The ABA TECHSHOW, held in Chicago from February 14-17, 2024, was a melting pot of insights, innovations, and imperative discussions on the intersection of technology and law. As legal professionals met to explore the latest trends and tools, our PMAP team identified several overarching themes that emerged from the diverse array of presentations and discussions. Here are some key takeaways.

Law firms have always been plagued by the 'knowledge drain': the loss of knowledge when experienced employees retire or leave. They take not only their accumulated knowledge but also valuable relationships. Firms must find a way to capture and retain institutional knowledge and make critical knowledge accessible to their teams if they want to ensure business continuity, provide quality legal services, and stay competitive.

In our recent CLE on

An attorney, his spouse, and their child stayed a few nights at a hotel for spring break. The attorney ? let

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Law firms are known for their high turnover of associates, who leave to join a different firm, take a job as in-house counsel or government lawyer, or depart the legal profession altogether. Some of the reasons include demanding hours, unbearable pressure, a toxic culture, and a lack of work-life balance. But the reason we shall delve into here is the terrible boss.

2020 was a very tough year. Instead of reciting a lengthy laundry list of all the bad things that happened last year, I

The traditional legal employment model of hiring a full-time lawyer to work as an associate attorney or in-house counsel is not always suitable for certain law firms and organizations. Temporary projects or legal work that have limited duration don

As business continues to dwindle for some law firms, they are laying off associates and staff, imposing pay cuts, and taking other measures to minimize the financial impact caused by the pandemic. The pressure to stay afloat may tempt lawyers to relax their billing practices, ramp up fee collection efforts, and even hoard billable hours. Working from home can also lead to careless billing practices as the line between work and family life begins to blur.

In my previous blog post,

At the start of this pandemic, many businesses had to close their doors. A few businesses were able to switch gears and continue employing their workers to do something else. For example, some distilleries and wineries started using their own alcohol to make hand sanitizer at a time when it was in short supply. A pizza shop in Chicago that could no longer serve pizza by the slice started using its ovens to make plastic face shields for frontline workers.

COVID-19 has pushed many lawyers to quickly transition to a remote work environment and digitize their law practice. The swift and drastic transformation of the legal profession has created new risk management challenges for lawyers as they navigate different ways to run their business and deliver legal services. This blog post will explore some of the risks lawyers face when trying to get new clients and retain existing ones during the COVID-19 era.

Notarization in Oregon became a bit challenging when COVID-19 forced people to stay home and keep a physical distance. Many lawyers came up with clever ways to notarize their clients

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The COVID-19 pandemic may mark the end of an era of hesitation or resistance from lawyers about the use of cloud services and products. We are all now forced to rely on remote access programs and other technologies to help us do our work from home.

In light of the spread of COVID-19, many lawyers are looking for ways to continue meeting with their clients and other parties while keeping some distance from them. Fortunately, we are in an age where technology makes it easy to implement social distancing efforts that many individuals and businesses are now undertaking. This blog post will cover two tools that will allow lawyers to work and maintain social distance: (1) video conferencing and (2) remote access.

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For lawyers who want to open their own law practice, here is something to consider: examine the market you want to practice in. Doing a market analysis is an essential first step to opening any business.

Anne, the owner of a two-attorney law firm and a single mother of two children, pulls into her driveway after a busy and stressful day at the office. She looks at her front yard full of patches of dead grass, weeds, and random yard debris. Her eyes glance over at her retired neighbor

A law firm in Oregon, whom I will call Alpha Beta Charlie (

As lawyers embrace the trend to work offsite, remote access becomes an important tool. Remote access refers to the ability of one computer to remotely access information on another computer or network. This functionality lets lawyers access their applications, folders, and files on their work computer while working from home or somewhere offsite.

As more lawyers store their electronic files in the cloud through vendors like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box, or through practice management software like MyCase, RocketMatter, or Clio, they will eventually deal with the issue of what will happen to those files when they close their practice.

Since 2016, Clio has been doing annual surveys that found that lawyers, on average, bill only 30% of their time and collect on about 85% of those billed hours. The reason for this isn

December can be a busy month for many lawyers. One of the many tasks lawyers have to perform as they transition from 2018 to 2019 is submitting their MCLE compliance report to the Oregon State Bar. Sometimes lawyers are shocked to find out they are short 10 or more credits and then scramble for CLEs to make up for the shortfall.

One thing that some lawyers don

If you are a lawyer using Gmail in your law practice and want or need to save your client emails, here is a tip to help you do this. It requires you to have Microsoft Outlook with Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker add-on. With these two programs, you can convert an Outlook email folder including all attachments into a single PDF document.

Many lawyers who don

It’s very temping for lawyers to slap an “of counsel” label on an arrangement they have with another law firm. The of counsel designation may sound attractive, but it has some pitfalls lawyers should be aware of.

How you manage your files can present a malpractice risk. Proper file management can help you reduce the risk because it allows you to find the documents you need and encourages documentation.

This short video shows you how to save time by using Outlook

In my previous blog post, I discussed the risks and reasons lawyers over-save data. This post is about how lawyers can avoid hoarding data. Don

It may come as no surprise that law firms routinely store huge amounts of client and administrative data in both electronic and paper format. Although lawyers are legally and ethically required to retain certain kinds of data, some data is retained unnecessarily. When you store data you aren

At the beginning of 2017, I wrote a blog post on using the 80/20 Pareto Principle to manage your time. I start this year with a similar post on time management. For this post, I turn to Habit 3 of Stephen Covey

Imagine you post an ad on craigslist to hire a legal assistant. Someone immediately responds by email and attaches a zip file. Believing the file contains the applicant

Lawyers increasingly rely on the cloud to store, share, and synchronize their client files. Many use Dropbox and Google Drive for this purpose. However, the use of these common cloud storage services presents some data security concerns.

Oregon has had a devastating fire season this year, and it

The PLF gets frequent calls from lawyers asking about best practices for dealing with closed files. Traditionally, lawyers put their closed paper files in filing cabinets and store them in their office. When the cabinets are full, they move the files to a storage facility or the basement of the office building. The files stay there until destruction time, which is usually 10 years.

The medical profession uses it. Aviation uses it. Construction uses it. Even the culinary field uses it. It is the checklist. A checklist is a simple tool that can improve the effectiveness of performing complex tasks.

There are many ways to encrypt email messages sent to clients or other parties. You can use email encryption software like Trustifi, Virtu, or TitanFile. You can also use secure client portals within practice management software to securely exchange documents with clients. Even Outlook Email allows you to send encrypted email messages using a digital ID.

If you have old computers and other office equipment laying around in your law office or home, there is a good reason they are still with you and not in the dumpster. This article will discuss why you should be concerned about the data in your devices and the proper way to dispose of them.

Have you ever wanted to text an appointment reminder or a quick message to your clients without having to use your cell phone? There is an easy and free way to do this. It

The responsibilities and tasks of being a lawyer can be overwhelming. Fortunately, a simple rule can help you manage your time and law practice by showing you where you should focus your efforts and resources. It