What if you copied a lot of documents to a USB flash drive for working offline and now you can’t find the drive? Do you have to report this potential breach to firm management or notify the client of this potential breach? Suppose a hacker has gotten into your laptop and perhaps downloaded some files?
The short answer is there
Continue Reading Protecting Client Information on Portable Devices
Businesses exist to make a profit. Lawyers often go into practice with the goal of helping their clients with their legal needs. Profits aren’t always the first thing a lawyer thinks about daily, but this should be a primary goal every day.
That is how OBA Practice Management Advisor Julie Bays began her article Using Technology Tools to Build Financial
Continue Reading Using Technology Tools to Build Financial Security
We have certainly seen many weather-related disasters this year. How long has it been since your law firm reviewed its disaster plan? Disaster Planning: It’s Not Just for Hurricanes is our new Digital Edge podcast.
Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson get Shawn Holahan’s top tips for disaster planning in legal practice. Shawn Holahan is Practice Management Counsel and Loss Prevention
Continue Reading Disaster Planning: It’s Not Just for Hurricanes
Did you know that roughly 96% of worldwide email traffic is spam? Or that one of the more recent scams is to text someone an innocent or flirtatious message, followed by, “Whoops, wrong number,” in hopes of opening a conversation? Or that iPhone scammers are now using the TestFlight app to avoid Apple’s approval process for new apps and convince
Continue Reading Great Primer on Spotting Internet Scams
As you likely know, Microsoft 365 provides great speech recognition built right into Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote. You just click on the microphone icon labeled Dictate and begin your dictation.
But to dictate into other applications on your computer, there are other built-in options.
It’s simple on a PC, just use the Windows key + H to open the
Continue Reading A Keystroke to Memorize-Windows Key Plus H
Most of us are doing business in the digital world these days, but protecting your clients’ confidential information must always be top of mind. Two recently released opinions from the Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee On Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility may provide helpful guidance for lawyers.
Formal Opinion 2022-500 Ethical Considerations for Lawyers Storing Information Relating to the Representation Of
Continue Reading The Ethics of Attorney-Client Email and Having Client Data on a Smartphone
The term “billable hour” has long been a topic of discussion in the legal community. However, for such a simple term, it can be used in different ways. The most obvious answer is that hourly billing and the lawyer’s hourly billing rate is the method, likely still the predominant method, of determining how much clients pay their lawyers. The lawyers
Continue Reading The Billable Hour Today
We had some great tips and content at the Oklahoma Bar Association Solo and Small Firm Conference this summer. I wrote about it in the Oklahoma Bar Journal, but forgot to cross post it here. This piece includes some of the best tips. Thanks so much to Brett Burney and Kenton Brice for the great tips they shared.
The 2022
Continue Reading Takeaways from the 2022 OBA Solo & Small Firm Conference
Deep fakes and other fabrications of “synthetic content” (as the FBI labels them) are rapidly improving and present a potential risk to all of us. You have probably seen deep fake videos where the video shows a person speaking but the voice belongs to another. Artificial intelligence tools match the speech with the speaker’s lips, so it looks as if
Continue Reading The Next Big Security Threat is Surprising and Scary
It is certainly not rare to see lawyers practicing in an office sharing arrangement. Sometimes a law firm that is downsizing finds itself with more office space than it needs, and subletting makes sense. Two or three lawyers might rent an office suite for their individual solo practices. Office sharers can benefit from sharing overhead expenses, such as utility bills
Continue Reading Office Sharing Tips for Lawyers. It Seems Simple Until It’s Not.
Computer crimes continue. Lawyers need to be aware of wire fraud schemes and the many types of phone-based fraud that exist. But we also need to be aware of appropriate cyber security measures. You don’t want to be hacked. But you also don’t want clients, coworkers, friends and family to be hacked.
Wired magazine published a feature 6 Things You
Continue Reading 6 Things You Need to Do to Prevent Getting Hacked
Chrome is the most popular and most widely used browser. Tessa Davis is an educator who regularly posts technology tips on Twitter. Her most recent offering is “10 simple Chrome Tips that will blow your mind.”
Did you know if you have a video or audio file you want to play, you can drag and drop it into
Continue Reading Great Tips for Using Chrome
Many lawyers use Gmail and Google Docs. I always suggest that if lawyers are going to use Gmail for client matters, they upgrade to the paid business version of the service for account controls and improved security. That business class service is Google Workplace (formerly GSuite, Google for Business, et al.) But there is more to the upgrade than just
Continue Reading Gmail and Google Docs are Releasing New Features
One of the more important tasks for lawyers is proofreading. It also can be among the most tedious. We endeavor to produce perfect legal documents. Reading a complex document for the third or fourth time can be tiring.
We have all also learned that when proofreading a document you authored, there are times you can read what you meant to
Continue Reading Improving Your Proofreading with Microsoft’s Read Aloud
Google (aka Meta) is a technology powerhouse. But it all began with Google Search.
It is a widely held view among technology experts that Google Search is not what it used to be – unless you are measuring corporate profitability. But that has become more apparent to many ordinary and occasional users. Even though Google officials deny it, it seems
Continue Reading The Rise and Decline of Google Search