• About Andrew Flusche
• Contact Andrew
• Projects
• Advertising

Blawg Review #92

What is this?

If you haven’t read Blawg Review before, you’re in for a treat (hopefully). It’s a weekly showcase of the best that the legal blogging community has to offer. It’s a mix between a blog carnival and a law journal. A bit of knowledge, a lot of fun, and it travels around each week.

First of all, a huge thank you goes out to all of the submitters for this week’s issue of Blawg Review. I signed up to host months ago, and I had no idea I would receive so much help. Thank you!

Second, thank you to the Editor of Blawg Review. He has helped so much, and I’m grateful for this awesome opportunity.

Since Legal Andrew focuses on productivity tips and techniques, I chose a simple organization method for this issue. It follows the five steps of getting things done (“GTD”). If you’re not familiar with GTD (Wikipedia explains it), it’s a system of breaking down everything on your plate into doable actions. For those of you in need of some productivity help, I highly recommend David Allen’s excellent book on the subject, Getting Things Done.

Collect

Chief Justice Roberts presented Congress with data on judicial pay, which people are now interpreting: LAW: Judicial Pay.

Collect vital information from clients in your initial meeting to Thin slice your way to increased law firm productivity. And be sure potential clients follow the rules: 15 Rules for Clients: A Mini Manifesto. Plus, there’s a great follow-up cartoon: the lawyer’s client manifesto.

But some forms of information collection aren’t so popular, and might be illegal. Take cyber-shaming, for example: WSJ, cyber-shaming, and limited privacy.

Do you think you can collect the identity of anonymous law bloggers? Legal Blog Watch covers The Urge to Undress and Unmask. At the same time, techdirt explains a debate over anonymity: The Importance Of Protecting Anonymous Speech Online.

Apparently Apple and Cisco are collecting their troops over the iPhone trademark, but Cisco is courting bloggers as well: Let loose the blogs of war. More on the case: iPhone: Section 8’s Day In The Sun.

Are you having trouble collecting an insurance claim? You’re not alone: Florida Legislature to Ban Hurricanes — More at 11:00.

Bloggers are now collecting information at major events, such as the Libby trial: The Bloggers Have Arrived.

Do you get lots of email? If so, perhaps this post will speak to you: An Email Emergency. Personally, I love the DELETE key.

If you’re trying to collect more reading material, What About Clients? has you covered: Redux: Our Favorite Non-U.S. Blogs and…..

Process

When you’re processing things you have collected, be certain to get your terms correct: More on “Hold Harmlessâ€Â? and “Indemnifyâ€Â?.

In order to process things to the court, e-filing is becoming a new gold standard. In this respect, check out Ernie’s e-Filing Primer to learn all about PDF tools for lawyers.

You might consider processing what you have collected in your professional life. Perhaps practicing law isn’t for you: Lawyers, Walks of Life and a Po Bronson Update.

If you’re an airline agent, be careful when processing. You don’t want to “profile”: Damned if you do files: $400k for “profiling”. And Canadian border officials should be careful too: Rapper asks $900 million for Canadian border hassles.

There seems to be some dispute about how university technology transfer offices process new discoveries by researchers: Trouble With Tech Transfer…Or Expectations?.

When trying to process an important decision, don’t misunderstand Solomon: Wisdom of Solomon – Justice is Not Splitting the Baby.

Organize

Photo from juan23for

David tells us all what programs can help you get more done: Programs to Help Lawyers be More Productive. Then Grant fires off a response, tailored to the Mac users out there: Programs to Help the Mac Lawyer be More Productive.

In organizing your firm, David Maister wonders how you can be the warlord that will keep your underlings: A Home Fit For Heroes?.

Are you overlooking social media? Justin at HUMAN LAW explains how to organize your employees and channel the social media outlet: Are big consultancy firms going to embrace social media?.

While organizing, don’t forget about the things that really matter (hint: not page views): What’s the real goal of lawyer Internet marketing.

When organizing your company’s pension plan, you can consider a “cash balance” plan: Cash Balance Pension Plans Not Discriminatory: Supremes Deny Appeal.

Since calendars are crucial to organization, maybe you should check this out: ClearSync: Read Our Exclusive Report.

At this point, you’re probably in need of something funny to relax a bit: Those Appealing Lawyers.

Review

Photo from Brian Sawyer

Review your work-life balance, and see if Arnie’s resources can help you out: new perspectives on work-life issues in the law and more work-life resources for lawyers.

Some people argue that law schools should review (and limit) their curriculum to avoid Curriculum Proliferation.

Health Care Law Blog explores a new health care management tool that should help patients track and review their health history and needs: Health 2.0: A Personal Tour Of Revolution Health.

idealawg gets a legal writing consultant to review how he got to where he is today: Interview of Dr. George D. Gopen: WRITING FROM A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE.

Eric Muller at Is That Legal? reviews the Japanese internment camps from WW II, and compares the lawyer pro bono response to that of current detainees: Why Cully Stimson Is Wrong: A World War II Precedent.

In the course of reviewing your field, don’t forget about your competitors: Linking to and blogging about competitors’ blogs is smart.

Maybe you should review your blog and see if it counts as “advertising” under New York’s new rules: Are Blogs “Advertisements” Under the New York Lawyer Advertising Rules?.

Reviews always deserve awards, such as the 2007 Law Technology News Law Firm and Law Department Awards: & THE WINNERS ARE…..

Evan Schaeffer reviews this week’s law school blogs. Among many other awesome links, you can learn about personal happiness (New Semester…Part Whatever), think about consulting (Mitigate your law school debt by consulting) or check out Styles of Legal Writing.

Do

Photo from Today is a good day

Do better work and get more IT bang for you buck by “aligning” your IT guys with your firm: It’s 10 pm; Do You Know Where Your CIO Is?. And while you’re at, see how diversity can enhance your firm’s productivity: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Diversity.

Of course I’ve got to include a post written specifically for this issue of Blawg Review, and it’s a great one at that: My favorite productivity tool: voice recognition software.

But just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should, as in this case of a domain name dispute: General Media v. Crazy Troll: Not reverse domain name hijacking to bring ACPA case for expired domain.

If you’re in Michigan, you now must report if your customers’ personal data is revealed due to a security breach: Data Theft and Laboratories of Democracy.

Ever thought about writing a book? Bill Patry just wrote a 6,000 page, comprehensive copyright treatise, by himself. If that’s not cool enough, he’s integrating a blog with it and he aims to build a website that will tie in the legislative history of the ’76 Act: Rethinking the law treatise – Patry leads a revolution.

When you’re writing or talking, be aware of your metaphors: Be Careful Believing Your Own Metaphors.

Opinio Juris had an awesome guest blogger over the last week: Opinio Juris Welcomes State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger. Thanks to Jonathan Adler for the heads up and the wrap-up reminder.

If you really want to do something bold, try adding video to your blog: Will Video Kill the Blogging Stars?.

Something NOT to do: hold your wee too long. Explanation here: Sure Enough, A Lawsuit Against the Radio Station.

Thanks for reading

If you made it this far, congratulate yourself. I hope you enjoyed this issue, and please feel free to peruse the rest of Legal Andrew. If you’d like to strike up a conversation, feel free to post a comment or drop me a line.

Blawg Review has information about next week’s host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.

Sponsor: For people who are not familiar with how to apply credit card or what types of credit cards there are, many sites that provide this information. They inform about what kinds of visa cards there are and which banks charge how much how to go about to finance loans. The same sites at times also offer loan information and also information on tax accounting for people who are not very familiar with it. Some even suggest good investment bank to make wise investments in.

Get more legal tips Sign-up below to receive my bi-monthly email newsletter with free legal tips. All fields are required. Email Address First Name

See also...

Comments