Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice

Law Office Management: Ruminations on Briefcases and Office Chairs

For readers interested in my ongoing search for the perfect briefcase and discovery of the benefits of a decent office chair, both of significant daily relevance when trying to run a law office efficiently, I have posts on both on my personal weblog, Puttering in the Study.  But you really should have better things to do on a Saturday morning.  (Apparently I don't).

How to Make Visiting Lawyers Happy - part 1: Desktop Power Outlets

 In our continuing attempt to make life easier for the out of town lawyers visiting our office while in town for hearings or depositions, we recently replaced all the desktop lamps in our visiting lawyer offices with new hotel-style lamps with dual power outlets.  The lamps all carry labels with the office wifi network name and key code, so laptop warriors have everything they need to get on the Internet as soon as they sit down, and they don't have to choose between charging the laptop and charging the Blackberry.  (Note: just so readers don't think I'm crazy, the wifi network is not the same thing as the firm's computer network, which is hard-wired.  It is simply Internet access via wifi for visitors, and exists completely separate from our office computer network).
The copy of O'Connor's Federal Rules is also a nice touch, don't you think?

Law Office Management: Manage Your Life with Outlook For Dummies - Greg Harvey

No, this isn't a renegade book review post from my personal weblog Puttering in the Study.  It's a review of how this very useful book on using Microsoft Outlook has helped me make my use of the program far more efficient in my law practice, with some pointers that other practitioners might find useful.
Becoming an Outlook Ninja
Many, if not most attorneys use Microsoft Outlook in their practice - either the e-mail-only version Outlook Express, or the full version, which is a full personal information manager (PIM) in that it contains, in addition to the e-mail module, a full calendar, contacts, task list, notes, and journal functions.  I was new to the full program last year, having previously used it only for e-mail and sometimes contacts, with calendaring, tasks and note functions handled by other programs.  But when I ran into the daylight savings time bug from hell last year, it was time to migrate everything into Outlook and start learning how to use this massive program more efficiently.  In short, I needed to become an Outlook ninja - and fast.
I ran across this book recently and was intrigued by its focus not so much on how to use Outlook's many features, but how to use the program to manage your life more efficiently.  Reading the first several chapters, which are primarily personal productivity tips, I realized that the program really could be the key to making myself more efficient in my daily work of receiving, processing, and retrieving information, and doing work, regardless of the type, since I spend virtually all of my time at my desk working in it in one way or another.  I won't go into detail on what the book says, but I thought it might be useful to others to explain what I took away from it - what changes I made to how I use the program, which I have already noticed save me a lot of time and make me more effective at working the important stuff first.
Make the Calendar (or Outlook Today) The Start page for Outlook
Like many others, I considered Outlook mainly an e-mail program and really hadn't focused on the fact that Outlook is a PIM, not unlike the Palm Desktop application I used for many years.  The author suggested, and I agree, that it better reflects your priorities to make the calendar the starting page, and configure it so that it focuses you more on your calendar and ytour tasks than your e-mail in-box, which is often a significant distraction to seeing the big picture of what you really need to be doing at a particular moment.  I did this, and reconfigured my tabs so that the calendar was #1 and tasks #2 and e-mail and the other functions were subordinate to those, and I try to keep in mind that what I do is really more important than just reading e-mail.  As my nine year old Grayson constantly reminds me, Batman one said that "it's not who you are, but what you do that defines you."  Good advice from the ultimate multitasking superhero.
Organize Your In-Box By Categorizing your E-Mails
This did not initially make sense to me - after all, wouldn't time spent categorizing incoming e-mails (in my case as CASES, OFFICE, READING, BAR WORK, PERSONAL) simply be a waste of time that could be better spent reading or working them?  But it turned out to be the biggest single improvement in my work flow that the book taught me.  When e-mails hit my in-box, they get assigned to categories (which the book provides several shortcuts to do), and then the whole mess gets moved into an e-mail subfolder ACTION ITEMS, which is where I do most of my work, freed from the distraction of each e-mail dropping in.  When the e-mails are organized by topic like this, it is actually much faster to run through them and see what's critical or to simply process them.  The author suggests filing the e-mails by topic in separate folders, but I disagree - when they're in separate folders I might not see them quickly enough to respond to something pressing, and I wouldn't be able to see at a glance how much is left to process to get the e-mails back down to zero.  When they're all in one folder - and organized by topic - I can see right away what I need to look at, and the different categories are manageable in size - no more than five or ten e-mails for everything but CASES, and that usually under 20.  Now I will move a large batch of e-mails in a particular case to a sub folder and make a task to process them later (since there are some sorting tricks that work better when the e-mails are isolated, and Pam tells me it's much quicker to enter my time when I group my dictation by case), but only after I've run through them and I know they're nothing critical.  I also disagree with the author's suggestion that you set your in-box to automatically route e-mails to subfolders for the reason that in our line of work, I think I need to lay an eyeball on at least the subject line of every e-mail before it's sent off someplace - I can't risk some emergency e-mail getting routed to a folder I won't have a chance to check till tomorrow - if I remember to skim my folders one by one. 
Using this technique, my in-box stays empty, and my ACTION ITEMS actually stays pretty close to empty, because I'm constantly punching it down and either deleting e-mails outright or turning them into tasks.  But the bottom line here is that categorization up front really does save time, as well as help you work the right things first.
Things To Do Are Tasks, Not E-mails
Another useful bit of advice is to convert e-mails that require work to tasks.  In the task view they are similarly organized by category so I can tell at a glance if there are some cases needing attention, and worry about reading or office matters later.  Converting an e-mail to a task is simple, and any documents needed can be attached for the task.  An example of one thing that I used to treat as e-mail and now treat as a task is reading lengthy filings.  If a filing is short, I read it right then, from the link in the notice of filing I receive from the court.  If it's lengthy, however, I turn it into a task (and note the docket number).  My paralegal Pam Matthews downloads all filings into the appropriate pleadings directory on our server, so when I'm ready to read it I pull it up using the docket number and any highlighting or annotating I do on the pleading is saved to our file copy of the document.
This is really just a advanced phase of e-mail management, as you either delete an e-mail if it simply requires a quick read or response, or convert it to a task item if it requires additional work or a more lengthy response.
Using Notes
I had no idea that Outlook's Note function was essentially really just a sticky note. The author strongly advises that you enter virtually everything in Outlook as a Note first (just hit Ctrl + Shft + N and a blank note pops up) because you can drag it to become a Task, Appointment or Contact later, and in the meantime it's sitting on your desktop waiting patiently for you.  You can even do the reverse so you have a sticky with call-in information for a call on your screen while you're working in another program (handy when you have back to back conference calls).  I had to tweak the Notes segment of the program to get mine to work right, but I'm glad I did - this is a great tip.
Using Manual Journal Entries for Timing Multiple Tasks
No one uses the Journal feature in Outlook - that's just a given.  I didn't even know what it was for, and won't bother explaining here what it is, because I don't use it either.  But the book pointed up a very useful tool within the Journal function that I now use constantly, and that's the timer function for manual journal entries.  Hit Ctrl + Shft + J and the program brings up a dialog for a manual journal entry.  You can tap in what you're doing if you want, and the form has a timer you can turn on and off to record the time spent on a given call or task.  Many readers probably have timekeeping software that does that, but the problem I had with mine is that you can't time more than one thing at a time, i.e. you can't open a item, then pause it and open another, and then easily come back to the first one.  You had to close it out and open a new item.  In my practice where I'm constantly interrupted working on one matter to work on something else, the ability to open multiple journal items with a timer function and go back and forth and accurately time the total time spent on each is a great convenience.

Those are the major tips I got from the book.  It also explained how to use Microsoft's One Note program with Outlook, so I've starting using that and will post on it as soon as I figure out how it works, and whether it's a good addition to my desktop stable.

Law Office Management: Internet Faxing

One of the things I covered in my article on starting a new law office in the Texas Bar Journal was Internet faxing, i.e. getting your faxes via the Internet rather than a standalone fax machine.  I stand by that as one of the easiest ways to cut phone line and consumables costs (paper is cheap, but toner is decidedly not) as well as a significant amoutn of time scanning faxes into your files.  While I mentioned the service I use, I've recently become aware that there are a number of services that provide this, and wanted to pass them along.  MyFax.com, eFax, MaxEmail and RapidFax are all options, which allow faxes to enter your office (or your laptop while traveling) as PDF attachments to e-mails.
You can't get away with not having a fax number yet.  But you can get away with not having a fax line or a fax machine.

Bear Essentials: Toolbox for Starting Your Own Practice

According to Baylor Law School, on Wednesday, January 7 at 3:30 pm, "Michael C. Smith ('92) of Siebman, Reynolds, Burg, Phillips & Smith will speak on ethical concerns and practical pointers to starting a new law office. This will be helpful information even if you end up going to a small firm."  So if your firm has any law clerks down that way that you can't afford to hire now, just send them my way.  The meeting materials include a copy of my July 2008 Texas Bar Journal article on the subject - to make it easier to read, I sent the original version (without all the pretty pictures and the practically unreadable .45 pt font in the magazine).Download 08-06 - Opening A New Law Office
    This is one of those weeks for speeches, apparently.  In addition to Wednesday, today at lunch I gave a presentation to the Citizens Advisory Council here in Marshall on "The Marshall Patent Docket: History and a Practitioner's Perspective."  I saved In re TS Tech for last for sort of a crescendo of interesting recent cases affecting patent dockets. 

New tab - "Law Office Management"

As regular readers know, since joining my new firm in January of this year and opening a new Marshall office I have been writing and speaking more and more on subjects of law office management, including an article in the Texas Bar Journal, a couple of webcasts, and numerous posts on specific issues of interest to practitioners who are involved in their firm's management.  These posts are not strictly on topic for a weblog devoted to practice in the Eastern District of Texas but, frankly, I haven't got the time to maintain a separate weblog on law office management (it's time-consuming enough keeping a personal one and a legal one).  So from now on I'll categorize posts on law office management issues under the appropriate tab and will try to make clear in the subject line that that's what they are for readers who aren't interested.

"Leaving the Firm: Planning for a Smooth Exit" - TexasBarCLE Webcast

Week before last I participated in the "Leaving the Firm: Planning for a Smooth Exit" webcast put on by TexasBarCLE.  I am so behind on posting that it's obviously too late to watch live (it was on Wednesday, December 10th from 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.) but it'll be up in a few days and available to watch at your leisure.  It's good for 1 hour MCLE credit (I think .25 hr ethics) and is MCLE#901170853.  The registration fee is $80.  Get more info or register .  If you cannot participate in the entire live webcast (and obviously you can't), the recorded seminar will be archived and available within one week after the event for your review through the remainder of the year (presumably that means into 2009 as well). From the archive screen you can complete the viewing of the segment, visit our discussion forum, and then apply for MCLE credit. You may access the archived webcast from Your Purchases link on TexasBarCLE.com. Questions about the webcast? Call 512-427-1749.
The official blurb for the webcast states that "[w]hether you are leaving your firm to begin your own practice, work for another firm, or retire, there are many things you need to consider. Our webcast will give you valuable information to help assist you with this process."
The speakers were myself and George W. Coleman, with the Law Office of George W. Coleman in Dallas.  George retired from a large Dallas firm a couple of years ago and has returned to the practice of law, and he and I I think provided a pretty good balance of backgrounds.  George and I both enjoyed the webcast process, and I particularly liked that we didn't have a fire alarm go off during it (as happened last time I did one of these).  I have to mention how professional the State Bar's staff is about these.  Shawna Gunkel got George and I together to work out our agenda, and the actual studio staff are great to work with (with the notable exception of the studio chairs being really uncomfortable - but they tell me they're working on that).
One thing I'd point out is that during the course George and I realized that the topic isn't just for lawyers leaving a firm - it's useful for firm administrators trying to prepare for lawyers leaving as well.  Every checklist of things to do at the back end of an attorney's association with a firm also applies to the front end when a new attorney joins a firm, George quite correctly observed.

Digital Voice Recorder

  I received a lot of e-mails after my Starting a New Law Office article ran in the Texas Bar Journal about my solution to the dictation issue, so I thought I'd reprint what I told people.
To recap, like most lawyers I'm used to having a DictaPhone system for dictating everything from time to letters to briefs.  When I first moved out I entered my own time directly into my billing software, but in a matter of days my right forearm started to threaten to fall off, so I realized I had to get something to get the typing to my secretary.  I wasn't about to incur the expense of installing a DictaPhone system (which is unspeakably obsolete anyway) and had always thought that there ought to be a digital equivalent (setting aside for the moment voice recognition software, which would take way too long to learn, and is not really necessary if you have an assistant), so I went looking.
What I use is a RCA RP5022B handheld digital voice recorder, 64 meg capacity.  I picked it up at Wal-Mart for $30 something (it's now $29.54) and it's been a lifesaver.  I plug it into a USB cable I keep plugged into my laptop's docking station and transfer the current file periodically to a folder on the server where my paralegal is expecting it.  I dictate a while, switch it off, then with several buttons I can resume dictating at the end of the file I left off.  We both have the software included installed and she plays it on that (it'll slow or speed up, which my nine year old thinks is cool - probably not as versatile as a foot pedal but she can type way faster than I can drawl the words out, so it isn't a problem).  Uses two AAA batteries so we have four on a recharger in the supply room/kitchen and I'm always switching out (but I carry a couple of real batteries on trips, since rechargeable battery life is very short).  Since I can get to my server via VPN I can record anywhere (for example in an airport waiting for a flight) and transfer anywhere I have a connection.   If the VPN is down I just e-mail the file to her. If I had multiple attorneys working out of the office (which was the question from several readers), I'd give each one one of these, and have them periodically upload the dictation files to a central location.
Only complaint I have is that I wish it uploaded new files from the handheld automatically when plugged in, like a camera does, and that some of the functions required one button press instead of several - but that's it.  I know there are many ways of handling dictation, and in larger firms I'm sure there are more elegant ones, but this works just great for my setup, and I highly recommend it.

"Starting a New Law Office: A Checklist" - Texas Bar Journal

My article "Starting a New Law Office: A Checklist" is the cover story and lead article in this month's Texas Bar Journal.  TBJ lent me the artwork from the article to use in the slide show for the accompanying webcast last Wednesday - I'll post a link to the webcast as soon as it's up, for those interested see it live (including the fire alarm in the State Bar building that ended it about 30 seconds early!)
I appreciate TBJ's giving me the opportunity to share what I learned starting my new office back in January, and hope the article is useful to practitioners out there who are thinking about doing the same thing.  As I say in the article, there is a lot of good literature out there about opening your own office, but what I thought would be helpful is a true checklist, pointing out not just what needs to be done in a more or less exhaustive fashion, but also in what order.

Starting a New Law Office: Ethical Concerns and Practical Pointers - TexasBarCLE webcast

I will be moderating an upcoming TexasBarCLE webcast next month Starting a New Law Office: Ethical Concerns and Practical Pointers.  The seminar is live via webcast on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CST.  The webcast counts for 1.5 hours MCLE credit, with one hour of that being ethics credit.  The registration fee is $95 - to get more information or register, click here.  The webcast arose out of the work I was doing on a paper on the subject that is slated for publication in the July issue of the Texas Bar Journal, so the webcast paper will be essentially the Bar Journal paper (at least that's the plan).

Topics include:

• Leaving your old firm: compensation issues, malpractice insurance coverage, file retention, taking clients, client notification
• Creating your new firm: setting up your business entity, EIN, bank accounts, etc.
• Setting up your new office
• Running your new office: pro-bono cases, filing system, supplies, software, legal research, employment contract and letters of engagement, calendaring system
• Client relations: advertising, internet presence

Faculty is:

• Michael Smith, Marshall - Siebman, Reynolds, Burg, Phillips & Smith LLP
  
• Rob Crain, Dallas - Crain Lewis, LLP
• Laura Benitez Geisler, Dallas - Jones Geisler, LLP

If you're not able to watch the webcast live, about a week after the webcast, the program will be archived at TexasBarCLE.com, and you can watch it there.  Doesn't matter whether you signed up ahead of time and couldn't make it, or signed up afterwards - either way you can watch the webcast at your leisure.  I've watched a couple of these recently and really liked the format - you can sit at your desk and watch a seminar of interest to you, pausing it as needed to handle work that can't be put off.