• Robert Haley, Esq. CELA       Basset, VA
• Geiger Law Office, P.C            Carlsbad, CA
• Mullen & Guttman, PLLC       Edina, MN

Premier will be exhibiting Thursday thru Saturday in Atlanta at the NAELA conference.
We will be featuring WealthData and related programs including an automated PDF for client intakes and on-line web forms for a variety of purposes.  Also ask about our  ’cloud like’ subscription based file server with web based access to all of your programs.

Please stop by and say hello if you are attending.

A Brave New World Awaits: The Elder and Special Needs Law Practice of the Future
By Thomas Caffrey and Mary WanderPolo, CELA, CAP

About the Authors
Thomas Caffrey is president of Premier Software. Mary WanderPolo, CELA, CAP, Montclair, N.J., is a NAELA Fellow and member of the NAELA Journal Editorial Board.

Read the article. Download a pdf

The symposium then addresses how our practices will change, through two articles. Thomas Caffrey and Mary WanderPolo, CELA, CAP, contemplate the law office of the future. Among the technological advances that will impact our practices, Caffrey and WanderPolo discuss developments in cloud computing, web-enabled applications, smartphone and tablet applications, client document portals, electronic file sharing services, and marketing through the Internet and social media. While these technologies offer convenience and efficiencies, attorneys will need to be savvy about cyber crime, security, and client confidentiality. The authors also predict that our practices will continue to become increasingly interdisciplinary. As a result, the trend of hiring or at least developing close working relationships with social workers, geriatric nurses, and other professionals will continue. Finally, the authors reflect on how our clients will be different, new practice areas that will emerge, practice areas that might shrink or disappear, and how these changes will result in new ethical quandaries for Elder and Special Needs Law attorneys.
Read the article. Download a pdf

Any on-line storage of personal information must be encrypted ‘end-to-end”.  Otherwise, it is not secure.   Transmission of unencrypted ‘content’, it seems to me  is a pretty big hole in the security wall.

I admit, I am partial to ZIPTR (www.zipt.com) which is HIPPA compliant, HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health)  and SSAE-16  (Ziptr has completed a SOC 3 AT101 audit for 2012 with a leading independent accounting firm. Service Organization Control (SOC) Reporting is the AICPA’s replacement of SAS 70 which include rigorous control examination and reporting standards and requirements such as SSAE 16, AT101 and Trust Service Principles and Criteria. SOC 3 verifies a service organization has been through an in-depth audit of its control objectives and control activities to ensure processing and hosting customer data is done safely and securely)

Also – membership software provides the means to control the access to content on your web site with easily defined access levels for members.

New client data, event registrations, form and file uploads, even quickly add details for a new calendar, billing, or note record   – and it is easy and secure.
(Note: Use the Contact form to request a private login and gain full access to Client Connect)

We are only getting started but take a look. Client Connect

At the time we were working on a next step for the firms best use of Time Matters practice management software –  efficiently sending a batch of workshop confirmation letters.  Once configured the steps are few and the documents produced quickly.  Great.

A separate question  involved the tracking tasks by deadline date.  I showed how we implement  the  management technique of managment  by exception – to track  ’past due Todo’ records.    Angela immediately said ‘good can you add that’.    I said, ‘Sure’.  and ‘Isn’t it interesting how something that would have been totally overwhelming when you first started is now so much easier to understand once you have mastered the basics.’  That’s when she succinctly stated “You can’t do it all at once or your brain will explode.”  

Even though Angela is not the owner of the firm, she has definitely taken ownership.  That’s probably why her firm is making steady progress.  Another lesson learned.

I highly recommend Richards Law Office Technology and Marketing for  information on innovative practice management, and a boatload of useful content.

Many of us spend considerable time reading about or staring at new technology – Richard Keyt is a great example of an attorney who actually uses it.

The KEYTLaw Time Matters database is hosted on a SOS, Small Office Server,  provided by Premier Software.  For information on the SOS server click here

Time Matters is a Registered Trade Mark © 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Incidentally, if you are visiting Legal Tech this week please email me if you would like to meet me there. (I’m  buying.)

Recently, we used an Excel command  to fix, in minutes, a few thousand contact records that had “last, first” which needed to be “first middle last”.  Option A was to re-type, Option B was to export some fields to excel and then use the “Concatenate” command.   This Excel 2010 command can save  serious time, should you need to re-arrange some data.

For example, let’s say you have three fields (first, middle and last) in column A, B and C but need these combined into one full name.  Simply insert another column D and in the first row in the blank D1 cell type: type: =concatenate( A1, ” “,B1,” “, C1) and column D is now a combination of all three fields with a space in between.  Once this is calculated correctly for the D1 cell, place the cursor in the bottom right of the cell, hold ctrl and drag the cursor down to the bottom of the D column and all of the column D cells will be updated.

In our situation we exported a few thousand contact records (from a Time Matters database) including  first middle and last, as well as,  the record id.  After re-arranging in Excel we the imported the revised data, matched to the unique record id and quickly updated the contact records (in the Time Matters database).

Using an inexpensive ($20.00) app for either an Apple iOS or Android device an attorney who is out of the office can use their smartphone or iPad to capture a voice file and have it saved automatically to their drop box dictation folder, and automatically notify the appropriate support staff.  There is an app for the PC and usb connected foot pedal for the person transcribing the voice file.

Your dictation can now be completed by the time you return to the office. Takes about an hour to configure.  Very convenient, very cost effective.

So, if you want to totally replace use of tapes or proprietary digital dictation devices and simply use your smartphone or tablet, contact Premier (856 429-3010 or support@premiersoftware.com ) and we can have this configured for you or other members of your firm.