A few years ago I wrote a blog post stating that all law firms really needed a Web site now. I hoped law firms would make it their New Year's Resolution for 2006 to set up one if they didn't have one and look at improving their site if they had one.

So now it is 2009 and I see Internet marketing being even more important for lawyers. The social networking sites are growing and many more people are using their browsers in their smart phones to locate important information. More people look to the Net first when searching for information. Certainly most law firms of any size now have a Web site. But some solo and small firm lawyers resist. I think mainly they just don't know where to begin. So I wrote a primer, Web Site How-To Tips for the Small Firm Lawyer, a few weeks ago. I hope this encourages the remaining laweyrs without a Web site to get going.

But if you have had a Web site for a few years, don't be complacent. The odds are that if you haven't thought about your Web site much in the last couple of years, it is due for a facelift. The color scheme may be dated or you have still list departed lawyers on it. Review your Web site now to see how you can improve it in the new year.

One idea might be to take some photos within your firm to use instead of stock impersonal pictures. I'd be overly cautious and get signed releases from any employees whose photos were used. (Sure it is OK to pay them a little bonus for consenting.) Respect the wishes of any employee who does not wish to be photographed. But, how much more alive, interesting and personal would your Web site be if it had pictures of your office and your staff instead of models and actors? Take plenty so you can easily rotate in new photos in a few months without having to have a new "picture day."

For years, if you wanted to read cutting-edge, mind expanding, futuristic material, you just had to grab a copy of Wired magazine or go to its website. While many say staff changes and the passage of time has caused Wired to lose its edge, I submit the following collection from its most popular and "most commnented" articles to make the case that Wired has still got it.

12 Good Gadgets for Hard Times

6 New Web Technologies of 2008 You Need to Use Now

Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek

Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008

The Top 10 Green-Tech Breakthroughs of 2008

Ok, you may think that last one has nothing to do with law office management or legal technology. Maybe. But you don't have to have a very good crystal ball to see lots of legal work in the "green law" field over the next several years.

Your ABA published a concise feature on risk management for law firms by expert Anthony E. Davis. You may be tempted to skip it. Don't.

As Davis notes, "The words 'risk management' are very negative to lawyers because, by definition, lawyers are risk averse. And if there's anything that lawyers are more hostile to than risk, it’s management. Therefore, when I talk to lawyers in firms about risk management, I show them that it’s actually about positive values." Do you know the seven focus areas for law firm risk management? If not, then read this short feature from Mr. Davis. You will enjoy it as it is very readable. Then try and indentify a few improvements you can make quickly, while scheduling some time for a discussion within the firm on this important topic. If fact, you probably want to e-mail the link to others in your firm.

Here's a really great Internet search tip. I have posted it before, but it bears repeating. Scott Buhlinger, attorney with the law firm of Brewer, Worten, Robinett, Bartlesville, OK, e-mailed me this week. Scott's no dummy, so he started his e-mail with many laudatory comments about how he reads my blog all the time and it is great. His question was how to easily search this blog for older material. He probably noted that I do not have a search feature on the blog.

This is a great question, Scott, and I have a great answer.

Many blogs and websites have a built-in search window. Some are quite good, meaning those powered by Google and Yahoo. Some are weak. But as for me, I just use Google for this task. It is what most seasoned Internet searchers do, since we don't know how good an included search function of a website might be. Scott, just go to Google and type your normal search term or terms followed by site:http://jimcalloway.typepad.com. The "site:" command limits the search just to the indicated site.

This will apply the power of Google to search only the designated site. And this will often return better results than the search engine included on a websiite does. For example, I was really shocked to learn that in all these years writing on my blog, I have only used the word Sooners one time. (Well, now twice!) Compare that with 572 results for the word Oklahoma. For those of you who found this useful, check out Google Advanced Search for more goodies.

The now-Annual Tech Toys for the Holidays edition of the Digital Edge podcast is now available. Sharon Nelson and I had a lot of fun with this one and there are a lot of very interesting products covered. Even if you don't have time to listen to the entire podcast, we have included a list of products with links to most of them in our "show notes" section of the podcast. But you should listen to get the full effect.

As many of you know, this podcast is now hosted at the Law Practice Today ezine. There is a new product review section in the ezine and two of the products I mentioned in the podcast are reviewed there. I have to confess to being infatuated with both of these products, even though I don't own either yet. Oklahoma City lawyer Mary Beth Guard reviews the Pulse Smartpen (and Dot Paper) by Livescribe and the Eye-Fi SD card. Mary Beth is a first time contributor to Law Practice Today. I'll bet you enjoy her reviews as much as I did. We hope to have her do this again in the future.

I also direct your attention to the GPSolo 2008 Shopping Guide to Holiday Techno-Gifts by Jeffrey Allen and Alan Pearlman. This is a long article covering many (and I do mean many) products from computers to smart phones to telephone accessories to MP3 players to hand held recorders.The print magazine version is prettier with pictures of the products, but the online version has live links.

Finally, from National Public Radio's Day to Day, Brian Westbrook has his Top Five Gadget Gifts. You can listen or read the brief summaries.

I'm going to do a live webcast on a cutting edge topic on December 16, 2008 if any of you are interested. "What Space? Social Networking for Attorneys" with Jim Calloway, Director of OBA Management Assistance Program

Use of social networking websites has exploded with some situations that have generated headlines. Should a lawyer use one of the social networking platforms such as Facebook or MySpace in an attempt to market or develop a web presence? What should a lawyer advise a client about using Web 2.0 and social networking applications, especially during litigation? Family lawyers report numerous situations where relevant evidence is now contained on social networking sites, blogs, comments to postings, photo sharing sites and other similar websites. What does the lawyer need to know about social networking websites?

This webcast will be broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Tuesday, December 16, 2008, starting 12:00 PM Central Time. It lasts 90 minutes. You may access this event from anywhere with an established Internet connection. There is a cost for this Oklahoma Bar Association CLE program.

Go here to sign up for this program through LegalSpan.

UPDATE: After I did the following post I received several e-mails from readers in Massachusetts noting that the effective date of the new regulation there was delayed until May 1, 2009. My colleague Rodney Dowell of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program posted a primer written by one of his state's lawyers on how businesses should comply with this requirement.

Lawyers USA had a news story a few weeks ago about some new state laws requiring lawyers (and other businesses) to encrypt their data if it contained personally identifiable data.  Obviously the point is to protect credit card numbers and other things that could lead to identity theft. But for lawyers, there could be many additional headaches. The Nevada law, which is already in effect, just relates to encrypting information sent across the Internet, like e-mail. And facsimiles are specifically excluded. But when one thinks of the many estate planning forms, tax forms and business entity creation forms that require social security numbers, you see the possibility of many inadvertent violations. As noted, a real "gotcha" could be replying to a client's e-mail that contains the personal information and having it quoted in the e-mail.

But it gets worse. The article notes:

"Massachusetts' new law [effective 1/1/09] goes a step further than Nevada's, requiring encryption not just of data in transit but also for all personally identifiable information about a resident of the state that businesses 'own, license, store or maintain' stored on laptops or other portable devices." 

So if you are doing presentation in court and your trial presentation software cannot deal with encrypted exhibits, that is just tough, even though exhibits are going to be public record anyway? Or if your case management system cannot handle encrypted files, then you are just done with using a laptop? And is it OK to decrypt the files for a moment to use the data or is that illegal, too?

I agree with the underlying concept. If you are going to carry around thousands of customer's credit card numbers on a laptop or handheld, that information should be encrypted. The application of that premise to the business of law is a bit more uncertain. Even if you are not in one of these two states, it is time to look at this issue. As the article noted, 44 states now have laws requiring businesses to notify customers if there is a security breach and their information has been potentially compromised. The idea of a junior associate losing a laptop or having it stolen and the law firm having to notify every single client of this fact due to a practice management package on the laptop should be frightening enough to spur lawyers into action. Full disk encryption of firm laptops is the likely conclusion, but everyone needs to examine this for themselves.

A couple of months ago, I was interviewed by National, the magazine of the Canadian Bar Association on the topic of Software as a Service (SaaS.)  The resulting article, "Practicing Law with SaaS," is a good overview of the topic. Lawyers are so protective of client confidentiality that they are rightfully quite concerned about any data leaving their office for another location, whether it is for online backup or a software package/service that maintains the data online. Online security improves, although it is still only as safe as the dumbest employee on the network who can be conned out of his login information. But guaranteed data backup and easy access to all files from anywhere are strong lures to SaaS.

I had a nice conversation a few days ago with the head of a company seeking to convert lawyers to a SaaS model for their case management needs. I think we will be hearing a lot more about this topic next year.

Luigi Benetton did a nice job on the article and also included links to a collection of other articles about this important topic.

PC World blogger Rick Broida's post "Get More From Outlook With Hassle-Free PC" is so good that you should go read it right now if you are an Outlook user. I subscribe to his weekly e-mail even though receiving too much e-mail is my biggest problem issue. But I'd glad I got this one. (You can subscribe at the link above.)

Short summary:

Xobni is a free “must have” Outlook add on. I’ve been familiar with this for a while. Definite must have for Outlook 2003 users and it is still good for Outlook 2007. Indexes e-mails. Other tools. Name is “inbox” spelled backwards.

There’s a YouSendIt plugin for Outlook! 

“With PhraseExpress, the Autotext functionality that is so popular in MS Office is now available in all Windows programs, including Internet Browsers and Messenger Programs.” It is free for personal use and $49.95 for business use. I copied the above quote from this week's press release on the new version.

Being named to the ABA Journal's 2008 Blawg 100 was a most exciting honor. Thanks to the staff of the ABA Journal and congratulations to the other bloggers who were named to the list. It is worth your time to review the list. It turns out that 50 of the honorees this year were not included in last year's Blawg 100. There is a non-exclusive popularity poll where you can vote for your favorite blawgs. I'd certainly appreciate a vote, of course. But it is pretty cool just to be singled out among your peers as one of the "100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers." This is especially true since I write all of the content personally.

In the "plugged in" or technology category, I know most all of the honorees personally and the list includes my good friends and blogger-mentors, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. It was good to see Ross Kodner and Ben Stevens join the list. But there are many categories, from legal news to niche to regional. You will likely learn of new blogs that may interest you.