Thinkin Bout Practice Management Stuff!

From Lexicata.com

If you know me, you know I love practice management systems (what we used to call case management software in pre-cloud days). Some folks still call it "case-management." That's a gross misnomer, cause the stuff does so, so, so much more. Make the mistake of asking me a question on practice management systems and I'll talk to you until your ears bleed (just ask my friend Shane who bought me coffee yesterday morning and then asked....)

Anyway, Aaron George recently written a great article at Lexicata giving an overview of the current big players in case management software. You should check it out. I agree with everything he writes.

Aaron has his own preferences, that you can read about. As for me, I place Clio and Rocket Matter (we use Rocket Matter in our practice) at the top of the heap. CosmoLex and Practice Panther are moving up the mountain with impressive strides. MyCase is an old timer that is still relevant. Abacus and Amicus? Forget about 'em.

There are some other players that Aaron does not mention, but that I will:  HoudiniEsq, Smokeball, LexRex.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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The Fringe Benefits of Being a Family Law Lawyer

Family law is an intriguing practice area. As a family law lawyer you must be an expert in multiple areas of substantive law: family, civil procedure, evidence (yes, evidence, if you are good family lawyer!), tax, probate, even criminal. You need to be adept at negotiation. And, you must be a skilled trial lawyer. Poo-poo on those in the legal profession who say family lawyers don't need skills...

Depending on how you craft your practice, you can do a lot of traveling for work, or very little. I have friends around the country who maintain statewide practices. By choice, those folks live out of suitcases. Alternatively there are people like me, who limit their practices to one or two counties, thus avoiding the work-hotel life (though for me, practicing in the commuter hell of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties does present its challenges).

On the plus side, when I do travel for work, it is usually fun travel. As a Fellow in the AAML and the IAFL, there are a plethora of conferences available. Throw in the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association, and you can really travel for work and pleasure. And why not?
If your budget allows, work/CLE conferences expand your professional skills, expand your business network, and expand your personal horizons. They are a wonderful distraction from the day to day rigor of practicing law.

Recent work travels have provided a rewarding life balance for me. London, Bahamas, Lisbon, Chicago, Savannah, Tokyo, Stuttgart. That's about 50,000 airplane miles, and three, four weeks of time. But it is professional time mixed with personal time. That is a great combination.

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

As family law lawyers we all work very hard. We need to reward ourselves, and maintain a degree of separation from the emotion of our clients' worlds. Take a breath, step away. Find a conference. State bar associations put on great programs. The ABA puts on great programs. State Chapters of the AAML put on great programs, and you don't have to be an AAML Fellow to attend. In States that have them, certified specialist organizations put on great programs in great locations. Treat yourself!

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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Does Anyone Dictate Anything Anymore?

I have watched movies from bygone eras where the boss man speaks into a microphone, then the recording is handed over to his female secretary for typing up. To me these were extra steps that just were not productive, nor did the exercise foster creativity through reflection.

I have never, ever dictated anything (okay, about 15 years ago I tried Dragon Speaking, but it didn't work as well as typing, so I tossed it).  For me, it has always been faster and better to type it up myself. Now that 99% of my written communications are electronic (either as emails or pdf), that practice is even stronger.

Apparently, though, the idea of dictation is not dead. Over at attorney@work, Eric Wangler has a nice little article on the continued viability of dictation. And, it looks like today's dictation platforms are a far cry from those tape recorders of yesteryear. Please click here to read Eric's article.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law

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Sending Text Messages From Your Computer

Happy day after Christmas. I hope everyone is taking a few days off, and looking forward to the New Year. I know I am. Well, not completely. I had to procure some emergency orders for a client last week, and now I am needing to communicate with the other party. The only means available to me is the sending of text messages. But I want to make sure I have a record of the communications, and I don't want to be sending from my very private smartphone.

I learned this morning that it is possible to send messages from my computer to a cell phone number.  Mark Coppock has a great instructional article at Digital Trends. From your Outlook, or Gmail, or other email program, in the "to" box you simply enter the recipient's cell phone number followed by the designation for the recipient's cell phone service provider, and off you go.  For example, 9251234567@text.att.net would get your email to an AT&T subscriber with the phone number (925)123-4567.

Here is a table for the most popular cell phone service providers:

• AT&T: number@txt.att.net
• T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net [You may have to put a 1 before the number for it to work with Mobile]
• Verizon: number@vtext.com (text-only), number@vzwpix (text + photo)
• Sprint: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com or number@pm.sprint.com
• Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com
• Tracfone: number@mmst5.tracfone.com
• Metro PCS: number@mymetropcs.com
• Boost Mobile: number@myboostmobile.com
• Cricket: number@mms.cricketwireless.net
• Ptel: number@ptel.com
• Republic Wireless: number@text.republicwireless.com
• Google Fi (Project Fi): number@msg.fi.google.com
• Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com
• Ting: number@message.ting.com
• U.S. Cellular: number@email.uscc.net
• Consumer Cellular: number@cingularme.com
• C-Spire: number@cspire1.com
• Page Plus: number@vtext.com

The beauty of this system is that I have a record of the message in the sent folder of my email program. I don't have to take a screen shot of my phone, I don't have to run an app to archive the message. Very handy...

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law.

#textmessaging #Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers

USB Connections

It is amazing how much stuff I have plugged in to my computer. There is my internet phone. My webcam. Speakers. Multiple monitors. Wi-fi. A scanner. A printer. Chargers, and on and on.

Fortunately, someone somewhere invented USB ports. I have four built into my computer. What is great about USB, is the expandability. Each of the USB ports on your computer can be expanded, like a tree growing branches. Plug a hub into a USB port, and you create more capacity. Plug a hub into a hub, and you create more capacity. You can daisy chain to your heart's content, and expand your capacity without limit. Heck, I may plug a blender into my computer and make some margaritas!

I needed more USB capacity, so I went shopping. Turns out Amazon has its own 4-port hub, and it's quite good.

This little guy turns one USB port into four. It draws its power from your computer. And it works great. I am very happy with mine. Here's the best news: it costs $6.99 at Amazon Prime. That's a great bargain.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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Creating a Process for Translation During the Legal Discovery Process

One of the most essential parts of fair procedure and due process in a trial is the pre-trial discovery. Legal teams on both sides of the case are legally obligated to share and exchange all relevant documentation in an effort to avoid “trial by ambush”.

The concept of pre-trial discovery is becoming more and more difficult, though. With the growth of cross-border litigation in our vastly global economy coming to an all-time high, discovery has become a lot more complex.

During discovery, dealing with multilingual documents makes the entire process much more laborious. This can affect collecting, filtering, reviewing, and processing all of the various documents. One of the best ways to handle these multilingual documents is by following a decision-making algorithm for legal translation that you can use to complete your discovery efficiently and accurately.

What’s the volume of the discovery documents you’re looking through?

You can determine how you’ll handle your multilingual discovery documents based on how many legal documents you have to translate. For smaller volumes of discovery documents that hold less than 1000 words for translation into maximum two languages, the smart course of action would be to choose a full legal document translation that translates every page.

This would be done by hiring a human translator who has a legal background or subject matter expertise in the legal field so that they can accurately translate the source text.

Alternatively, if you need to translate higher volumes of discovery documents, full human translation can often be too expensive. Instead, you can partner with a professional translation company so that they can filter through the documents and identify a smaller subset of those documents to engage in full human translation. These professional translation services usually relies on two key options: machine translation and foreign language document review.

Machine translation

Machine translation works like this:

1. Scan, OCR (optical character recognition), and index all of the documents. These are then fed through a machine translator so that the translation company can determine the “overview” of each document and what it contains.
2. Your internal legal team goes over all of the documents that went through the machine translator to figure out which ones are the most relevant to the case.
3. All of the documents that were deemed relevant will then be translated word-for-word by a qualified legal translator

Foreign language document review

For foreign language document reviews, the usual process is:

1. The translation agency you hire will get onsite reviewers to determine which documents are relevant to the case by applying legal principles of privilege. These onsite reviewers are usually professional translators with legal expertise or multilingual attorneys.
2. This step is optional: For documents that are difficult to discern whether they are relevant or not, onsite reviewers can prepare summaries for review by the internal legal team in an oral or written form.
3. Once the set of documents have been finalized and approved as relevant to the case, they undergo full document translation by qualified human translators.

Choosing a combination of machine learning and foreign language document review is the most cost-effective approach when dealing with multilingual documents in discovery. Document types that have a higher chance of being central to the case – such as meeting protocols, contracts, or agreements – might be chosen to go through a more intensive foreign language document review. Meanwhile, the rest of the documents can go the machine translation route. Striking a strong balance between the two options and instituting a decision-making algorithm for deciding will earn you better results in your cross-border cases.

By Sirena Rubinoff is the Content Manager at Morningside Translations. She earned her B.A. and Master’s Degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. After completing her graduate degree, Sirena won an international fellowship as a Rotary Cultural Ambassador to Jerusalem. Sirena covers topics related to software and website localization, global business solutions, and the translation industry as a whole.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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PerfectAudit.com

Do you wrestle with stacks of bank statements for your cases? Are you manually entering transactions from the statements into Excel spreadsheet? Are you begging for a better way? We may have one for you.

Jim Schaefer is a great forensic accountant based in Southern California. His firm, Schaefer & Company, specializes in family law forensics.  Like me, he is also a repaid tech geek. Today I am lucky enough to have Jim guest posting on a new discovery of his for discovery in your cases. Here's Jim to tell you about PerfectAudit.com:

As you know, a direct mechanical tracing is comprised of two parts:  check register and

characterization columns.  Perfect Audit automates the check register portion.  The software incorporates the bank statement formats for bank accounts and credit card statements to provide a pretty good quality OCR result from pdf format.  (Brokerage statements are beyond its scope.)

Picture feeding pdf bank statements into a hopper.  In a day or two you receive a searchable transactions listing that may be downloaded in Microsoft Excel format.  Thus Perfect Audit gives you the check register portion for about 40 cents per pdf page.  (you pay for what you use with no minimum monthly charge).

Before using the Perfect Audit transaction data, you will want to create a running balance column in your check register and check against bank statement balances.  I find that there are a few transactions that are double-entered that are easily corrected.

Perfect Audit really shines when you are searching for the other side of an internal money transfer for wire transfer as there is a search capability on the dollar amount.

One tip is important.  If you provide duplicate bank statements to Perfect Audit, Perfect Audit will give you duplicate entrees in its transaction listings.  Thus it is best to avoid sending duplicate statements to Perfect Audit.

I have seen unfavorable ratings of the software on the web.  My experience differs and has been quite good.  (…and my clients love it when I tell them we are using the latest robotic technology to reduce the cost of their tracing.)  

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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Tech Is Gonna Help You to Know Your Judge

To this day -- 30 years later -- I remember a story my law school civil procedure professor told us about his first attorney job. 20 years earlier he had been hired by a prominent Wall Street firm. He was assigned to a team for work on an appeal to a U.S. Court of Appeal. For three weeks his only task was to research the lives and histories of the justices assigned to the case. Not just their written opinions, but where they went to school, who they were married to, what their children were about, what kind of food they ate. What size shoe they wore... That level of intel gathering impressed me.  The need to know your judge stuck with me.

I am a firm believer that it is only good lawyering to learn as much as you can about the judge you are litigating in front of. Venture capital and the artificial intelligence world agree with me, and their help is on the way.

Gavelytics is a start-up that focuses on gathering info about, and predicting rulings of, the judges
you are going in front of -- even in simple old family law.

Right now Gavelytics is limited to LA County and Riverside County, but that will change. It is also light on, but not without, family law judges. The user interface is pretty cool. The landing page for each judge includes where they are, who they work with, how you contact them, where they went to school, how they got to the bench. Take a look:

Click the image for a larger look

There's more. Here are some of the Gavelytics tools:

• Judicial Workload
• Learn how long it takes to get to trial, the average delay between complaint filing and the initial CMC, and average case length, all compared to the jurisdictional average.
• Gavelscore
• Discover whether a judge has ruled more often for plaintiffs or defendants in bench trials. No more guesswork about a judge's most important decisions.
• Motion Analyzer
• See how a judge has ruled on 100+ different types of California motions, including summary judgment, demurrers, and motions to compel.
• Motion Details
• Compare a judge's motion ruling tendencies to the jurisdictional average, providing crucial context so you can determine if your judge is an outlier–and what to do about it.
• Learn how often parties make CCP § 170.6 filings against your judge
• Take advantage of the wisdom of the crowds and see how often other parties paper your judge, all searchable by filing party and case type.
• See crucial judge ruling and docket speed data in a single dashboard
• The Judge Summary
• Takes the most important judicial data points, like tendencies on summary judgment motions, discovery motions and docket speed, and puts them in a simple dashboard for easy reference.

What's it cost? $35 to $65 per month. Not bad. This is a technology that I am going to have to keep my eye on....

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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How Much of Your Time Do You Bill For?

If you fit the norm, the answer is 2.3 hours per day.

According to an exhaustive study completed by software company Clio, 2.3 hours is the average. The study results, published by Lawyerist.com, assert that "on average, lawyers bill less than 30% of their time. And they only collect on about 20% of their time."

Interesting data. According to the study:

Hours billed—utilization rate—goes up quickly as the firm grows. For solos, it’s about 25%. In firms of 4–7 lawyers, it goes up to about 40%. Above 10 lawyers, the average utilization rate is about 50%. 

So what are lawyers doing with that unbilled time? According to the survey Clio added to its report this year, about half of that time goes to administration. About a third of it goes to business development (marketing) activities.

These numbers make sense to me. I may be doing better than 2.3 hours a day, but it still intrigues, surprises, frustrates me, how much of my time is consumed on tasks other than practicing law. Please click here to read the entire article.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law

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AI Is The New Craze!

Artificial intelligence, "AI", seems to be everywhere in the law practice discussion. But what is it? I don't really know? To resolve my lack of clarity I have been looking for the definitive summary. That has been a struggle. Much like the King's new clothes, there is plenty of buzz, but little explanation.

Above The Law is investing lots of virtual ink on the topic, and has become a preferred learning center. One article in particular that I found useful is Sterling Miller's Artificial Intelligence And Its Impact On Legal Technology. As Miller explains, AI is:

[T]eaching computers how to learn, reason, communicate, and make decisions. Cognitive tools are trained vs. programmed — learning how to complete tasks traditionally done by people, where the focus is looking for patterns in data, testing the data, and finding/providing results. Or, as I like to think about it, a research assistant who can sift through the deck and tell you what it found.

Law Technology Today gives us another explanation:

Artificial intelligence, or AI, refers to computer software and systems that don’t just do tasks they’ve been programmed for in advance—they actually learn as they go, improving their performance through feedback. These programs can quickly learn to complete data-intensive tasks that were previously relegated to bored and weary humans. By recognizing patterns in the relationships between words or data points, computers learn how to identify relevant information, recognize mistakes, and spot inconsistencies—all faster, and usually better, than humans do.

Okay, I kind of get it. But how is AI utilized by lawyers? That also seems to be a nebulous question. Here's more golden nuggets from Above The Law:

If you’ve used Google to find a song with just a few words from a lyric or searched Netflix to pick out a comedy that’s safe to watch with kids, you have used applied machine learning. Machine learning is an area of artificial intelligence that enables computers to self-learn, without being explicitly programmed, to look for specific pieces of information. 

When lawyers use machine learning for discovery or internal investigations, it’s commonly called technology assisted review (TAR) or predictive coding. Although TAR has been around for a while, lawyers and litigation support professionals still have questions about how to best use it on individual cases.

Okay, we have a vague description of AI. What are some of the actual applications for legal practitioners?  More from Legal Technology Today:

The primary areas where AI is being applied in the law, so far, include the following broad categories: 

• review of documents for discoverable or otherwise relevant information, generally referred to as technology-assisted review (TAR).

• legal research through automated searches of a universe of case law and statutes.

• contract and legal document analysis.

• proofreading, error correction, and document organization.

There's still plenty to learn, but is is obvious the dialogue has started.  Is it too early for family law lawyers to get on board? Of course not. Large marital estate generate lots of data for divorce. If I am understanding AI, the tools that are developing could be quite useful to us in wrangling all of the information and date more efficiently and effectively. We need to pay attention to this topic as family law practice continues to evolve beyond just the evolving statutes and case law.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

#AI #artificial intelligence #Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers

Are You Happy?

According to a survey conducted by the State Bar of Texas, most of us lawyers are satisfied with our jobs.  11,000 lawyers were surveyed, and a slim 13.5% said they were dissatisfied with being a lawyer. That's pretty good.

I know I complain about the biz, but at the end of the day I would say I am satisfied with my chosen career. I get to do intellectually challenging work. I am a member of a learned trade. I get to work in comfortable physical spaces. I earn a decent living. What more can you ask for?  Well, I guess if I were to stick to the Caddyshack mantra, I could hold out for total consciousness....

Above The Law has a lot more info on the survey. Please click here for the whole story.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law

#happylawyer #Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers

The Joys of a Home Office

Da Bear.
Therapist, Centurion,
Expert Witness on the issue of napping,
Counter Surfer

First off, I am a firm believer in the traditional brick and mortar law office. For me it is important to have a place dedicated to work and my law practice. I can control the environment. I make it louder or quieter. It is secure, and private. It gets me closer to my co-workers. Also, I firmly believe family law clients expect an office (rather than a coffee shop or a public library). I believe a physical office is an important component of a lawyer's credibility and reputation. Other lawyers will argue contra, but for me a professional office is a must.

That having been side, I also have a wonderful home office that I use a lot. Being able to get away from my traditional office can be a real refresher. There is also a sense of comfort and satisfaction in being able to work from home in sweats and a t-shirt -- while still being able to be productive. Having the dogs running around can also be very therapeutic.




So, how do I make it work?

Below is a picture of my home office. I think it is pretty nice.

Big secret: I am writing this post from that very desk.  Could have just as easily been my law office desk. Who could have known?

What's really nice about my home office?

• That wall of bookshelves in the back is what makes it. Plenty of storage to keep the space clutter-free. Also pleasing on the eye.
• I have a Google Home device on the shelves to the right (a thank you gift for serving as President of the Northern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers) so I can listen to music, check the weather, check traffic, etc.).
• Jazz makes life so much better!
• The windows let in light and fresh air.
• Take a deep breatttthhhhhh....

What's functional about my home office?

• The desk provides a large work surface.
• I love the wood. My wife hates it because I bought it a Cost Plus.
• There is a full-size, all-in-one, wireless printer/scanner/copier on the shelves to the left.
• Can't tell you how many times I have had to print something before leaving for court.
• Make sure you have plenty of extra paper and toner. That stuff tends to run out at the worst times.
• I have a Mac (with its Giant screen) installed on an Ergotron adjustable platform. With it I can have a stand-up computer when I want it, or I can drop it down to desk level.
• Google Wi-Fi allows for connectivity of everything
• So nice not having a web of tangled wires laying around

Then there is the technology that really brings it all together.

• Telephone.
• At my brick and mortar office we have a VOIP telephone system from 8x8. 8x8 also has a virtual office app for smartphones, and virtual office software you can install on your c computer. I have it installed on my iPhone, my Mac, my Mac Book Pro. With the app I can forward office calls to my iPhone and computers. I can retrieve office voice mails from my other devices. The iPhone connects to the wi-fi network so that spotty cell coverage is a non-issue when making and receiving calls. No one on the other end of a phone call could ever guess I was not in the office.
• Our 8x8 service also includes faxing, although faxes have pretty much gone the way of the Do-Do bird.
• Mac Book Pro. Goes with me everywhere. Sitting on the desk at home it gives me a valuable second computer and monitor. Also gives me a change of scenery if I want to move away from the Mac.
• Actually typing this blog post on it.
• If I want a third computer or a third monitor, out comes the iPad Pro with keyboard.
• Legal pad. Yep, there it is on the desk next to my laptop. 
• Still gotta be able to jot things down...
• The Cloud. Our law firm is almost entirely Cloud based. As such, I can work anywhere I have internet. Our Cloud system includes:
• Office 365 for so, so, so much:
• Multiple-platforms means full functionality on desktop computers, laptop computers, iPads, iPhones . . . . Anywhere, and on any device I've got:
• Word
• Excel
• Outlook
• A huge advantage being able to send, retrieve, and index emails from anywhere
• Sharepoint. An online repository for all client files.
• Like taking the office file cabinets with me wherever I go. Again, a huge advantage.
• Rocket Matter
• Simply the best practice management system out there! On every device I have all my contacts, cases, calendars, billing, documents and records. The list goes on and on....
• Skype for direct, real-time communication with office colleagues. 
• It's the modern intercom with video.
• And, it is included with our Office 365 subscription.
• LogMeIn. Occasionally I will need to get on my desktop PC at my law office. LogMeIn let's that happen.

Virtual lawyering, home lawyering, remote lawyering, satellite lawyering, smart lawyering . . .  Call it what you want, a home office can be a real treat! With a couple of exceptions, it can be a duplicate of your regular office, Mine is pretty fancy. It can just as easily be a folding chair and table and a laptop in the corner of an apartment (or even less). Change is good. A home office is a great change of pace for me.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law #Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers

Office365 is Micrososoft's Future

Jeff Bennion is a lucid law practice technologist. The writing on his virtual wall says Office365 in Big Letters. This week he posted a great article on Above The Law. In the article Jeff makes the following observation:

For years now, Microsoft has been acquiring companies and integrating them with Office 365 and Windows 10 to let you do more from places other than your desk. For example, the new Timeline feature takes advantage of the artificial intelligence working in the background of Windows, and lets you start a document at work, and when you pick up your cell phone or go to another computer it will ask you if you want to pick up where you left off, regardless of whether that file is on your computer. If it’s not on your computer, it downloads it and you can get to work seamlessly.

Jeff also notes the upcoming release of new Surface computers from Microsoft:

So, today [May 23, 2017] Microsoft is having its conference in Shanghai to announce new Surface computers. What does that mean for lawyers though, whose Outlook calendars and pleading templates work just as well on a fourth-generation Intel i5 than on a seventh-generation i7? Does it really matter what the new computers are and how fast they can do things?
The answer is yes, but not because we need faster, better computers. It’s because between the hardware changes that are coming and the software changes, manufacturers are rapidly trying to change work culture to encourage mobility and remote working. We are right in the middle of a huge work culture change, which includes law practices, and it’s being driven in part by these new things coming out.

Jeff is giving us lawyers a heads up that we have to start getting ready now for the inevitable transformation of computing to the cloud. His big statement:  We are going mobile.

The Death of the DesktopIt is my prediction that desktop computers in the office will be gone in five years. As we’ve seen in big law firms, more law firms will rely on employees working from home. That will be hastened by the technology that is allowing that transition to happen more smoothly. 

This message does not come as a shock to me. As someone who has been telecommunting for three decades, the pattern makes sense. People are mobile. Why shouldn't our computing platforms be able to follow us, rather than tying us down. Mobile technology equals convenience. Convenience equals efficiency. Efficiency makes for better performance, be it sales, writing, practicing law, anything!

Get ready folks, the transformation will be a lot easier if you go with it rather than fighting it. If you are not already there, you need to start looking to the cloud. If you are a Microsoft Word of Excel addict, you better start learning more about Office365.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

Please click here to read the entirety of Jeff's brilliant article.

#Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers

The New Mac Book Pro

I carry an iPad Pro for most of my mobile work. It gives me internet access, and I can download client files and take them to court with me. The Apple Pen also also lets me to take notes. However, when I anticipate a need for heavy duty computing, or when I know that I will be needing Windows software programs, I go with my 15 inch Mac Book Pro.

My Mac is my favorite computing platform. The retina display gives a large, clear, crisp view. There is no shortage of horsepower. I have Parallels installed on it so that I can run Windows programs (like DissoMaster). It just plains works!

Well, for all you Mac fans the big day is here. For the first time in four years Apple has put the Mac Book through a major redesign. It is now thinner, lighter and more powerful. It has a bigger touchpad. The screen is redesigned. The speakers are redesigned. The battery life is longer. There is now a small touch pad screen above th keyboard, that replaces function keys. This is a major upgrade and it looks like a great machine. TechCruch.com has a nice preview.

Of course, you get what you pay for. And the superior Apple product comes with the usual exhorbinant Apple price tag. The 15" version starts at $2399!

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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A High Tech Hotel Desk

I am sure many of you road warriors can commiserate with my blah when it comes to working from a hotel room. The physical space is usually nice enough. Alas it's not home, and it's not the office... It is never just right. It is what it is though, and we must make do with what we've got.

I found myself in an East Coast hotel room recently, desperately needing to get some work done. The hotel I was staying in was an absolutely beautiful historic building just restored to the tune of about $60,000,000. What was interesting was that my room had no desk in it. That was going to be a challenge when I went about setting up my mobile office.

What to do? What to do? As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of all invention. After some MacGyver like thinking I came up with a solution, and I am now thrilled to introduce to you the high tech, height adjustable, folding road warrior inspired Iron Desk:

The Iron Desk

Tell me that isn't cutting edge.  Stable. Comfortable. And you can iron your shirts while getting your law work done.  The Iron Desk is available at a hotel near you!

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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Stand-Up Desks Are Now Smart Desks

I started to write about stand-up desks more than five years ago. I have been using a stand-up desk for around ten years. Here is my original. Just some laminate boards bolted to the wall.

The Uplift motorized

My how things have changed. It has been almost two years since I last wrote about stand-up desks. Their popularity continues to increase. I was recently in the chambers of a judge who was using a Varidesk!  Stand-ups have also become pretty high tech. Now they are not even called stand up desks. They are Smart Desks.  

Last week while visiting a colleague at his office I saw that he had changed his main workspace to an Uplift height adjustable desk. The lift level is adjustable on the Uplift, and it is motorized, which is pretty cool. Many other manufacturers also have motorized lifts, and desk that you can hand crank up and down.

Harman Kardon on the Evodesk

There are plenty of new choices in this growing area of office furniture. Evodesk lets you build your own, and you can even add a Harman Kardon sound system!

Autonomous is selling basic desk starting at $250.

Smartdesks have become a major industry! They are design pieces. They are incredibly high tech. Take a look at some of the stuff you can get:

UpDesk

UpDesk

UpDesk

Autonomous

Then again, for your old school folks there is still my grand Amish built stand-up desk.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

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I have written a lot about the less paper law office. It is a great topic, that is always evolving. With so much of our technology moving to the cloud, the topic is due for an update.

Sam Glover over at Lawyerist.com has posted a very insightful article, will all the latest and greatest

thought provoking ideas for going paper-less.  Of course he writes about scanners, and laptops, and cloud products. He also writes about work flow, and those ideas are very, very helpful. I couldn't write the article better myself so I am enthusiastically directing traffic to Sam's piece. Please click here for a great read.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

#paperless #lawyerist #Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers

My Updated Thoughts On Cloud Computing

I have always been a staunch advocate for the idea of buying software and installing it in your office, and a skeptic of the idea of cloud computing. I thought cloud software was renting software, and that added to the cost, allowed the software vendors to hold the customers hostage, and subjected data to security vulnerabilities. I am starting to change my mind.

Cost. The cost for software will always be there. Software companies, like all businesses, exist to make a profit. My fear that cloud software systems could exploit the customer is still a real concern but not anything that can be avoided even if you have a server based system. I do believe the price point for cloud software is higher than purchased software. Regardless, it is going to cost you money. As I learned recently with the corporate changes at AbacusLaw, what that company did was triple its support rates, support that you have to have to keep the software that you bought running. To make sure you buy their new stuff, Microsoft just stops supporting older products, period. That is similar types of exploitation.The cost of keeping software is just a cost of doing business.

Security. I was fearful that the target sites for my cloud computing would not be secure enough to keep out hackers. Well folks, there is no such thing as an impervious computer system, be it server-based or in the cloud. Right now, somewhere there is some teenage kid, or some foreign government agent trying to hack in to my system and yours. Given the bank grade security that exists on all reputable cloud providers, you are probably safer in the cloud these days then you are out of it.

Convenience. This is the big life changer for me. Now that our law library and practice management system are 100% cloud based I have been reborn. I have zero software maintenance. No updates to install. No bugs to rectify. Maintenance happens who knows where in the middle of the night, with no meddling from me. I just show up at work and stuff works. Awesome.

Innovation. I am finding that improvements and innovations are constantly rolling out on our cloud products. Rather than focusing on one huge annual upgrade, vendors can constantly tweak their products and make them better. Heck, a new weekly feature that is bug free is a whole lot better than the annual beta testers, and subsequent patches, that I am used to getting.

Timeliness. Because products and information can be updated instantly cloud software is fresher. No longer do I have to wait for an annual CD with all the year's cases on it. I get them online the same day that they are published by the official reports (sometimes even faster than that)!

Platform Blind.  Because my cloud software is accessed through a browser, it does not matter what kind of computer I am using. Be it a Mac, a PC, an iPad, a Google Chrome or Android device, it all works the same. We have always run PCs at the office because our software compelled it. At home I run Mac products because they are better. Now it makes little difference.

Mobility. All I need is the internet, and Boom I am working. No internet you say? Okay, no new issue there. My old way of doing things was to use remote computing software (GoToMyPC or LogMeIn) to access my office computer and run the software on it. For that to happen I still needed the internet.

I am diggin the cloud, and I bet you will too!

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I Just Switched To LogMeIn

I have been remote computing for more than 20 years. Having the ability to operate my office computer 24/7 from anywhere in the world (or at least anywhere that I have internet connectivity or a cell phone signal) is a huge quality of life and quality of practice benefit. I have spread the word on remote computing in articles and presentations for decades. For many of those 20 years my service of choice has been GoToMyPC. I have always loved it, and enthusiastically endorsed it.

Recently the performance of my GoToMyPC account has been deteriorating. Connections have been slow, interruptions have been frequent. Disconnections have been happening with shocking frequency. The problems were significant enough that I began testing other options. Microsoft Windows has its own resident remote desktop feature. I quickly eliminated it because it will not work with the multiple monitors I have on my office computer. Also, I wanted an app that was Mac friendly (rather than having to run it exclusively through the Parallels Windows virtualization software that I have on my Mac). I tried Splashtop. It was okay, but not great. The refresh rate lagged, and the screen resolution was fuzzy.

Next I tried LogMeIn. I was familiar with the product, having used it on a trial basis when it first came out years ago. At that time it was inferior to GoToMyPC, so I moved away from it. My how it has improved. I gave it a hearty test drive this weekend. I appreciate the improved layout of the program. It connects fast. It runs fast and steady. It's smooth. The screen resolution is sharper than any of the competitors. It looks good. It has a multi-screen feature. For me it runs better than the other options I have tried, particularly on my Mac. The Pro version for two computers runs $149 per year. That price is nominal relative to the convenience and utility the service provides. I have made the switch to LogMeIn.

Please visit hardinglaw.com for more information about Harding & Associates Family Law 

#LogMeIn #Harding&AssociatesFamilyLaw #californiafamilylaw #divorce #family law #superlawyers #americanacademyofmatrimoniallawyers #Pleasantondivorce #AlamedaCountyDivorce #ContraCostaCountyDivorce #lawyers