If you are an Acrobat user and was wondering why there were bugs when using the redaction function or renaming the page range when using the Bates Numbering tool, there was a reason - bugs.  Rick Borstein recently posted that an update is available to rid your Acrobat of these critters.  Click here to get your update now.

I know its been some time since I last posted, and I apologize.   While there is no good excuse to not keep one’s blog updated, even a short paragraph to say you still exist, the past 5 months have been interesting, which is a diplomatic way of saying it’s been crazy, and not always in a good way.  I’ve taken my life experiences, both good and not-so-good, the past few months and have prepared outlines for some articles, hopefully to be published by the American Bar Association and my friends at Total Attorneys, depending on whether or not I can write about my life with a deadline looming. 

Last week, I recently hopped back on the wagon to attend some meetings at the ABA’s General Practice Small and Solo Conference in Los Angeles.  I must first confess that I don’t like Los Angeles.  Most of my paranoia is from preconceived notions about losing hubcaps within blocks after having rented your car, smog, crowd, and the Lakers.  I was pleasantly surprised when the smog lifted the day I arrived to reveal blue skies, but I still hate the Lakers. 

The 3 day conference, while filled primarily with marketing and strategy meetings, featured several tracks regarding law practice management and, while the name of the section implies the sessions were focused on small firms and solo practitioners, this was not the case.  The first session I attended featured my friends Lisa Solomon and Nicole Black discussing “Six Important Principles for Effective Participation in Social Media Platforms”  The materials may be found here.  If, however, there are a few pearls from that session which I can impart to you immediately, it is that you cannot just join a site such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook and just start posting away.  You need to first set your goals for participation, then create an identity for yourself and be consistent with your message.  This is a major reason why I do not accept a client’s friend request on my Facebook account.  My Facebook account is, and will always be, a personal social media platform for me, while you will regularly find my legal content on my Twitter and LinkedIn pages. 

I then attended back-to-back presentations from friend and baseball purist Ross Kodner.  Other than having an affinity for some of the finer foods containing chili and carbohydrates, Ross is one of the finest legal tech minds I know.  He is generous with his time and knowledge (he shares his CLE powerpoints here)  Ross’ first presentation dealt specifically with top Word, WordPerfect, Outlook and Acrobat tips, my favorite for Acrobat being the Ctrl-B shortcut to create a bookmark, as well as creating Auto Text entries in Word.  His second presentation focused on creating proper “naming conventions” for your firm (isn’t it easier to find a document titled “2009.10.14 letter to Bill Clinton re: TRO,” rather than “ltr to Bill Clinton?”)  He also discussed document management systems, Worldox specifically, and their benefits for a legal practice of any size. 

My friend and Acrobat guru and mentor David Masters discussed Acrobat tips and how to get the most out of it.  David discussed how all attorneys should be doing their document management in Acrobat because of its sheer power, from processes as easy as converting a Word file to Acrobat by just hitting the Adobe PDF button on the top of Word, to combining files of any type by just hitting the “Combine” button on Acrobat, to more advanced functions such as Bates Stamping, which is essentially a three-keystroke process (Advanced-Document Processing-Bates Stamping) 

While I am a contingency attorney, many of my clients are not, so my last session was “Fees, Finance & Frugality), presented by Allison Shields of Legal Ease Consulting and Kevin Chern, President of Total Attorneys.  Allison and Kevin presented a smart and informative session on how to 1) discuss billing issues with your clients, and 2) how to bill your clients.  For the former, the two noted that many attorneys they speak to are apprehensive about discussing billing with their clients.  Allison and Kevin stated that discussing fees as early as possible in the relationship not only gets it out of the way, but it 1) establishes boundaries in the attorney-client relationship and 2) sets out goals by discussing billing levels for certain aspects of the scope of later work potentially contracted.  Kevin also mentioned that a client whose first question is “how much do you charge” is most likely a tire kicker and will be speaking with other attorneys as well.  With respect to how to bill your clients, the two agreed that it is imperative to bill often and regularly.  A client is more likely to pay a $500.00 bill every two weeks than a $2,000.00 bill received every two months.  Lastly, the two mentioned that it is beneficial to bill soon after a good result or good news, an obvious yet rarely-considered point.  In my opinion, this panel was one of the highlights of the weekend and I strongly urge that you download the materials.

Prior to my departing for the flight from LAX to Boston, I stopped by the Staples Center to give the Lakers another chance.  While it didn’t, I left Los Angeles with some solid morsels which I am passing on to you as well as my clients.  If you are not a member of the ABA, I suggest you do, as this conference was excellent, and I presume all future ones will be as well.  As stated before, as an added feature, you can download all the materials from the GP Solo and Small Firm Conference here.  While still not a fan of LA, I have become a bigger fan of the ABA General Practice Solo and Small Firm Section, its leaders and volunteers, and hope to provide you with additional law practice management tips and tricks in the months ahead.  Until then, look for me at www.twitter.com/AlanKlevan, where I will be spreading the gospel in 140 characters or less.

If you don’t already know, ABA TECHSHOW, held annually in Chicago, is the world’s premier legal technology CLE conference and Expo.  For three days in the spring,  hundreds of attendees get a choice of over 60 programs to attend spread out over multiple sessions, while over one hundred vendors display for us their latest products.

This year’s TECHSHOW, which wrapped up on April 4th, was filled with powerful tips, tricks, practical advice and everything else a lawyer or firm would want in learning how to make his or her practice more efficient and profitable.  The enitre weekend was Tweeted extensively and you can click here and enter #techshow for a complete recap, as well as finding out what others are still saying about the event.

I was fascinated by this year’s keynote speaker, Richard Susskind, who captivated the audience by discussing his latest book The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. Susskind is a technology advisor to legal practices worldwide and has written several books on the changing legal world. 

During his keynote, Susskind described that, while attorneys are experts at reacting to certain situations and clients’ demands, attorneys rarely focus on providing proactive legal services.  He describes that lawyering is moving away from terrestrial methods, and the legal profession will soon be under “one virtual roof,” driven by online collaborative tools.  For the less venturous attorney, the legal profession will soon have changed completely and left him or her behind.  For the progressive attorney willing to venture out to cyberspace, opportunities abound.

Throughout the year I will hope to focus on and review some of the products offered by the vendors.  While too numerous to mention here, I invite you to peruse the vendor list on the TECHSHOW website.  Contact them, as they will be more than willing to discuss your situation and determine of their products are right for your practice.  These are the tools to which was Susskind was referring in making us all “procative” attorneys.

We are clearly seeing a paradigm shift in the way law is practiced.  Susskind tells us that clients want more services for less money.  Attorneys need to convince their prospective clients that they can provide more value than the competitor. Attorneys need to display this value to their clients so their clients will pay promptly and in full.  When it comes to the delivery of quality legal services, we must embrace existing and emerging technologies and use them efficiently in order to not just succeed, but thrive.

The list of legal programs from TECHSHOW 2009 can be found here.  I presume that many of these sessions, as well as new and exciting ones, are already being considered for TECHSHOW 2010, scheduled for March 25-27, 2010.  Hope to see you there!

My friend David Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor and staff lawyer for the Law Society of British Columbia.  I read his Thoughtful Legal Management blog religiously, perhaps because he always incorporates some obscure lyrics and/or songs into each blog.  All kidding aside, his posts are informative and provocative while easy to understand.  His recent blog “The Paper-less Practice of Law in BC,” actually rings true for why attorneys across the country should embrace the notion of a “Less Paper” law practice.

Tomorrow is going to be great. It’s my type of seminar.  I, along with many of my colleagues, will be presenting at tomorrow’s Legal Tech seminar at the Sheraton Framingham, just off of Exit 12 on the Mass Pike.  It’s my type of seminar because we’re giving this to you in 15 minute spurts, not hour-long talking head presentations.  On the menu?

Rodney Dowell will be speaking on naming conventions for your files.

I will be speaking on the best PDF tricks for lawyers. I’m throwing in scanning tips as well.

Jared Correia will be speaking on Outlook tricks. Think OHIO (Only Handle It Once)

Chris Perruzzi will be speaking about Dragon Naturally Speaking

Andrea Goldman and David Harlow will be speaking on social networking

Rodney, Jared and Mark Kupsc will be speaking about the new Data Privacy Act

Then LexisNexis is providing a free hour on search engine marketing.

There are going to be lots of vendors showcasing lots of cool toys and stuff.

The best part?  This is all free.

Come on down and say hello.  This is gonna rock.

And don’t forget to listen to WBZ 1030 AM on your way over.  You may hear a familiar voice discussing the Tech Fair during the business news portion of the news…

If you are at Techshow Boston tomorrow, or even if you’re not, get connected!  My friend, Jared Correia of LOMAP will be blogging live all day long.  Also, we will be Tweeting, so follow that as well by following www.twitter.com/TechshowBoston.  You can participate by adding the hashtag #techbos.  Or, go to www.search.twitter.com and enter the hashtag and you will see all posts regarding Techshow Boston.  Either way, stay connected and stay informed!

Having a fax machine to me is like having a combo TV/DVD player.  It just provides another opportunity to have an equipment meltdown.  With all of the eFax companies out there, why bother paying the money, connecting it to your server, and never having the right ink cartridge when it runs out?

But what to do with all the web-based fax services?  How do you know you’re getting the most value for your money? FaxCompare is a site which actually breaks down the different companies and provides an apples to apples comparison of thedifferent products.

I thank my friend and LPM guru Jim Calloway for the tip.

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at the first of two Law Practice Management programs at Boston College Law School on behalf of the Massachusetts Bar Association with dear friends Sally Stratman, office manager at Rubin and Rudman, Terry Welch, head of the MBA Insurance Agency, and Rodney Dowell, LPM Section co-chair and director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program.  We had an anthusiastic discussion about budgeting for your practice, choices of insurance, technology considerations, and basic practice management issues.  The problem was that, due to the great discussion, there was no time for our slides.  Rodney put his presentation on his blog site for your viewing pleasure.  Regardless of whether or not you attended yesterday’s program, this is a wonderful presentation.  Enjoy.

First I would like to thank the Law Education Institute and the Colorado Bar Association for allowing me to speak at their annual conference last week.  It was a refreshing experience to get out to Vail and speak to a wonderful and enthusiastic group of attorneys.

It seems as if attorneys are yearning for more knowledge on how to use Acrobat and discover the power of PDF.  To that end, my friends Rick Borstein and Mark Middleton have been doing legal eSeminars on various subjects.  The next four are as follows:

Save Time, Meet Deadlines - January 15, 2009 1:00 P.M. ET

Legal Redaction and Metadata Removal - February 12, 2009 1:00 P.M. ET

Creating and Working with PDF Forms for the Legal Market - February 19, 2009 1:00 P.M. ET

Creating Electronic Closing Binders using Adobe Acrobat 9 - February 26th, 1:00 P.M. ET

For more information, click here.

These are worthwhile seminars for anyone interested in using PDFs for your practice.

If you are traveling with a laptop over the holiday period then you should do your “Laptop Contingency Planning” before you head out the door.  For an excellent planning guide look at Mark Shead’s blog post at www.Productivity 501.com.  Laptops are lost, dropped, stolen, and simply fail at a very high rate.  If you need to get work done then you must be prepared for one of these events by ensuring data security, preventing damage, and having accessible data backups. 

Thanks to Rodney Dowell of LOMAP for the tip.