advantage without looking petty. Have you heard about the homeless guy with the golden voice? Well, sure you have. Most everyone has by now: young people, old people, people without Internet connectivity, people who couldn't name the current Vice-President. It was an incredible feel-good story that saw a guy go from homelessness to appearing on most of the national news shows and signing lucrative voice-over recording contracts. I am one of many hoping that he makes best use of this opportunity.

And this all happened because a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch posted a short video of the man, Ted Williams, on YouTube that went viral. Millions of people watched it and the national media pounced. So after, this huge rush of attention, how did the Columbus Dispatch make use of its position in this hot media story? The Columbus Dispatch has issued a takedown order demanding YouTube remove the video, which it has apparently done.

I am not claiming to be an expert on social media. In fact I am generally wary of the term "social media expert." Too many times this applies to someone who lost a job and had lots of time to play around on Facebook and Twitter while collecting unemployment or someone who is convinced that old media rules can simply be applied to social media. Here's your tip for the day. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the rest didn't get where they are today because they were complicated and challenging to use. Give them a try. Sure there are nuances and right/wrong ways to use them. But if you have a question, before you write some expert a check for ten grand, call your aunt who posts to Facebook ten times a week and see what she has to say. (She's been dying to hear from her nephew, anyway.)

And here's my non-expert advice to the Columbus Dispatch. I wouldn't know of your paper's name and Ted Williams would still be panhandling if not for YouTube. Dance with the one that "brung ya." Instead of making the paper look like an old media company that just doesn't get it, leverage your fifteen minutes of fame. Reach out to advertisers with "we made a homeless guy world famous, what can we do for your business?" See if Ted Williams will take your phone calls and keep doing follow up stories about how your reporter has changed this guy's life. Link to the YouTube video. Don't try to monitize it or move it exclusively to your site or whatever silly plan you have in mind.

It's a good lesson to lawyers and their clients. Sometimes the legal remedy is not the best plan. There may be a back story, but so far today the Columbus Dispatch went from having a warm place in many hearts to looking a bit sillly.