Easy chair rider: take the technology you have, tune it up, add on some parts, and you'll have a streamlined practice you can run anyplace, even from the comfort of home.

You bought a computer to keep up with the practice of law, but you've become set in your ways, doing the same things you learned on the first day of the Information Age. Upgrading your memory doesn't necessarily mean adding to your computer circuitry--it can also mean learning how to do new things with what you have. Just as new styles and fabrics made office-appropriate footwear more comfortable, new attitudes and software can make your practice smarter, yet more relaxed.

Your PC probably came loaded with Windows and either Microsoft's Office or Corel's WordPerfect Office suite, both of which contain word processor, spreadsheet, contact-management, and presentation programs. You have an e-mail program that you're comfortable using. You've even connected several computers on a local area network (LAN) in your firm. Besides your copier, fax machine, and printer, you may also have a laptop, cell phone, and personal digital assistant (PDA) for working when you're out of the office.

Congratulations. You have the technology. Now get a competent computer consultant familiar with the needs of the legal profession to advise you as you take the next steps.

A few basic hardware upgrades may be worth considering.

A powerful laptop. You bought your first laptop to take a few notes and read that backlog of e-mail on the plane. But these computers are now capable of standing in for your office desktop model, so if you want to work productively, invest in a newer version with at least 256 MB of RAM, a 750 MHz processor, and at least 12 GB of hard-drive storage. Also spring for a full-size keyboard, a modem card for using the Internet, and an Ethernet card (if this is the type of network your computers use) or a docking station that will let you access your office system.

Double-duty office machines. At a minimum, get a scanner or printer that handles both black and white and color images, but do your research to make sure that it doesn't require exorbitantly priced toner cartridges. Some sole practitioners are trying out new copier/fax/printer/scanner combinations, since one machine is cheaper to maintain than three or four. Quiz other lawyers about how well their machines' various functions work; depending on the volume of your practice, the machine may not be able to keep up. And bear in mind that a flat-bed surface on which to lay documents, rather than just a feeder, makes almost every task easier.

The digital copier is winning some law-office converts, who say it makes better copies than photocopiers, runs more quietly, needs less maintenance, and includes a scanner. Hook one of these machines to your computer network, and you can print to the copier from any workstation--and make multiple copies that are automatically collated and stapled. The feeder may scan quickly, but image processing can take several minutes, and transferring a scanned image into the program on your computer where you want it saved may involve a few steps. If that program's format is proprietary, it may not accept images imported from the digital copier, so check compatibility before you buy.

A new "toy." A fairly inexpensive toy might be a digital camera or a cell phone with Internet access. Puttering around with the technology is the best way to learn what works and doesn't work for you--and you'll conquer your fear of playing with the bigger "toys."

Regular backup. Now you need to learn to take care of your electronic files by backing up your data. Just do it. It can be painful and slow, like a five-mile training run on a cold rainy morning, but you'll be glad you did it when one day you have to face a mugging, theft, fire, or other natural disaster. These can rob you of all the information you have so carefully assembled. Formulating a disaster-relief plan--and testing it to ensure it's reliable if you ever need it--is the first stage of technological maturity.

Some lawyers back up their data to CD-ROMs, but those provide limited storage space. Most users prefer to back up their office computers on an external hard drive, which costs only about $200 and can be taken off-site each night. Set your backup program (like the one provided with Windows 2000) to back up your important data--such as files you use daily--every night. Once a week, back up the whole system. Since the operation is sometimes slow, program it to occur automatically at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Some lawyers hire a company to back up their office data on its own, off-site server. These companies install special software on your system that will automatically back up your data even if you forget. They promise secure, encrypted storage to which only you have a password. However, if you're using a dial-up connection rather than a high-speed DSL line, transferring all your data may take too long for this to be a feasible option.

Next steps

You type letters, briefs, and memos in Word or WordPerfect. Now use advanced word-processing functions to edit and outline documents--and document-assembly programs to manage what you've typed.

You scan documents that you want to store electronically, preserving their original format or converting them to text for editing. Now use PDF, a universal format that is becoming standard in government and the court system.

You use a database program to list documents, note phone calls, and make exhibit lists, and you have a calendar program to keep track of dates and contacts. Now move to case-management software to combine these functions in one program.

You have a couple of computers in the office, and they are networked so that you, your part-time legal assistant, and your bookkeeper can all access the same programs. Now take a look at your practice management and how you make timekeeping, accounting, and related case matters work together.

You store demonstrative evidence electronically in order to present slide shows to jurors. Now take your presentations beyond PowerPoint.

You cart around stacks of transcripts to read, and you keep thoughts about points of law and witness questions on Post-It notes attached to your outlines. Now use knowledge-management software to prepare for trial.

You go on the Internet to use Westlaw or send an e-mail. Now expand your research, send more effective e-mail, and network online.

You're busier than ever and have to spend more time out of the office. Consider setting up remote access so you can hit the road without the back-breaking briefcase.

Word processing 

The Word v. WordPerfect dispute continues in the legal world, and both sides have their strong points. Lawyers may end up simply choosing the program that comes loaded on the computer they buy. But because Word is cranky about opening WordPerfect documents, lawyers frequently buy the program that did not come with their office suite so they can communicate easily with those who use it.

Staunch WordPerfect fans who love the program's "reveal codes" and outlining features, but must sometimes convert to Word, can try saving their files in rich text format (.rtf) or as MS Word files in WordPerfect. Then Word users can open the files with most of the formatting intact. Word users who still like "reveal codes" and find that Word's option to view formatting marks is limited can try a program that provides full "reveal codes" for Word.

Editing documents in WordPerfect using the "document review" function allows each person who works on a document to make changes in a different color. The document author can then accept or delete the changes. Because of the "reveal codes" function, it is easy to check an edited document for hidden formatting. Not so in Word.

Most Word users agree that the "compare documents" feature, which compares your document with one prepared by someone else, is fairly useless. They prefer to edit using "track changes," which allows each person who works on the document to see his or her additions and strikeouts as they are made. However, using this function may reveal crucial information to those who receive the document later. Users cannot see the so-called metadata (data about data) that Word deposits in the document, but they can see the information it marks, such as who made changes and when, as well as the changes themselves. Even if you accept or reject all changes, when the document is revised again, the previous changes may be revealed as if they had just been made. Imagine the defense reading a too-low settlement suggestion, made by one of your associates, that you thought you'd deleted.

There are some programs that remove metadata, so if you're going to use "track changes," run one of these programs before sharing the document with anyone else. At the very least, open and save the document in Notepad or Wordpad, which will remove the field-code formatting where metadata might hide.

You don't want to type a fresh memo or pleading each time you need it. Fortunately, both Word and WordPerfect allow you to insert merge codes in a document for the information that will vary--client name, contact information, dates--and use that document as a template for future versions. For simple documents, such as letters, this system may suffice. There are also programs you can add to Word to increase the flexibility of document coding. For more complex changes, document-assembly programs will ask you detailed questions about the information you want to include as you fill in the master document.

Document formatting

Portable document format (PDF) was invented by Adobe as an open standard for electronic document distribution. This universal file format preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and color of any source document, regardless of the program that was used to create it. The free "reader" from www.adobe.com lets you view, share, and print a PDF document; you can even download it to your PDA.

The newest versions of Word and WordPerfect have "publish to PDF" functions, but they're not perfect yet, and since many offices use older word-processing programs, purchasing the full version Adobe Acrobat 5.0 for about $250 will give you more flexibility in creating and using PDF documents. For example, its password protection and 128-bit encryption prevent unauthorized access and stop other people from printing, altering, or reusing the content. You can also insert comments into PDF documents, allow multiple reviewers to respond simultaneously online, add digital signatures, create interactive forms, integrate PDF documents with your databases, collect forms and documents in electronic files, store searchable archives of documents on servers or CDs, and index all documents.

If you prefer to work with documents in their original formats, other document-management programs include imaging, full-text searching, electronic evidence management, Bates stamping, and more--or you can purchase scanning software that lets you index documents with limited fields, and then burn the images and a viewer onto CDs from which they can be viewed directly.

Case management

A case-management program will help tie together all the threads of a case so you can see at a glance what is happening--no more juggling a paper calendar and stack of phone message slips or flipping through pages looking for a paper-clipped memo.

You will be investing staff time for training as well as money, so research carefully before selecting software. Ask lawyers in other firms what they use and how well it works, then contact vendors for demo disks so you can try before you buy. Make sure they offer training and adequate ongoing technical support. Find a good program that will meet your individual needs and link to other programs you use, such as accounting or document assembly--don't base your decision solely on price.

Using case-management software will require changing the way you work, but once you get your files set up and learn to use the various features, it's like riding a 10-speed bike--you will wonder why you spent so many years straining to climb hills without gears. These programs organize files, contact information, calendar, phone calls, documents, time sheets, and notes in an electronic file for each case. You can make appointments, track deadlines, set dates on which to perform certain actions, send and receive electronic messages about phone calls, add notes to case files, link to other documents, and do some rudimentary time keeping.

Most programs allow remote access so you can tap into the system when you're not at the office--or you can download contacts, calendar, and to-do lists to your PDA. If you update case information when you're not hooked to the office network, the next time you log on, the program will automatically update the appropriate files.

Practice management

Even if you work on a contingent-fee basis, you must keep track of your time; occasionally bill clients; and handle accounting tasks like issuing staff paychecks, tracking receivables, and computing office overhead. Sadly, there's no perfect program that combines these tasks perfectly for the small-office attorney. But new versions of case-management and accounting software now link more seamlessly, allowing you to bypass the middleman, which in many cases was a time-and-billing program like Timeslips that had many unnecessary features. While Timeslips linked easily to Quicken, most practitioners have foresworn this program for QuickBooks, a far less intuitive accounting program that baffles attorneys but delights most bookkeepers.

To avoid making duplicate entries in case-management and accounting and time-keeping programs, why not hire an expert to do time entries and billing, as well as accounting, in QuickBooks? Technology will nearly always help you, but you don't have to use it alone.

Presentations

Even if you've never used PowerPoint, you've seen other attorneys projecting their slides in a courtroom while you struggle with a projector and transparencies. PowerPoint comes with the Microsoft Office package, and a similar program, Presentations, comes with Corel's Office suite.

These programs are easy to use and include tutorials that walk you through setting up simple, static "slides" of documents and photos. You can also integrate sound and video with your slide show. A half-day training session will teach you how to present the trail of an electronic file, create graphs from electronic data, and more.

Once attorneys discovered presentations programs, vendors began creating products that could present more complex information with greater flexibility to zoom in on or highlight sections and compare documents.

Some even allow you to track exhibits, save parts of documents that have been modified, and print them. It may take a two-day training course to master these programs. Make sure you're totally comfortable before you take your show into the courtroom--and confirm that your program is compatible with PowerPoint, because inevitably there will be times you need to use the Microsoft standard.

Knowledge management

Analyzing a case is a large part of trial preparation: Who said what, and when? Which facts should you confirm with which witnesses? Instead of poring over notes on scraps of paper, you can keep notes electronically, in a database designed for litigators. Knowledge-management programs put your thoughts and impressions in front of you, linked logically to the appropriate background information.

The software helps you automatically cross-reference facts, witnesses, and discovery documents and link them to elements of proof and other legal issues. With an outliner add-on, you can exchange information between an outline and the database, link documents and images to the outline, and insert comments. With another add-on, you can generate an extensive time line that can be edited easily; by clicking and pointing you can add entries--just fill in the date, and the information is instantly inserted in the time line.

Research

Westlaw and Lexis are the recognized legal research giants, and each has its proponents. Some prefer Westlaw's directory-based search engine and keyword searches that hone in on issues; others say Lexis's Boolean searches and KWIC feature retrieve better hits. Some prefer Westlaw because attorney editors read every case, correct errors, and summarize the judge's points of law in headnotes that include terms or categories not found in the actual words of the opinion; others find that Lexis's "key concepts" work just as well. Westlaw includes unpublished opinions; Lexis has a link to Time Matters.

However, the complex pricing structures of these services cause some lawyers to turn elsewhere. If you choose an alternate legal research service, make sure you aren't giving up necessary features: For example, cheaper services may not do thorough full-text searches and may not publish recent cases for several weeks. But they may provide all the information you need at a fraction of the cost.

FindLaw (www.findlaw.com) is free and has the West Legal Directory of lawyers and legal professionals, case law, online career center, legal news, newsletters, message boards, service directories, continuing legal education (CLE), and legal search tools. Law.com (www.law.com) offers, at no charge, news and analysis, a career center, lists of experts and consultants, a court reporter directory, links to VerdictSearch and Loislaw cite research, Martindale-Hubbell's lawyer locator, and online CLE. Courts.net (www.courts.net) contains links to federal, state, and local courts across the country, some of which link to recent opinions. Free Web clipping services will automatically search for news and information about topics you specify. For general information, nothing beats Google (www.google.com), where you can search 4 billion Web documents organized by number of "hits," as well as images, discussion groups, and the latest news.

E-mail

You send e-mails across the office to remind your assistant of an appointment or invite a colleague to lunch, but you'd rather send formal communications on your firm's letterhead by fax or snail mail, which you think are more secure or reliable. But faxes can be misdirected or read by anyone who passes the machine, and regular mail is regularly lost.

E-mail can be used just as easily for formal communications, but make sure you treat it as a business letter: Use formal sentence structure, proper grammar, and correct spelling, and always proofread it before you send it. You wouldn't call a job applicant for an interview if there were mistakes in his or her cover letter, and if you present similarly shoddy work, you'll be found unprofessional. And keep the message to about 25 lines so it fits on one screen. Set up a signature file in your e-mail program that automatically includes your name, firm name, and all contact information, including your e-mail address.

Many states protect electronic communications within the scope of attorney-client privilege. Formal Opinion 99-413 of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility suggests that unencrypted e-mail sent over the Internet is a "mode of transmission that affords a reasonable expectation of privacy from a technological and legal standpoint."

As you do with faxes, you may append a confidentiality notice, but don't attach one automatically. Save it for correspondence that is truly privileged. If such a notice regularly goes out to the deli with your lunch order, it would weaken a claim that an attorney is making reasonable efforts to protect privileged communication.

Some firms may discourage e-mail communication to avoid creating an electronic trail of correspondence with a client, which can carry the full weight of legal documents and possibly be used in court. Agree with the other party on the ground rules for email use, especially for the delivery of time-sensitive information. "Read" receipts indicate only that the message has been delivered to the recipient's server, not whether he or she has received the message.

You may also choose to encrypt sensitive messages, and a number of providers offer this service. Encryption lets you specify who reads your e-mail and prevents readable copies from being forwarded. You may be able to decide whether the recipient can print, copy, or save the message.

As you increase your e-mail correspondence, you may want to set up filters that sort your incoming mail by level of importance. For example, one "rule" might automatically dump "cc'd" messages into a separate folder that you scan only once a day; another might delete every message sent by a spammer. If you're using a commercial service like Hotmail or America Online for e-mail, be aware that potential recipients may have set filters to block messages from these providers because of the level of spam they also deliver.

Using the Internet and e-mail opens your computer system to electronic attack, so it's essential that you run a software program that regularly checks for viruses. Take simple precautions:

* Don't download anything from the Internet, like music or games, unless you're sure it's virus-free.

* Don't open e-mail attachments unless you are expecting them (and watch out for attachments with .exe, .bat, or .vbs extensions).

* Don't use a preview pane in your email program, because some viruses open even when you view messages in this limited way.

Since viruses can automatically execute on download, contain attachments that mimic the file extension for Windows, or even send messages from someone in your address book to others in your address book, installing an anti-virus program is essential. You can set the program to screen all e-mail and downloaded programs before you activate them, run a full scan of your system at intervals, and alert you to any activity that looks like a virus. Most come with a Web link that automatically downloads the latest virus catchers--some on a daily basis.

If your Internet connection is always on, look into getting a firewall. This prevents unauthorized Internet users from accessing your private network. All messages entering or leaving the network pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that don't meet specific security criteria. Customizable firewalls can be set to screen e-mail for viruses, suppress ads, control cookies placed by outside Web sites, and prevent unauthorized programs from contacting your computer.

Networking

Now that you're cruising the Internet more, why not get out there and "meet" people? Your teenagers may be regularly gossiping in chat rooms and sending Instant Messages about who's wearing what, but there are more secure areas in which you can talk with colleagues about specific topics. ATLA, the ABA, and free online legal forums like Findlaw have discussion groups and list servers designed for trading messages about your practice area. You can also use an Internet service for online meetings.

Building your own Web page is another way to establish your Internet presence. (See Susan L. Sipe, Netting New Clients, at 44.)

Remote access

Tired of going to the office to wrap up a few things on a weekend before Monday's filing deadline? Stay home in your slippers and access your complete office files electronically. Several software programs that you can install on the office network will allow you to dial in from any computer with Internet access. With the well-equipped laptop discussed above, you can use your case-management program from your living room to change dates in your calendar, read client files, and correct documents worked on by others--then tap into your accounting program and prepare a few bills.

If your part-time legal assistant won't be in until Tuesday afternoon, pick up the phone and dictate to a cybersecretarial service. These providers will transcribe your dictation, proofread it, and send the document to your e-mail account; turnaround is rapid, and the cost is usually about a penny a word. No matter where you are, if you have your cell phone and laptop, you can move from spoken to printed word without heading into the office.

You can even receive faxes anywhere via the Internet without having to track down the hotel fax number or bother the court house clerk. E-mail fax services assign you a unique fax number and forward faxes to your e-mailbox as an attached image of the original document.

These vendors have privacy policies and password protection. Because your fax is sent as an image, "sniffer" technology that scans e-mail messages for keywords can't be used to intercept your message, so this method may even be more secure than sending a regular e-mail.

You no longer travel toting paper files and bulging Filofaxes, but wouldn't it be nice to ditch the heavy laptop, too? The latest PDAs have all the power of earlier laptops, but they slide easily into a pocket or handbag. New models are attempting to combine cell phones with PDAs, but talking and scrolling through your notes at the same time is a feat for a contortionist--and phones and PDAs are so compact that there's no reason not to carry both.

Devices that run on the Palm operating system easily manage contact information, to-do lists, and note-taking (with a keyboard add-on). The more expensive PDAs that run on the Windows Pocket PC 2002 operating system act more like laptops and may come loaded with Pocket Outlook, Word, and the Access database. Some even feature Windows Media Player and add-ons that allow you to use presentations programs. You can buy memory cards for extra storage, wireless network cards to access the Internet and tap into your office computer system, and stripped-down word-processing and spreadsheet programs for nearly any PDA operating system.

This should take care of the major tasks you need to handle while out of the office. Beware of too many bells and whistles-flashy sometimes just looks and acts cheap. Why, asks the Wall Street Journal, would you purchase a PDA with a digital camera and rotating screen that "tries to cram your whole mulitmedia center into something the size of a Pop Tart"? Look for a machine that is affordable, easy to use, and meets your needs.

Congratulations. If you've come this far, you're master of your own domain. The next step is to conquer new worlds--but we'll discuss switching to Macintosh another time.

Tap into tech resources for trial lawyers

Many plaintiff attorneys use the following software in their practices. Resources to help you determine which product is right for your office include the Law Office Technology column in TRIAL; Law Office Computing and PC World magazines; product reviews on ZDNet (www.zdnet.com), Findlaw.com, and law.com; and list servers focusing on technology, such as those run by ATLA (www.atla.org), the ABA (www.abanet.org), and the Technolawyer Community (www.technolawyer.com). (The list below does not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA.)

Word processing Conversion software

* CrossWords: www.levitjames.com/CWdoc.html

* DocXchange: www.microsystems.com/docxchange

* Filtrix from Blue Tools: www.bluetoolssoftware.com

* Quickview Plus: www.jasc.com/products/qvp

Metadata removal

* Metadata Assistant from Payne Consulting: www.payneconsulting.com

* DeltaView for small businesses from Workshare: www3.workshare.com

Reveal codes

* CrossEyes (for Word): www.levitjames.com/crosseyes/crosseyes3.htm

Document assembly

* HotDocs: www.hotdocs.com

Word add-ons

* DataPrompter: www.wordsite.com/DataPrompter.html

* BoilerPlate: www.wordsite.com/Boilerplate.html

Document imaging

* Adobe Acrobat: www.adobe.com

* DocuLex: www.doculex.com

* Summation iBlaze:www.summation.com

Case management

* Abacus: www.abacuslaw.com

* Amicus Attorney: www.amicusattorney.com

* Client Profiles:www.clientprofiles.com

* Needles: www.needleslaw.com

* PracticeMaster from Software Technology, Inc.: www.stilegal.com

* Time Matters: www.premiersystems.com

Practice management

* PCLaw: www.pclaw.com

* ProLaw: www.prolaw.com

* QuickBooks: www.quickbooks.intuit.com

* Timeslips: www.timeslips.com

Presentations

* Sanction II: www.verdictsystems.com

* Trial Pro from Idea, Inc.: www.ideaview.com

* TrialDirector from inData Corp.: www.indatacorp.com

* Visionary 6.0: www.visionarylegaltechnologies.com

Knowledge management

* CaseMap/TimeMap/NoteMap: www.casesoft.com

* The MasterList: www.themasterlist.com

Research

* CaseClerk: www.CaseClerk.com

* LexisONE for small firms: www.lexisone.com

* VersusLaw: www.versuslaw.com

Internet Ad blockers 

* AdPurger: www.adpurger.com

* Panicware, Inc. (pop-up stopper, firewall, cookie manager): www.panicware.com

Faxing

* MaxEmail: www.maxemail.com

* eFax: www.efax.com

* J2 Global Communications: www.j2.com

Image downloading

* Snag-It: www.techsmith.com/products/snagit

Remote access

* GoToMyPC: www.gotomypc.com

Secretarial service

* International Virtual Assistants Association: www.ivaa.org

* CyberSecretaries: www.youdictate.com

Word tips

* Woodys Office Watch: www.woodyswatch.com

E-mail Encryption 

* Authentica: www.authentica.com

* HushMail: www.hushmail.com

* PKI Innovations: www.p3i.com

Virus protection

* AVG Antivirus: www.grisoft.com

* Panda Antivirus: www.pandasoftware.com

* PC-Cillin from Trend Micro: www.antivirus.com

PDAs Word processing

* Documents To Go from DataViz: www.dataviz.com

* Quick Office: www.quickoffice.com

* WordSmith from Blue Nomad Software: www.bluenomad.com

Rebecca Porter is an associate editor of TRIAL The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by TRIAL or ATLA.