Category Archives: Presentations

Tomorrow, I will have the pleasure of giviving two presentations in Nashville at the 
Tennessee Bar Association‘s Tech Conference 2011.  My seminars this year are on two of my favorite topics:

• "In the Clouds" – Running Your Law Office Using Web-Based Technology
• Intro to Using Macs In Your Law Practice (with Finis Price)

If any of my readers are in the area, I hope that you will stop by and say hello.  This will mark the fourth year in a row that I have spoken at this conference, and I would like to thank the TBA for having me back again.

I would like to conclude my series about MILOfest 2010 with the following post from my friend, Randy Juip, about his thoughts on this year’s program:

As a busy, practicing attorney, any time away from the office means fewer dollars in your pocket (and likely, a pile of emails waiting for your return!) The decision to leave your practice to attend a conference is one not taken lightly. In exchange for our time and dollars, we all hope to pick up a tip or two to open our eyes to new possibilities, make us more efficient, or to serve our clients better. In grand tradition, MILOfest 2010 did all of this and more.

The quality, depth, and subject matter of the presentations exceeded any rational expectation, and was beyond anything available elsewhere. There was something for everyone — even Mac veterans learned something about OS X from Victor Medina (the black dot inside the red close button, anyone?). Mark Metzger‘s outstanding presentation on incorporating the full power of Adobe Acrobat in legal practice was as enlightening as it was thorough. I know that many attorneys left that day (and MILOfest in general) wondering how quickly they could implement many of the things learned there.

The second day was as strong as the first, with Ben Stevens (the Mac Lawyer and MILO founder) teaching the group about Circus Ponies Notebook and Evernote and Clio‘s Jack Newton and Rocket Matter‘s Larry Port and Ariel Jatib introducing us to the inevitable future of cloud-based computing. More than a few of us were considering jobs in the local D.A.’s office after seeing, firsthand, what Ron Elkins (the Wise County, VA district attorney) was able to do with some clever programming and a few iPads. And, Larry Staton‘s talk on using AppleScript to increase efficiency and ease work flow was well-received; there were few attorneys in the room not working at their full intellectual capacity to keep up with Larry, and I can only assume that Larry’s inbox is full of messages asking for a second bite of his brain.

On day three, Larry Port from Rocket Matter blew the conference away with one of the most philosophically deep — and immediately relevant — talks I’ve ever attended about the nature of our internet dependency and the dangers (and benefits) of connectivity. I have found myself trying to explain Larry’s thesis to friends and co-workers, only to be stymied at the part about Justin Bieber and the open manhole. To close the weekend, Brett Burney, from Burney Consultants, taught all of us not only about intelligent calendaring (via BusyCal), but also about how to put on a presentation — his absolute mastery of Keynote, the presenter tools he used, and his delivery were incredible!

The true value of MILOfest is always more than the presentations and the tips, though. It is rare, indeed, to have the opportunity to work so closely with such a selfless, capable, and intelligent group of attorneys as were in attendance. The chances to compare notes and practices, to discuss what works in the real world and what does not, to learn from others and to drink in their experiences, and simply, to just enjoy each other’s company in a beautiful location was as valuable as anything else (with the possible exception of having Larry Staton script your entire practice and/or watching Gwynne Monaghan (a/k/a @econwriter5) flip 40,000 tweets).

Steven Covey was fond of admonishing busy professionals to take time out of their work to "Sharpen the Saw." Communally, MILOfest gave back to its attendees much more than the cost of any single admission. Now if I could only find the time…

Randall A. Juip, Esq.
The Juip Richtarcik Law Firm
Detroit, Michigan

As my readers are aware, MILOfest 2010 took place last week in Orlando, Florida.  For the benefit of those who were not present, I asked some of the attendees to email me their thoughts about this outstanding conference:

• "MILOFest is the closest thing I’ve seen to a TED Conference in the legal world. The speakers are phenomenal, thought provoking, and on the outermost cutting edge of technology. The attendees range from the most sophisticated attorney power users I’ve come across to newbies to the Mac platform. Too often legal technology centers around discussions of EDD, which is not of interest to a lot of lawyers in their day-to-day lives. At MILOFest, prepare to learn the basics more thoroughly than you’ve ever seen the basics, and prepare to go deep into the nuts and bolts of legal technology." – Larry Port, Founding Partner and Chief Software Architect, Rocket Matter, LLC
• "As was the case last year, the most valuable part of MILOfest this year was the opportunity to establish or build relationships with other Mac-using attorneys and to learn from conversations with them what works for them and what doesn’t. This year, Mark Merenda of SmartMarketing and Victor Medina led a great discussion on key concepts that make or break success in the practice of law. it wasn’t much to do with tech, but incredibly useful, thought-provoking information about making our businesses successful. Brett Burney did a fabulous presentation on BusyCal, but it wasn’t the content (which was quite good) that made it fabulous, it was the expert packaging of the material. Brett chose to use a MacBreak Video interview with the BusyCal developer that was conducted by Merlin Mann. Brett broke the video into discrete, topic-driven chunks, played that segment of the video in a masked part of a Keynote slide, and then emphasized and expanded upon the points made there in explaining what that meant for this program in a law office. In short, Brett’s presentation was a lesson not just in BusyCal, but a master course in effective content presentation." – Mark C. Metzger, Attorney, Naperville, Illinois
• "For two years in a row MILOfest has been my favorite learning event. It combines business benefit, CLE credit in my State, seeing friends, meeting new people with common interests — and is all about something I find fun. Humbly I must admit that some of it whooshed over my head this year but only a few times. However, the presenters are always willing to spend one-on-one time or provide contact information if clarification is needed. Add to all of that the ‘after-hours’ fun for the young and the young at heart at the Disney World Parks. Much gratitude to Victor, Tiffany and all who helped make it happen." – C. Stephen Weaver, Attorney, Nashville, TN
• "Each time I attend a conference I try to summarize key points of interest to our firm. Google Apps with IMAP and the ability to sync with Clio was presented by Jack Newton of Clio. I learned others are using Instapaper on the iPhone/iPad to read articles of interest later at my convenience. While I have the app, I had not been using it; now I have the ‘read later’ button in my Safari browser. Larry Port, of RocketMatter, gave an excellent talk on the value of unplugging from our connected devices. He discussed the book, The Shallows, and the affects of the internet on our brains and our ability to concentrate. Amin, of Daylite, showed us how to make better builds and transitions in Keynote. Victor and Mark referenced a book, Predictably Irrational by Dan Arielly, that I started reading on the airplane. I downloaded a trial of OmniOutliner Pro that Mark Metzger demonstrated.  I enjoyed Ben Stevens‘ Circus Ponies Notebook and Evernote presentations as well. It is always good to see the workflows others use.  There were many other excellent presentations, but these are a few that I plan to investigate further. Overall, it was a very worthwhile conference. As always, the networking is as valuable as the presentations. The most frequently spoken word at the conference? The WORD : Dropbox.  The Clio cocktail meet-up was a lot of fun too!" – Julie N. Kiernan, Business Manager & Paralegal, Buffalo, MN
• "MILOfest this year could be deemed an even bigger success than last year. Attendance was up, and conference had a greater overall breadth of content. We had more introductory-level talks on Mac basics, which really benefited the new Mac users in the crowd. There was some very advanced content, such as Larry Staton‘s AppleScript tutorial, for the technophiles in room as well.  There was lots of great content inbetween the "beginner" and "advanced" ends of the spectrum as well, such as Brett Burney’s fantastic presentation on BusyCal. My presentation on "Putting Your Practice in the Cloud" hopefully cleared up some confusion on what exactly "cloud computing" is and how it can benefit a law office, and highlighted how tools such as Google Apps, Dropbox, Evernote, Rocket Matter and Clio can help a law office be more professional, cost-effective, and efficient.  The crowd was definitely very interested in the results of our Apple in Law Offices survey, and I think the survey provided us a lot of useful data points for future comparison.  We also hosted a "Clio Meetup" on Friday night, something we’ll plan on doing at MILOfests down the road as well. It was a great social get-together for attendees.  Another great conference for Mac-loving lawyers, and one that will hopefully grow substantially again in 2011." – Jack Newton, President and Co-founder, Themis Solutions Inc., Vancouver, Canada 
• "Most important to me at MILOfest: listening to lawyers who use software programs in the trenches and say, ‘Here’s how I do it.’ Second most important: getting to meet – not only representatives of legal-software companies – but the guys who write the code and make the decisions about the software programs! Victor also provided us a lot of time to network with each other. There’s no better way to learn than ask, ‘Oh, you use this program in your practice. How do you like it?’" – Mark A. Cowan, Attorney, Morristown, TN

Even more thoughts and some video interviews are currently posted at Tomasz Stasuik‘s Planet 10 Tech blog.

MILOfest 2010 is taking place today through Saturday, November 13, at the Disney World Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL.   I have the privilege of presenting on "Using Circus Ponies Notebook & Evernote for File Management" on Friday morning.  Other presenters include Brett Burney, Larry Port, Jack Newton, Finis Price, and Mark Merenda.  Thanks to VIctor Medina for planning such an outstanding conference and for inviting me again to speak.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about using Macs in a law firm or are thinking about switching, join Ariel Jatib and Larry Port from Rocket Matter® for a free LIVE session at the Apple Soho store in New York City on October 27th.

WHAT: Using Macs in a Law Office.
WHEN: October 27th, 6:00PM.
WHERE: Apple Store, Soho in New York City.

Live the dream – run your law practice completely on Apple equipment!  Scanners, software, and printers facilitate the practice of law on Macs, and the iPhone and iPad are now powerful business tools. Most attorneys who run Apple products at home are excited to find out they can use Microsoft Office on their Macs, run a paperless practice, manage their client trust accounts, and not skip a single beat when it comes to running a law firm. The ABA Techshow even has a dedicated session track completely catering to Mac-loving lawyers.

You may end up discovering a secret: running a Mac office may even supply some serious advantages over opposing counsel running PC’s!

Program:

1. Microsoft Office Capabilities on the Mac (Demo: Word, Excel, Pages, Keynote).
2. Email Communication (Demo: Mail.app, iPhone, iPad).
3. Using scanners and maintaining a paperless office (Demo: Fujitsu ScanSnap and Acrobat Professional).
4. Practice Management and Time and Billing options for the Mac Attorney (Demo: Rocket Matter).
5. Trust Account Management on a Mac. (Demo: Rocket Matter Trust Accounting).
6. Specialized App Overview: BeeDocs Timeline 3D. (Demo: BeeDocs).
7. Mac Attorney Community: Blogs, ListServes, Conferences.

As my readers know, I frequently give presentation on substantive law topics in addition to my technology presentations.  Today, I spoke at the South Carolina Bar‘s annual "Hot Tips From the Coolest Domestic Law Practitioners" seminar.  This seminar typically features outstanding presentations from the best and brightest Family Court litigators all across South Carolina.

My presentation was on "Proper Subpoena Process" and I was able to discuss many of the problems that attorneys encounter in this area, provide examples of the forms that my firm uses in this area, and suggest other remedies that should be helpful to the Bar.  It is always an honor to be in such esteemed company, and I want to thank the Bar for once againasking me to speak at this year’s Hot Tips seminar.