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The Art of Great Lawyering

“Great lawyers are not made in law school or in the courtroom. Great lawyers develop their knowledge and skills over time in all they do. They are shaped by experience, guided by principle, and know that learning never stops. Great lawyers strive for excellence in their practices, which goes beyond knowledge of the law. Great lawyering includes delivering effective and exceptional client service, as well as managing the professional risks that can harm clients and a law practice.”

The Art of Great Lawyering is the theme of the 17th Annual Jerry Mirza Memorial Risk Management Conference, offered by the ISBA Mutual Insurance Company in October. I am honored to be the sole presenter for this half-day conference tradition.

We’ll first highlight the most pressing issues at the intersection of technology management and legal ethics in TechnoEthics. Technology is important to every lawyer today, but we must be sure client confidences are protected wherever we are and whatever computing devices we are using in our practice.

We’ll next look at the areas of greatest malpractice risks and share common-sense solutions in What Keeps You Up at Night: Practical Solutions to Common Lawyer Nightmares. From employee conduct to trust accounts, from calendaring mistakes to The Avoidance Syndrome, this session will help you sleep better at night.

The third session of the day is the shortest but may be the most important. When You Go to Heaven, Will Your Practice Go to Hell? is a primer on planning to protect your clients, firm and reputation in the event of sudden death or disability. Never an easy subject, we’ll tackle it head-on and make it "doable".

Finally, we’ll explore how better communications can make you a better lawyer in Mastering Client Communications. As lawyers, we rarely blame communications when a case or client relationship goes bad, but there is more to this issue than meets the eye--or ear. Just understanding the three components of interpersonal communication will immediately help improve these skills.

The conference will be held in four locations the second week of October, beginning in Collinsville, IL on October 8. We'll next head to Bloomington October 9, then to Oakbrook Terrace in suburban Chicago on October 10, and finally to Chicago at the Harris Bank Auditorium on Friday, October 11.

I look forward to helping all those who attend in their journey to great lawyering.

For further information, check out the ISBA Mutual website.

Posts of Distinction with Tom Goldstein and Carolyn Elefant

I am pleased to be participating in Professor Walter Effross' symposium on blogging in the legal profession this week at American University Washington College of Law. Posts of Distinction: Starting, Sustaining and Showcasing a Blog on Legal/Policy Issues is aimed at law students and lawyers who want to start a blog to help establish their expertise and authority in an area of law and public policy.

My co-panelists are Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle, Harold Feld of Tales of the Sausage Factory, and Matthew Kaiser of Federal Criminal Appeals Blog. Immediately following our panel will be keynote speaker Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog. It should be an educational morning for us all.

Registration is open to all, and law students are free. 

How to Stop 80% of Malicious Attacks on Your Law Firm Computers

We hear and read about the necessity of keeping law firm computers (and the confidential client information they contain) secure from malicious software and hackers, but not all of these efforts are created equal. The number one way to keep your computers secure is to keep all the software in those computers patched. 

By patched, I don’t mean just Windows and other Microsoft products. In fact, those account for just a tiny fraction of security problems today. The biggest culprits—and this surprised me as well—Java and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Those two account for 78% of the malicious intrusions by hackers today according to InfoWorld.

So it is important to make sure you are allowing automatic security patches into your computers for Windows and your web browsers, and that you check for updates for your other software including Adobe Reader and Flash Player. or that you have software like Secunia PSI (or Small Business version) to help you keep all software on your computers promptly patched when security holes are discovered.

This does not mean you have to forget about your other regular security precautions, but making sure your computers a patched will help you sleep better at night.

 

Web Advertising for Lawyers: Not the Ethics Nightmare Expected

Still catching up on my summer reading . . . so I was pleased to recently read, but not surprised, about the findings of a panel at the 39th ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility about lawyer advertising on the Internet. It seems that outside of one or two high profile matters, this is just not a big disciplinary issue.

The results highlight one of my pet peeves where legal ethics and technology intersect: Some thought-leaders use fearful predictions that intimidate lawyers rather than inform them about new tools to help their firms. Good lawyers freeze at the thought they might violate their ethics rules. That inaction causes lawyers to fail to adopt the new technology tools that can help their practices--in this instance to use new methods to communicate with potential clients in a world that is changing. Lawyers should be taking action, confident in their professionalism, and not succumb to inaction because someone scared the ethical daylights out of them.

Thanks to Bloomberg BNA for pointing this out.

Sharon Nelson, 75th President of the Virginia State Bar

Congratulations to my friend Sharon Nelson on the occasion of her installation today as the 75th president of the Virginia State Bar. Sharon has worked tirelessly over many years to improve the profession and serve the public in her many roles with the Fairfax Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, and American Bar Association, and I know her year as president of the VSB will be one of innovation and accomplishment.

Despite having a knee replaced about year ago, Sharon has not missed a beat in her duties as President-elect this year, and she and her business partner and husband, John Simek, have continued their educational crusade to share the benefits and dangers of legal technology with CLE audiences across this country. 

I know she will bring this same tenacity to the role of VSB president. As a 25-year member of the Virginia State Bar, I can't imagine a better president. As a friend, I could not be prouder.

Congratulations, Sharon!

iPad Impact: Going Where No Lawyer Has Gone Before?

As I passed through airport security last Wednesday, and reached in the gray bin for my iPad as it rolled out the x-ray machine, I realized it was not mine but the traveler ahead of me. Moments later, as several new bins came rolling at me, the passenger behind me reached for my iPad, mistaking it for hers. That never happened with my laptop before! On my flight that day--and on many flights recently, there are quite a few more iPads in use than even just a few months ago. 

Just last week I shared an article on Google+ about the consumerization of enterprise IT by iPad users and smart phone users.  I also tweeted about an article sent to me by Susan Traylor of the Arizona Bar about a personal injury law firm handing out customized iPads to clients to facilitate communication and case collaboration.

Today, I picked up the August issue of Law Technology News that contains an article by Alabama trial lawyer, James Moncus III, about his firm's decision to use the iPad 2 and the TrialPad app in a high profile wrongful death suit of a police officer, instead of more mature and expensive trial technology. The articles details this decision and their use of the TrialPad app to help them win a $37.5 million verdict. 

Two weeks ago I served as faculty with Jeff Richardson, Josh Barrett, and Tom Mighell, on a ALI-ABA webcast, 60 iPhone/iPad Apps in 60 Minutes, that attracted over 200 lawyers to the on-line seminar. We have similar crowds when we do this live at the ABA TECHSHOW.

And there were countless lawyers toting and using iPads in Toronto last week at the ABA Annual Meeting.

In January 2010, I blogged about the iPad being a tipping point in legal technology. It fulfills the need caused by a confluence of economic, technological, and professional changes that are taking place in the world around us. However, the rapid adoption of the iPad as a serious legal tool has even surprised me. From client communication to trial presentation, from reading and marking up depositions on a plane flight to Skyping with a client halfway around the world, the iPad has changed the way we do business as lawyers. That trend will only accelerate: The iPad is allowing lawyers to be more nimble, mobile, responsive, and productive.

About the only thing holding lawyers back are the strictures imposed by IT professionals who are not keeping up with the innovation that is tablet computing. Yes, we have to be mindful of our professional responsibilities, but we also need to keep innovating to keep up with our clients and the ever-present demands to lower the costs of delivering legal services.

Confessions of a TECHSHOW Chair

I am excited to be leading a wonderful group of nine people who are planning the 2012 ABA TECHSHOW next March. It is a small collection of volunteer lawyers and legal professionals who plan all facets of this premier technology conference for the legal profession. We held our second 2-day planning meeting last weekend (the first being in May) to develop the "grid" of over 70 educational sessions over 3 days, review the expo hall for over 100 vendors, select and engage a keynote speaker, and dozens of other details. Despite the work, it is really a terrific professional experience to build the next edition of this twenty-five year tradition.

But it does cut into my freetime, and as you can see from the lack of blog posts in the last few months, it really cuts into my blogging time.

Yet I wouldn't trade the experience. Besides working with my colleagues on the TECHSHOW Planning Board, I am being introduced to many new people who contact me to be a part of the ABA TECHSHOW 2012, mostly as a speaker. It's time consuming, but worth it.  I am corresponding with lawyers from acroos the U.S. and Canada. The planning board works to incorporate up to 30% new speakers each year, so I welcome these inquiries. 

The Board also has its ear to the ground for new ideas, topics, and the Next Big Thing. We continue to keep offering popular topics such as the Paperless Track that are well-attended each year, as well as new tracks and sessions--yep, iPads in the law office (and at trial) will be an expanded topic this year.

We are well into our planning, but always have time for few more good suggestions--in addition to the ones we get from past conference attendees and others. So feel free to email me with your suggestions. And while I can't promise positive results, if you would like to be a speaker, include a brief synopsis of your past technology and speaking experience. We always have the top legal speakers at this conference, so the competition is tough.

Anyway, I'll blog when I can, but be sure to check out the ABA TECHSHOW blog too, for updates throughout the coming months leading to the conference on March 29-31, 2012 in Chicago. 

If You Wonder if Someone is Watching You, Click Here

The Wall Street Journal just finished running a fascinating and downright scary investigative series revealing how our privacy is compromised when we are surfing the Internet or using a cell phone, and how big players such as Microsoft have purposely failed to provide tools to protect our data in order to cash in on the on-line advertising bonanza.

The What They Know series began July 30 with The Web’s Gold Mine: Your Secrets, which Doc Searles (of Cluetrain Manifesto, et al) has pronounced as the tipping point in on-line advertising. That is, when people realize how much they are being tracked they will opt-out of providing data to surreptitious data miners who, in turn, will move on to greener (as in money) pastures on the Internet.

As part of this investigative series, the WSJ ran a series of tests including one that calculated the number of surreptitious tracking files that were installed when visiting the top 50 most visited sites on the web. The results are astonishing: "The 50 sites installed a total of 3,180 tracking files on a test computer used to conduct the study. Only one site, Wikipedia.org, installed none. Twelve sites, including Dictionary.com, Comcast Corp.'s Comcast.net and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com, installed more than 100 tracking tools apiece in the course of the Journal's test." Yes, Virginia, free stuff on the Internet carries a steep price.

This information is collected and sold on data auction sites, such as BlueKai, and used to provide on-line companies with more information about you as you visit their websites. For example, Capital One Financial Corp uses data it purchases to instantly decide what credit card offers when you visit their website. Websites are gaining the ability to decide whether or not you'd be a good customer, before you tell them a single thing about yourself.

This isn't all about money, but privacy and personal security too. In the August 3 installment in the series, the WSJ highlights how cellphone tracking can be used in domestic abuse cases to help the perpetrator locate their victim in a shelter. If you are a family lawyer, this is something you may want to advise ALL of your clients!

The WSJ also provides valuable links to the on-line advertisers, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Lotame, and BlueKai, to allow consumers to change their preferences (i.e. voluntarily provide accurate data about yourself) or opt-out completely.

If you want to learn more about the privacy policies of the sites you visit--especially when using your firm's computers, try TrackerScan (by PrivacyChoice.org) via the WSJ site. To help stop this intrusion of privacy, visit the links above, and then get the TACO (Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out) add-in for Firefox to prevent future privacy intrusions.

Besides the individual privacy aspects revealed in this WSJ series, it should give law firms pause to review and reflect upon their firm technology and Internet use policies with an eye to reduce the amount of information gleaned from employees while surfing for work and for pleasure.

Security Alert: Must All Lawyers Abandon Smart Phones?

A bit of a techno-firestorm started in late 2009 when my friends John Simek and Sharon Nelson alerted lawyers to the security flaws of the iPhone. They have warned the legal profession to be careful not to use the iPhone because if lost or stolen the phone can be quickly compromised and confidential data stolen with the right equipment.

While I respect John and Sharon immensely, I have disagreed with their analysis of our profession's Rules of Professional Conduct: I don't believe lawyers need to give up the iPhone as a business tool in order to avoid a potential breach of client confidentiality.

Now comes word via NetworkWorld and Wired of the ease by which to comprise an Android phone and steal cell phone signals.

As technology marches on, criminals will find ways to compromise it. Whether it is an iPhone, Android phone, or other phone, they are vulnerable to these criminals. It is up to lawyers to maintain reasonable security on their phones, but there is no need to trade in cell phones each time a headline points out a particular phone is vulnerable. Our ethical rules just don't require it.

How to Catch an iPhone Thief

Thanks to Jeff Richardson of the iPhoneJD blog for pointing me to this blog written by an iPhone owner who had his iPhone stolen on a plane, and then pieced together information using a variety of Internet tools and some chutspah to get it back. With the recent debate over the real security of the iPhone, it is nice to know there are tools to get it back, even if it does take some effort.