Site of the Week: Law Practice Matters

Erik Mazzone was recently hired by the North Carolina Bar Association as the Director of their newly-established Center for Practice Management. Now he has started the blog, Law Practice Matters. I got to meet Erik at ABA TECHSHOW. He wanted to compile a few weeks worth of blog posts before announcing his blog to the world, but time's up now, Erik. He is no stranger to law office technology and I think you will find his posts insightful and interesting. So visit his blog and check out his first month's worth of posting and then subscribe to his feed or add it to your Favorites as you choose.

Site of the Week: PopURLS®

This is not my normal Website of the Week. But first, a CONTENT WARNING: Due to the nature of American popular culture, it is highly likely you will find something that offends you on this week's Website of the Week. OK, now that we have that out of the way, PopURLS® is an fascinating look at American popular culture as viewed by links to online content. In one rather busy web page, you can find links to some of the most popular online content from some of the most well-known blogs, social bookmarking services, news services, video sites, photos from Flickr, music and online communities. You may want to avoid this one if you have a project with a deadline today. Thanks to Robbin in the IT Dept for forwarding me this link.

Site of the Week: Electronic Information Privacy Center

After hearing Marc Rotenberg, the Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, speak on the amount of our information that is available online and trends that impact our privacy even more, it is a pretty easy choice to name the Electronic Privacy Information Center's website, EPIC.org, as my Website of the Week. In particular, you should check out EPIC's Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools.

Sites of the Week: Sites for Mac Lawyers

When a lawyer tells me that they are using an Apple Mac computer, I always direct them to visit and bookmark Apple's Small Business - Legal website. They do a good job of providing links to law office specific software for the Mac as well as links to events, news items and other sites.

Pete Roberts, Practice Management Advisor for the Washington State Bar Association gave me a list of some other sites for Mac lawyers, some of which I had heard of and others, I had not. Of course as you check these out, you will stumble across others. So here goes.....

Ben Stevens's The Mac Lawyer blog is not to be missed. I just logged into it today to check the URL and I find news of an update to Mac OS Leopard, a link to the Mac Tips and Tricks blog showing how to use Mac's Spotlight for quick calculations, a list of more Mac-related law blogs and a post linking to the Top 100 Essential Mac Applications. Wow. Who knows what I might have found had I taken time to search past the first few posts. Ben will be a speaker on ABA TECHSHOW's new "Mac Track" this year.

Jeffrey Kabbe's Apple Briefs is another site full of information for the lawyer who uses a Mac.

A Mac Lawyer's Notebook is a more recent addition to the Internet, chronicling one lawyer's experiences with changing to the Mac Environment and the choices he made.

Criminal Defense Law with an Apple is about as self-explanatory as a title can be.

And, of course, you had to know there would be a Mac Law Students blog.

You'll find links to other Mac lawyer sites on the official Apple site and all of the others noted above.

Site of the Week: Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia anyone can edit, is without a doubt one of the largest, if not the largest, free online reference resource. The fact that anyone can edit it, along with a couple of well-publicized Wikipedia hoaxes, have led many lawyers to classify Wikipedia as unreliable when nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, the vast number of Wikipedia users mean that the resource is self-correcting. While someone might edit an entry in a way most of us would view as untrue, it is likely that it would be edited again by another Wikipedia user within seconds. But primarily I want to warn you that avoiding Wikipedia would mean avoiding of the Web's best places to get your questions answered quickly.

Use Wikipedia as a quick reference resource. For high tech terms or popular culture items, there may be no better quick reference resource. If you want to see every song that made number one each week on the Billboard 100 for a given year or a recap of the 2000 NCAA football season, Wikipedia should be your first stop. And even though you might still understandably feel uncomfortable citing Wikipedia in a brief since the cited entry could change, many court opinions have included citations to Wikipedia. (See this January, 2007 New York Times article on that topic.)

Site of the Week: 100 Milestone Documents

Today's Website of the Week may not help you solve a client's problem. But 100 Milestone Documents is a nice collection of links to the most important documents in our nation's history, as compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration. Whether you just want to be able to quickly locate an important historical document or have been asked to give a guest lecture in your child's civics class, it is handy to have quick access to this set of documents dating from 1776 to 1965.

Site of the Week: Lawyers with Depression.com

Following up on a prior post, this week I will feature Lawyers with Depression.com as my Website of the Week. Attorney Dan Lukasik had the courage to set up this site to help other lawyers dealing with depression and mental health issues. Some advised him that he would be at career risk if he revealed his struggles in this area. Many lawyers are thankful he ignored that advice and provided this resource.

Site of the Week: KeyXL

OK, I admit I do like keyboard shortcuts most than most lawyers (in spite of the fact that I've probably forgotten more of them than I retain.) It is almost always quicker to hit a key combination than to grab the mouse and start aiming for your target. Memorize and use the keyboard shortcuts for tasks you do several times a day or week. The mouse clicks are for things used less frequently.

KeyXL.com claims to be "the largest online database of keyboard shortcuts in the world." After a few experimental searches I didn't find anything to make me doubt that. You can get long printable lists of shortcuts for many programs. Hat tip to Tom Mighell for the link to KeyXL.

Site of the Week: GoogleGuide

I know there are other search engine options besides Google, but Google still dominates the search engine landscape. Most lawyers are proficient at using search engines because the techniques are not that different from digital legal research. But power searching is one area where the poor need to improve and the good can always get better. GoogleGuide lets you start your path to improvement by selecting whether you are a novice, an expert or a teen. The lessons are simple and clear. But what really caught my attention was GoogleGuide's pair of 2 page quick reference guides, suitable for printing on both sides of a paper and maybe even laminating. I'll bet even the Google "experts" out there will appreciate the Google Calculator Cheat Sheet.

Site of the Week: Gruntled Employees

I first became aware of the Shepard Law Group as a result of legal media coverage they received when they banished the billable hour from their firm. Jay Shepard came up with a very cute idea for the name of a blog related to employment law issues: Gruntled Employees. (After all you don't want DISgruntled employees, do you?)

Since most law firms are also employers, it is good to keep up with this substantive legal area and Jay's posts are always easy to read and well-thought out. But Jay's posts are not limited to employer-employee matters. Here's a great recent post (with links) on alternatives to hourly billing. But the post I really want you to read is one entitled "Your employees are the sizzle." He notes his experience in a restaurant and relates it to customer services generally. As a lot of Oklahoma lawyers are aware, I like to use restaurant analogies when I talk about client service. In fact I just recorded a webcast on improving client services for the OBA. You should be able to purchase by going to this Webpage in a few days.

Pay a visit to Gruntled Employees, this week's Website of the Week.

EDD Update Blog Seeks to Become "Go To" Source for Electronic Data Discovery News and Analysis

Law.com has released the EDD Update blog, which will focus on "electronic data discovery news and analysis." Given the number of well-known pundits and experts that have signed on as authors, the endeavor seems destined to be a success. For a good example of the content you will find there, check out Craig Ball's common-sense post on getting electronic evidence admitted in court.

Site of the Week: Law People Blog.com

Law firm consultant Ronda Muir's Law People Blog has the motto "Better Law Practice Through Better People Management."  This blog addresses a critical aspect of law practice management. Larger employers, including law firms, have Human Relations departments to deal with the numerous issues that hiring people brings to the workplace. For the most part, solo and small firm lawyers are shocked by the number of personnel issues that arise. And they often just have to wing it.

It was a shock to me to realize that one of the secretaries breaking up with her boyfriend would be a drain on the productivity of the entire office for a week. Then there was the staff person who seemed to have "24 hour stomach flu" on Mondays much more frequently after the divorce.

Check out Rhonda's fine blog. She does post a few of her press releases there. But we all understand how Google works. She has periodic links to interesting essays on HR that lawyers will like and some really nice first person posts that she writes. Write more of those, Rhonda. Good stuff. I encourage readers to visit this week's Website of the Week, the Law People Blog.

P.S. Here's an unsolicited (but related) plug for ABA Retirement Funds. They have been coming to our OBA Solo and Small Firm Conference as a sponsor for several years. They have signed up a lot of our small firm lawyers to do retirement plans for themselves and their staff. Why? They make it easy. You don't have to be an ABA member to participate. You can offer a great benefit that encourages staff to stay with your firm to increase their retirement. ABARF does all the paperwork and filings. All you have to do is send them a check. If your staff person quits or gets fired, they deal with the person, not you.

Extremely Noteworthy Labor Day Blawg Review

Extraordinary effort should be noted. Blawg Review provides a weekly round-up of the previous week in law-related blogging through the efforts of a guest host. The host for this Labor Day edition is George Lenard, who writes George's Employment Blog.

George's Labor Day Special Edition Historical Edition of Blawg Review (#124) is noteworthy for several reasons:

1. The Labor Day historical theme is extremely well-executed with fourteen (!) different sections, including such historical notes as the Haymarket Square riot of May, 1886 and 1902-1949 States Adopt Workers' Compensation Laws. It is truly a multimedia history lesson as well as a Blawg Review.
2. It's huge. George just didn't limit himself to culling through the submissions from the bloggers and blawg fans. It is clear that he spent a lot of time "blawg surfing" and found a huge amount of content and, surprise, he found a lot of blog content that fit well into his theme.
3. You will find something of interest here. You may not care about the history of working or the number of worker's comp or employment law blawgs on the WWW. But, I believe every reader will find something useful here if you can take the time to review it all. (In fact, the only negative about this collection is the huge amount of content.) I've been hoping someone would do such a broad and comprehensive Blawg Review for a while and there's a lot of content of interest here.

I imagine this site will be heavily visited this month, but I wanted to direct my readers to George's great collection as my Website of the Week for this week.

Site of the Week: Legal Management Archives from ALA

This may be one of my most valuable Website of the Week posts, so don't stop reading early.

I have been a member of the Association of Legal Administrators for ten years now. We have a great local chapter in Oklahoma City. It is too bad I often have conflicts and have to miss their monthly meetings. If your law firm administrator does not belong to this national organization, your firm is missing out on lots of resources, training and (in the cities for certain) a peer support group. Check out ALA's Website for more information.

But that's not my Website of the Week. I'm highlighting a subpart of that site. Legal Management magazine is the ALA's publication and one of its member benefits. It is a very nice publication. My Website of the Week is the ALA's Legal Management archives. There you can download many articles from the prior issues of Legal Management. You will find a wealth of information there on all aspects of managing law firms. ALA would have been well within its rights to lock up these archives as a member's only benefit. But instead they are available to all of you online.

And, no, I'm not just touting Legal Management this month because I was the co-author of the cover story on mobile technology security (July/August 2007.) But here's a link to the current issue of Legal Management.

Site of the Week: SOLOFORMANIA

Carolyn Elefant's My Shingle blog has long been a resource and advocacy site for solo and small firm practitioners. Earlier this summer she added another resource with SOLOFORMANIA. I'll use Carolyn's words to explain the simple idea behind this site.

"What is SOLOFORMANIA? It's a cornucopia of forms for the busy solo - ranging from FREE sample practice guides, fee agreements and retainer letters, to court forms for all 50 states (some free, some fee) to general form files on the Internet," she posted.

She says she's still got some work to do, but the collection is quite impressive, reflecting a lot of work on Carolyn's part. She reminded me of some words of wisdom from an old friend on mine, lawyer Gregory B. Jackson of Shawnee, OK. Greg says, "There are two things a lawyer sometimes wants, and when he wants them he really wants them. Those are a form and a continuance." Well, Carolyn can't help you with the second one, Greg, but now she's got some help on the first. This collection is definitely worth singling out as a Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: Sunlight Foundation's Insanely Useful Websites

The Sunlight Foundation describes its Insanely Useful Websites resource as follows:

• "The following sites and resources are “insanely useful Web sites” for government transparency. They provide a broad range of information available to track government and legislative information, campaign contributions and the role of money in politics. Many of these resources apply the Web 2.0 ethos to sift, share and combine this information in innovative ways – often times by mashing data together from disparate sources to maximize the usability of that information."

This week's Website of the Week selection is prompted by an article from Peggy Garvin on LLRX.com, The Government Domain: 'Insanely Useful' Legislative Sites. If you are not familiar with sites such as Congresspedia, GovTrack, LOUIS, and OpenCongress, Peggy Garvin's article is worth reading. You will probably agree that Insanely Useful Sites is worth adding to your favorites.

Top Ten Calls From Atticus Provide Great, Free Information

Atticus is a lawyer coaching firm. Graduates of their program have the opportunity to participate in subsequent telephone-based programs from experts in particular areas. Since they have now had 100 of these calls, they have decided to make their top 10 most popular calls available for all of us to listen to online. There are some great topics here including time management, marketing, profitability and a two-part series on value-based pricing by Ron Baker, author of Professional’s Guide to Value-based Pricing. I encourage readers of this blog to take advantage of this free online audio resource.

I just have to note that I am doing this post as a service to my readers in spite of the fact that Atticus graduates did not see fit to name my presentation in their top 10. Well, it was a few years back ... probably was dated. Maybe it was number 11. (GRIN)

Thoughtful Legal Management Blog Debuts

David J. Bilinsky has entered the blogosphere  with his new weblog, Thoughtful Legal Management. This brings up several questions. The most obvious is whether the term "thoughtful legal management" is an oxymoron. The second is why a very well respected gentleman who is already busy as a Practice Management Advisor and staff lawyer for the Law Society of British Columbia and the Editor-in-Chief of Law Practice Magazine would want to further complicate his life by starting a new blog? David, I should know the answer to that one because I hear (ask myself) similar questions with each new project. But I don't.

David is a towering intellect. Davis is a friend. He's also a perfectionist. So I want to warn him publicly that every blog post doesn't have to be perfect. Just toss them up there because we know you have a lot to share. I've had several really nice blog posts that died in the draft mode waiting to be perfected. Then a month or so later I review the draft and decide it just isn't that timely anymore or I'm just tired of thinking about it.   Besides if you aren't aiming for perfect, mistakes are then just a part of the business plan. So that's my blogger mentoring moment.

David is also a former ABA TECHSHOW chair. I'll let you review his other list of accomplishments here. There will be some great information about law firm management on his blog, so stay tuned. And, congratulations, Dave. Starting a blog is half the battle won already.

Site of the Week: Recalls.gov

Six federal government agencies have combined their efforts into one comprehensive "one-stop shop" about all U.S. government product recalls. Recalls.gov seems to be a fine addition to any lawyer's (or for that matter any consumer's) list of research or reference websites. Hat tip to Oklahoma City lawyer Joyce Green for bringing this one to my attention.

How to Tie the Ten Most Useful Knots

OK, this has nothing to do with law practice, but the other day I was trying to tie two cords together and I realized I hadn't done that in a long time and had just about forgotten how. Then I went to Refdesk.com to look something up tonight and found "How to Tie the Ten Most Useful Knots" featured on the front page (with illustrations, too.) So I took it as a sign I should bookmark it and pass it along. Quite possibly the oldest Website of the Week that I have featured, but you can't improve on some things.

Site of the Week: SorryGottaGo.com

When I was at the Nebraska Bar Association Solo & Small Firm Conference last week, I did a "60 Sites" presentation for their luncheon. The site SorryGottaGo.com got such a huge laugh that I decided to feature it as a Website of the Week here. I'm not going to explain what it features. Sorry, but you gotta go there to see.

The folks at the Nebraska Bar were great hosts and a great audience. This was their initial solo and small firm conference and it was a great start for them. The solo and small firm conference movement continues to grow as a greatly appreciated bar service for these members.

Site of the Week: Richmond Journal of Law and Technology - E-Discovery Archives

If you do not have much to do the next few days, here's one way to fill up your spare time. Check out this collection: the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT)  E-Discovery Archives. Several weeks ago the Spring, 2007 issue of the online law journal, which is focused solely on Electronic Discovery, was added to the archives.

One of the student editors informed me of the publication."Our publication is a student-run law journal housed at the University of Richmond School of Law. JOLT was first published in 1995 as the first exclusively on-line law journal and has continued to publish articles on the intersection of law and technology for over ten years. JOLT is available online, free of charge, to anyone who visits our website....Each year, we publish an issue dedicated to the emerging issues in Electronic Discovery. The most recent annual survey focuses on the recent changes in the federal rules and contains six articles from authors with various perspectives on E-Discovery."

Over 250 pages are contained in the new issue.

Site of the Week: The Ellen Freedman Collection

Ellen Freedman is the practice management advisor for the Pennsylvania Bar. Most PMA's are employees of their various bars, but Ellen provides her services via contract and has a private consulting services as well. Ellen is an accomplished consultant, writer, speaker, trainer and a real character as well. Ellen has several web publications. Many of you know of her blog, PA Law Practice Management. She has a resource-filled site for Freedman Consulting, Inc. But, for this week's Website of the Week, I want to focus on a sub-part of her consulting site. I am calling it The Ellen Freedman Collection. There she keeps a PDF archive of her articles that have been published in the Pennsylvania Bar News or other venues.

There is a lot of good material here. You can spent some productive time scrolling up and down this list of titles. Here's a link to the latest addition, Much Ado About DOCS. This is a really outstanding article ranging from document assembly to document management. I've used the phrase too much lately, but this is another "must read," considering how much of our professional lives is tied to documents.

I hope this is opening up a new resource for many of you. I envision lots of visitors to her site downloading lots of these articles. So .................  release the hounds!

Site of the Week: Trial Lawyer Resource Center

It seems to me that one of the trends we will see in legal blogging is an emergence of group blogs. After all, really significant well thought-out blog posts can take some time to craft and a lot of really great lawyers don't have a lot of free time on their hands. Combining efforts can mean a more regular stream of content and likely a greater readership of the posts one does make. It may dillute some of the marketing effect, but that may not be a primary goal of some of these lawyer-bloggers anyway.

The Trial Lawyer Resource Center is an excellent example of this kind of blog. It is very visually appealing. The contributions of thirteen Contributing Attorneys and guest posters keep regular content flowing. The site breaks with the usual blog convention of posts chronologically displayed in favor of focusing on the categories, with two or three recent posts displayed under categories like "Openings and Closings" or "Case Work Up." You can explore the category for more content. Instead of visiting an online diary or journal, here the feeling is more like stopping by a concise reference library. Using the About tab to explain the three best ways to peruse the site is a nice touch, particularly since many trial lawyers who are not regular readers of blogs may visit here. This is a relatively new blog, with regular postings beginning in August, 2006.

The TLRC already has a lot of nice content and has a huge potential for growth. Do some trial lawyers you know a favor and send them the URL for this blog. (Or send them the Permalink for this post.)

The Trial Lawyer Resource Center is my Website of the Week.

But, just in case any of those involved with this great site read this post, let me offer a couple of bits of constructive criticism. Even though I love the appearance and know many readers will just subscribe to the RSS or e-mail feed, you still will have many visitors to the site. Most everyone likes to know what the latest news is. Instead of having to scroll alllllll the way down for the Recent Updates list, move that up "above the fold" and bump one of the categories lower. My second concern? Well, gee, you don't have any practice management blogs in the your lists of other blogs. (Hint, hint.)

Site of the Week: Nerino Petro's Compujurist.com

Nerino Petro is the practice management advisor for the Wisconsin Bar Association. Before that, he ran two businesses, a law practice and a technology support firm for the legal professional. So he has a lot of practical knowledge of how law firm information technology infrastructure should work. Luckily for all of us, even though he started his Compujurist.com blog before he took his position with WisBar, he still maintains the blog. It is filled with helpful insights and essays about technology and new devleopments in the legal workplace. I was actually sort of surprised to realize I hadn't done this already, so Nerino Petro's Compujurist is this week's Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: The Inspired Solo Blog

Several blogs about solo law practice have sprung up recently. Some are very good. Some are perhaps still in the developmental stage. And, I don't mean to sound cynical, but I know many of them will not survive long. The lawyer will get busy with "real work" or discover after a few posts that they have said most of the things they were burning to say.

An outstanding addition to the legal blogosphere is The Inspired Solo. It is brought to us by Sheryl Sisk Schelin, who is a solo practitioner living and working in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Some people think that to be a great blogger you need a lot of opinions. Well, I think that you need to be a great writer. Sheryl is.

The blog now has a new appearance - very crisp and clean. Sheryl does have an agenda with this site. She wants, as the title suggests, to inspire solo lawyers and to inspire other lawyers to consider the solo path. For entrepreneurs, inspiration is very important. (Of course, I'd have to add that realistic expectations are important as well.) I think many of you will enjoy The Inspired Solo and that is why I am naming it my Website of the Week.   (Note to Sheryl: I've now publicly placed my bet that this blog will be around for a while, so don't let us down.)

Blawg Review #100 Posted This Week

For 100 weeks now, law-related bloggers (or blawgers, if you prefer) have been volunteering a few hours of their time each week to do a round-up of that week's blawg postings with lots of careful attention and lots of links. I can't say for sure that I've read a majority of them, but I've read quite a few. Some have been great and some forgettable. I'm proud to have hosted Blawg Review #49 exactly one year ago today.

Blawg Review #100 is a trip down memory lane. Ye Old Blawg Review Editor handles the task herself this week. (Well, being anonymous it could be "himself," but I have my opinions.) The Editor posts a link to each of the prior ninety-nine Blawg Review posts, if available, and also included links to any interesting content which that blawgger had posted last week. Check out Blawg Review #100. It is worth a quick scroll, even if you don't have time to read about them all. The number of different law-related blogs will certainly get your attention. Even if you are not really into following blogs, you could learn of one you could really use next month.

And, of course, Blawg Review, with its "hundredth" birthday so near my own, has to be our Website of the Week!

Site of the Week: Giveaway of the Day

I like bargains and Giveaway of the Day certainly offers bargains ─ free software packages. It reminds one of the early days of the Internet, when downloading freeware and shareware from various sources was a staple of online activity.  Now one risks spyware infection from indiscriminate downloading. So it is nice to know of a site that screens their downloads. Since its December launch, Giveaway of the Day has offered many free downloads. There is a catch, however. You can only download the featured application for free on that one day. When you visit the site you may see an interesting product from a prior day, but that is now only available for a modest fee. If you are really interested in such downloads, you may want to sign up for the daily e-mail notices from this week's Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: Wolfgang's Vault

I try to stick closely to law-related items in my posts. But what the heck. It is the holiday season. I can give a gift to many of my readers with this post and provide some people much-needed stress relief during this busy time. (Ever notice how good we lawyers are at rationalizing a course of conduct once we decide to embark upon it?)

This week's Website of the Week features free recordings of classic live rock concerts from Wolgang's Vault. Click on the link above, register and soon you, too, can be hogging the office bandwidth listening to complete concerts from Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, CSN&Y and Led Zeppelin. The Top 100 Rated of the collection is quite impressive (if you enjoy this type of music.) I saw the story of Wolgang's Vault on TV and it is certainly interesting. Someone is making a lot of money from selling the classic rock memorabilia. But they are giving us lots of free music, so it's cool, man.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Hat tip to Norman G. Fernadez, Esq. of Chatsworth, CA, who posted the link to the Solosez list.

Site of the Week: Digg

I'm going to feature a non-lawyer news gathering site because it is so cool (and so Web 2.0.) I've wanted to write about Digg.com for a while, which features several topical news areas with links to the stories suggested and supported by Digg users. The thing that held me back was the need to do more research and exploration to do the site justice. But I have to wait no longer because I ran across the Beginner's Guide to Digg online. The Guide is very informative. So take some time to read a little of the history of Digg and some of the interesting ways you can use it. This is a news site where the users are the editors. If the technology stuff is too high tech for you, then check out the sports.

Site of the Week: SmallFirmBusiness.com

For the past couple of years, I have served on the editorial advisory board of a publication called Small Firm Business, an American Lawyer Media publication. Recently Editor in Chief Trevor Delaney notified me that it will cease publication and "transition to a Web-only format."  I was not shocked. Between all of the print publications that a lawyer might receive from various bar associations (and bar sections) and Internet offerings like e-mail newsletters, blogs, websites and e-zines, a print publication has to offer lots of value to sell paid subscriptions. As with many things in our lives, it as much a matter of finding time to read the publications as it is the cash out of pocket. Such issues also likely lead to the demise of Law Office Computing earlier this year.

But I encourage the folks at ALM to remember that the small law firm market is very important. I hope they follow through with increasing their web content targeted to that group. To that end, I'd encourage all my readers to stop by SmallFirmBusiness.com, this week's Website of the Week and review the features there.

Site of the Week: Popular Threads on Solosez

Most lawyers are very, very busy. When I encourage them to participate in online communities like OBA-NET or Solosez, they often respond that they don't have the time to read their own e-mail, much less sign up for optional messages or postings. (In fact, one really well-known technology expert and lawyer confessed to me yesterday that due to traveling and other commitments he had quickly become "800 e-mails behind.")

But there is a great deal of collective wisdom being shared online. So Popular Threads on Solosez is a good way to share in some of that wisdom without having to sort through hundreds of e-mails. I've mentioned this service before, but it deserves another mention. These are quick reads with all of the signature blocks and other extra information stripped out.

But how will you remember to check the popular threads each month? (You might ask.) Well, the ABA GP/Solo Division allows non-members to subscribe to its Buzz e-newsletter, which, among other things, announces the Popular Threads each month. Subscribe here.

Website of the Week: SeatGuru.com

Flying on commercial airlines is certainly no fun these days. So to make it a little better, when you make your next reservations online first open SeatGuru.com and minimize it. When you are making your reservations and it is time to request a seat, go to SeatGuru.com and click on the airline and then type of plane. You will find helpful comments about what seats to select and, more importantly, what seats to avoid. It is free, quick and easy.

And if you are still confused about what liquids you can carry on board, here's the official word. Changes are "unlikely" in the near term.

A Fun "Website of the Week"

Here's something entertaining. The Official Seal Generator site lets you design customized seals from a variety of colors, borders, graphic images and other elements for free. You can then either download the seal or copy it. It's pretty cute. You could use it for gags, maybe some humorous corporate seals for some small business clients, your children's teams or groups of friends, clubs and civic organizations where you participate, or maybe just sending your friends or relatives a customized Seal of Approval.

I learned of this from Dan Pinnington, ABA TECHSHOW 2007 Chair, and all around good guy. I'll see him this week when I speak at the Pacific Legal Technology Conference. If you are in the area, it's not to late to register and attend.

One of the Best Places to Learn about Law Office Software

Is your law firm one that still needs to implement software to help you run your law office? Choosing among the many available options can be confusing and time-consuming. That is why many law firms choose to utilize a consultant to help them through this process. There is one Web resource that provides you with a lot of information in one place. The Fredric G. Levin College of Law of the University of Florida publishes Computerized Case Management Systems. It includes a comprehensive list of software vendors, their products and contact information. There are links to numerous authoritative articles, many written by top-notch expert (and all 'round good guy) Andrew Z. Adkins III, the director of the Legal Technology Institute at the law school. There are also FAQ's and several sample worksheets for a firm to use internally in preparing to implement this process and getting bids from consultants and vendors. This great, free information source is our long-overdue Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: ABA Center for Professional Responsibility

The ABA Center for Professional Responsibility homepage provides free ethics and professionalism resources for lawyers, such as an online version of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, links to many ethics and professionalism resources and various reports and studies. This is the place to retrieve ABA Formal Ethics Opinions. Access to the ethics opinions is free for the first year after their issuance for ABA members. You can also purchase individual opinions for $7.50 each, become a member of the Center for complementary copies of all ethics opinions or take advantage of their ethics opinions subscription service to have them delivered to you as they are issued. Another service that is not always free, but may well be worth the modest fee when you need the help is their ETHICSearch Research Service where staff lawyers do the research for you.

Legal Technologist Ross Kodner's New Blog: Ross Ipsa Loquitur

Well, the latest legal technology and law practice management expert to start a blog is none other than Ross Kodner.  Ross Ipsa Loquitur is the name of his blog. Surely Ross's name will be familiar to most of you reading this blog. It certainly is familar to many Oklahoma lawyers due to his numerous guest appearances at our Solo and Small Firm Conferences. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was noting that his materials on "sweet spots" for purchasing tech gear were available on the Web.  Now he's are ready reposted them (or, knowing Ross, an updated version of them) to his blog.  Ross's list of accomplishments is too lengthy to go in to in the short space.  But I can say without qualification that you will want to either make this blog a regular part of your web surfing, subscribe to its RSS newsfeed or use the e-mail subscription form.  (I cannot even claim to be unbiased about this blog as I am the one who came up with its name in a little informal contest that Ross ran.)

Ross Ipsa Loquitur is my Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: MorePartnerIncome.com

Tom Collins is the founder and former president of Juris, Inc. He is presently a law firm consultant.  From the name. one would think that his blog, MorePartnerIncome.com, (which is sponsored by Juris) might be a rather dull discussion of analysis of financial reports, partnership agreements, billable hour requirements, equity ratios and profit-loss figures.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In recent weeks his blog has featured posts such as "Attorneys Should Never Underestimate the Power of Politeness" and "Attorneys Should Never Underestimate the Power of The Flavor." He also covered such diverse topics as work/life balance issues, law firm websites, and attorney time entries, just this month. His blog also covers the range of profitability issues that you would expect to see from its name and does so in an interesting manner.

I am pleased to feature MorePartnerIncome.com as my Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: Microsoft Office Online Home Page

Now why would I feature a web page that most all of you have already visited as my Website of the Week? And one from Microsoft at that?

Microsoft Office Online features things that you would assume it should: tips and helps for using Microsoft Word,  patches and fixes (including the "Remove Hidden Data" add-on) and useful online training. But unless you've looked closely you may have missed the fact that there are great free downloads. In fact some may be useful even if you are an Open Office die hard using a Linux box. There is lots of royalty-free downloadable clip art. Search for the word "justice" or "law" just to get an idea of what might be useful for you. There are also sounds and animations. Try a few searchs and liven up your web page, personal stationery or CLE papers. Every year I write several CLE papers for presentations. I've decided that I'm going to liven them up a bit this year with a few clipart images inserted every few pages. You wouldn't want to go overboard with this idea. But there's no law that says CLE papers have to be dull, featureless pages of nothing but text either. Experiment a little!

Site of the Week: PCWorld.com

It's really a great thing that so many print magazines publish so much of their content online for free. One knows that there have been a lot of heated discussions with editorial staff and publishers about that idea. PC World magazine has lots of great reviews, news items, public forums and other features on its comprehensive website. I rely on this publication and suggest that you should check it out, if you have not done so already. No chance I'll be cancelling my print subscription any time soon either. Sometime you just want to read a magazine in its printed form.

Site of the Week: New Media Musings

This might first appear to be a law-related Website, since the address is http://jd.typepad.com/, but New Media Musings is about how, as a young Bob Dylan might say, the times (online) are a-changing. Even if you decide not to add this one to your RSS reader, visit it and scroll down through a diverse collection of observations and news items.

A writer for Typepad said about this blog: "A few years back, journalist J.D. Lasica decided to focus his considerable talents and energies on citizens media and the personal media revolution.’ … If you have an interest in the trends that will define personal and public media in the years to come, check out Lasica's point of view, which not only includes posts and commentary, but an amazing array of photographs and video.”

Some might consider this "off topic," but the wise lawyer should pay attention to major changes and trends in the world, including the online world.

Bar and Grill Singers

The Bar and Grill Singers are an all-lawyer musical review group. They provided entertainment for our Oklahoma Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference this past Friday and the attendees absolutely loved them. In addition to the very funny lyrics of their songs set to familar tunes, they are just excellent singers. I'm naming their website as my site of the week for last week in gratitude for a great evening. Go listen to the clips of their songs there and you might even want to order a CD. (To my friends in the professional bar staff world: This would be a guaranteed hit for your event. Trust me.)

Tom Mighell and Ross Kodner were our special guest speakers, but we had lots of Oklahoma stars doing presentations, too. We had lots of great content. The initial look at the reviews was great.

Site of the Week: Oklahoma Almanac online (Free)

As a young lawyer, one of my early "finds" was the Directory of Oklahoma. The book was later renamed the Oklahoma Almanac. This thick book was published every other year by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. It contains a wealth of information about our state, local government, geography and such. I always loved having all of the addresses and phone numbers of government officials and agencies in one book. Well, I recently learned that the Oklahoma Almanac is online in PDF format. I'd think many Oklahoma lawyers would at least want to download the ABC Chapter (Agencies, Boards and Commissions.) Considering the cost of paper and printer cartridges you might just want to order a copy for $15.00 plus $2.15 s/h. Even though it was printed in 2005, they are still in stock. You may not find a better bargain for your law library at only $8.575 per year.

Placing the information in this book on the WWW for free earns the Oklahoma Almanac from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries a mention as Website of the Week.

Site of the Week: Simply Google

Well, honestly you couldn't have a more plain and simple looking interface than Google's. But maybe a bit more can be even more simple, or at least more functional. Check out Simply Google. Thanks to Debbie Foster for this tip. This page also led me to visit Google Current for the first time. Google Current is a Web news show (TV style) from Google based on recent popular search terms.

Site of the Week:Gethuman database

We've all experienced frustration trying to navigate through automated telephone systems. ("Press 1 if you are bleeding profusely, Press 2 if you are having trouble breathing.")

The Gethuman database lists the customer service numbers of many companies and is worthwhile on that basis alone. But it also provides the key numbers to press and other methods to bypass the menus and get to a real human being for assistance.

e.g.

US Postal Service

800‑275‑8777

Press 5 4 2 2 at each prompt.

What a great site!

Site of the Week: OANDA Foreign Exchange Currency Converter

Here is a nice currency converter site to add to your favorites. "FXConverter (Foreign Exchange Currency Converter) is a multi-lingual Currency Converter with up to date exchange rates provided from leading market data contributors and is filtered for validity. To get the exchange rates for any of the 164 currencies, select the desired currencies ...."

This was suggested to me by Reba Nance, Director of Law Practice Management for the Colorado Bar.

Site of the Week: Amy Campbell's Web Diversions

Amy Campbell is a marketing and communication consultant who serves professional service firms. Her blog is located here. A couple of years ago I stumbled across Amy's list of web diversions. My Site of the Week is Amy Campbell's Top Ten Web Diversions for 2005. Even though it was posted in December of 2005, there's a lot of entertaining materials that probably many of you have not seen. And don't forget to scroll down to the bottom for the links to the 2004 and 2003 collections. (They often do load slowly. I think it is a Harvard blog thing.) Sorry I didn't get to your site at ABA TECHSHOW's 60 Sites in 60 minutes last week, Amy. But it will be posted with the other 60 Sites archive links, which should hopefully go up next week at the TECHSHOW web site. For those of you who are anxiously awaiting that, take a last look at our 2005 collection, which contains a lot more than just 60 sites.

Site of the Week: Taxonomy of Legal Blogs

Ian Andrew Best, a student at the Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, Columbus, has generated quite a bit of online fame for himself with his online Taxonomy of Legal Blogs. Yes, he may well be the first law student to garner academic credit for blogging. His sorted collection of many blawg names and links may be very useful to the practitioner and should be bookmarked. You never know when some day you’ll need some current information and wonder if there is an aviation law blog, a search and seizure blog or a Tenth Circuit blog. Nice work, Andrew.

Site of the Week: Trumba.com

Last week I featured 30 Boxes, the online calendar. Since then several people directed my attention to another online calendar, Trumba, which gets the nod for this week's Website of the Week. Trumba has many advanced features like RSS Newsfeeds and subscribing to e-mail alerts. But a couple of features really caught my eye. If you see an event on someone's calendar that you would like to add to your calendar, you can do so with a mouse click. (Five calendar types supported, including Outlook.) Even better, for a modest subscription fee, you can set it to sync with an Outlook Calendar. In other words, if you use Outlook in your organization, you can just set up an additional account and calendar entries made for that user's calendar will automatically be posted to your public Trumba calendar for all the world to see. No special training required.

Site of the Week: 30 Boxes

30 Boxes is a nifty free Web 2.0 calendaring application. It is an online calendar you can share with certain others or make public. It may not be appropriate for a lawyer's calendar or for a single trying to date several people without the others finding out. But it might well be appropriate for a calendar for several opposing counsel to use in scheduling many depositions within a short time or some other similar situation. Where I could see it being really useful is for busy parents. The parents would have data entry access while the children, babysitter and grandparents have viewing access. Or maybe you could use it for a Little League game and practice schedule for all of the players and families. In short, like so many new Web 2.0 applications, you just need to be aware of 30 Boxes in case you see a need for it.

Site of the Week: Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools

I have to admit it is a little more difficult to do a Website of the Week in the weeks leading up our presentation of 60 Sites in 60 Minutes for ABA TECHSHOW 2006. I've got to hold a few back. So, I decided to look at last year's 60 Sites for a few really great sites that I have yet to feature here. That turned out to be a good idea as I apparently had not yet mentioned Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools. The author describes the content as focused on "[c]ool tools [that] really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group." I'd also note that the contributors seem to especially appreciate inexpensive tools, like the $10 Power Squid, the free graph paper generator, and the $9 USB cell phone charger. But there's also material like this cutting edge piece on Consensus Web Filters.

Site of the Week:PracticePro's Managing a Better Professional Services Firm

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a short, concise book on the basics of improving your law firm's client service? In theory, it would be brief enough so that you'd actually have time to read it- maybe 50 pages. It would have a self analysis tool so you could rate how well your firm is doing now. It would discuss how to use better communication to have more satisfied clients. It would cover everything from more effective daily working techniques to marketing to strategic planning. It would even include a client satisfaction survey form. Yes, it is here and it is free. Dan Pinnington and his team at PracticePro have produced "Managing a Better Professional Services Firm." Don't miss it! (There's even a bonus link to download the LawPro Magazine (Winter 2006) with related information.)

Site of the Week: OBA Starting a Law Practice Web Directory

I'm going to cheat a bit with my Website of the Week this week. It is one of ours. The OBA Management Assistance Program Starting a Law Practice Web Directory recently was published online. My loyal assistant, Sharon Dotson, put a lot of work into it and I did a little. We are both pleased with the result. (Well, we are pleased with version 1. Stay tuned.) The directory includes many articles of interest to the new small firm lawyer and links to many other resources, including the online resources of my fellow bar practice management advisors. We hope many will find the information here valuable. This site is posted in support of a new day-long program that the OBA is offering next month called The New Lawyer Experience. You can read all about this free program to help Oklahoma lawyers get started with their new law practices. Enjoy. And, if we missed anything really great with the directory, drop me an e-mail about it. There's always version 2.

Site of the Week: David Maister.com

It's not suprising that David Maister now has a blog, "Passion, People and Principles." He has a long tradition of posting lots of advice and insight on the Web.

In case you have not heard of David Maister, suffice it to say that he is a management guru, particularly where professional service firm managment is concerned. He has published several important books, like First Among Equals: How to Manage a Group of Professionals (with Patrick J. McKenna) and The Trusted Advisor (with Charles Green and Robert M. Galford.)

For several years, he provided an "ask David" web feature posting responses to a number of submitted questions. While he has discontinued this after five years, the archives are available here. See this example of his thoughts on law firm succession planning from a prior "Ask David" response.

Along with the other great content on his site, he now regularly publishes detailed and thought-provoking essays on his blog. Here are some sample titles from just this month so far: The Brutal Truth About Other People, The Managing Partner's Speech, and What Does it Take to be Truly Great? He also has a podcast among his other offerings. Check out the wealth of free information on this week's Website of the Week.

The most surprising thing about his site is an entry on his blogroll for my blog. Wow! Color me surprised and very pleased.

Site of the Week: Whataboutclients.com

Developing new client service models is an important aspect of law firm planning and management. There is no doubt that clients have different expectations about service now than a generation ago. Some of this is related to technology. E-mail allows us to exchange messages hourly as opposed to the old "mail a letter and wait three days" mentality. Client extranets allow for an expanded type of client service. Generally speaking, clients know what is possible and they feel like they pay a premium for legal services and should receive a premium service. if their services are not convenient, timely and efficient, then they may seek alternatives. This would include non-lawyer and Internet legal service providers for the consumer and in-house counsel or offshore providers for the corporation.

So I suggest that all lawyers would benefit by reading one of my favorite blogs, Dan Hull's Whataboutclients.com. He writes many thoughtful and provocative posts. He also looks for other online articles about client service and references them. He's been posting rules about client service. The first six are here and include:

1. Represent only clients you like.

2. The client is the main event.

3. Make sure everyone in your firm knows the client is the main event.

4. Deliver legal work that changes the way clients think about lawyers.

5. Over-communicate: bombard, copy and confirm.

6. When you work, you are marketing.

Good material. Rule #1 may not always be possible for the criminal defense lawyer, for example. But thinking about these things and reading Dan's extended commentary will help your law firm develop a plan for success. (Rules 7  and 8 have been posted, but you'll have to go to Dan's blog to find them.)

Site of the Week: Guy Kawasaki's Let the Good Times Roll

This is a bit of an unusual Site of the Week selection for me. Guy Kawasaki's Let the Good Times Roll blog has only been around over a month. His one week in law school doesn't qualify him as a legal expert. But I'd just ask you to read two of his posts and see what you think. I think they will be worth your time and you may have an opportunity to pass the first one along in response to an e-mail some day very soon. One is The Effective Emailer, with 67 comments posted and 26 trackback links in less than a week. The other is The Art of Schmoozing.

Website of the Week: IHeartTech

The knowledgable (and very charming) Adriana Linares has launched the IHeartTech blog featuring "Technology Tips and Advice for a Lawyer's Life and Business." I must be slipping. She started it in December and I just found out. Among other things, she is a whiz on law firm training issues.

I think her blog is going to be a bit more personal than some. Here's Exhibit #1 from her post on Relationship Rules: "Want to date me? You better follow some rules...here are some starters: 1. Bring gifts (preferably from CompUsa)...." OK, settle down guys. Actually the post is about setting rules in Outlook. A belated welcome to the blogosphere, Adriana.

Site of the Week: StopBadware.org

Use of the Internet is just about a business requirement these days. But the Internet isn't easy these days. From spammers to scammers, it just seems like there's always some new online threat or annoyance. I get very angry when I think about all of the people and businesses whose "work" is to try to intall things on my computer without my approval or permission. This week's Website of the Week is StopBadware.org. It has just recently been created as a joint project of several groups and companies. There's not much there yet, but visit it and add it to your Favorites. Feel free to contribute information. Hopefully this will become a great resource to visit before downloading or installing any new software to see if it is "badware."

Site of the Week: My Shingle

It's been three years since Carolyn Elefant hung "My Shingle" on the Internet. Since that time, the site has amassed a huge collection of resources for solo and small firm lawyers. Her Online Guide to Starting a Law Firm contains links to more resources on the WWW that you might have thought existed on that topic. Carolyn has very strong opinions. She rails against "biglaw" and has a much more negative opinion of bar associations than I do. (I've met hundreds of state bar employees over the years and find them to be dedicated professionals.) But no one can argue with her dedication to helping out other solo and small firm lawyers and her consistent posting of new content and news. Can one person change the world? Well, Carolyn has proven that one person can change the Internet, at least as far as solo and small firm lawyers go.

My Shingle is my Website of the Week.