FIAT LUX

The Power of One: In late June, my boss Aric Press and I were comparing notes about what Yankee games we planned to attend, and he mentioned that he would be going to the stadium on July 4, with his college friend Michael Goldsmith. Aric is the polar opposite of me, as low-keyed and understated as I can be, well, "excitable." He mentioned that his friend had ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and that they were planning to enjoy the game together, that it probably would be Michael's last, and that they were going to participate in a program about ALS.

I had a scheduling conflict that kept me at home on July 4. If I had realized what Aric was up to, I would have cancelled my plans and headed to the Bronx. Instead, I was half-watching it on TV, when all of a sudden, I hear Aric's voice — and I look up and there he is on the Jumbotron being interviewed about Goldsmith.

Last November, Goldsmith wrote a guest column in Newsweek, calling on Major League Baseball to do more about ALS. They did — and on the 70th anniversary of Gehrig's famous "I am the luckiest man in the world" speech, 15 stadiums held fundraising events called "4◆ ALS Awareness."  In New York, the Yankees donated $25,000, and portions of the Gerhig speech were recited by Yankee leaders, who wore a #4 patch (Gerhig's long-retired number). Goldsmith, a law professor based in Utah, stood at home plate with his son, and threw out the first pitch of the game to Mark Teixeira.

Son Austen Goldsmith was quoted in The New York Times:  "Being on the field with my father was the single greatest moment of my life. I think he was holding on for that."

Goldsmith told Times that he "exhorted law students to take a proactive 'can do' approach to the law and life in general," and tried to practice what he preached. "The success of this effort demonstrates yet again how 'the power of one' can make a difference."

Goldsmith lost his battle yesterday. He was 58. Indeed, he proved the power of one man.

Peace be with you, Michael Goldsmith. 

Photo: The New York Times.

LOVE RIDE

For the third year in a row, Judi Flournoy -- CIO of Loeb & Loeb,  and a member of LTN's Editorial Advisory Board --  is participating in the Harley Davidson of Glendale, Calif. "Love Ride," which raises money for 12 different charities, ranging from Special Olympics to Glendale Community College to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

On Sunday, Oct. 25, she will be one of "15,000 motorcycle enthusiasts will embark on a motorcycle ride from Harley-Davidson/Buell of Glendale, located at 3717 San Fernando Rd. Glendale, to the Pomona Fairplex (1101 West McKinley Ave. Pomona, CA. 91768) for a Concert and Trade Show."

To contribute, visit Judi's donation page here.

10/9 Update from Judi: "I was just informed that the ride was cancelled due to the weak economy.The donations collected thus far will still go to the various organizations."

PROBONO.NET CELEBRATION

Congrats to ProBono.Net, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sept. 15, with lovely dinner at New York City's W Hotel. The charismatic Mark O'Brien, co-founder and exec director, launched the dinner (great salmon, btw) before turning the mic over to Sullivan & Cromwell's of counsel, Michael Cooper; Phyllis Holmen, exec dir of Georgia Legal Services Program; NY deputy chief administrative judge Fern Fisher; Atlantic Philanthropies' Gara LaMarche (introduced by PBN's other co-founder, Michael Hertz, who flew in from London for the fete); and Allison McDermott, the group's deputy director.

Our CEO, BIll Pollak, is on the group's board of directors of PBN, whose goal, according to Hertz, is "increasing access to justice one app at a time." The organization has worked to create and promote technology tools -- such as its namesake probono.net network -- that help law firms and other organizations swiftly and efficiently provide individuals and resources to help give legal services to the under-represented.

Among its activities are LawHelp.org; LawHelp Interactive; Immigration Advocates Network; and Pro Bono Manager.

Miriam Buhl, of Weil Gotshal, who has been very active with the organization, was the recipient of LTN's 2008 Award for "Most innovative use of Technology for a Pro Bono Project." 

LABOR DAZE

Just want to take a moment to say
thank you to everyone in the legal technology community, as we approach Labor Day. I've always viewed this American holiday as the unofficial New Year's Day, probably because I'm way overeducated and can't shake off my internal academic calendar.

We all certainly have had a challenging year, with so many folks facing layoffs, restructurings, cut-backs, vendor collapses, etc., but it does help to remember that even the horrible wildfires of life, so frightening and disastrous when in progress, ultimately prepare the ground for new growth. That's another way of expressing my mantra -- "crisis is danger and opportunity" -- but I think it helps us stay focused on the positive.

How blessed we all are to have such a wonderful community, which was so evidenced this year at LegalTech shows and at August's International Legal Technology Association mashup.
It is always such a joy to see all of you, and your vibrant ideas and interesting lives. What a journey we travel together!

Thanks also to my colleagues at Incisive, especially the LTN, Law.com and LegalTech teams, and of course, our pals at the Legal Talk Network. How lucky I am to work with such amazing, smart and creative people. Hmmm ... this is turning into a Thanksgiving column.

I wish you glorious weather over the next three days -- our thoughts are with our friends facing fire and heat in SoCal -- but at least here in the Northeast we can FINALLY tell Noah to stop working on another Ark.

Enjoy!

USF LEGAL EMPLOYMENT SYMPOSIUM

My alum, the University of San Francisco School of Law, is offering a symposium on 9/17 to help law students and lawyers negotiate the changing legal landscape. It will include four panel discussions, featuring legal commentators, practitioners, and folks (like me) who have pursued non-traditional legal careers.

The program will focus on:

* The business of running a successful law practice.

* Nuts and bolts of going solo/small firm. 

* Alternative careers for lawyers who don't practice law. 

* Possible law firm models for the future.

For more info, click here.  Panelists here.

PRO BONO NET GOLDEN VENTURE FUNDRAISER

I turn the mic over to Pro Bono Net's Pam Weisz:

"We've teamed up with the director of Golden Venture, an acclaimed documentary about the struggles of the 286 passengers of the infamous immigrant smuggling ship that ran aground near New York City in 1993. Pro Bono Net's co-founders met working on pro bono asylum cases stemming from the incident.

The DVD can now be purchased (here) -- with half the proceeds going to Pro Bono Net, to support our mission of ensuring the availability of high-quality, low-cost legal services for those in need. The film, narrated by Tim Robbins, follows four of the Golden Venture passengers through detention and what follows for each of them. 

It was an Official Selection of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and the 2006 Amnesty International Film Festival. It's an eye-opening look at U.S. immigration policy - and deeply compelling."

Note: Bill Pollak, Incisive Media's North America CEO, serves on Pro Bono Net's board of directors.

MAILBAG #090629

Catchin' up w/ the in-box:

* Ipro Tech had to write a big check ($246,470) to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft, and Symantec software, but CEO Jim King says his organization takes the full blame.

"As part of the settlement agreement, IPRO Tech Inc. agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software on its computers, purchase any licenses necessary to become compliant, and commit to implementing stronger software asset management practices," reported the Business Software Alliance.

 "IPRO continued to use subscription software after the license term expired," said King. "The good news, this was not intentional. We fully supported the audit process and we support the goals of the BSA. Upon discovery of our licensing oversights we worked with the BSA to immediately correct the deficiencies." 

* Keith Rowand has started a company, Rowand Software -- and is offering document comparison and near de-duplication software. He's also offering computer programming. 411 here.

* Kelvin Chin checks in to report that he's packing up his L.A. bags and heading east again -- to Raleigh, N.C., where he has been named sales director  at Womble Carlyle. (That's the firm with the bulldog mascot).

* Also changing business cards: Mark Goldin is the new chief tech officers at Los Angeles-based American LegalNet. He joins from Elite.

* David Cowen says his 2Q09 survey on lit support work shows hours have spiked. Check it out here.

* Deborah Novachick of Strategic Automation Consulting as returned from Nigeria, where she taught classes in operations management at Pan-African University Lagos School of Business, which hosted a “Management Development  Program for Legal Practitioners.” The project was started by Joy Harrison-Abiola, who  is a legal administrator in Nigeria, and a member of  the Association of Legal Administrators. "Four of the faculty members of the ALA's Essential Competencies for Legal Administrators programs went over to Nigeria," she says. "We and the others on the faculty have donated months of our time." E-mail her here for more info.

#LTWC: NETWORKING OLD & NEW

We did some old-fashioned networking -- the kind where you actually talk in person -- at our "Green Your Career" breakfast at LegalTech West Coast -- where we had a packed house full of job seekers, vendors, and law firm folks. I'm already hearing from some attendees that the event may have linked at least one person with a new gig!

Huge, huge thanks to the generosity of the vendors who provided so many gift cards that we were able to give every job seeker at least two! Thank you!

And thanks to our speakers -- Brad Blickstein, Tom Collins, Babs Deacon, John Lipsey, Mary Mack, Mark Reichenbach, John Tredennick, and  J. Craig Williams for such terrific outreach and discussions.

Good luck to the folks who are looking for work, and thanks for joining us!

Later Thursday, we put the spotlight on another kind of networking, with our Twitter panel. Matt Homann (@matthomann), of LexThink, started off the discussion, with his excellent job of "framing" the discusssion, and was followed by LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe (@kevinokeefe), who always makes you want to run right out and try the sites and tips he offers.

Practicing lawyers Denise Howell (solo, @dhowell) and Nina Goldberg (associate at Baker Hostetler, @ninakat) discussed how they use Twitter in their law practice. Howell was stellar as always, and Goldberg -- in her first podium gig -- proved to be a natural born speaker, as she focused on how as a relatively new lawyer she finds Twitter both useful -- and entertaining.

Thanks to all for a fascinating panel!

Our colleague Sean Doherty was unable to attend the show, but that didn't stop him from providing an overview of some of the new products that were launched at the event, including the revamp of CompuLaw's Deadlines on Demand website, and a new service called Litovation, from IKON.  Check it out here.

#LTWC: DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS

Day 1 of LegalTech West Coast was terrific, major kudos to Henry Dicker and his indefatigueable team. As for me, I'm totally fatigue'  (Sorry, can't figure out how to add that french accent on typepad.)

Huge thank yous to George Rudoy, Tom Ranalli, and James McKenna for an amazing panel on "Leadership in Times of Turbulence."  Even bearing in mind my admitted bias as moderator, I have to agree with my colleague Russ Curtis' observation that "The panelists were hittin' it on all cylinders."

The dudes did cover an amazing amount of advice on how IT directors can help their firms, their careers, and push green agendas -- in an hour and 15 minutes. And McKenna was especially hysterical, with lines like "I'm responsible for everything that consumes electricity other than refrigerators, lights, and copiers," and "I'm ODAD Certified: Other-Duties-As-Described."

Also thanks to Chere Estrin and the gang at the Paralegal Technology Institute for inviting me to present again, an update on the current career opportunities, and how things have changed due to the aforementioned economic turmoil.

And it was fantastic to see so very many of our vendor, lit support, and lawyer friends on the very active show floor.

Hope you'll be able to come by tomorrow morning (Thursday June 25) for day 2. We're kicking it off at 7:45 a.m. with our "Green Your Career" breakfast for job seekers, vendors and law firms (co-sponsored by LA Cty Bar Assn.)  Please come by -- we'll be in room 503, and all are welcome for an hour of fellowship and inspiration! We'll be raffling off a dinner (potentially at Yankee Stadium) with moi to participating vendors, and raffling gift cards for our colleagues who are job hunting. Plus everybody who attends gets a trial sub to lawjobs.com -- and can also go to the keynote and exhibit hall for free!

Hope to see you in the morning!!!

MAILBAG #061209

I'm just about ready to head out to Charlie Haas' 7:30 p.m. book reading at the Barnes & Noble in the Village (396 6th @ 8th) for his new book, The Enthusiast... but before I dash out the door, need to catch up on some incoming!

• Attorney Paul Levine  also has a new novel out -- Illegal -- and he introduces a new "trouble-prone hero," Jimmy (Royal) Payne. It's a tale set in the California desert that tells the plight of a 12-year-old boy whose mom disappears during a border crossing. It was inspired by real events, says Levine. "A thriller with a social conscience, the book combines the moral decay of Chinatown with the sudden violence of No Country for Old Men," he says.

• Audrey Rubin checks in to announce the launch of her new website, Rubin Solutions. (Sigh, will they never learn -- but at least it rhymes!) (Audrey: NO SOLUTIONS!!!!!! It's the most abused word in the English language.) Chicago-based Rubin (right) served as COO for seven years at Wildman Harrold Allen and Dixon, and at Butler Rubin Saltarelli and Boyd.

• Clifford Chance's Sally King chimes in with a request to spread the word about a petition to help pass legislation that would protect women from "drive thru" mastectomies. Check it out here. This is really important -- and doesn't impact just women. Men, sign it too! Your mothers, wives, daughters and friends will appreciate your support.

• Frederick Hertz, my pal from SFO, also has a new book, which debuts in July  from NOLO, with Emily Doskow: Making it Legal: A Guide to Same-Sex Marriage, Domestic Parnterships & Civil Unions. Here's an interview with Hertz: Part 1 and Part 2.  (The book's not showing up on the Nolo site). 

• And we are not done with new books: Perry Binder says Unlocking Your Rubber Room will motivate you to achieve professional satisfaction, and is based on his courtroom and classroom experiences. (He's now a legal studies professor at Georgia State Univ. 

• Mais Oui! The Association of Legal Administrators has launched a French version of its website, available here.  It features French language introductions to key ino, special resources, and links to the English language section of ALA's main website.

• Perry Segal wants you to know about his blog, E-Discovery Insights, which covers EDD from a California lawyer's perspective.

• Adobe's Rick Borstein found this post from Matthew Buchanan about virtual letterhead to be a very green idea, (with a hat tip to Stephen Nipper). 

OK, all for now... I'm off to hear about Henry Bay!

MAILBAG #050109

Catchin' up with the inbox:

• Andy Adkins, of the Univ. of Florida (Gainsville) found this amazing update of Captain Sully's seaplane adventure: Download Hudson. It's even better than the ones I previously posted.

• Barkley Court Reporters check in to tell us  that -- as of March -- it has planted 10,000 trees on behalf of clients, as part of its "Green" program that encourages litigators to put transcripts in online repositories include of printing them on paper. Pat Barkley wrote about the program in LTN's Green Law column in July, 2007. 

• Brooke Keyser of RainMaker also checks in with a progress report, about the "Pay it Forward" challenge issued by James Hammond. (We wrote about it last month.) To date, RainMaker has awarded $127,850 in economic assistance funds, of the $1 million it has pledged, she says, and saw a 273% increase in traffic to its website. More than 1,000 firms expressed interest in the program, she says. The first firm to participate is Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman, says RainMaker. 

• Angelique Schaffer of Thomson Reuters reminds me to post this video from the WestBlog produced at this winter's LegalTech New York, (#LTNY) with yours truly pontificating on all things legal tech.

Blogosphere Updates:

• John Grisely reports that that he is building up the resource section of his blog, Mesothelioma Questions. 

• Andreana Pentaris wants you to konw about a new website, LawFirms.com. It devotes articles and resources to a vareity of legal topics, running from criminal defense to bankruptcy, and also has a blog, Legal Research Guides.

• Danielle Walker reports that  E-Lessoned Learned ( eLLblog) has been revamped.

• A.J. Levy -- who  writes the Out of the Box Lawyering blog forwards this post about some creative uses for Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software. He also alerts us to a new blog targeting lawyers who use iPhones.

GREEN YOUR CAREER: A NETWORKING BREAKFAST

This erratic economy has been tough on everybody, but none more so than the members of our legal technology community who have lost their jobs. It's difficult, scary, and challenging for even the most self-confident professionals.

Our Incisive gang wants to help -- so we decided to team up at LegalTech West Coast and offer a simple, heartfelt gesture: On day 2 (Thursday June 25) we will host a very informal, free "Green Your Career" networking breakfast, from 7:45--8:45 a.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

It will be co-hosted by Law Technology News and law.jobs, with the support of the LegalTech crew, and has a straightforward format:  We're inviting job seekers -- as well as vendors and law firm leaders (even if you do not currently have an available opening).

For the first half-hour, we'll just schmooze together, and enjoy coffee, tea, danish, etc. — i.e., a chance to "work the room."  Then we'll gather at round tables, where at each table a leader of our community will talk about how he or she survived/thrived thru a career transition. Among the scheduled speakers are:

• John Tredennick, who was a litigator partner at Holland & Hart when he spun off Catalyst Respository Systems.
• Tom Collins, former owner of Juris Inc., who survived cancer and now is a murder mystery novelist!
• J. Craig Williams, who shuttered his small firm and joined Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold.
• Mary Mack, renowned counsel at Fios Inc.
• Brad Blickstein, who opened his own consultancy to help businesses serve corporate legal departments, after working in magazine publishing.
• Babs Deacon, who was one of the SPi folks who lost jobs last winter, who is the new director of consulting at Integreon, based in New York.
• Mark Reichenbach, who just joined Capital Legal Solutions after losing his gig at i365.
• John Lipsey, who left law practice to work for legal technology vendors, and now works for Martindale Hubbell Connected. 

The event is FREE -- and all attendees will be invited to stick around and visit our exhibit hall and the Day 2 Keynote Address (immediately following the breakfast) on us.

Job seekers will be encouraged to post their resumes on lawjobs.com, and all firms/vendors who attend will get free access to lawjobs.com (for a limited period, of course).

Again, just a simple concept:  let's provide an hour of inspiration, nurturing, contacts, and networking. 

Please come, whether you need a job, or just want to offer encouragement. And if you are coming to show support, please bring along a gift card (you can pick them up at most supermarkets or drug stores), so we can give a day brightener "party favor" to each job seeker. It can be just a few dollars (or more if you can tithe a bit more generously) -- to a national "chain" such as Starbucks, Target, Macy's, Chevron, Von's, movies, SuperCuts -- you get the picture. Something practical and upbeat that will lift spirits!

(If you can't attend and want to send a gift card, mail them to us c/o Law Technology News, 120 Broadway, 5th floor, NYC 10271.)

Job seekers: Come for warmth, support and new contacts! If you e-mail us at lawtech@incisivemedia.com, we'll have a badge ready for you (and that will help us make sure we have enough coffee and danish). But you can also just show up.

Firms/vendors: If you do have a spot open, what a better place to find great talent? And even if you don't, you might tomorrow -- so bring lots of business cards.

And as an added incentive for technology vendors: We will raffle off a wonderful lunch or dinner with moi (you can even use the word "solution" and I will promise to try not to cringe) where you can tell me about your company's plans, products and services and get a great meal on LTN!

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!  Visit www.legaltechshow for details, or e-mail LTN at lawtech@incisivemedia.com.

LAST but not least: Please help spread the word!  Twitter this! Blog this! Reprint this post freely! Let's get viral! The permalink is http://tinyurl.com/LTWCbkf. Twitter hash: #LTWC.

Update: Great news! The Los Angeles County Bar Association (which offers career resources on its website, has joined us as a co-sponsor of the breakfast!!

OBAMA SIGNS GENDER PAY BILL

A step in the right direction: President Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, re gender pay, the first piece of legislation he has signed as president. AP  story here, from MS/NBC. (It includes a video of Obama talking about equal pay during his campaign)

See Mon's rant in November LTN ("Just Equal") about this issue within the legal industry  here.

I continue my challenge to every law firm managing partner, every vendor CEO and every law dept. GC to check their own shops and fix the dismal inequities within our profession. It's a disgrace that we are in such sorry shape, when we should stand tall and be a leader in this obvious and important cause.

Photo courtesy of NBC/AP. (Obama is pictured with Lilly Ledbetter)

10 SECONDS TO HELP

I turn the mic over to my friend Marianne Cohen:

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet its quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.  It takes about 10 seconds to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals' for free.

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.   So please visit the website and tell your friends about it:  http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com.

MAILBOX #090119

As the snow falls in NYC, catchin' up on the incoming: 

* Adobe's Rick Borstein checks in to let us know that he's been working with Evermap.com, "to get a special plug-in for Acrobat so that users can write directly on PDFs. This helps firms to save time and avoid printing.There’s an article on my blog and a video demo," here.  This is for users of Tablet PCs.

* Shawnna Childress of Women in EDiscovery have an option for those of you who can't attend the sold-out LTN Awards Dinner on Feb 2 (Monday) during LTNY: They are presenting a reception, along with the National Association of Women Lawyers, to support the Susan G Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer. It will be held at the New York Hilton, in Concourse A, from 6 pm to 8 p.m. Drinks, appetizers and entertainment will be provided, and they are asking for a minimum donation of  $25. Check out details here -- or e-mail here  with your RSVP.

* John Hochfelder wants you to know that he has launched a new blog, New York Injury Cases Blog, that offers news and analysis of pain-and-suffering verdicts and settlements. A good complement to Eric Turkewitz' New York Personal Injury Lawyer Blog.

* Nigel Murray of  Trilantic is participating a "Band of Brothers Bike Ride," to be held in May, which will ride the 340-mile route of the Allies' liberation of France in 1945. It will raise money for Help for Heroes, which supports young men and women who have lost limbs during combat. You can help him reach his goal of raising 2,000 pounds -- details here.

* United Airlines is expected to announce the availability of broadband wi-fi on its transcontinental "P.S." flights from  NY to California. Check out Chicago Trib story here.  Hat tip to mom for seeing it first. Whoopeee (altho this will cut into my movie-watching time.)

POST A COMMENT, FEED A FAMILY

Tyson's using social networking to promote its HungerRelief program. For every post it gets it will donate  food to feed Eastern Mass. families. Check it out!

Update: There were problems with the previous link (not sure if they are continuing the SN program). However, I have updated the link to the company's HungerRelief website (3/30/09). Main site is www.tyson.com.

NEW YORK LAWHELP IN RUNNING FOR PRIZE

Pam Weisz of ProBono.Net checks in to share the good news that The New York LawHelp Consortium has been chosen as a semi-finalist for The Colllaboration Prize -- a new $250,000 award designed to recognize and encourage non-profits. the Consortion developed and runs LawHelp/NY, an online resource that offers detailed, statewide legal aid referrals, "know your rights" information, and other self-help tools for New Yorkers who face legal problems.

The prize was launched this year by The Lodestar Foundation, in association with the Arizona-Indiana-Michigan Alliance.

The winner will be announced on March 6, 2009. Here is the list of semi-finalists.

WIN A WINE EXPERIENCE

The team at eSentio has extended the deadline to bid on a wonderful "once in a lifetime" wine experience, with proceeds benefiting The Nature Conservatory, a non-profit that works to preserve natural habitats and wildlife worldwide.

Destination Cellars has donated a "luxury customized wine experience for two" -- in the Napa Valley, plus a  signed bottle of 2003 Paul Hobbs Stagecoach Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon.

The deadline is WEDNESDAY - Dec. 3.  411
Opening bid is $300 for the package, which is valued at more than $6,000.

MAILBAG #081028

Checkin' the in-box:

• Andrea Tecce of Navigant Consulting checks in to say that the recent inaugural meeting of the Women's Leadership & Mentoring Alliance, held in NYC, was a big hit, drawing about 50 folks for cocktails and conversation.
The group plans to host quarterly events on the East Coast, between D.C. and NYC, and will collaborate with Chicago and LA chapters.  For details, e-mail her here.

• Kevin Iredell, our ace marketing director, asks  me to remind everybody that nominations are now open for the 2008 LTN Awards, which honor the IT Champion of the Year, IT Director of the Year, and the best innovations in trials, law firms, corporate law departments and pro bono programs. More 411 here: Download LTN-08-345_LF_NomForm_save.pdf. And don't forget to vote for your favorite vendors, here.

• Aviva Schick says non-profits and schools are using GoodSearch.com to raise money, and GoodShop, an online shopping mall where retailers direct a percentage of every sale to charity.

MAILBAG #080929

Fast times indeed.... Yes, I will be filing the 2008 Final Report, which I traditionally post the morning after the Yankee' annual collapse, but I'm still processing everything after the 12-hour-plus marathon yesterday. (If it wasn't actually a full-day it sure felt like it). I'm heading back to NYC after a long weekend/mini-vacation, so it will probably be tomorrow sometime.

Meanwhile, let's play catch (up) with the incoming e-mail:

* Mike Arkfeld of Arkfeld & Associates checks in with this interesting report from the United Nations that suggests that the push for "green" could also generate new jobs. But it also contains warnings about potential job perils caused by global warming.

I suspect those are also premises of Thomas Friedman's new book, Hot, Flat & Crowded: Why we need a green revolution and how it can save America"  which is sitting in my computer bag and I plan to dive into on my next flight.

* Amy Juers of Edge Legal Marketing tips us off that David Cowen of The Cowen Group, a New-York based headhunting firm, has just announced that it is expanding its base to serve the legal technology community. Read about it here on Cowen's blog, Opportunity Knocks.

* Catherine McDonagh will be walking on Oct. 11, to honor the memory of her sister, Lynn, who the family lost to suicide. The "Out of Darkness" campaign is organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. 411 here.

MAILBAG #082909

This year is just flying by... I'm realllllly happy to see the first hints of fall, as the humidity drops in NYC and it becomes wonderful again.

Here are a few items from the inbox:

• David Horrigan -- who manages to find some of the most interesting litigation (steady readers will recall his detailed coverage of the woes of Mr. Softee) -- wrote this recent article for The National Law Journal about a lawsuit filed in California by a disabled fan who argued that he is entitled to unobstructed views at NASCAR events. The appellate court agreed. The story was picked up by the gang over at the legal blogging team at The Wall Street Journal here.

• The American Bar Assn held its annual meeting here in NYC last month, and among the events was a session of the Scribes, a legal writers organization, who honored U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Here's West's blog about it, with video.

• Kudos to my alma mater: Also during the ABA meeting, the University of San Francisco Law School had a reception for its alum, where Dean Jeffrey Brand gave a very moving presentation about the school's continuing efforts to create a truly diverse student body -- with pretty breathtaking results. The 2007 entering class of 250 had 40% students of color -- 10% African American, 10% Hispanic, 16% Asian American, 4% other. Those are staggeringly high figures, and as a 1982 alumn, I am very proud of my law school.

Other stats tell of the challenges: Full time tuition next year will be $17,900. Nonetheless, there were 3,584 applications for 190 fulltime and 60 part time spots for the 2008 entering class. More info here.

• Henry Dicker and his team are already gearing up for LegalTech New York early next year, and are especially excited about a new feature that will launch -- the LegalTech Town Hall.
It will be lead by Patrick Oot -- Verizon's director of e-discovery and senior counsel. The idea is that LTNY attendees will be able to submit specific questions for the panel via video blog.
Patrick (a frequent speaker on LTN webinars and a member of LTN's edit board)  The session will be sponsored by Guidance Software and held Monday Feb 2 at 12:45, open to all attendees. More details will be coming soon -- you can check in at www.legaltechshow.com for updates.

Meanwhile, we're also planning a General Counsel Technology SuperSession -- produced by  Counsel Connect's editor Anthony Paonita and moi -- which we expect to record for my Law Technology Now podcasts -- after our huge success with the LegalTech West Coast FutureTech podcasts. Details TK here and on the LTNY site.

• Speaking of Anthony, he dropped by to tell me about a terrific website, www.flytecomm.com -- which tracks actual flight status. When his family was returning from Italy, and a bunch o' flights were delayed because of nasty thunderstorms, the website had more accurate arrival info than the airline staff. (Why am I not surprised?) FlyteTrax II combines graphics, maps and flight information to show enroute flights, weather and flight listings in one product. Individual flights can be tracked for free here.

• On the third anniversary of Katrina, my thoughts are not straying far from New Orleans today. I'm worried about my pals -- including Connie Nichols, Janine & Bruce Sylvas, Nancy Claypool, Tom O'Connor, Ernie Svenson, and Eric Barefield, the Brown family, et al. — please stay safe and on high ground until Gustav fades. Let's hope Mother Nature is kind this week.

MAILBAG #073008

Here we go!

• Microsoft Corp. has announced a new Law Firm Diversity Program, aimed at increasing the number of women and minority attorneys within its outside counsel. It's putting money where its mouth is -- by changing its legal fee structure so that each of the company's 17 "Premier Preferred Provider" firms is now eligible for a 2% quarterly or annual bonus, based on whether it achieves "concrete diversity results." GC Brad Smith conceived the plan. "Microsoft is a global company and cannot be effective if it cannot understand and appreciate the interests and needs of the incredibly diverse array of individuals who make up its stakeholder groups," the company asserted in its announcement.

Despite "good intentions," the legal profession has a disappointing track record on attracting and keeping women and minorities, acknowledges Smith. Only 18% of partners at large firm are women, and only 5.4% are minorities, he says.

Internally, Microsoft says it is also holding senior execs accountable for the success of the program, tying 5% of Smith's  (and other legal/corp affairs execs) bonus to diversity improvements of the PPP participants. It also pledged to increase fees to diversity firms by .5%, increase representation of women at more senior levels within its legal/corp affairs ranks by 1% and increase minorities in U.S. posts by .5%. It will also continue to host programs promoting diversity in the profession.

Pardon my cynicism, but those goals seem pretty tiny. I would have liked to have seen the goals be higher than .5% and 1%. But then, given Microsoft's scope and influence, hopefully the pressure will help. It really is shameful that in 2008, our profession has done so poorly in attracting and retaining women and minorities. But it's also not a simplistic issue, and it is loaded with subtleties (many women argue that they do not WANT BigFirmHaveNoLife jobs). But sexism and racism is alive and thriving in the real world, so even if the goals are modest, kudos to Brad Smith Redmond for spotlighting such an important cause. Let's hope his goals are exceeded by double digits!

 

• The delightful Tom Collins reports that his first mystery book, Mark Rollins' New Career & the Women's Health Club, is now available on Amazon.

Lemme give him the mic:

    After selling Juris to Lexis/Nexis and turning over the reins of the blog MorePartnerIncome.com to others, I ventured into a new career as a mystery writer. [The book] is the first of what I expect to be a series of mysteries featuring Mark Rollins as an ex-software entrepreneur turned amateur sleuth. 

    We are not talking about the great American novel. This is the kind of book you buy for airports and travel. It is a fast read that pokes a little fun here and there, but the mystery is a serious one. I enjoyed writing it and believe you will find reading it equally enjoyable.

As for next adventure of Mark Rollins, I had started a second book involving attempts on the life of the rainmaker of a fictional law firm when the project was interrupted by a return of my colon cancer. I had surgery in May and will be dealing with radiation and chemo for the remainder of the year. In spite of this temporary setback, Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker should be on internet bookshelves by 2009.

Here's to Tom, with our warmest wishes and thoughts for a SPEEDY recovery and many, many, many more adventures of Mr. Collins & Mr. Rollins.

• Michael Goldblatt checks in to let us know that his Computer Newsletter's August edition contains links to Chevron GC Charles James' keynote address at this summer's LegalTech West Coast. The newsletter targets Louisiana legal professionals, and includes product reviews, mobility tools, trial practice tips, marketing resources, and more. For more info, visit www.lawyerscomputergroup.com.

• Lana Schell, who is active in the Women in E-Discovery Philadelphia chapter,  is participating in a Breast Cancer 3 Day event benefiting the Susan G. Koman for the Cure program. She'll walk 60 miles and would appreciate donations to help her exceed her $2,200 goal. 411 here.

 

LOVE RIDE

Get your motor running, as the song sez: LTN board member Judi Flournoy, CIO of Loeb & Loeb and past president of ILTA, is also raising money for good causes ... in this case, the 25th anniversary of the "Harley Davidson of Glendale Love Ride" which raises money for Los Angeles area charities. On Oct. 26, more than 15,000 motorcycle enthusiasts will ride in the event. Details here.

ONE MORE DAY

I turn the mic over to Fios' Mary Mack:  (original post here)

I have a request and a challenge for our blackberry enabled, tiny living room we call the ediscovery community.

We have the fastest grapevine in the world.  Will you help me use our grapevine to feed our hungry neighbors and collectively achieve a huge goal?

Sometimes in the electronic discovery world, we get so stressed out by how much we have to do that we forget about people who have no work, or very poorly paid work.

I have been honored to work with a group of leaders to give back.  The BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) we chose back two months ago when we started with our group of 17, was to reduce hunger for 500K people, locally, nationally and globally by July 31. July 31 of this year.  Our formal group has expanded to 42 (you’re invited) and the countdown is here.  We wanted to do it without raising funds.

We are, at this writing $7,000 from our goal. Yes, we are raising funds.  But just for about 36 hours.  Donate here.

We can quantify meals for over 100,000 people.  We generated a lot of publicity and outreach (one student leader generated hundreds of emails to organizations on the ground) for the Summer Food program.  There is an abysmal 20% participation rate in this no paperwork, federal fully funded, locally administered lunch program. Children hungry for no reason except their school lunch location changed.

We worked with the Food Bank.  We encouraged buying Whole Food Feed Bags as gifts, like the ones I gave Monica Bay, and co-chairs Tamara Bigford (Goldberg Segalla) and Susan Ippoliti (Function 5 Forensics) at the National Federation of Paralegal Association’s Technical Conference last week.  (Monica’s convention coverage, here.  Thanks for the kind words, Monica.)

A local restaurant, Burgerville, created a special product and donated 20% of the gross for delicious strawberry shortcake.

Some of the things we did have longer term impact or were too speculative to quantify.

So last week, we took a deep breath and scoured for the right organization to leverage dollars for

the final 400,000.

Second Harvest moves 20 lbs of food for every dollar donated.  At a half pound per meal*, that is 2.5 cents per meal.  They supply the food banks and hunger programs like your own local food bank, or the banks in New Orleans and Iowa.  (In contrast, Feed Bags are .30 per meal)  That’s the leverage we need for this project, and leverage when the economic news feeds a feeling of hopelessness.

If you’d like to be part of this audacious collective community achievement, donate to Second Harvest via this link before Thursday. (Donate early and often, and to be counted here, donate Wednesday!)

If you’d like to be part of the team and see our trial and error, complete with national hunger resources, join our ning group.

If you just want to do your own thing tomorrow to reduce hunger and contribute without being part of the team, report whatever you’d like in here.

If you are so inclined, pass this on as your contribution to the ediscovery grapevine.  Many thanks.

*the USDA estimates 1.28 pounds per meal and that sounded high–half pound sounded right to us, but you are welcome to help us stretch to reach the USDA metric.

SOS FOR IOWA LAWYERS

I turn the mic over to Tom O'Connor, and his TechnoGumbo blog:

Ernie Svenson has a post on his blog today with pointers to the Linn County Bar Association which includes Cedar Rapids, a city hard hit by the recent flooding and location of the Linn County District Court.

Despite the flooding, the Linn County Bar is still planning to proceed with its annual meeting this coming Thursday, June 26 and several members of the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA, led by Jim Calloway of the Oklahoma Bar,  J.R. Phelps of the Florida Bar, Catherine Sanders Reach of the ABA LTRC and myself, are planning to participate via video conference.

I was also asked to do a short article on recovery efforts in New Orleans immediately after the hurricanes here three years ago and as part of that article I had a conversation with Helena Henderson, Executive Director of the New Orleans Bar Association. Helena was a mainstay of relief effrots in the New Orleans legal community after Katiranas she on the phone with the ABA organizing relief efforts on Aug 30, one day after the storm, had the NOBA web site back on line immediately and was back in town herself in October, relentelssly working to get the legal community, including the local court system, back in place.

Her advice for the immediate aftermath of a large disaster was basic: “get a single point of contact and send money.”  Her experience showed that the fastest immediate relief could be provided by a single agency (in her case, the NO Bar in associaiton with the ABA) coodridnating to contact local attorneys and provide them with immediate monetary assistance to get shelter, food and medical care if needed.

So contact the Linn County Bar . They have a resource page for Flood Information, as well as a ‘Displaced Attorney Contact‘ page.  The ABA also has information numbers on their Disaster Recovery site as well as articles on disaster recovery including several written by J.R. Phelps. I’ll post more here as the week progresses including more of my interview with Helena Henderson and others in the New Orleans local legal community.

JUST A TOOTHBRUSH.....

Jill Nawrocki, who left ALM to join the Peace Corps, where she is working with young people in Africa, is a treasure. She is an absolute delight, smart, perky (in a good way), indefatigueable, warm, with a joyous personality and outlook.

Her experiences are so humbling, and just reading her missives makes we want to cry for the things we take for granted, and what a huge difference in people's lives can be generated by just small change. Like just giving a toothbrush and toothpaste to a child.

It makes me cringe to think of how much money I fritter away on Diet Cokes. Anyway, let me turn the mic over to Jill (with the request that you e-mail this to your dentist, and ask her or him to forward it to others in the dental community).

Dear Friends and Family:

As many of you know, I've been serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Namibia since last November. I'm living in a small town of about 5,000 people where access to basic health care needs—like doctors and dentists — is extremely limited.

My primary assignment is in health education and outreach. This includes the development of a girls' club, an after school sports program, life skills training for area youth, community workshops, leadership camps and HIV/AIDS awareness. One of my new projects is developing a preventative dental care curriculum for primary school learners.

And I'm asking you for your help.

Two dentist serve the entire Kunene Region—the second largest in all of Namibia. Scheduling an appointment can be difficult—and at times, even impossible. While most people in America see a dentist twice each year, children in Khorixas are lucky to see one twice in a lifetime.

Prevention is essential, which is why my workshops will focus onteaching some 2,000 kids in Khorixas and the Khorixas District about proper oral care, daily brushing and regular flossing. I'd like to provide each learner with the necessary tools: floss, toothpaste and a toothbrush, as part of this.

Which is why I need your help with funding.

Just $3 (about N$23) can provide one learner with everything he or she needs to get started with proper oral care. The money spent on sending one flat rate box overseas could buy about 35 toothbrushes or 50 tubes of toothpaste.

I am serving in a developing country, and because of this, the logistics of this project are less than ideal. Money cannot be sent here directly, since envelopes are usually searched and checks can be cashed without a signature. But if my Peace Corps experience has taught me one thing so far, it's to use whatever you've got in whatever way you can.

With that in mind, my mom (THE Brenda Nawrocki) has agreed to collect donations stateside and deposit them into an account I have access to here in Namibia. If you provide her with your email address she will contact you upon receipt. I will also let you know once your purchases have been made and which schools they are going to help. In addition, pictures and stories from the workshops will be posted on my blog.

[Note from Mon: I don't want to publish Jill's mom's address on the web, so e-mail me and I'll provide it to you. Jill's also looking into a PayPal acct.]


Sure, the arrangement may be less than ideal. But this is your opportunity to help children in a place where help is rarely found.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Jill Nawrocki
PCV, Namibia


For more information on this program and my community go to:

http://jillnawrocki.blogspot.com/2008/03/healthy-teeth-for-healthy-kids.html

MAIL BAG #060108

On the road again..... catchin' up with the
in-box:

* Upcoming Webinars:

-- TutorPro Ltd. is offering TutorAuthor NG, designed to help law firms create online educational programs. There are six sessions scheduled this summer.

-- Guille Rayala of Workshare is inviting you to a Workshare/Microsoft webcast on automating enterprise contract management. It will be held June 10, at 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. East coast time.

* Congrats to Jonathan Ezor and the gang at the Touro Law Center's Institute of Business, Law & Technology. They are celebrating their 5th year anniversary with a bash on June 18 at the Long Island facility. Details here: _invitation.pdf

* Also celebrating a year 5 milestone is "Excited Utterances," a newsletter created by editors Joy London and Sean Hockings. It covers KM, tech, publishing, blogging, open source, and web 2.0 topics, all aimed specifically at the legal community. Check out the current issue here, which has subscription info: Download llneu_149_23_may_2008.pdf

* The San Jose Mercury News is going digital, check it out here.

* United Airlines' Red Carpet Club now offers free wi-fi -- it's still from T-Mobile but you no longer have to be a subscriber, you can simply use your RCC membership number to access it. UAL is also following suit of other airline clubs, and now you can purchase a 1-day pass online for $50 -- that can come in handy as gifts or if you have extra guests with you.

* Deborah Novachick checks in with a report about her efforts to raise money for the Tall Ships Education project.

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed. By the last report we raised $1,800. So wonderful, wonderful. This has been a great experience for me.  It is a lot of work to get it all organized, but then you get to e-mail everyone, and hear from so many people.  Very much a community experience.  I am big on community.

Stayed in roughly the same geographic area all my life, went to college and lived among a very dedicated community of educators, stayed in the same career and industry all my life, and got involved in a lot of community activities. Started in kindergarten when a neighbor who was an elementary school teacher rounded up all the little neighborhood girls to start a Blue Birds group. We all stayed together from Blue Birds, to Campfire Girls, to Jr. High Campfire Girls. Then we went on to sports, cheerleading, student office, peer counseling, and, not surprisingly, many of us ended up in professions like counseling, consulting, lawyering, teaching, real estate, and nursing.

For a bunch of little girls we had some amazing adventures (at 11 I broke my foot when tobogganing with two of the most adventurous girls in Lake Tahoe -- between a Propane tank and a telephone pole – don’t try this at home -- and then I messed around on my cast so much that I had to wear assorted casts for SIX MONTHS – became known, affectionately, as “the gimp” at school, but hey, for 6 months I got out of classes early and had someone carrying my books!) 

We kept widening our circle of friends, helping each other, and adding new mentors until we grew up.  Then we continued to seek out mentors.  And eventually we found ourselves mentoring others.  I can’t imagine what my life would be like without learning firsthand (experiential education) how warm and generous people can be.  And what we can accomplish as a team, a community. 

I realize now that we were pretty poor as kids.  But I had no idea at the time.  We seemed to be surrounded by people who had so much to share. 

I hope the girls at the Tall Ship Education come away with that feeling that so many things are possible.  I have been prepping for a speech on generational differences in October, so I understand better now that outlooks can be very different depending on the times one grows up in.

But the answer seems to be diversity and communication.  And that was exactly what my integrated public schools, the teachers, and mentors showed us when we were kids. And it is what the “Experiential Education” approach behind TSEA’s programs teaches. TSEA creates an environment where a highly diverse community is intent on a very important goal that benefit to the community (i.e., not to sink the ship and all one’s shipmates And then the magic happens.

TOM O'CONNOR HONORED

Tom O'Connor, a long-time member of LTN's Editorial Advisory Board, and director of the Electronic Documents Institute, was among those honored for his tireless work on behalf of the Gulf Coast legal community, at the International Litigation Support Leaders Conference, May 15-16, sponsored by Litigation Support Today magazine. The awards, named for the late Betsy Reynolds (also a member of LTN's board), spotlighted excellence in lit support.

O'Connor took the "industry consultant," honors. Other winners included Beth Kellermann, lit e-discovery manager at Apple Inc.; Florinda Baldridge, director of practice support at Fulbright & Jaworski; and Carl Kikuchi, branch chief, office of lit support, U.S. DOJ-Civil.

Congrats to all, and Betsy, we all think of you often.

REACHING TALL

Deborah Novachick, president of San Francisco's Strategic Automation Consulting, is celebrating her company's 15 year anniversary — and her 50th birthday — by participating in the Tall Ship Women's Challenge, to support the work of the Tall Ship Education. She's asking for your help.

"The Women’s Challenge fundraiser is put on by the Tall Ship Education Academy , a not-for-profit affiliated with the innovative experiential-education group at San Francisco State University. ...Girls Semester at Sea [is] an incubator for women community builders.  It transforms young, high-school age women by helping them explore their limits and by connecting them for a lifetime to a large, educational, and inspiring community."

411 here.

HIGH TECH HOLIDAZE

Call it green, call it inexpensive, call it creative, but I just LOVE getting (and sending) holiday e-cards. And it's a hoot to see how the technology is getting so sophisticated that you can even personalize the cards.

I just sent a batch out from Hallmark.com (inspired by Ross Kodner's hysterical Thanksgiving card, which is no longer on the website -- an ode to mashed potatoes), and I've long been a fan of www.pacprod.com's goofy options, that allow you to construct cards with various elements including music.

Several firms, including MoFo, are using e-cards to announce not just holiday wishes but charitable donations, including Loeb & Loeb, and Sonnenschein.   Most (Arnold & Porter) even permit individual notes within the card itself, or as an intro or end-note!

My law school, the University of San Francisco, really went all out with a slide show with music that made me a bit homesick, its exact intent.

Even beisbol gets in on it. The Yankees sent out an absolutely wonderful one a year or two ago, with NYY "snowflakes" covering Yankee Stadium's field. Here's this year's version (be sure to disable your pop-up blocker).  Almost as nice is the lyrical message from the Orioles.

Send/get a favorite? Send me the link and I'll post 'em.

I'm heading out.... back to Kauai (Hey, I need 9,000 miles to stay in Premier Exec!),  so Melekalikimaka to you! Stay warm, stay healthy, enjoy companionship and solitude, noise and quiet, and don't forget to eat some peppermint ice cream.

P.S. I can't leave you without sharing this "ad" for Stanford University. (Hat tip to brother Bill).

Update: Everybody's ga ga about Office Max's Elf Yourself, including the gang at Legal Talk Network and the Three Musketeers (aka, Bruce Dorner, Dan Coolidge & Ross Kodner. United's Mileage Plus offers an elegant ad card, here.  Here's eSentio Technologies' card.

 

LTN AWARDS: AND THE WINNERS ARE....

The jury's in.... with wonderful results, for our fifth annual LTN Law Firm & Law Department Awards. The lucite will be presented at our gala LTN Awards Dinner, Tuesday February 5, during LegalTech New York at the Hilton N.Y. See post directly below for info on how you can join us!

Here are the 2007 winners:

IT Director of the Year
John Sroka - Duane Morris

Champion of Technology
George Rudoy - Shearman & Sterling

Most Innovative use of Technology by a Law Firm
Goodwin Procter (iStaff)

Most Innovative use of Technology by an In-house Legal Department
Gene Stavrou - Kraft Foods

Most Innovative use of Technology during a Trial
Ropes & Gray Graphics and Litigation Technology Support team

Most Innovative use of Technology for a Pro Bono Project
Wills for Heroes Foundation 

CONGRATULATIONS to all!

Special thanks to our independent jury, Andrew Adkins III, of the University of Florida's Legal Technology Institute; Fredric Lederer, of the William & Mary School of Law; and David Whelan, of the Law Society of Upper Canada — all members of LTN's Editorial Advisory Board.

MAILBAG #120107

Mark Osborn, of LexisNexis, checks in with the news that his company has created an Environment and Climate Change center on lexis.com. It's designed to help companies and their law firms better understand the relevant law, prepare for changes, and respond to litigation. Check it out here.  Press release: Download LN1201.doc

•  Survey Says: Osborn also reports that LN has surveyed corporate counsel about the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and found that 44% say their companies were not prepared when the amendents went into effect but made progress during 2007: Download ACC-LNSurvey.doc.

• The ABA Journal has declared its Blawg 100, in an article by Molly McDonough and Sarah Randag, and is asking folks to vote now for their favorite. I'm still smarting that neither this blog, nor our new EDD Update blog, made the list, but congrats to those who did, including:

* Our colleagues at Legal Times for The BLT (one of my favorite blog names around, the acroynm stands for The Blog of the Legal Times). 

        * Lu Ann Reeb and the gang at Legal Talk Network, home of both Lawyer2Lawyer (Bob Ambrogi & J. Craig Williams) and the brand new, launching this week, Legal Technology Now (avec moi) -- as well as both Bob's and Craig's blogs (  Robert Ambrogi's LawSites and May It Please the Court)

*Blawg Review (a member of our Law.com network)

* Ernie the Attorney (Ernie Svenson) and Adam Smith, Esq. (Bruce MacEwen), Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog (all of LTN's edit board)

•  Russ Curtis, LTN's photo editor, was part of the San Francisco team that helped rescue oil-drenched birds after the oil spill in the SF Bay last month. Check out his insta-blog, here.

LAPTOPS FOR KIDS

Sheila Mackay, of Daegis, and Colleen Clark, of Bingham McCutchen, are involved with a terrific project to help youngsters in Otavalo, Ecuador. They will travel to the country next month,  on a volunteer mission with an organization called People Helping People.  The Azama Project has helped the community of approximately 3,000 people to build a primary school and a medical/dental clinic.

One of their agendas is to incorporate the goals of One Laptop Per Child, a worldwide program that has been working to provide children in developing nations with affordable access to a computer, into The Azama Project, and they are asking our legal tech community to help, by making  a tax deductible donation to People Helping People, targeted to The Azama Project's new laptop project.

Our deadline to bring these laptops with us for the holidays is the end of November.  Please send a check to:

People Helping People
13 East 30th Street
6th Floor
New York, NY 10016

Or follow this link to donate online or e-mail Mackay here.   

 

WOMEN IN E-DISCOVERY CHARITY DRIVE

Lana Schell checks in to let us know about a project underway by the new group, Women in E-Discovery (affectionately nicknamed, "Skirts in EDD"). WiE has adopted the Susan G. Komen Foundation as its national charity, and is establishing teams in each of the cities where the annual three day, 60-mile walk is held. Currently there are teams forming in Philly, D.C., and they expect more. "Our goal is to raise $300,000" she says.

The new organization already boasts 700 members. The gimmick: because WiE doesn't charge membership fees, they are asking participants who are benefiting from the group and its meetings and networking opptys to "pay it forward" and donate what they would expect to pay in membership fees to the Komen group. Details here.

DEADLINE: OCT 31 TO NOMINATE FOR LTN AWARDS

Campers: It's that time again -- the deadline to nominate a firm or law dept for our 2008 LTN Awards is pumpkin day! Don't get spooked by seeing your biggest competitor heading to the podium to accept that beautiful star award. Don't be a ghost fading from the spotlight! Get the credit that's due to you and your organization!  And btw: you aren't limited to nominating your own organization (Vendors! Take note!).

Our goal is to find the very best projects and people in law firms and law depts -- and to give them a deserved acknowledgement from our legal community!

It's a simple process: just download this form to nominate your organization in these six categories:

• I.T. Director   
• Champion of Technology   
• Most Innovative Use of Technology by a Law Firm
• Most Innovative Use of Technology by an In-House Legal Department 
• Most Innovative Use of Technology During a Trial 
• Most Innovative Use of Technology For a Pro Bono Project (including Green Law projects).

The candidates will be evaluated by an independent team of three experts, all members of the LTN Editorial Advisory Board.

Remember: it's like the lottery: you can't win, if you aren't nominated!

More 411 here. Or call Kevin Iredell, at 800 888 8300. (PS: He can also help you if you are trying to vote on the online Vendor Awards ballot and don't have your Sub ID). Email him at kiredell AT alm.com.)

MAAAAALOX MON

I'm a bundle of nerves, with no voice, after last night's wonderful Yankees win. All these Cs loom before us: Cleveland tonight; CC Wednesday if we can get past tonight with Chien-Ming's help; then, you know it will be Colorado. They are sizzling sharper than the '03 Marlins.

Who, who, who, woulda thought BUGS --- GNATS -- would humble Joba, the Warrior. But no worries, I've got my OFF and the lucky Squirrel hat.

Let me turn to the in-box for a little distraction:

• Fred Lederer reports that The Center for Legal and Court Technology has joined forces with the American Foundation for the Blind Consulting Group, to help eliminate the barriers between people with disabilities and the nation's state and federal courts. They have launched the Accessible Courts Initiative, a partnership "aimed at getting government agencies, law firms, law schools, judges, lawyers and other members of the legal profession to make use of appropriate access technology in the courts, in addition to making their websites and other services available to people with disabilities." 411 here.

• Don Hutchenson wants you to know about The Complete Lawyer's Weblog Directory, "an annotated listing of weblogs whose mission or content corresponds to TCL's editorial scope." TCL covers professionalism, quality of life, and career topics.

• Rick Wolf, of Lexakos, tips us off to a very interesting article in CondeNast's Portfolio.com, "Nobody Loves a Lawyer."  He's quoted in the article, which delves into billing issues, among other topics.

O.K., I'm off to the Cathedral. Do it for Joe, boys!

CATCHING UP #083107

After a week in Florida, I have now have been wasting a whole lot of time visiting Delta's lost baggage website every couple hours, speaking to way-too-cheerful people with thick Indian accents who keep apologizing, and then listening to "Happy Days are Hear Again" when they put me on hold (bad choice for a soundtrack, Delta) only to come back on the line with more apologies.

Never mind that this is the fifth consecutive trip to Orlando where my luggage has been "delayed." (Yes, yes, I should NOT have checked it but UAL bumped me to DL, so I knew I was going to go through "secondary screening" -- so I thought it would be easier than having the TSA folks dig thru my dirty laundry.) No good deed goes unpunished.

ANYWAY, please say a prayer to the karma godz or St. Anthony for me, eh? It's now a full week later and NO sign of my bag. Sigh.

Moving right along -- it's time to play a bit o' catchup:

• Sneak preview: Marketing guru Larry Bodine and his pals (Barry Schneider, principal, and Michael Cummings, managing director, of Sage PDI Inc.)  have launched a new monthly online newsletter, Originate, designed to help firms become more proficient at business development. The site officially launches Monday, but you get a sneak peek. The group will also offer webinars, and the site has a list of other resources, including white papers for download. Check out Larry's article, "The Moveable Object: Generating Leads by Finding Buyers in Trouble," here.

• Charlie Rogers, of LexisNexis has taken on a new role, and now is managing the practice management independent consultants. He's also organizing efforts for an October 200-mile "Ride without Limits" bike trip in North Carolina that will benefit the United Cerebral Palsy organization:

Riders commit to ride 100 miles on two consecutive days and raise a minimum of $500 for UCP. We currently have 11 riders and continue to raise our fundraising goal.  We have people from all walks of life on the team, both internal to Lexis and external, including Wells Anderson,  an attorney and president of Minnesota's Active Practice. We also have Kevin Stilwell, co-founder of Time Matters, who is now the head of software development for all LexisNexis Practice Management products.

For details, visit this link. 

• We hear that Arnold & Porter is looking for a CIO. For the 411, e-mail Beverly Lieberman, of Halbrecht Lieberman Associates, here.

• Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer checks in with a fun post for Labor Day weekend.

• Jason Velasco's got a new gig, as veep of client services at Merrill Corp. "I will be responsible for managing Merrill's consulting organization, project managers, and data collection/forensics group."  New e-mail  here.

• Our colleague John Bringardner found these two links discussing some competition for West and Lexis case reporting. The New York Times (requires registration) and Tim O'Reilly.

• More good works: Daphne Eviatar, a senior reporter with The American Lawyer, will also be exercising for charity in October, in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in NYC.

In just the past year, two of my closest friends, both under 40, were hit with breast cancer.  At the time I had no idea how prevalent it was, but I've since learned that every three minutes, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with the disease.  Almost all of you probably know someone who's had breast cancer, and the horrible ordeal so many women have to go through. Because of that, I'm writing to ask for your help in fighting it.

Check out her website.

• Finally, Ross Todd, of The American Lawyer, did a terrific and clever spin on a tech story, detailing how "I spent the day with five doomed hard drives and a batch of condemned CDs" that were being sent to the high tech slaughterhouse. Read it here.

ANOTHER GOOD CAUSE

Yvonne Dornic, head of eSentio Technologies, creates what my friend Russ Curtis calls "a blueprint for living an engaged life."

Every year at ILTA, she hosts a party to thank her clients and colleagues. But it's not just a generic convention soiree. Dornic manages to orchestrate a memorable evening that includes entertainment that educates (the Orlando School of Cultural Dance); a silent auction to benefit a good cause relevant to our tech community  (The Youth for Technology Foundation that assists African youngsters); and a showcase for a local chef (Russell Scott). And she always manages to find a very elegant and unusual venue (Isleworth Country Club. Home club of Tiger Woods.)

Dornic carries that aforementioned textured blueprint into her daily life, not just the eSentio annual party. She runs not only the technology consultancy, but one of the very best restaurants in Baltimore - Ze Mean Bean Cafe. Of course, it's not just a terrific restaurant, it also presents nurtures culinary talent -- in typical Dornic style.

Congrats to Yvonne and the entire eSentio team for yet another unique and fabulous evening. She is a true inspiration.

Photos by Russ.

 

GOOD WORKS, GOOD DEEDS

Allison Walsh, of LexisNexis up in Seattle, is in training once again for her 100 mile bike trip in September that will raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Her team hopes  to raise more than $120,000 for this great cause. 1,900 people are diagnosed every week with lymphoma in the U.S., and 1,555 die each week. Fortunately, Alli's brother Brian is a colon cancer survivor, after a harrowing experience, which motivates her involvement.

"My greatest wish is that everyone who has a loved one with blood cancers can celebrate life the way my family recently did."

Check out her website where you can donate to the cause.

* Anthony Colleluori, a Woodbury, N.Y., attorney, invites you to attend the Nov. 29 National Scleroderma Foundation Gala, at NYC's Grand Hyatt hotel on Park Ave.  He's been serving on the foundation's board of directors since 2001, and will step down in December. Over his tenure, says Anthony,

"I have seen many of my initiatives brought into lay and we have enriched the lives of our patients through the funding I have helped provide, through our walk-a-thons, the National Dinner and soon (I hope) through a National Research Endowment drive."

The disease has hit home for Anthony, whose wife MaryRose Colleluori has been dealing with the ravages of the auto-immune rheumatic disease that turns its victims "into stone," as he puts it. (Hardening of the skin is one of the most visibile manifestations of the disease, according to the foundation's website.) For more info about the gala or the disease, e-mail Anthony here.

MAILBOX #070807

Post-vacation clogged in-box, let's start clearin' it out!

* Neil Squillante and his gang at Technolawyer have released BlawgWorld 2007, its annual downloadable PDF printable "e-book" of the best posts over the last year. Here's the press release about it.

They were kind enough to include one of my Katrina-related posts from New Orleans. You can download the book --  which has a user-friendly index of participating blogs to make it easy to find posts --  here.  And here's Bob Ambrogi's  analysis  and resulting comments, on Law.com's Blog Watch.

*The ABA Annual Meeting is gathering this week in San Francisco (alas, I can't attend), and there are two events of particular interest to our tech community. On Saturday, from 11-4 at the San Francisco Fire Dept's training facility at 2310 Folsom, volunteer attorneys will be providing free wills to firefighters, as part of the Wills for Heroes program that was launched by South Carolina lawyer Anthony Hayes.

Holly Michael and the gang at LexisNexis have also been involved, and LN provides its Hot Docs software, which helps the volunteer lawyers create templated wills. (You don't need to be an estates practitioner to participate).

We'll be writing more about this terrific program in an upcoming issue of LTN, I'll come back and put in a link here when it goes live. For info about the SF event, call Holly (937-602-0908) or Anthony (803-447-5002).

Another good works project is being shepherded by the ABA's Rachael Patrick -- a joint effort of the ABA's Council on Racial & Ethnic Justice; Presidential Advisory Council on Diversity in the Profession; and ABA Center on Children and the Law; and the Commission on Youth at Risk.

It's a free CLE program, "From Foster Care to the Pipeline," that will be held Friday (Aug. 10) from 2-3 pm, at Moscone West, room 3108. The discussion will cover how at-risk youth can be helped to transition out of foster care, into law school or other careers in the justice system. For 411 or a reservation e-mail here or call 312 988-5408.

*Two of my colleagues have news:

Andrea Lazarow of our ALM Events division wants to be sure you know about the upcoming Sept. 17 program, "Managing the Discovery Process: The Role of Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals," which will be held at the Harvard Club of New York. The session is designed to help litigation professionals effectively manage e-discovery; faciliate communication between outside counsel and in-house personnel, manage EDD vendors, and prepare for Rule 36(f) conferences. I've been asked to keynote the event, and I'm very much looking forward to the exciting program, which is co-chaired by Sherry Harris, of Hunton & Williams, and Mark Reichenbach, of MetaLincs. Here's a download with the 411: Download paralegal_sept07.pdf

Jessica Morales, of ALM's Law Journal Press, reports that our online store now has its own blog: Check out www.LawCataBlog.com. Morales says the site includes practice tips from top attorneys, special discounts on ALM pubs, and other goodies. 

HOT TICKET

The hottest ticket in Chicago is a charity fundraiser. Lawyers and firm executives are tripping over each other to get a seat at the United Jewish Fund's annual Lawyers and Government Agencies dinner tonight at the Hyatt Regency.

Why? Two words: Al Gore -- tonight's speaker. He's currently promoting his new book, The Assault on Reason, his latest effort after the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, which galvanized many people (including me) about the perils of global warming. (And lead to the launch of Law Technology News' popular Green Law column in February.)

The organization got so many requests for seats that they had to send out an apologetic note telling members that they're at capacity already and can't accept any further reservations -- and that there will be no walk-ins.

Audrey Rubin, COO of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon, says she's never seen a reaction like this for a charity dinner, and that everyone in town has been scrambling to get a seat.

Ted Banks, GC of Kraft Foods, graciously invited me to join his table, and I can't wait!

Here's the organization's elevator pitch:

The Jewish United Fund's The JUF Lawyers Division offers colleagues the opportunity to connect with more than 6,000 attorneys: from judges to in-house corporate counsel, from solo practitioners to the small, medium, and large-sized law firms, from the city to the suburbs, and from associates to managing partners. In addition to the Annual Dinner and the Lawyer/Law Student Reception, the Legal Programming Committee organizes educational events, which improve Industry and Jewish knowledge.

Of course, I'll have a full report here.

CONGRATS!

LawHelp.org, from Pro Bono Net, won a Webby award in the Law category and Findlaw took the category's "People's Choice" award.

Congrats to both!

P.S. -- Check out BP's animated Carbon Footprint Calculator, which took accoldades in the Lifestyles category.

MS. MANNERS

It takes so very little to be kind. We all make snap decisions in our everyday life on how to react to the little things that can be either irritants or niceities.

Here are three episodes in the last four days:

1. Friday, at the ABA's Section of Labor & Employment Committee's Midwinter Meeting at NYU, two male panelists demonstrated why lawyers aren't exactly loved. (I won't embarrass them by name, but hopefully they will get the message and change their behavior.)

a) While panelist Nicole Black (who creates the Sui Generis blog) was speaking, she was twisting a pen in her hand. The panelist next to her -- in the middle of Black's presentation -- reached out and took the pen out of her hand, saying "It's squeaking." Do you think he would have DARED do this if the speaker was another male? I don't think so.

b) Another male panelist had a woman from his firm (who he ID'd by name by not by title) clicking the powerpoint transitions during his presentation. (I guess he's never heard of a wireless clicker). When he ordered her to make the transitions he could not be bothered to use the word "please" (oh yeah, he said it once). Try that in a jury trial. Not a great way to impress people.

2. I was flying from LGA to Denver on United 459 Sunday, and it was a rare situation where I did not have a bulkhead seat. But I had upgraded to first, and was in 5B. The 757s aren't terrible, but it's quite uncomfortable (and impossible to work on a laptop) if the person in front of you elects to push his/her seat all the way back (only appropriate on redeyes, where everybody is doing so in order to sleep).

The couple (soooo L.A.) in 4A and 4B shoved their seats all the way back,  and I politely asked the woman in front of me if she could go up just an inch. After about 2 minutes, she turned and snarled, "I'm not comfortable, and this is MY seat" and I paid for it." Flabbergasted, I said "whatever" -- (It's amazing what difference literally an inch can make.) Even though it was triggering my claustrophobia, I didn't move my seat back, because I simply refused to be rude to the gentleman behind me.

The poor guy next to me in 5A was a big guy and barely had room to breath. When the meal came, they both pulled up for a bit -- only to slam the seats back the second they were finished (not even bothering to check behind them) and nearly spilling my beverage.

At the end of the flight, I turned to her and said (I could not resist) "I really hope, on your next really long flight, that you get someone in front of you who is as rude as you were to me."

She turned to her boyfriend and says "It's OK honey, she's just an angry person," to which I responded. "No, I'm not. I'm actually quite nice." And then she said, dripping with sarcasm, "If you don't like it, why don't you buy up front, or buy two seats."

From the eye contact and body language of the other passengers, it was clear that everybody realized what self-centered, narcissistic jerks they both were -- and were silently cheering me on.

And I do trust the karma gods. I KNOW these $#%#^$#^ will get stuck in coach, middle seats, with basketball players in front of them, and have to sit on the tarmac for 3 hours on a hot, humid August day. The karma godz always come thru.

HERE'S TO YOU, JACKIE ROBINSON

Sixty years ago today, Jackie Robinson played his first Major League Baseball game, as a Brooklyn Dodger, at Ebbets Field in New York City, and changed the world.  "A life is not important," he said, "except in the impact it has on other lives."

"Life is not a spectator sport. ... If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion, you're wasting your life." -- Jackie Robinson

The Jackie Robinson Foundation.
Hall of Fame Biography
ESPN: Jackie changed the face of sports.
Auction of jerseys.
Mariano Rivera wears 42

JUST WORDS

Words shape our reality. Words capture our vision. Words empower. Words sear. Words define our anger and our fear. Words limit our perception, they open our hearts. Words burn and words heal. Words let us love.

We have a responsibility to own our words. We have a mandate to use them carefully. Words can cut more deeply than the most finely-sharpened knife, and can cure the most hardened heart.

This is why the last week has been so very important. Nike said it best with its full page ad in today's New York Times, signed only with its signature "swoosh:"

Thank you, ignorance.
Thank you for starting the conversation.
Thank you for making an entire nation listen to the Rutger's team story. And for making us wonder what other great stories we've missed.
Thank you for reminding us to think before we speak.
Thank you for showing us how stronag and poised 18 and 20-year-old women can be.
Thank you for remdingin us that another basketball tournament goes on in March.
Thank you for showing us that sport includes more than the time spent on the court.
Thank you for unintentionally moving women's sport forward.
And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have along way to go.
Next season starts 11.16.07.

CHANGE THE WORLD - PART 2

Smooth travel day as I headed to Mpls, giving me a chance to finish the incredible book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, where John Wood chronicles his efforts to launch and expand, "Room to Read." It's an amazing and utterly inspiring book, that makes you want to immediately pull out your checkbook and help.

The second half of the book focuses on the organization's efforts to get scholarships for young girls. With a philosophy that closely mirrors Oprah Winfrey's efforts in South Africa, he tirelessly works to make a difference by getting girls into classrooms. In Nepal, he explains, adult male illteracy is 39% - but for women,  75%.

It's a pattern repeated throughout the developing world. The United Nations estimates that 2/3rds of the 850 million illiterate people in the world are female." ...My friend Usha, who helps run a wonderful girl's education program in Nepal, always says, 'When you educate a boy, you educate just the boy. But when you educate a girl, you education the whole family, and the next generation.'

And in India, he notes, bias is so severe that "a common wish to a bride is 'May you be the mother of a hundred sons.' ... 'To give birth to a son is like witnessing a sunrise in heaven. A daughter is like having an uninvited guest at the banquet.' "

Wood goes on to explain how his organization set up programs that, for $250 a girl, could provide education, two school uniforms, two pairs of shoes, a book bag, school supplies, health insurance and a bicycle. "It's not often in life that one is given the opportunity to change another person's life for such a small amount of money." In fact, that last sentence is the theme of this amazing book, which reads like a compelling novel. 

I loved his tale of kids at a London Montessori school who raised quite a bit of money by offering their parents "the opportunity to pay for what they called the Sponsored Silence. For 10 pounds an per hour, the parents could basically hit the Mute button on their children for the evening."

This book is amazing. Buy it, read it, share it, and send a check. I'm going to.

Here's my prior post with lots of links that explain Wood's program.

MAIL BAG #040607

Linda Will, director of information resources at Mpls-based Dorsey & Whitney, checks in with news that she's written the lead story in the January issue of Legal Information Alert. It doesn't appear to be up online yet, but if it does, I'll provide a link. Will wrote about "Reflections of a Mad Cybrarian: The State of Our Profession." Among her comments, she sees that information resource centers (née libraries) still rank about fourth or fifth on law firm budget line items, and as a big line item, are "therefore perpetually under scrutiny." But, she observes, "the pain of the annnual budget seems to be paling."

Her thoughtful article tackles a wide range of topics, including contract negotiating, content and training, and technology and marketing. She discusses some of the dilemmas faced by information vendors, including Thomson West and LexisNexis, who have bought up so many companies recently that integration isn't complete, and it's sometimes hard for librarians to know who to talk to about what product. And she predicts that her peers will have an increasing role in  marketing and business intelligence.

"There is a critical distinction between being part of the technology conduit and actually analyzing information critical to firm leadership. Because of our understanding of both content, and our firm's culture, many of us have become heads of knowledge management."

To get a copy, contact Legal Information Alert.

* Two important stories via the Law.com bloggers, as cited by Bob Ambrogi:

1. Chubb has apparently changed its mind about insuring firm-generated blogs. But it's all still as murky as a double-espresso, caveats Bob.

2.  The NY State Bar Assn may loosen its rules to allow out-of-state lawyers (especially GC) to practice in-state. This is a battle I have been screaming about for more than a decade, and we first wrote about in Law Technology News with a great article by John McGuckin, GC of Union Bank, who is a past-prez of the Association of Corp. Counsel.

Robin Sparkman and her Corporate Counsel magazine team just broke a fascinating story about how so many GCs are not "properly" licensed. I've ALWAYS thought that we should have "Drivers' License Jurisdiction" -- i.e., if you are admitted ANYWHERE in the U.S. you should be able to practice in any state.

And I think the ONLY reason why there's resistance is that the bars fear a loss in revenue if they can't keep their stranglehold on our membership fees.

But how, in the days of global communication and jet airplanes, can they legitimately claim these silly jurisdiction rules. What active lawyer doesn't regularly cross state lines?

* Burned in April: Remember the Chinese curse, "May you live an interesting life?" Well, our pal Brook Boehmler has certainly been cursed. I'll turn the microphone over to him, while sending him our warmest wishes:

April Fools Day found me sitting in the sun in California while my third floor home in Branson was on fire. All 10 condos were completely destroyed. I thank God that my kids weren’t there and nobody was hurt.

While everyone said that I should start over with my life, I really wasn’t planning on the literal meaning. I came back to Branson the first of February, after having a great experience in Chicago with kCura. While I had planned on getting more involved with my family and relationships, I hadn’t planned on figuring out how to deal with insurance companies.

I hope everyone is doing well and as we approach a time of renewal and rebirth, I say my blessings every morning for friends, family, faith and a future so bright...I have to wear shades.

* Speaking of Sun: Time Magazine's April 9 "Special Double Issue" has a cover story: "The Global Warming Survival Guide: 51 Things You Can Do." Read the story here.

And if you live in the New York City metropolitan area, the Natural Resources Defense Council wants you to mark your calendar for Saturday, April 14. If you can show up at noon, at Battery Park (in front of Castle Clinton), dressed in blue, you can be part of the "sea of people" who will dramatize "how lower Manhattan's coastline could be redefined when submerged by rising sea levels from global warming." Sign up here to let them know you are coming. The event is being spearheaded by eco-author Bill McKibben.

*And the United Nations report came out today. Here's the 411.

* California, here we come! Keep that calendar open -- and mark Wednesday, June 20 and Thursday, June 21, for LegalTech West Coast! At 12:15 p.m. on 6/20, please join me for a very special program (with a brown bag lunch), "Green Law: A Leadership Challenge."

We have an absolutely fantastic panel lined up for you!  Our speakers will be:

• Matthew Heartney, partner, Arnold & Porter (LA)
• Bruce Lymburn, partner, Wendel, Rosen, Black & Rosen (Oakland)
• Edward Jorczyk, director, global technology, Morrison & Foerster (SF)
• Alvidas Jasin, director of business development, Thompson Hine (Cleveland)

I'll be moderating this stellar panel, and we've got a great agenda: We'll focus on how our legal tech community is ideally positioned to take a leadership role as well all confront the challenges of global warming and the climate crisis. The good news: being environmentally responsible is good for your firm's (or company's) bottom line! Our panelists will share how they use technology to reduce costs, improve facilities, create a more healthful envirnoment, and increase morale -- and how "Green Law" is becoming a thriving practice area.

LTWC will be held at the Los Angeles convention center, for more 411 please visit www.legaltechshow.com.

* Speaking of Minnesota, it's time for me to sign off and go pack my bags... I'm headed to the Twin Cities for our fourth annual Twins/Yanks fest, and to visit some of the fabulous tech community folks for a few days. Ironically, I suspect it will be warmer in the Dome than it was last night at the fffffrrrriiiiggggid Yankee Stadium. CYA!!!

READING ROOM

Here's another must-read: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, by John Wood. It's a fascinating tale of how Wood, a senior marketing staffer at Microsoft, founded Room to Read -- a program that brings books and schools to youngsters in Nepal, Vietnam and other remote areas.

In 1998, Wood, decided to take a trek to Nepal as a break from his hectic life with the Mothership. The vacation would change his life -- when he met a middle-aged Nepali man named Pasupathi, who convinced him to visit a local school. Wood was astounded to find that the only books available to the children were a handful of paperbacks left by other trekkers, including a Danielle Steel novel, Finnegans Wake, and the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia.

When he left the humble school, Pasupathi asked him to return. The school's teacher reiterated the request, adding, "Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books."

That chance encounter would ultimately result in a life-shift for Wood, who would, at age 35, leave his high profile post, and leverage his contacts and skills to make a huge difference across the world, with small amounts of money.

I've always been fascinated by "micro-loans" and the impact they can have in developing countries. Early in the book, he tells of his friendship with Nguyen Thai Vu, a bright, creative Vietnamese youngster. Wood met the young man who was working at Wood's hotel, and quickly learned of Vu's hunger to learn more about computers. Wood wanted to help Vu but had to do it in a way that that would allow the youngster to accept it, because an out-and-out gift would be rejected as insulting the growing friendship. The younster wouldn't even allow Wood to buy him an Excel book.

"How was I going to help him? I was thrilled that he was not begging and that he valued his independence. But I wanted him to achieve his dream of a full education, and he was not making it easy." Then the mentor had a brainstorm, grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote a letter informing Vu that as a Microsoft employee "I have been financially empowered by Bill Gates to provide scholarship money for promising young students in Vietnam to learn computer science," and enclosed "a crisp $20 bill" into the letter as a "study grant," providing a way for the youngster to accept the help.

That was the beginning of an ongoing partnership, writes Wood. Ultimately, Vu pursued a graduate dregree in software engineering, with the help of about $1,300 from Wood.

Like his relationship with Vu, the secret to Room to Read's success, says Wood, is that it is a partnership, a reciprocal relationship rather than just a hand-out. In the first school in Nepal, Wood generated the funds to buy the bricks, and books, but the community itself provided the labor to build the room.

Now based in San Francisco, Wood established a non-profit, now called Room to Read, and has established 3,600 libraries, built 287 schools, funded 2,300 long-term girls scholarships, and donated or published more than 2.8 million books.

I'm about half-way through this wonderful book, (I haven't yet gotten to the section about setting up the girls' scholarships) and I'll continue to post about it as I read further. But don't miss it. It's incredibly inspiring. That's wonderful these days, when it's far too easy to get a case of "charity fatique," and become completely overwhelmed by so many important causes pleading for your attention and your check book.

Adopt a project info here.
Overview here.
E-mail updates here.
Slideshow here.

MAILBAG #070220

Terry Crum stopped by last week, and LTN news editor Claire Duffett and I took him across the street to Country for a catch-up lunch.

Crum, former CIO at Jones Day, has come out of retirement to join the New York office of Deloitte, where he is now a director, focusing on analytic and forensic technology, and forensic and dispute services. Crum sez he'll be focusing on the general counsel crowd, and will spend a lot of time in NYC and D.C. -- so he has no plans to move from his Virginia digs. E-mail him here (spam protected). It's nice to have him back among the legal tech fold.

  *More changes to your Outlook: The delightful Nina Pervychine checks in from Paris (tough gig, eh?) with news that she has become global IT project manager at Salans.  We can all send our slightly-jealous congratulations to her here!

* Global law firm KM survey: My colleagues over at ALM Research have released their 2006 knowledge management survey, conducted with Curve Consulting (Gretta Rusanow). Among the "key challenges," they found that most firms do not have a KM committee; and that processes are not in place to support everyone at the firm contributing to a KM system. "Lawyers are unlikely to receive fee relieif or billable hour credit for contributing to KM," writes Rusanow, who notes that only 13 percent of firms are tracking ROI. Click here for more 411.

* Solo advice: Susan Cartier Liebel, who writes a weekly column for our Connecticut Law Tribune on solo and small firm practice issues, has a blog with a great tagline: Build A Solo Practice - "Newly Minted or Well Seasoned, Dedicated to Helping You Create and Grow Your Practice." Somehow, that makes me think of lamb chops, but I must be hungry. Check it out here.   (It's got a kewl Reader Poll, too!)

* Jim Hassett says he rarely writes on tech issues on his marketing blog, but he's so frustrated about his client relationship management software he wants to scream. (See the Feb. 14 post if the Permalink isn't working properly.) Perhaps you can give him some advice?

*No Asshole Rules: This story from The American Lawyer is a hoot -- and practical. Is there anyone alive who hasn't had to work with a jerk?

* Vesna Jaksic of The National Law Journal profiles Denny LeBoeuf (right), who is chair of the board that oversees New Orleans' public defender office. Can you think of a more challenging position? But she sees it as a miracle-about-to-happen, reports Jaksic:

"I think this is going to be a destination office for young lawyers who want to do public defense in the years to come," said LeBoeuf, a veteran criminal defense attorney. "And no one would have said that before Katrina."

But New Orleans has a way to go before LeBoeuf's "miracle" sees the light of day.

Only about half of the needed 70 public defenders have been hired. Judges' patience sometimes wears thin, leading one to recently jail a public defender because no one from his office showed up in court. And Hurricane Katrina's impact lingers everywhere, whether it's residents' stress levels, businesses' limited hours or the city's damaged roads.

*Just in time for Mardi Gras week, Zagat has published the 2007 Best of New Orleans.

* Crichton Brouhaha: There's still buzz in the global warming circles about Michael Crichton's pissing contest with Michael Crowley of The New Republic. After Crowley challenged Crichton's arguments that global warming was a hoax, Crichton retaliated in his most recent novel Next - which contains a character who is a child molester named Mick Crowley who is a Washington-based columnist. Read about it here. NPR feed here.

  * Speaking of GW: Seth Godin is challenging all the bloggers to join the campaign to switch out your lightbulbs to those cute, curly compact flourescent bulbs that save a ton of money and cut nasty emmissions.

I've done it  -- how 'bout you?

* This one I like: I'm still fighting like an angry cat about the proposed DirecTV monopoly over Extra Innings, but today's announcement (long expected) that XM Radio and Sirius will merge is music to my ears! That can't happen fast enough for me. I'm an extremely loyal XM Radio fan!  Love the MLB coverage!  Here's the NY Times article. Here's Andrew Ross Sorkin's DealBook item.  Washington Post.

THIS 'N' THAT

Great turnout this morning at the T3-Trial Technology Tactics conference in New York,which started off with a huge bang with a terrific mock hearing on EDD issues, with Judge Shira Schiendlin "presiding" and Michael Arkfeld as the moderator. (Both right - click to enlarge). A fascinating program and a super kick-off to the two day event.

* Our colleagues at The National Law Journal reports that "students in a Tulane University Law School criminal law clinic will be joined by more than 150 law students from 12 law schools over their winter break to assist about 30 New Orleans public defenders with a caseload big enough for at least 72 full-time attorneys." Good work!

* Carolee Swallie checks in to report that she's left Kirkland & Ellis, and is headed to Boston to become the director of business development at Foley & Hoag. She starts next Thursday!

* Doug Neal wants you to know that his gang has upgraded Lawyer-Link.

*Peggy Wechsler is celebrating with her ITLA colleagues because they just logged in the group's 1,000th member "entity" (not sure what that means, but congrats!)... and donated "$1,000 to a humanitarian charity in honor of or milestone."