The Mac Lawyer | Author Archives | Page 2Ben Stevens, Author at The Mac Lawyer

Running a Mac-Based Law Firm: The Hourly Consultant Option

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Technology Leave a comment

In this Guest Post, my friend and technology guru Tom Lambotte from GlobalMac IT discusses the second most common option for IT support when Running a Mac-Based Law Firm: an hourly consultant.

The smaller the firm, the more likely they are to use the DIY approach which we discussed in the first part of this series in last month’s newsletter. But, inevitably the DIYers run into something that’s beyond their scope, which is where the hourly IT consultant comes in. Based on my experience having worked as an hourly consultant for five years, approximately two-thirds of my clients operated with the DIY approach and only called when things were dire.

I’ll discuss the most common pitfalls and give strategies on how to get the most value when working with an hourly consultant.

Common pitfalls of using an hourly IT consultant:

The consultant has no incentive to fix other issues they discover. They often give an estimated time to address the problem they are called in to fix, so they do their best to stay within that estimate. Discovering issues while working on addressing the issue at hand can put the consultant in a difficult position. Do they address the issues as they come across them and go over their estimated time or just focus on completing the task at hand?
They bill hourly, so to maximize their income, they need to line up their day with appointments. Their primary focus is resolving the problem in the time they have allotted, whether that is the right amount of time or not. This time pressure can often lead to duct-tape fixes, leading to issues needing to be addressed more than once.
The overwhelming majority of Apple Consultants are one-person shops, meaning they are not always available when you need them. I remember the challenge this posed. If I was with a client and had an emergency with another client, I’d be in a pickle. If you’re the one in a pickle and your consultant is busy, you won’t know when they will be able to respond.
Very few consultants have chosen an area of expertise to develop. The overwhelming majority of Apple Consultants work with anyone with a Mac. This makes it unlikely that they will be familiar with the specific tools, techniques, structures, systems or new ways of thinking and problem solving specific to the legal industry. Their clientele has as much variety as a magazine rack at Target.
Their purpose is to fix the issue you asked them to fix. Not to find ways to boost productivity for your staff, streamline your processes, look for security risks in your setup, or implement solutions that will benefit the firm.

There’s a strong belief out there that: “I switched to Macs so I didn’t need IT support.” However, your system is more often than not riddled with bottlenecks and security holes and plagued by issues and productivity losses. Without fail, I would quickly create a list of issues that my clients had never been aware of. There is far more that falls under the IT umbrella than just installing updates. It is all the things You Don’t Know You Don’t Know that a specialist can help you address.

Best practices when using an hourly consultant

Make sure they are Certified. The IT industry is NOT regulated and hiring someone who is learning on your dime can be costly. Don’t hire someone from Craigslist or your friend’s son who really likes Macs. Search for a Certified Apple Consultant in your area. Then, just like you do on Amazon, read the reviews and do some research before picking one. You can also call your local Apple Store’s Business Team and ask for recommendations.
Test them out. It’s better to have a consultant and not need one than to need one and not have one. Don’t wait for an emergency to find a consultant to work with. Make a small list of things you’d like addressed or configured and use them for a couple hours. Make sure you work well together, that they are competent and that you’d feel comfortable hiring them again in the future. Trust your gut, if there’s doubt, try another.
Don’t wait for dire emergencies. Neil Tyra, attorney and producer of The Law Entrepreneur podcast asks solos if they would pay an IT person $250 an hour. If not, why would they take an hour of your time, as an attorney trying to troubleshoot an issue? Get in the habit of using your hourly consultant on a proactive basis and reduce the amount of time you spent dealing with IT. Start by making a list of your concerns, the things that keep you up at night. Then hire a consultant to implement solutions to address these concerns.
Plan regular visits and add to your budget. This will vary based on your size, but have them perform regular maintenance, monthly for most people, more often if you are larger and at a minimum, a quarterly visit. Build the cost into your budget.

To wrap up, I urge you to stop playing the IT person in your firm and focus on serving your clients and building your practice. If you are currently using an hourly consultant, move out of the two-thirds who only call in emergencies and move into the third that are proactive. And if you are going to work with an hourly consultant, here is your homework: Pick the top three strategies that struck a chord with you from the “what NOT to do” or from the Best Practices section. Then outline three actions you will take to shift the approach towards IT from reactive to proactive.

In next month’s article, we’ll discuss Managed Services, which takes being proactive to a whole other level.

Provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMac IT

GlobalMac IT was founded by Tom Lambotte – renowned nationwide as an author, speaker, trusted IT advisor, and cutting edge, successful provider of the #1 complete end-to-end IT solution for Mac-Based Law Firms in the world. Private firms from throughout North America – and as far reaching as American Samoa – running with a staff of 5-50 – have relied on his expertise to help them put their IT headaches behind once and for all.

Using his real world experience, where results rule and dollars can’t be wasted on negligent computer consultants, he wanted to help managing partners and office managers of Mac-based law firms to put an end to wasting their time and money on IT support that does not work and rescue them from the frustration.

Our unique “TotalCare” approach integrates classic IT support with proven proactive support that truly converts IT from something to be dealt with, into a tool that truly increases law firm profits, increases staff productivity, and provides piece of mind that firm and client data is secure and that their security is never at risk. You can reach GlobalMac IT at (440) 941-1622 to request more information.

Rocket Matter Launches Numerous New Features

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Product Reviews, Software Leave a comment

As my readers know, my firm has used Rocket Matter since its launch in early 2008, and we absolutely love it. 2016 has already been a busy year for them, as they introduced QuickBooks Online integration and Rocket Matter Payments in February, followed in March byMatter Templates and Rocket Matter Atlas, a complete, modern redesign of the its user interface.

Never ones to rest on their laurels, Rocket Matter released their Atlas 1.1 update a few days ago, which includes numerous new additions to help make law firms be even more productive and increase their revenue. These new features include new tax functionality, multiple timers, an improved onboarding experience with gamification, and customizable dashboards.

Larry Port, Rocket Matter’s CEO and founder says:

“Let’s be honest: Taxes are not enjoyable to talk about in any way, and they’re even less fun to tally up on an invoice. Rocket Matter now takes care of this task for you. We rolled out some exciting stuff, too – a compelling gaming system for our new customers that makes learning Rocket Matter entertaining, along with some cool new features our customers have been asking us to add.”

Because my firm is on a pre-release program, we have been using many of these features for several weeks, and I can easily say that my favorite is the customizable dashboards and calendars, which now allow users to customize their personal Dashboards to be either “task-centric” or “calendar centric.” Everyone works in different ways, so this additional flexibility allows users to choose the one most helpful to them. In our office, the attorneys lean toward the “calendar centric” view, while our support staff prefer the “task-centric” view.

One of the other great new features is the ability to view the firm-wide calendar in either of two view settings. Users who prefer to view their calendar in one clear, elegant-looking size, “fit events to view” provides a “more” link if the number of events on any given day exceeds the available space. On the other hand, “show all events” will stretch the size of the page to show all events on each day without having to click on the “more” link. I prefer the latter, but I can see why some would rather have the option for the same size “box” for each day.

People who tend to work on multiple tasks at once will love the new multiple timers feature (shown at right). This allows Rocket Matter users to run a timer, pause it when they get interrupted, start another one for a different matter, and then come back to the original timer later. Billable time gets tracked on each timer and, in turn, seamlessly appears on an invoice. For those with many things going on at one time, this can be a life saver (and help capture time that might otherwise be lost and thus unbillable.

If you haven’t already checked out Rocket Matter Atlas, you can view this informative overview video. We are extremely choosy with regard to which program we entrust our calendaring, task management, contacts, and time and billing (among other important function), and the fact that we have been with Rocket Matter for almost 8.5 years is a testament to the strength of their product. In the decade before we started using it, we easily went through 7 or 8 other products trying to find the “right” solution. For us, that’s Rocket Matter, and we applaud their never-ending desire to constantly improve their product in an effort to make the work lives of their users more efficient and more profitable.

CardNinja Is The Ultimate Minimalist iPhone Wallet

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Product Reviews Leave a comment

For most busy professionals, there are two things that we must have with us the majority of the time: our smartphones and our wallets. What if those two items could be combined in an ultralight, secure, yet minimalist way? They can!

CardNinja from Cubi is an ultra-slim holder that quickly and easily attaches to the back of your iPhone (or anything else). This enables you to keep up to 8 cards (driver’s license, credit card, business card, key cards, cash, etc.) with you so they will be accessible when and where you need them.

You’ve probably received a rubber or silicone case like this before as swag at a conference, but what makes CardNinja the ultimate iPhone wallet is that it is made from a spandex blend, which makes it noticeably lighter and thinner than those, yet it still attaches to the back of your device with a secure 3M adhesive that can be removed without leaving any residue on your phone.

The CardNinja comes in 15 colors and designs, with pricing ranging from $9.95 to $11.95. It has been praised by the likes of David Pogue, Cult of Mac, The Wall Street Journal, and MacWorld (and now The Mac Lawyer). It’s now attached to my iPhone, and I absolutely love it. You can check it out, learn more, or order one for yourself here.

The Mac Lawyer Interviewed on The Law Entrepreneur

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Did You Know?, Office Management, This Blog Leave a comment

My readers probably know a good bit about the “tech side” of my life, but they might not know much about my “real job”. I am the Senior Partner in a boutique law firm in Spartanburg, SC that exclusively handles family law cases. My practice areas include high asset divorces, contested child custody cases, and other complex family law issues. As I like to describe it, I solve puzzles for a living.

If you’re curious how I ended up doing this and what led me to this point in my career, you may want to listen to Neil Tyra’s interview with me. As you may recall, I blogged a few weeks ago about Neil’s podcast, The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra, and he was kind enough to have me as the featured guest on this week’s episode, Ben Stevens – The Evolution Of A Southern Family Law Attorney (Episode # 13).

I enjoyed being a guest on his podcast, and Neil does a great job interviewing his guests while making them feel comfortable during the process. This podcast has become one of my favorites, and I hope that you’ll consider checking it out and subscribing to it. Many thanks to Neil for having me on, and I look forward to talking with him more in the future. To find out more about The Law Entrepreneur click here, or to subscribe via iTunes click here.

Free Security Webinar

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Online Resources, Security, Technology Leave a comment

Are you a Mac-using attorney? Do you know about all the new threats to your data? Do firewalls and antivirus software merely give you a false sense of security? Are you or your firm a “sitting duck” at risk of losing everything in your bank account in an instant… not to mention the insult to injury of government fines and penalties for non-compliance to data breach laws.

Does that get your attention? Well, the good news is that there are some simple protections and precautions you can put in place to drastically reduce your chances of being a victim. Tech expert Tom Lambotte of GlobalMacIT will present a free security webinar, “7 Critical IT Security Protections EVERY Mac-Based Law Firm Must Have In Place NOW To Avoid Cyber-Attacks, Data Breach Lawsuits, Bank Fraud and Compliance Penalties” on Thursday, April 28, 2016, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST.

You can get more details and register for this webinar here. I hope to see you there.

Podcast Recommendation: The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Podcasts Leave a comment

Time is the one thing that I (like most busy attorneys) simply don’t have enough of. I enjoy learning, and podcasts are a great way to do so. Even though I enjoy them, but I am very discerning in selecting the ones that make the cut and find their way onto my playlist (in Overcast, which, by the way, is awesome).

I wanted to write this post to highlight a new addition to the few selected podcasts I follow – The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra. Neil is an attorney who owns his own firm and has been practicing in Maryland (just outside of DC) since 2004. The stated goal of his podcast is to address “what they didn’t teach us about running a business in law school” – because that’s one of the areas that most law schools fall woefully short.

Neil’s podcast covers topics that help his listeners understand the many complexities of owning your own law firm, especially solos and those in small firms. Let’s face it, being an entrepreneur is not easy; being a successful attorney is not easy; and combing the two is not for the faint of heart. One thing Neil does that I love is he offers transparency by discussing some of the mistakes he made in his own firm along the way – which I think is wonderful and wish more people were willing to do.

Even though I graduated with honors with an undergraduate degree in financial management with a minor in accounting, I freely acknowledge that there were so many things that I didn’t know about running a firm when I left my old firm to open my own one in 1996. As with most things in life, I learned many things “the hard way”, but those missteps were very educational to me. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I teach so many CLE classes, because I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others.

The Law Entrepreneur podcast features interviews with successful attorneys (both solos and those from small firms), along with other bright and successful entrepreneurs who aren’t necessarily in the practice of law, to educate his listeners about creating, running, and managing a successful business in the internet era. Each episode is around 30 minutes, which is ideal for most people because they can listen to it while commuting to/from work (which I do during my 10-15 minute drive).

One of Neil’s best episodes to date is the one with my buddy, Victor Medina from New Jersey, who discusses how he successfully transitioned his law practice from educational law into estate planning & elder law, while managing to grow his practice and branch out into financial services along the way. Big changes executed masterfully over a short period of time with great results – what more could you want?

Neil and Victor’s discussion was fascinating, and you can access it here if you want a preview (which you can access ). To find out more about The Law Entrepreneur click here, or to subscribe via iTunes click here. I am confident that you will be glad you did – and Neil, keep up the great work!

Technology and the Herxheimer Reaction

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Technology Leave a comment

The following Guest Post is from technology guru, Tom Lambotte from GlobalMac IT:

For many years I have used fasting on a regular basis to play a role in staying healthy. I’ve fallen off that boat for the past few years however, as it’s much tougher to do when you have kids (and I’ve got a 4 1/2, 2 1/2 and a 1 1/2 year old). In a recent Christmas family photo, I had one of those ‘enough’ moments when I saw how far I had let myself go. One of those moments where you go, “Oh my goodness, I look like that!?” I’m a good 25 pounds overweight and have been putting it off for a number of years. This has reinvigorated my desire for change in this area and this week I have switched to eating only fruits/veggies and protein, zero sugar and zero carbs. I’ve lost 5 pounds already (yay!) but I had some nasty headache a few days ago.

Hang with me, I promise I’ll tie this in to technology at the appropriate time. The headaches are one symptom a Herxheimer Reaction, also often referred to as a healing crisis, a detox reaction, or die-off syndrome. A quick Google search brings up “an immune system reaction to the toxins (endotoxins) that are released when large amounts of pathogens are being killed off, and the body does not eliminate the toxins quickly enough.” The most common Herxheimer reactions are: headache, flu-like symptoms, itch and rashes, flushes (there’s a lot more but I’ll skip them for this article). Usually, the reaction lasts a few days. In more severe cases, reactions can last a week or more.

I believe the experience of the Herxheimer Reaction is something that we all experience in different areas of our personal and professional lives, albeit with different symptoms. The longer you have neglected to address a certain area, the more severe the symptoms will be when you choose to address it. Think about the books for your firm. Have you ever delayed staying on top of them and then, much overdue, finally hire a bookkeeper to help you get caught up? Never a fun process. Car maintenance is an easy parallel as well, when haven’t done the regular maintenance, going in for that service call can be quite scary and is often painful for the pocketbook. However, the process of getting your car back up to spec will almost always have much higher repair cost than if maintenance had been done regularly to being with.

Let’s get back to that flab I’m trying to shed. I’ve been aware of it for several years but continued to neglect it. Luckily, I’m only 25 pounds overweight, we all know the national average is much higher. Think about that person you knew who passed away from a preventable disease at far too young an age. Far too many people in our nation continue to neglect their health until it is far too late. Hopefully, you are not there but the longer you delay, the worst the reactions will be when you change your ways.

So what is the state of health of the technology within your law practice? If you had to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10, where would you fall? Is addressing your firm’s technology needs something you’ve been avoiding? Have you simply been addressing symptoms with some duct-tape as needed? If so, it’s time to give your decision-making muscles a workout and make some changes. If you’re taking care of your IT on your own, I can assure you it is only a matter of time before problems creep up and a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money is lost as a result. Every single time we take over IT for a firm, we find a LOT of problems that have been patched for far too long. We find security holes that jeopardize the attorney-client relationship, we find examples that would make an Ethics board quite unhappy, should they ever come to light. We also find many different areas where productivity is being severely hindered. So, let’s say you decide to finally take some action and find a new IT vendor to support your firm, what’s the process going to be like?

What are the Herxheimer Reaction symptoms you will be experiencing? Choosing any new vendor to work with, always has some temporary pain while moving to the new solution. Again, think of the bookkeeper and getting caught up. Chances are, if you’ve been taking care of your own IT, no offense meant here, but there’s going to be cleanup work. A detox phase, where the Rube Goldberg of a technology system you’ve built over the years is ripped apart and put back together the right way. The purpose of this article is to attempt to motivate you to get the IT needs of your firm into the hands of someone who specializes in doing this. This is not you. You’re an attorney and you can’t bill out the hours you spend dealing with IT. Nor can you recoup those evening or weekend hours you’ve been spending fighting IT issues. Think of all the lost family time that went to those problems. Those hours are sadly gone.

I want to stress that it is not a question of whether or not you will experience pain in the transition of getting the IT needs off your desk and into the hands of experts, but how much pain and how bad it will be. Unfortunately, many who call themselves experts out there will just jump right in and start working on things. This almost assures that the “Hexleimer reaction” will be far greater than necessary.

Now the good news is that when doing a cleanse, you can reduce the symptoms by taking certain precautionary measures to reduce the discomfort. The same can be done with your technology. When we take over IT for a firm, we first perform a month-long diagnostic process that allows us to uncover everything going on within the firm in relation to their technology. I believe strongly that prescription with out diagnosis is malpractice. By taking the proper diagnostic steps before diving in, they can lay out a roadmap to implement, phase by phase. This enables you to minimize the pain felt during the process. The first step is always triage, where we address the biggest points of pain or discomfort. Then we get into the maintenance phase.

Now, again, if you do choose to get IT into the hands of a new vendor this year and stop being a hobbyist IT guy, this article serves as letting you know there may be moments of discomfort and some pain the process. The better the IT company and their processes, the better they will able to minimize this pain. And the worst shape your technology is in, the more painful it’s going to be.

I’ve started exercising this week and I’m (really) sore. The Herxheimer Reaction symptoms are not fun BUT I have 100% confidence that the symptoms are temporary and will pass. I’m going to have more energy than I have had in years, I will sleep better, think more clearly, have the energy to be present with wife and children after a long day of work and a whole lot more. In terms of your technology, once you’re past it, the issues you’ve Band’aid-ed for years will be permanently resolved, the frustration levels with technology for you and your staff will drop and you will move from a stage of triage into a stage of maintenance. Once you’re on the other side, you’ll never question the symptoms you may have experienced during the switchover and I promise you, you’ll never want to go back.

Provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMac IT

Making Contact Safely: An Online Marketer’s Cybersecurity Checklist

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Security Leave a comment

The following Guest Post is from Cassie Phillips:

Online marketing is a wild rat race of information gathering and analytics. We compile data, we send emails, we look at SEO figures — all in our feeble attempts to slowly climb in page rank and reach as many readers as possible. It’s always an uphill battle, and the challenges aren’t just linked with getting the edge over your competition.

Reaching out and networking with other sites to build your link profile is a long, tedious process, and one that is fraught with its own complications. There’s a lot to be said for having an efficient process for your outreach, but there are also some things to consider on the cybersecurity side of things.

Before you dive too deep into the far corners of the internet in search of leads and your next leg up on the competition, run through this checklist, and make sure you’re not setting yourself up to be the next hack-attack victim.

1. Don’t Throw Your Email Address Around

It should go without saying, but your email address as an online marketer is akin to your personal phone number. It’s not information that needs to be shared freely and publicly, particularly if you’re using it for business purposes. If you do need to have an email address on your site, make sure you use a separate, secure account for that purpose alone.

Not only does having your email address publicly available set you up for the predictable storm of spam, but it also invites a lot of speculation about your accounts and how that information can be used by people other than yourself. Be particularly cautious about daisy-chaining accounts together. Make sure that a hacker can’t get access to one by infiltrating another.

2. Be Wary of Phishing Attempts

Working in this industry, your inbox no doubt fills daily with correspondences from other sites, people offering services, software companies. There’s a lot to sift through, and sometimes it’s hard to make yourself take the necessary precautions to ensure it’s all legitimate.

However, email phishing is extremely common and getting more sophisticated all the time. Make sure you’re using anti-virus software that scans webmail, and never follow links in an email. Oftentimes, they lead to fake forms designed to trick you into giving up login information. Always type the URL into your browser yourself.

3. Let Your Anti-virus Software Do Its Job

Speaking of email scams, it’s also important to remember that some hackers don’t want to steal your information at all. They just want to trick you into downloading malware. It should be second nature to take these kinds of precautions, but in case it’s not, make sure your anti-virus software is looking out for you by scanning any attachments that come through your email.

Some webmail services can identify suspected malware in an email, but it’s best to only download attachments from trusted contacts. Also be aware that many times these downloads are actually hiding in what appear to be hyperlinks. When you go to click a link, it could inadvertently start an automatic download. Always hover over a link before clicking to make sure the destination is the same as the link text.

4. Practice Commonsense Network Security

Despite the numerous warnings of the dangers of public and unsecured WiFi networks, a surprising number of people still use these networks without any kind of protection to conduct important business. Your website is your reputation, and you are ultimately responsible for securing that data and protecting your customers’ personal information.

It’s fine to use a public network, but take some basic precautions first. Disable settings on your device such as “Network Discovery” and “Public File Sharing”, which allow other network users to spot your device and check out your public folders, respectively.

These are only measures to protect your device from basic privacy breaches though. To ensure your data isn’t intercepted, you need to take things a step further and encrypt your connection. The easiest way to do this is to install a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on your device. When you connect through a VPN, your data is fully encrypted and secure from hackers.

5. Secure All of Your Accounts with Solid Passwords

Those of us in the business of promoting content often use an arsenal of tools to get the job done, and many of those require logins and provide us with intimate looks at our site’s performance. Think of all the sites and services you log into in a day—maybe it’s your email, AdWords, WordPress, Ahrefs, Paypal. How many accounts do you work with on a daily basis? How secure are they?

One of the biggest problems with account security for people managing online businesses is that they have so many passwords and logins to remember, they often recycle that same information over and over again. This means that if a hacker gets ahold of one password, they effectively have every password, and everything you have has become compromised in one fell swoop.

Always use a unique password, and never count on just security questions alone to protect your account. Many hackers use social engineering to get this information and use the “forgotten password” loophole to infiltrate accounts. If possible, use another means of password recovery, and never give this basic personal information out to anyone you don’t know.

If you have a hard time remembering passwords and are a little frustrated by having to keep track of so many, there are secure, reliable password management systems out there designed for people just like you. Using one secure master password, your login information is automatically stored and entered, so you can make passwords as random and secure as you want.

You Are Liable for the Security of Your Site

The bottom line is, even if you have the mentality of ‘it’ll never happen to me’, hacks happen to the majority of users, and at some point or another, it’s incredibly likely you’ll be hacked. If your site is responsible for processing payments or stores any information of any kind for customers or readers, you have a legal responsibility to make sure you’re taking adequate security measures.

As cybercrime continues to push the envelope and evolve, business owners are being held to higher standards by courts, and those with lax security practices can actually be found partially responsible for data breaches in which their users’ data is stolen. This was a hot topic during the Ashley Madison hacks of last year, in which the hackers reported that it was as if the site “wasn’t even trying” to keep their customers’ information private.

Don’t set yourself up for a reputation-destroying legal mess. Take basic security measures now to avoid headaches down the line, and get serious about incorporating common sense security practices into your marketing routine.

About the Author: Cassie Phillips is a writer and researcher for cybersecurity site Secure Thoughts, where she puts important information on online privacy and security in terms the everyday user can understand. She frequently posts about privacy software and ways internet users can protect themselves.

Cassie wrote, “I’d just like to thank Mac Lawyer for publishing this post on their site. This blog brings a brilliant perspective on the changing climate of cyber security and online privacy to legal professionals, and provides some great food for thought.“

A Tribute to My Friend, Finis Price

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Miscellaneous 2 Comments

Today’s the day. Four years. 1,460 days. 35,040 hours. Each painful and filled with an overwhelming sense of loss. I have written an memorial and tribute to my fallen friend each yar since his passing, and today will be no different, though it may be a little more personal (and a little longer). I hope that you’ll continue reading, but if you don’t it’s ok. This is being written for him, not for any of us anyway.

They say that time heals all wounds, but I beg to differ. I remember like it was yesterday, sitting in mediation and receiving the news that the worst had happened and Finis was gone. I am thankful that I had not one but two seasoned co-counsel to take handle the case, because I certainly couldn’t at that point. The next twenty-four hours were a blur – trying to process the shock, the long drive to Louisville, and trying to find words to say after I arrived.

How could this even be possible? I had just spoken to him a few short hours before, and his last words “Thanks buddy, you’re the best” were still echoing in my ears. I would never hear “Benny boy!!!” – though I never quite figured out why he called me that, as no one else has before or since. Never again would I hear it. Never again could I call my “lifeline of tech knowledge” to give me the answer in about 2 seconds that I have been struggling hours to figure out. If I had any idea that was going to be it, I would have moved heaven and earth for it not to be.

We all have them. Those friends who we know are always there, even if we don’t talk for periods of time. Finis was like that. A few weeks might pass, but when we spoke it was if no time had passed at all. Those are your true friends, the special ones, and they are rare. Most of us have very few to begin with, which makes having one snatched unexpectedly even more cruel and harder to deal with.

Some people say “just get over it” – and I can’t repeat here what I want to say back to them because it’s not something that’s said in polite custody. Until you’ve walked in those shoes (which is something I truly wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy or even Satan himself), you don’t even have an inkling of how it feels or how to begin to process the multitude of emotions that are can be completely overwhelming at times.

Every year that passes, I hope and pray that Finis’ passing will somehow be easier to deal with… that the pain will hurt just a little bit less… that some random thought won’t trigger misty eyes and the blues… that maybe something will provide some peace and understanding. However, that’s not yet been the case, and February 16^th is a day that I dread and, if I’m being truly honest, hate. Billy Joel was right when he said “only the good die young” because there’s not shortage of people who are much worse and who should have gone long before Finis, myself included.

There used to be this mythical, unicorn-like podcast called “MILOchat Weekly” that was hosted (at various times) by Victor Medina, Grant Griffiths, Finis Price, Randy Juip, and me. Our sponsor was our buddy, Larry Port of Rocket Matter. Though we never ever put out anything “weekly”, we had a blast doing it, and those were great times. It’s probably alive somewhere on the Internet if you’re interested, though I can’t bring myself to listen. I emailed some of them yesterday to ask them to share their recollections of Finis, and they were gracious enough to respond as follows:

Victor Medina:

Anyone who met Finis understood three things about him within minutes of meeting him. First, he loves to help people. Second, he loves to laugh. And third, he loves tech (specifically Apple). There was no way to avoid learning this about Finis.

The first time I met Finis in person was in Grapevine Texas at an Apple conference for lawyers. (Check). The room has having trouble logging into the Wi-Fi (back in the day where Wi-Fi or even cellular data wasn’t ubiquitous). Finis took it upon himself to literally hack the router so that everyone in the room got Wi-Fi immediately. (Check). And, nothing was more fun than having breakfast with him the next morning (and Ben) doing nothing but laughing — I barely to finish my food.

I miss Finis a ton. The world is so much lonelier with him gone.

Grant Griffiths:

I had the privilege of getting to know Finis not just as another Mac user. But as a friend. There was never a time Finis didn’t have the time to help or answer questions.

Usually we would end up just visiting about “whatever”. I do miss those calls.

Randy Juip:

Finis was amazing, in every meaning and sense of the word. I recall one time – shortly after I had met him – I posted to MILO about a problem that I was having converting a video file. This was at 4:30am the morning before I was set to give opening statements. Finis not only replied – in minutes – but called me and personally walked me through what I needed to do to fix my issue. At that time, I was dumbfounded by his knowledge and generosity. To this day, I am continually dumbfounded by the fact that everyone seems to have a similar Finis story – a memory of Finis going the extra mile to help others.

Larry Port:

In the early Rocket Matter days, I informed my wife that I was driving down to Fort Lauderdale to meet a man I met on the Internet. It sounds much worse than it was. Finis Price and I connected over Twitter and the MILO group, and we became really good friends.

I think about him a lot. His presence is never far. His portrait gazes out over the Rocket Matter ping-pong table. Finis would have been super-jealous of the iPad Pro I just got, complete with Apple Pencil and Keyboard. He would be disgusted with me for also trying out the Microsoft Surface. Years working as a sys admin in college in the Windows 95 an XP days left him with a lingering dread of anything from Redmond.

Finis knew more things about more things than anyone I’ve encountered. He thought I was cool because I was a software architect. I thought he was cool because he was a lawyer AND a technologist and loved to read. I would call him and talk about books, although he was a much better reader than I was. We had similar tastes (we both couldn’t stand Atlas Shrugged). He was way more into sci-fi than I was, partial to Philip K. Dick. In fact, the last book he recommended to me, the day before he passed away, was A Scanner Darkly.

Finis was great. Loved that guy. And I miss him very much.

Those of you who had the privilege to meet Finis understand how true the above statements are. For those who did not, the world is a worse place without him. Finis was one of a kind, and I miss him daily. I grieve for him and I pray especially today for Ray, Heather, and the many, many others that love him. The law is a difficult profession, and many of us have wrestled with that bear. It won in that case, and I hate it for that. Too many of our colleagues have left us far too soon. Hug those you love and tell them how much they mean to you, because it just might be your last opportunity to do so – you never know. I know that my last call with him would have lasted longer than a few minutes if I had any idea. The photo below was taken in November 2013, which was the last time that we saw each other. Rest in peace, buddy. You were loved and you are missed.

Rocket Matter Introduces QuickBooks Online Integration and Slick New Payments

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Product Reviews, Technology 1 Comment

Today the fine folks at Rocket Matter rolled out an integration with QuickBooks Online, making the best online legal time and billing software even better (click here to watch a short video). In addition, they announced Rocket Matter Payments, which the painful task of invoicing and collecting easier than ever.

Rocket Matter QuickBooks Online Integration:

QuickBooks desktop is one of those things that forces a Mac law firm to keep a copy of Windows running. The Mac version of QuickBooks just isn’t that great, so most of our tribe is stuck running Parallels or VMWare or *gasp* has a server running Windows on it somewhere (which is probably the only machine in the firm that gets viruses).

The online version of QuickBooks seems to be where Intuit is placing more and more of its emphasis. They are starting to drop developer support for some of their desktop API access and are encouraging more adoption of the cloud-based product. It’s enough to make one wonder if Intuit will one day sunset the desktop product completely.

Rocket Matter’s QuickBooks Online integration, according to their announcement, “continues in the company’s tradition of easy-to-use, visually appealing software. Rocket Matter users will be able to tie together detailed information between the two systems, including invoices, expenses, trust account credits and debits, as well as sync all current clients with Rocket Matter.”

The other Rocket Matter announcement that will affect small law firm business is the introduction of Rocket Matter Payments. Basically, this feature allows you to email your client invoices with a secure payment link. You’re then able to tell if your clients opened the email or not. When a client pays, your Rocket Matter ledgers are updated automatically, which then can be seamlessly integrated with – you guess it – QuickBooks Online.

Watch an overview of Rocket Matter Payments: