Law Office Technology

MiFi much Better then AirCard

Ditched my AT&T Aircard the other day.  The network was unreliable and my aircard was poorly made and kept breaking. I decided to join the sprint network and use the MiFi 2200 from Novatell, which is a small portable router that hooks up to Sprint Network.

Since I usually travel with two laptops and an iphone, now all these devices can connect to the MiFi for internet. I can also put the MiFi near a window in a hotel and then go back to the desk to work without having to worry about getting a good connection. Costs about $100 after rebates and the sprint data plan is $60 a month.  Seems to be much more reliable then AT&T. I am in car heading up to Oxford to the LSU Ole Miss Game and have only lost connection twice.  It is about the size of a deck of cards but much thinner.   This would be great for Clio users.

Traveling with the iPhone

Heading up to Seattle for the LSU Game and then Vancouver to do some work.  Since I have the iPhone now, there several apps I use to help me travel.

Flight Track Pro

http://www.appvee.com/t/flight-tracker-pro

Allows me to see where my airplane is.

Navigon

http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en/mobile_navigator/iphone

Turn by Turn GPS App

AroundMe

http://www.tweakersoft.com/mobile/aroundme.html

Lets me know what Bars, Restaurants, ect are around me

Since I am going to be in Seattle, I also downloaded a whole bunch of apps related to Seattle.

Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference

I will be in Missouri this upcoming week for their state’s Solo and Small Firm Conference.  I will be working the Clio booth, which is Practice Management SaaS for attorneys. 

For more info on Clio, click here: http://www.goclio.com/

For more info on the conference click here: http://members.mobar.org/sasf2009/index.html

2 CLEs a CRM Conference and an ABA TECHSHOW

This past Wednesday I had the honor of speaking at an ABA Techshow on the Road  in Gulfport with Adriana Linares and James Province.  I learned a lot of practical information from James and Adriana on OneNote and Outlook so it was totally worth it for me.  The next two days, I worked the Amicus Booth at the Louisiana State Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference as well as speaking with my fellow Law Office Technology consultant Garrett Laborde and LSBA’s Tony Verde on how to take your office with you Ethically and Professionally.  I am now off to Memphis for the AutoTask convention.  AutoTask is like Amicus or TimeMatters, but made for Technology Consultants.  After the conference ends Tuesday Night I will be heading up to Chicago for the ABA TechShow where I will be working the Amicus Booth Thursday and Friday Morning and meeting with Vendors each afternoon. 

A Review of Legal Tech

I was at LegalTech this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and have several observations: 

• E-Discovery is in trouble.  Most legal shows that I got to, 60-75% of the vendors are E-Discovery firm.  This did some to be the case this year.   I get the sense that a lot of these E-Discovery firms are either going under or getting acquired by larger firms. 
• Mobile if a hot topic.  I worked the Amicus Booth while I was out the show and most people who came up were interested in Amicus Mobile which runs on Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
• Attendance was down around 15% which probably good with this economy.  In my take besides Corporate Law,  most other types of practices are doing well.  Most of the attorneys I met were with firms 50 or less.
• Kobe can shoot.  I got to watch him score 61 points at Madison Square Guardian which is the most points a single player has scored there.
• Twitter is becoming more popular.  I heard a lot of people talking about twitter.  I think that I am going to have to start using twitter more.
• Amicus Accounting has come a long way.  I have not had much experience with the product.  Frankly Law Office Technology has been so busy that we have not had a lot of time to learn new products.  I got to see Amicus Accounting manager George Alves demo the product and I definaltely will start making a more considered effort to become an expert at the product.
• Timeslips does not have a booth at LegalTech.  That is pretty telling to me.  Dump TimeSlips and use PCLaw or Amicus Accounting. 
• Everyone loved my tablet.  Why is there no booth with Tablet PCs.  Tom O’Conner and I were talking about how it is very interesting on that Tablet’s have never taking off in the legal industry.  I will be speaking at the LSBA Solo and Small Firm Conference with James the Tablet Attorney.  Maybe he can shed some light on the subject.
• JetBlue is the best airlines ever.  They arrived a half hour going and coming, have a great selection of snacks, and I got to watch DirectTV.  However I am ticked off that they do not have ABC on DirectTV.  I was planning on watching Lost on my way home.