A federal court has dismissed a putative class action against Avvo under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act, ruling that Avvo’s lawyer listings are comparable to the editorial content in Sports Illustrated and deserving of the same First Amendment protection. This is the second time…
How Solos Differ From Other Lawyers: Survey Offers Insights
I’ve been writing here about the new survey of small-solo law firm management conducted by Thomson Reuters Solo and Small Law Firm group, to which I was given exclusive first-look access. As I’ve read through the survey results, I was struck by a consistent fact. In almost every category covered, solos stood alone. Their responses…
Internet Fax Service eFax Acquires MaxEmail
You may ask yourself, “Is faxing still a thing?” While the fax may seem like a vestige of a bygone technology era, the actuality for many lawyers is that the ability to send and receive faxes remains a necessity.
For many of us, the once ubiquitous fax machine has been replaced by internet faxing…
On Lawyer2Lawyer: Law Enforcement and the Use of Robots
In July, a sniper opened fire during a march against police shootings in Dallas, killing five police officers and wounding many others. After a 45-minute gun battle and hours of negotiation with the sniper, Dallas Police Chief David Brown gave an order to his SWAT team to come up with a plan to end…
Worldox Teams With Workshare To Provide Document Sharing And Collaboration
The document-management system Worldox and the document-collaboration system Workshare last week announced a jointly developed product that will allow Worldox customers to securely synchronize, share and collaborate on documents outside the Worldox system while still maintaining control of the documents…
A Self-Service AI Robot For Law Firms? That's What This New Product Promises
Not surprisingly, artificial intelligence was all the rage at last week’s ILTACON – the topic of several educational sessions and the promised ingredient of many new products. But one company introduced a unique take: A self-service AI portal to enable law firms to train an AI robot to perform custom tasks.
The new product,…
Authentic8’s Silo Lets Law Firms Securely Surf The Web
The web browser is the Achilles’ Heel of law firm security. The National Vulnerability Database operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology lists more than 800 results for the search term “browser.” The problem with browsers is that they open a very wide door for malicious code to be executed on…
More ILTACON News: New Software Promises to Streamline Attorney Assignments
When Adam McDonell practiced law, he saw inefficiency in the way firms and legal departments assign and allocate work to associates and staff attorneys. His new product, Salladore, is his attempt to streamline the assignment process.
Last week at ILTACON, the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association, I had a…
News From ILTACON: LawBase To Integrate BakerManage Project Management
I spent the last week at ILTACON, the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association. It was a massive conference. Not sure if this is correct, but someone told me that the attendance exceeded 4,000. There were nearly 200 exhibitors and close to that many educational sessions.
Over the next couple days, I…
On Law Technology Now: The Evolution of the Digital Courtroom
This week on the podcast Law Technology Now, I talk with Graham Smith-Bernal, founder and CEO of Opus 2 International, about his career and the evolution of the electronic courtroom.
After dropping out of school at 16, Smith-Bernal founded what became the UK’s largest court reporting agency. While still in his 20s, he…
The Best Legal Tech Conferences for Small Firm Lawyers
I spent last week at ILTACON, the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association. It is a huge conference, 100 percent devoted to legal technology. But I do not recommend it for most solo and small-firm lawyers. It is primarily focused on larger law firms and, within those firms, on information technology, knowledge management,…
Site That Planned to Rate Lawyers Pivots Focus to Litigation Finance
Has Legalist finally found its niche? Back in April, I reported here that the site’s founders, both Harvard undergraduates, were preparing to launch a website that would rate lawyers based on publicly available court records. Then, in July, Techcrunch reported that the site had changed its focus, and instead planned to…