Standing Committee on Legal Technology

E-mail is a persistent and annoying issue in every lawyer's professional and personal life. To help lawyers manage e-mail, Jim Callaway, the Director of Oklahoma Bar Association's Management Assistance Program, has posted EMail Issues for Lawyers Today. In it, he explores the ethical ramifications, security risks, benefits, and best practices associated with using web based e-mail services such as GMail and Outlook.com. He also gives advice about guarding against security breaches from the client's e-mail service; and considers the potential of insisting that clients set up a new e-mail account dedicated exclusively to communication between the client and lawyer. In addition, he reviews the current debate about encrypting e-mail. Finally, he suggests making up false answers to security questions in 2 step verification systems and the use of password managers.

Along the same lines, Kashmir Hill  at Forbes Magazine posted, 10 Incredibly Simple Things You Should be Doing to Protect Your Privacy. It includes such basic security tips as password protecting your mobile devices, such as your smart phone, iPad, and other tablets. She also suggests creating a Google Alerts with your name, being careful about giving out your email address and identifying information in public, encrypting your computer, clearing out your browsing history, and turning on 2 step verification in Gmail.

As computing solutions become more and more mobile and interconnected, questions and concerns about security arise with ever greater urgency, particularly in the context of law, with strict requirements to preserve client confidentiality.  To make some sense of all the emerging choices for storing and retrieving client data, International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Peer Group for Server Operations and Security said Thursday is developing guidelines, according to Evan Koblenz at Law.com, ILTA Developing Law Firm Security Model The guidelines are due out in October. For now, Victoria Stovall suggests Website Security Basics for Lawyers at Attorney at Work. Financial Institutions already have informational guidelines for using outside services to store data (cloud computing) in a white paper published by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Information Technology Subcommittee, Outsourced Cloud Computing posted at Hunt on Privacy Blog. With the emergence of mobile devices, security has become an even more important issue.

Kevin Harris’ recent post in Attorney at Work, It’s About Time You Got Paid, reminds lawyers that they are in business to make money; and that they need to employ good management practices in order to accomplish that goal.  However, in today’s economic climate, lawyers are expected to draw up budget and staffing plans at the outset of an undertaking and stick to them using a technique called LPM, or Legal Project Management, as explained by Pam Woldow in her posting, LPM, Going for Broke and Turning up the Heat.  However,despite LPM having become the buzzword for law practice management this year, Toby Brown suggests that a better term might be BFC, or “Better, Faster, Cheaper,” in the article he posted at 3 Geeks and the Law Blog: Legal Project Management Versus Process Improvement - Which Drives BFC?.

In order to assist lawyers in their efforts to accomplish these goals, software vendors are constantly offering new products and upgrades, which bloggers then review.  Hence, Basha Systems posted a review of a Actionstep, a new legal management program imported from Australia.  Also, TL Answers, at Legal Technology Review contains reviews of new products and advice about setting up software.  Legal Technology Review is a free subscription e-mail service with several offerings from which to choose.

The recent copyright infringement trial between Google and Oracle brought a surprising series of posts by technical bloggers praising Judge Alsip, who presided over the trial, for showing such mastery of the technology.  Glyn Moody posted on Tech Dirt, Should People Learn To Code? Yes – If They Are Judges Ruling On Cases Involving Software.  Similarly, Jeff Neubauer concluded in the New Media and Technology Blog, Oracle v. Google Judge Writes the Book on Software Programming Copyright – For Now, Anyway.  Closer to home, Judge Posner, in the Seventh Circuit Appellate Court won critical praise for his  understanding of the dysfunctional copyright litigation system in the litigation between Apple and Motorola from technical blogs such as Mike Masnick’s article in Tech Dirt, Judge Posner Dumps Ridiculous Patent Fight Between Apple & Motorola As Contrary To The Public Interest.  By contrast, the recent New York Court of Appeals decision in People v.