The Bottom Line
June 2002 Vol. 23, No. 4
Statements or expressions of opinion or comments appearing herein are those of the editors or contributors, and not necessarily those of the association or section.
Contents
By Paul Bernstein, Esq.
Technology is more complicated then ever before. A few questions that one might ask are:
Issues we all deal with every day
* Do I need a new computer, now?
* If I do need a new computer, which one should I buy?
* Where should I buy it?
* Does a brand-name mean anything? Or is a clone O.K.?
* Is WordPerfect "dead" in the law office? If so, why?
* Will I have problems converting from WordPerfect to Word?
* If there are problems, how do I cope with the problems?
* Where are the reliable, dependable, able and reasonably priced networking and computer experts?
* What scanner should I buy?
* What printers should I consider buying?
* What case management programs are there for my practice and which one is right and best for me?
* What litigation support software is out there, which one do I choose and how do I learn to use it?
* I want to create a wireless network. What products should I purchase and who is out there to help me?
* I want to buy and use a PalmPilot but I don't have time to look at all the different models and alternative products. Which one should I buy and why?
* Should I convert to Windows XP? Why? Is Windows 95 still OK? What about Windows 98 and 2000?
* What about the Macintosh? Is there software that runs on a Mac that I could use in my practice?
* I am considering creating an Intranet and Extranet. Is there anyone that can help me?
* Where do I find training resources that know what lawyers do and how they do it and that are reasonably priced where I and my office staff can go to learn what we need to learn? And
* Where can I turn to learn about all this and more, without giving up my law practice?
With today's busy schedules and economic pressures on lawyers and law firms, how can we efficiently and economically transform a glut of information into wisdom?
Online collaboration with the proper software is part of the answer
Via the miracle of the Internet, lawyers can communicate with each other on any and all topics of interest to us.
E-mail options and list serve technology
E-mail is almost universally used by lawyers, who also commonly attach documents to e-mail messages. Groups of lawyers who subscribe to list serves can send e-mail to each other via a "store- and-forward mailing list" with just a few clicks of the mouse. When e-mail is addressed to a list serve mailing list, it is automatically "broadcast" or sent to everyone on the list.
For example, I can send an e-mail to the list serve host, and my message is posted on its computer, then broadcast to everyone who has subscribed to the list serve, so that each subscriber receives my message at his or her e-mail address.
List serve participants may choose to click on the "reply" option in their e-mail program and respond with comments to my message. Those responses are sent to the list serve host's computer, stored, and broadcast to all subscribers.
The good, the bad and the ugly of list serve technology
By sending a message to the host to be automatically stored and forwarded to all subscribers, the user avoids having to address a message to many individuals--a significant advance in communications. And each subscriber can choose to store or delete the messages from his or her e- mail.
However, list serves are technologically deficient because messages are not preserved or categorized by focused "threads"--groupings of messages by topic. When lawyers first use a list serve, they are amazed at its communication powers and begin to envision how the technology can be used in the legal profession. However, when the honeymoon is over, they realize that they are being inundated with scores of message every day--many of little or no interest.
Lawyers may find that they have joined so many lists and are sending so many other e-mail messages to friends, family, colleagues, and clients that the net effect is an overwhelming amount of incoming e-mail. When they are out of the office for a few days, a backlog of hundreds of message to pore through may await when they return.
Although most list serves have full-text searching capabilities to find older messages on particular topics, the process is cumbersome and seldom used by lawyers. And new users will not be sent any messages broadcast before they joined, so they will have no idea of what has been previously discussed.
List serves do not provide and preserve focused information, but forums (sometimes called conferences or groups) do.
Threaded discussion software/forums
Forums are also online discussion groups in which participants with common interests can exchange messages. But unlike list serves, threaded-discussion software or so-called "forums" technology allows messages to be posted directly on the Web, not transmitted by e-mail to individuals on the list. Forums are usually started by a person or group with a specific interest, so the topic stays focused, such as on bar association committees and lawyers with a common area of practice or series of other interests, such as interests in law office technology or law office economics.
With forums, lawyers can focus on the matters they are concerned about and not get bombarded with everything being discussed on a list serve. For example, if I am interested in insurance company practices in mold litigation or systems of document assembly for automobile and medical malpractice litigation, I can participate in just those forums--I get the messages on those topics and not all the messages on other topics I am just not interested in, at least at this time.
Besides containing focused information, forum messages can be preserved forever if desired. So those who log on six months after a forum started would have all the commentary and information from day one. All recommendations discussed by experts and consensus reached during those months would be a part of the forum. And, unlike listserver technology that requires each separate message to be accessed and printed out (if you wish to read off-line), with good forum software, you can call up all messages on a given topic and print them all out with just one print command--you can take the print-out home over the weekend, or read the messages while riding on the train or in your favorite "library."
Forum and conferencing software has been around for at least 20 years. In 1983, I started the first lawyer-run bulletin board systems (BBS), which allowed focused topics to be discussed. Users logged on to the BBS via modem, reviewed messages left by others, and left their own messages in response. They read only those topics they had an interest in and did not get bombarded with scores of messages on other topics.
In the 1980s, CompuServe provided specialized user areas and the ability to create topics for discussion purposes. When I ran the LAWyers Special Interest Group (LAW SIG) in the late 1980s on a then CompuServe competitor called The Source, we used a product called Participate. Other software, such as Bob Parnes's Confer and Caucus, have been around for almost 20 years. Today, there are many products on the market and most of them are excellent.
Some resources for forum software
Some companies allow use of their software to set up free forums. These include Yahoo at http://www.yahoo. com and eGroups (now part of Yahoo) at http://www.egroups.com
Other companies, such as Web Crossing at http://www.webcrossing.comand Ultimate Bulletin Board at http://www.ultimatebb.com, sell conferencing software. Perhaps the best example of what threaded discussion software looks like is to be found at: http://www.freeadvice.com-- You may want to log on there and go to the forums and by "tooling around" a bit, you will see how elegant, easy-to-use and invaluable these software products truly are.
The value of forum software
So, let's go back to the beginning of this article and look at the questions I have posed and probably 20 or 30 more that each reader can add to the list. Assume your interest is on a substantive area of law, or you are considering a Macintosh computer for your law office and want to communicate with other lawyers on this topic. Imagine if a hot debate started on the "Mac vs. Windows" forum and zealots and champions for each product and technical folks all debated and talked about the differences, the software available, etc. After a few months, a huge resource of invaluable information would be present and of value to not only the lawyers but also to the bar association that ought to be sponsoring the use of such a product. Lawyers and law offices would find that they have the information they need to make a meaningful and positive decision on what is best for them. Magnificent! Clearly needed! Yes, but where is it? You tell me!
The absolute need for computer users groups
Another problem for all of us is that once the decision to automate is made, or when we have questions about technology or law office economics, where do lawyers turn for help? Historically, "Users Groups" have been an important key to mastering technology for non-technical folks like lawyers and most law office personnel.
Early users groups
Dedicated word processors were the productivity machines of the 1970s. Companies such as Wang, Lanier, Vydec, IBM, Dec, NBI, Micom, Xerox, and Sony dominated the industry. Their machines cost $12,000-$20,000 apiece, and at those prices users got free consulting and some training from the vendor. When IBM introduced the personal computer in 1981, the idea of replacing IBM typewriters with microcomputers in business offices was born.
The 1980s were an exciting time for people interested in computers. I discovered telecommunications around 1982, and I marveled at 300 bps communication--typing words into a computer and having them flow across telephone lines to someone else was nothing short of a miracle.
More and more products came to market: spreadsheets, word-processing software from a group in Utah called WordPerfect, databases, bulletin board systems, mail-merge products, and outlining software--it was hard to keep up with the torrent. Many computer vendors sprang up, most offering machines for about $4,000. These early microcomputers had only one floppy disk, no hard drive, and a modest amount of RAM. A daisy wheel printer, required for office use, was also in the $4,000 range.
By 1983, lawyers needed to get together and talk about the burgeoning technology, so I formed the LAWyers Microcomputer Users Group (LAWMUG). The group hosted monthly meetings for lawyers and law office staff for about 12 years. Its focus was on motivating law firms to use technology, showing and telling them about hardware options and the growing number of software programs. The LAW MUG Users Group was a monthly, live, face-to-face meeting, whereas the LAW MUG BBS served as a communications vehicle among certain lawyers and certain of my clients. I chose all the monthly meeting topics for the most part.
There were several components to the group, LAW MUG. First, we held monthly meetings on technology, initially at the Chicago Bar Association. That was done by me and my office staff: deciding on a given topic or topics for each monthly meeting; contacting and arranging for speakers and demonstrations; hosting those meetings at the Chicago Bar Association, and; learning by each month seeing and hearing about a new technology.
When the first meeting was held and we had such a fantastic turn-out, I wrote a one and a half page "review" of what took place at the meeting....at the first meeting we found many of us were troubled by the fact that we no longer had vendor consulting, help and advice. Whereas huge profits were inherent in $20,000 word processing machines, such was not the case with $3,000 to $4,000 computers...so, this was a circle the wagons situation where lawyers were helping lawyers...so I wrote that first summary of what took place and the attendance at monthly meetings grew and grew.
I learned a great deal at these meetings, to be sure, and continued to choose the vendors and speakers--some were "show and tell" lawyers talking about what they were doing. We started to send out by regular mail notices about the up and coming meeting and the "summaries" of what took place at a previous meeting. Those monthly meetings grew into a full-fledged newsletter, the LAWYERS Microcomputer Users Group Newsletter, ....and in 1983 I started what was almost the first newsletter on law office technology, the LAW MUG Newsletter. Starting in 1988, individual articles from those newsletters became monthly articles in ATLA's TRIAL Magazine and then into a book first published by ATLA and then West Group under the name "Computers For Lawyers." That book and many monthly newsletters can be found on my Web site, for free, at the following web address: http://www.cyberbarassociation.net
So, we had monthly meetings, notices thereof, summaries of each meeting into what became a newsletter, and, as noted, I started the very first lawyer-run Bulletin Board System [BBS] in 1983. The BBS was a "stand-alone" capability, reflecting my belief that OnLine communications was and would be very important to lawyers. In fact, it was the LAWMUG BBS that caught the eye of Nancy Blodgett, then a free-lance writer for the ABA, who saw a form of "Instant Messaging" [not called that then] between a retail store a friend of mine owned and myself whereby when my friend logged onto the LAWMUG BBS I could jump on to the system and we had a real-time, interactive "electronic discussion." From that first "meeting," Nancy interviewed me live and wrote a feature article for the ABA Journal in the June, 1984 issue entitled: "The Gospel of Computers According to Bernstein." Many of those who attended monthly meetings got onto the LAW MUG BBS; however, many more folks logged on from all over the country to see what there was to see--and this started in 1983! There were no "inter-active," via computer "discussions"--however, "threaded discussions" were already a part of BBS technology in those "ancient" days.
In 1991, I wrote an article on the value of computer users groups. (Paul Bernstein, "Computer Users Groups: Essential for Your PC Education," TRIAL, June 1991, at 90).
Users groups today
Gone are the days when lawyers claimed that their persuasive skills in trial were all they required to win cases--they did not need computers. Today, they know that computer technology is essential to their productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. Clients demand a higher level of service, and jurors, brought up with television, expect graphics and high-tech presentation of witness testimony.
Lawyers now ask more than the single question, "Should I automate?" They want to know:
* What types of products and services should I adopt?
* How do I choose among them?
* How do I install these products?
* How do I motivate myself and my staff to use technology?
* How do we learn to use these products better? And
* How do we maintain our skills in the future, once our initial goals are achieved?
LAWMUG was open to anyone, lawyer or not, and there were usually some vendors and consultants participating. It didn't matter what type of practice you had; technology was so new that we all learned from each other.
The users group of today and tomorrow should provide monthly presentations of useful software. The group should maintain a list of credentialed, reliable, reasonably priced support services and vendors for law offices. Specific types of nonlawyers should be invited to participate at certain times. For example, if the discussion topic is case management software options, the group might invite demonstrators from selected vendors and trainers who are "fluent" in such software to talk about the products. Technology experts like Alan Pearlman, Barry Bayer, Ben Cohen and I would be ideal speakers, as would other very carefully selected lawyers who are and have been, consistent and long-time leaders and champions for law office technology and law office economics and management as demonstrated by their sincere and focused efforts on behalf of the economic interests and needs of their fellow attorneys--and not just their own selfish best interests or expressions of ego. Such dedicated and concerned experts exist in every corner of our great State of Illinois are well-known to those in your community. Furthermore, there is no need for a bar association to spend many thousands of dollars on so-called "experts" from other states to come to the State of Illinois to speak on topics that our local, Illinois-based talent is more then capable of speaking on for free or for a much-reduced fee then those charged by the out-of-state experts.
Further, the word "expert" needs redefinition. Just look at prior issues of "The Bottom Line" and you will see many experts--lawyers and non-lawyers with personal experiences who, by way of those personal experiences are, indeed, true experts. They have encountered problems, solved them one way or the other and are, like all great lawyers who love the practice of law and fellow lawyers, more then willing to educate the rest of us with their experiences. A series of very useful user-groups meetings could take place with your "local talent" telling their law office economics and computer technology "war stories."
The group should plan programs to focus on the needs of participants. Sample topics might include:
* Selecting case management software;
* Filing and locating information on a hard drive;
* Managing documents inexpensively;
* Choosing and implementing a case management program;
* Creating a firm newsletter;
* Applying Microsoft Outlook in a law practice;
* Using graphics in and out of the courtroom;
* Networking office computers and using intranets and extranets;
* Locating online resources for lawyers;
* Collaborating via forums and similar resources;
* Reaping the benefits of virtual environments;
* Taking depositions over the Internet;
* Using wireless technology;
* Protecting law firm information using encryption and firewalls; and
* Storing and retrieving "copies" of users group meetings.
Lawyers need to learn about available technologies and the third-party resources that can help them implement and use those tools. A computer users group can help answer questions and provide guidance. If there isn't one in your area, who better to start it than you?
Starting regional computer users groups in Illinois
Here are my suggestions about how, in your city, town or village, you can start a users group:
(1) I'd ask my local bar association to help market and support the monthly meetings. If they had to "think about it" or told me it would be taken up via the leadership, I'd not wait a second but would go ahead on my own, as I did almost 20 years ago in 1983 when I formed LAWMUG;
(2) That bar association support could/would/should be in the form of the following: notice on the bar association's Web site; e-mail to all those registered on the web site advising of the next meeting or meetings; an article in the periodic publication of the bar association and a hard copy flier to go with invoices or other hard copy mailing. If the bar association will not do it, then hopefully one of the founding group of lawyers forming the users group who already had a Web site could do these same things without the assistance of the bar association;
(3) Key people in the initial group of lawyers forming the user group should talk about the "marketing" of this effort and its very great importance to its members--but this should not break down into committee deliberations and prolonged decision making, else the effort, in my opinion, will become political and bogged down in normal,