practicehacker

While lawyers continue to languish in social media limbo, Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools wants to generate discussions that set the pace in this evolving area.

Created by University of Iowa student Laura Bergus, the website now has over 110 members from several dozen schools. Members  including administrators, career counselors, faculty, students, librarians, and even practitioners, all of whom are encouraged to share perspectives, policy recommendations, and other input on the use of social media in the legal profesion.

Most interesting to me was the fact that this website was built using the Ning platform, which got its start in 2005 empowering users to show off and share applications. Those apps could be assembled into unique applications.  Ning has changes a lot but this site shows that the initial idea is still valid.

Once you snatch the pebble from my hand ...

I recently published this guide for the involuntarily solo to help out the swelling ranks of attorneys displaced from law firms or newly minted from law schools only to find themselves flat on their assets.  To my surprise, months after publishing my piece I found this entertaining post called  The Number One Reason My Startup Failed. In it web developer Fred Jabre describes going through some of the very experiences that solo’s enjoy every day:  edge-of-your seat excitement, being your own boss, triumph, and ultimately tragedy as our hero scores a near miss but still ends up working for The Man. Brother I’ve been there. Not only did this post parallel my struggle with the practice I started, it managed to dredge up bitter-sweet memories of my own dot com escapade - a $250,000 money pit eLawCentral;  like the Tucker Torpedo and the Apple Newton that site was the answer to a question nobody asked. Thanks a lot teaBUZZED. Now I’ll have to spend another 3 years in therapy.

From the July edition of the Clio newsletter comes this thought-provoking list of 10 Things Every Lawyer Should Know About Legal SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). The full discussion can be downloaded from JD Supra as well as in the e-book of the same name. 10 Things Every Lawyer Should Know about Software-as-a-Service. The points below will also form the basis of an upcoming CLE series to be put on by the founders of Clio.  

Part 1: What is Software-as-a-Service? What exactly is Software-as-a-Service? How does it stack up?

Part 2: Why (Or Why Not) Choose a SaaS Solution? The SaaS advantage over traditional applications

Part 3: Why Web-Based Practice Management? Why SaaS is a perfect fit for solos and small firms

Part 4: Security. Key concepts and terminology

Part 5: Privacy. What to look for in a site’s privacy policies

Part 6: Data Availability. The answers you want to get when you ask your SaaS provider about data recovery

Part 7: Total Cost of Ownership. how to compare the costs of SaaS to traditional desktop software

Part 8: Terms of Service. What to look for in your legal arrangement with your SaaS provider

Part 9: Data Migration. Migrating data to your SaaS application – what’s the process?

Part 10: Offline Access. Why offline access is important, and how to make it happen. 

A simple illustration of what trends will hit this year. Pay attention!

Earlier this year in my Smalllaw column I wrote about the use of location-based services and Twitter to create a real-time feed (posts, dockets, hearing outcomes, files, research, etc.).  Let’s call it a Casestream.  And while location-enabled applications such as Brightkite, Twinkle, and Loopt have been with us for a while, the advent of Google Lattitude means everyone can experience and potentially adopt such services. Just look at the potential of applications such as Foursquare. How much longer until the legal profession gets into the act?

The Upshot: Easy document assembly, 90-day free trial, a tad pricey at $395/license.

The Interview: Roy Lasris, publisher of document-assembly program Pathagoras, showed me how the program worked with our existing documents and installation of Word 2007 (as well as older versions of Word and Wordperfect). The application is practically invisible except when called upon. Setup takes about 20 minutes, and 10 minutes after that most users can be turning existing documents into forms that are auto-filled using information entered only once such as client or party names and addresses, matter names and numbers, etc.

The Evaluation: Pathagoras has got the goods. Document automation could scarcely get easier and you already own wordprocessing software so this is addition is no-brainer. Of course I prefer a less chunky interface and more of that smooth web-native look, but in all likelihood this is all you’d need. Plus you can easily (I mean, easily) load up your existing office documents and get them humming. As for price – I prefer free, and this isn’t free. So it’s a cost-benefit analysis, and not a difficult one at that.

The Critique: Sure the product works well and is simple, but I’m the practicehacker so I can be picky. What would benefit Pathagoras and add more value would be a collaborative space where users can share tips and information, a list of free and premium templates, and pay-as-you-go pricing instead of that one-shot payment. That’s the business model you want, Roy.

The Recommendation: For practice areas like bankruptcy, divorce, estate planning, real estate, and other document intensive areas, the  program sells itself.  For more involved practices a more comprehensive solution may be needed but I would still recommend giving Pathagoras a try and pushing it to its limits before you pay more  for another system. You might be surprised how flexible this system can be.

The Rating: 4 hacks (out of 5)

Feedback:  If you’ve used Pathagoras or have an opinion about it, sound off in the comments or contact me atmhedayat@mha-law.com.