Archive for the ‘the business of law’Category

Chrometa gets Thumbs Up from WebWorkerDaily

Recently WebWorkerDaily reviewed time and billing app (and Practicehacker sponsor) Chrometa here and gave it rave reviews. But that’s no surprise. WWD had this to say about the program

Most time tracking and management applications require some up front work before you can roll with them, but not Windows app Chrometa. This utility starts working for you as soon as you install it. Running in the background, Chrometa tracks all your computing activities including emails, visits to web sites and open applications. It sorts the activities by application or tool and does it all without you needing to do a thing.

But I’ve known that since I became an alpha tester and true believer in Chrometa last year. I guess the only surprise is that it took this long for the web-based media to “get” Chrometa. Now that they’ve caught up, I wish the Chrometa crew even more success in the future. Go get ‘em guys!

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11

03 2010


by practicehacker
posted in Sponsor, apps, software, technology, the business of law, tips, tools, work
1 Comment

Clio Calendar Upgrade (and how!)

Here’s a video of the enhanced calendar put out by Clio on Vimeo.
The guys from Clio show off in this short video and I can’t blame them. Having used Clio for over a year, I did hand-springs when I saw the improvements. Almost makes me want to forgive them for winning the gold in Hockey at the Winter Games!

01

03 2010


by practicehacker
posted in .mobi, 37 Signals, Apple, Mobile device, SaaS, Video, apps, clio, disruptive technology, iPhone, iPhone Apps, litigation, manager, media, mobile, new media, practice, practice management, review, rocketmatter, startup, storage, tags, technology, the business of law
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Have a Fanpage on Facebook? Does it work?

Webtrends, which offers detailed web analysis tools, just rolled out a suite of new measurement capabilities for Facebook that allow users to view and compare Facebook data alongside data for other channels. For small firms and sole-practitioners, this development means that you can more easily measure and compare the effect of your Facebook and Twitter pages. Of course if you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter page then this might be a good time to get cracking.

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27

02 2010


by practicehacker
posted in facebook, legal marketplace, linkedin, mashable, media, new media, practice, practice management, realtime, social graph, social media, social media tools, social networking, the business of law, tips, twitter
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eDiscovery for the Rest of Us?

E-discovery was once the sole concern of large law firms involved in large-scale litigation. But as EDD increasingly becomes an issue in smaller cases for smaller law firms, small and solo lawyers are learning some hard lessons about electronic evidence in litigation. Michael Barnsback, an employment and civil litigation senior associate with DiMuro Ginsberg says e-discovery is increasingly an issue for his 12-attorney firm in Alexandria, Virginia. While it is a challenge, he thinks it can sometimes benefit a small firm like his. He says there was a time when big law firms could count on bigger budgets and staff to out-muscle opposing counsel at smaller law firms. In particular, the document dump, the practice of sending as many files for review close to the start of a trial, has long been a favorite tactic for overwhelming an opponent. “It’s certainly leveled the playing field for us,” he says. “You don’t need a big team to do review.  If someone dumps a truckload of boxes on you, now you can scan them, put them in a searchable format, and one person on one computer can find what you need to go into the case prepared.”

But for many small firms, the technical demands of identifying, preserving, archiving, reviewing, and producing digital evidence for trial is increasingly becoming a problem, and one they cannot avoid. “We’re seeing tremendous growth for small firm e-discovery services,” says John Simek, a computer forensics specialist with Sensei Enterprises. “Judges are expecting attorneys to take it seriously and the attorneys realize that ethically they have an obligation to consider digital sources for evidence.” Unfortunately, lawyers who haven’t been involved in major litigation involving digital documents probably haven’t had a chance to learn things that some big firms have learned the hard way. Even more, small and solo firms often have hurdles to overcome that large-scale litigators never have to think about. For example, many lawyers who have never been involved in e-discovery before may mistakenly believe that printing an e-mail might be an obvious way to produce a document. However, there is a body of law that may require litigants to preserve metadata or other digital features in a document that are lost when printing. And while large firms can typically hire professional forensic examiners, small firms trying to operate on a tight budget might be inclined to do forensic examinations themselves, which could open up a host of problems.

<Read the Entire Article Here>

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25

02 2010


by practicehacker
posted in e-discovery, legal research, practice, practice management, realtime, search, semantic search, technology, the business of law, tips, tools
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Measuring Twitter ROI

 

SEO consultant Indu Priya recently wrote a post for the site Quick Online Tips about measuring return on investment (ROI) when it comes to Twitter. While the piece was not directed at lawyers, its messages were well taken and certainly apply to our practices. As the author notes there, it is notoriously hard to measure results on new-media platforms like Twitter; to discern what works from what doesn’t. But there are a number of tools available for those who want to measure their Twitter results and extrapolate their ROI. 

Obviously, to assess how close you are to your destination you must know where you’re going. Some firms have gone to the length of assemblying a marketing plan in order to set goals for themselves – but if you ask me a simple outline will do until you find out whether your aims are realistic, achievable, or economical. Consider these well-known Twitter success stories:

Dell famously uses Twitter to disseminate offers and discounts, as well as to listen in on market chatter. To guage success Dell counts the number of Twitter-based discounts redeemed by consumers, comparing those figures with the number of purchasers overall. The difference should represent the difference that Twitter makes in its customer-count.

Barack Obama’s Twitter account is the stuff of history – launched during his lightning 2008 presidential campaign, its goal was simply to touch as many people as possible and allow them to communicate with one another. Once their common Twitter friend (the Obama campaign) brought them together, the key metric measured b y the campaign was the number of posts (tweets) that were circulated (retweeted) by followers. After that the multiplier effect took over and delivered the vote.

Of course not all goals are measurable or even achievable; but most can be reached following some creative planning. In the meantime, consider these ROI measurement tools for Twitter and find more on OneForty: 

23

02 2010


by practicehacker
posted in Marketing, aggregator, business, current-events, disruptive technology, legal marketplace, lists, microblogging, new media, practice, practice management, president o'bama, radical transparency, realtime, search, social graph, social media, social media tools, social networking, software, technology, the business of law, tips, tools, websites
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Know where your Clients are?

This study regarding social networks has it all – thrills, chills, surprises, excitement.

Alright, I threw in that last part. Let’s just say that if you’re not using social networks to spread the good word about your law firm, you’re losing ground (because your competition definitely is). Your call. Use it or lose it.

In the meantime, please enjoy these meaningful charts.

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17

02 2010


by practicehacker
posted in Blogging, business, community, knowledge management, legal marketplace, social graph, social media, social media tools, social networking, the business of law
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Twitter Developments – Local Trends

This feature actually came out a while ago but I just noticed it (again). Set your location in Twitter and the service gives you a list of trending topics from local Twitterers (Twitteri? Twitterati? Twits?). How well does it work? Could be more accurate but then again how well it reflects your area depends on

  • How many people around you Twitter
  • Whether they really talk about local events
  • Whether the know how to use hash tags #

Anyway, it’s a step in the direction of localization which is surely the future of the Internet. I mean, I don’t know about you but there is a limit to how often I want to hear what celebrities or residents of Silicon Valley are doing. Ya’ know?

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07

02 2010


by practicehacker
posted in collaborative tools, community, cool stuff, disruptive technology, search, social networking, the business of law, tips, tools, twitter
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