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Category Archives: Guest Posts

This Halloween… Who’s Keeping An Eye On Your Computer Network?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Security Leave a comment
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halloweenThe following Guest Post is from my friend (and Legal IT Guru), Tom Lambotte of GlobalMac IT. His company provides complete end-to-end IT services to Mac-based law firms nationwide with 5 to 50 users: 

Many attorneys, paralegals and office managers we have come into contact with over the years wait FAR too long to have a checkup and update to their computer network’s health and security. Unless someone is actively performing regular daily/weekly/monthly maintenance, a nasty virus, malicious hacker, unexpected software corruption, hardware failure or dozens of other problems could catch you off guard and result in extensive downtime, data loss and expensive data recovery efforts.

That’s because many law firms do not perform regular maintenance on their network or do not have the time and therefore are overlooking many serious threats that are increasing exponentially over time. At some point, disaster strikes and they find themselves in a real mess, with a network down and employees sitting idle, waiting to get back to work.

By then the damage is done, and it can cost thousands of dollars to get the network back to normal, if that’s even possible. What saddens me even more is the fact that almost every one of these costly disasters could have easily been prevented if someone had checked their network’s security and health to remove these threats on a regular basis.

From now until Halloween (October 31st), GlobalMac IT offering our readers with 5 or more Macs a FREE Network Checkup ($497 value) so that you have no excuse for not making sure your computer network is safe and sound.

No More Excuses! This Free Network Checkup Will “Exorcise” The Demons Hiding In Your Computer Network. Schedule your FREE Network Checkup to “see” if you are truly safe from spyware, viruses, hackers and other SPOOKY disasters by calling GlobalMac IT at 440-941-1622 or info@globalmacit.com. (Please note, this offer is only available to Mac-based law firms with 5+ Macs.)

How Lawyers Can Use Circus Ponies NoteBook in Trial

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, How Do I ...?, Office Management, Online Resources, Software, Technology 28 Comments
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Circus Ponies NoteBook is a unique productivity tool that can be used in many different ways.  My good friend, Kern Lewis, a trial attorney in Grapevine, TX, has used this program for several years to help organize his cases and present them at trial.

Kern recent conducted an hour long webinar to demonstrate his techniques, and he was kind enough to record it and allow me to share it with my readers.  I have uploaded the video to YouTube, which you can view here or below.

Kern has also been generous enough to share his NoteBook template referenced in the video.  You can get your own copy of Kern’s sample template by emailing me and asking for it.

I want to extend my heartiest thanks to Kern for his time and effort in producing this video and also for his willingness to allow me to share it with my readers.  If you are interested in learning more about Kern’s practice, I encourage you to visit his firm’s website WarriorsForJustice.com.

Review of the Transcend Jet Drive Lite

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Hardware, Product Reviews, Technology Leave a comment
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Transcend Jet Drive LiteOne of the few deficiencies associated with solid state drive equipped Macs is the comparatively small size of internal storage. In an era where 500 GB is the norm and even 1 TB is common, a 256 GB drive is small.

When I bought my 15 inch Mac Book Pro with Retina Display, I rationalized that with iCloud and other cloud storage options the loss of half of my hard drive would be find compensation in the increased speed and reliability of a SSD. To some extent those assumptions were correct. Nonetheless I often found myself managing drive utilization trying to keep at least 10% of the total storage space open.

Transcend provides a solution. For slightly less than $80 and a Jet Drive Lite 350, I have increased my drive space by fifty percent. The Transcend Jet Drive Lite is essentially a High Capacity SD card which installs into one of the existing SD ports on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. 

There are four different model cards, and you should carefully consider the chart before ordering. Each card is tailored for specific machines and is designed to be inserted into the port and lie more of less flush against the case, not sticking out like a normal SD card. The normal card can be spring ejected. This is not so with the Jet Drive Lite. It is very difficult to remove, and since it is in effect a secondary SSD that permanency is a virtue. I have inadvertently “ejected” the card in the Finder only to discover it simply disconnects. The simplest recovery mode is to log out and then log back in and the drive is automatically recognized.

The card comes in a box, with warranty information, and nothing else. The limited lifetime warranty, if you can read it without an electron microscope, is quite good. You should make sure however that your card data on it is being backed up regularly. I use Time Capsule and the setting on  installation excluded the Jet Drive Lite. I think the reason for this is that the drive  appears to your Mac to be no more than a temporary SD card and SD cards are not backed up unless you change your settings.

So having a card and an open port I pressed it in. Since the card doesn’t eject, there is no “click” associated with my effort. However an icon appeared immediately on my desktop, and I knew my MBP was reading the drive.

My first thought was that I would move all my photos and videos to the Transcend Jet Drive Lite 350. Immediately I received a message- “The destination disk is not properly formatted.” Indeed it was not, and that is peculiar. We are looking at a product designed exclusively for newer Apple laptops, and the card was FAT formatted. It takes less than a minute to reformat the card to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Once the disk was reformatted I moved my entire Aperture Library to the Jet Drive Lite . I am a lawyer, not a technician, but it seemed to me that the transfer speed was quite fast, at least as fast as my USB 3.0 flash drive and possibly as fast as a Thunderbolt device. All in all, the Transcend Jet Drive Lite meets a lot of my needs. The price and the huge capacity should justify you giving it a try.

About the Author: G. Ware Cornell, Jr. is a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer in Weston, Florida. Ware graduated from Emory University and the University of Georgia School of Law. He served as a federal law clerk in the Southern District of Florida. Ware is AV®-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, a 2014 Super Lawyer in the field of Employment and Labor Law, and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. His interest in computers began in 1984 when he saw a commercial during the Super Bowl. He immediately bought the original 128kb Macintosh. He has reviewed computers, software, and gadgets of all kinds in addition to books as an Amazon top reviewer.

How to Work With PTX Files on a Mac

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, How Do I ...?, Software, Technology 13 Comments
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If you work with PTX transcript files, you already know that it can be frustrating doing so on a Mac. One of my readers, Nathan Chaney, a patent attorney in Arkadelphia, AR, developed a solution for working with PTX files on a Mac, and he has graciously agreed to share it with my readers. His guest post includes an installation guide for installing the PTX viewer on Wine and then installing a PDF printer that will work to convert the PTX files to PDF. Thanks so much to Nathan for his work in developing this solution and for sharing it with my readers.

Many colleagues know I have an IT background, so I field lots of Mac-In-Law-Office questions. I recently fielded a question about PTX transcript files, and I learned that Clarity Legal’s online .ptx conversion tool, which has been featured on Ben’s blog before, has been shuttered.

I use the emulation program Wine to run the Windows PTX viewer from the Mac. This is a how-to guide for installing the programs necessary to (1) run the E-Transcript Viewer, and (2) save the transcripts as PDF files. It’s a little bit involved, and requires some use of the command line.

First, install XCode from the App Store. Next, we’ll need to install some command line tools. If you are running OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), open a Terminal windows (/Applications/Terminal) and run the following command:

xcode-select –install

Run the following command to agree to the XCode license (you’ll need to be an administrator of the computer and enter your password for the sudo command several times throughout this process):

sudo xcodebuild -license

If you’re running an earlier version of OS X, open the XCode application, find the “Downloads” pane, and download and install the Command Line Tools from that pane.

Next, you’ll need the Macports package installation manager, available here. Choose the version that corresponds to your operating system, and install the package. When it’s finished, run the following command to update Macports to the latest release:

sudo port -v selfupdate

We’re going to use MacPorts to install a package called CUPS-PDF. This is very similar to the “Save as PDF” feature already on your Mac. Open up the Terminal application and run this command to install CUPS-PDF:

sudo port install cups-pdf

The output of this command will give you some instructions to run upon initial setup. They are:

ln -s /opt/local/var/spool/cups-pdf/$USER ~/Desktop/cups-pdf

/opt/local/libexec/cups-pdf_links.sh

sudo killall -1 cupsd

The first command creates a shortcut to the CUPS-PDF output folder on your Desktop. You canmove this shortcut into whichever folder you prefer. The second command will require you to be an administrator and type in your password (it uses the sudo command).

image1The next thing to do is install the CUPS-PDF printer on your Mac. Go to System Preferences > Printers & Scanners, and click the ‘+’ below the printer list (see image at right). CUPS-PDF should appear in the ‘Default’ list.

Simply highlight CUPS-PDF, click ‘Add’, and you should have a CUPS-PDF printer in your printer list. (This will work for printing other things to PDF too — for instance, if you want to change options in the print dialog, but Save to PDF won’t let you, the CUPS-PDF printer is a good solution).

Next, we’ll use Macports to install Wine, along with a couple of packages needed to compile Wine:

sudo port install apple-gcc42 git-core wine-devel

This will likely take a while. Take an opportunity to quench the thirst all this talk about wine and port created. The next step is to install the transcript viewer, available here. Download the file, then type the following commands into your Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads

wine E-Transcript_Bundle_Viewer-6.1.1.exe

Of course, use the version number of the file you downloaded on the last command. This will open an E-Transcript Viewer installation window. Wine may need to install a few packages to make this all work; just follow the prompts to install them if so. Use the default values for installation of the E-Transcript Viewer, and complete the installation.

Finally, we’ll need to create a shortcut to the installed E-Transcript Viewer application, which is hidden. Open the TextEdit application, and click New Document. Copy and paste the following lines into the document:

#!/bin/sh

wine “/Users/nathan/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/RealLegal/E-Bundle Viewer/EBundleViewer.exe”

Click Format > Make Plain Text. Save the file in the Applications Folder as “E-Transcript Viewer.command”. Finally, go back to the Terminal window and enter the following commands so that the script we just created can be executed:

cd /Applications

chmod +x E-Transcript\ Viewer.command

Now, you should be able to double-click the ‘E-Transcript Viewer.command’ file in the Applications folder any time you need to open a .ptx file. Here’s the result:

image2

You should be able to select CUPS-PDF in the print dialog of the E-Tran viewer, like so:

image3

After a few seconds, a brand-new PDF containing your transcript will appear in the folder that’s linked to your Desktop.

Last Minute Emergency Holiday Gifts for Mac or iPhone People

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Hardware, Technology Leave a comment
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Mac Christmas

The following guest post is from my good friend and technology guru, Larry Port:

You’re almost out of time, getting to the point that you aren’t going to be able to order that present online for Christmas. For better or for worse, there’s still that last bastion of shopper accessibility, the mall.

And a lot of your malls will have an Apple Store.  And that’s good, because it means you can park the car, run through the mall and avoid wandering like an aimless beast, and get into the Apple store and out with the following goodies:

Nike Fuel Band ($150)

nike-fuelband

Until the iWatch comes out, there’s no cooler-looking digital display than the Nike Fuel Band.  Look to wearable tech being the biggest theme in consumer electronics over the next two years, and Nike is on the bleeding edge of this stuff.

Like other products such as FitBit, the Fuel band tracks your exerted energy throughout the day and allows you to upload your information via a paired app.  People who like this thing often use it with their friends, and they compete to see who’s more active or not.  Best bet: get one for you and one for another person, and push each other to get some six-pack abs in 2014.

Phillips SoundShooter Bluetooth Speakers ($50)

speakerYou can spend $40 or over $200 on small, portable bluetooth speakers.  This crazy-looking device from Phillips packs a punch of sound, which is wild considering it is shorter than an actual iPhone.  If you’re looking for a less expensive gift for your Apple enthusiast friend, this may suit the bill.

It’s worth noting that Beats™ and Bose both manufacture miniature Bluetooth speaker systems. Apparently the merchants have discovered a whole new segment of sound consumers, those interested in portability.  Also, portable iPhone speakers were the number one gift at our company white elephant gift exchange.

iPad Mini Keyboard ($100)

logitech-keyboardThe people who really know go to town on their iPads are the ones who have an attached keyboard.  As a consumption device, the Apple tablet is amazing. But as a production device, you’re a little hampered by the physical keyboard, or lack thereof.

Enter Logitech’s awesome little keyboard cases.  Not only do they protect your device, but the Bluetooth connectivity affords you a wire-free iPad experience.  The cover is a very slickly-designed, rugged Kevlar-like surface, and the device slips into place quite easily. This might easily qualify as the perfect gift for yourself.  It will change the way you interact with your iPad Mini.

Kate Spade iPhone Case ($40)

kate-spade-casePhone cases are a perfect auxiliary gift.  They’re the kind of thing people want to buy more often than they do. The mere switching of the phone case can make the device seem new again.

You can go crazy with new cases if you haven’t seen what’s out there.  Some of them are built to withstand what seem like nuclear explosions. Others are small and light, made of leather or wood,or even resemble books. This one is from designer Kate Spade – her brand recognition will legitimize this gift (as long as this is a supplemental gift and not the main one).

MacBook Air 13″ ($1,100)

macbook-airI’m a software engineer that has built his own computers and compiled Linux kernels.  Computer-wise, I’ve seen it all, and the best machine I’ve ever owned BY FAR is the MacBook Air.  In fact, I feel so passionately about the MacBook Air that I’m inspired to write a sonnet for it.

The battery lasts 10 hours.  It is light as a feather.  It’s fast as can be, because the solid-state hard drive allows read-access at much higher speeds than traditional spinning hard drives. Bottom line is if you think a laptop is in the cards for someone this holiday season, go for the MacBook Air.

Beats Headphones ($300)

beats-headphonesOn this one I have to be honest:  I would never spend this kind of scratch on headphones.  But plenty of people do and swear by Beats™ by Dr. Dre™ and their beautiful creations. Their mission is super-amazing sound, and they want to introduce “an entirely new generation to the possibilities of premium sound entertainment.”

I will say this – it’s very cool to see someone approach an unloved design space and turn it on its head. Beats did that for headphones, and Next did it for, of all things, thermostats.  Personally, I cannot wait until some people from Apple leave to create the most gorgeous turkey baster ever.

About the Author :: Larry Port is the CEO and Chief Software Architect of Rocket Matter  an online legal software platform for time and billing and practice management.  He also runs Rocket X1, an Internet marketing agency for professional service firms.  Larry  writes on technology, business, and marketing topics for legal publications and speaks at legal conferences around the country.

How Apps Can Make You a Better Litigator (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on July 11, 2013 by admin Posted in Guest Posts, Hardware, How Do I ...?, iPad, Office Management, Software, Technology Leave a comment
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I am pleased to present the conclusion of the Guest Post from Jim McLaren and Jonathan Lounsberry explaining how they use iPads and Macs in their family law practice. If you missed it, you can click here to read Part One. Thanks again to Jim and Jonathan for sharing this information with my readers.

Once all of the depositions are completed and the case is moving towards final preparation for the trial, we identify the key exhibits for trial.  An exhibit list for each witness is prepared, as is an overall exhibit list. All of this is keyed in and correlated in the Trial Notebook. Besides creating exhibit lists, we also prepare lists of the potential witnesses and issues. The exhibit, witness and issue lists are used to create our trial outline giving us a “roadmap” for trial. With all the outline and lists completed, we are generally ready for the trial and the presentation of testimony and exhibits.

Our basic set-up in the courtroom is much like our deposition set-up. My rule-of-thumb is to be totally self-sufficient and not depend on any locally provided services.  We bring the MacBook Air, iPads (Wi-Fi and 4G), extension cords, multi-plugs, 4G Hot Spot, chargers, VPN and Wi-Fi access to our servers at the office, thumbdrives, printers, gaffer’s tape and everything else we need to operate throughout the trial.  We usually request a staging room (if available) where we keep the printer (set-up and ready to use), an additional computer and hardcopies of documents (separated by day in which we anticipated using them).

In the trial of a case, we use TrialPad to present our exhibits.  Clean paper copies of the exhibits are marked and entered into evidence as official exhibits, with copies to all involved counsel and an extra copy for the judge.  As each exhibit is entered into evidence, our highlighted exhibits in TrialPad are put up on a screen (already in the courtroom or provided by us) in front of the attorneys, the trial judge and the witnesses.  Important portions of documents are displayed using the “call out” feature of TrialPad. Either an associate or a paralegal operates TrialPad from our counsel table; quite effective and easy to use.  No fumbling or waiting until the witness gets to page 188 of a 256 page document – we take the witness, the trial judge and all counsel directly to the excerpt.

Another effective way we present testimony and evidence in trial is through a PowerPoint presentation (or Keynote, if you are a Mac-user). I have found that using a PowerPoint presentation allows for a more structured examination of a witness or opening/closing argument. We like to keep our slides simple, illustrating single points or facts. Our motto is “detailed brevity”. This is important to keep the trial judge or jury focused and able to easily retain a larger percentage of the witnesses’ testimony. Depending on the length of the hearing and the electronic capabilities of the courtroom, we use either a laptop or an iPad (through Keynote or TrialPad) to present our PowerPoints.

Most of our office hardware and software is Microsoft-based.  While some are Apple-based, that is the exception.  Prior to the spring of 2011, I always had a reluctance to move into Apple products fearing they would not be compatible or usable with our Microsoft-based systems.  Having incorporated Apple products into our workflow, I find the Apple products are not only very intuitive but each product has become almost indispensable. Using Apple products has definitely changed the way we present a case during trial.

I hope you find this post helpful. My goal is to give the reader an idea of how we use technology in our practice, and I hope your path to successfully using technology in the courtroom has been shortened. Thank you.

About the Authors:  

James T. McLaren maintains a statewide family law practice emphasizing complex marital litigation in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a partner in the law firm of McLaren & Lee. He currently serves as First Vice-President and is on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and he is a Diplomate of the American College of
Family Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Jonathan W. Lounsberry has B.A.’s in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of South Carolina (2006) and a J.D. from the Charleston School of Law (2009). He is a member of the Charleston County Bar and the South Carolina Bar. He practices in the areas of complex domestic litigation and juvenile justice.

How Apps Can Make You a Better Litigator (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Hardware, How Do I ...?, iPad, Office Management, Software, Technology 1 Comment
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I am pleased to present the conclusion of the Guest Post from Jim McLaren and Jonathan Lounsberry explaining how they use iPads and Macs in their family law practice. If you missed it, you can click here to read Part One. Thanks again to Jim and Jonathan for sharing this information with my readers.

Once all of the depositions are completed and the case is moving towards final preparation for the trial, we identify the key exhibits for trial.  An exhibit list for each witness is prepared, as is an overall exhibit list. All of this is keyed in and correlated in the Trial Notebook. Besides creating exhibit lists, we also prepare lists of the potential witnesses and issues. The exhibit, witness and issue lists are used to create our trial outline giving us a “roadmap” for trial. With all the outline and lists completed, we are generally ready for the trial and the presentation of testimony and exhibits.

Our basic set-up in the courtroom is much like our deposition set-up. My rule-of-thumb is to be totally self-sufficient and not depend on any locally provided services.  We bring the MacBook Air, iPads (Wi-Fi and 4G), extension cords, multi-plugs, 4G Hot Spot, chargers, VPN and Wi-Fi access to our servers at the office, thumbdrives, printers, gaffer’s tape and everything else we need to operate throughout the trial.  We usually request a staging room (if available) where we keep the printer (set-up and ready to use), an additional computer and hardcopies of documents (separated by day in which we anticipated using them).

In the trial of a case, we use TrialPad to present our exhibits.  Clean paper copies of the exhibits are marked and entered into evidence as official exhibits, with copies to all involved counsel and an extra copy for the judge.  As each exhibit is entered into evidence, our highlighted exhibits in TrialPad are put up on a screen (already in the courtroom or provided by us) in front of the attorneys, the trial judge and the witnesses.  Important portions of documents are displayed using the “call out” feature of TrialPad. Either an associate or a paralegal operates TrialPad from our counsel table; quite effective and easy to use.  No fumbling or waiting until the witness gets to page 188 of a 256 page document – we take the witness, the trial judge and all counsel directly to the excerpt.

Another effective way we present testimony and evidence in trial is through a PowerPoint presentation (or Keynote, if you are a Mac-user). I have found that using a PowerPoint presentation allows for a more structured examination of a witness or opening/closing argument. We like to keep our slides simple, illustrating single points or facts. Our motto is “detailed brevity”. This is important to keep the trial judge or jury focused and able to easily retain a larger percentage of the witnesses’ testimony. Depending on the length of the hearing and the electronic capabilities of the courtroom, we use either a laptop or an iPad (through Keynote or TrialPad) to present our PowerPoints.

Most of our office hardware and software is Microsoft-based.  While some are Apple-based, that is the exception.  Prior to the spring of 2011, I always had a reluctance to move into Apple products fearing they would not be compatible or usable with our Microsoft-based systems.  Having incorporated Apple products into our workflow, I find the Apple products are not only very intuitive but each product has become almost indispensable. Using Apple products has definitely changed the way we present a case during trial.

I hope you find this post helpful. My goal is to give the reader an idea of how we use technology in our practice, and I hope your path to successfully using technology in the courtroom has been shortened. Thank you.

About the Authors:  

James T. McLaren maintains a statewide family law practice emphasizing complex marital litigation in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a partner in the law firm of McLaren & Lee. He currently serves as First Vice-President and is on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and he is a Diplomate of the American College of
Family Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Jonathan W. Lounsberry has B.A.’s in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of South Carolina (2006) and a J.D. from the Charleston School of Law (2009). He is a member of the Charleston County Bar and the South Carolina Bar. He practices in the areas of complex domestic litigation and juvenile justice.

How Apps Can Make You a Better Litigator (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on July 9, 2013 by admin Posted in Guest Posts, Hardware, How Do I ...?, iPad, Office Management, Software, Technology Leave a comment
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I have had the privilege of seeing several presentations by my friend (and trial lawyer extraordinaire) Jim McLaren explaining how he uses iPads and Macs in his family law practice. I asked Jim and his associate, Jonathan Lounsberry, to write this Guest Post to share this valuable information with my readers, and I greatly appreciate their generosity and willingness to do so. Part One appears below, and Part Two will be published on Thursday:

First, I want to thank Ben Stevens for giving me this opportunity. My intention is not to lecture on how to handle a case from top to bottom. Rather, I hope to share my firm’s learning experience in dealing with technological and organizational challenges in critical phases of the litigation process. The choices, good, bad and in-between, will be shared. Hopefully, some of our experiences will shorten your path to successfully using technology in and out of the courtroom.

Remember, this is a team effort. Our staff is very specialized and experienced, each having an integral role. Input and participation from everyone in the office is essential. All lawyers and staff must know how to fly the plane. Since our approach to litigation of cases is a team effort, everyone on the team must be able to use the necessary tools.

Like many, we began with carbon copies and semi-manual typewriters. Now, we are fairly sophisticated from a technology standpoint, always trying to stay on the cutting edge of technology. When a case demands it, everyone in the office collapses around and works on that case during critical stages, such as preparing for trial, hearings or depositions. We endeavor to produce (in a short period of time) high-quality legal work.

We use technology throughout all phases of the litigation process. The two phases where technology has the most impact are depositions and trial. Below are the ways our firm uses technology during these two critical phases.

In depositions, I prefer to have three iPads in front of me as well as my MacBook Air, together with multiple hard copies and an index of all exhibits and a list of questions or subject areas I intend to cover with the witness. Why do I use three iPads?

On iPad #1 (Evernote), I have my deposition cross-examination outline, and any summaries or comparative analyses I plan to refer to during the deposition. Evernote allows me to collect and combine a multitude of information into a single repository. Also with Evernote Business, anyone at the firm can access and update the deposition cross-examination outline, summaries or comparative analyses. We refer to this iPad as the “OutlinePad”.

On iPad #2 (PDF Expert), I have annotated copies of all of the exhibits I intend to enter during the deposition. PDF Expert allows me to annotate the exhibits and highlight what I am going after. Other good Apps for that purpose are Adobe Reader, iAnnotate and Good Reader. We refer to this iPad as the “ExhibitPad”.

iPad #3 (BT Chat HD), is used exclusively for communication during the deposition with my experts, my client and co-counsel. I have used both email and messaging (BT Chat HD or Apple iOS Messages) for this purpose. I find messaging is the best method, being a little bit cleaner and more efficient. Messaging eliminates the clutter of email chains and extraneous emails. We refer to this iPad as the “YammerPad”.

Sure, you can get away with one iPad, but it is difficult to maneuver between the screens in the heat of a deposition. It is better to have three – they are cheap and make your work easier and more manageable.

On the MacBook Air, we maintain the case Encyclopedia Britannica (Trial Notebook) allowing me to access any information about the case, particularly anything I have overlooked in preparation. You should not undervalue having everything about the case with you. The witness probably will bring up some obscure document you logged, bates-stamped and have readily available in the Trial Notebook.

Following the deposition, we always request the transcript in electronic (preferably .txt format) and paper forms. Once we get the deposition transcript in the office, we go about the business of summarizing the depositions. The summarization process is done with either iAnnotate or Transcript Pad. Whomever you designate to do the deposition summary should have a good handle on the case and the subject matter to be highlighted. Part Two will explain how technology can assist you in the courtroom. Stay tuned…

About the Authors:

James T. McLaren maintains a statewide family law practice emphasizing complex marital litigation in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a partner in the law firm of McLaren & Lee. He currently serves as First Vice-President and is on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and he is a Diplomate of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Jonathan W. Lounsberry has B.A.’s in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of South Carolina (2006) and a J.D. from the Charleston School of Law (2009). He is a member of the Charleston County Bar and the South Carolina Bar. He practices in the areas of complex domestic litigation and juvenile justice.

How Apps Can Make You a Better Litigator (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Hardware, How Do I ...?, iPad, Office Management, Software, Technology 2 Comments
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I have had the privilege of seeing several presentations by my friend (and trial lawyer extraordinaire) Jim McLaren explaining how he uses iPads and Macs in his family law practice.  I asked Jim and his associate, Jonathan Lounsberry, to write this Guest Post to share this valuable information with my readers, and I greatly appreciate their generosity and willingness to do so. Part One appears below, and Part Two will be published on Thursday:

First, I want to thank Ben Stevens for giving me this opportunity. My intention is not to lecture on how to handle a case from top to bottom. Rather, I hope to share my firm’s learning experience in dealing with technological and organizational challenges in critical phases of the litigation process. The choices, good, bad and in-between, will be shared. Hopefully, some of our experiences will shorten your path to successfully using technology in and out of the courtroom. 

Remember, this is a team effort. Our staff is very specialized and experienced, each having an integral role. Input and participation from everyone in the office is essential.  All lawyers and staff must know how to fly the plane.  Since our approach to litigation of cases is a team effort, everyone on the team must be able to use the necessary tools.

Like many, we began with carbon copies and semi-manual typewriters. Now, we are fairly sophisticated from a technology standpoint, always trying to stay on the cutting edge of technology.  When a case demands it, everyone in the office collapses around and works on that case during critical stages, such as preparing for trial, hearings or depositions. We endeavor to produce (in a short period of time) high-quality legal work.

We use technology throughout all phases of the litigation process. The two phases where technology has the most impact are depositions and trial. Below are the ways our firm uses technology during these two critical phases.

In depositions, I prefer to have three iPads in front of me as well as my MacBook Air, together with multiple hard copies and an index of all exhibits and a list of questions or subject areas I intend to cover with the witness. Why do I use three iPads?

On iPad #1 (Evernote), I have my deposition cross-examination outline, and any summaries or comparative analyses I plan to refer to during the deposition. Evernote allows me to collect and combine a multitude of information into a single repository. Also with Evernote Business, anyone at the firm can access and update the deposition cross-examination outline, summaries or comparative analyses. We refer to this iPad as the “OutlinePad”.

On iPad #2 (PDF Expert), I have annotated copies of all of the exhibits I intend to enter during the deposition.  PDF Expert allows me to annotate the exhibits and highlight what I am going after.  Other good Apps for that purpose are Adobe Reader, iAnnotate and Good Reader. We refer to this iPad as the “ExhibitPad”.

iPad #3 (BT Chat HD), is used exclusively for communication during the deposition with my experts, my client and co-counsel. I have used both email and messaging (BT Chat HD or Apple iOS Messages) for this purpose. I find messaging is the best method, being a little bit cleaner and more efficient. Messaging eliminates the clutter of email chains and extraneous emails. We refer to this iPad as the “YammerPad”.

Sure, you can get away with one iPad, but it is difficult to maneuver between the screens in the heat of a deposition.  It is better to have three – they are cheap and make your work easier and more manageable.

On the MacBook Air, we maintain the case Encyclopedia Britannica (Trial Notebook) allowing me to access any information about the case, particularly anything I have overlooked in preparation.  You should not undervalue having everything about the case with you.  The witness probably will bring up some obscure document you logged, bates-stamped and have readily available in the Trial Notebook.

Following the deposition, we always request the transcript in electronic (preferably .txt format) and paper forms. Once we get the deposition transcript in the office, we go about the business of summarizing the depositions.  The summarization process is done with either iAnnotate or Transcript Pad.  Whomever you designate to do the deposition summary should have a good handle on the case and the subject matter to be highlighted. Part Two will explain how technology can assist you in the courtroom.  Stay tuned…

About the Authors:  

James T. McLaren maintains a statewide family law practice emphasizing complex marital litigation in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a partner in the law firm of McLaren & Lee. He currently serves as First Vice-President and is on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and he is a Diplomate of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Jonathan W. Lounsberry has B.A.’s in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of South Carolina (2006) and a J.D. from the Charleston School of Law (2009). He is a member of the Charleston County Bar and the South Carolina Bar. He practices in the areas of complex domestic litigation and juvenile justice.

Fonts for Lawyers

Posted on May 6, 2013 by admin Posted in Guest Posts, Miscellaneous, Office Management Leave a comment
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About a year and half ago, I asked whether attorneys gave any thought as to why they use a particular font. After all, lawyers are hired to advocate their clients’ positions as effectively as possible. Fonts transmit the written word, and they are a daily part of most lawyers’ lives, whether they realize it or not. That article discussed Equity from Matthew Butterick, which is still my font of choice. Matthew has recently released a new font, Concourse, and I asked him to write the following post to introduce it to my readers:

As I told Ben in my last guest post, it took me a while to come around to the idea that lawyers had enough special typographic requirements to merit the design of a new text family. But once I did, the result was Equity, a font tailored for the needs of legal writers.

Given its design brief, I was prepared for the idea that Equity would find an audience that was enthusiastic but small. To my surprise, however, the audience has been enthusiastic and large. So to those of you who have bought Equity, my sincere thanks — your support of good typography makes my work possible.

Predictably, Equity customers were soon asking me what sans serif face would work best with it. I referred them to the Typography for Lawyers book & website for ideas.

But I had another idea too. Before I started work on Equity, I had drawn sketches of a sans serif that was inspired by classic sans serifs of the 1920s and ’30s. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I set it aside. But once I finished Equity, I saw that it would work well as a sans serif companion. I picked up the sketches again, finished the family, and have now released it as Concourse.

With Concourse, I relied on many lessons learned while designing Equity. For instance, Concourse can set long blocks of text in an efficient amount of space. Concourse has separate fonts containing the small caps, so it’s easy to use them. Concourse is available under a liberal per-person licensing system.

But sans serifs are used in more design contexts than serif text fonts. So Concourse is actually a bigger and more diverse family than Equity. It comes in six weights, from thin to black. It includes a large complement of figures, fractions, and alternate alphabetic characters. You can see the whole Concourse family deployed in the PDF type specimen.

Concourse comes into two packages. Concourse Standard includes all 18 styles ($180 for a one-person license). Concourse Basic, includes the nine styles most likely to be useful in legal writing, like briefs and letters ($90 for a one-person license). You can order these on the Typography for Lawyers website. (You can also get Equity together with either Concourse package at a discount.

About the Author: Matthew Butterick is an attorney, designer, and writer in Los Angeles. He is the author of the website and book Typography for Lawyers (Jones McClure Publishing).

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