SC Small Firm.com

Archive for the ‘Internet tools’ Category

Many small firm lawyers are looking for ways to keep their computer technology costs down, particularly costs associated with networking.  Google Apps is hosted tools for business. Google Apps suite includes: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Apps Marketplace and more. Apps offers customized email addresses (smith@smithlawfirm.com, for example), mobile email, calendar, and IM access. The cost begins at around $50 a year per user.

By using a web-hosted solution instead of an Exchange Server, there are no additional hardware or software costs. Google handles spam filtering. Apps claims to offer 24/7 email and phone support and 99.9% uptime guarantee. Naturally, there are also long-standing security concerns with Google and all other online service providers. Google has a white paper available http://bit.ly/awqMS8 in PDF.

Google now offers two-step verification which is similar to what large law firms and major companies use. Two-step verification requires two means of identification to sign in to a Google Apps account, something you know: a password, and something you have: a mobile phone. It doesn’t require any special tokens or devices. After entering your password, a verification code is sent to your mobile phone via SMS, voice calls, or generated on an application you can install on your Android, BlackBerry or iPhone device. This makes it much more likely that you’re the only one accessing your data: even if someone has stolen your password, they’ll need more than that to access your account. You can also indicate when you’re using a computer you trust and don’t want to be asked for a verification code from that machine in the future.

The South Carolina Bar Convention was held January 21 – 24, at Kiawah Island Golf Resort. My favorite part, as always, was the Technology seminar on Thursday afternoon. The Tech seminar has become something of a tradition at the Convention. Over the years, we’ve been honored to have some top-notch national speakers from the world of legal technology. Past speakers have included Ross Kodner, Sharon Nelson and John Simek, Craig Ball, Walt Mossberg, Jim Calloway, and more. This year, Convention attendees were wowed by Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch, of Internet for Lawyers.

Mark and Carole are nationally known and respected “cybersleuths.”  Mark’s background is in business, the entertainment industry and technology; Carole’s is in law and library science. Together they have created Internet for Lawyers, through which they speak, write,  and assist lawyers with finding the electronic “smoking gun.” Their current book, The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet, will be joined soon by two new books for the ABA Law Practice Management Section – Find Info Like a Pro, vol. I, will debut at ABA TECHSHOW in March.

The session was fast, funny, and informative. Mark and Carole really know their stuff. I learned many things I didn’t know about research on the Internet. Judging from the comments from the lawyers attending, I wasn’t alone. In three hours, we covered everything from how to investigate people and companies using free web sites, to some great tips on software and web sites most lawyers have, but aren’t using as well as they should. I know it will be hard to top this year’s program. I’ll be looking hard for next year’s speakers when I attend ABA TECHSHOW in March.

What if you need to arrange a conference call among a group of lawyers – but don’t have a fancy phone system or service? One solution is to use one of a number of services on the Internet that offer “free” conference calls. These services either provide free conference calling by using a toll number (i.e. not an 800) number that the attendees dial or you can get toll free number for a reasonable price.  Some to try: FreeConferenceCall.com®, Free Conference.com®, or Totally Free Conference Calls. You could also try Skype. For web conferencing with up to 20 people, take a look at DimDim.