Friday, September 7, 2007

Great how-to program for lawyers

The Illinois Bar's 2007 Solo & Small Firm Conference had tremendously useful tips for lawyers in firms of all sizes. Along with Nerino Petro, I co-chaired the technology track and spoke at several events. Here are some preliminary highlights. I will be filling in details shortly.

E-discovery:
  • Top cases on ediscovery summarized--how we got here
  • The practical problem: how do you meet your burdens without bankrupting both parties?
  • Practical tips for using the new rules to greatly reduce the discovery burden
Virtual IT department:
  • Using several remote access tools to manage your computer remotely (Dave Yavitz)
  • Practical tips from an IT guy who gets the business side on how to simplify (John Ahlberg)
  • Ethical concerns of using remote services--better read that privacy agreement (Judge Bob Moss)
Vista v. Mac v. Linux shootout:
  • Vista: more stable than XP, a little better design, 3d-party software not ready yet
  • Mac: great, slick, but expensive. Some software won't run on it, but very little
  • Linux: example, Zonbu PC. Cheap, does what you need, no IT hassles
PowerPoint
  • How-to tips (text callouts, diagramming, timelines, etc.) to be posted soon (some already below)
  • Detox your slides--no clutter, abandon bullets where possible, use plain backgrounds.
  • Use the evidence in PowerPoint, not characterizations
  • Increase throughput by using summaries, like timelines
  • Think strategically. Ask what the goal is and let that drive the presentation
60 tips/gizmos and gadgets -- too many: will add my favorites soon

Several other presentations I saw, all good. Will be adding them too.

I'll continue to revise this post somewhat over the next few days.

6 comments:

Jeremy said...

It'd be interesting to see the top cases summarized... I'm assuming it is a "lessons learned" from recent litigation?

Todd Flaming said...

Good thought. I will post the ones we covered. Stay tuned.

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