Category Archives: Office Management

“The Fine Art of Practicing Law on a Mac” Named One of the Best Articles of 2012

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“The Fine Art of Practicing Law on a Mac“, the article that Randy Juip and I published in the March/April 2012 issue of Law Practice Magazine, was recently honored by that publication as one of its Best of 2012. In our article, we discussed the hardware and software options available to run a law office on a Mac – whether in the office, on the road, or in the courtroom.  Randy is one of the leading authorities on legal technology, and it is always a great pleasure to write or present with him.  If you haven’t yet read our article, check it out here.

Rocket Matter – Now With E-Mail Integration

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Today, Rocket Matter, the leading online legal practice management software, released their e-mail integration feature, code-named “Spock”. Users with IMAP protocol can now automatically populate e-mail into related their related client matters. Attorneys can now quickly associate an e-mail folder with a specific matter, which instantly creates a list of all e-mails, giving every user the ability to stay updated on all client activity across the firm. Even better, the emails for each matter are now searchable, and users can quickly and easily enter billable time, providing even more functionality.  You can learn much more abou the Spock release here.  The Mac Lawyer uses Rocket Matter in his firm, shouldn’t you use it in yours?

Guest Post :: Lawyers Should Use Siri in Their Day-To-Day Practice

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One of the truly innovative programs on Apple’s iPhone is Siri, a sophisticated voice-controlled personal assistant that helps you accomplish important tasks just by asking. With Siri, you can use your voice to make calls, send messages, create reminders and enjoy a nifty speech-to-dictation feature. As you can imagine, this feature is highly useful in a variety of circumstances and scenarios. Does Siri already belong in law firms? Should lawyers use Siri in their day-to-day practice? The answer, on both accounts, is yes!  Many Mac enthusiast lawyers have already begun using Siri to accomplish important day-to-day tasks. Lawyers can use Siri to transcribe dictation into a document, email, or text message. Lawyers can hold the iPhone right in their hands and it feels no different than a dictaphone.

It should come as no surprise that lawyers lead very busy lives. If a lawyer needs to research the outcome of a landmark court case, he or she will be pleased to know that Siri can get the job done quickly. Here is a possible command that a lawyer may give to Siri: “Google the outcome of Kelo vs. City of New London.” If you weren’t already aware, the Kelo ruling established that the government could seize private property to sell for private development. In a highly controversial 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court held that this scenario qualified as “public use” within the meaning of the takings clause since it furthered economic development.

Getting back to my main point, Siri can serve as an indispensable tool for lawyers even outside the law firm. The lawyer on the go can use Siri to locate office supply stores or other retail establishment stores in the area. Siri can remind lawyers of important dinner engagements or dates they have for the evening. Siri can even call lawyers’ significant others to remind them that their legal lover will be running late.

In addition to Siri, the iPhone can serve as a valuable tool for lawyers in other ways. Apple’s App Store boasts over 500,000 applications. Lawyers can use the Conference Call app to schedule legal conferences with the simple click of a button. The iPhone will automatically call involved contacts and link them to the conference call. JotNot’s Scanner Pro turns an iPhone into an image and document scanner. Lawyers can use the smartphone’s camera to take a photo of a document and then allow this application to convert the photo into an electronic copy instantly.

The iPhone gives lawyers access to Siri and a host of useful applications that can save them time. All lawyers know that time is money, so invest your time wisely.

About the Author:  John Zimmerman is a legal adviser for BabyChangingStation.com John uses Siri and other features on the iPhone to complete his day-to-day tasks.

Rocket Matter Launches iPhone App For Lawyers

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What’s the best case management application for lawyers who want to maximize their productivity?  The answer for me is easy – Rocket Matter.  It’s no secret that I am a big fan of this application for many reasons, but now I can add one more to the list – their iPhone app, which was released one week ago today.  I have been using this app for well over a month, and it is very impressive even in this initial version.

The app enables access (whether online or not) to contacts, case information, and calendars (with day, month, and list views), and it makes it extremely easy to enter billable time and expenses on the go.  Best of all, your data is available on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, regardless of whether you are online or not.  Information recorded via the Rocket Matter iPhone app appears instantly in the web-based product, and if you enter data while offline, it automatically uploads as soon as you regain internet access.

Built natively in iOS, this app is lightening fast, rock solid, and easy to use.  Even more importantly, it keeps your data safe and secure, just like the Rocket Matter web application, as it uses the same authentication and security measures.  In other words, all data transmitted to and from the app occurs over an encrypted channel.  It also enables you to set a passcode lock on your iPhone to ensure that no unauthorized access occurs, so that if the device is stolen or lost, sensitive client information remains secure.

If you haven’t checked out Rocket Matter (or you haven’t done so in a while), you really owe it to yourself to do so.  The best legal case management software just keeps getting better and better.  To learn more about the specifics of this app, visit Rocket Matter’s information page, or click here to download the app for yourself.

Rocket Matter Launches API and Integration with Automatic Time Tracking Tool Chrometa

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Rocket Matter, the leading cloud-based legal practice management and time and billing software for small to mid-sized law firms, has announced a publicly available application programming interface for Rocket Matter (RMAPI) and one-click integration with Chrometa, an automatic time capture technology for Macs and PCs.  RMAPI allows other software companies to seamlessly and securely retrieve and send information to Rocket Matter without error-prone downloads and import files.   In providing a scalable platform for other technology partners, Rocket Matter is one of the first legal practice management program with a publicly available API.

“Rocket Matter is no longer just a product: it’s a platform for other software companies to create amazing products for lawyers,” says Larry Port, CEO of Rocket Matter. “We wanted our first API integration to be with an incredibly useful, amazing product and forward-thinking company, and found this partner in Chrometa. Their automatic time capture gels with our idea of partnering with law firms to improve their efficiency and profitability. We look forward to offering law firms additional end-to-end experiences with our future RMAPI partners.”

Rocket Matter and Chrometa will demonstrate their new integration next week at ABA Techshow in Chicago, where both companies are exhibiting.  “We’re very excited about our integration with Rocket Matter,” says Brett Owens, CEO and Co-Founder of Chrometa.  “We think our users will love the one-touch ability to send time automatically captured on Chrometa over to Rocket Matter.”

In addition to RMAPI, Rocket Matter is proud to announce an elegant solution to an inelegant problem:  the incorporation of ABA Task Codes and LEDES 98 billing into their flagship product.  Via Rocket Matter’s autocompletion technology, users don’t need to remember codes.  Rather, they can enter the description, and the ABA code will be pulled into their billable activity.  LEDES 98 invoices can be generated one matter at a time or across all matters with the click of a button via Rocket Matter’s Batch Billing functionality.

Rocket Matter and Chrometa One-Click Integration, LEDES 1998 Billing from Rocket Matter on Vimeo.

About Rocket Matter, LLC

Rocket Matter, LLC provides Rocket Matter®, an online legal practice management and time tracking application for small to mid-sized law firms. The benefits of Rocket Matter®, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application, include increased security, business continuity, decreased technology infrastructure and maintenance costs, and improved return on investment for information technology expenses. Launched in February 2008, Rocket Matter’s corporate headquarters is in Boca Raton, FL.

About Chrometa, LLC 

Headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., Chrometa, LLC, creates software that acts as your very own personal timekeeper. Chrometa’s time tracking tools are used by attorneys and other professionals to enhance revenue and gross billings, and spend less time reconciling time. Please visit www.chrometa.com for a free trial of Chrometa’s proprietary time capture technology.

Rocket Matter 2.0 Released, Now Featuring Document Assembly

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The Mac Lawyer has long found Rocket Matter to be the leading practice management program for law firms, including my own.  It providers users the ability to quickly and efficiently manage their calendars, tasks, contacts, and time and billing.  Within the last few months, it introduced the ability to integrate with Dropbox and Evernote.

Last week, Rocket Matter announced its 2.0 release, which now features document assembly.  Users can merge client and matter data to easily generate customizable documents, with no limit to the number of custom fields that may be used.  This new functionality makes this already impressive product stand head and shoulders above its peers, and it can greatly increase both productivity and efficiency for its users.

“For the first time in the cloud and for the first time on Macs, attorneys have software that can instantly create new legal documents, store them, and bill for them,” says Larry Port, CEO of Rocket Matter.  “Our 2.0 release is a major step forward for cloud legal software.  The document assembly and custom field combination offers incredible power while adhering to our well-known ease-of-use philosophy.   Creating a new document with existing matter and client information literally takes the click of a mouse.”

Because Rocket Matter is web-based, users can utilize all its features and generate documents on their Macs, iPads, iPhones (and even PC’s).  To the best of my knowledge, Rocket Matter is the first and only SaaS (Software as a Service) case management program to offer document generation.  Kudos to the folks at Rocket Matter for recognizing this glaring need and addressing it in such a useful manner.  You can learn more about the document generation and other new features at their website or in the preview video below:

A Preview of Rocket Matter 2.0: Document Assembly and Custom Fields from Rocket Matter on Vimeo.

Guest Post :: Document Management for the Mac-Using Lawyer with DocMoto

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Note from The Mac Lawyer:  Among the questions that I am asked most often are: “What document management systems are available on the Mac?” and/or “My firm uses Worldox.  Is there anything similar for the Mac?”  While the Finder may be a suitable solution for some smaller law firms, many others want something more powerful.  I recently had an opportunity to meet face-to-face with the developers of an exciting new product, DocMoto, and view its features.  I was so impressed that I asked them to provide this Guest Post to make my readers aware of their product and its amazing capabilities.  I believe that this new document management system (developed exclusively for Macs) will be a tremendous asset to attorneys and law firms that want or need such powerful features.  – Ben Stevens

“Document management – everybody needs it to some extent, but the benefits to law firms of effective document management are considerable.”  First off, a big thank you to Ben Stevens for asking us to write this brief article on document management and our product DocMoto.

If ever there was a topic that meant all things to all people document management is it. But in the legal environment it can be boiled down to some key benefits:

  1. Client/Matter-Centric Storage :: All electronic material can be “tagged” by both the client and the matter, plus any other tags that will be helpful in retrieval. Once tagged, it’s easy to find all material for client X or matter Y.
  2. Consistency :: Rules can be imposed on the storage of material. This guarantees a consistent approach for everybody within the firm. With consistency comes a reduction in error and an improvement in the speed of retrieval.
  3. Centralisation :: Everything, including email, documents, and even images can be stored in the one central location. This makes searching faster and more thorough. It also ensures that all material is included in the search, avoiding any possible issues with eDiscovery.
  4. Full Text and Tag Searching :: Complex searches can be simply performed. Searches can include multiple criteria, such as a combination of tags and text. For example, find all references to Mrs. Z in matter Y.
  5. Document Access Control :: Security can be applied to the repository ensuring only the correct people have access to the appropriate material. Confidential matters remain that way.
  6. Client Access Via The Web :: Clients can be given secure access to the repository via the web. This improves client service levels, it also further ensures material is consistently stored.
  7. Version Control – Material is checked in and out of the repository, with a full revision history being kept of all files.
  8. Audit Trail :: All material has a full audit trail to see who accessed material and when.
  9. Simplified Backup :: As everything is in one place, backup is greatly simplified.

In the case of the sole practitioner it is accepted that most of this can be achieved with a manual system. But the moment there is more than one person involved, particularly if information is being entered by members of staff, the need for a document manager rises sharply. Of course there are numerous document management systems to choose from. The reason our product, DocMoto is featured here is because it is a truly Mac product.

DocMoto’s central repository is accessed through a software interface very similar to Finder. To coin Apple‘s line “you already know how to use it”. The repository can hold any file type, from documents and email through to images and even audio. The repository can be accessed by multiple people at once, is secure, and supports a powerful tagging and templating system. Simple storage rules can be applied ensuring material is correctly and consistently tagged. DocMoto supports very powerful text and tag searches and all files have a complete version history.

DocMoto can be downloaded and installed for a trial period, but since it is a business critical application we recommend treating it as a “mini project” and we are more than happy to provide the support necessary to achieve this. The product can be located in-house or in the cloud. Pricing plans range from a one off purchase to monthly payments.

You can learn more about this topic in general in Document Management Systems: Why Bother and How to Shop for One (Part 1 of 2) by John Heckman.

About the Author:  This Guest Post was written by Neil Cameron, director of UK based CHL Software.  CHL has been developing OS X based solutions for the past five years and document management systems since the company was founded in 1996. DocMoto, their flagship product is rapidly being adopted by attorneys worldwide.

Guest Post :: Equity – The Best Font for Lawyers

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What font do you use? Why? Have you thought about it? Do you care how your documents look and how readable they are? You should.  In college, I worked in the public relations department for three years, and I learned a lot about the importance of layout, font choice, text size, etc.  Since I began practicing law 16+ years ago, I have always given great thought to which font I used, and my tastes and preferences have changed over the years. I am proud to say that my preferred font these days is “Equity“, and I asked its creator, Matthew Butterick, to write this Guest Post to tell my readers a bit about his new font. I hope you find it informative and that you give Equity a try.

First, I thank Ben Stevens for inviting me to contribute a few words about Equity.

As Typography for Lawyers has evolved, lawyers have asked whether I would ever design a font specifically for legal writing. At first, my answer was no—plenty of nice fonts already exist, so why not use those? And based on that advice, many lawyers have explored the vast typographic territory beyond Times New Roman. Which is a good start.

But after a few years of thinking about the intersection of law and typography, I realized that lawyers do have some special typographic requirements that existing fonts don’t account for. So Equity is the first font to be tailored to the needs of legal writers—start to finish. A few examples:

First, Equity meets the Times New Roman benchmark for length. Lawyers are sometimes reluctant to consider other fonts because most of them don’t fit as many words per page as Times New Roman. But the overall length of text set in Equity is almost identical to Times New Roman.

Second, not only does Equity have real typographic small caps—in both regular and bold weights—but they’re already letterspaced according to my recommendations in Typography for Lawyers, making it more convenient to use them.

Third, because office printers don’t all print text the same way, Equity comes in two weight “grades”—one slightly lighter than the other—so you can pick the one that works best with your printer. This is a feature found in very few text fonts.

Fourth, unlike nearly all professional fonts, you can embed Equity in word-processing documents. So if you collaborate on documents with other lawyers, they’ll be able to see your documents formatted in Equity.

And how does it look? My goal was to give Equity the warmth of traditional letterpress printing without being stuffy or quaint—a blend of classic and contemporary.

Equity has quickly become indispensable in my work as a lawyer, writer, and typographer. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I hope others find it as useful as I do.

You can download PDF samples of Equity at http://equityfont.com. A one-person license is $120; up to five people is $240.

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).

The Mac Lawyer Discusses Apple’s Impact on Law Offices

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I was recently interviewed by Colin O’Keefe of the LexBlog Network about the impact of Steve Jobs and Apple on the law and the legal workplace.  In this interview, I discuss

  • Why my firm, The Stevens Firm, P.A., made the switch to a completely Mac-only office in 2005.
  • Whether or not Apple’s perception in the legal workplace has changed from the mid-90s to the early 2000s to now.
  • Why Apple computers are actually a better value for law firms than their PC counterparts.
  • Just how big the iPad has been for lawyers and law firms.
  • Where things are headed for Apple and lawyers.

I hope you enjoy the interview, and I want to extend my thanks to both Colin and LexBlog for having me as their guest.

Source: “LXBN TV: Ben Stevens Discusses Apple’s Impact on the Legal Workplace” published at the LexBlog Network.

Guest Post :: The Law Firm of Tomorrow, Part Three

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I am pleased and honored to publish the following Guest Post, “The Law Firm of Tomorrow, Part Three – Why We Decided to Write This Book and How We Made Publishing History” by Larry Port:

I’m a productivity junkie.  I enjoy reading books about how to be more streamlined, more efficient.  My idea of a good time is to kick back with a good to-do list, calendar, and some 3 x 5 index cards.  And when I find a cool new technique to save time or stay focused that I’ve never heard of before, I feel like a kid on Christmas.

Followers of our blog, Legal Productivity, or our webinar series know we also like to write and produce content on this subject.  And last October, we released the wildly acclaimed Legal Productivity: How Project Management, GTD, and Tomatoes Can Transform the Way You Practice Law.

When I say wildly acclaimed, I mean my mother was really excited about it.  And actually, thousands of attorneys downloaded it and bought it from Amazon or got it for free at trade shows.  Those trade show people, however, were bitter and disappointed that they didn’t walk away with a Rocket Matter Snuggie.

So this month, a year later, we released a sequel to Legal Productivity.  We were toying around with “Son of Legal Productivity” or “The Return of Legal Productivity” or “Legal Productivity : The Search for Spock”, but instead, we made it Part Three of our new e-book series, The Law Firm of Tomorrow.  In this way, we figured, our new volume is simultaneously the sequels of two different books, which we believe to be a first in publishing history.

You can download The Law Firm of Tomorrow, Part Three on us and send it to all your friends by clicking here.  We commissioned a very cool cover, so we’re excited to publish the print version sometime in the future (or tomorrow, if you will), in the hopes that people will judge the book by the cover, and not the content.

All jokes aside, we feature a lot of pretty cool tips in the book.  Two of the chapters focus on reducing the email nightmare, which I can say have truly helped me downgrade email from a category 5 nightmare to a category 1 nightmare.  One chapter focues on a relatively new idea:  namely, that all emails should be three sentences or less.  Another explores the Zero-Inbox concept, which I practice religiously every day.

We also discuss the joys of getting rid of your stuff and tossing it into the dumpster, as well as embracing cycles to keep the conveyor belt of life and work moving smoothly.  We hope you enjoy it, and let us know so with flowing praise.  Any criticisms, and you’ll have my mother to answer to.

About the Author:  Larry Port is the Founding Partner and Chief Software Architect of Rocket Matter, the leading web-based legal practice management and time tracking product.  A speaker and award-winning writer at the crossroads of the legal profession and cutting edge technology, Larry writes extensively for legal publications, including Legal Management, Law Technology News, Law Practice Today, ILTA’s Peer to Peer, Lawyerist, FindLaw, Chicago Lawyer, and others.