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**Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Bryan Sims for sharing some technological advice with our readers. If you missed previous segments of the interview look here and here. Very sage advice…I found his 5 “must have” pieces of technology particularly informative and are you kidding me, he uses three monitors! If you like what you’ve heard here, I see he’s also joining me on the dais at the ISBA’s Solo and Small Firm Conference, October 22-October 24 (really I’m joining him on the dais). Or just come on down to see Exhibit A in the history of Illinois pay-to-play politics:  The Abraham Lincoln Hotel & Conference Center.  5th Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference:  Creating a Thriving Practice in Challenging Times.

SIC: List 3 cheap and simple technology changes/upgrades a lawyer could make with the potential for a big payoff.

TCL:

The first thing I would recommend echoes what I just said. Learn how to use the stuff you have already paid for. Leverage the technology you already own before you think about spending money on something else.

Second, scan everything. Being able to work with electronic documents only is unbelievably liberating. With my laptop, I have access to every document on every file on every case on which I am currently working. Further, being able to access a document, a pleading, a piece of discovery, anything to do with my file without having to find the file and then search through it is a huge time saver. However, this works only if you scan everything. If some of your stuff is in paper and some is electronic, you will never know what is where. However, if you scan everything, you will be rewarded with savings in time and greater efficiency.

The final recommendation I would make is to add a second monitor to your desk. When I first added a second monitor, I was amazed at how much more efficiently I was able to work. This is especially the case in situations such as quoting from a case, or responding to a motion. The best testimony I have seen to the effectiveness of a second monitor is that I have never found anyone who uses two monitors that would ever be willing to go back to just one. The biggest drawback to using two monitors is that you feel cramped when you are away from the office and have only your laptop screen to use.

That being said, I love my multiple monitor set up (I now use 3) and do not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who asks.

SIC: I see you’re a big Adobe Acrobat fan, how do you use Acrobat beyond merely reading/ creating PDF files?

TCL:

I use Adobe Acrobat on a daily basis in my practice. One of my favorite ways is to use it with my research. When I find a relevant case, rather than printing it to paper, I print it to PDF. I then highlight, annotate, and otherwise mark up my cases, just as I would if I had printed them to paper. However, now I have my cases with me, wherever I go. Plus, if I need a copy for the judge, I can simply print the case, without the annotations. In the Print Dialogue, on the upper right under Comments and Forms, you can choose whether to print just the documents or the document with comments.

I also use Acrobat to handle all of my documents in a case, whether pleadings, correspondence, discovery, or anything else. I store them all in PDF and run Adobe’s OCR (optical character recognition) process on them. By doing this, I can easily build an index to search all of the documents in a particular case.

I have also found that Adobe works great to store deposition exhibits. At the conclusion of a deposition (dep), I can put all of the exhibits together keep them as a single PDF that I can keep with the electronic copy of the dep. This means I never have to search for a paper copy of a dep exhibit. Also, by bookmarking the file, I can easily jump to any particular exhibit that I want to.

Additionally, I find Acrobat invaluable in preparing discovery. For example, the Bates Stamping feature allows me to stamp hundreds of pages of documents in a span of a couple of minutes. Also, if there is any information that I need to redact, I can use the redaction feature to securely and completely redact the information from the document.

Acrobat is a very powerful program with some great features. I urge anyone who has never explored some of these features to check out the webinars that Adobe has put together to get an idea of all of the things that you can do with Adobe Acrobat.

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How to manage e-mail, IT and more…compliments of The Connected Lawyer.

SIC:  How should a small law firm manage IT? Self-manage? Outside consultant?

TCL:

There a lot of factors that must be considered when answering this question. The two key questions are the number of computers involved and knowledge the attorney has about technology. The smaller the set up (e.g. 1 desktop, 1 laptop) the more easily that it is for a tech savvy attorney to handle his own IT issues. However, if complications develop or the set up becomes more complicated, then it may be time to hire an outside consultant. It does not have to be a complicated issue for you to waste an entire day of billings trying to solve a computer problem.

My advice is to look for an IT consultant who can help you before you have problems. One of the best ways to do this is to ask other attorneys who they use. For example, chances are that a consultant can set you up with a backup system more efficiently and more cost effectively (once your lost time is included) than you can do yourself. Once you find such a person, keep his info handy to help you with issues as they arise.

On the flip side, I don’t think it benefits anyone if you don’t have someone in your office who at least has a basic understanding of how your computer system works. Just make sure that you are spending your time practicing law and not fixing computers.

SIC:  How should folks efficiently balance the constant flow of e-mail with the need for uninterrupted, billable work time?

TCL:

Oh, if only I had a magical solution for this problem. The best advice I can give is to turn off your automatic notifications that tell you that you have received an email. Once you do this, keep your email program minimized and check it only when you want it. For example take a break every hour or so and spend 5 to 10 minutes handling your email. Alternatively you can ignore your email for longer periods of time and then allocate more time to check it, for example, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

I have one additional recommendation that applies regardless of how you manage your email when you are at your computer: on your smartphone, turn off the automatic notification that you have received an email. If you want to check your email on your phone that is fine. However, do not be a slave to it.

SIC:  What’s a common technology mistake or two you often see in the legal profession?

TCL:

The biggest mistake that I see is that attorneys do not effectively use the technology that they have. For example, I see attorneys all of the time who treat their word processor as an expensive typewriter. They never take advantage of the various features that allow them to properly format a document, or track changes, or generate a table of contents. Instead, they try to do all of these things by hand.

Similarly, I see attorneys will full versions of Adobe Acrobat who use it only to print PDFs they download from the Internet. I have seen attorneys create a document in Word, print it, and then scan it so they can have an electronic copy rather than simply printing the document to PDF from Word.

Simply put, the biggest mistake you can make is to not understand how to use and leverage the technology that you have already paid for.

Editor’s Note: Naperville, IL commercial litigator and prominent technologist Bryan Sims was nice enough to spend a little time with us here at SIC touching on some technology matters impacting small law firms. Many of you likely already read his blog, The Connected Lawyer, and likely have seen him at one of his many continuing legal education speaking engagements. If you need an expert witness or speaker on the problem of metadata (what is it?) or the effective use of Adobe Acrobat he’s your guy. And on a personal note I think of him as one of my earliest friends which friendship began in the blogsphere (we’ve actually now met in person). I’m going to role out this interview in a few chunks over the next weeks because apparently Bryan is soooo connected that he just couldn’t stop tapping his keyboard in response to my questions.

List 5 “Must-Have” pieces of technology for an attorney (hardware or software).

1. A Good Backup System.

Let’s start with the boring stuff first. No one gets excited about the backup systems/protocols. However, this could be the most important decision you make. Much of what you do is stored electronically. When you lose data (whether from a hard drive crash or other problem), you want to be able to be back up and running as quickly as possible, without having to re-create all of your work.

There are two key components to a good backup system: First it has to be multi-layered. By this I mean you should have a local backup (external hard drives work well for this) and a remote backup, located far from your office in the event of a natural disaster. Remote backups over the internet (with a reputable service) provide the best protection in the event of a catastrophic fire or natural disaster. However, absent this, you don’t want to be trying to restore all of your data from the internet if your hard drive crashes. It will simply take too long.

The second key component to a backup system is that it has to be automatic. Buy a program (such as EMC Retrospect or Acronis True Image) that will automatically make your backups. If your backups are not automatic, you will not do them and you will be very unhappy when your hard drive crashes.

2. Laptop:

The second key piece of technology that a lawyer should have a is a laptop. The key thing here is that you should be able to work from anywhere. This does not mean that you should work all of the time. Instead, it means that you should be able to work from wherever you want. To do this properly you need a laptop.

3. Scanner:

Another aspect of being able to work from anywhere requires that you have access to you documents. The best way to accomplish this is to make sure that, to the extent possible, you work with electronic copies of your documents. To get these documents into your computer, you need a scanner. Once you move to working with electronic documents only, you will be amazed at how much more efficient you become.

4. SmartPhone:

Although I consider a laptop a must, I don’t expect you to carry it with you everywhere. As a result, I believe that a smartphone is an essential piece of technology. This allows you to be somewhere other than your office and still handle not only telephone communications, but also to review email, documents, and faxes from the palm of your hand.

Again, the purpose is not to work all of the time, but rather to allow you to work from where you want to be, whether that is in your office, on your back deck, or on a business trip. For example, my wife gets to travel for business. At times, I go with her. Because I make use of mobile technology, I know that when she is in meetings or otherwise working, I can do the same. Once she is done, we can spend time vacationing.

Also, I see a lot of people getting hung up over which smartphone to buy. Should they get an iPhone, or a Storm, or a traditional Blackberry, or a Pre? The reality is get what works for you. Start by deciding what company has good service in the locations you will use your phone (such as your home and office). Once you decide on a service, pick a phone from that company that you like best that allows you to work the way you want. The iPhone may be perfect for the attorney next door, while you may prefer the Pre. There is no perfect phone. Pick the one that works best for you.

5. Virtual Fax:

Once again, lawyers lag behind the rest of the world. If you talk to people in other industries, they never use faxes anymore. All such communication is done via email. Lawyers, however, still insist on using faxes rather than email. That, however does not mean that you remain tied to a fax machine. Get a virtual fax service and you can send and receive your faxes via email. Not only does this free you from the operating cost of a fax machine, but it also means that you receive your faxes wherever you can access your email. There are a variety of services available with differently priced plans. Shop around and you can find a service that is right for you.