LogMeIn is well-known for their free and paid remote access and control software and service. I often use it to remote back to my primary desktop computer from my notebook or netbook when I am on the road. My colleagues here at Affinity Consulting Group use it for tech support through the Remote Support Link at the left side of the home page on our web site. We are now using the smart phone version of LogMeIn Rescue to remote into a client's smart phone to configure it for maximize productivity. Now LogMeIn is making a direct challenge to on-line meeting services such as GoToMeeting and WebEx by offering both free and paid versions of its new Join.me service. It is an on-line meeting and collaboration service that requires minimal setup and configuration. Both home and office users can conduct meetings with up to 250 people – free. To use the software, you go to the join.me Web site, click to share your computer and then get a code. You can send that code to anyone you like and off you go. People receive a phone number for holding conference calls, can send instant messages during presentations and can share control of a screen. The free version offers: screen sharing chat file transfer remote control The paid version offers all of the above, plus: personal link meeting scheduler user management meeting lock This could be an excellent tool for lawyers within a firm, but in different locations, to work together on a case. It could also be a way to work with clients and co-counsel.

When I suggested this concept on the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Section listserv (email discussion group) earlier this year, several members responded that accepting credit card payments at the court house, real estate closing, etc., on a lawyer's cell phone seemed "unprofessional." While I can sympathize with that increasingly quaint notion, the reality is that we need to get paid in order to continue to serve our clients. There is nothing particularly professional about going bankrupt because we failed to utilize all reasonable methods to secure payment for our services. The issue of credit card payments via cell phone came up again yesterday while I was attending the State Bar of Michigan annual meeting in Grand Rapids. I checked my email and there was a message from a neighbor who is also a fellow board member in a non-profit organization that supports our local National Park. This guy is, to say the least, financially sophisticated, having retired not too long ago as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. He passed along to me a link to an article by David Pogue in the New York Times about Square. Square is a credit card processing service that works using a small card swipe attachment that plugs into the headphone/microphone jack of an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Android phone. The merchant fees charged by Square are reasonable. For each transaction, Square charges you 2.75 percent of the total, plus 15 cents. That’s a lot simpler, and usually cheaper, than actual merchant accounts, where you might pay 3 or 4 percent, depending on the kind of card, plus 30 cents a transaction. The account itself is free, and so is the swipe attachment. You can also accept payments without swiping the card (such as via telephone) if you have the card number, expiration date, and security code, but the fees are a bit higher. The reason my fellow non-profit board member brought Pogue's article to my attention is that our group will be selling hand-made ceramic bowls as a fundraiser at an upcoming event and also soliciting new members. It would be much easier to sell bowls at $12 each and sign-up new members at $25 annually if we could accept credit cards at the event, which is at a local botanical park. The only way to do that would be by cell phone. So I signed up on behalf of the non-profit organization and, according to Square, my swipe attachment to use with my Android phone is on its way. I will let you know how it works. I continue to think that this would be a great way for lawyers to get paid, especially for those single-event representations such as certain criminal family, and real estate matters can to be. You finish your work and, if you have not been paid up front (always preferred), or if the task took longer than the initial payment would cover, you can accept payment via credit card using your iPhone or Android phone before the client departs (sometimes never to be seen or heard from again). Does this seem a bit awkward? Perhaps. But a decade ago some lawyers still thought that accepting credit card payments at the office was improper. Maybe some still do. I know that the first year my two-lawyer firm started accepting credit cards in the mid-1990's, our gross revenue increased by about $100,000 over the prior year. That answered the question for me. It also helped that a good client (we handled his divorce and subsequent child custody battle) thanked us for accepting credit cards. His fees to my firm earned him enough airline miles to pay for his honeymoon in Hawaii when he eventually remarried. Now that is a "win-win" proposition.

If you have not been paying attention over the last few months. you may have missed how cheap external USB hard drive storage has become. Huge 2 TB external desktop hard drives now routinely go on sale for well under $150, with 1 TB models often less than $100. A good example of this is the OfficeMax sale circular for the week of September 5. The Seagate FreeAgent Desk 2 TB drive is $124.99 while the 1 TB model is $84.99. Comparable prices can be found at all major office supply superstores and big box electronics retailers. Drives of this type are excellent for backup storage or to hold large video, music, or image collections. At these prices, it makes sense to buy two drives and use software to mirror or sync their contents to provide the security of redundant backups. For many years I've used Second Copy software for this purpose, but there are other alternatives. In the alternative, two or more of these drives can be used in a system to rotate a backup drive off-site each night so there is always a recent backup available in the event of a fire or flood at the office. For off-site rotation, portable rather then desktop external drives make more sense because they are smaller and lighter. There has been a similar drop in portable external hard drive prices. Turning again to the OfficeMax sale circular only by way of example (since similar deals are common nearly everywhere), the Seagate FreeAgent Go portable external drive series is also on sale for $54.99 (250 GB), $69.99 (320 GB), $74.99 (500 GB, a good size for backup purposes), $104.99 (750 GB), and $124.99 (1 TB). What makes the Seagate FreeAgent Go series particularly nice for a multiple-drive off-site rotation scheme is the availability of a docking station (in the same OfficeMax sale circular) on sale for just $9.99. Just drop the drive into the station. No USB cables to plug and unplug. Of course, you have to remember to actually rotate the drives off-site and regularly run test restores to be certain the external drive backup is actually working. It is this human intervention requirement where most law firm backup schemes fail. My own personal view is that while this task can be left to a highly-trusted staff member, the firm owner (who obviously has the most at stake) should be the one to make sure this gets done - even if that means doing it himself/herself. The decent chance that this won't get done makes the addition of a fully automated on-line backup system even more important. Using one (or preferably more) external hard drives, combined with a wholly automatic on-line backup service, is the least you should do to protect the data and documents that are vital to your law firm's existence.

The Legal Technology Institute (LTI) at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law issued its detailed CASE, MATTER, & PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM STUDY earlier this year. An executive summary by the Institute's Director, Andrew Z. Adkins III, can be downloaded here. It is an interesting read for anyone involved in making technology decisions for their firm. Among the "surprising" findings is how few lawyers are using dual monitor setups despite the well-documented benefits of such an arrangement. Less than one-third of lawyers reported using more than one monitor, with the percentage higher in large firms than in small ones. Adkins recommends what we have suggested here and in our newsletter on several occasions, "With costs of an extra monitor less than $200, law firms and legal departments should explore this benefit of increased productivity (and billable time)." Small law firms surged ahead of large firms in the adoption of MS Word 2007, with large firms and corporations continuing to use Word 2003. Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity for law firms of all sizes, including solo practitioners, is the failure to improve productivity by implementation of a Document Management System (DMS). Adkins wrote: It still amazes me that law firms and legal departments have not implemented document management. Our 2000 ASP Study (Legal Technology Institute - iManage, Inc. Application Service reported less than 50% of the legal profession did not use a document management system.This year, our CMS Study reports the same – more than half of the respondents (52%) indicated they do use a document management system. Larger firms and legal departments did, however, report a higher use of DMS (80%) than those in smaller firms and legal departments. Of those that use a DMS, reported a higher use of iManage WorkSite than OpenText/Hummingbird or WORLDOX. Our experience is that law firms of every size realize significant productivity gains from a properly-implemented document management system (DMS). I recall a visit to a public law department approximately six years ago to present the full range of software solutions we thought could help improve the department's productivity. Public budgets being limited, they could afford to purchase and implement only one type of solution. They selected a document management system, in that case Worldox. In their view it was the one addition that would add the most to their overall productivity. It was a wise decision. For nearly all small and mid-sized firms, including solos, the right DMS choice is likely to be Worldox for its reasonable cost, flexibility, scalability as you grow, ability to integrate with other key law office software, and its ease of use. We use it ourselves. If you would like to learn more about Worldox and how it can improve your firm's productivity, contact your Affinity Consulting Group office.

As technology enthusiasts, we often find ourselves wanting (and buying!) the latest gadget which leaves us with a lot of hardware we no longer use. How many old cell phones, cameras, computers, PDA’s and other personal computing devices do you have no idea how to get rid of? Well – there’s a cool new solution in Gazelle. Think of Gazelle as an “eBay-like” solution for technology. You go online, select the item you are looking to sell, answer a few qualifying questions, and receive a 30-day guaranteed quote. Gazelle will mail you packaging to send in your technology that arrives quickly and once your package is received, the promised money is en route to you – either via check or Paypal (when I recently used Gazelle, you could also select gift cards from certain vendors that offered an additional percentage of your total payment). Should you feel extra generous, you can also select to have the proceeds of your sale donated to charity. Gazelle not only offers a valuable service, they also pride themselves on being eco-friendly and have special offers for groups that are looking for volume related offers. I can’t say enough about their quality of service – Gazelle kept me updated every step of the way, emails to generic customer service email addresses were answered quickly and professionally, products were processed efficiently and payment was received as promised. An important caveat, while Gazelle advertises their focus on cleaning all your hardware before resale, you should definitely take any and all necessary steps to clean your hard drive, database, phone data before shipping your equipment away. Remember, that you need to be sure to securely wipe all data from your device – simply deleting data doesn’t remove it completely. Feel free to contact us for tips or resources on how to accomplish this if you are not sure how. Also, if you choose to send your equipment in to Gazelle on your own, consider if it is worth it to you to ensure and/or pay for tracking on the package (if you use USPS). All in all, using Gazelle was a pain-free, professional way to put my old personal electronics to good use. I recommend it to anyone looking to get rid of your old devices and perhaps even make a little money along the way! **If you are considering using this service for business asset, please consult with your IT specialist before making your equipment available to Gazelle

One of the most intriguing posts I've read recently is Lifehacker's report on its interview with author/researcher Stephen R. Braun. Braun wrote a book published in 1997 called Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine. We don't make alcohol regularly available to our ourselves and law office staff as a matter of course, but most law firms do have an ever-present pot (or two or three) of caffeine-laden coffee brewing each morning and often throughout the work day. I personally did not begin drinking coffee until, as a brand new associate in a medium-sized law firm, I was assigned the chore of wading through discovery responses in complex litigation matter. The work was tedious and I wanted a little boost to help me stay awake. I remain a regular coffee-drinker, but typically limited to two cups each morning. So how is coffee a law firm management issue? Well it turns out that caffeine is not a simple stimulant. It's impact on the brain is much more complex, and that complexity can affect productivity for you and your staff. Assuming you have not already built-up a tolerance for caffeine (surprising easy to do over a very short period of time), a cup or two of coffee will not make you sharper or faster at tasks that require abstract reasoning (which includes much of what lawyers do). But it may increase speed (not necessarily quality) of simple and routine tasks (perhaps things like folding billing statements and stuffing envelopes). Once you read the Lifehacker post, and the more detailed full email interview with Stephen R. Braun, your firm may want to revisit its policy on making coffee readily available to staff at all times - or at least circulate this information so lawyers and staff can better understand how caffeine works and impacts their job performance so that they can make a truly informed decision about their coffee-drinking habits.

IBM is offering via free download or shipped hard copy its mini-book called Green IT for Dummies. Although the first 2/3 of the book are geared to IT professionals in mid-sized to larger organizations, the last three chapters (7-9) are interesting reading for small and mid-sized firm lawyers for the tips provided on how to save energy. For example, Chapter 7 on "Collaborating for a Greener World" offers such common-sense tips as not printing hard copies of email (an oft-violated rule in many law firms), delete email you don't need or are not required by law or firm policy to keep because old email takes up growing digital storage space somewhere, when replying or forwarding, delete whatever portion of the message is no longer necessary to the conversation to save time for the recipient and also save storage space, and offload old email onto archival media that is not "always on" and consuming energy. Telework (aka telecommutiing) is also advocated as a way to work from home or a remote site while still remaining connected to what is happening at the office. This saves energy in a variety of ways, including reduced office space to heat and cool, reduced travel, etc. Chapter 8 addresses the always interesting goal of going paperless. As correctly stated in the book, "Paper documents are time-consuming and costly to create, process, distribute, file, store, retrieve, reproduce, and dispose of." Digital documents, on the other hand, are easy to search electronically, are much more portable, and can contain audio, graphic and video content. For paper you must have, change printing habits by defaulting to duplex (two-sided) printing. avoid printing PowerPoint presentations as hand-outs, and put your printer into its "power-saving" mode so that it idles using less power until it receives a print command. Chapter 9 focuses on buying and using technology wisely. This includes buying products that are easy to recycle, shop from manufacturers offering take-back programs at the end of the product's life cycle, and look for machines that can be upgraded rather than replaced. Also, extend the life cycle of older machines by reassigning them to users with less-demanding technological needs. Or donate older technology (after a completely secure wipe of hard drives) to nonprofits. While much of the book is not directly applicable to law firms, the last three chapters alone make it worth you while to sign up for the free download.

In case you missed the early December official announcement, the 2010 IRS business mileage rate is reduced to 50 cents per mile to reflect lower transportation costs - mostly a drop in gas prices from 2009. You may need to manually change this rate in your time/billing/accounting software. If you need assistance with this task, contact your Affinity Consulting Group office. If it is part of your job to stay up to date with changes in IRS rules, you can subscribe to IRS email updates here.

by Ed Emmerson, Affinity Consulting Group of South Florida In light of the recent disclosure of some 10,000 Hotmail account passwords being posted on the internet I am reposting an article here that I wrote for another blog about a month ago. I often read articles or posts about web apps, off-site data storage or backup where the main issue raised is security or data privacy on the providers end. As Dennis Kennedy pointed out in his recent article "Working in the Cloud", 'Attorneys often worry about security and confiden–tiality issues with SaaS providers while employing practices in their offices that are all but laughably unsecure.' Perhaps I should have titled this "Security Starts at Home". There is plenty to read out there about cloud standards and API security and things that most of us , quite frankly, have little to no control over. So, let's talk about being able to use some of the efficiencies of web apps with the things we can control; good password policy. Since there has to be a balance between password strength and the ability to remember it. One of the most common recommendations is using mnemonics. A system of letters and symbols matching up to an easily remembered phrase. Here are some examples of password policy: Hitatchi ID Systems University of Tennessee I.T. Password policy and generation in it's current state exists on a "first level" basis for most things. Your Twitter I.D., Gmail, even some bank accounts are just one good guess or phishing email away. So, before worrying about a cloud or SaaS providers back end security and privacy factors take a look around the office. Better yet, just look under your keyboard where you have taped that index card with all of your usernames and passwords. In a subsequent post, we can discuss second level or two form authentication. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Affinity Consulting Group, LLC or any of its partner organizations.

Whether you think climate change is real or not (I'm betting on real), it makes sense to conserve energy - if only to save money. The Oregon Law Practice Management blog written by attorney Beverly Michaels contains excellent tips on how to save energy, and money, in your practice. In a post titled Greening Your Law Practice, she suggests: Offering your intake forms on-line rather than on paper. Use on-line document collaboration rather than sending documents back and forth via email where they inevitably get printed simply to review preliminary drafts. Work remotely from home by accessing your office PC and network using any of the various technologies available for remote access and control. Upgrade energy-hog CRT monitors for greener LCD monitors. Use dual large LCD monitors to reduce or eliminate the temptation to print all but final versions of documents. Most reviewing and editing (including side-by-side document comparison) can be done on screen - if the screen is large and clear enough. Share laser printers over your network. A laser on everyone's desk makes it too easy to hit the print button without considering whether a hard copy of that document is really needed. Use recycled paper. Print double-sided for all internal documents. Recycle rather then throw-0ut empty laser toner cartridges. Use an electronic fax service and dump your regular fax machine. Move toward a paperless office by adding desktop scanners to supplement networked or centralized scanners. Replace standard light bulbs with compact fluorescents in desk lamps. Go green in the kitchen by using washable cups, glasses, and towels or green products Most of these ideas are easy to implement. Give it a try and save money (and maybe the planet).

An appellate practice colleague forwarded a link to an extraordinary web site. It is called Typography for Lawyers. The author is Los Angeles attorney Matthew Butterick. There are great tips for what to do and not to do in formatting your documents. For example, never use straight quotes. Don't double-space between sentences. And never use Courier or other monospaced fonts. There is some great stuff here. Highly recommended.

In our May newsletter, we wrote about several free tools from Microsoft that permit you to access your documents and data while on the road. One tool briefly mentioned in that newsletter, but not fully explored, was Live Mesh. I've now had a chance to put Live Mesh to the test while traveling as well as working locally. It is time for a full report on how this free service helped in my law practice and how it can be useful to you. First, let me explain a little about my office setup so you will understand why I need a tool like Live Mesh. I have a home-based appellate practice. My primary computer is a desktop PC I recently built. It is configured with boot options for Windows XP Pro, Vista Business, or Ubuntu Linux, but I spend most of my time working in XP Pro. The desktop PC hosts my client and practice-related documents, time and billing application and data, and my practice management system. But I also have a full-sized notebook PC that I use when on the road. In addition, I have a netbook PC I take with me when away on shorter trips, even around town. Finally, I have a Windows Mobile cell phone that is with me during all waking hours and on my nightstand while I sleep. At any given time, I could be working anywhere on a motion, brief, or other document using my desktop computer, notebook, or netbook (and even the Windows Mobile cell phone if all I'm doing is a quick edit to a Word document). I need to make sure I have up-to-date versions of all my files on each device at all times. When I had only the desktop and notebook computers, I used the Offline Files feature in XP Pro to synchronize files between the two. It worked well, except that if I left home without first booting up the notebook to automatically sync files with the desktop, I wouldn't necessarily have all the files I needed or current versions of the files I did have. And if I created or modified files on the notebook while gone, those changes wouldn't be on the desktop upon my return unless I booted up the notebook and again let the automatic sync complete its work. When I added the netbook and the Windows Mobile cell phone to the equation, it became clear that Offline Files would not be the best solution. So I decided to try the free Live Mesh (beta) service from Microsoft. Live Mesh is both a Web service and a system tray application. Once the application is installed, you simply right-click on any folder you want to include in the Live Mesh synchronization. The process is simple. Once a folder is selected, its standard icon changes to the Live Mesh icon to let you know that folder is part of the on-line sync process. With Live Mesh, I am able to synchronize files with all of my devices. I exclude my cell phone from automatic sync process due to its limited file storage capacity (reserving most of its MicroSD card for my favorite music) – but I can still manually access and download needed files to my phone using the Windows Mobile Live Mesh application made available by Microsoft. So long as I can get on the Internet, I always have the latest versions of all files contained in those folders I selected to work with Live Mesh. That includes all of my active client folders that reside on the desktop PC plus a few others that I think I might need while on the road. This capability came in handy recently as I had to be on the road on and off for most of a week during which I also had a large appellate brief due. I was able to work on the brief using whichever of my devices was handy without having to worry if I was using the current version of the document. Finding Wi-Fi access is less a problem today than it once was. Most independent and many chain coffee shops and restaurants (such as Dunkin Donuts and Panera Bread) offer free Wi-Fi. It makes me wonder when Starbucks is going to dump its paid AT&T Wi-Fi for a completely free service (although there are ways to get free Wi-Fi at Starbucks if you plan ahead). The Live Mesh on-line storage maximum is currently 5 GB. That works fine for me so long as I select only active client folders and avoid adding additional folders with large graphics or multimedia files. So far I've used only 28% of my 5 GB allocation. Once your reach your 5 GB current limit, files beyond that limit are still synchronized between your devices, but not also stored on the Live Mesh servers for Web access from devices other than those registered to your Mesh. If for some reason I am on the road without my notebook, netbook, or phone, I can log into my Live Mesh account from any computer with Internet access and get to my files using the Desktop view. I can even share selected folders over the Internet with a client or co-counsel if collaborative work is required. Live Mesh can substitute for a remote access and control service such as GoToMyPC or LogMeIn. It includes a version of Windows Remote Desktop that, unlike regular Remote Desktop, not only works with the "Home" editions of Windows such as XP Home and Vista Home Premium, it also eliminates the need to have a static IP address or third-party dynamic DNS service for the host computer. You also avoid the need to set up port forwarding on your router. The Live Mesh system tray application makes these sometimes vexing configuration tasks unnecessary. It is simple to connect remotely from one computer to another in your Mesh, allowing you to access files (even those not selected to automatically sync via Live Mesh) and applications as if you were sitting in front of that computer. So far, Live Mesh as proven to be a valuable addition to my practice. It gives me the flexibility to work anywhere combined with the security of knowing that I will always have access to the current versions of my files. As with any service that involves storing confidential documents on a server accessed via the Web, you will want to read Microsoft's terms of service and privacy policy to assure yourself that you are complying with your duty to your clients. The security provided by Microsoft for Live Mesh accounts includes AES encryption with a 128 bit key during all transfers and synchronizations. But once data reaches the Live Mesh servers, it is no longer stored in encrypted form. However, Microsoft claims to tightly restrict access to the account holder only.

In this week's The Economist magazine, there is a thought-provoking article about the inevitable demise of landline telephones. We all know about the decline in the print newspaper industry. It is predicted that the last print newspaper will land on your front step in 2043. Well it seems the land line telephone will be long dead by then. If the decline of the landline continues at its current rate, the last cord will be cut sometime in 2025. Customers abandoning landlines at a rate of 700,000 per month. Some analysts now estimate that 25% of households in America rely entirely on cell phones. That share that could double within the next three years. This will leave the remaining copper wire telephone infrastructure unsustainable. The collapse of the wired telecommunications industry will have a huge economic impact. Traditional telecommunications giants have more pensioners to support than does the auto industry. When (apparently not if) Verizon and AT&T go bankrupt, it will dwarf the GM collapse. A second article in the same issue urges the Obama administration to prepare for the inevitable disappearance of landline telephony, stating: He [Obama] would do well to concentrate on two things his country needs in the future, not the past: better and more reliable wireless coverage; and more broadband connections, through fibre-optic cables and high-speed wireless links (for both voice and data). America ranks 15th in broadband penetration among OECD countries. The disappearance of landline telephones will have implications for law firms as they look for reliable alternatives. Upgrading our Internet infrastructure would seem to be not only a matter of national security, but also business necessity for all industries, such as law, that depend on reliable telephone communication.