The Mac Lawyer : Ben Stevens : Using Macs In The Practice Of Law

Forbes published an article yesterday which analyzed how today's lawyers are using web-based software.  This article contains real world examples of how several attorneys, including me, utilize SaaS programs into their day-to-day law practices.  The portions that reference me are listed below:

• Another Mac enthusiast who uses Rocket Matter is J. Benjamin Stevens of Turnipseed, Brannon & Stevens in Spartanburg, S.C. "If I have to figure out how to use it, that's a black mark right out of the gate," he says. "The better products, the ones that really cater to the user experience, don't want you to waste your time figuring out how to use it. If you have to pull out the manual--well, I don't have time for that, and most attorneys don't."
• Stevens says he has worked with a variety of other law office practice automation products, such as Time Matters from LexisNexis, but he is most satisfied with Rocket Matter. Both he and Hauser raved about having the ability to use an iPhone, iPad or laptop to record how they are spending their time or to look up important information while on the go. Idle time waiting at the courthouse suddenly becomes productive.
• Similarly, Stevens talked about supplementing Rocket Matter with Dropbox, the Internet file sharing, replication and backup service, and Evernote, a note taking and file annotation service.

You can (and should) read the entire article by clicking here.

Source:  "Lawyers Leveraging Web-Based Software" by David F. Carr, published at Forbes.com.

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Apple's newest toy is for more than just games, books, and Internet browsing. It has the potential for greatness in law school as well. Law students can use the iPad to take notes, study, share multimedia, and more. These apps make the iPad a perfect companion for law school:

1. Black's Law Dictionary :: At $49.99, this app is an expensive one, but it's worth it. The app offers full access to Black's Law Dictionary, including a handy search interface, audio clip pronunciations, and citations linked to Westlaw pages. You may not be ready to ditch your leather-bound copy of this dictionary in favor of the iPad app, but it's certainly handier to cart around campus.
2. LawStack :: Would you like to be able to carry around the Constitution, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and more, all in one handy place on your iPad? LegalStack makes it possible to have nearly an entire legal library in your pocket, with plenty of preloaded law books included, as well as state codes and more that you can add to your stack. You'll get offline access, search, bookmarks, and more. Best of all, this app is completely free.
3. LexisNexis :: Using the LexisNexis app, you can retrieve cases on the go. If you need a quick glance, you can just use the Case Brief to get an overview right away. This app has favorites and a search history, so you can go back and learn about important cases easily. You'll also be able to share what you've found with classmates, colleagues, and professors.
4. iStudiez Pro :: Use iStudiez Pro to reclaim your sanity while you're in law school. This app will allow you to get organized in a major way, keeping your assignments, dates, schedule, and more all in one place and easily accessible. You can also set up alarms, color coding, and a summarization of your day.
5. Legal Ease :: When it's time to take the Multistate Bar Exam, turn to this app that can make studying a little less painful. In Legal Ease, you'll find 800 attorney-authored questions that will help you review everything you need to know. They're offered in a flashcard style with detailed explanations for all answers. You'll be able to review questions, create practice tests, and see how well you do in particular subjects. This app is even helpful for current law students who want to study and be quizzed on a particular subject of law.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for law students with iPads. Check out the iTunes site or just search the app store on your iPad to find out what other goodies are available for you to take advantage of.

This guest post is contributed by Roger Elmore, who writes on the topics of hospitality management schools.  He welcomes your comments at his email Id: rogerelmore24@gmail.com.

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In April, when the iPad came out, I offered to conduct an experiment forBen Stevens’ The Mac Lawyer blog. The plan: read a traditional book, a second on a Kindle, and a third on an iPad, then write about it. Over the past year I’d been used to reading primarily on my Kindle and the occasional tree-based book, and was interested in figuring out the new publishing terrain once and for all.

Part 3: The iPad Book: The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane

A big thanks is in order to Dennis Lehane, who wrote one of the best and most compelling novels I’ve read in years, if not ever. The Given Day is a book so gripping and phenomenal, I was able to read it on an iPad without succumbing to sweet Internet temptations lurking just beyond the home button on the gorgeous device.

Pros: While the iPad does not leverage E-ink, a tough blow in my opinion as far as e-readers are concerned, it does have a high-resolution backlit screen which enables you to read it in dark places (i.e. while someone is asleep next to you) without a Snuggie® booklight or similar device. I combatted LCD screen eye strain by dimming its brightness and changing the font to a muted sepia-tone color, which Apple does a great job of facilitating.

The iPad reference tools are terrific: tapping a word looks it up in the dictionary, a huge improvement over the Kindle’s medieval cursor device. If Apple supported multiple language dictionaries (only Japanese and English are currently available), it would be a great teaching aid for foreign language study. Flipping through pages is elegant and quick. Much appreciated Apple-style flourishes like 3D page turning is a significant improvement over Next and Previous buttons on a Kindle.

Cons: Forget about reading on your iPad outside unless you carry a tent with you everywhere you go. The glare from the sun and reflective objects makes reading on an iPad an uncomfortable endeavor in bright light. The LCD screen does not feel like a book at all, unlike E-ink. The iPad is also much heavier than the Kindle 2, making it a challenge to read in bed. As you adjust your reading position, the screen rotates around like a whirling dervish, making reading on your side rather tricky. This flipping back and forth is eliminated by a tiny screen lock button, which took me a month to figure out.

If, like me, you struggle to focus on a single task and do not have an incredible book to read like The Given Day, good luck trying to read it on an iPad. You’ll instead find yourself enjoying any one of the amazing capabilities the device offers.

Finally, In Order of Preference

The clear take-home message to me from this overly-prolonged experiment in 21st century reading is that different book technologies serve very different purposes. All things being equal, my top choice is a paper book in my hands as long as the font is a comfortable size (anyone who’s picked up a copy of Atlas Shrugged recently understands my pain). The ability to leaf through pages, scribble in margins with an actual pencil, and dog-ear pages still trounce their simulated equivalents in e-readers.

After a book, I’d choose the Kindle. It’s lightweight, works in any lighting condition, and doesn’t have all the distractions the Internet brings to the table. It’s a dedicated reading device, and though it’s a little clumsy in places, it does its job exceedingly well.

Then there’s the iPad. It was a worthy contestent in a noble contest, and I wouldn’t live without mine. However, when it comes to evaluating the product strictly for reading, I don’t see myself reading another book on the iPad. You can’t take it outside, it’s heavier than the other reading technologies (though perhaps lighter than the hardcover edition of Atlas Shrugged), and uses an LCD screen instead of E-ink. Moreover, everything that makes the iPad an phenomenal media and Internet consumption device work against it when you require the deep concentration necessary for books.

But that’s just my take. We’re lucky to live in a world with such options, with three remarkable technologies.

About the Author

Larry Port is the Founding Partner of Rocket Matter, the leading web-based legal practice management product. A speaker and award-winning writer at the crossroads of the legal profession and cutting edge technology, Larry writes extensively for legal publications including Law Technology News, Law Practice Today, ILTA's Peer to Peer, FindLaw, Chicago Lawyer, and others.

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In April, when the iPad came out, I offered to conduct an experiment forBen Stevens’ The Mac Lawyer blog. The plan: read a traditional book, a second on a Kindle, and a third on an iPad, then write about it. Over the past year I’d been used to reading primarily on my Kindle and the occasional tree-based book, and was interested in figuring out the new publishing terrain once and for all.

Part 2 of 3: Failure and Redemption with an iPad and a Kindle.

In Part 1 of this series, I announced my intention to test all three reading technologies via Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori trilogy. I read the first volume as a paper-based library book, but I apologize in advance to Mr. Hearn. I just couldn’t get through the second book in the series, Grass For His Pillow, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it doesn’t have to do with his prose.

The iPad contains two great book-reading apps, iBooks from Apple and Kindle from Amazon. Unfortunately, the iPad also contains a zillion other apps that tug at your attention, including access to practically all of the information ever recorded by civilized man, email, news, streaming Netflix movies, and every social network imaginable.

If you’re like me, which is a stone’s throw away from an official ADD diagnosis, it may be difficult to finish book on an iPad unless it’s completely engrossing. The device is just so dang incredible. I finally found such a book, so stay tuned to Part 3 to find out the killer read which helped me overcome the allure of iPad amazingness. In the meantime, I switched back, bewildered and dispirited, to the Kindle.

The Kindle Book: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life, by Steve Martin

If you like Steve Martin, appreciate the art of stand-up comedy, or ever wondered what it feels like to get very, very famous quickly, Born Standing Up is a book you should put on your list. I read the majority of it on my Kindle 2 and a small amount on my iPhone 3G.

Pros: The Kindle was my first electronic book reader, and for a technophile like myself it will forever occupy a special place in my heart, as do other fondly-recalled first-time experiences. Compared to an iPad or a book, the Kindle is much lighter at 10.2 ounces. Book shopping and delivery is quick and effortless, because in reality the Kindle is a portable spigot through which you pour dollars into Amazon. For example, I decided to purchase Mr. Martin’s book at an airport minutes from boarding my flight. Twelve dollars and sixty seconds later, the book arrived and so I could read it on the flight.

The Kindle screen, leveraging a proprietary technology known as E-ink, does not have a refresh-rate associated with LCD screens, which makes it easier on the eyes by eliminating strain and reducing glare. I happen to be partial to devices that do one thing really well as opposed to a device that performs multiple functions fairly well. The Kindle is definitely in the former category: aside from serving as a terrific reading device, the only other thing it excels at is sucking money from your pocket and sending it to Amazon. And you have to see the battery charge to believe it. I picked mine up after a month of idleness and it was still on.

An aside about e-readers in general, including both the Kindle and iPad...

E-readers are great traveling companions. I like to read different kinds of books depending on my current whimsy, and with an e-reader, I can keep a biography, spy thriller, historical fiction, and business book with me at all times without my carry-on weighing 100 pounds. I can also increase the font size for easier readability, critical as I head towards forty. I’ve noticed e-reader adoption among the elderly, incidentally, in my heavily retiree-laden town of Boca Raton, FL.

Because of the mobile Kindle and iBook apps, and the mechanism Amazon and Apple use to maintain your bookmarks, you can always be with your book. For example, I read my book at night on my e-reader and the following morning use the corresponding iPhone app to flick through some more pages at the exact place I left off the night before while, say, waiting in line for coffee. At night, I pick up exactly where I left off at Starbucks on my e-reader. Now that’s cool, although, my inner civil-libertarian bristles at the thought that Amazon and Apple now know exactly what I’m reading, when, and where.

...Back to the Kindle...

Cons: The biggest con I see with the Kindle or other book readers is the following conversation:

Husband: This book I’m reading is incredible! I can’t put it down.

Wife: Wow. I can’t wait to read it. Can I have it when you’re done?

Husband: Sorry, it’s on the Kindle. And I’m reading something else next.

Wife: That’s so typical. You’re always so damn selfish.

Some headway has been made into sharing books on e-readers, but any features are buried deep enough so that I haven’t stumbled across it. Another general strike against e-readers is their limited portability. I still feel uncomfortable taking a pricey e-reader to a beach or pool, since water and sand wreak havoc on electronic devices.

Compared to other modern electronic machines, the Kindle 2 feels glacially slow. At the risk of sounding like a plump, lazy cruise-ship passenger, moving the little cursor around is an arduous task. Page turns are inelegant: the entire text flashes black before it’s replaced by the next page. Flipping through pages to reread a passage is time consuming and laborious, especially compare to a paper book. The Kindle 2 very much feels like a first generation device.

In the next installment, I’ll return to the iPad. Perhaps I’ll fare better the second time around.

About the Author

Larry Port is the Founding Partner of Rocket Matter, the leading web-based legal practice management product. A speaker and award-winning writer at the crossroads of the legal profession and cutting edge technology, Larry writes extensively for legal publications including Law Technology News, Law Practice Today, ILTA's Peer to Peer, FindLaw, Chicago Lawyer, and others.

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Part 1 of 3: Adventures in Reading a Library Book.

Are you like me? Do you like to read books, travel a fair amount, and like to justify expenditures on technology in whatever pathetic, desperate way you can?

In April, when the iPad came out, I offered to conduct an experiment for Ben Stevens’ The Mac Lawyer blog. The plan: read a traditional book, a second on a Kindle, and a third on an iPad, then write about it. Over the past year I’d been used to reading primarily on my Kindle and the occasional tree-based book, and was interested in figuring out the new publishing terrain once and for all.

The Library Book: Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn.

My intention, initially, was to read three volumes of Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori trilogy on each of the three different technologies (yes, a book is a technology). If you think you’d like Shogun with a dash of 100 Years of Solitude sprinkled in, you’ll like Mr. Hearn’s books.

Pros: I paid nothing for Across the Nightingale Floor, since I borrowed it from the public library and importantly, returned it on time, which is something you shouldn’t take for granted. I took this book on a plane with me, and since it’s not electronic, I could actually do something without getting yelled at during takeoff and landing.

I enjoyed the volume’s delightful “library book smell” which I believe originates from a combination of binding glue, paper, card catalog stickers, and the librarians themselves. I could theoretically spill water or sand on the book and it would still function fine, though librarians typically frown upon such behavior. Moreover, after using an electronic device all day long, curling up with a paper, analog device was more refreshing than I recalled.

Cons: I finished the book shortly after my arrival, meaning I had to lug dead weight around on my trip. Since I was obligated to return it, I couldn’t just dump it in the hotel’s book rack. In addition, when you read a library book, there’s a little voice in the back of your head whispering bad thoughts. It tells you someone could possibly have been reading the very book in your hands in less-than-delicate locations. Unlike an e-book, a library book requires an extra piece of equipment (some folks call this a “bookmark”) to identify my last read page, which I seem to always misplace.

In the next installment, I’ll attempt to read a book on an iPad. And we’ll see how successful I am.

About the Author

Larry Port is the Founding Partner of Rocket Matter, the leading web-based legal practice management product. A speaker and award-winning writer at the crossroads of the legal profession and cutting edge technology, Larry writes extensively for legal publications including Law Technology News, Law Practice Today, ILTA's Peer to Peer, FindLaw, Chicago Lawyer, and others.

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The following is a Guest Post from iGadgetLife website, which covering tech reviews and news:

Macs are great tools for a lot of different computer uses, and it can be argued that they are one of the most user friendly computer gadgets on the market. But someone new to Macs (or even a more experienced Mac user) may not realize that there are many different ways to manage and ride herd on all of those windows that a typical computing session incorporates.

In fact, there are many tips, tricks, and shortcuts that can make your Mac experience much more productive and enjoyable. Over the years I have found several that I use on a regular basis, and sometimes I still find a new one that is handy. Let's take a look at some of my favorite Mac window management tricks.

Basic Window Switching

Most users know that command-tab will switch between open windows. But Windows converts may be put off that command-tab only switches between running apps, not individual window instances. That is, if you have five Safari windows open and email, pressing command-tab will switch back and forth between Safari and email - it will not cycle through the open Safari windows as well.

Instead, use the command-tilde ("~") combination to cycle through your Safari windows (or any other multiple windows of the same app, such as Finder). Once you get used to this slight difference (the tilde key is right above the tab on the Mac layout), you will find that being able to cycle through only that app's current open windows is actually much easier than having to cycle through ALL open windows on the computer.

Another thing to note about window management on OS X is that the first click usually only gives the window focus. That is, if you have a background window that you want to click on, for example a link on a web page, you will find that it is a two click operation, The first click brings the window to the forefront, the second launches the link. There are exceptions to this (as we mention below), but in this way, accidental clicks on background windows are avoided.

Background Window Scrolling

As a user, we sometimes have need of background windows while working in a different activated window. However, switching different apps in and out of the foreground is not always the most efficient way of working. Thankfully OS X offers some handy ways to manage your background windows.

For starters, you can scroll a background window simply by hovering the mouse over it and scrolling. This works equally well with the two finger drag on the trackpad or the scroll ball and wheel on your mouse.

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All I can say is "wow."  Yesterday, the Macs In Law Offices (MILO) surpassed a milestone – 2,500 members.  In just three and a half years since its inception, this forum has become the best online forum for attorneys who want to maximize the use of Macs in their law practices.  If you want to learn more or join this outstanding free resource, you can do so by clicking HERE.

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Last week, I gave two presentations at the South Carolina Association for Justice convention held in Hilton Head Island, SC.  For the technology section, my presentation was titled "Transitioning Your Law Practice to the Mac Platform".  In it, I discussed the advantages that Macs offer versus PCs, hardware options, and software programs that can be used in a law practice.  SCAJ puts on a fantastic conference, and it is always one of my favorites every year.  Thanks again to SCAJ for inviting me back again, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

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Apps can be fun, they can be practical, and they can even save you money. Here is a list of eight great money saving apps for the iPhone - most of which are free to download.

1. Save Benjis :: Save Benjis performs instant price comparisons with other stores to ensure that you get the best price. And it works for books, DVDs, toys, tools, and electronics. So, say goodbye to salesperson pressure or assurances that they have the best price in town. With this app, you’ll know whether or not you’re getting a deal.
2. Yard Sale Mapper :: There’s no better place for bargains... if you can find a sale to go to. This free app provides you with a map and directions to yard and garage sales in your area. Now all you have to do is get there before some other savvy shopper does.
3. Wi-Fi Finder :: This app will find you free wi-fi access in 135 countries. Search out these hotspots and save big time on your data plan. And the app will also list them in order with the nearest first. With over 200,000 confirmed hotspots listed, this app is essential for the travelling Internet junkie.
4. Coupon Sherpa :: Free app! Free coupons! It’s a simple as that. Whether you want online coupon codes or printable coupons, you can get both with this app and they are good for a lot of the top vendors around such as Foot Locker, The Gap, and Target.
5. eReader :: Want to read the latest blockbuster from Dan Brown? That hardcover will cost you a fortune. Can’t wait for the paperback? Then eReader will allow you to read electronic versions of your favorite books. It also has access to thousands of free book downloads as well – many by bestselling authors.
6. Gas Buddy :: This one will cost you $2.99 but it will hunt up the best gas prices in your area. One fill up at a great price and you’ll get that $3 back in spades. This is one app no one should be without these days where gas prices seem to be ever soaring.
7. Skype :: Skype has reached the iPhone and not a minute too soon. We’ve all seen our phone bills and all slammed our heads against the wall in frustration but with this free app you can now call fellow Skype users for free, from anywhere. And calls to landlines or other cell phones are very affordable. What you save on long distance alone will pay for your phone!
8. AirFare :: This app is not free but one use will save you much more than the $3.99 price. It searches for the cheapest airfare to your destination and does it better and quicker than Expedia, finding you the best deal. Snapping up that cheap ticket is just a tap away.

These are just the beginning. There are dozens of free apps that can save you mucho greenbacks. They are there for the downloading. What are you waiting for?

Source:  This list was compiled by Andrew Salmon. Andrew writes for a number of websites (such as LifeCover.ca) and also contributes guest articles on money saving and life insurance quotes.

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