Archive for the ‘legal research’Category

Instant Law Clerk

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This is the second really good practice hack that I’ve come across in a week, and it incorporates all the best things about the new, new Internet (Web 2.1?): crowdsourcing, naming your own price, friction-free transactions, and cheap labor.

Cheap labor, you say? You bet. Instant Law Clerk uses the cheapest, most plentiful resource in the world – law students – to deliver research to practicing attorneys faster than they can do it themselves, and at a fraction of the cost. The idea is so simple, it’s a wonder law schools haven’t monopolized the market themselves. The recipe is compelling: take one practitioner short on time and resources but in need of research to make it to trial or to meet a briefing schedule; add a law student in need of cash and real-world experience; and you’ve got a match made in Internet heaven.

So now the only question you need to answer is: Are you still doing your own research? Why? When you can simply enter a question to be answered and name your price at www.instantlawclerk.com? Their team of 2nd and 3rd year students from around the country is ready to do the research so you can analyze, review, and ultimately use the results in your pleadings, letters, and memoranda.

Leaving you with more time to play golf … er … prepare for trial.

Posted via email from practice (redux)

GrexIt Take 2

Grexit

A few weeks ago I posted a video introduction to knowledge-management application GrexIt.

Many people apparently want to know more, so here is a synopsis of what this free tool can do. GrexIt works on the principal that vital information is often custom-crafted for each client, then buried in client communications. The application attempts to solve the problem by breaking down your messages by phrase, concept, even by word, then reorganizes those elements into a searchable knowledge-base. GrexIt’s performance has been documented by such high-profile blogs as GigaOmTheNextWeb, and ReadWriteWeb. Check it out yourself and let me know if you like GrexIt.

Posted via email from practice (redux)

ABA TechShow 2011

As most readers know, I write a column for NYC-based TechnoLawyer called SmallLaw (formerly known as, no joke, “Crazy Mazy”). Anyhow, as TechnoLawyer’s intrepid Chicago reporter I’ve written about the ABA TechShow since 2008; and before that for this blog.

Here are the 12 videos we shot at this year’s TechShow. Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more legal tech news and check out my TechnoLawyer pieces as well.

Opzi … it’s Quorariffic!

Opzi

You’ve heard about Q&A phenom Quora, right?  Well meet Opzi, the site started by Attorney Euwyn Poon that aims to bottle that Quora lightning and put in on your desktop.

Opzi is part bulletin board, part wiki, part e-mail in-box, part whiteboard, and part real-time-collaboration. The site threads, tags, and organizes every question and answer, then applies a powerful search engine and some machine intelligence. Voila – your office knowledge base grows effortlessly with every new question and answer. The possibilities are staggering. Deployed in a firm or across a group of solos and small firms, for instance, Opzi can draw information and resources, then deploy them when and where needed. In other words, instant knowledge-sharing.

Opzi is currently in closed beta. I’m just starting to appreciate it myself. If you’d like to join the experiment check it out here and let me know your thoughts.

Yahoo Sells Delicious

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The first time I recommended delicio.us as a research aid, Bar Association members thought I was making up the name.

See. I told you it was real. Now the YouTube guys are going to own it. Wonder if they’ll change the name?

Yahoo has finally found a buyer for long suffering Delicious. YouTube founders Chad Hurleyand Steve Chen have acquired the company, says Yahoo, via a “new Internet company, AVOS.”

via techcrunch.com

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3 .. 2 .. 1 .. IgniteLaw 2011!

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I will be attending IgniteLaw 2011 at the Chicago Hilton & Towers before the ABA Technology Show.  Order your tickets here.  See you there!

I will also be covering the show on behalf of TechnoLawyer, as I have for the past 4 years … and before that for this blog. Should be great this year!

Posted via email from practice (redux)