My research has narrowed my options down to two choices: Clio or Rocket Matter.

If you are using either Clio or Rocket Matter, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please comment below or send me an email.

Alright “ever” is hyperbole. No need to flood my inbox with other great promotions. This is simply the best one that’s ever come across my desk but writing that makes for a poor blog post title.

Like most firms, our firm gets a lot of unsolicited mailers. Most of the them go in the trash without being read.

Recently, we got what looks like a tie box from Lexis Nexis (our firm uses Westlaw). Handwritten on the outside of the box was “see Xbox offer” enclosed.

“What Xbox offer?” I thought.

I did something I almost never do – I opened “junk mail”.

In exchange for scheduling an appointment to meet with one of Lexis’ reps and demoing their new Lexis for Microsoft Office – they’re giving me an Xbox 360 with Kinect. The fine print makes it clear that this offer is only targeted at firms of a certain size – yours may or may not qualify.

I’m sure that Lexis does nicer things for larger firms. Probably nice tickets to sporting events and such but at a small firm – we’re usually passed over for such perks.

I don’t own an Xbox. A few years ago, I bought a Wii –  that I haven’t played in a few years.

I could never justify spending the money on another gaming system that would likely collect dust no matter how much I wanted to play NCAA Football 2012. But for free?!?! I’m all in.

Fortunately, my Xbox is arriving on Tuesday and I have the rest of the week off. I’m looking forward to returning Nebraska to its proper place atop the BCS.

Thank you Lexis!

This works if everyone you know has either an iPhone or a Blackberry.

I think closed messaging systems aren’t long for this world. Facebook has released “Messenger for Mobile“. It works on iPhones, Android phones, and BlackBerry devices. I can send a message via the messenger for mobile app from my Galaxy S2 and it can push a notification onto my brother’s iPhone as if I had sent him a text message.

I’ve installed Facebook Messenger for my Galaxy S2 and it notifies me of a message the same way I’m notified of a text message. As an added plus, I can access my messages on my facebook account without using my cell phone.

I’m in the middle of what is forecast to be an 8 day outage. Almost all of my friends and family are on facebook. My cell service has been out and communicating with family and friends has been difficult. Though, like many people, I’ve been able to find wifi access. Facebook messenger has become my preferred means of contacting friends and family.

The app is free and works well on my Galaxy S2. The app threads conversations so it’s easy to keep track of what’s being said. It’s also easy to message groups. If you haven’t downloaded the app, you may want to give it a shot. It’s not the first app of this kind but what distinguishes it from others of its kind is that so many people are already on Facebook.

Read more on the app here. It is available in your phone’s app store/market.

I would ask Diane that question probably once a month. Then I’d write down Marshal Fisher’s number on a piece of scrap paper. Inevitably, the scrap paper would end up in my recycling bin.  The next time I needed the Marshal’s phone number, I’d call Diane again.

This cycle was both highly inefficient and wasteful.

I really want less paper in my life. Less, clutter too. Oh and I want to be able to access information from anywhere. Post it notes just don’t cut it.

Enter Evernote.

Evernote is a cloud based service that allows me to “remember everything”.  Its features are amazing. Everything I used to write on scrap paper now gets indexed on evernote. Its basic account (which I use) is free.

This means that I can easily find the marshal’s cell phone number and a record of our last conversation from anywhere I can connect to the internet (my phone, ipad, home computer, or work).

I’m very satisfied with the service. It simplifies my life and improves my practice. It seems others are too. When I posted this article on facebook here’s what Atlanta lawyer, Peter Mullaney had to say:

My boss turned me on to this thing. I use it for anything work-related. Like if I’m sitting at home and I remember something I have to do, or the right contract language suddenly pops into my head, I put it on Evernote. Then when I get back to the office, it’s there. Very useful but somehow doesn’t make me feel “plugged into the office” when I don”t want to be.

As always, it’s important for lawyers to be very aware of their ethical obligations in using a cloud based service like Evernote.  To quote a friend “the basically own what you load on to your servers”.

Do you use evernote in your practice?

Back in the dark ages (prior to the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004), I worked at a law firm that sent newsletters to its clients. The newsletters would include updates about the firm and developments in Connecticut law.  These newsletters were sent via snail mail.

I know some firms do email blasts to their clients but who reads those? I don’t.  The parish of the church of the now demands interaction with media.  When link to a blog post on Facebook, friends comment on it. When I post something that people comment on or share – I know I’ve written something that is in someway relevant.  Facebook is great for friends.

I’m not a fan of “friending” clients on Facebook for many reasons. Namely, I like to keep my personal life somewhat personal. I suspect that many lawyers feel the same way.

If I post a link on twitter – I broadcast it to the world but in terms of connection – Twitter is cold. People click on links with pictures and twitter is a bunch of short URLS. People can interact with it by retweeting or sending an @ message to me but it lacks the level of contact that Facebook provides.

If you are using LinkedIn, the soundtrack from “Top Gun” was probably in heavy rotation at your prom.  LinkedIn is for the older demo. It’s slow, clunky, and hard to navigate. I dislike LinkedIn very much and hardly ever use it.

Enter Google+.  At first glance it looks a lot like Facebook but if you look deeper it’s much more. With Google+ I can share this post with the world (ala twitter). Google+’s circle feature also allows me to target what I’m posting. For example on Google+ I have a circle for my “Red Sox Fan Friends” and I post things like “$^@* Lackey! ”.  The only people who can read that message are in my Red Sox Fan Friend Circle. No one else can see it.

I could create a group for clients and send them relevant blog posts or updates about the firm. Exactly the kind of content that my Red Sox fan friends could care less about.

The best part is that creating “circles” is very simple. It’s a drag and drop process.

The sparks feature is also really cool. It allows Google to deliver relevant articles to you. For example, I have a spark on “Connecticut Law” and when I click on it – I see news articles on Connecticut law. It helps me stay current and share relevant content with people who may want to read it.

When you put it all together,  I think that Google+ is going to change the way that lawyers interact with each other and the public online.

If you’re looking for something to listen to, check out these two episodes:

“A Former Crack Dealer on The Economics Of Drugs”: My favorite thing about economics is that when done well it tells the truth about human behavior. In this podcast the Planet Money team interviewed one of LA’s biggest crack dealers in the 1980s and 1990s. It got me thinking about the costs of both making drugs legal and keeping them illegal. The drug dealer favored prohibition. Really good stuff.

Very Tough Love: This podcast is very rich. Ira Glass examines a Georgia drug court that he concludes is like no other court in the country. Find out how a woman who forges two checks totaling $100 ends up in drug court for over 10 years and serves 20 months in jail including a stay in solitary confinement.  The story reminds us that our justice system is human and thus imperfect. Though the podcast doesn’t touch on it directly – it also represents a failure of lawyers to bring legal challenges to the court. Lawyers should not be cowards and judges should not be elected.

So if you’re driving somewhere or going for a run this weekend – download these podcasts. They’ll get you thinking.

Joan's House. Save it.

Sometimes, I see Joan. She may be sitting on her porch or gardening. We usually wave and say “hi” to each other.  I continue up the hill. She goes on with her life.

Throughout most of human history, we knew our neighbors well. In today’s walled and disconnected world it’s possible never to meet the people living close to us – let alone get to know them.  People could and did help their neighbors.

On the flipside we have tools like Facebook. Where we can keep in touch with lots of people who we either rarely or ever see.

These worlds collided late last week. Bill Childs, Associate Dean at Western New England School of Law and a fellow alumni board member – posted a link urging his friends to “save Joan’s house. Bill’s a good guy so I clicked on the link. The person who needed help, was Joan, my neighbor.

A few hours later, the Dean of the Hartford Blogosphere, Helder Mira posted the same link on Facebook. Joan has good friends.

It turns out that Joan was out of work for more than a year and fell behind on her mortgage. She has a job now, however, needs help in making up the $6,000 deficit.

Click here to read more about Joan and her situation. If you enjoy this site, and Joan’s cause worthy (which I trust you will), please give something to help her out. Any amount would be greatly appreciated. I’ve got miles to run. I hope to be waving to Joan for year’s to come. I ask you to help my neighbor.

Palden Gyastso

Frankly, I’m a little more colorful on twitter than I am on this site and I’m not sure why. Here are the tweets that I fired off:

Hey @groupon, you suck. I don’t care what the deal is – you lost my business.

RT That Groupon commercial may actually inspire the Dalai Lama to give up a lifetime of non-violence to kick the CEO in the nuts.

I’ll bet @groupon placed a call to google tonight and asked if that 6 billion was still on the table.

It shows that @groupon is amateur hour. A real company wouldn’t think of airing those ads.

I fired those tweets off pretty quickly. I was angry. I’ve had Tibetan food. I like it. I’ve eaten Tibetan food with, Palden Gyatso,  a Tibetan Monk who had his teeth knocked out with a electric cattle prod in a Chinese prison. The next morning when I got my groupon emails I cancelled my account.

Yesterday, I got an email from a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. She had searched twitter for people’s reactions to the groupon ad and decided to contact me.  She asked if I’d be willing to be interviewed for an article she was working on. I agreed to the interview.

In today’s Chicago Tribune, I’m quoted in a story about Groupon.

Ryan McKeen, a 30-year-old from Connecticut, tweeted his disdain and unsubscribed from Groupon in protest. “I sat there and watched the ad and I was just stunned,” he said.

The lesson in all of this for lawyers is that people will read your stuff if you put it out online. Even after all I’ve been through with this site – it still surprises me when I get a reaction to something I write which happens fairly frequently. When I started this site, I assumed no one would ever read it. I never assumed it would have any impact.

Especially when you start blogging or using twitter it’s important not to think that you’re writing in a vacuum.

My firm just upgraded to Westlaw Next and overall I’m impressed. The other day, I went to print a case, and the drop down menu gave me the option of sending it to a Kindle. That alone is almost reason enough to purchase one.

I hate carrying large briefcases to court. The idea that I could have lots of relevant law for a case available at my finger tips excites me.  As does the idea that I could download a lot of cases and read them later without having to carry around a paper folder.

The future is paperless. Now all I have to do is convince my wife or my firm that the Kindle is another gadget that I absolutely need.