All Our Tips
A Rant: Please Don’t Send My Attachments Back to Me!
Email attachments are wonderful things. Long gone of the painful and inefficient days of snail-mail and sending faxes (Perhaps dating myself here.) With just a few clicks, you can almost instantly send a document, picture or computer file of umpteen other different formats to one or more people located anywhere on the planet. This is truly amazing – and we do take it for granted.
And thankfully, our e-mail administrators have increased attachment size limits. Do you remember when you could only send attachments that were under 1Meg or even 500k? (Probably dating myself again here.) You still can’t send an 80Meg PowerPoint as an attachment (YouSendIt comes to the rescue on these), but most of the attachments most of us send on a daily basis can get through.
Here is my rant: If someone sends me an attachment, don’t send it back to me if you reply to my message. I already have the attachment in question. I don’t need it back. Save some electrons and hard drive space by deleting it from the reply! I will like you better (and my system administrator will too).
And even worse – when someone does a Reply All and resends the attachment to everyone that got it the first time – please don’t make me scream!!
Some mail systems are programed to automatically delete attachments from reply messages. Some email programs have a toolbar button that will create a reply that automatically deletes the attachment from a reply. Check to see if you have this button. If you don’t have these features, just delete the attachment manually.
I feel better now. And my systems administrator is smiling too.
Are You Ready for the “Big One”?
As Hurricane Sandy barrels down on the east coast and BC is still gently trembling from last week’s earthquake, we can’t help but advise you to think about what would happen if a disaster were to take place in your city, to take a look at what plans you currently have in place to cope, and to make changes if needed.
Busy law firms seldom think about the possibility of an office fire, but the effects of a fire could devastate your law practice. The fire doesn’t even have to start in your office suite; down the hall or one floor away, the smoke and water damage could paralyze your practice and harm your clients’ interests if papers and evidence are damaged or destroyed. The chance of a fire may seem remote, but the resulting consequences could be catastrophic. Take a few moments to consider your precautions in case of a fire (or other disaster such as a tornado or major snow storm) and implement some simple loss prevention measures. Review the fire prevention and minimization systems in your office. What precautions do you have including smoke detectors, fire alarms, sprinkler systems? Could these be upgraded at reasonable cost?
It doesn’t even have to be a fire. We know of one office whose server and other IT components were stored in a room that was directly below the toilets of the floor above. Yes, you guess it – a toilet backed up and the water came down onto the equipment. Ooops…
The information stored on your office computers should be periodically backed up, with a copy of the backup stored at an off-site location. Your backup should not only encompass client information, but firm financial information. A backup of your most recent billing cycle will keep your cash flowing and save innumerable hours of lost time and aggravation. (Remember to periodically restore a sample file from the backup system to make sure that the system is really working.)
Important original client documents and case evidence should also be protected from fire. Most attorneys do not have the space or resources to house important documents or evidence in fireproof file cabinets, however, there are some things that may be worth the additional investment. A “one-of-a-kind” piece of evidence in your possession should be kept in a fireproof safe or a bank safe deposit box, as should evidentiary photos or x-rays.
Keep an up to date copy of your client list, including names, addresses and telephone numbers, in a secure and confidential place out of your office; be sure to update it several times per year. If there is a fire and you cannot get into the office, at least you have a way to contact your clients to let them know the situation.
Finally, also keep a list of your employees, including alternative contact information such as cell phone numbers and parents or children’s phone numbers, so that you can quickly contact your staff and immediately implement your emergency recovery plan in the unlikely event that your office is damaged or destroyed.
If you practice in a smaller office, consider investing in a hardened, fireproof, waterproof networked hard drive to back up your data such as the ioSafe Solo Pro.
A little time spend planning today can save you a world of agony later on if the worst should really happen.
Read the Screen
Today’s tip is a simple reminder…read the screen. When you are doing legal research, the best gift you can give yourself, and your client, is careful attention to detail. For electronic research services, that means paying attention to everything that is going on – content and functionality.
Save Time With Virtual Meetings
While there is something to be said for a face-to-face meeting, you can get just as much or more done at a virtual meeting, especially if you use some of the new tools that let you collaborate across the web. Virtual meetings have several benefits: you can hold them on an ad hoc basis without leaving your desk, and you don’t incur the time and expense of traveling to an in-person meeting.
You can easily “meet” your clients virtually, either by phone or by video. The phone is effortless – everyone knows how to use a phone. Video conferencing, too, has come a long way and is easier than ever before. If you’ve never used Skype you are in for a treat.
First of all, it’s free – our favorite price. Second of all, it’s easy to set up. You just type in www.skype.com, create a free account and download a simple piece of software that automatically installs on your computer. The hardest part, if you want to call it that, is hooking up a web cam (less than $50 at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Target) to your computer (unless you have a MacBook or one of the latest Windows-based laptops, in which case it is built-in). These days it is almost plug and play.
Once you have all of that set up, you open Skype, test out your video and audio, and you’re ready to make your first connection. Of course, if you have kids away from home, you’ve probably already got this set up. If not, you’ll need to know the Skype “name” of the person you’re going to contact, set a time for the video connection, and then it’s simply a matter of clicking on the name and “make a video call.” Best of all, did we mention it’s FREE!
Or consider using GoToMeeting (www.gotomeeting.com). This service allows you to show the contents of your computer screen to from one to twenty other people. Here is a challenge to you: At least once a week during a phone call consider saying to someone, “hey, why don’t we just take a bit of time right now fleshing this out.” You can send them a link via e-mail, which they click on to open a browser window and it displays what is on your screen. They instantly see everything you type, and you can give control of the keyboard and mouse to them if they want to type something.
We also find GoToMeeting is great for virtual brainstorming sessions. You can write a document or create an outline much more quickly when everyone can simultaneously view and comment on it as the draft evolves. On numerous occasions we have concluded a phone call with a decent draft or outline of a document that normally would have taken many e-mails and redrafts over days or weeks to create.
WebEx (www.webex.com) and Acrobat Connect () are other widely used virtual meeting products. Pricing for the basic versions of these products is extremely reasonable at around $50 per month. If you avoid just one in-person meeting a month you are more than paying for them. Most of these products share common features, including instant messaging, free teleconferencing through a central number that meeting attendees can use (they pay long distance charges). Many let you share work with both PC and Mac users, and some will transmit video as well.
Either way, by holding virtual meetings you will be making maximum use of yours and your client’s time.
Databases Databases Everywhere
Today’s Tip is for those of you who may be thinking of buying a sports car through eBay and shipping it long distances and cross borders so that your partner has a excellent birthday. Really, it is about the wealth of fantastic databases that exist and may not necessarily be considered legal research, but fill that role.
Take, for instance, the Road Safety Recalls Database provided by Transport Canada. This database, freely available through a government website, makes it very easy to find vehicle recalls for virtually any make and model of cute little sports car that you may choose.
Happy searching.
Manipulating Windows With Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows 7 introduced some really neat new keyboard shortcuts for manipulating windows. Here are some shortcuts that every Windows 7 user should know:
Windows key + Up and Windows key + Down: If a window isn’t maximized, pressing the Windows key + Up arrow key will make it fill your entire screen. Windows key + Down arrow on a maximized window will restore will restore the window to its previous dimensions filling only part of the full screen. Pressing it again will minimize that active window.
Windows key + Shift + Up and Windows key + Shift + Down: Hitting these three keys will vertically stretch an active window to the maximum desktop height (but the width of the window will stay the same). Pressing Windows key + Shift+ Down will restore the window to its previous dimensions.
Windows key + Left and Windows key + Right: These two shortcuts will make your active window fill up exactly one half of your screen, on either the right or left side. And once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut with the same arrow key to flip it to the other side, with an intermediate step of being restored to its previous dimensions filling only part of the full screen.
Windows key + Home: This shortcut minimizes every open window on your desktop except the active window. Pressing this shortcut again restores all the minimized windows.
Windows key + Shift + Left and Windows key + Shift + Right: If you’re using two or more displays, this shortcut lets you easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which is useful when working with multiple documents.
There you go – make an effort to memorize these shortcuts. You will find them very helpful next time you want to see multiple windows on your desktop.
Bet Right on Fixed-Fee Billing
Many lawyers are fearful of moving away from hourly-rate billing because they are concerned that alternative-billing will be a risky bet. Is there a way to ensure that you, the lawyer (or the “house” in betting parlance) will win the majority of the fixed-fee bets?
Of course there is, but you have to lay the groundwork before moving to this type of billing. Here is one suggested method.
First, track or review your actual time and amount billed for all files of the type for which you are considering moving to fixed rate billing. You should probably review not less than five such matters unless the vast majority of such cases are extremely routine. Next, do the stats. Running a statistical regression in Excel will provide you with the average fee you earned on the cases reviewed and the average time that you put into these types of files, as well as the first standard deviation above the average fee. The standard deviation is a measure of how widely values are dispersed from the average (mean) value.
Once you have these calculations they provide you with a couple of options to offer to clients.
- an hourly rate quote or
- a fixed-fee quote that is one-standard deviation above your ‘average’ fee for this type of matter.
Even if the client selects the fixed-fee quote option, you have still placed the odds that you will make money on the matter in your favor because your fixed-fixed quote is priced statistically well-above what it costs you to handle an average matter of this type.
Setting your pricing in this fashion is essentially the same way a casino makes sure that it always comes out ahead. The house doesn’t win every game every time but, on average, they win more than they lose because they set up the bets and the payoff odds in their favour.
Because clients are often more than willing to pay a bit extra for the comfort of security – in the form of a known top price that a particular legal service will cost – you can also go into this type of arrangement fairly certain that, most of the time, you will come out ahead. In addition, you will have every incentive to do the work more efficiently than if you did it on an hourly rate basis, since every minute you save in providing work under a fixed fee quote is a dollar in your pocket.
And, unlike our casino analogy, in this case everyone wins!
Paper or Electronic Book
I posted to Slaw yesterday about the AALL ILTA White Paper project: The New Librarian.
There is an excellent article included in that digital white paper called Generational Divides: Paper and Electronic Resources by Jocelyn Stilwell-Tong of Nossaman LLP. The article talks about research preferences and using print and electronic commentary.
When you are doing legal research today, think about the content and the format it comes in and ask yourself about function and form. I would love to hear stories about what you discover.
How Does USB 3.0 Compare With USB 2.0?
Most new devices sold today will include USB 3.0 connectivity. At home or work, many of your older devices will have USB 2.0 (or even 1.0!). So how does USB 3.0 compare with USB 2.0?
USB 3.0 is faster – mush faster! USB 3.0 data transfers have a theoretical maximum speed of 5 gigabits per second. This compares to a theoretical maximum speed of 460 megabits per second for USB 2.0 devices. Of course, you won’t get close to 5-gbps transfers during regular daily use, but you will find that you can move files significantly faster between USB 3.0 compatible devices. Transferring data between USB 3.0 devices is also more efficient as USB 3.0 permits simultaneous data transfers in both directions. USB 2.0 devices transmit data in only one direction at a time.
To take advantage of USB 3.0 you’ll have to have USB 3.0 capable devices and USB 3.0 cables. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible and an USB 3.0 device will work with older USB 2.0 devices, but you must use a USB 3.0 cable if you want your newer USB 3.0 devices to exchange data at full speed.
Docket Time Contemporaneously…
Someone once said: “Life is a series of interruptions interrupted by interruptions.” No one recorded who said it… the person doing the recording was probably interrupted when they were about to write that down…
But as practising lawyers, we are interrupted all the time. When it comes to recording your billable time, being interrupted before you capture that time can be costly.
You get to the end of a crazy day. You’re wiped. You’ve been running around like a maniac all day, responding to and sending e-mails, talking with clients on the phone, putting out fires and drafting umpteen letters and documents. Time to pat yourself on the back and check your total time for the day. You add it up – only 4.3 hours. Huh??? You ask yourself: “Where did all my time go? I worked like a dog today. I got here early, I worked through lunch, I stayed late – and I have only 4.3 hours docketed.”
You move to disaster recovery mode. Time to try and rebuild the day. What did I work on? What telephone calls did I make? How long were they? How much time did I spend drafting the agreement on the Smith file? How many times was I interrupted while working on that agreement? You review your sent folder to try and figure out what e-mails you read and/or sent that day.
Stop! Trying to create time entries for work done earlier in the day (much less in the more distant past) is very time-consuming and not likely to be very accurate or complete. It is universally recognized that lawyers who create a dockets entry contemporaneously with completing the task end up capturing a significantly greater portion of the work they have done – some studies suggest a gain of 20 per cent or more. So resolve to docket your work as you go.
Most time and billing programs have a timer feature to help track how much time you have spent on any given task. It works just like a stopwatch. Most lawyers grossly underestimate the time they spend on individual tasks. Try timing your own tasks; you will be shocked by how much time you are missing.
If you get interrupted while working on one task, pause or close the docket for it, and create a new docket for the new task. Reopen the original docket when you return to the task.
At the end of the day, you should still review your dockets. Look for missed time, and make any necessary corrections or additions while things are still fresh in your mind.
Even if you don’t bill by time, counting the minutes and hours that you actually spend working on client matters (and on important non-billable tasks such as office administration) is a good step towards holding yourself accountable for how you spend your day.
