ATTACK PANIC!

As we all reel with the spiraling economy, Topic A is how to dodge a pink slip.

In Law Technology News' February issue, in the article,  “Staying Afloat,”  article, IT leaders offer astute advice:

* Matt Kesner, CIO of Fenwick & West, says everybody should take on as many new duties as they possible, and “prove every day that you are worth employing.”

* Says Kraft Kennedy’s CTO Marcus Bluestein: “It’s easier to let a name go than a face,” so work on building your relationships with attorneys!

* Concurs Henry Chase, CIO of Burns & Levinson: “Show your worth. Share your knowledge. Stay on top of technology.”

MAILBAG #090222

From da inbox:

Video CLE: Ellis Mirsky says Trial.com  www.trial.com, now offers free video CLE programs. Tarrytown N.Y.'s Mirsky is exec director and GC of Trial.com, which is a network of trial lawyers and firms. They are also offering litigation management podcasts on iTunes.

Economy crunch: Samantha Carlin, of Steven Brill's Clear, says even if your law firm or company is not reimbursing users for membership in its program that helps frequent fliers circumvent long TSA lines, Clear will still set up employee discount programs, and can send over its mobile enrollment kiosk. I absolutely love Clear, especially when I'm flying in/out of JFK and SFO. Its staff are professional, courteous, and savvy. (Usual caveat: Brill used to be my boss.)  Interested? Contact Carlin here. 

John Bringarder, news editor at Law.com, caught this enticing post on Above the Law about some of the severe cutbacks at BigLaw.... including a decision by Locke Lord to shift from Lexis to LoisLaw to cut research costs. ATL also broke the classic gaffe story about the chatty commuter on Acela who loudly discussed pending layoffs at Pillsbury.

David Henderson chronicled this little faux pas by Ketchum's James Andrews who, when arriving at Memphis, carelessly Twittered that he was underwhelmed by client FedEx's home town -- which created quite the brouhaha. (Hat tip to Donna Payne for spotting it.)

OBAMA: DON'T IGNORE EDD ISSUES

Law Technology News' e-discovery columnist has a message for President Obama: Don't ignore EDD issues while you revamp medical records." On the EDD Update blog Craig Ball urges the president to be careful about his push to digitize the nation's health care records.

If it is "done right, it can be truly a lifesaving legacy for the administration." But what can't get lost in the shuffle is that medical records are evidence -- so it's important to insure that EDD concerns have a place at the table when standards and systems are established, says Ball, an Austin-based lawyer and forensics technologist.

ALOHA

One of the things I love about coming to Hawaii is that I pretty much stay on NYC time, so I get up at 4 a.m. (9 a.m. on da body clock) and have several hours of blissful quiet before the rest of the family gets up. Yes, yes, I know I'm a workaholic, but these days, who can afford not to be -- but anyway, it's one of the rare times when I can actually do mundane but necessary tech tasks, such as cleaning out my old e-mail & iTunes. And I can catch up on blogging!

Yes, yes, yes -- No need to nag me, I absolutely will turn the computer off when the sun comes up and I won't fire up the Samsung Saga either.

The weather in NY this winter has been particularly taxing, so it's a complete pleasure to exchange my waffle-stomper boots and the ankle-length down coat that makes me look like a football player for shorts and ridiculously touristy flip-flops bought for $8 in the Coco Cove gift shop at the Embassy Suites (a great place for families -- with large rooms and included "real" breakfast.)

We're here in Honolulu to say aloha to our dad, but it's truly an upbeat trip. Mom, all four kids (+ one wife and one ex-husband), and all five grandkids are here to celebrate his life. He had a great life, and yesterday would have been his 89th birthday. So we rented a sailboat and on a perfect morning, with quiet seas, and azure water/skies, under the flight path of HNL airport, we said goodbye and gave him to the warm Pacific Ocean. He must have liked it, because within minutes, a 747 (the plane he loved) flew right over us.

We then threw the flowers from our leis (after removing them from the string, which is hazardous to the marine critters) and it was amazing to see the flowers float and create a large beautiful circle. As trite as it sounds, it was soothing to literally see the circle of life created by the family patriarch. It brought home visually how this good man created a vibrant life and touched so many. The boat captain, Ken Middleton,  gave us the GPS coordinates so if ever we want to come back, we can.

We all laughed when we saw the name of the boat, "The Love Boat," and kept laughing and telling jokes and remembering funny moments with Dad throughout the voyage. He wouldn't have had it any other way. He would have been more than irritated if any of us starting "boo-hoo-hooing" as he would call it. If there's a common gene in our family it's most definitely irreverence.

Ken Middleton of TradewindCharters.com, was fantastic. My brother and I get horribly seasick, and I was really worried that I'd be contributing more than flowers to the sea -- but he offered a "homeopathic"  lavender oil concoction to put behind our ears. I was skeptical, but I'll try anything! I have no clue how it did, but it worked and none of us had any discomfort. Amazing!!!!!!

We ended the day watching the sun set from the Outrigger Reef hotel's boisterous open air  Shore Bird Restaurant , a perfect choice for a three-generation group, right on the beach. It's a fun place, a cross between a Brazilian Churrascaria and Benihana's (but you grill your own meat). It's loud and sassy, which prevents the kind of dinner conversations that can end up in skirmishes, always a good thing for any family. I couldn't stay up late enough for the Karaoke, but I expect a full report this morning from the grandkids. We toasted Dad one last time.

As my sister and I walked her back to the hotel, Mom summed it all up: "It was a perfect day."  It was indeed. Aloha, Daddyo.

LAW TECHNOLOGY NEWS DAILY ALERT

We've just launched

our new Law Technology News Daily Alert! If you'd like to subscribe, you can -- right here. The first edition includes a link to a hot story about Guidance Software, which is being grilled about absent memos -- did the
E-Discovery company bumble its own internal digital search?

Check out the story here.

MICROSOFT DEBUTS WINDOWS PHONE

Looks like the mothership is going to take on Cupertino again:  -- Microsoft has debuted a Windows Phone. http://tinyurl.com/tcs217

Excerpt:

BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 16, 2009 — Today at Mobile World Congress 2009, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer along with key mobile partners, HTC, LG and Orange, unveiled new Windows phones featuring new user-friendly software and services. The next generation of Windows phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and feature a new user interface and a richer browsing experience. In addition, Windows  phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web; and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web.

FRIDAY THE 13TH

Bad news, better news:

1. 800 law firm jobs were lost yesterday (maybe they did it yesterday rather than today to avoid Jason's wrath?) http://tinyurl.com/ltn213 (The Recorder).

2. Horrible news from Buffalo, Continental commuter plane down, all lost -- stunning  photos  on The New York Times' website. Adding to the misery, the flight originated in Newark, N.J., second plane incident from our area in a few weeks, and sadly this one with no miracle ending. 50 dead, including someone in the house that the plane hit.

On a MUCH happier note:

1. Terrific article by @pogue (David Pogue) in the New York Times about Twitter http://tinyurl.com/tcs213 (image courtesy of the NYT.)

2. Yesterday was not just Honest Abe's birthday, but the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of my idols (No, not Joe Torre - but I did just buy his audiobook and plan to listen to it over the long weekend) - but Darwin.

3. My colleague Jill Windwer found this hysterical "tech" rant by George Carlin. Love the jargon!

4. Another colleague, Anthony Paonita, editor-in-chief of  Corporate Counsel magazine, will discuss its new  Technology Survey via webinar on 2/19 at 1 EST: Registration info here.

Update: Mark  Reichenbach checks in, to advise me to "Forget Friday the 13th. Forget Valentines Day. Today is soooo much more: Using UNIX or POSIX time, at 6:31:30 seconds EST PM today, it will be 1234567890. Numerologists and Unix freaks will be having parties all around the world." He blogged about it here.

And I did forget about Valentines Day.. so a shout-out to all of us who don't have sweeties to celebrate with, including my mom... it's her first VD without Daddyo. May past and future joys buffer the bittersweet day. As an old friend once said, "You never know, when you wake up in the morning, what will happen that day."

May tomorrow bring us all  new possibilities for unexpected delights.

MEADOWS TO BINGHAM MCCUTCHEN

Robert Meadows, formerly CIO of Heller Ehrman, has been snared by Bingham McCutchen as its CIO --  and has made the bi-coastal move to Boston. He promises to be a Yankees fan, despite his new venue!

He'll be starting there on 2/17. Congrats!!!! Welcome to the East Coast. You're an official member of the San Fran ex-pat club.

#LTNY: WHY FEB 5 IS THE DAY AFTER XMAS

Craig Ball, LTN's "Ball in Your Court" columnist, says today is "the day after Christmas," and the news of Onsite3's bankruptcy and acquisition probably won't be the last Darwin news in the next weeks.

Check it out here.

#LTNY: SCENE SYSTEMS DEMOS #USAIR MIRACLE

Scene Systems, of Manhattan Beach,Calif., offered a compelling demo at its booth at #LegalTech New York: The company displayed  ts accident reconstruction finese with a video recreation of the miraculous #USAir Flight 1549 Hudson river landing in January.

Picture left:  Steve Breeze, director of production, in the booth. 

Photo by Russ Curtis.  

Here's the video, from YouTube:

#LTNY: TRENDSPOTTER

So... I finally got a few hours sleep, and I'm beginning to process the incredible conversations and discussions I've had over the last four days at LegalTech New York!  And as ideas and trends begin to marinate, I'm thinking about the article(s)
 I may write as a result of all of your tremendous insight.

But I'd like even more POVs -- so I'm opening up my questions to everybody.

RULES

ID Please: 1. If you are on the record, ID yourself by name, title, company & city.
2. If you are not for attribution, ID yourself by job category (eg, partner, assoc, IT director, EDD vendor, paralegal, etc), description of employer if it won't reveal your ID (eg, mid-sized EDD vendor; small law firm, etc), and city or region. 

Short but Sweet:  Be pithy!!!! Don't send me huge long essays -- try to limit comments to 3 paragraphs -- i know each question could generate a book, but i need to process a lot of ideas quickly. :)  We'll save the longer conversations for times & places where alcohol is served. 

Eligibility:  Everybody -- including vendors -- is eligible, but please NO SHILLING OF PRODUCTS.

Deadline: Tuesday, Feb 10, noon EST. 

Send to: commonscold@incisivemedia.com. 

Reward: BEST RESPONSE gets a $25 iTunes card! 
 
 
Questions: (answer any you wish) (You can also change ID with each Q, just be really clear)

1. What was the biggest surprise to you about LTNY?
2. At the risk of invoking scheudenfreude, do you see anything POSITIVE about all the layoffs in law firms and vendors?
3. Some folks who have been laid off have been quite bold about it, and telling absolutely everybody they see. I suspect this is an excellent tactic. In the past, the probably natural tendency would be to dive under the covers, but does the fact that there have been such extensive layoffs remove any (or most?) stigma about being on "the list:
4. What advice would you give folks who have been laid off
5. Is it true that despite the layoffs, EDD staffing is still the #1 concern for vendors and firms alike. (IE finding the right folks)
6.  Some folks told me this week that the very best candidates, who might in the past have been shopping their resumes, are too afraid to take employment risks right now and not budging from current positions.
7. With the economy tanking and Obama sworn in, do you expect "Clean Tech" and "Green law" practices to be a growth area?
8. Are you using "e-learning" modules to prepare your organizations for  major technology deployment, and then after the installation, to continue training -- in order to keep your costs down? Is it working?
9. Is your firm  taking advantage of the economy to "force" or "encourage" lawyers to finally take time to train on technology to provide "Better/Faster/Cheaper" services?
10. Are you "cross-training" -- eg, learning new skills to improve your marketability (esp for EDD support staff -- if u r a paralegal, r u learning tech? and vice versa. Is everybody banging on the CFO's door and asking to learn about finance?
11. EDD vendors: are you finding new work coming from firm liquidations and mergers, rather than just EDD?
12. Are any suppt staff folks or associates enrolling in MBA programs?
13. Has anybody said, "I've had enough. Life is short. I want a complete career shift?"
14. Who thinks INCREASING travel rather than cutting back is a good idea, and why?
15. Do you think absolutely everybody is stalling major tech installations?
16. What Darwin surprises do you think may happen in the next year? Anybody want to predict which 5 firms will end up dramatically better than they were on Jan 1 '09, and why?
17. Has Social Networking (Twitter/LinkedIn, MH Connected, Facebook etc) hit critical mass -- and become a real business tool? Do you use it effectively? Real-life examples?
18. What is your pet peeve about technology?
19. What do you love about technology.
20. If you were in control of your IT department, what would be the first 5 things you would do.
21. What are the pros/cons of allowing your users to download upgrades to existing software -- (such as Windows or iTunes updates) - or allow plug-and-play to install printers, etc.) How do you protect against viruses, etc.? How do you balance Help Desk priorities  -- and user convenience -- against security risks?
22. Is anybody besides me addicted to the new Planet Green cable channel from Discovery? (Hey, I have to watch something in the off-season :)
23. What did you learn from LTNY that would be helpful to attendees at LT West Coast in June?
24. What I have I not asked you that I should have -- and no, it's not "what is the best solution?" :)

#LTNY SO MUCH MORE TO COME!

At the end of day 2, I'm completely on fumes --  will post much more over the next few days. However, I wanted to share this picture of Gene Landoe, which Russ Curtis shot last night during our LTN Awards Dinner at Carmine's in Times Sq.  Gene has announced his retirement after a long happy career at CT, and we will all miss him and wish him the very best for the next chapter in his illustrious life!

P.S. If anybody knows how to turn off the automatic border on images/photos in Typepad, please email me. It's driving me nuts. monica.bay@incisivemedia.com

LTNY 09: READY, SET.....

Sunday wasn't just for the SuperBowl, (congrats Pittsburgh), it was also the traditional set-up Sunday for LegalTech New York, as everyone begins to descend on the Hilton for our three-day event! Russ Curtis had his camera out as folks began to set up booths and gather at 53rd & 6th:

Here's our LTNY czar Henry Dicker, with LexisNexis' Jane Kimpan as they got ready for Monday's opening curtain.

and then

and then

and then

to the right, the Greg Lutz and Michelle DeLucia of Inference Data:

and then

and then

and then there's the aerial view:

and then

and then

and then

and then

and then

and then

and then

(Can you tell i was having trouble with typepad loading up these photos?)

And then finally: I guess Huron really couldn't resist: (sigh)

The exhibit hall opens this morning at 10 am -- and I'll be at the Incisive Media booth right in front of the main door, doing a live video-blog. I'll be asking everybody to tell me "What I Hate About Technology -- and expect the vendors to do about it!"

Come air your pet peeve! And please tell the vendors you don't want no steeeeenking "solutions" -- but you do want to know exactly what their products and services do, so that you can help create "better, faster, cheaper" legal services for your customers!

Wanna know what I think about "solution?" Check this out from YouTube! 

(It's a question that will be posed to the panelists at the LTNY 09 Town Hall meeting, today, at 12:45 to 2 p.m., at the West Grand Ballroom!