Debate on the Free Access to Law

Apparently there is a fairly robust online debate about the state of the free access to the law. As we know the law is generally found in case opinions and statutes, which are, generally speaking, in the public domain by their nature. Scholarly treatises and law reviews provide analysis and commentary. Other research tools provide help in finding the applicable law.

A professor with long-term ties to West Publishing praised the free access to law movement for increasing competition, but also downplayed free legal research tools as being second rate. (One wonders if the esteemed professor has ever paid for legal research out of his own pocket.) Needless to say his statement provoked responses and you can find links to view his initial video and the responses here.

Well, the free access to the law movement is thriving in Oklahoma. Years ago, our Oklahoma Supreme Court decided that the law should be free and available in Oklahoma. The court's website, OSCN.net, has available to anyone all of the court opinions in a searchable format, back to statehood and even before. The online law library there includes the statutes as well as the case opinions, links to the administrative code, fee and bond schedules and many other resources. The largest counties already have their case files online and work is underway on the other counties.

Any citizen can also go to the local county courthouse and find the county law library and use Westlaw with a subscription paid for by the state.

For legal research in other jurisdictions, the Oklahoma Bar Association provides its member-lawyers access to Fastcase for the other states and federal courts. Last month OBA members had over 30,000 transactions on Fastcase.

There may be a debate about free access to the law in other jurisdictions, but not in the Sooner state. OSCN.net is recognized as our Website of the Week.

Social Media for Lawyers

I got a chance to meet Gerry Riskin and hear him speak last week. As many of you know, Gerry is a principal of Edge International and shares his wisdom with us through his Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices blog.

Gerry discussed Social Media as it related to the legal profession. Social Media suffers in our legal community by its name. It sounds more like a dating service or chat service than something a hard-nosed lawyer would have time to deal with. Gerry showed us a video that I'd like to share with you. Please trust me not to waste your 4 minutes and 33 seconds. It is a great video with good production values. But it is full of the kind of statistics that a good lawyer would use to prove a case. Be sure and view it in full screen mode.

A Bucketload of Technology News and Tips

Every now and then you get backed up. In my world right now, it is having too many things you would like to blog about when I have three or four major papers due in the next few days. My friend Dennis Kennedy dealt with that problem by starting a Dennis Kennedy Microblog. Well, I'm not ready to go there yet. But today I am going to try a microblogging exercise as I clean out my "to blog about" box and also pass along several interesting things that I learned about today. So hang on for today's tech news and tips with a load of links for you to follow, if you desire.

Lifehacker's Exhaustive Guide to Saving Your Smartphone's Battery

Ben Stevens gives us 20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches

Oh, boy. iPhone users will soon be able to make free calls with Skype

Google Blog: Quickly View Formatted PDF's in Your Search Results (like the IRS online forms)

Technology Enables New Work-Life Norms

YouLaw: If Pixar Created a Law Firm Video

Why Companies Are Switching From BlackBerry To iPhone

ABA TECHSHOW Blog: 5 Great Feature Enhancements to Expect in PowerPoint 2010

Larry Bodine's Checklist for Law Firm Associates

Dan Pinnington: Lawyers as Targets of Fraud: The Common Misconceptions

Ethics of Metadata Comparison Chart Updated to Include Vermont

ABA TECHSHOW Road Show Comes to Oklahoma

On September 24, 2009, the Oklahoma Bar Association is providing a Technology Fair for its members, featuring the ABA TECHSHOW Road Show. We are very excited to have a host of experts who will be joining me speaking to our members, including Debbie Foster (chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2010), Tom Mighell and Adriana Linares.

We have a great lineup of educational presentations and vendor presentations. We are also going to help our members build profiles on our social networking service, Oklahoma Bar Circle, even taking a picture for then to post on their profile.

We plan on having a great day. Thanks to our speakers for participating. This is a great time to remind everyone to mark the date for ABA TECHSHOW 2010 on their calendar. It will be be March 25-27, 2010 at the Chicago Hilton.

Heading off to Oklahoma Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference

Lawyers from all across Oklahoma are heading out to the Oklahoma Bar's Solo and Small Firm Conference today. It is a great event with lots of fun and great CLE presentations. If you are not able to attend, you can read about the details here and see the complete list of programs (PDF) here. If you aren't from Oklahoma and don't have a solo and small firm conference in your state, you can use these links to start lobbying for one. We are happy to be hosting three "world class" CLE presenters in Irwin Karp, Ross Kodner and Nerino Petro. A good time will be had by all and our attendees will go home with some great information to put to use immediately. I hope my friends in Missouri enjoy their Solo and Small Firm Conference as well since it is being held at the same time.

It is Hard to be Objective About a Great Resource like BlawgWorld

Today I feel obligated to heap great praise and give an unqualified endorsement. I think TechnoLawyer’s BlawgWorld is superb. In particular I think it is a great resource for the busy practicing lawyer. Let me explain.

It can be tough being a lawyer in this, or any other, economy. Representing clients, completing projects, handling administrative responsibilities and staying current on one’s legal subject matter issues is the proverbial full time job. But in all but very large firms, where a narrow focus is still possible, a lawyer also has to be aware of technology issues, some management issues, time management, marketing and more. The days have long passed where a lawyer can be ignorant of issues like metadata, possible waiver of attorney client privilege by sending to a client’s work e-mail account, electronic discovery, the need for data backup and many other important matters.

If you are reading this blog post, you know there is lots of helpful free information about many practice management issues available online. But who has the time? That’s where the current generation of BlawgWorld fits our needs. Each Monday we can receive an e-mail with a selection of the greatest hits of technology and practice management related content selected from the last week of legal blog posts and online editions of several other publications. And that’s the first reason this is so great. In this day of disappearing newspapers and shrinking press rooms, with BlawgWorld, we can all benefit from the seasoned editorial judgment. Neil J. Squillante and his team at TechnoLawyer invest their time reading lots of blog posts and articles. And, even though you could visit the sites individually, receiving it all packed in an e-mail is very convenient.

BlawgWorld is concise, with just the post titles (or a description) and the links. There are lots of links, but you can scan all of the week’s selections in just moments. This lets the busy lawyer select and read one or two articles each week. (But don’t blame me or the Technolawyer gang if you end up reading many more.) But every week, you can painlessly devote a little time to reading about current emerging issues or how to improve your practice. You can decide if you have five minutes to invest or twenty. You can see a sample issue online here. I do have a personal interest in that I want BlawgWorld to stay just like it is—because it works for me!

I could say more, (spotlights brighten, background music rises) but you just need to believe. So….. I want you to stand up, and come forward, and click on this link. It’s time, brothers and sisters, to subscribe to BlawgWorld. What’s the risk? Just one more e-mail a week. You can easily unsubscribe after a few weeks if you wish. But as a lawyer (or other legal professional), I think you will really enjoy BlawgWorld.

New Hampshire Bar Issues Metadata Ethics Opinion

The New Hampshire Bar Association issued Ethics Committee Opinion 2008-2009/4 on April 16, 2009. I've written at length on this subject and one can go here to review my take on all previous bar ethics opinions about metadata. It still bothers me that many of these opinions assume (A) that removing metadata is an expensive, mysterious and sometimes impossible process when in fact it is fairly simple to make sure confidential client information is not disclosed and (B) looking at a document's metadata is often intended to ferret out confidential client information when it is generally looking at routine things like a document's word count.

I was surprised when it was recently reported to me that half of the lawyers in a legal IT conference presentation indicated they were not aware of metadata. How could a lawyer have missed this significant issue at this point in time? I do note my general satisfaction that this opinion, and all recent ones, note that the transmitting lawyer has the clear duty to avoid sending metadata that could reveal confidential client information. And, we all now understand that metadata in evidence (like produced pursuant to discovery) is generally free to be examined.

The ironic and funny thing is that with all of the discussion in the opinion about whether metadata is "inadvertently" included with transmissions or not, the PDF of the opinion inadvertently includes an extra blank page. (Yes, sometimes i am easily entertained.)

Four Years of Blawg Review Meets Law21

For four years Blawg Review has given a rotating cast of legal bloggers the chance to examine the prior week in blogging as they saw it. The results have beeen mixed, but generally interesting. Of course, in my view, there have been times when the secretive editor of BR has committed errors in judgment. (In fact, I'm not even sure that Anon. Ed. has been the same person all four years.) It was not that long ago I swore never to read or even mention Blawg Review ever again due to Ed's bad judgment.

But it is amazing what a difference a true professional can make. Jordan Furlong is a professional writer and editor. His coverage of the blogosphere in Blawg Review #207 in his homage-to-newspaper style shows there is still life in the Blawg Review concept, even after four years. Blawg Review no long holds the place it once did as the keeper of the legal blogosphere. But Jordan Furlong does this week in law-related blogging proud on his Law21 blog. If you looked hard and worked at it, there was a huge amount of law-related blogging activity to be chronicled. Some American readers may not appreciate everything this Canadian journalist features and says. But you won't be able to read Blawg Review #207 without pausing to think -- and click on some of the featured links to read the full posts. Great job, Jordan.

Richard Susskind's Keynote Address at ABA TECHSHOW 2009

Richard Susskind's keynote address at ABA TECHSHOW 2009 was fabulous. I'm sure many who live blogged or live Tweeting during it agreed, but I wanted to pass along my thoughts before reading theirs. As any of you know, Susskind has written several books about the legal profession, including the most recent, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. (More details on book here.) I understand that the video of this presentation will be posted to the TECHSHOW website in a few days or weeks and I'll note it here when it is.

His observations were very insightful and interesting. For example, he notes that business clients feel their lawyers are quite good at reacting to situations. But the clients wish there was more in the way of proactive legal services. Prevailing in litigation is good, but avoiding it is even better. Or, as Susskind put it, they would rather have a fence at the top of the cliff than great ambulance service at the bottom. (Of course, we all know that clients are more prone to contact their law firms when an ambulance is required rather than fence bulding.)

Even after the world economy rights itself, he believes there will be continued pressure of clients wanting more legal services for less money. One of his long-held beliefs is the huge impact that emerging technologies will have on the legal profession. Technology advances can be sustaining or disruptive. Many lawyers seem to think that the technology changes have peaked, and business will go on as before. Most of us attending ABA TECHSHOW this week agree with Susskind that there is more disruption ahead.

As Allison Shields and I were discussing after his speech, many have criticized his book without reading it. I'd encourage you to buy the book and read it. Of course, if you are prone to worry, reading it before bedtime might not be the right idea.

UPDATED to include Dennis Kennedy's live blogging notes from the program.

A Bounty of Law Practice Tips

I try to bring you lots of different tips to allow you to practice law better. But it is rare that I get to pass along so many tips at one time. That is because the March 2009 edition of Law Practice Magazine is once again a technology tips theme issue. 

The idea is to promote ABA TECHSHOW. The result is a great collection of tips on everything from e-discovery to paperless practice to expanding your web presence to easy online collaboration.

You really don't want to miss this issue of Law Practice Magazine. To make sure you don't miss future useful issues, you can either join the ABA Law Practice Management Section if you are an ABA member or subscribe to Law Practice magazine if you are not.

Meanwhile, enjoy the great content in the online version of  the magazine.