It doesn't stop there. West is also providing a series of other very important and growing resources, including:
CLE (Continuing Legal Education) via the West LegalEd Center
Leading authorities to provide educational resources we need and that we are too busy to travel to and hear in cities remote from our own. Streaming video, text files and more are available. To learn more, go to: http://www.westlegaledcenter.com/
Professional Web sites, custom Web sites and Intranets
West Group is also providing your basic Web site and you may also obtain a customized design to your own specifications. Many of us have found that law firm Web sites allow us to tell the world who we are, what we do, and to market our services to members of the public.
Intranets are also a part of what West is now offering.
Recommendations and conclusions
As a writer on technology, I already knew a great deal about Intranets, Extranets, online communications and collaboration opportunities on the Internet. In preparing to write an article on the topic, however, I found that even surfing various West and eRoom sites on the Internet did not give me all the information I really needed to write reasonably coherently on this topic ... so much is left to visualization and the graphics used on the Internet. I got great assistance in totally understanding the power of these resources and the opportunities presented by them when I went to the ABA Tech show in Chicago where very able West representatives demonstrated these products to me, along with what West is doing with wireless technology (another topic for another day.)
These technologies are not just a vendors efforts to sell us something new and different and that we may or may not use. WestWorks may be the direction you find you want for case management and West WorkSpace may be the way you will want to use to collaborate and share information and wisdom.
All these resources are extremely important to practicing lawyers. There is a cost and a learning curve, but there was a cost and learning curve in going to law school. The result of the investigation of, focusing on and acquisition of and using these technologies is that, once clicking, you will be able to keep your fingers on the pulse of all that goes on in your law firm, at any time and from any place. In that the administrative and business aspects of running your law firm are being taken care of by those under your direction and control, you and your fellow lawyers in your law firm can go back to being a full-time lawyer and work more with your clients and their matters.
Be realistic. All industries have changed. All industries are reinventing themselves. The law practice is dynamic and practicing law is what we want to do. You can put the record keeping and administrative tasks and headaches behind you with this "backbone" technology, thereby freeing you up to do what you do best.
PHONEslips ... your receptionist will love you for it!
By Alan Pearlman "The Electronic Lawyer"™
There is a scenario that is repeated daily in law offices around the world. Simply put, after a long day in court, attorneys go back to their offices to find an Empire-State Building-size stack of pink telephone messages, which call for attention and return phone calls that must be attended to. How often we have dreaded this extra clutter on our already untidy workspace. Surely in this the 21st century, someone has to have come up with a better way to deal with telephonic messages. Well if you have caught yourself saying this, or at least thinking along these lines, you will be more than happy to know that you can now rid your desk of the extra clutter, albeit, you still will have to return the calls!
Telexis of Tucson, AZ, has developed a new phone messaging piece of software, aptly entitled PHONEslips and has made it simple and easy to integrate. In January the company released its latest integration of PHONEslips with Microsoft's outlook Contact Management program, making this add-on an easy to use feature which will allow the user to more functionally handle all facets of telephone message management.
In an interview with Mark Lawson, President of Telexis, he stated "The release of PHONEslips for Outlook has been fueled by our focus on the legal industry." He further states theat "Usage of PHONEslips has been growing in the legal market where it is now our biggest market segment using PHONEslips. As the popularity of PHONEslips has grown, many attorneys have been asking us to make it work with Outlook in order to improve the flow of communication in their [law] office."
Well then, what exactly does PHONEslips do? Simply put, if you have a local area network in your office, PHONEslips can eliminate the clutter and manage your phone messages, memos, e-mail, Rolodex, schedule and to-do list all right there on your computer! Your messages pop up without interrupting your work, or for that matter, any other computer applications, and the beauty of this system is that for the older computer installations, PHONEslips works in Windows® and DOS systems! The design of the product is specifically to handle phone messages in a busy office environment. With a product like this on your computer you don't run the risk of losing any of those important messages or having to consistently ask a frequent caller to your office for his or her telephone number.
Another advantage to this system is that you have the ability to look up any message, no matter how old, in a matter of seconds! This can aid the busy lawyer who must make a call or decision now, based on an old phone message. With PHONEslips you can quickly and easily direct memos to any one individual or group in your office. It has a handy phone list that organizes all of your contact information and fills in caller information with but a few strokes of the computer keys. There is a built in scheduler that also allows you to track appointments and tasks for any of your office mates, and with the functionality of the e-mail set up you have the ability to forward computer files and more. Just imagine the kudos you will get from your support staff when, with the touch of a screen, they can take a phone message faster than they could before with paper. With one touch your secretary brings up a screen outside of Outlook, takes the message and it arrives in your Outlook in-box right along side your e-mail messages!
Among the programs other abilities are:
* Receptionist may quickly view everyone's phone messages without pulling up Outlook.
* You can search through years of archived messages in seconds to find a phone number or other information.
* You have the ability to keep a return call log for tracking and billing purposes, which also includes a timer.
* It has a link to the Timeslips program and allows you to generate a time slip while returning a call.
* You do not have to have Outlook running for it to provide you with instant notification of a new message.
* It does not require the Microsoft Exchange Server, but will run and integrate seamlessly with Outlook 97, 98 and 2000.
* Lastly, it has the ability to print out five messages per page if the need should ever arise for a paper trail!
There are several add-ons that the Telexis people have likewise developed. The one that is probably the most noteworthy is the Palm OS link. For all those in the reading audience that have become aficionados of the Palm Pilot usage, Telexis developed a link to the Palm OS (operating system) that provides a link between the two. The link allows four applications to go back and forth. The messages, phone list records, scheduler and to-do list items can all be added and synced to the Pilot. Once these items have been installed, a simple tap on the Hot Sync button allows a seamless information flow between your handheld organizer and your PHONEslips program, automatically updating as your needs develop. Likewise, the Timeslips link module is a handy feature that allows time entries to be recorded for the user. Other links includes a PS e-mail gateway, for automatic Internet connections and a Sprint Protégé telephone link, allowing you the programming of various control functions to your Sprint Protégé phone, including having your telephone messages automatically forwarded to your cell phone while you are away from your office!
If you are tired of the clutter of pink slips all over your desk and the extra burden that it places upon your support staff to be constantly writing them out and then hand delivering the same to your office, talk to the PHONEslips people and you will see how much more productive your office can become with just a few computer key strokes. You may like the product, but I am willing to wager that your support staff will love it and you for seeing the light when it comes to law office telephonic messaging!
Facts
PHONEslips is available in either DOS or Windows® versions directly from Telexis and range in price from $79.95 for the single user version to $199 for the two user network edition. There is a free three-day trial version available for download at www.phoneslips.com. You can also contact the company directly at 800/931-8698.
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©2001 Alan Pearlman "The Electronic Lawyer." All rights reserved.
FinAlyst ... a powerful money management utility
By Alan Pearlman "The Electronic Lawyer"™
Every now and then, a program comes along that makes working with money and management a little easier on our everyday lives. FinAlyst is just that sort of computer program. We realize that financial analysis is many times too difficult and tedious for the non-professional to work with, but with FinAlyst, anyone can create and produce sophisticated financial analysis of cash inflows and outflows. That being the case just imagine how it can help you, the professional, who deals with and in this sort of thing each and every day!
I myself am a novice when it comes to working in this area but in just three easy steps I was able to make a complete analysis appear on my computer screen. First, I entered each cash outflow and associated date. Second, I entered each cash inflow and associated date. Finally, I made a choice of the interest rate model that I needed, either fixed rate or variable rate, and in no time flat, I had a complete analysis and was able to produce graphs, as well as examine the current value of the particular investment I was tracking!
Among the programs salient features, and I must admit that it is feature-packed, are the following:
ROI applications
* Real Estate--just enter your original investment and any capital improvements in the outflow table--each month, enter the net profit in the inflow table, by estimating the current market value of your real estate, you can graph the ROI vs. the market value to determine the return at any sale.
* 401k or Stock Portfolio--Enter your periodic deposits as outflows and then record the valuation at the end of each year. Use the incorporated Consumer Price Index (CPI) to evaluate the real return of this investment after inflation.
* Lease--estimating the residual value at the end of the lease term is a challenge but with FinAlyst, you can graph the residual value against the ROI to evaluate the feasibility of a lease vs. purchase.
Present value applications
* Capital Budgeting--enter each cash inflow and outflow and look at the Net Present Value (NPV) graph which will then show you how to determine the feasibility of the investment decision at the various rates of interest.
* Annuities--make cash flow entries (possibly nonperiodic) and let the program show you the accumulated value at any point in time. You can then produce a present value graph showing the accumulated value at various rates of interest.
Loan applications
* Variable Rate Loans--the program allows you to calculate and verify daily interest loans for any interest rate index. Any payment anomaly such as principal only, interest only or fixed principal is as easy as normal principal and interest payments.
* Audit a Mortgage or ARM--in the program all of the necessary logic is included to allow you to do an audit on an Adjustable Rate Mortgage including the index lookups, rate caps, and also the various anniversary date algorithms.
* Loan Negotiations--FinAlyst will prepare you to negotiate the best possible loan covenants allowing you to examine all of the scenarios.
* Accelerated Repayment--with FinAlyst you can investigate the effects of extra payments on the repayment of any loan.
As you can tell by now this program is full-featured and jam-packed with several indexes and analysis features; just make sure your system is well equipped to handle it. You will need a Pentium class computer system with at least 8 MB of memory, which by today's standards should not be a problem. Make sure that your hard drive has at least 8 MB of available space to store the program and either a disk drive or CD-Rom for installation. Once you have this in place, you can begin using FinAlyst without a hitch.
Roughly, this program has at least 17 different indexes that it uses in the preparation of the applications, and when I say applications, I am talking about the following: Real Estate investments, stock portfolios, 401k returns, present values of any series of cash flows, net present values of any stream of inflows or outflows, after tax return on investment, after inflation return on investment, lease vs. buy, residual value on lease vs. IRR, commercial loans, and the list goes on and on much to numerous to begin to name in this small review.
I have seen a large majority of programs that do much less than FinAlyst, but I find myself being a real fan of this smart and dedicated program. It can make your accounting tasks and analysis go by much quicker. For the many readers who have heard or seen this program before please also note that this is latest and greatest version 3.2 Professional Edition, and I strongly recommend this version to anyone who wants the full functionality of this robust computer program for your office. The company that puts out the product is Compu-Share of Lubbock, TX and you can reach them by phoning 806/794-1400, by e-mail at Info@finalyst.com, or on the Web at www. Compu-Share.com where you can also check out their other fine accounting products! Either way once you reach them you will be glad that you did! I know that I have found many uses for FinAlyst and I am sure that you may be thinking about a few of them right now.
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©2001 Alan Pearlman "The Electronic Lawyer" All rights reserved.
Bankruptcy Plus puts a plus in your practice!
By Alan Pearlman "The Electronic Lawyer"™
Around January of this year the administrative offices of the United States Courts made an announcement that they were going to amend the Official Bankruptcy Form 7, as approved by the Judicial Conference of September, 2000. This and other recent developments have given me cause to take a second look at some of the bankruptcy programs in the computer marketplace for the legal professional. After taking a long hard look at many of the programs on the market today I found that Bankruptcy Plus from Cornerstone Computer Group leads the way in its latest version 3.1 of their famous software package.
The Cornerstone Group has made a commitment to the legal profession to maintain their program as the most complete software system for bankruptcy practitioners and they have, in my opinion, succeeded in that resolve. This windows based program is much more than just the forms for 7, 11, 12 and 13 bankruptcies! It is a more flexible and fully integrated system that is designed to allow the user the utmost ease of data entry, coupled with case management and ease of reporting features.
With its forms set you get a high quality and very good looking output for all your forms and schedules which include both the voluntary and the involuntary petitions, the schedules and summaries of same, statement of financial affairs, all Chapter 13 plans, and client work sheets, notices, motions and orders. You also get cover sheets and case status reports, along with local forms! The nice thing about the forms sets is that all of the forms are obtainable in preview format, prior to having them be printed out in hard copy. Also, not like other programs of this genre, Bankruptcy Plus gives you the freedom to customize and add additional forms to the program at any time.
Another oft missed opportunity when dealing with computer programs is that of one time data entry and data integrity, however, with this program you are covered in that regard as well. Bankruptcy Plus allows the user a fully integrated work area! What this means is that you enter information only once, and in any order you so desire. The program does all of the sorting and managing and even the calculations are done automatically so that if an item is changed, all of the windows that use that item and data are automatically updated. This, in and of itself, will save the user the constant repetition of going back and forth with data entries. You may also set up a template for certain types of routine cases, thereby allowing the user to add any case into this template mold, and making it that much more easy to use!
The program is designed so that the user can enter cases in one of several different ways, individual, joint, partnership, etc., and there is no limit to the size of any one case or, for that matter, the number of cases that the program is able to handle. Included in the forms we also find a client questionnaire, which you have the ability to print out and give to the debtor to fill in, making your life that much simpler. The questions follow the format of the information required for the initial filing of the bankruptcy petition and the format of the document is that of MS Word and WordPerfect documents, which will allow the user the ability to customize this as necessary!
The system has a very fine import feature that allows the user to load information, like creditors claims and/or shareholders lists, into a case file in the database. With this feature you can load information extracted from a debtor's own computer files right into the Bankruptcy Plus program.
When it comes to setting up Chapter 12 or 13 plans Bankruptcy Plus has set up a comprehensive set of designs for plans. In addition to the usual entry fields, the program has expanded to allow the existence of fields for when and how each class of creditors will be paid, provisions for the payment of attorney fees, and trustee's fees for calculations. It will also calculate the monthly payment, duration of the plan, or the percentage to the unsecured creditors.
In addition to being a useful and well thought out program for filings, Bankruptcy Plus is a case management system for the Bankruptcy practitioner. The system has a number of case management reporting functions, which include a case inventory report, showing case identification, chapter, active status and various important dates. You can also use this report in summary form or detailed information, depending on what you need at the moment. While all this seems to the uninitiated to be a large amount of material to grasp, Cornerstone has seen to it that you are not without a large amount of solid help screens to walk you through various procedures and provide context sensitive information to the user. Additionally, you will find a Windows "search" and "contents" help section, and if you still need more, the programs own CD Rom has an entire Users Guide on it!
Also, if you need up to the minute program changes, Cornerstone Computer Group has made sure that you don't get a program that is stalled before you install it! This program has now included the revised Statement of Financial Affairs, the recent changes to Schedule E for priority claims, the revised Federal Bankruptcy property exemption amounts, as well as the property exemptions for all states. When you buy the program you are also entitled to free updates and unlimited toll free support for one full year!
As if all of these new and innovative features were not enough, Bankruptcy Plus has been thinking ahead in their new release. As we all now know, the Bankruptcy Courts are moving rapidly into electronic filings, and so Cornerstone has added a new module for electronic filings. Now that user can create a file that contains the Bankruptcy forms in PDF format which is totally suitable for electronic filing by just choosing an option on the print window of the program. In this way Cornerstone has made the commitment to continue to keep up with current trends in both the legal and the technological field. If you're a bankruptcy law practitioner I can only add that you cannot be without this program, it will surely be a plus in your preparation and presentation of all your bankruptcy filings!
Facts
Bankruptcy Plus is available in a Windows® version directly from Cornerstone Computer Group, Inc. and ranges in price from $295 for the single user version (trade-up from another program) to $525 for the multi-user trade-up edition. There is a free trial copy available for download at www.cornerstone-computer.com. You can also contact the company directly at 800-397-8238.
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©2001 Alan Pearlman "The Electronic Lawyer" All rights reserved.