Legal publishers Casemaker and Fastcase today announce their merger and joint building out of legal research and analytics, news, data, and workflow …
Legal Research Companies Casemaker and Fastcase Merge
COVID, wildfires, court operations, and closures dominated headlines and our lives. So did the tech world, the hard work of staying productive, and not letting the stress of it all get to us.
Hopefully you found some useful posts in 2020. If you’ve been battling procrastination, there is help. If you need to jump start your marketing, I did a four part series in July. If collecting fees has been … challenging … I have a few suggestions. Here’s a recap of substantive topics covered in the past twelve months. And here’s to 2021!
All Rights Reserved 2020 Beverly Michaelis
From our friend The Researching Paralegal, a great legal research tip!
Westlaw has added an important search term, the carat (^) (shift 6 on your keyboard). This allows you to put more emphasis on a search term. To use it, place the carat symbol right behind the term you want emphasized.
Here is a further explanation from Cleveland Marshall College of Law Library Blog:
You can use the caret in the main search box or in Search Within Results. An example of a search is:
liability /p (park^ or recreation or camp!)
This would place the emphasis on the term “park” and your results will be somewhat different if you run the search with or without the caret.
You can read more about Search Term Emphasis in the Search Tips document that you’ll find linked to the right of the main search box in Westlaw.
Find the caret symbol above the 6 key on a standard qwerty keyboard. Not to be confused with the carrot.
As The Researching Paralegal reminds us – If you need a refresher on Westlaw Edge, check this out:
Westlaw’s Guide to Law Review Research.
All Rights Reserved 2020 Beverly Michaelis
It’s been a while since we talked apps. From the first iPhone/iPad educational tracks at the ABA TECHSHOW, iOS apps for lawyers have only grown. We’re an attractive market with money to spend, even if our profession tends to be slow in adopting new technology.
This begs the question: which new (or newer) apps are among the best? Which of the tried and true are still worth using? Check out my curated list of the top 20 most-mentioned apps for lawyers:
SmartDockets, DocketLaw, and CourtDaysPro promise to help users quickly and easily calculate deadlines using federal and state automated court rules. Choose the court, the trigger, the date and time, hit “Calculate” to get the result, and post to your calendar.
Looking for courtroom presentation software? TrialPad is the most popular kid on the block. The developer, LitSoftware, boasts “Whether you need to display a document in an evidentiary hearing, annotate a photo during a deposition, or compare, highlight, and call out two documents for a jury, TrialPad makes it easy. And while you can plug and play in the courtroom or the boardroom, you can also present wirelessly with AppleTV.” TrialDirector is free, and a good alternative if you have limited exhibits and no need to display video.
SquareRegister lands high on the popularity list, but isn’t the best when it comes to trust accounting compliance. Honestly, you’d be better off with LawPay or Headnote.
Jeff Richardson of iPhoneJD favors SignMyPad Pro for digital signature capture. I’m a fan of DocuSign and HelloSign, which integrate with some of the more popular cloud-based practice management programs.
If you care about secure client communications (and you should), eielegal is for you. It offers “encrypted information exchange,” thus the name, and also creates an archive of conversations. As you’ll recall from a post two years ago, texts are part of the client file and should be preserved. The eielegal app solves that problem, as does Zipwhip.
Dropbox remains the most popular app for file sharing and storage. While the standard version will get you far, the advanced version at $20/month is a great price point for unlimited file storage. Advanced data protection is available for both.
Want to read, markup, sign, and share docs? Consider iAnnotate.
Readdle Docs and GoodReader are the kings of file management – superior to iOS’ “Files” app. Both allow users to open, access, and work with files regardless of where they are stored.
Everyone loves the Fastcase app but if you’re looking for an alternative, consider Westlaw or LexisAdvance.
Sometimes free is best. The built-in iOS Reminders app does a stellar job of creating time- and location-based reminders. Tell your iPhone: “Remind me to call John Doe when I get to my office.” When you return, your iPhone will notice you’re in the office and remind you to make the call. Doesn’t get better than that!
All Rights Reserved 2019 Beverly Michaelis
We’ve been hearing a lot about AI (artificial intelligence) in broader society and our profession. What is it exactly and how can law firms leverage it?
Artificial intelligence mimics certain operations of the human mind and is the term used when machines are able to complete tasks that typically require human intelligence. The term machine learning is when computers use rules (algorithms) to analyze data and learn patterns and glean insights from the data. Artificial intelligence is a large factor shifting the way legal work is done.
Experts tell us that AI has the potential of taking over these tasks:
And in some cases, it already has.
Should we be afraid? Absolutely not! Consider these words from the head of a knowledge management (AI) team at the Reed Smith law firm in London:
(AI) is looking to be a massive time-saver for firms, and bringing true value on the more repetitive tasks – lawyers spend less time trawling through endless files. Instead, computer programs can read documents, interpret them, and identify the case-relevant results – all in a matter of minutes. And how might lawyers use this newly freed time of theirs? Dillon says now “legal work is much more interesting as computers can do the donkey work, and the lawyers are able to do more analysis,” adding further value for the client. AI can even take advisory roles, although not extensively. It can’t provide specific advice to a client on a specific matter, but can answer simple and common legal questions.
Computers doing the donkey work? I can get behind that.
All Rights Reserved 2019 Beverly Michaelis
Oregon Law Practice Management 