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Social Media: To Link or not to Link

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: August 23, 2012
Tags: Social Media, Technology

Should you accept a LinkedIn invitation from someone you don’t know? What about someone whose reputation is questionable? When people ask me questions about whether or not to “link,” they are usually not asking about the business benefits; they’re often concerned about the business and personal risks associated with accepting the invitations. Here are some [...]

Law firm tech experts can do the hand-holding

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 13, 2012
Tags: Discovery, Technology

A client may tremble with fear or fume with annoyance when asked to produce electronic data. It’s up to the legal support team to talk the client down from the ledge. Planning is key, whether a law firm is using its in-house e-discovery staff to collect a client’s data or turning to an outside vendor. [...]

E-Discovery Channels: New business models emerge for handling data

By Peter Vieth
Published: August 13, 2012
Tags: Discovery, Technology

The buffet choices are growing at the e-discovery cafeteria. As more corporate clients face expensive, complicated and time-consuming electronic discovery battles, their lawyers are coming up with a variety of options to get the job done. Virginia lawyers are in the thick of it, with firms forming their own e-discovery practice groups, establishing separate affiliates [...]

Employers face risk if rules on work use of personal devices aren’t clear

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: August 8, 2012
Tags: Employment, Law Office Management, Technology

Employers are increasingly allowing their employees to use their own laptops, tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices for work purposes – and that is creating a plethora of potential legal issues. Employment defense lawyers say that every business should have a clear, written policy covering all aspects of the use of personal electronic devices, regardless [...]

Mobile-ization: Law firm marketers make their websites smartphone-friendly

By Sarah Rodriguez
Published: July 30, 2012
Tags: Legal Marketing, Technology

When clients pull up your firm’s website on their mobile devices, what do they see? A quick-loading, simple interface with easy-to-read text? Or a graphics-heavy, full-scale website that requires zooming and side-scrolling to navigate? If your firm is like most in Virginia, the answer is the latter. Your site may look great on a PC, [...]

Smartphone data more important in litigation

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: July 24, 2012
Tags: Discovery, Technology

Smartphones are increasingly becoming not just useful tools for lawyers on the go, but potentially important factors in litigation. Requesting smartphone data as part of electronic discovery “is something lawyers should think about both from an offensive and defensive perspective,” advised Andrew Cosgrove, a partner at Redgrave LLP in Minneapolis whose practice focusses on e-discovery, [...]

Sticking to the script: Ethics issues can arise with metadata mining

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 23, 2012
Tags: Corporate Counsel, Ethics, Technology

Electronic documents can tell a tale at odds with the surface script, and dealing with “metadata” can present temptations to corporate counsel when an email hits the wrong person’s inbox. Metadata includes the hidden information that describes the history, tracking or management of an electronic document. Sometimes metadata revelations are merely embarrassing. During the recent [...]

Tips for using Microsoft Outlook meeting requests

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: July 9, 2012
Tags: Technology

Many lawyers use Microsoft Outlook to schedule meetings, but there are hidden ways to gain even more from this feature of the software. Deborah Savadra, editor of legalofficeguru.com and a legal assistant in Mobile, Ala., offered the following tips for using meeting requests more effectively. Check availability “If you’re working in a [Microsoft] Exchange server [...]

The email revolution: More than just a smiley face

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: June 26, 2012
Tags: Technology

Years ago, the daily mail delivery was a major event at our law firm. In fact, we had a staff person assigned to walk to the Post Office sorting room every day at 10 a.m., so we didn’t have to wait for delivery. There was a protocol for sorting mail, starting with the senior partner, [...]