Welcome to the inaugural issue of Legal Technology Strategies, a free monthly e-mail newsletter edited and produced by Dennis Kennedy. The newsletter will focus on legal technology topics and be directed primarily to the St. Louis market. If you like the newsletter and want to subscribe, all you have to do is send me an e-mail at dennisk@nettechinc.com asking to subscribe.The newsletter subscription is free.

Dennis Kennedy

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIES

Issue #1
September 1, 1998
On the Web at: http://www.nettechinc.com/lts.htm

A Note From The Editor
Thinking Strategically about Technology (Dennis Kennedy)
Law Office 2001 (Arthur L. Smith)
Saint Louis University Law School is Wired for the Future (Nicolas P. Terry)
The Future of WordPerfect - An Update from Toronto (Dennis Kennedy)
Learning the Internet on the Internet (Mary Toy & Christine Gilsinan)
Great Internet Resources for Legal Technology (Dennis Kennedy)
Palm Pilot Pointers - The Pilot as Pager (Alan Steinberg)
BAMSL's Technology in the Practice Committee
About Our Authors
About NetTech How You Can Write Articles for LTS
Administrative Matters and Contact Information

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR - Dennis Kennedy

Legal Technology Strategies has a number of goals:

1. To create a forum to share helpful information and news about legal technology.

2. To drive the discussion of impact of technology on the practice of law in St. Louis.

3. To form a community of those in the legal profession interested in the benefits of technology.

4. To learn from all the great writers and thinkers in St. Louis (and, potentially, elsewhere).

5. To promote seminars, articles, web sites and other resources relating to legal technology topics.

I want to put together a regular core of the best local, and possibly national, thinkers and writers on legal technology. You'll meet some of them in this issue. I'll always be looking for great material, so please consider writing for the newsletter from time to time. The tone for the newsletter will be informal, the intent will be collaborative and helpful, and the hope will be to create a community of common interest.

THINKING STRATEGICALLY ABOUT TECHNOLOGY - Dennis Kennedy

As many of you know, I've left The Stolar Partnership after 10 years and the active practice of law after 15 years to focus on my interests in legal technology and the Interent. I've started a company called DennisKennedy.com, LLC (http://www.denniskennedy.com) and will be consulting on a variety of legal technology, Internet and technology law issues. My focus will be at the planning and strategic level rather than hands-on, nuts-and-bolts technology work.

A number of attorneys recently, when hearing this, have asked me, "what do you mean by 'strategic'?"

In their book "Competing on the Edge," a study of the dynamics of strategy in the computer industry, Shona L. Brown and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt strategy as "the creation of a relentless flow of competitive advantages that, taken together, form a semicoherent strategic direction." Ahem. I'm not planning to use that in my marketing materials.

What they go on to say, and what is more useful in this discussion, is that strategy ties together the process of answering these two questions: "Where do you want to go?" and "How are you going to get there?" They suggest that strategic planning, in simplest terms, is about managing change. Or, better, the attempt to manage change.

They also suggest that there are three ways to manage change: reacting, anticipating and leading.

Here's an example. If you asked me, I would tell you that one of the biggest issues that law firms, especially large law firms and firms with Fortune 500 clients, will soon face is what you wil do when your biggest clients - the ones already using Lotus Notes, an intranet, virtual private networks, extranets, et al. and realizing the benefits of these technologies - come to your firm and simply demand that you tie into their systems and/or open up and connect parts of your network to theirs or else they'll find a law firm that will. What I heard at the ABA TechShow last March suggests that is starting to happen.

The "reacting" firm will be caught unprepared and scurry to implement whatever the client demands, regardless of the implications for the firm. Generally, strategic decisions made while "scurrying" are not usually the best ones. The trauma this approach causes will be minor compared to what happens when the second large client makes the same demand, but requires a different technology.

The "anticipating" firm will do the discovery necessary to find out what its clients are using, look into ways to get that type of technology and be ready to pounce when the request from the client comes.

The "leading" firm will take the efforts of the anticipating firm a few steps further. Perhaps they will design a system that can exchange information with a variety of different technologies. Perhaps they will develop extranets or VPNs and implement these techniques as models. The one thing they are sure to do is to come to the clients before the clients come to them. These firms will use technology as part of business strategy and turn technological choices into "a relentless flow of competitive advantages."

Change management, not surprisingly, demands a mix of these three techniques. A firm that stays in the reacting mode will undoubtedly have its own set of problems, but a firm that tries to "lead" in every category will very soon learn what it means to be part of the "bleeding edge."

A firm planning strategically for technological change will try to assemble a diversified portfolio of change management solutions much as a savvy investor tries to balance risk in an investment portfolio by weighing various categories and allocating assets in accordance with risk tolerance. Some choices will be winners and some will be losers but the the performance of the "portfolio" is enhanced through this diversification. A conservative firm will "balance" its change strategies portfolio with a heavier emphasis on reactive strategies and reduce its risk but also reduce the possibility of return. A more aggressive firm will take more chances on "leading" and "anticipating" approaches in accordance with its own level of risk tolerance.

"Competing on the Edge" is written by two management consultants from McKenzie & Company, the international management consulting firm which is discussed in another book, "Dangerous Company," by James O'Shea. "Dangerous Company" is well worth your while to see what management consulting firms do well and don't do well and to compare their approaches to the practices of law firms.

In that book, there is a section on Andersen Consulting's new approach which argues that strategic business planning and technology planning should not be seen as separate matters. In fact, we are seeing and should be seeing, Andersen would argue, a convergence between the two. Not an easy convergence - there are barriers of language, ways of thinking, and approaches - but an important convergence.

Shortly after I read O'Shea's book, I noticed an ad by Deloitte & Touche emphasizing that they combined strategic and business planning with technology planning. That same evening, I read an article about how General Electric is planning to spend $5 billion(!) over the next 5 years on extranets. I am confident that $5 billion on extranets means that extranets are no longer a technology planning or an IS issue only. Extranets are clearly part of GE's business strategy.

Take the Year 2000 problem. . . . please. The Year 2000 problem, it's been said, is a trivial computer science problem, but an enormous management problem. Remediation of the problem has more to do with setting priorities, preparing for contingencies and testing interconnectivity than it does with looking at COBOL code. If you see the problem as only an IS problem and leave it solely to your IS department, you will definitely have some Year 2000 difficulties, no matter how new your computers are or how trivial your actual issues are.

In the law office, the Year 2000 problem is not really about making sure your PCs roll over to January 1, 2000, it's about doing everything that you can to make sure that your law business survives past January 1, 2000. For example, if your PCs all roll over correctly but your three largest clients go out of business because of their own Y2K problems that caught you by surprise, I suggest that you have a bigger Y2K problem than does the firm that finds that 25% of their PCs are dead. In successful Y2K planning, technology planning must converge with business planning.

A few other examples to consider: Certain practice areas, like environmental and intellectual property, require access to information available on the Internet to stay current and to practice at the highest levels. Is your debate about whether people will play too much on the Internet hamstringing some of your lawyers and impacting on their clients? Can you attract and retain the best young law lawyers with what they see as Model T technology? What happens when two lawyers with laptop computers and products like Summation and CaseMap handle cases better, more efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of a team of ten attorneys?

Are these technology issues or are they business issues?

In a few short years, it's a cliche to say that the Internet is changing everything. But it is. With change comes opportunity. Opportunities to move your practice to a new level. Opportunities to make mistakes and bad choices. By adopting a variety of strategic approaches, you can help spread out your risk and help answer the question "how do you get there?"

LAW OFFICE 2001 - Arthur L. Smith

Lawyers will be able to take a look at the latest ideas and latest issues concerning the use of technology for the management of litigation and presentation of evidence at Law Office 2001 to be held on October 1, 1998 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in St. Louis. Law Office 2001 is the technology seminar sponsored each year by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis along with Arthur Andersen LLP, Legal Communications Corporation, the publisher of The Daily Record and St. Louis Countian, the Gateway Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators, and the St. Louis Association of Litigation Support Managers.

The day long program commences with a complimentary continental breakfast at 8:00 AM and continues through 5:00 PM. A detailed program schedule will appear in the CLE insert in September's St. Louis Lawyer.

Although some speakers remain to be confirmed, here is a general schedule of events for the day:

Keynote Address: "How Technology is Reshaping the Legal Profession" - Art Smith, Husch & Eppenberger.
Litigation Management Tools (panel)
Effective Use of the Internet in a Litigation Practice - Christine Gilsinan.
Y2K Issues in the Law Office - Dennis Kennedy
Electronic Discovery Technology at the Courthouse (panel, including a judge and court clerks)
Technology in the Courtroom (panel)

For more information, contact Gwen Byrd at BAMSL (314-421-4134).

Editor's Note: This is a great program. Law Office 2001 is the premiere annual legal technology event in St. Louis and Art Smith has outdone himself putting this one together. I highly recommend this seminar. Make sure your litigators know about it. In addition, there will also be drawings at the end of the day for some great prizes, including several excellent software programs.

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL IS WIRED FOR THE FUTURE (c) 1998 - Nicolas P. Terry

If you have traveled along Lindell Boulevard in mid-town recently you can't have failed to notice the extensive construction in and around SLU law school (http://lawlib.slu.edu/building/). On Lindell itself the school has renovated the majestic Queen's Daughters Mansion. Integrating the mansion into the existing law school (Morrissey Hall and Omer Poos law library) is the new west addition that increases the number of faculty offices, library space and adds new suites for the school's journals and Office of Admissions. To the south, on the other side of the law school, is our new "front door", a spectacular atrium that overlooks the University's Connelly Courtyard.

Accompanying the new construction and a complete renovation of the existing facilities, the law school has re-engineered its technology infrastructure. 560 student accessible network connections have been installed throughout the building. There are 200 wired student workstations in the library and almost 400 in "smart" classrooms. Just about anywhere a notebook-equipped student wants to work she will find AC power and a network connection. New cabling and routers dynamically allocate IP addresses to the students enabling high-speed access to email, the web, Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, virtual classrooms and distance learning opportunities. Smart classrooms feature more than power and net connections; four have ceiling-mounted video data projectors, and there are 2 mobile projection units. As you read this high technology faculty "teaching stations" with web access and PowerPoint are being added to the classrooms and planning is well under way to re-engineer our Moot court room into a "smart" courtroom complete with data projectors and document/exhibit scanners accessible from both bench and bar.

Saint Louis University was recently recognized as one of the top 100 wired universities in the country (http://www.slu.edu/). If you would like more information on the new construction or how the law school is integrating the latest technology into its curriculum please, contact Associate Dean Steve Smith (314-977-2763) or visit the school's web site (http://lawlib.slu.edu).

THE FUTURE OF WORDPERFECT: A REPORT FROM TORONTO - Dennis Kennedy

There is no software program more closely associated with the legal profession than WordPerfect. In fact, some have even argued that WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS's popularity can be explained only because it actually mimics the specific electrical brain patterns of many attorneys.

There has been a lot of concern recently about the future of WordPerfect, its role in the law office of the future and the enormous pressure in the market from Microsoft Word.

Corel Corporation, the Canadian corporation who owns and produces WordPerfect, recently hosted a special symposium at the ABA Convention in Toronto on July 30. I wasn't there, but the nice people in Corel's media relations department sent me an audiotape of the event.

Here are four highlights that I heard:

1. Corel is committed to WordPerfect. Corel representatives empphasize that the recent consolidations at Corel that you might have read about are intended to improve development of the product without compromising customer service. WordPerfect development is clearly a key component of Corel's overall strategy. The next version of WordPerfect, 9.0, is on schedule, with a probable shipping date in early to mid-1999.

2. Corel has an unquestionable commitment to the legal profession. Mike Cowpland, CEO of Corel, reaffirmed Corel's focus on the legal profession and Corel's responsiveness to the concerns of lawyers and said: "As for as legal is concerned, this is our core market. We're going to have an absolute searchlight on this to make sure that it's irresistible for our users and they will refuse to switch because they'll simply not get the same kind of functionality." All indications are that Corel is committed to retaining as much of WordPerfect's historic market share in law firms as it can. Corel has used focus groups and advisory committees of lawyers to help determine features and direct product development. As Corel reps like to point out, they have the only word processing legal suite available and plans include upgrades and enhancements of the legal suite. Corel's legal suite, for those of you unfamiliar with it, contains WordPerfect, QuattroPro (spreadheet), a presentation program similar to PowerPoint and a variety of legal software, including HotDocs for document assembly and Amicus Attorney for case management.

3. Corel has made transferability between WordPerfect a Word its first priority. Many of the law firms who have moved to Word from WordPerfect point to the fact that they have clients who work in Word and send documents to them in Word. These firms feel that to get 100% compatibility they must also move to Word. Corel has made this issue a first priority and my sense is that for most documents you will get the transferability you need. Cowpland says, you'll "be able to import, export and transfer back and forth freely with the Microsoft world." Be aware that total transferability with 100% formatting success is an elusive goal and that you can't get that between versions of Word and even changing laser printers may change the look and formatting of documents. The compatability/transferability issue should be greatly alleviated in the next year or so as both Microsoft and Corel move to either HTML, XML or other industry standards.

4. Corel has seen some gains in market share, especially after recent price reductions, and a large number of law firms are still facing the move from DOS to Windows. WordPerfect for DOS once had a market share in excess of 80% of lawyers. The conservative nature of lawyers and the tendency no to switch products probably bodes well for WordPerfect, especially since Corel seems to be positioning itself to try to retain as much of this market as it can. I think the news out of Toronto is very positive for WordPerfect fans. Corel attempted to address the two biggest concerns of law firms moving away from WordPerfect: transferability issues with Word and whether WordPerfect will be around in the future. Perhaps more important, though, they have reaffirmed a serious commitment to the legal industry.

Does the news out of the Corel symposium answer the issue of word processor choice for you at your firm? This issue is complex and the answer can and should vary from firm to firm. There are many factors to consider: training issues, cost factors, concerns Word macro viruses, client pressure, and the implications, positive and negative, of Word's enormous market share, to name but a few. Firms moving from WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS to any Windows word processor need to consider a wide variety of issues and not make the decision lightly or as a snap judgment.

On the other hand, it's nice to think about software that is being developed with the needs of attorneys in mind. Corel deserves a big thank you for thinking of attorneys and putting on a presentation like this in connection with the ABA convention. Ross Kodner, a well-known legal technology consultant out of Milwaukee, also deserves a great deal of credit for pushing the idea to the people at Corel and making it happen. Keep your eyes open for an article about the event from Ross Kodner and Bruce Dorner which should cover the event in more detail and appear in an upcoming issue of Lawyers Weekly USA.

LEARNING THE INTERNET ON THE INTERNET - Mary V. Toy and Christine A. Gilsinan

Editor's Note: I hope to include excerpts from seminar materials from legal tech seminars in the newsletter. Chris and Mary gave this seminar on learning about the Internet by using Internet resources in April. Here is a short excerpt on three sites where you can get basic Internet tutorials. Be sure to contact them if you want to see some of the other topics they covered

. . . . .

General Internet.

a. Roadmap. (http://netsquirrel.com/roadmap96/index.html) A freely customizable training site that has been endorsed by the Washington Post. Subjects covered include email, mailing lists, newsgroups, search techniques and strategies, spamming, Internet security, Telnet, FTP, gopher, advertising, flame wars, and nettiquette. The Roadmap introduction states that it was written primarily for people with accounts on command-line systems (like UNIX, VAX, and VM). However, the lessons are generic and don't require any expertise in anything as arcane (at least to most legal practitioners) as UNIX.

CG and MT: We were both impressed with this site. Very easy to understand, written on a true beginner's level. The breadth of introductory level information is impressive and anyone who takes all 27 modules will have a good grounding in Internet basics. Patrick Crispen, the author, allows Roadmap to be customized and stored on other servers so long as a copyright notice is given.

b. Yahoo. (http://howto.yahoo.com) - (Basic World Wide Web training). Very brief introduction to the Web material. Also offers a glossary and links to other training sites.

MT: A VERY basic site, and (surprise!) heavily oriented toward the Yahoo search engine. Not bad, not great.

CG: Agreed, but I liked the "notations" on the right of the screen. In addition, if the student has no experience on the Web, this site provides a relatively "painless" way of experiencing navigation of linked pages.

c. Beginner's Central. (http://www.northernwebs.com/bc/)

CG: If you wade through the ads, you may just get some good information (and who said self-aggrandizement on the Web was dead?). My only other comment is look before you leap, or "don't just do something, sit there." I found it easy to jump to ads and other frivolities quirrel.com/roadmap.html The Roadmap tutorial is heavy on email training, including listserv and other email list programs, addressing, headers and more arcane subjects such as pinging. As indicated in our earlier review, we both judged the Roadmap site as excellent. The section on email etiquette should be required reading before anyone is allowed to use an email program.

CG and MT: Although some of the information is dated (no one uses "pinging" or "fingering" much anymore), the basics are still presented thoroughly and adequately. Rely on CNET (http://www.cnet.com) for the more current technical stuff, but use Roadmap to gain a general understanding.

. . . .

Summary of Recommended Sites for Learning About Internet Topics on the Internet

1. General Internet: Roadmap 96. (http://netsquirrel.com/roadmap96/index.html)

2. Email: Everything Email. (http://www.everythingemail.net/)

3. Hyper Text Mark-Up Language (HTML): Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction. (http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/index.html)

4. Chat: Webwinds. (http://www.geocities.com/~webwinds/irc/irc1.htm)

5. Search Engines: Spider's Apprentice. (http://www.monash.com/spidap.html)

GREAT INTERNET RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT LEGAL TECHNOLOGY - Dennis Kennedy

I like to share the great Internet resources I find. This month I wanted to focus on legal technology resources. I got some assistance from Jerry Lawson, president of Netlawtools, Inc. (http://www.netlawtools.com), in Burke, Virginia, one of my favorite writers on Internet and legal technology topics. Jerry has just finished a book for the ABA on using the Internet that I think will be great and very valuable to lawyers. Thanks for the help, Jerry.

The ABA's Law Practice Management Magazine Web Site (http://www.abanet.org/lpm/). Burgess Allison's regular monthly column for LPM is the single best regularly-appearing resource on legal technology. At this site, you can find all of his columns, links to his great Internet book (a new edition, I understand, is due out in March, 1999) and other resources. You can also find Erik Heel's excellent Internet column. LPM does a great job on legal tech coverage and is all-around my favorite legal publication. The site also gives you access to the the ABA legal tech e-mail discussion lists. You can also access a great deal of information from TechShow '98.

Technolawyer (http://www.technolawyer.com) I really like the ideas behind Neil Squillante's brainchild. Neil is using a moderated e-mail discussion list to build a community of interest among legal technologists and, um, technolawyers. The basic premise is pretty simple. Each week, Neil sets five discussion topics and limits the e-mail discussion to those topics. Participants are asked to send thoughtful submissions on the topics. Neil moderates the list and refocuses the discussion when necessary. Some of the best posts are turned into articles and posted on the web site. You can even win the "Technopost" of the week award. I encourage you all to consider joining this list.

The ABA Legal Tech Discussion Lists (http://www.abanet.org/discussions/home.html) The Lawtech list is the primary list. I also belong to the Network-2d list. These lists are fun there where all the "name" legal tech people tromp around and the discussion can be invaluable. Unlike Technolawyer, the lists are unmoderated and the discussion can be free-ranging, to say the least. A great place to ask technical questions.

Law Office Computing Magazine (http://www.lawofficecomputing.com) The web version of the publication. Excellent articles and reviews. Very practical articles that are highly focused on lawyers' needs.

LJX's Law Technology Center (http://www.ljx.com/tech/) I find that I return to the LJX site on a weekly basis. There are always a number of new articles, excellent links to other resources and good variety, although the focus tends to be on big firm issues (Lawyers Weekly (http://www.lweekly.com) focuses on the small and medium-sized law firms, particularly in my column). LJX also allows you to ask questions and has an archive of "asked and answered" questions. You can also subscribe to a good biweekly e-mail newsletter called Tech and Management Express. Job listings, a legal technology survey and other resources round out the features.

Law Library Research Xchange (http://www.llrx.com) Anyone else notice lately that this site and its newsletter have become a regular must-read. Very practical and very interesting articles. Fantastic resources. Obviously, the focus is on research issues, but you can really learn some things about the Internet and some echnology issues on this site. Xcellent.

The Rapidly Changing Face of Computing Technology Journal (http://www.compaq.com/rcfoc/index.html) This site and its newsletter are models for what I want to do with this newsletter. Jeffrey Harrow has written a newsletter on technology topics that interest him for many years. It started out as an internal Digital newsletter and grew. Fascinating short articles and opinions on cutting edge issues and, more important, the implications of technology. The most recent issue has an extended discussion of the idea of "electronic ink" and the future of displays. I'm a huge fan.

CIO Magazine (http://www.cio.com) This is one of the sites I return to regularly. The target audience is, obviously, chief information officers of companies. The benefit is that you can learn about strategic issues, spot trends and learn how other companies handle technology issues. Excellent Year 2000 resources, great articles and opportunities for discussion.

ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.com) This site is the umbrella for a variety of ZiffDavis publications (like PC Computing and PC Magazine) and ventures. Look at reviews and access articles from their publications. Take classes from the Online University. Get a variety of e-mail newsletters. My favorite feature lately has been Jesse Berst's Anchordesk (http://www.anchordesk.com) and its companion daily e-mail newsletter. Highly topical, highly opinionated and highly laden with useful content. Lots of technical tips, pointers to utilities and upgrades, reviews and product comparisons. Lately, I prefer this site to CNET (http://www.cnet.com), which is also a great resource on popular computer topics.

Woody's Office Watch (http://www.wopr.com) Home of the great weekly e-mail newsletter on Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products. You want information, they've got it. The good, the bad and the ugly. Info on viruses, updates, upgrades, tips, tricks and techniques. Very comprehensive and mindbogglingly thorough.

The Weekly Computer Magazines - ComputerWorld (http://www.computerworld.com), PC Week (http://www.pcweek.com) and InfoWorld (http://www.infoworld.com) I really like these magazines, some of which are available free to qualified subscribers. Great timely info and reviews. Excellent columnists, especially Bob Metcalfe in InfoWorld. Basically, it's too much to digest, but even the passing glance once a week over time can help you notice trends and developments.

FindLaw (http://www.findlaw.com) Well, what can't you find on FindLaw? FindLaw is aptly described as the Yahoo for the legal profession and contains several helpful directories of legal technology resources.

I also maintain a pretty comprehensive list of legal technology resources on the NetTech web site at http://www.nettechinc.com/lawtech.htm and a link to a version of this article with active links can be found there.

PALMPILOT POINTERS: PALMPILOT AS PAGER - Alan Steinberg

My cellular phone bill is eating me out of house and home! Sound familiar?

I may have the answer to your problem, or at least for those of you who carry a Palm Pilot. As many of you know from my other articles on 3Com's Palm Pilot, this little PDA (personal digital assistant) is a computing phenomenon with over 1,600,000 units sold since its introduction in 1996.

The Palm Pilot holds names, addresses, phone numbers, to-do lists, memo's and "syncs" with your PC or Mac for reliability and utility. The Palm Pilot has had a lot of press lately. If you are not aware of what this PDA will do, contact me for an article where I explained the Pilot in some detail.

Now for the good news that will save you money, or perhaps convince you that the Palm Pilot will change the way you practice law for the better.

Recently I purchased a Palm Pilot paging card from PageMart, the national paging company that leases and sells those ubiquitous small pagers we see clipped to oh so many waistbands and purse straps. This Motorola paging card is "swapped" with the "factory card" that comes with the Pilot.

What does it do? For one thing, it saves you from carrying around on your belt yet another device and looking like Captain Marvel or Batman with a "utility belt".

I don't have to do that anymore. My Palm Pilot is now a pager, and I have eliminated the need to carry my cell phone "all the time." The phone generally stays in my car.

What is the cost? $169 buys the paging card and a copy of Palm Pilot's new Version 3.0 of its operating system, intended for the Palm Pilot III. By the way, users of earlier versions of the Palm Pilot will find it worthwhile to upgrade to the new OS. There are a ton of differences between the Version 3.0 and the prior OS that will perhaps be fodder for another article, but at this time let me say that I see a definite advantages in version 3.0.

What is the Pager Card? The pager card is a small block of circuitry that fits inside the back of your Palm Pilot. You stick a paper clip in the "open here hole" in your Pilot and wiggle it until the plastic back comes off. It won't break. You touch your hands to some kind of ground to rid yourself of "static electricity" and remove the old card from its plastic clips. Insert the new paging card and re-fasten the plastic clips. Voila! I am severely "mechanically challenged" and was able to pull this off with about a hitch. It just couldn't be easier.

After installing the new operating system, which is a common CD-ROM installation to the Pilot Desktop on your PC, I synced with the Palm Pilot and its newly installed system. That was quick and painless.

Next, I telephoned PageMart's 800 number and signed up for a $13.95 per month package that enables me to receive both voice and text transmissions directly to my Pilot.

Now, the people in my office have the option of typing a text message directly into Page Mart's web site and sending a text message directly to my Pilot or picking up the telephone and leaving a voice mail, numeric message or page. In either case, a phone number is electronically "flashed" to my Palm Pilot, and I can decide whether and when to go to my phone and call in to retrieve the message.

A text message may be created by any user with internet connectivity going to GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ WWW.Pagemart.com, and clicking on the "Send a Message" button. Clicking on the button takes you to a page with spaces for my personal PIN number (which is my Pagemart Address), which you enter and then type in a text message. When you "send" the message, it is electronically sent to my Palm Pilot.

I have timed this process and typically within thirty-seconds the text message is received by my Palm Pilot and a tone alerts me to the receipt of a message. The sender's telephone number is displayed on my Pilot's screen. If I have other data in my Pilot on the sender, his or her other data is associated with the message and this data (phone number, address, et al.) is also displayed. Upon receipt, I can choose to view the text message now or defer it to read later. Not bad!

If the caller wishes simply to dial in his or her phone number (a numeric page), all he or she does is to dial a Pagemart specific 800 or local phone number and "at the tone" enter a phone number where I can reach him or her. If my Palm Pilot recognizes the numeric telephone number, the caller's database information (name, address) is displayed for my review. Again, not bad!

Voice mail paging. Lastly, a caller may telephone my Palm Pilot, and, by "touch toning" the proper key prompts, leave a voice mail message. Pagemart will send a signal informing me through my Palm Pilot than a voice mail is waiting for me. I can then retrieve the message by my cellular phone and choose to return the call (or not) and find out who is calling me.

You can turn off the PageRing when you are in court. You can also put the Palm Pilot paging card to sleep during the evening hours so you are not disturbed. The Pilot is always on, so batteries which used to last a couple of months will not last quite so long. I don't know what the effect on battery life will be since I have only had my paging card a couple of weeks.

Pagemart also sends news, sports and market updates throughout the day whether you want them or not. That can be a bug or a feature, as they say in the software industry.

I look forward to saving a substantial amount of money on my cell phone bill as so many of my current pages are for instructions from my office on where to go, people to meet, or changes in plans, none of which particularly needed a conversation which takes up cell phone air time.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE PRACTICE OF LAW COMMITTEE

If you are interested in legal technology and the Internet, the place to be at noon on the first Tuesday of every month is the Technology in the Practice Committee meetings at the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis headquarters at the Metropolitan Building downtown. More information at http://www.bamsl.org/techpractice/.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Christine Gilsinan (cgilsinan@solaw.com) - Solo practitioner and teacher, speaker and author on Internet and technology topics. (http://www.solaw.com)

Dennis Kennedy (dennisk@nettechinc.com) is the Director of Legal Technology of NetTech, Inc., a technology consulting firm focusing on law firms (http://www.nettechinc.com). Dennis is a frequent author and speaker on legal technology and Internet topics.

Arthur L. Smith (arthur.smith@husch.com) - A partner in the St. Louis office of Husch & Eppenberger, LLC who practices in the area of commercial litigation. Art is co-chair of the Technology in the Practice of Law Committee of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and chairs the association's annual Law Office 2001 technology seminar. He is the author of a monthly column in the St. Louis Lawyer entitled "Practicing Perfection" and has written and spoken frequently on topics related to technology and the practice of law.

Alan Steinberg (alanjesq@steinberglaw.com) - Partner in Steinberg & Steinberg, LLC, law firm consisting of Alan and his son. A frequent speaker and author on legal technology and Internet topics, a Palm Pilot guru and owner of the most souped-up computer and the most gadgets of any attorney in St. Louis.

Nicolas Terry (terry@slu.edu) - Professor at St. Louis University School of Law where he teaches Torts, Products Liability, Insurance Law, Health Care Provider Liability, and Computer Law. His web site for his computer law class is an example of online course techniques (http://lawlib.slu.edu/faculty/terry/). An expert on the integration of law and computers, Professor Terry has published numerous articles on the subject and is also the author of Moving to a Windows Word Processor from WordPerfect DOS (West, 1994). During the 1996-97 academic year, he was on leave from the law school and was Director of Legal Education for LEXIS-NEXIS.

Mary Toy (mtoy@btl.net) is an attorney and fishing guide in Belize. Mary is an expert on many facets on the Internet and its use by lawyers. Check out her work on the new web site at http://www.kevinmodera.com.

Bill Coplin and Mehran Shahnam founded NetTech, Inc. in 1995. NetTech is a technology consulting firm based in St. Louis, Missouri that specializes in law firms and the legal market. The presence of technologists who are also lawyers is unique and gives NetTech the ability to provide technology solutions that mesh with the business and practice needs of law firms, from small to large.

NetTech’s web site will become a resource for both lawyers and technologists. Watch it grow.

NetTech’s people write, teach and speak on a variety of technology topics and are able to break the communications barrier between technology people and lay people. There is a powerful combination of talent at NetTech and a wealth of ideas that can help law firms change their practices through technology.

NetTech is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider. Among other legal technology certifications, NetTech is a Corel Approved Legal Partner and a CaseMap Authorized Reseller. Want to know more? E-mail us at info@nettechinc.com or call us at (314) 231-5005.

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We're always looking for writers. We hope to have a few regulars and a large group of people who will contribute items from time to time. And by contribute, we mean contribute. No pay at this time.

If you have an idea or an article, send it to Dennis Kennedy by e-mail at dennisk@nettechinc.com. We prefer that you simply copy your article into your e-mail rather than attach it to e-mails. Shorter (a page or two), informal articles with practical information are best. For longer articles or ideas, get in touch with Dennis first.

Although the primary focus of the newsletter is St. Louis and St. Louis authors, we're looking for great material of general appeal.

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1. Copyright. The copyright of each article belongs to the author of the article. Any unattributed material was written by Dennis Kennedy.

2. Recirculation. I have no problem with, and even encourage you, to pass along copies of the newsletter to your friends and colleagues. Be sure to include attribution information.

3. Republication of articles. Highly encouraged, but get in touch with authors directly to work out details and arrangements. Similarly, if you quote from articles, let the author know as a courtesy. Cite as: Legal Technology Strategies, Issue __, (date)(URL).

4. Subscriptions. Subscriptions are free. Subscribe by sending an e-mail indicating that you want to subscribe to Dennis Kennedy at dennisk@nettechinc.com. Issues will appear monthly on the 1st of each month.

5. Archived issues. Legal Technology Strategies will be published simultaneously on the Web and archived on a web site at http://www.nettechinc.com/lts.htm.

6. Feedback. Greatly welcomed. Let us know what you think at dennisk@nettechinc.com. Reach us at NetTech, Inc, 35 N. Central, Suite 339, Clayton, MO 63105, (314) 231-5005.

7. Problems with delivery, et al. Let me know and we'll try to work them out. The newsletter is being produced at the simplest level (text in an e-mail) to produce the best results for the most people.

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A FINAL WORD OR TWO

Let me know if you’d like to write something on any topic that interests you. I’m always looking for new authors.

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