In today’s connected world, attorneys can work virtually anywhere. Smartphones in particular have transformed the way lawyers operate, essentially allowing them to carry their entire office in their pocket. However, this convenience also comes with significant responsibility: protecting the confidential client information now stored on your phone.
Efficiency Unleashed: Mastering Outlook
Calendaring is a fundamental task for legal professionals, yet calendaring errors remain a leading cause of malpractice claims. In this post, we discuss Microsoft Outlook, a popular option to enhance productivity and organization, and lessen your chances of committing malpractice.
Key Insights from ABA TECHSHOW 2024: Embracing Tech Trends and Cybersecurity Imperatives
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.
Artificial Intelligence: Entering a "New" World
To lessen the risk of malpractice and ethical violations, legal professionals need to understand the different types of AI so they can make intelligent decisions about which programs they may want to integrate into their practice.
Top TECHSHOW Takeaways
Top takeaways from the ABA TECHSHOW
Using Video to Support Internal Office Processes
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a one-minute video equals 1.8 million words. This article will discuss three ways to use video to run a better practice, reduce potential malpractice, and improve your bottom line. It will conclude with a step-by-step tutorial on how to make videos for your staff in Microsoft Teams
If You Build It They Will Come: Make It Easier for Potential Clients to Contact You
How we choose to communicate as a society is an ever-evolving process. With the rise in digital media, trends have seen more consumers turn to text, video calls, and emails as their preferred forms of communication. Is your firm doing everything it can to reach potential clients?
ABA TECHSHOW BYTES!
See a few takeaways from the 2022 ABA TECHSHOW that you may want to incorporate into your practice, particularly regarding evaluating your technology, software for managing new clients, and virtual receptionists.
Billing Software: Explore your Options
The type of program you use to track your time and calculate your bills will vary depending on your specific practice and firm goals. In focusing on software for billing, you have your choice of options, but you should consider the variety of features available when making the decision which to use for your practice.
Working from Home? Make Your Internet Work for You
Many of us are more reliant than ever before on the stability and speed of our internet connection, now that the pandemic has forced us to work from home and many children are engaged in remote learning. If your home internet connection is not performing at the level necessary to support your needs, consider the options below to make it work for you.
Working Remotely: The Takeaway
We are now three months in to what is, for many of us, this brave new world of remote work. For some, it has been a resoundingly successful experiment. Some lawyers who previously worked out of traditional law offices have made a smooth transition to working out of their homes
Collaborative Word Processing
With the spread of COVID-19 and resulting changes in how we conduct business, we need methods for exchanging information in different ways. In particular, attorneys need secure methods to collaborate on Word documents with both their clients and colleagues. This collaboration could include simply gathering information from clients with an intake form, review and approval of a document by a client or supervisor, or more complex collaboration involving multiple versions and tracked changes.
Electronic Signature: A Tool to Incorporate in Your Law Practice
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.
Working and Meeting in the Age of Social Distancing
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.
Remote Access for Lawyers: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Virtual Private Network (VPN)
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.
Using Outlook to Save Google Emails
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.
Options for Sending Large Files
Many lawyers who don
Microsoft Office 2007 and Beyond
Microsoft Office is a staple for many law firms and every version offers customer support. Yet support ends a certain period of time after release of the product. Office 2007 support ended on October 10, 2017. If you still use Office 2007 or an earlier version, you may be putting yourself at higher risk for malpractice claims or disciplinary issues now that your system is no longer supported by regular security updates.
Video: How to Use Quick Steps in Outlook
This short video shows you how to save time by using Outlook
Is Microsoft Office 365 a Good Bet for 2018?
Lawyers don't have the resources, time, or money to jump on the latest technology product or service for the mere sake of being an early adopter or follower of the crowd. We frequently only stop to consider the what and how and forget the why: does the product or service facilitate providing better legal services to the client in the most efficient manner?
Anatomy of a Ransomware Attack: One Firm
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
Understanding Security When Using Cloud Storage
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.
Copying and Pasting from a PDF
As of August 1, 2017, Uniform Trial Court Rule (UTCR) 21.040(1) is amended to require that a document submitted electronically, whether as a PDF or PDF/A, must allow for copying and pasting text into another document, as much as practicable. The goal of the amendment is to conform the UTCR to the Oregon Rules of Appellate Procedure, which already require electronically filed documents to include the ability to copy and paste.
Saving Text Messages
Text messaging with your clients is a practice that requires thoughtful consideration. If you find yourself in a situation in which you want or need to save text messages, you have many options available, but there is no "one size fits all" solution.
Safeguard Data with Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is becoming one of the most important methods for safeguarding data. You
Unwanted Data: How to Properly Destroy Data in Hardware
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.
Send Text Messages to Your Clients without Using Your Cell Phone
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