FOUR YEARS

After Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, photographer Russ Curtis and I traveled to New Orleans to report on how our legal technology community was coping.

 One of our first stops was Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann to meet with IT director Janine Sylvas, (right) who won the 2005 IT Director of the Year award for her inventive and flat-out heroic efforts to keep both her firm and family afloat.

Sylvas has subsequently joined Law Technology News' board and is a frequent contributor.

In "Four Years Later"  Sylvas is interviewed by fellow board member and New Orleans resident Tom O'Connor and discusses how the firm has adopted new disaster recovery/business continuity protocols and policies based on the lessons learned from the storm.

Photo albums: here  and here and here. 

More stories from LTN April 06 here and here and here and here and here

and here and here and here.

SUNSHINE STATES OF MIND

First stop, Tampa/St. Pete on a three-city sprint to visit some vendors, consultants, and board members -- and head to our final Group Game of the 2008 season next week in Anaheim.

My colleague Jai Wallace and I had the pleasure of spending time with LTN board member Cathy Paunov, and the First Couple of EDD (Shawnna and Robert Childress, she of Navigant Consulting and Women in E-Discovery, he of Wave Software). I was looking forward to hanging with Tim Nissen  from DocuLex but we had to settle for a nice long phone call when he had a last minute work emergency and couldn't join us at Tropicana Field.

The Childresses are two of the most enthusiastic people you could possibly meet. High school sweethearts, they now live outside of Orlando. Robert brought me up to speed on the latest adventures at Wave Software, and Shawnna gave me an update on the activites at Navigant and WIE, where she is is one of the leaders of the organization. We got into quite a spirited discussion of some of the issues that still face women -- and men -- who are trying to advance their careers in the e-discovery arena. One typical mistake that folks make is going to an interview without first Googling the company and doing due diligence in order to ace an interview.

Paunov still does her legal technology consulting and stays active within the ABA, but like an increasing number of Baby Boomers, she has started teaching. In her case, (and it's a fascinating but convoluted story), she now teaches social studies at Gaither High School -- which she obviously loves. She enthralled us with tails of her adventures in the school, which is located on the same highway as the Yankees' Legends Field (actually, now George Steinbrenner Field). She's a great storyteller -- no doubt the hallmark of a good teacher.

Last night, Rick Georges, St. Pete solo, blogger, and #1 Rays fan invited me up to his incredible seats in the upper deck just above the "L" in the Tropicana Field sign -- behind home plate. It was an enclave of season ticket holders, who tolerated my clothing (and occasional outbursts when A-Rod actually hit the ball). Rick has bought every baseball-related tech device known to man/womankind and faithfully scored the game on his PDA with amazing software. (See update below for the 411 about his tech). (He took the photo above.)

He is a hoot, and full of energy and a walking baseball encyclopedia. We stopped by the Trop's Ted Williams museum, which was fascinating, and walked around the very family-friendly facility. Call me crazy, but just like Minnesota's dome, and despite the lousy "grass" -- there is a certain charm to the two domes. I love all the illustrations on the wall, and the big blow-up cow (but I sure could live without the cowbells... they are truly migraine inducing).

It's fun to spend time with the Floridians -- they just exude the proverbial joy de vivre (am I spelling that right?) -- And what better way to catch up on their latest tech developments than at a ballgame, right? Oh yeah, the 3rd place Yanks won both games. :)

Next stop, SF Bay Area, then da Halos!

Update: Here's Rick's info about the Scorepad software:

Scorepad helps you score the game on a Palm smart phone. Later, the data syncs to the computer, and automatically prints out a complete score sheet, including box scores, pitch by pitch, spray charts, and score sheet. The best software, however, is MLBstats, also available at Scorepad, which automatically downloads the day's current stats on every player in the bigs. Technology, it can do anything. Of course, it is only available on the Palm OS. You can't do this on an iPhone.

BLACKBERRYS RULE

The National Law Journal reports that our Gulf Coast colleagues are making great use of their BlackBerries.

Here's an excerpt of the story on today's NLJ website, by staff reporter Vesna Jaksic:

A number of law firms and law schools in Louisiana said all their employees were safe after Hurricane Gustav, but didn't expect offices to reopen until later this week or next week.

Gustav ripped through Louisiana on Monday as a Category 2 hurricane, leading to an evacuation of about 2 million people and to hundreds of thousands of residences without power. But without the strength of 2005's Hurricane Katrina and with lessons learned from that storm, the legal system seemed to be functioning better this time around.

Courts, law firms and law schools in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the vicinity implemented their emergency procedures before the storm and have been regularly posting updates on their Web sites. Backup computer servers were used to ensure that e-mail could still be used, lawyers relied on their BlackBerrys to continue communicating with clients, and law students could access their school's Web site for regular updates from their dean.

"Everyone is safe, everyone is sound, everyone is well and that's really the most important," Howard Shapiro, who heads the New Orleans office of New York's Proskauer Rose, said of his staff.

Shapiro, who was in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday, said he was able to use the contact information his firm prepared ahead of the storm to ensure that all of the 23 employees in New Orleans were accounted for. The office, which relocated to a new downtown location in August, was still in lockdown mode Tuesday afternoon, but many lawyers worked from remote locations, he said.

"Nobody stopped working because our e-mail system and e-communication server never went down," Shapiro said. "All our client communications remained intact."

The  site of New Orleans' Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann said on Tuesday afternoon that its New Orleans and Baton Rouge offices were not damaged but will remain closed on Wednesday.

Stone Pigman's Nancy Claypool and Janine Sylvas' shop -- they are both AOK. James Zeller at Chaffee sez his firm's e-mail system is working like a charm. (See post below for other NoLa legal tech folks).

    Rest of the above story is here.