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Your Options for Running a Mac-Based Law Firm: Managed Services

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Security, Software, Technology Leave a comment

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

Managed Services is the opposite of the reactive, hourly model. The biggest benefit is being able to budget IT costs and shifting the support approach from reactive to proactive. The majority of Managed Service offerings are offered in a tiered model, such as Bronze, Silver or Gold. Bronze, for example, provides only phone support, with Silver providing slightly more, etc.

My company ceased providing hourly support when I realized the business model I built the company on (hourly support) was a break/fix model with many flaws. I would set up my clients or resolve their issues and then say, “call me when you need me.” I prided myself on my ability to resolve issues promptly and enjoyed working with my clients. However, there was always a subconscious voice in my head telling me I could prevent many of the reactive issues coming I dealt with. There had to be a better way. When I discovered the Managed Services model, I embraced it fully and we haven’t looked back.

Law firms using Managed Services benefit from fewer problems, less downtime and far less unexpected issues. This pro-active approach takes the role of managing IT out of the firm and puts it into the hands of experts. At least that is the promise of Managed Service providers. Like any business, whether they deliver is another story. You must do your due diligence in choosing an IT company. (Access our whitepaper “What Every Attorney Must Know About Hiring An Honest, Competent, Responsive And Fairly Priced Apple Consultant” at www.globalmacit.com/legalreport)

Managed Services provide a dramatic improvement over the options of DIY and hourly support. However, as our experience grew working with Managed Services, we saw some shortcomings with the tiered model of Managed Services. These insights led to the evolution of our current services. The tiered model means some things are included and others are not. Items such as Project work, training, after hours or emergency support, setting up new staff members, office moves, on-site support, for example, are rarely included, and therefore billed hourly. I found this tiered model often made clients feel they were being nickel and dimed. The overall impact of this model ends up hurting your firm in several ways.

First, one of the big benefits of Managed Services is being able to budget your IT costs. But if project work is not included, how can you budget accurately? The biggest problem this leads to is the delay of important projects that would be beneficial to the firm. Because the cost is not in the budget, projects that are important but not urgent are often pushed off and delayed. This impacts the firm’s profits, assuming the new solution would have addressed a bottleneck in the firm or boosted productivity in some way. For example, we have seen many firms fail when trying to roll out technical solutions on their own. The data is often neither migrated not configured properly, and they don’t provide proper training. Ultimately, the staff does not buy into the solution and it fails after the firm spent a LOT of money trying to get it off the ground.

Not knowing the level of support will cover an issue may deter your staff from calling the IT company, because they don’t want to rack up additional bills for the firm. This leads to small issues developing into bigger issues.

A word of caution: Windows-based Managed Services Companies.

Managed Services in the Apple world is a fairly new model, with less than 100 all-Mac Managed Service Providers in the nation. This means many Mac-based law firms looking for a proactive support option often only come across Windows-based Managed Service Providers who claim they can support Macs.

The number ONE issue with most Windows-centric Managed Service Providers supporting Macs is that it is financially impossible for a Windows-shop to provide the same level of support to Macs as they do to PCs. They cannot justify spending the same amount of resources on training, tools and support for the 5-10% of their computers that are Macs. Because of this you will not receive the same caliber of support provided to their PC users. In the majority of cases, when they say they can support Macs, they have one person who’s the “Mac expert.” When that person is out of the office, Mac-using clients are out of luck.

Simply becoming Apple Certified does NOT make one an expert. It is a step in the right direction, however, there is still a long way to becoming proficient at supporting Macs. I have heard many stories where the client ended up knowing more about Macs than the support person they are speaking with! Talk about a horrible experience. If you are an all-Mac law firm, you need to do extra diligence if you are considering hiring on a Windows-centric IT company to support your firm. Not everyone out there is negligent in this area, but sadly I can say from experience that the majority are not able to fully support Macs.

A Managed Services has some flaws, it is a huge step forward in becoming proactive in managing your technology. Next month’s article will discuss the 4^th and final option, the unique offering version of Managed Services of my company, GlobalMac IT and how it is specialized for Mac-Based Law Firms.

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.

2015 Apple at Law User Survey

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Online Resources, Software, Switching to Macs, Technology Leave a comment

The following Guest Post was written by Tom Lambotte of GlobalMac IT and is reprinted here with his permission:

Attorney at Work recently collaborated with MILOfest to conduct the “2015 Apple at Law Users Survey,” aimed at getting a snapshot of how law firms are using Apple products. Tom Lambotte, CEO of GlobalMac IT and one of the MILOfest conference and survey organizers, reviews the results and points out the highlights. Be sure to download the full highlights report PDF, too.

This year’s Apple at Law User Survey revives the annual tradition begun with Clio’s “Apple in Law Offices” survey, conducted from 2010 to 2013. The 2015 Attorney at Work survey drew 339 respondents from firms of all sizes, and the results show some interesting statistics.

Apple Ascending

It’s no surprise that use of Apple products in the legal market continues, but it is amazing to see the continual growth.

Of the individuals responding to the survey, 27 percent were solos, 44 percent had between 2 to 10 employees on staff, 18 percent had between 11 to 50 employees, 6 percent employed 51 to 200, and another 5 percent were in large firms of more than 200. The spread among these numbers confirms that Apple products are being used in larger firms — not just in solo and small law offices.

All Mac or a Mix?

Almost one-third (29 percent) of the respondents were 100 percent on Macs in their law firms, which is not shocking considering the dramatic advancements made possible by cloud-based platforms and software-as-a-service (SaaS). This is a major shift from five years ago when the Apple platform had very limited options in areas such as case management, document assembly, and time and billing software.

Now, with more and more software becoming platform agnostic (meaning it will run on any operating system), I predict we will continue to see the number of all-Mac offices continually increase, year after year.

A full 22 percent of respondents reported using a mix of PCs and Macs, further confirming my point. One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is that firms can give their employees a choice of which platform they would like to use. It also makes it possible to test out a couple of Macs in the office before eventually making the full switch. Often, we encounter a managing partner wanting a MacBook Air, testing it out, falling in love, and then pushing the full migration to Macs in the office.

Another 27 people (8 percent) reported being the only Mac users in their firm. I foresee these trailblazers — along with the mixed PCs and Macs firms — playing a big role in the coming adoption of all-Mac law offices. In fact, we just signed a client with a 15-person firm, where it started with one attorney bringing in his Mac a couple of years ago. They gradually converted and are now on Apple 100 percent.

A Spike in New Users

It’s interesting to compare some of the results from the last Clio survey to the 2015 numbers. Clio’s 2013 Apple in Law Offices Survey reported that 44 percent of respondents had been using Macs for more than three years, while 2015 survey results came in at 50 percent. The biggest difference is new users: In 2013, only 9 percent of respondents had been using Macs for less than a year. That number almost tripled among respondents to the 2015 survey, at 26 percent, pointing to a big spike in increased Mac usage in law firms.

Tablets in Law Offices

Shifting to tablets, 84 percent of the respondents currently use iPads, compared with 75 percent in 2013 and 70 percent in 2012. In 2011, only 15 percent of those surveyed owned an iPad, up from only 10 percent in 2010. Remember that the iPad made its debut in 2010, so those 10 percent were early adopters. In just three years, the iPad had widely penetrated the legal market.

As for the specific iPad model in use, 45 percent say they use either an iPad Air or the iPad Air2. The brand new iPad Pro, just released on November 10, came in at 5 percent. Keep in mind, this survey closed on November 23, so a 5 percent adoption rate in the first two weeks is quite impressive! The older models are still heavily in use, with a third (34 percent) of respondents using an iPad2 or older. This speaks highly to the long, usable life span of the iPads.

Popular Desktop and Laptops

Moving into desktop computer use, the iMac was the most popular desktop model among respondents, with 62 percent of the Mac desktop share. It is hard to beat the all-in-one lines of the iMac. The other two options were the Mac minis at 23 percent and the Mac Pros at 14 percent.

I had expected the Mac mini’s use to be higher and to see less of the Mac Pros. These results may be swayed by the respondents since the survey asked what kind of Mac the respondent was using — not the overall number and types of Macs used firmwide. We frequently see attorneys using iMacs while support staff use Mac minis. The Mac minis are a great option for firms switching from PCs that already have newer monitors and keyboards and mice.

As for laptops, I expected to see a higher percentage of MacBook Airs. (I love my 11-inch Air). A third of the respondents reported using MacBook Airs (32 percent), with over half (58 percent) using MacBook Pros.

While I personally believe the MacBook Pros are overkill for most lawyers, no other laptops had retina screens up until the recent introduction of the new MacBook. I think that was a big reason for the high percentage of these. I forecast an increase in MacBooks and MacBook Airs over the next year.

Talking again about the early adopters, the new MacBook was released on April 10, 2015, and 9 percent reported using these devices — consistent with that 10 percent early adoption rate for other devices.

Apple’s new market item, the Apple Watch (not the iWatch), again hit that 10 percent early adopter mark, coming in at 11 percent. Looking back at the introduction of the iPods, iPhones and iPads, the first year’s sales tend to be a bit slow, with adoption rate striking up tremendously in years to follow. I’m excited to see where this number will be in next year’s survey!

Why Mac?

We also polled users about why they chose to use Macs. The top two reasons, both chosen by more than 70 percent of respondents, were usability and reliability. The third most popular reason was security, followed by aesthetics and familiarity.

Usability (73 percent)
Reliability (70 percent)
Security (44 percent)
Aesthetics/Design (37 percent)
Familiarity (Used at Home) (35 percent)

“Usability” typically refers to ease of use and the user interface (UI). For the most part, Apple and Windows operating systems have the same features. It’s the UI that makes all the difference in the world. If you don’t know how to access or use a feature, you won’t use it. If you are not comfortable and confident in doing a certain task, you won’t do it.

I think this is why the “halo effect” is so dominant with Apple products. The first time someone uses an iPhone or an iPad, they often have that “aha” moment, where they react with: “Wow, this is SO easy.” When someone experiences this they eventually wonder, “Can this happen on my computer, too?” So they buy more Apple products, and, in time, move towards switching their firms to Macs.

What Software and Apps Do Mac-based Lawyers Use?

The survey also asked lawyers whether they use software and apps in these categories: practice management, document management, time and billing, accounting, and project management, as well as what particular products they use.

Practice management. Among those who identified a practice management application, Clio was the most popular, with Rocket Matter and MyCase tying for second. After these, Amicus Attorney, CaseManager and Daylite all had around 5 percent of users. The “other” option turned up an interesting range of products in use, from custom systems to workarounds for PC-based systems to those using general business apps like Google and Evernote. Time Matters was among the most popular “write-ins.”

However, 36 percent — one out of three respondents — don’t use any type of practice management software at all. Based on my experience with Mac-based law firms, this sounds about right, and these results reinforce my belief that many firms are still not properly leveraging the tools available to maximize their practice.

Document management and file storage. A whopping 60 percent of respondents reported using Dropbox. After Dropbox, Google Drive was a distant second at 27 percent. Still, this was much higher than I anticipated. Based on my experience, not one of our Mac-based law firm clients use Google Drive. In third place was Box.

As a side note, if your law firm is classified as a “business associate” under HIPAA rules and you are using a Dropbox Pro or Business account, you are not HIPAA compliant. Until recently, Dropbox would not sign a BAA. On December 2, 2015, they introduced Dropbox Enterprise, an additional higher-level tier — and the only tier where they will sign a BAA. Google will sign a BAA, as will Box, but also only on the Box Enterprise plan, which has been out for two years.

Document drafting and production. Microsoft continues to lead the way with 91 percent of respondents using Microsoft Office apps. Of those, 22 percent are already using the 2016 version, which mirrors the recent uptick seen elsewhere in the adoption of Office 365. Apple’s Pages, in the iWork suite, was in use by 17 percent of respondents. For working with PDFs, Acrobat continues to lead with 55 percent of users; 12 percent use PDFpen, and 10 percent use Apple’s built-in Preview application. An unsuspected contender was WordPerfect coming in at 1.4 percent.

For those running Windows on their Macs, the most popular applications were Microsoft Office, HotDocs, Quickbooks and Adobe Acrobat.

(For a deeper look into the software results, download the full survey highlights report.)

Best Part of Running a Mac-Based Practice?

The survey asked the open-ended question, “What do you feel is the best part about running a Mac-based practice?” Here are a few of their answers:

“Reliability and usability. I feel my productivity is much greater on my Mac.”
“Legal apps/tools are starting to catch up on Mac platform.”
“Ease of use and integration with the Mac-iOS ecosystem.”
“Clarity of retina screens for significant hours of reading and writing online, plus track record of virus protection security.”
“Macs are simpler to use, more reliable by far, and my MacBook Air is so much faster than our Dell desktops that I use it whenever I can in place of ‘high-end’ Dells.”
“Reliability. When we ran PCs the computer repair person was a regular visitor.”
“Mac is such a fluid operating system. It makes the programs work seamlessly and improves interaction and communication. The Apple products increase the value of whatever programs or application we might use because they work better on Apple devices!”
“Never having to worry. A former partner had all PCs in her office. It felt like half of her time was spent acting as tech support.”

I find that people usually make decisions based on emotion, then justify those decisions with logic. Chances are, if you own an Apple product, you’ve already had good experiences with Macs. Perhaps you’ve been holding off switching your law firm over to Macs because you felt it couldn’t be done, or maybe you still think Macs are just for graphic designers and photographers. As you can see in this survey, plenty of law offices are using Apple computers.

High Marks for MILOfest

Many Mac-using attorneys don’t even know of its existence, but there is a legal technology conference specifically designed for Mac-users. MILOfest (Macs-In-Law-Offices) and has taken place at Walt Disney World in Orlando since 2010. Of the 2015 Apple at Law survey respondents who had previously attended MILOfest, 74 percent rated it an 8 or higher on a scale of 1 to 10. For more details on MILOfest 2016, go visit the MILOfest.com site.

More Apple at Law Survey Results

Attorney at Work’s report on the survey highlights is available for download here.

About the Author: Tom Lambotte is CEO of GlobalMacIT, a company specializing in providing IT support to Mac-based law firms. Tom is the author of “Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms” and “Legal Boost: Big Profits Through an IT Transformation.” He is a popular speaker at national events such as the ABA TECHSHOW and MILOfest, a Mac Lovin’ Lawyers Event. Follow Tom on Twitter @LegalMacIT.

IT Insurance – 007 at Your Service

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Office Management, Office Resources, Software, Technology 1 Comment

The following Guest Post is provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMacIT:

The s 007 enior partner of a firm had just called our emergency line and told us his laptop and iPhone were stolen just minutes ago from a small café in Paris, France (not to be confused with Paris, TX). I couldn’t help slightly grinning, knowing all of his client data was both completely secure and backed up, thanks to the tools and best practices we had in place, and having complete certainty that he would be fully operational and back to work within a few minutes. Rare moments like these, where we get to use the full capability of our tools, makes everyone on our team feel a bit like 007.

We had him enroll his wife’s iPhone into our Mobile Device Management solution, and tapped into the magical powers of our IT solutions with the click of a few buttons on our end. POW! Within less than 5 minutes, our client had full access to his email, contacts, calendars, case management system and firm files. The work he had been working on minutes before the event, were all backed up and he picked up right where he left off. Best of all, this was all accomplished with very little effort on our end and done in a calm and collected manner. This last part is key, as we know what it’s like to receive stressed out, unconfident support on the other end of the line. This allowed our client to remain calm and comfortable through the process, as we put our tools to use from the other side of the globe. He went back to work and enjoyed the rest of his work-ation; our clients’ trip was shaken a bit, but not stirred.

Disasters happen. Unplanned events. “Acts of God.” This is why we carry at least half a dozen types of insurance. We do so to have peace of mind and certainty in times of chaos. You see, when something happens, your reaction should be calm and collected, “Well, that sucks, but I have a plan for this in place.” For example, if you lost your phone or dropped your laptop, what would happen? Well, there’s the financial hit of the loss of hardware, but the data you’ve most recently worked on is, in most cases, irreplaceable. In addition, the risk of a data breach is not to be taken lightly. When you’ve got the right IT Best Practices, support and solutions in place, your response should be something like this: “Oh snap, I lost the hardware, but the “stuff” is secure, backed up AND I have solutions in place to get back up and running with minimal effort.”

In this scenario GlobalMac IT was able to save the day. We calmly and confidently explained to our client that:

All of his firm and client data on his laptop and iPhone was completely secure and there was zero risk of a data breach.
Everything he had been working on all the way up to the fateful restroom break was backed up to our cloud file system and backup solution.
He would be back up and running in a matter of minutes.

The role of IT insurance in most small to medium law firms is often not taken seriously enough; for example, we see far too many firms using one of Amazon’s most highly rated and inexpensive, residential router or an Apple Extreme Base Station, to protect their firm’s network. We commonly see people doing their own IT or receiving support from their neighbor’s son living at home. You cannot expect someone whom you pay hourly and only in dire situations to implement pro-active solutions. Everyone has come across a legal case in which had they called you 6 months earlier, their case would have been much easier to take on and win. It’s the exact same with IT.

I challenge you to question the role of IT in your firm and how it is currently being approached. Is it a reactive model? Ignore-it-and-hope-everything-is-fine-model? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” model? – (with 7 year old XP machines that are both a security risk and a massive loss leader in productivity in your firm). If you had been the one traveling in Paris and had your laptop and iPhone stolen with all your firm data on it, how would you have reacted and how quickly would you have been back up and running? James Bond did not make or guess which tools he would need on his missions, Q always provided them ahead of time.

Tom Lambotte is the CEO of GlobalMacIT, the only company in the world that specializes in providing IT support to Mac-based law firms. His methods are based on close to a decade of research, testing and real-world refinement of Best Practices, working directly with Mac-based law firms and firms switching from PC to Mac, across the country and around the world. Tom is the author of Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms and a highly sought after speaker at national events such as the ABA Techshow and MILOfest, a Mac Lovin’ Lawyers Event. Learn more about Tom and GlobalMac IT at www.globalmacit.com. GlobalMac IT, 95 Executive Pkwy, Suite 700, Hudson, OH 44236, 440-941-1622

Do You Know “The Cost of Slow”?

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Did You Know?, Guest Posts, Office Management, Other Operating Systems, Software, Technology Leave a comment

“Time is money.” We’ve all heard that old adage, but have you ever thought about it from the perspective of how moving slowly can actually hurt your practice? The following Guest Post from Tom Lambotte addresses some of the ways that lawyers and law firms lose time and money without even knowing it:

The Cost of Slow

A very strange thing occurred to us in October 2014. A prospective client signed up for our services, wrote us a big check (which we cashed), then disappeared. When he came to us, he had been reading our materials for some time and was ready to move forward. He definitely had a need and was keenly aware that his IT situation was out of whack. Being a Mac guy himself, he had been trying to make the move from PCs to Macs for some time. He had accepted that he wouldn’t be able to do it himself, saw the value in our services and we had a signed agreement overnight. We charged his card and started our in-depth onboarding process. Then…he disappeared. Completely. Not a peep. We couldn’t get a call back and were unable to connect via calls or email. We eventually gave up, and were left scratching our heads as to what happened.

Fast-forward three months later, and out of the blue, I received an email from him saying he was ready to get started. We were happy to have his business, but I was more concerned about what had happened in the first place. I had to clear the air and be confident he would prove to be a good, responsive client for us to work with. Our service depends on having a quality two-way relationship with our clients.

He explained to me that after we spoke his father had convinced him that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ and that since the computers were still running, why upgrade them? These were old PCs running Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server. Well, after that decision, two systems went down, one of them actually went down twice, and one never came back up at all. This left their users unable to work for multiple days at a time and one of his employees was literally left without a computer to work on. So he was now more ready to move forward than ever before, especially since they were tax attorneys heading into the busiest season of the year. We picked things up and since then have switched his office to Macs and everyone is now thrilled.

In terms of technology, the old adage, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is a completely flawed belief system. There exists a perception that the longer you keep computers, the better ‘bang for your buck’ you are getting. Technically that is true, however, the unrealized cost of this is massive. Today, I’m going to dive into this topic through 2 primary arguments. First, I am going to challenge the ‘perception of savings,’ helping you see the real cost of slowness. Second, we’re going to dive into the value of your time.

Cost of slow

Based upon a 2007 survey, the U.S. Census Bureau report shows that the legal services industry has the 3rd highest payroll costs, coming in at 45.03%. If you can increase your firm’s productivity, you can increase your profitability. That sounds like my money in your pocket. Ok, so how do we impact productivity using technology?

In its most basic method, I always start by first looking at bottlenecks that can be removed and then determine ways to increase productivity through training and having the proper tools and solutions in place. Without getting too geeky (this is not the place), today’s fastest consumer CPU (processor) is over 3x as fast as the fastest consumer CPU that was available 5 years ago. In the mean time, we also moved from DDR2 to DDR3 memory, and SSDs are slowly becoming the norm over HDDs. The experience of a new high-end PC today is definitely a whole lot different than five years ago.

That time spent waiting for Internet Explorer to startup, or the time it takes for a computer to startup and log in? You’re paying for that. A lot more than you realize. If a modern computer saves someone just 10 minutes a day, that comes out to 2,400 minutes per year, or 40 hours. On average, what is the fully burdened cost of one week of payroll? Let’s take $40/hr as a very conservative example, which adds up to $1,600 per year, per computer. This isn’t even taking anything else into account, such as having an easier User Interface, to work with, as you get with a Mac, additional training that can be provided to your staff, or rolling out solutions that make it easier for your staff to achieve the things they do dozens of time every day.

You see, slow is expensive and in most cases our computers are the bottlenecks in our workflow, when we are waiting on them to finish. Waiting for programs to open, for large PDFs to be OCR’d after they are scanned (you do scan all your files, right?), or waiting for a file to be saved. When working on a slow machine, most people don’t notice it, since it’s all they know and they have become accustomed to it. Your role is to make sure your staff has the best tools available to them so they can be as productive as possible. Their job is not to tell you their computers are old and slow and need to be replaced.

Spend money where you spend your time

Once you’ve saved money, where should you spend it in order to maximize the usefulness of your money spent—or even your happiness? To answer that, just look at what you spend your day doing, proportionally, and allocate money accordingly. Let’s call this the comfort principle.

Simply calculate how much of your day is spent using a certain item. Let’s say we get our recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, leaving us with 16 hours. If we spend 8 hours of our day on or at our computers, we’ve spent 50% of our days on our computers. Let’s get some actual numbers instead of abstract numbers, as this tends to be easier to grasp. In being (very) conservative I am going to use a 40 hour work week, and we’ll say an attorney spends 30 hours of that time on their computers. Over 52 weeks, this comes out to 1,560 hours. Our company cycles all of our clients’ hardware on a 3 year cycle, as we have found this to be the optimal schedule. Going with that, you will spend 4,680 hours on your computer over 3 years. Wouldn’t it make sense to invest a few extra dollars there? Can you see how working on an old machine, simply because it still runs, is not a good idea?

Seeing how much time you actually spend working on your computer, wouldn’t it be worth it to spend a little more up front to make sure you have a great computer? If your computer takes 10 seconds to open an app and you can shave it down to 2 by upgrading to a newer computer, that’s a worthwhile purchase when you factor in frustration and time saved. If your computer locks up frequently because you don’t have enough RAM or if it’s just too slow, it’s in your own interest to upgrade or get a new computer. If you and your staff can get through your day with as little aggravation, frustration and discomfort as possible, everyone will be much more relaxed, which benefits you and everyone around you. And preventing stress is much better than having to spend money later on to alleviate stress. A new client recently told us they had lost an Office Manager the year prior due to issues with her slow computer that were never addressed.

The sad truth is that most people don’t ‘get’ this concept. Time and time again, I have found myself talking to some clients with older systems, quite often the managing partner, trying to convince them to upgrade to a newer one. When the day comes and they finally upgrade, I ALWAYS get raving “thank yous” and “I wish I had done this sooner.” The same goes for laptop users finally getting a big monitor to work on, but that’s a topic for another month.

I challenge you to look at the hardware that you and your staff are working on. Do they have the right tools to complete their work done in an efficient manner or are their systems acting as bottlenecks in their workflow? Is your firms’ hardware over 3 years old? If so, while it may feel good to not be writing a check for the computer hardware, you are, in fact, writing the check, it’s just going to another line item, your payroll. I challenge you to question the way you look towards IT. Is it an expense you dread putting any money towards? Or is it a measurable investment you should be making into smart investments into. Remember, the legal services industry has the 3rd highest payroll cost, 45.03%! Every boost in productivity for your staff raises your revenue and your overall profitability.

About the Author: Tom Lambotte is CEO of GlobalMac IT, the only company in the world that specializes in providing IT support to Mac-based law firms. His methods are based on close to a decade of research, testing and real-world refinement of Best Practices, working directly with Mac-based law firms and firms switching from PC to Mac, across the country and around the world. Tom is the author of Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms and a highly sought after speaker at national events such as the ABA Techshow and MILOfest, a Mac Lovin’ Lawyers Event. Learn more about Tom and GlobalMac IT at www.globalmacit.com, and readers of The Mac Lawyer can obtain a free copy of Tom’s book, Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms, at this link.

How TrialPad and Scannable Can Work Together for Lawyers

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Apps, Guest Posts, iPad, Office Management, Software Leave a comment

The following Guest Post is provided exclusively to The Mac Lawyer by my buddy, Ware Cornell, a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer and 2015 Super Lawyer, who practices in Florida. Ware has been a long time reader of this blog, and he has provided several other great Guest Posts over the years which you can view and read here. He asked last week if I thought my readers would be interested in learning how he uses TrialPad and Scannable together to maximize his efficiency, and I’m pleased to present his article below. I hope it’s helpful to you and your practice.

Background

When I started practicing law, my first assignment relative to the courtroom was to lug in a couple of “trial bags” and organize the file on counsel table for my boss. By organizing and understanding the file in order to anticipate what would be needed and when it would be needed, I was taking an invaluable step on the road to becoming an actual trial lawyer myself.

Forty years later, I am still analyzing documentary evidence and organizing it for presentation. The forty pound trial bag is gone. When I go to trial these days, I take a notebook with hard copies of exhibits to be admitted, one legal pad, and my iPad Air 2.

I am still engaged in organizing evidence, examining witnesses, preparing instructions, and making opening and closing statements. But what replaces the forty pound trial bag? What functions as well as two paralegals and four file cabinets which were brought into the courtroom by a BigLaw opponent?

There are two principal apps that I use: (1) TrialPad from Lit Software and (2) Scannable from Evernote. I start using them at the beginning of the case and all throughout discovery. There are a few other apps that help me along, namely WD MyCloud which connects directly to the MyBook Live Duo, a network-attached storage device, which functions as our office network and storage center. Using the My Cloud app, I can retrieve any document from the office and view and save it on my iPad. So if an issue comes up in the trial over a discovery motion that is not already saved on TrialPad, I can quickly retrieve it.

TrialPad

TrialPad is my organizer. It forces me to think about the elements of my case and how I am going to present it. It also allows me to put documents in a central folder and in the witness folders for introduction or cross examination. Once in a folder my case looks like this:

As you see, I use green internal folders with a Pi sign for the Plaintiff’s case and red folders with Delta embossed for the Defendant’s case. Normally I would have folders with significant orders, the pleadings, jury instructions, opening statement and closing argument. This particular case was a short arbitration and closing argument was submitted post hearing in writing.

TrialPad is very flexible and it is easy to add documents to witness folders for cross examination or to the argument folder for handy reference. As to closing argument TrialPad has an output feature where exhibits, powerpoint, and even video can be presented to the jury by projector or video link.

Scannable

Now what is Scannable and why do I put it in the same pantheon as TrialPad. Scannable is an Evernote app that uses the camera on an iPhone or iPad to capture a document and create a pdf file. Unlike other apps, the Scannable “finds” the four corners of a document and automatically snaps it. This means you do not have to focus or press the button to take a picture.

I use it in depositions extensively. As most trial lawyers of a certain age know, the days of making speaking objections or generally misbehaving are over. When your client is being deposed, you pretty much have to sit there, objecting only to the form and without the ability, except in areas of privilege to instruct a client not to answer. This is, for me anyway, a very boring time, listening to a client tell a story I heard on intake and in depo prep.

In order to avoid taking home lots of paper exhibits of which I probably already have copies I began to use Scannable to preserve the exhibit as a pdf. But then what, I needed to put exhibit numbers on each document. Then I remembered a TrialPad feature. TrialPad allows you to attach exhibit stickers to any document. Further more it numbers them consecutively (even if exhibits are alphabetically marked).

Scannable automatically saves to Evernote, and then asked if you are do or want to “Share Again”. Sharing again enables you to save to other apps including TrialPad. In the case folder in TrialPad I will create a deposition exhibit holder and export my Scannable pdf to it. I then add an exhibit sticker to the document and rename if necessary.

Scannable is a free app but Evernote will sell you two feature packed versions for $29.99 and $49.99 annually, TrialPad is expensive at $129.99. It is well worth the price.

About the Author: G. Ware Cornell, Jr. is a 2015 Super Lawyer and 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.

Key Takeaways for Lawyers from Apple’s WWDC Keynote 2015

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Did You Know?, iOS, Mac OS X, Siri, Software, Technology Leave a comment

At Apple’s keynote presentation kicking off its World Wide Developer Conference last week, it unveiled some major improvements to its Watch OS, iOS and Mac OS platforms. Many of these changes are great legal technology that will benefit law practices. Here are a few key takeaways from Apple’s WWDC keynote 2015 address that attorneys have to look forward to:

OS X 10.11: El Capitan

The most beneficial feature of El Capitan, the new OS X for Mac computers, is that it will give people the ability to multi-task by splitting their screen. This will allow attorneys and other professionals to do two things at once, such as scan a new case and perform research at the same time.

iOS 9

Apple has added intelligence to its operating system with iOS 9 by giving it context sensitive features. For instance, if someone asks Siri, “remind me I have this” it will know that they’re talking about the meeting currently pulled up on their screen. Additionally, if an unknown number calls them, they may ask Siri to search their email for any matches.

Apple Watch

Attorneys can now make the Apple Watch work for them in Watch OS 2 with the ability to make Face Time audio calls and respond to emails.

News

Attorneys can easily remain updated on law-related news stories with an app for the Mac called News. It will allow them to personalize their news stream and to automatically update whenever they open it. The app also includes graphics that will allow it to adapt to the news source’s aesthetics.

Document Assembly on a Mac using DocMoto

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Software 1 Comment

One of the best parts of ABA TECHSHOW every year is the opportunity to talk with the vendor to find out what goodies they have in the works. This year, Lee & Neil from DocMoto, showed me their newest feature – document assembly on a Mac! They were also gracious enough to provide the following Guest Post about this new feature:

Simply put, document assembly is the automatic assembling of a document based on rules. Document assembly is popular with lawyers because there is a high degree of repetition in the work they do. The benefits it brings are significant, it can save lots of time, it can reduce error, and it can guarantee that everybody follows consistent rules.

Windows users have had access to a number of powerful (if slightly complex) document assembly tools for years. But for Mac users the choice has been limited. In the latest release of DocMoto, version 3.6 we introduce our own set of document assembly tools that we think will help to bridge the gap between Windows and Mac platforms.

Document Assembly – Essential Requirements

When we set out to implement our document assembly toolkit we set down our key objectives, here they are:

Support simple placeholder (merge field) substitution.
Support entire blocks of text (snippets) substitution.
Support sophisticated nested placeholder substitution
Support decision based text or snippet based substitution
Support the full feature set of MS Word, so template documents can be as rich as you want.

Lets deal with each in turn:

Simple placeholder substitution

Simple placeholder substitution is the act of replacing a placeholder in a document with a value. A typical example might be {clientName} which is replaced by the client’s name.

Simple placeholder substitution is very similar to MS Word’s merge fields, indeed some practice management systems even use Word merge fields to achieve placeholder substitution.

Snippet substitution

Simple placeholders are only useful to an extent. Before long it becomes apparent that it would be much better if entire blocks or “snippets” of text could be substituted.

DocMoto’s document assembly toolkit supports this. Each snippet is defined as a template in its own right. So snippets can themselves include references to other snippets. Snippets are referenced in a similar manner to placeholders, for example {@standard paragraphs/terms and conditions.docx} refers to a snippet containing the firm’s standard terms and conditions.

Nested placeholders

The ability to nest one placeholder into another allows for very powerful substitution. The idea of nested placeholders is to have a new valid placeholder created by replacing the nested one. The DocMoto placeholder {@standard paragraphs/terms and conditions {state}.docx} is an example of a nested placeholder, with {state} being the nested part.

We can use this idea to achieve logic such as inserting the correct terms and conditions snippet for the client’s state.

Decision based substitution

Decision based substitution is much like the familiar “IF THEN ELSE” construct.

For example the following DocMoto instructions change the pronoun within a document based on the sex of the client.

if {sex}=‘Male’ then ‘he’

if {sex)=‘Female’ then ‘she’

else ‘they’

In the above example text (he, she, they) is being inserted, but we could just as easily have created the instruction to insert entire snippets.

Support MS Word feature set

DocMoto uses a native Mac client. That means we can directly access MS Word on your desktop and use that to do the work for us.

The benefit of using Word is that you can create very sophisticated document templates, which will be assembled correctly regardless of complexity. This is in contrast to some systems that don’t use Word to process a document, which can, on occasion result in some unexpected output.

To see document assembly using DocMoto we have published a series of videos. You can find them on the links below:

Rocket Matter Automates Its Client Intake Process for Lawyers

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Software Leave a comment

Rocket Matter, the leading cloud-based legal software program, recently announced the launch of Rocket Matter Intake. This new process connects a law firm’s website to Rocket Matter’s practice management and time and billing software to automate the process of gathering new client information.

This client intake process can be utilized by law firms in many different ways. For instance, when a new client comes into the office, the receptionist could hand him/her an iPad instead of a piece of paper to collect the typical name, address, and other necessary information. Not only does this reduce errors and save staff time because it’s being entered by the client, but it also enables the firm to then use that data to create engagement letters, wills, motions, or any number of documents with just a few clicks.

Larry Port, CEO of Rocket Matter, explained it best:

“Rocket Matter Intake is all about growing firm profitability and making lawyers’ lives easier. Collecting information through online forms for client intake removes errors and saves time. Then, when Rocket Matter auto-populates that same data into legal forms, we’re removing hours of wasted time from the legal workflow. That creates more opportunity for actual lawyering.”

As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words (and a video may therefore be worth a million), so I urge you to spend just over one minute and watch the video below to see this powerful new feature in action.

To learn more about Rocket Matter or its new Intake Forms, click here.

Switching from PCs to Macs in the Law Office

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Software, Switching to Macs Leave a comment

It’s no secret that Apple products continue to gain traction in the legal field, and that they are a great option for many attorneys, particularly solo and small firm lawyers. However, changing operating systems or learning a new computer may seem like a daunting task, particularly to a busy lawyer. So what is it really like switching from PCs to Macs?

My wife and law partner, Jenny Stevens (a/k/a @MrsMacLawyer), was recently interviewed by Heidi Alexander on The Legal Toolkit to discuss “Making the Transition from PCs to Macs in Your Law Office“. Jenny discusses her switch from a PC law office to one using exclusively Apple products, and she shares her thoughts as to how easy it is to switch, some of the resources available to those considering making the move, and what software that we use at The Stevens Firm, P.A. Family Law Center.

The Legal Toolkit is one of the leading legal technology podcasts, and if you don’t already listen to it, this would be a great episode to begin doing so. Click here to listen.