Legal Technology

Workshare Gets Industrial Strength Encryption

Data in the legal world is no less secure or insecure as data in other industry verticals. Like other verticals, the legal field contains a large installation base of operating systems and office suites from Microsoft Corp. So, security by obscurity does not really work here. And as we all know, the layers of security from the firewall to the data center are necessary, but not always sufficient to protect data. Especially when you have lawyers running to courts with laptops in hand. That's why Workshare has come out with a new encryption service.

Workshare develops and distributes content-protection, content-control, and workflow software for law firms. As part of their Unified Content Protection Suite, Workshare announced the availability of encryption capabilities for its Protect Premium client. Combining policy creation and enforcment capabilities to prevent data leaks with a mechanism, AKA encryption, to protect mobile data is going to be appealing for law firms with lawyers on the run with laptops. After all, lawyers have ethical duties to protect and preserve client information.

The new Workshare service uses EAS in CBC (cypher block chaining) mode with 256-bit keys. With this, the Workshare Protect Crypto client, by itself, can encrypt data on local disks, network volumes, removable media, individual files and folders. It can also engage password encryption and integrate with some e-mail security services from the likes of Secure Computing, CryptZone, Voltage, and Utimaco. The new product integrates with Windows login and includes support for Active Directory integration. And of course, it works with Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Now, if you want to add central control to install, configure, and maintain the encryption on client systems, Workshare also provides a Management System Protect Crypto server.

If Workshare can enable IT management to install, configure, and manage encryption on client systems as easily as anti-virus services and allow end users to use encyrption with little to no interaction, it will have a successful run as a product and a good chance for longevity in this market.

Flip a Video Camcorder in Your Tool Set

What do mobile lawyers, insurance investigators, gadget geeks, teenagers and grandmothers have in common? They might all benefit from owning the Flip Video Ultra camcorder. Consultant Donna Payne gives you the lowdown on why it's the perfect time to take a Flip.

The Case for Practice Management Systems

The piece de resistance of law firm software is practice management system software to manage your entire practice. With components of time and billing, accounting, and case/matter and document management, lawyers need to go to only one place to find specific information. But do your homework before making a purchase, says Andrew Adkins III, director of the Legal Technology Institute at the Levin College of Law. Adkins lists the items to consider before acquiring an all-in-one system for your firm.

BlackBerry Pros Group at Linkedin

PinStack.com, the Web's largest BlackBerry community with more than 300,000 members, announced that it has chosen LinkedIn for Groups to facilitate professional networking for its members. To join the PinStack group on LinkedIn for free and learn more about its members and business opportunities, go to linkedin.pinstack.com.

Make the Case for Legal Technology

If you are reading this blog, you no doubt have an interest in legal technology. And, you may be wondering just what I am doing here. Well, I know what I'm doing here, but that's not always clear on the receiving end for you, the reader.

Why don't you tell me what I should be doing here to help you receive information on legal technology. Fill out the following two surveys that tell me about you, your law practice, and what types of content you would like to be informed about on this blog, Law.com's Legal Technology section, and our weekly newsletter: Legal Technology Bulletin.

1. Reader Survey
2. Content Survey

The surveys will take longer than an elevator speech on your practice, but less time than it takes to make a pot of coffee.

And thank you for your time. It is something I can't give back to you, but I hope to make up for that by delivering more relevant content in a format that is easy to receive.

Catalyst CR 7.0 in the Wild

Catalyst Repository Systems released Catalyst CR 7.0 today and continued to differentiate itself in the e-discovery market with foreign language translation. Among the new features:

1. On-screen translation of foreign documents into English. The feature works for e-mail, text files, and for most MS-Office files, which are converted to HTML in the conversion process;
2. A translation tool that allows a reviewer to snip content from one document, translate it, and search for that text in a document repository; works with up to 15 foreign languages;
3. A review module allowing administrators to batch documents and create customizable work flow for a distributed review; and
4. Workflow reporting features that allow users to view results by concept or by the descriptive content extracted from a document set, such as an e-mail address.

Practice Management in a Box

The piéce de résistance of law firm software is a practice management system that manages your entire practice. With components of time and billing, accounting, and case/matter and document management, you only need to go to one place to find specific information -- and vendors will not be pointing the finger at each other if you report a problem. But do your homework before making a purchase, says Andrew Adkins III, director of the Legal Technology Institute at the Levin College of Law. Adkins lists the items to consider before acquiring an all-in-one system for your firm.

Strategic Sourcing and IT

While many law firms have a handle on spending on administrative costs like staff salaries, insurance and benefits they haven't attacked other huge spending areas, such as supplies and contract labor. Perhaps 15 to 20 percent of Am Law 100 firms are now tackling this opportunity by hiring someone with strategic sourcing experience to centrally manage vendor contracts. But firms need to get buy-in from their technology gurus to take sourcing to new levels and measure the effectiveness of software to analyze spending patterns.

Tracking the Troll Tracker

Before in-house lawyer Richard Frenkel outed himself as the Patent Troll Tracker blogger, he posted anonymous blog entries that alleged two Texas lawyers conspired with the Eastern District clerk's office to alter the filing date of an infringement suit filed against Frenkel's employer, Cisco Systems. Now, Frenkel and Cisco are defendants in two separate defamation suits filed by the two lawyers, illustrating the legal pitfalls of anonymous blogging, especially about litigation involving your employer.   

Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition 2008

Amicus Attorney Small Firm Edition 2008 is mostly an incremental upgrade from previous versions, says Wachovia VP and assistant general counsel Richard C. Belthoff, Jr. But new features like automatic spell check and text completion can make the upgrade worthwhile for small law firms.