Happy Holidays

As the holidays approach, I wish you joys small and large, noise soft and loud. lights bright and quiet; enough silence; an abundance of kindness and as little anger as possible; music always; and at least one heaping spoonful of peppermint ice cream.

P.S. Here is my favorite holiday card of 2011. I'm just evil. :) 

Image: Clipart.com

Aloha, Steve Jobs

I have just finished Walter Isaacson's compelling biography of Apple's Steve Jobs, one of the most fascinating portraits of a leader I have ever encountered. 

Dylan Baker reads the unabridged audio version, which is very, very long, but contains not one minute of excess. From start to 656-page finish, Isaacson creates a portrait of a brilliant, difficult, defiant, determined, passionate, mean-spirited, visionary, headstrong, OCD, insightful, etc., etc., etc., man.

I am still processing my reaction to the content, but I don't remember any biography that so inspired me. No doubt, part of the fascination is because of my San Francisco Bay Area roots — I am just a few years older than Jobs and grew up about 15 minutes north of Palo Alto, and was at U.C. Santa Cruz for my undergrad years, so I resonated to many of his influences.

The book helped me better understand technology issues, including the two opposite philosophies behind Apple and Microsoft, and the turning point (in my opinion, the iPhone more than the iPod) where everything changed. Steve Jobs insisted on a "closed" system that was intuitive and user-friendly, where every device easily integrates with any other Apple device — but users can't even change a battery. Bill Gates' model was creating software that could be licensed by just about anyone and used however they pleased. The book chronicles the development of both companies, and how they competed, but also how they intersected and even cooperated from time to time. 

The dominant theme of the book is how Steve absolutely insisted on the marriage of art and techology — to the point of almost absurdity. (He probably defines the term "micro-manage.") Jobs worshiped simplicity and minimalism, and intuitive operation of devices, and he pushed his teams to near breakdowns in his demands for absolute perfection in products. He was not afraid, even at the last stages of production, to insist on revisions. It had to be right. Period. Not every product was a success, indeed, some were dramatic flameouts. But he kept pushing.

One of my favorite things about Apple is the packaging, and the visual delight of opening the box — another target of Jobs' compulsive, hands-on management. I also like the never-on-sale pricing that removes any concerns that you could have gotten a better deal at another store. (Ditto). And speaking of stores, they were another focus of Jobs' acute attention, all the way down to choosing the floor tiles and the quality of the glass used for the stairs.

And it all comes down to that wedding of art and technology. 

The biography also helped me better understand my own career path and how I run Law Technology News magazine. I don't have the talent, vision, or resources of Steve Jobs — but the mix of art and technology has been, and will continue to be, a driving force in Law Technology News magazine. With art director Shane DeLeers (also an Apple devotée) we always push to integrate design and art with the words of the magazine.

The book also reinforced my passion (or as many would say, obsession) for clear, clean, accessible, jargon-free, gender-neutral language — with positive, active words rather than passive. I believe fiercely in the anthropology of language — that the words and images we choose create the perceptions and realities of the reader. My goal with LTN always has been to empower our readers (lawyers, judges, CIOs, IT, CFOs, GCs, paralegals, vendors, et. al) and help us understand that technology really can help us build better businesses, better communities, and better relationships. 

Ultimately, there are so many lessons in this book. Among them: That you don't have to be perfect to effect change. That failure is inevitable on the path to success. That conflicting technologies can co-exist. That you need to actually listen to your doctors. :( That OCD behavior has its benefits :) 

So here's to passionate, fearless, imperfect leaders who inspire us to do our best work. And here's to art and technology. Thank you, Steve Jobs, we miss you already.

Videos of Isaacson discussing the book (scroll down) here.  

Image: Simon & Schuster

Matthew Kluger Pleads Guilty on Insider Trading

Hands down, one of the most fascinating stories we have ever covered in Law Technology News was our June 2011 cover story, "Catch Me If You Can," about how lawyers and their organizations responded to the astounding insider trading prosecution against Matthew Kluger. (LexisNexis subscribers can access it here.)

In the article, Tam Harbert detailed how Kluger, who worked at four of the world's most prestigious law firms, managed to acquire approximately $37 million (with two accomplices) by simply reading file labels to figure out information about pending mergers and acquisitions.

This week, Kluger pleaded guilty Wednesday to all four counts against him. Check out the report by Tom Huddleston Jr. in The Am Law Daily.

Our package looked at the lessons learned by law firms, and how they are balancing the difficult tightrope between protecting confidential data while still providing as open an environment as possible internally to faciliate collaboration and innovation. In addition to ramping up ethics training and security, one of the interesting themes that emerged was whether law firms may need to rethink the traditional "MYOB" (mind your own business) hands-off posture of dealing with employees, and become more proactive about offering support services (overt or subtle).

While no firm will be able to completely outwit brilliant sociopaths, organizations should watch for red flags that might signal potential employee meltdowns big or small. Especially in the aftermath of the economic earthquakes. A recent PriceWaterhouse Coopers poll of 1,600 adults who make $30,000+/year found that 61% of respondents are stressed about finances, and 49% have a hard time paying monthly bills --- even 36% of high earners ($100K+). As I wrote in my editor's note in June, "No doubt, there is a huge difference between thefts fueled by arrogance and those fed by desperation, but both can lead to tragedy. Perhaps it's time ... to reach out."

Check out my conversation with with Harbert here.

SharePoint Checklists

Mark Gerow, LTN's go-to guy on all things SharePoint, focuses his attention on checklists -- a tool that can be used effectively to help apply "repeatable processes" to any matter. As William Hamilton recently preached at the Colorado Association of Litigation Support Professionals, pilots do it, doctors do it, so should legal.

Gerow explains, with his usual clear, unpretentious writing, how Microsoft SharePoint supports checklists using an out-of-the-box list, a web part, or JavaScript. "One advantage of SharePoint-based checklists is not only that they can be saved as templates and easily reused, but that once copied for a given matter, the checklist steps can be modified to meet the distinct needs of that matter.

Check out Gerow's article here.

Image: Mark Gerow

Name Game

Legal technology vendors often have, shall we say, "unusual" company names, e.g., Daegis, Fios, Aderant, Recommind. LTN's news editor Brendan McKenna became intrigued on the origins of these monikers, which generated this article in the December edition of Law Technology News magazine (short version in print, long version on the website).

In today's commentary, McKenna explores ever more archeology, again finding the history of corporate names from A (ABBYY) to Z (ZL Technologies).

Image: Clipart.com

Mobile Lawyering: Not Yet in Sync

Our colleagues at ALM Legal Intelligence have just released a new survey report, "Productivity in the Legal Profession: The Impact of Mobile Technology," based on an online survey of 266 U.S. lawyers, 87% with 11+ years experience, 84% in law firms, 16% in law departments. Of firm respondents, 36% were managing partners.

The results show a spike in use of mobile technology by lawyers, but suggest that law firms, clients, and judges haven't yet figured out how to support or exploit these new technologies. (See also, "Resistance is Futile" our cover story on LTN's Feb. 2011 issue.)

Key findings include:

• Almost 90% of respondents say they use a smartphone for work-related tasks, 40 percent use tablets (read: iPads).

• Calling IT: Lawyers need more tech support to improve productivity. "Law firms and law departments are not helping attorneys make more sophisticated use of their mobile devices. Much technical support is ad hoc or nonexistent," states the report. Almost 40% of smartphone users and 54% of tablet users are flying solo, "without any official support from their law firm or law department," the report observes.

Read more here.

Image: Clipart.com

Room to Read: 10,000,000 Books & Growing

A few years back, I annoyed just about everybody in our newsroom by winning our March Madness annual NCAA pool with my pick of the Florida Gators to take it all. Unlike beisbol, where I can bore anyone to death with my OCD knowledge of the game, I know absolutely nothing about basketball except that I'm pretty sure the Knicks have sucked for several years. My picks were pretty much based on the schools that my brother or I had attended (but the University of California Santa Cruz and its banana slugs were not an option, so my choices were heavily skewed by Minnesota and my brother's Nevada and UCLA adventures).

To say I gloated was an understatement. LTN board member Andy Adkins, then at the University of Florida's Legal Technology Institute, sent me a blue and orange Gator's victory hat, which is proudly displayed among my ridiculously large collection of Yankees post-season and opening day caps.

The bounty was not insignificant -- around $500 -- but as much as I would have liked to use it to buy more Bronx treasures, I figured there was a much better way to spread my good Karma -- and use the entry fees contributed by my peers that constituted the victory purse. Our CEO/president Bill Pollak, who is now chair of Pro Bono Net's Board of Directors, had turned me onto John Wood's 2007 amazing book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, which chronicled the efforts of the ex-Microsoft senior marketer who left Redmond to bring schools and books to youngsters in remote areas, including Nepal and Vietnam. The program especially focuses on educating girls, recognizing that if you educate a girl, you educate a family. Our March Madness money went to Wood's San Francisco-based charity, Room to Read.

Room to Read has just announced that it has reached an amazing milestone: They have distributed 20 million books, with the presentation of the latest in Tiang Giang Province, Vietnam. The program has published 154 children's books in 18 languages, has established 1,900+ libraries, and supported more than 12,000 girls seeking secondary education.

So if you are looking for some worthy recipients for last-minute 2011 charity donations, bring out the checkbook. Timing is everything: two supporters have promised to match all gifts made by Dec. 31 (up to $700,000) which makes your donation even more sweet.

For donation info, click here.

Image: Room to Read

Pogue's Law

David Pogue, The New York Times' popular technology columnist, was the keynote speaker at this fall's Courtroom Technology Conference in California, discussing disruptive personal technology. But did you know he has legal roots? Check it out here.

Image: courtesy of David Pogue

Kroll Analyzes 2011 EDD Pains & Progress

Kroll Ontrack has just released its annual analysis of e-discovery cases and trends. 

Michele Lange, the company's director of discovery, explains that the company evalulated 92 cases evaluated, 67% involved preservation and spoliation, 42% addressed sanctions, and 15% involved production disputes, reports Evan Koblentz on LTN's website.

Among the conclusions of the fourth annual report were that there is increasing consensus that metadat should be included "traditional" forms of electronically stored information, notes Koblentz. Ditto for user activity on social networks.

The report also discusses new proposed model orders and cost controls, among other topics.

Vendors: Early Bird Alert!

As the holidays approach, our ALM team is already preparing for LegalTech New York (Jan. 30-Feb. 1, Hilton New York). The countdown is clock ticking away,  the LegalTech mobile app is available on Apple's App Store, and exhibitors are putting the finishing touches on the new products and services they will unveil at the show.

But as we all know, the showfloor competition is fierce for your attention, so Law Technology News wants to help you navigate the three floors of exhibits. So we'll will offer sneak previews of the most interesting, innovative, and important product launches and upgrades, on our website and our blogs (here on EDD Update, on LTN Products, and The Common Scold). And we'll have a preview article in the February edition of our print magazine, which will be available at the show to serve as your compass!

So vendors, don't dally! If you will introduce a new service, product, or upgrade at the show be sure to contact our reporter, Evan Koblentz, no later than Tuesday, Jan. 3 to make the print deadline. Send press releases to lawtech@alm.com, or contact Evan at 212-457-9601 — and be sure to include your booth number.

P.S. While most of you want to get the word out early about your launches and upgrades, we know from past experience that some of you will be tweaking products right down to the wire and may want to defer even the hint of an unveiling until Day One of the show. If you fall into that category, we'll be happy to negotiate an embargo. That way you won't miss the opportunity to get into the print edition. But remember, our space is very limited, and not every product will be mentioned — so early birds may well get the proverbial worms.

Image: Clipart.com

Preservation Wars

After several years of escalating sanctions from key judges (including the East Coast posse of Shira Scheindlin, Andrew Peck, James Francis, Paul Grimm, and John Facciola, and Texan Lee Rosenthal), lawyers are starting to push back. Especially defense lawyers with Fortune 500 clients.

One of the loudest is Robert Owen, (right) a partner at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, who argues that electronic data discovery preservation rules (and judicial interpretation of those rules) have become too vague and too burdensome. He has proposed five new rules to remedy the perceived problems.

Continue reading here.

Join the debate on EDD Update, starting with "Regress to Neutral," a rebuttal by Henry Kelston, senior counsel and a member of the firm's E-Discovery Committee.

Don't miss the December edition of the Law Technology Now podcast — Robert Owen joins me to discuss preservation rules and reforms on the 

Image: Monica Bay

Is Email Dead?

Patrick Oot forwards a fascinating post from the Federal Computer Week blog that suggests that email may soon be as dead as Pan Am (airline, and rumor has it, the TV show).

"Thierry Breton, who is the chief executive of Atos and former minister of finance in France, argued in a recent speech in the United Kingdom that 90 percent of staff time spent on emails is wasted. He wants his workers to speak to each other by phone or in person, or to use instant messaging and Facebook-type interfaces for online communication instead."

"It is not normal that some of our fellow employees spend hours in the evening dealing with their emails," Breton said, according to a Nov. 28 report in the Telegraph. "The deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face. It is time to think differently."

(Somehow I'm not sure if Steve Jobs would agree with that.)

I don't know about you, but I'm not so sure I want more in-person dialogues. I agree that email can be more entrapping than the La Brea Tar Pits (see my colleague Michael Roach's recent commentary) but the last thing I want is more meetings.

What do you think?

Image: Clipart.com

Aloha & Mahalo

Just back from a small jolt of a vacation -- to the Hilton Waikoloa Village -- where the air, sea, and sky help rejuvenate the brain and body.

As a former California girl, I still default to Hawaii when I need a restart, and tend to graviate to either Princeville or Kona. On this trip, my mom and sister joined me, and this property is ideal for two generation trips. It's stunningly beautiful; big enough to accommodate ADD personalities (which run in my family); yet intimate. I highly recommend it. 

Another secret: as an East Coast-based workaholic (who isn't these days?) it is the perfect venue to accomplish both play and work: with the five-hour time difference, I fall asleep at 9 p.m., wake up at 2 a.m., and thus have at least five hours of blissful solitude each day to crank out time-sensitive editing and memos. (I've learned never to share a room with my mom or sister.) And who's going to complain about being able to work with tropical breezes that bring the sweet smell of Na'u (gardenia, for us mainlanders) through my open balcony doors.

A common topic among most of my friends is the challenge of how to "have a life" when you have a time-consuming job that you actually love. Last summer, SNR Denton's global CIO Andrew Jurcyzk and I played hookey and went to a Yankees/Cubs game at Wrigley, and were talking about how we balance work and family. Basically, we concluded that while we seem to work 24/7, the trick is to take advantage of the ebb and flow of our schedules, in order to grab a vacation day here and there for a quick refresh. Sometimes, an away game, or just working from home for a few days can be a big boost for both productivity and stress reduction.

But there's no substitute for getting on a plane and changing your scenery for a real vacation. You never know where ideas will come from. On a past trip, enroute to Kauai, I watched "An Inconvenient Truth," which was the genesis for LTN's "Green Law" features.

This year's trip to Hawaii was also a milestone trip — I achieved "million mile" status on United's Mileage Plus — which means that I now never have to worry about getting enough EQMs again (that's elite qualifying miles for those of you not obsessed). Assuming that UAL doesn't evaporate like Pan Am, Eastern, et. al — that means I am "Premier Exec/Gold" for life, which will make getting upgrades much easier. Talk about a stress reducer!

On this trip, one of the conclusions I reached as I flew toward the 50th state was that I have neglected this blog for the last few months as we've been consumed with the redesign and relaunch of both LTN print magazine and our EDD Update blog. Me bad! I promise to get back on track and practice what I preach — to keep my spirit and this blog refreshed!

Images: Hilton Waikoloa