http://www.ofaolain.com daily 1 2006-11-07T20:50:41Z http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/all-about-information-2010-solo-small-law-firm-conference It is probably pretty obvious I'm a bit obsessed with information, how lawyers use it, and how they can find it. I spoke at the 5th Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference on two panels. The first was with Rick Sage, a reference librarian at the Ontario Legislative Library. We discussed a variety of free resources available to Ontario lawyers. It was interesting to notice how many resources that appear to be "free" to our Law Society members are actually funded through their dues, like CanLII and LibraryCo. A second panel discussed focused on some advanced social media concepts, including strategy and how to manage your social activity in balance with your solo or small firm practice. The other panelists were Michele Allinotte and Jordan Furlong, both well known social media users and thinkers. It was fun hearing their take - both at the session and in our preparation - on how social media can fit into law practice. No publisher david Social media Search Bing.com Twitter Google 2010-05-16T00:49:20Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/lawyer-responsibilities-in-a-wired-world The Law Society of Upper Canada regulates the legal profession in Ontario and lawyers coming to practice here from international jurisdictions have to go through an education process. I was fortunate to be asked to speak to them about using legal technology in their practice, particularly to the extent their client confidential data might be impacted. The presentation discussed encryption in law firms, metadata, portable technology, and passwords. No publisher david Remote access Law Firm USB Small law firm Solo lawyer Encryption Virtual network computing Mobile technology Law practice management Risk management Legal technology Security Truecrypt 2010-05-06T09:58:12Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/finding-social-media-for-marketing-business-intelligence The life of the law librarian is never dull and for many years there has been a noticeable shift from traditional legal research to assisting in business development and business and competitive intelligence. How much a law librarian does will depend on the firm and the position of the librarian within it. An increasingly easy resource to tap are the many social media resources - from blogs and their comments to life-streaming services like Twitter or Jaiku - that are available on the Web. Not only are they available, they offer content that may be more off the cuff and informal than other corporate-vetted content. I write about how to find some of this information in this month's Web Watch in Law Technology News. No publisher david Social media Search Twitter LinkedIn 2010-05-04T01:44:41Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/open-source-in-the-law-firm I've written a short article on open source opportunities in law firms looking for a content management application. Specifically, the article in the April 2010 Law Technology News talks about Web content management, like Drupal, Plone (booyah), and Alfresco, and document management. Monica Bay, the editor of Law Technology News and blogger at The Common Scold, interviewed me about open source for a podcast. No publisher david Open Source Law Technology News Maintenance Linux Law Firm Content Management 2010-04-08T01:32:07Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/open-source-on-the-brain-cms-dms-os-1 Nothing like a strong (or strange) brew of open source software and acronyms. My blog posting for Slaw.ca on why lawyers should use open source operating systems Mint and Ubuntu was published this month. I have also worked up an article on open source content management and document management systems that will be published next month. No business software is perfect and open source fits in that category. But law firms and organizations that have avoided open source in the past would do well to consider it in the future. No publisher david Law Firm Drupal Law practice management Joomla Legal technology Document management Open Source Plone Content Management 2010-03-25T00:07:12Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/best-of-aba-techshow-2009.-twice The American Bar Association Techshow 2010 is generating a bit of interest as it gears up, and they are highlighting presentations from the 2009 conference. The two sessions I did with Catherine Sanders Reach were selected and the Techshow blog is linking to free copies of our papers on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cost-effective legal research. No publisher david American Bar Association Legal research Legal technology SaaS 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/risk-management-outside-the-office Foreign lawyers who are new to Ontario have to complete a 3 day course prior to their being permitted to practice. I was asked to participate and talk about risks lawyers may face when leaving their offices with client data on electronic devices. This presentation was the slide deck I used for my piece of the course. No publisher david Law Firm Encryption Law Society of Upper Canada Virtual network computing Mobile technology Law practice management Legal technology Altavista Security 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/do-we-still-need-e-mail That was the general question I asked in my first posting on the pan-Canadian law and information blog known as Slaw. I'll be contributing a column under the title "Working Tech" every two months. This first one included a number of ideas I've had floating around in the back of my head, not least of which was how or why would I want to use a technology like Twitter? No publisher david Blogs Twitter Law practice management E-mail Legal technology E-mail management 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/innovation-and-small-law-libraries County law libraries are an endangered species, with many of the strongest libraries facing funding shortfalls or outright closure. Those that are not funded by government are supported by membership dues and other creative financing schemes. A constant is that they are all facing financial challenges as print and electronic legal research materials get more expensive, the scope of library services broadens, and they try to adapt to modern law practice and research attitudes. I took a look at 5 law association libraries in Ontario in an article published in the November 2009 AALL Spectrum. No publisher david Innovation American Association of Law Libraries County law libraries 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/security-in-a-wired-world Today I participated in my first teleconference continuing legal education (CLE) seminar. Not only was that a first, but I was with the largest panel of speakers I'd ever experienced at one session and from a variety of backgrounds. The session went smoothly and I picked up a lot of interesting tips and hopefully the content will be useful for the live (and future) participants. No publisher david ASP Law Firm Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Encryption Cloud computing Mobile technology Law practice management Legal technology Blackberry Software-as-a-service Smartphone Law Society of Upper Canada iPhone 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/automatic-time-tracking-article-in-law-technology-news I've spent more time this year than probably in any other thinking about lawyer productivity. One of the recent software developments has been improved time tracking. In fact, this software is not designed primarily for lawyers but seems to have come from the freelance, self-employed world of creative types. It can be a great tool for lawyers who are trying to figure out where their time goes. I wrote an article comparing three products in the October 2009 Law Technology News. No publisher david Productivity Law Technology News Time tracking Legal technology Law Firm Time management 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/right-size-your-legal-research-published I wrote a short piece for the Ontario Bar Association, a branch of the Canadian Bar Association, on some tips for managing the costs of legal research. Since research is not a large part of most lawyers' work, it makes sense to keep tabs on what you're paying for and how you can save money by balancing your research overhead costs with free resources. As many librarians know, if you don't watch closely what you're getting in print and online, you can quickly see your costs rise with little tangible added value. This includes the usual suspects - your local law association libraries, for example - but also some concepts familiar to law librarians that may not be so apparent to lawyers. No publisher david Westlaw Law Firm Law Librarian Subscriptions Vendors Law practice management Legal research LexisNexis Ontario Bar Association Overhead CCH Canada Law Book Law Library County law libraries 2010-03-03T01:44:00Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/legal-technology-in-law-schools-2009-cali-conference I'm just flying back to Toronto after a great visit to Boulder, Colorado, home of this year's CALI Law School Technology conference. For anyone who hasn't attended a CALI conference, it is the best place to find out about what you can do with technology in a legal information environment with limited resources. Many of the presentations at the conference dealt with significant applications, complicated systems, and innovative ideas that could put corporate IT departments to shame considering the number of staff and dollars most law schools have for technology. I spoke on a panel with Wayne Miller and Ken Hirsh on the opportunities for teaching law students about legal technology before they enter the profession. No publisher david Open Source Law school Drupal Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction Legal technology Library technology Linux Law Library Content Management 2010-03-03T01:43:59Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/productivity-tips-for-lawyers-1 I spoke on a panel with Carolyn Wilson and John Starzynski about lawyer productivity and having a balanced life. Carolyn told a great story of adapting to life changes while practicing, and some of the tools she uses. John talked about some of the challenges that lawyers face - alcohol, depression, etc. - and some of the "simple" things that can help minimize some of these problems. My piece was focused on tips for better productivity, and I had initially thought I would be the techie on the panel. As it turned out, my tips tended towards a variety of low tech concepts as well. No publisher david Law Firm Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) CLE Law Society of Upper Canada Productivity Law practice management Legal technology Hipster PDA Checklists Stopwatch Interruptions E-mail management 2010-03-03T01:43:59Z News Item http://www.ofaolain.com/Members/david/news/aba-techshow-2009-presentations Another enjoyable visit to Chicago for the 2009 American Bar Association Techshow. Catherine Sanders Rearch and I collaborated on a pair of presentations, one on cost-effective legal research and another on software-as-a-service (SaaS) for lawyers. Techshow remains one of the primary legal technology conferences for North American legal professionals and I was only one among many Canadian participants. No publisher david ASP Business Software American Bar Association SaaS Law practice management Legal research Hosted Applications Legal technology Techshow 2010-03-03T01:43:59Z News Item