Sunday, August 08, 2004

the [non]billable hour's Five by Five on technology for lawyers

One of the best blogs going is the [non]billable hour, and one of its best features is Five by Five - sort of a mini-roundtable of experts on some useful topic, and one of the best Five by Fives is this one on technologies for lawyers.

I used some of this stuff mentioned - CaseMap (not yet v.5), ActiveWords (not quite up to snuff with it though) - and I've played with OneNote (didn't like it).

My five, if anyone was interested, would be this:

1. Technology to go digital - with transcripts, with imaging of other documents, with e-filing of court papers. I guess this is old hat for many, and inconceivable to others.

2. Search/document management/knowledge management tools - nothing worse that rooting around for stuff on your computer/server, especially e-mails. Fortunately, the relatively small size of what we have stored on disk and the breadth of my memory allow me to get by without too much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the former is increasing and the latter, regrettably, seems to be shrinking.

3. Display tools - I've got half a dozen trials scheduled within the next 12 months in federal courtrooms with electronic display equipment.

4. Website/blog - well, we have a website, and I have this blog, and they both could use some work as marketing instruments (but they aren't they kind of fun, just the way they are?).

5. Wireless/remote access - One of these days, I'll get a laptop and a wireless router for here at the house, so I can sit out on the back deck and watch the cows while blogging. Whether this will improve productivity, I couldn't say.

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