Categories : Technology
Internet Miscreants are Rapidly Evolving
Most exposures to crime result from failures of technical barriers, but more common issues arise from attorney and staff reactions to incoming emails.
Categories : Technology
#TechTuesday: Security Check – Protect Your Social Media Assets
By Adriana Linares
Most of us enjoy our social media accounts as a way to keep an eye on family, friends, hobbies, and passions. For many of us, they are also an important business asset.
Categories : Technology
Serious Productivity Apps and Tips for the Mobile Lawyer
Loosening up, if not entirely removing “office shackles,” interests many lawyers — and never has it been easier thanks to many modern technology tools, apps and services. Here, we recap our presentation during the Second Annual SDCBA Law + Tech Summit.
Categories : Technology Wellness
Harmonizing Work-Life Balance and Work-Work Balance
By Lilys McCoy
I recently started using a fountain pen. Why, you may ask? Two reasons: First, I felt I needed to do a digital detox and returning to longhand seemed like a good way to start. Second, my writing hand, previously hardened by years of cursive script on legal pads, spiral notebooks and paper calendars, had become weak, and fountain pens are apparently easier on the muscles (that bit of wisdom was spot on, in case you wondered). I was almost surprised to see that the descendant of the quill is still being sold and supported, but it is . . . and in many different forms and by many different manufacturers.
As I contemplated my digital detox, I also considered the hard reality that I could never really, truly unplug. Absent a decision to live completely off the grid, I must accept some connectivity in my life. And, as an attorney, I must not only accept the networked life, I must embrace it. Our ethical duties require us to do so. Notably, the American Bar Association amended ABA Model Rule 1.1 in 2012 to include technological competence: “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 technology . . .” See, 2012 Amendment to ABA Model Rule 1.1 Competence, Comment 6, Maintaining Competence as referenced in SDCBA Legal Ethics Opinion 2012-1.
The San Diego County Bar Association, long a leader in the legal ethics space, decided in 2017 to lead in the legal technology space as well. In 2018 we hired one of the first Bar Association Member Technology Officers in the nation — the incomparable Adriana Linares — and launched expert law+tech education. This edition of San Diego Lawyer is dedicated, in part, to helping members become more technologically savvy. But technical competence must not be at the expense of other competencies. And, while indispensable and unavoidable, technology should be in service of what we do as lawyers, not the essence of what we do.
Categories : Law Practice Law+Tech Technology
TechTip in a Tenth: Cropping PDF Files in Adobe Acrobat
By Adriana Linares
It’s TechTuesday! Today we are sharing the 3rd of our new series titled “Tech Tip in a Tenth”. These are short, targeted, and practical video’s approximately 6 minutes in length, because, as Technology Committee Member, David Majchrzak said, “Who can’t spare a point one!?” First, a list of more more resources on the topic followed by today’s Tech Tip in a Tenth!
Categories : Law Practice Law+Tech Technology1 Comment
TechTip in a Tenth: Remove File Properties (Metadata) from PDF Documents
By Adriana Linares
It’s TechTuesday! Today we are sharing the second of our new series titled “Tech Tip in a Tenth”. These are short, targeted, and practical video’s approximately 6 minutes in length, because, as Technology Committee Member, David Majchrzak said, “Who can’t spare a point one!?” First, a list of more more resources on the topic followed by today’s Tech Tip in a Tenth!
Categories : Law Practice Law+Tech Technology
TechTip in a Tenth: Remove File Properties (Metadata) from Word Documents
By Adriana Linares
It’s TechTuesday! Today we are sharing the first of our new series titled “Tech Tip in a Tenth”. These are short, targeted, and practical video’s approximately 6 minutes in length, because, as Technology Committee Member, David Majchrzak said, “Who can’t spare a point one!?” First, a list of more more resources on the topic followed by today’s Tech Tip in a Tenth!
Categories : Technology
Privacy Screens: A simple and affordable way to help protect client information
By Adriana Linares
Shoulder surfing: it’s a thing. How do I know? Because I’m a pro. A hard-core perp. My mental breaks are taken by peeping over your shoulder to watch your movie, read your texts and emails, or review your client’s confidential legal documents with you — hey, I’m here to help! Well, truth is, I’m just looking around but people make it so easy. No one uses privacy screens (well, at least one of us does) and just about everyone over 40 has HUGE FONTS (thanks, presbyopia). This makes the act of shoulder surfing easier than ever.
Until recent years, this act of privacy invasion was employed primarily for stealing calling card numbers and pins at public phones or ATMs and the like. Today, the illicit practice has evolved into a social engineering technique used to obtain all sorts of personal, private and confidential information. It’s an attack that can be performed with no technical skills, no technology in hand and at close range in an intimate or a public place. In fact, the more crowded, the better! As a very mobile professional, I am regularly on airplanes, buses and trains; I work from
coffee shops, bars and hotel lobbies. I sit in crowded seminars, packed airplanes and wait in long lines with everyone else and their devices. I’m no longer amazed at how oblivious people are to the information they so readily display.
And while it would be nice to have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” when we expose our screens to nosy passers-by in public places, we don’t. But we all know the reality of having a mobile practice and living in a modern world — we move, we work. So what can you do to help enforce your duty to protect your clients’ information?
Aside from opting to work only from the confines of your home or office, an excellent and simple first line of defense against this type of data breach is a privacy screen. A privacy screen helps prevent those side-eyers from getting a side view. Similar to the way vertical blinds work, they use “black out” technology that darkens or discolors the screen from any side views, making the screen hard or impossible to read at an angle. To the person next to you, your device will look like it’s turned off or mirrored but to you, the screen is not distorted or otherwise impaired.
Side Benefits
Categories : Technology
Artificial Intelligence & Legal Services for the Public Good
By Mirona Constantinescu
Artificial intelligence (AI) disruption of the legal industry is imminent. Recent advances in natural language processing and machine learning algorithms now allow software to review documents — more quickly and accurately than lawyers. AI has the potential to save costs on routine legal services — document review, regulatory checks, trial research. Yet, as much as AI may benefit firms, it has the potential to displace them.
How, then, can law firms keep pace with technological innovation and integrate computational power into their firms — rather than be displaced by it? One suggestion: provide AI and computationally aided legal services to underrepresented groups. Thus, firms may both hedge against AI risk and serve the public good.
Currently, legal service delivery gaps exist for people who earn above the maximum income limit to receive services through Legal Aid ($25,812 for a family of four), but not enough to afford a lawyer charging $150-$500 an hour. Routine tasks, however, for which it is prohibitive for law firms to charge below industry rates, can be automated; technologically integrated; and an entirely new client market retained.
From family to immigration law, child and elder services, bankruptcy and consumer law, AI will enable firms to deliver routine legal services at a fraction of the cost, benefiting underrepresented groups. Legal bots will reduce client intake time, informing them about what to expect and introducing them to processes, costs and forms. AI can scan thousands of documents and draw from databases to suggest filing and judgment outcomes, drastically reducing billable hours and improving service delivery.
Firms that adapt most quickly to this technological frontier, leverage AI and serve underrepresented groups will achieve a dual strategic advantage. Thus, AI can both serve the public interest and fill legal service delivery gaps within law firms. While it isn’t clear how soon AI will disrupt the legal industry, it is clear that legal service delivery is inextricably tethered to AI processing power. This hybrid field follows new rules: adapt and embrace or be disrupted.
Mirona
Constantinescu is a computer programmer and law student at California Western School of Law.
Categories : Technology
Outlook Hat Trick (PC & Mac)
By Adriana Linares
We recently held the first of our Microsoft Office Summer School sessions; the topic was Outlook (for PC) tips and tricks. I was glad to hear that so many attendees picked up some new and useful tips that were “life-changing.” Funny, how true that can be with technology!
While there is no shortage of great email, calendar or contact apps available, to me, there is still nothing better than good old Outlook. I struggle a little with Outlook for Mac because it’s not yet reached equal parity to its big sister (Outlook for Windows), but here are three tips that work for Outlook on both Windows and Mac.
1. Open Multiple Instances of Outlook