Don’t think of it as 20-odd days to Christmas, think of it as 30-odd days to a fresh start!
Jan. 1, 2014 can be an opportunity for solo and small practitioners to make technological advances in their practices—to improve productivity, reduce costs, and maybe catch up with the 21st century. Here are five great candidates for New Year’s Tech Resolutions.
Get a password manager
Passwords are the bane of everyday life. But they are a necessity, not just for protecting client files and financial accounts, but sending legal PDFs and other electronic documents securely.
“I can’t tell you how many lawyers I’m come across who do not send their electronic files with some form of password protection,” sighs Steve Ellwood, principal of Ellwood Evidence Inc., a forensic litigation support firm based in Toronto. “Still others use the same single password for everything. If someone cracks this password, they have access to the lawyer’s full sweep of bank accounts, credit cards, and files.”
Ellwood’s solution: Get a password management program like 1Password. “1Password stores all your passwords in one place, and you only have to remember the 1Password password to access them from any browser you have,” he says. “Better yet, 1Password can generate unique passwords for each of your sites and automatically insert them into the right fields when you log on. If a hacker gets your credit card password, they won’t be able to get into all your other accounts!”
Get a tablet and network-connected storage device
Yes, laptops have their place, and smartphones are a great help. But today’s solo/small practitioners should pony up for a tablet as well; be it an iPad or Android model.
“The tablet is a platform to realistically capture information – handwritten notes, voice recordings for auto-transcription, case research – that, by its size, is easier to use than a phone,” says David Whelan. He is the manager of legal information with the Law Society of Upper Canada. “Litigators should lean towards Apple's iPads because so many of the trial-related apps are only for iOS (Apple’s operating systems). Otherwise iPad vs. Android probably doesn't matter, although size probably does.”
“Storage is the other hardware that stands out,” Whelan adds. “A good network-attached storage drive, like Western Digital's MyCloud or Seagate's GoFlex, provides a huge amount of storage space that is accessible from more than one device. It is a cheaper alternative than running a full-on file server.”
Make everyone compatible with each other, everywhere
Small law firms often start by bringing together whatever resources the partners have at hand, including whatever computers and operating systems they happen to be using. Unfortunately, if some of the computers are PCs and the others are Macs, they will have trouble talking to each other, and sharing files.
"This is why our offices are installing Microsoft Office 365," says Valerie Davey. She is the Management & Marketing Consultant at MacLeod Law Firm. Despite having three offices – two in Toronto and one in Barrie – MacLeod Law Firm has just four staff. "It's an online service that lets us share files, contacts and OutLook information across platforms and devices,” Davey says. “This ensures that everyone can work with each other's files and book meetings, no matter what computer platform they are working with."
"Mobility and compatibility are important to our law firm clients,” says Chris Lamming, Senior Account Executive with MBC Managed IT Services in Toronto. “They are often working out of the office using mobile phones or tablets. Since implementing Office 365's Exchange Online they can access their mailboxes on any PC, Mac, Tablet, or mobile device without the costs or headaches of managing an on-premise exchange server."
Master social media
LinkedIn and Twitter are useful sources of breaking news and trends for lawyers. Even the Supreme Court of Canada announces its decisions on Twitter (@SCC_CSC).
The problem is keeping on top of social media without devoting all day to watching its second-by-second developments. The solution is to get social media monitoring programs such as Feedly (for LinkedIn) and Hootsuite or TweetDeck (for Twitter) that let you select which sources to monitor, and send you alerts when these sources communicate over social media.
“Feedly and TweetDeck let me specify which agencies, government departments, lawyers and journalists I want to track on LinkedIn and Twitter, and then does the job for me while I do billable work,” says Lisa Stam. She is an employment, labour and human rights lawyer at Baker & McKenzie LLP in Toronto, and writer of the canadaemploymenthumanrightslaw blog.
“A blog or RSS reader is the other critical piece of knowledge management, since so much credible and helpful legal information and case law updates are now published on blogs, rather than client alerts, scholarly articles or looseleafs,” Stam adds. “I use Feedly to curate the various blogs I follow so that that information is fed directly to my computer or device, without me having to search online to gather the information manually.”
Say goodbye to Windows XP
Windows XP is one of Microsoft’s most stable and user-friendly operating systems. But all good things must come to an end; even for money-conscious lawyers. The reason: “Microsoft will end support for Windows XP on April 8. 2014,” says Drew Mathers; owner of Almost-Painless Computing in Toronto. “After that date, there will be no further security updates, so continuing to run Windows XP will be a security risk.”
Solo/small practitioners can cope by installing Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 on their old computers. However, Mathers recommends getting Windows 8.1 pre-installed on a new computer rather than installing a new version on an old computer. The reason: “The manufacturer will have tested the new hardware for compatibility, whereas your old hardware will not have been tested,” he explains. “Also check with the vendors of any specialty software you use to make sure they have tested it with your chosen version of Windows. You will likely have to upgrade this specialty software as well.”
James Careless is a freelance journalist.