CBA Bits & Bytes March 2018

Law Practice Management & Technology BITS & March 2018 BYTES A Supplement of the CBA Record

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Law Practice Management & Technology BITS & March 2018 BYTES In this inaugural issue of Law Practice Management & Technology Bits & Bytes, a supplement to the CBA Record, we want to introduce readers to business tools and processes to improve and expand their law practice. In 2012 the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1 (Compe- tence) comment [8] was revised to read: “To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology,…”. The Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 1.1 (Competence) comment [8] has been updated to reflect the language in the model rules effective January 1, 2016. Table of Contents Using Technology for Smarter Document Creation..........................Page 4 CONTACT The Chicago Bar Association Are You Tracking Time or is Time Tracking You? ................................Page 7 321 S Plymouth Ct On Illinois’ New eFiling System, You Finally Get a Choice ..........Page 8 Chicago, IL 60604 (312) 554-2000 Presenting with PowerPoint ............................................................................Page 10 www.ChicagoBar.org State of the Communication Nation...........................................................Page 13 With this supplement The Chicago Bar Association wants to help A Supplement of the CBA Record educate attorneys and legal professionals about best practices, products and services that help them stay compliant with the IL RPC and maintain efficient and modern practices to serve clients, provide ©2018 Chicago Bar Association. All rights reserved. access to justice and uphold the rule of law. LPMT Bits & Bytes | March 2018 3

Simplify Your Document Creation USING TECHNOLOGY FOR Changing the way you work may SMARTER several small changes you can seem daunting, but there are implement that will have a big impact on your time and ability to DOCUMENT CREATION deliver top-notch client service. 1. Talk, don’t type 2. Leverage smartphone apps 3. Embrace the cloud By Jami Gyurci 4. Streamline workflow Gain visibility of your team’s Creating a legal document is one of the most time-con- which typically workload. There are so many suming duties that attorneys tackle during any working day. lack the robust options available to improve your The need to create pleadings, agreements, letters, memos infrastructure and IT work and processes, and now is the time to make the changes to and many other kinds of legal documents remains a criti- staff of large firms, your document production process cal part of the legal process. Fortunately, the way in which cloud technology that will ensure efficiency and documents can be created has evolved, so this traditionally allows users to share profitability long into the future. tedious task can be completed much more efficiently. documents more easily so they can By leveraging the latest digital dictation tools, smartphone collaborate on files and improve workflow. When choosingd improve workflow When choosing apps and flexible cloud-based technologies, firms can a new cloud-technology, it’s essential that firms check that greatly streamline the document creation process and their technology partner offers the data security features reap significant rewards including lower overhead, greater required to protect their client information. efficiency, increased billable hours, improved client service and cost savings. What’s Your Workflow? Digital Dictation & Speech-Recognition Tools Does your firm currently have an efficient and effective One of the greatest efficiency enhancers in recent years business process workflow system? Workflows can be involves the substantial improvements in digital dictation deployed to create documents more efficiently and keep and speech-recognition software. With the right technology, attorneys and staff from getting overwhelmed at busy times, assistants often can improve efficiency between 50 and 75 for example when attorneys and their teams are preparing percent. Many products are extraordinarily accurate and for a trial. Some of the new software tools include task unlike old-fashioned dictation tapes, assistants can split delegation functionality, so important work can easily be transcription work into separate pieces even when it exists entered, assigned and tracked. This type of technology gives as one electronic file. This means multiple transcribers can visibility of which staff have availability to step in and help, work together on different sections of a single file, which and which are overloaded. In addition, when assistants are was impossible with tape. out sick or on vacation, these tools can help management to redirect work or expedite urgent tasks. Digital Dictation in the Palm of Your Hand New technologies and processes can relieve staff and Taking advantage of smartphone apps is one of the attorneys from much of the drudgery of document creation, quickest ways to ease the document creation process. allowing them to spend more time on strategic work. Digital dictation smartphone apps developed specifically Instituting change within a law firm can be daunting, for law firms allow attorneys to record notes on the go, so it’s helpful to remember that the core ideas behind whether they’re on the way to a meeting or waiting at the document creation will remain the same. Equally important airport. With some apps, assistants receive dictations and to remember is that the workflow for the attorney changes files from the attorneys immediately, allowing them to very little. A few small changes can reap great rewards both start working right away — there’s no need to wait for the for the users and for the business. attorney to return to the office and deliver a pile of tapes or dock their dictation device. This helps the attorneys to work Jami Gyurci is the Senior Marketing Manager at BigHand more efficiently by empowering them to turn previously M: 651 747 7206 | www.bighand.com unproductive downtime into billable hours. Recognized as the Number One Digital Dictation Solution Leverage the Cloud and Macro / Template Solution in the 2017 ILTA Technology Cloud-based technology also plays a big part in simplifying Survey and streamlining document creation. For smaller firms, 4 www.ChicagoBar.org

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ARE YOU TRACKING OR IS TIME TIME TRACKING YOU? By Eubin Rii Imagine how much more you would Op. 93-379 regarding billing enjoy working throughout the day if professional fees.) you no longer needed to manually keep track of your time and record Keeping complete and accurate billable hours. Well, imagine no activity and time records enables you longer. The technology to track all to adhere to the Rules of Professional your activities and time is here. Conduct and obtain analytics to measure the performance of your firm. Keeping track of your time and activities is a Keeping time records empowers you to necessary evil for the practice of law. Regardless determine how much of your day you spend of whether you bill hourly, fixed or flat fee, or on on billable work, determine staff costs and calculate contingency basis, tracking your time is necessary. Rule the profitability of each of your matters. This is especially 1.5 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct provides important for firms that charge on a fixed or flat fee basis, “[a] lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or as there is a tipping point at which you no longer are collect an unreasonable fee….” Reasonableness is the basis profitable due to the number of hours spent on a client’s of charging fees and maintaining a record of your activities matter. and time assists you in establishing reasonableness. (See ARDC case In re Neely, M.R. 27514, 2014PR00129 (Sept. The technology now exists to automatically record all your 21, 2015), attorney was suspended for two years from the time and activities. In the best case use of automated practice of law for misconduct involving dishonesty and time and activity tracking technology the application unreasonable fees). would associate activity to the client’s matter with virtually no user interaction. There’s no need to waste time on The best practice of time keeping is contemporaneous administrative non-billable tasks. timekeeping. Contemporaneous timekeeping is recording your time, activity and associating it to the matter at the In addition to automatically tracking your time and time you complete the activity. For example, if you receive activities, your firm should be able to analyze your data a phone call from your client, you track the begin time to provide you key performance indicators (KPIs) and and end time of the phone call, create a record with the dashboards (“Firm Insights”) so that you can check the description of the call, and associate it to the matter. pulse of your firm. KPIs can show you your revenue and profitability metrics, lead analysis, and practice area But, the most common timekeeping method is specific metrics so you can make data driven decisions. reconstructive timekeeping. Reconstructive timekeeping is where you go back in time, at the end of the week Eubin Rii is General Counsel for Smokeball, Inc. or month, to review your file for documents, emails, 866-668-3206 | www.smokeball.com and events to determine how much time was spent. Unfortunately, reconstructive timekeeping is inherently To learn why the most profitable law firms use inaccurate. (See the American Bar Association Formal Smokeball, please call us or visit our website LPMT Bits & Bytes | March 2018 7

On Illinois’ New eFiling System, You Finally Get a Choice By Alex Braun The rollout of a statewide eFiling platform is a Why pay transformative moment for the Illinois courts. But if you Here are som already eFiled locally in years past, you may not realize how reduced or avoided by using a paid EFSP. much your experience is about to change under Odyssey eFileIL. • Accounting chaos. The Odyssey EFM the courts use immediately charges a credit card for each statutory By summer, you won’t have to bother with the clerk’s court fee, which can make it difficult to accurately website to file in Cook County. You’ll get to choose one reconcile charges back to cases and clients. Some EFSPs portal you can use to file civil cases in any court in the state. can disburse those fees on your behalf, organize them And if you’re not satisfied with your filing experience, you into ready-made invoices by client, and bill your firm can choose another one tomorrow. monthly or weekly. The way eFiling used to be • Rejected filings. Electronic filing brings with it a new Electronic filing is not new in Chicagoland. set of document preparation standards, and failing to follow them closely can result in rejections. Some EFSPs In 2003, the Supreme Court launched a pilot program to automatically convert your documents to the correct test electronic filing in five counties, intending to eventually format, offer CLE-accredited filer trainings or provide local spread the practice across the state. But a decade later, support staff with extended hours. expansion was slow. • Lack of available filers. What if you’re on vacation, or a While eFiling cut down on trips to the courthouse and major case hits with imminent filing deadlines? Some administrative costs, the technology required significant EFSPs offer concierge services for preparing documents up-front public investment. And since different systems and filing on your behalf. operated in different counties, transferring cases became notoriously difficult. How do I evaluate my choices? Go to efile.illinoiscourts.gov and click on the “Providers” The court realized that to implement eFiling statewide , a single platform was needed. But how do you choose—and tab. You’ll see all the current certified EFSPs you can use to pay for—a system that works just as well for store owners in file in Illinois, along with a comparison chart outlining their Danville as for insurance defense firms in Chicago? pricing and key features. The Chicago Bar and other legal associations are also great resources to lean on for advice Illinois’ new, statewide eFiling system and feedback about eFiling service providers. Wisely, the Supreme Court split the task in half. They Since EFSPs can only charge per filing, there are no awarded a contract to build the courts’ back-office system registration fees or contracts to sign. Some also offer free for accepting and reviewing filings (called the electronic trial periods. There’s no risk in making a few filings with a filing manager, or EFM) to Tyler Technologies, a Texas different provider to see which you like best. company that had implemented similar projects in a dozen other states. This system would be branded Odyssey eFileIL. The only way to get burned is to not use the choice you’ve been given. To win this deal, Tyler had to build one “free” eFiling portal, or electronic filing service provider (EFSP), for filers. This Alex Braun is the Senior Marketing Campaign Manager at service had to offer the basic functionality needed to place One Legal | 224-542-9182 | www.onelegal.com a filing without levying any additional fees. One Legal is a certified Electronic Filing Service Provider But the Supreme Court also allowed for competing EFSPs, (EFSP) for Illinois courts. File and serve with top-rated which could offer extra support, capabilities or professional support and simplified billing—or email your documents for services in exchange for a small per-filing fee. The idea was us to file. to give filers alternatives that might be better suited to how they file. 8 www.ChicagoBar.org

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Presenting with PowerPoint By Catherine Sanders Reach Lawyers have long used Microsoft’s PowerPoint to provide decks? You can use the notes fields to add content to your visual displays in support of a live presentation during CLE slides, thus appealing to the folks who want words so they programs, for client meetings and to communicate with a don’t need to take a lot of notes or they want a quick version jury. Slides are also used to convey information in an easily of a longer handout. digestible format, and sent as stand alone communication devices or displayed online on sites like LinkedIn SlideShare. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put notes, suitable Over the years the expectation of a professional looking slide for sharing, into the slide notes field. In order to add bullets, deck has gone from aspirational to assumptive. Expectations hyperlinks and other formatting you can convert the slides to demand that slides are lean, rely heavily on graphics, and MS Word and edit as necessary. have a high impact. In firms with a graphic design and In PPT 2010 marketing department a lawyer can often get help, but • File – Save and Send – Create Handouts – Create Handouts what can a lawyer do on her own? in Word – Notes below Slides Live Presentations In PPT 2013 & 2016 Slides should help you make your point. Try to find images • File – Export – Create Handouts –Create Handouts in and words that help them understand the focus of your Word – Notes Below Slides point. The number one sin, ok probably number 2 (#1 is Alternates to Microsoft’s PowerPoint misleading with charts), is reading from your slides. If your While people have long used Microsoft PowerPoint there are slides have no words, you can’t read them. A slide doesn’t plenty of alternatives that let you create more fluid, or more replace the need for the audience to listen to you. A slide graphically pleasing OR just different presentations. You’ll filled with words guarantees an audience will read the slide need to practice. and not listen to you. • Prezi https://prezi.com – free if everything you do is public Getting Graphics and you want to present online. Otherwise $13.25/mo to It is important to use high resolution photographs and be able to control privacy, get image editing tools and graphics in your slides, and equally important that you have work offline. Designed to work with touch screens. permission to use them for commercial purposes. There • Keynote http://www.apple.com/mac/keynote/ - for Macs are many paid sites like Fotolia, Shutterstock and iStock by only, although you can get Keynote for iOS if you want Getty Images to ensure you have access to thousands of high to create and display presentations from your iPad. quality images with permission to use them. However there Keynote is $20, and is very good for editing graphics are a few sites to get quality graphics for free. and has pretty templates. “Works seamlessly” with MS • Unsplash https://unsplash.com/ - Free, high resolution PowerPoint, though that is not entirely true, anymore that photos. Search and download. No attribution necessary. moving from one design in PPT to another is completely • StockSnap.io https://stocksnap.io/ - Free stock photos, no “seamless”. A reality check is necessary. attribution, no copyright. Includes a free (while in BETA) • Google Slides https://www.google.com/slides/about/ - If graphics editor called Snappa. you have collaborators, this is perfect. Create, edit, share, • Morguefile http://www.morguefile.com/ - Free photo and present online for free. Not a ton of templates, but archive of high resolution stock photos. In some cases you can convert PPT to Slides easily. Not all the bells and photographers request attribution, so check the details for whistles of PPT, but enough for most people. Just like in the image. Adaptation (editing) is also usually allowed. PPT, don’t forget right click menu options. While Google and Bing have advanced image searches that Conclusion let you filter for graphics that are free for commercial use, be Whether giving a live presentation with visual props, or sure to do a reality check as the filters are imperfect. delivering interactive content on an individual basis or shared platform, we have gone a long way for static slides Occasionally you may need to capture images from your and Clipart. Take advantages of persuasive technology tools computer screen. Snagit https://www.techsmith.com/snagit. to make your point to a media savvy audience. html ($50 for a single user) from TechSmith lets you capture screenshots or just specific portions of you screen, as well as Want to learn more? Watch for upcoming Hands On training blur, annotate and edit them. All of your clips are saved to an for Microsoft PowerPoint or check out the How To… video in image library on your computer for reuse. the library at www.chicagobar.org/howto Creating Handouts Catherine Sanders Reach is the Director, Law Practice If your slides have no words how can you get your audience Management & Technology at the Chicago Bar Association. to read the case summary, the language of the contract or Visit www.chicagobar.org/lpmt for articles, how to videos, other clauses that often find their way into lawyer’s slide upcoming training and CLE, services and more. 10 www.ChicagoBar.org

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State of the Communication Nation By Anne Haag In a world where electronic communication is constantly at our fingertips, etiquette matters more than ever, no matter how dusty and drab a concept it may seem. The days of Emily Post may be long past, but some of her messages still bear repeating. Though you may never stumble upon an occasion in which it is necessary to use a tape measurer to help set a table, even Post had the What to Check insight to see, “manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you Before Hitting have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” The most important step to take to ensure your email is polite, structured, and Send: free of errors is to review it thoroughly before sending. This sounds simple, but in truth it undermines the instincts of email and thus takes effort to impose as a 1. Correct recipients and email rule for oneself. Luckily, there are tools you can use to help train yourself to take contacts this extra, crucial step. 2. Correct reply level Additionally, these tools can save you from several common but no less 3. Make sure contacts are in the embarrassing mistakes. Did you forget to actually attach an attachment? Did correct fields you accidentally send the email to the wrong person, or reply all when you meant to reply to only one person? An “undo send” button or another method 4. Check that your email is of self-check can save you time and pride. structured well a. Greeting Before you consider imposing a double-check rule though, what do you need to look out for in the first place? b. Well-organized body Tone c. Closing So what makes a modern email polite? It’s all about striking a balance between 5. Check for spelling and formality and friendliness. If you’re too formal, you’ll alienate the recipient. In grammar that might get by fact, a study by Boomerang found that formal email openings were significantly your email provider’s check less likely to yield responses from their recipients. The classically simple “hi” and settings “hello” were ranked the most effective openings. The same idea held true for closings (though in that case, they found specifically that some configuration of 6. Check for clarity “thanks” in a sign-off was the most effective). 7. Review for tone to make sure you don’t come across as curt Structure or rude Structure makes your email clearer. Formatting can become more flexible as an email thread continues, but initial communications should follow a specific Continued on next page... LPMT Bits & Bytes | March 2018 13

formula. You always want to have the following: 9. Defer delivery by however many minutes you choose 1. Subject line 10.Hit Next > 2. Greeting 11. Select any exceptions you want to apply and hit Next > 3. Body 12. Name the rule whatever you choose. Make sure the box 4. Closing next to Turn on this rule is selected (you probably will not want to select the other two boxes) and hit Finish 5. Signature block 13. Click OK We’ve already touched on greetings and closings, but 14. Click Apply let’s explore the remaining three factors. Subject lines should be informative and effective, but short. You want With that, you’re all set! If you want to delete or change to let the recipient know why you’re contacting them, and this rule, repeat steps 1-2, highlight the rule in your list and ideally use a keyword that you’ll be able to search for later. select Change Rule or Delete. However, keep in mind that many emails are received on Undo Send in Gmail mobile devices. When a notification pops up, you see only Gmail doesn’t have any options quite as sophisticated as the first several words of a subject line. Make those words Outlook, but it does have a feature called “Undo Send.” count, and leave the rest behind. Don’t get too excited – it’s not a magical reversal button, A similar rule applies to the body of your email. Get to but it does remain an option within 30 seconds of sending your point quickly, before you lose the reader’s attention. an email. That’s not a huge amount of time, but it’s usually Keep things succinct. Not every email can be short, but it’s long enough to recognize the more technical or minor generally a great idea to aim for 5 sentences or fewer. It’s mistakes you might have made. To activate this feature: an optimistic goal, but if you keep that number in mind, 1. Click the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of you’ll gradually condition yourself to conform. your Gmail home screen Signature blocks should be informative and attractive. At 2. Hit Settings the bare minimum, you want to include your name, title, 3. In the General tab (where settings automatically company, and contact information (phone and email). opens), find Undo Send: and check the box that says If your firm has a logo, include it here for a sophisticated Enable Undo Send touch. If you have a strong social media presence, you 4. If you want even less time, you can select 5, 10,or 20 might want to consider linking your Facebook, LinkedIn, seconds (30 is the default) or Twitter accounts to your signature block. 5. Scroll to the bottom and hit Save Changes So what tools are available to you to help turn this advice 6. When enabled, the yellow window that pops up at the into habit? It depends on your email provider, but most top of the page (under Gmail’s native search bar) after have some kind of option you can easily activate. sending a message will now include an Undo button for 30 seconds after sending. Create a Rule in Outlook (Desktop Version) If you’re an Outlook user, you can create a rule that will In Android hold any email you send in an outbox for an amount of Settings → Delay email sending → up to 5 seconds time that you can specify. Even ten minutes can make a big difference, particularly in tense situations where These self-check tools may seem like a burden initially, tempers might be involved. To create this rule: but they’ll save you time and embarrassment in the long run. By being just a little more mindful about your 1. Go to the File tab in the ribbon communication skills and strategies, you can help avoid 2. Select Manage Rules & Alerts issues before they start. That communication is an art is a 3. Select New Rule truth we’d do well to remember in our modern world! 4. Under Start from a blank rule, select Apply rule on messages I send Want to learn more? The Chicago Bar Association Law Practice Management & Technology provides hands 5. Hit Next > on training for MS Word regularly. Watch the schedule 6. Select any conditions you want to apply. If you want it at:www.chicagobar.org/techtraining. Or watch tutorial to apply to every email you send, just hit Next > (If you videos in the How To library online at www.chicagobar.org/ do not select any conditions, you’ll be given a message howto. that says “This rule will be applied to every message you 1 https://blog.boomerangapp.com/2017/12/how-to-start-an-email-an-email-openings-analysis/ send. Is this correct?” Hit Yes and continue) 7. Select defer delivery by a number of minutes Anne Haag is the Trainer/Coordinator at the Chicago Bar 8. In the window below the checklist, the selected action Association’s Law Practice Management & Technology will appear and “a number of” will be hyperlinked. Click it Department. 14 www.ChicagoBar.org

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LPMT BITS & BYTES THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION 321 S Plymouth Ct Chicago, IL 60604 (312) 554-2000 | www.ChicagoBar.org