Should law students use LinkedIn?
Similar to the ways that law students can stay connected on Facebook, LinkedIn provides new attorneys opportunities to stay connected and expand their network as they meet other professionals.
For ideas particular to the legal profession, Lawyerist offers these great tips for law students who are wondering how to use LinkedIn: » FULL STORY
Occasionally I try out new law firm software in hopes of finding one I actually like. Most law firm software is viewed as a necessary evil: old, cumbersome, and frustrating. This is a review of Easy Legal Billing.
What is Easy Legal Billing?
Easy Legal Billing is 100% web-based software that allows for usage on any internet-connected computer. Easy Legal Billing is a web-based legal invoicing platform that allows for » FULL STORY
Below is a review of Clio from 2012, followed by an old review from 2009. The 2009 Clio review has become obsolete due to substantial improvements since 2009.
My first experience with Clio a couple years ago led me to conclude that Clio was not ready for our firm, and I suspect that many other attorneys had similar conclusions.
However, I now consider Clio to be a fantastic option for small law firms and solo attorneys.
Three attorneys and a paralegal in our firm recently tested Clio in a comprehensive way, using it for a number of months. We have been exceedingly impressed by how robust it is and yet Clio remains simple to use.
In short, I think Clio is an outstanding option for small law firms or solo attorneys. Despite my earlier recommendation against Clio, I think Clio now has exactly what small law firms need to provide case management for their practice with all the important features and an efficient, simple, time-saving user interface that eliminates the frustration I have had with most practice management software.
There was a time when software with a lot of features was also complex to operate. However, Clio offers feature-rich law firm software in an intuitive and simple user interface.
We put Clio to the test with a variety of fee structures including
We also tested tracking of expenses, mileage reimbursement, and client trust accounts. Clio did it all!
Clio was highly customizable for a variety of attorneys and circumstances:
Whatever we tried to throw at Clio, Clio handled it with ease. Customizing Clio was easy, and the administrative staff, tech staff, and attorneys were all happy. Any attorney around for a few years can tell you that this painless experience with practice management software is exceptional and rare.
Our small law firm has no network. Clio doesn’t require a network, because it is merely a website, so attorneys can access it anywhere, including from their smart phones. We no longer need a network because, thanks to Clio, all of our software is “in the cloud.” For example, we share and backup all files with Dropbox; use Google Apps for calendar, tasks, email, and contacts; and store notes in Evernote. The only software we buy to install on computers is Microsoft Word, but with Google Docs and Open Office, even Word may no longer be needed.
I compared Clio to Freshbooks and a number of other SaaS invoicing services. Nothing came close to Clio for attorneys (admittedly, I did not compare Rocketmatter recently). Once especially nice Clio feature is the option to include account statements with every invoice. That is, Clio will generate an invoice and can also attach an overview of the client’s account showing all payments and invoices to date. Clients love this. This feature has allowed us to stop invoicing in Quickbooks. The simplicity of Clio invoicing has turned invoicing from a nightmare (during our Quickbooks days) to what it should be—a simple review of work done for clients and related expenses. We still use Quickbooks for reconciling checking accounts, but Clio tracks all client invoices, attorney time, expenses, trust account balances, and client payments.
Clio has made amazing improvements since my 2009 review, so it would be no surprise if the remaining issues I have are resolved soon. My current issues are these.
First, it would be nice to have a feature where Clio could send a weekly email to attorneys showing their hours worked and other statistics, so attorneys and their supervisors could constantly be reminded of their progress (or lack of progress). While this report is available in Clio, a nice feature in Clio would be to schedule emailing of reports on a periodic basis.
Second, Clio provides no way to email invoices as attachments except for first saving the invoice as a PDF and then emailing it. Clio offers a Clio Connect service that emails clients, but clients then need to login to see their invoice, which is an unnecessary and annoying set of additional steps for clients, especially those who are tech-challenged. While this isn’t a major problem, we would love to be able to click a button (after approving all invoices) and have them mass emailed to each client with a custom-written email from us explaining that their invoice is attached.
Customer service is a big issue for lawyers. Time is money, and waiting for technical support can be costly. Here, Clio impresses us every time we have a problem. When we call, within a few rings we are greeted by a Clio representative who is friendly and knowledgeable. Frankly, I have never had phone support like Clio’s. Clio’s online support is equally impressive, providing a thoughtful and helpful response to questions within hours of my online request. For customer service, no company can surpass Clio’s responsiveness and helpfulness.
While I discouraged use of Clio in the past (see the 2009 review below), I now believe Clio is an exceptional option for solo attorneys and small firms. I have not recently tested Rocketmatter or other competitors, but I have no need to because Clio does everything we need and is robust enough to grow with us. In addition, Clio’s rate of innovation and top rate customer service cannot be matched.
Disclaimer: I received no monetary compensation for writing this review. I have no ties to Clio. However, we did receive free access to test Clio and the other SaaS practice management software in preparation for writing this review.
Note: The following review was written in 2009 and has since been updated with the 2012 version above. The makers of Clio have made major improvements to the software, so this 2009 review is no longer applicable.
For years, law firm software has been overly complex, frustrating, time consuming, and difficult. Today, solo attorneys and small firms have a variety of better options.
Non-law companies are offering software online, like Gmail and Zoho. And now, even law firm software is available as an online tool, fully functioning within your web browser. Techies refer to this as Software as a Service (“SaaS”), providing software through a web browser and storing the data “in the cloud” (i.e. online).
The two big players in the online law firm software niche are Clio and Rocketmatter. This is a review of Clio, followed by a comparison to Rocketmatter and traditional law firm software. » FULL STORY
This article was submitted by a guest author, listed at the end of this article.
It’s that time of year again—back to school. Soon, you’ll be up to your nose in coursework, with little or no time for yourself, not to mention the lack of time and money that comes along with your quest for the coveted law degree.
No one understands the life of a law student like your fellow law students, so take a couple minutes (when you can) to catch up with some people who feel your pain. You may get some great ideas, or find solace in the fact that others are suffering more than you. Here’s a list of some blogs written for and by law students for your perusal.
1. Law Magazine Weblog: No one knows the travails of law students and lawyers like the folks at Law Magazine Weblog. For articles on the life of law students and lawyers, to news and features regarding the profession, take a look at this blog for insights from others who » FULL STORY
The Frugal Law Student blog won the Law School division of the ABA’s blog contest, “Top 100 law blogs in the country.” But the contest was not without drama. » FULL STORY
Regent University School of Law has a web page listing its law students’ blogs. This was the first time I had seen a law school that published a list of blogs run by its law students.
Does your law school have a blog directory listing law students’ blogs? If so, please leave a comment here with the link for other law students to enjoy.
UPDATE: The website referenced here, SchoolBlogVote.com, no longer exists.
If you have a blog and you are a law student, medical student, seminary student, or MBA student, maybe you posted your blog posts on Digg.com in hopes of getting thousands of visitors to your blog, getting filthy rich, and retiring to Silicon Valley.
Unfortunately, Digg caters to geek topics, and despite the fact that most graduate schools have plenty of geeks, it’s really tough to get a popular post on Digg.
As a side note, the only post from TopLawStudent that made it big on Digg was this one, and Digg sent over 7,000 visits in two hours, which crashed our law school blog for the rest of the day.
A possible solution has arrived: School Blog Vote is a new site where students can post their own blogs and vote on other students’ blogs.
The benefit of School Blog Vote to student readers is—students can find great websites, blogs, and blog posts of interest to students.
The benefit of School Blog Vote to student bloggers is—more people will find their blog. And that means increased visitor traffic, something every student blogger desires.
School Blog Vote is categorized into sections for law students, medical school students, MBA students, seminary students, and undergraduate students. This is nice because seminary students probably have little interest in res ipsa loquitur. Of course, seminary students can always check out the law student section for juicy gossip, such as the law student who got naked for Playboy (news story).
One nice feature of School Blog Vote is that the site allows voting without having to create an account first. Once you’ve voted, you can’t vote again (and artificially drive up the votes). This appears to be tied to your IP address, so in theory, students could login to mulitiple computers and vote multiple times. But seriously, how many students have that much free time? Okay, maybe some do, but I presume the administrators at School Blog Vote have a way of taking care of that. Anyway, I like that you don’t have to login to vote.
However, you do have to login to post to the site, which I suppose is necessary to prevent spam (no, I don’t want to read about “Buy Viagra Online” or “XXX Paris Hilton photos”).
School Blog Vote is a great idea. It is also a new idea. The problem with new ideas on the web are 1) they may not have much traffic for a while and 2) they may never have much traffic.
Still, I think it’s a great idea for a few reasons. I have a hard time finding other law students’ blogs, and I presume that medical students, MBA students, seminary students, and undergrads might have the same problem. It’s even more difficult to find good blogs. At School Blog Vote, the good posts rise to the top based on reader’s votes.
Also, a site like this gives students an incentive to start a blog, since students can see the best of what other students are writing.
Finally, School Blog Vote rewards students who blog by driving traffic to their blogs, which often generates income through Adsense, Chitika, or other blog advertising programs.
So if you you support the idea of encouraging students to blog, or if you are a blogger who wants more visitors, check out School Blog Vote.
Facebook.com has many excellent applications. The best Facebook applications are
featured and reviewed at www.BestFacebookApplications.com. If you are a Facebook.com fan who uses facebook applications, you will enjoy this blog launched by another law student.
The blog is run by Brett McKay, a law student who publishes the Frugal Law Student blog.
After my first law school semester, a friend tried to convince me to leave Microsoft Word and instead take notes with Microsoft OneNote 2003 (Old Version)
OneNote has every feature that a student would use in Microsoft Word plus so much more!
Record Your Professor Synchronized to Your Notes. One of the coolest features is how it can record your professor while you take notes. Then later when you click on a note, you can play the audio of your professor talking exactly when you typed that note. So on take-home exams, you can just scan your notes for key concepts on your exam and re-listen to your professor discuss those concepts.
Search Your Audio Recordings. The new version, OneNote 2007
UPDATE: Real Lawyers Have Blogs says that one law school graduate landed a job with a large firm by blogging.
NOTE: If you are a law student or attorney with a blog, please see the offer to promote your blog at the end of this post.**
As blogging becomes more popular, it is inevitable that law students will increasingly become bloggers. Still, this may be a little surprising considering the immense time pressures that law students face. However, maybe it is exactly that pressure that entices law students to have a blog. That is, maybe writing to a blog is a release of tension, much like journaling used to be.
Marketing
Blogs can also be a form of marketing. For example, Andrew Flusche started his blog, » FULL STORY
Law students and attorneys are increasingly recognizing the value of having blogs. Those with blogs or even just a website might be interested in a free, new service that enables bloggers to send a daily, weekly or monthly summary of the latest blog posts directly to visitors’ inboxes: Zookoda.com. Think of it as blog email.
Benefits for Website Owners Too
If you don’t have a blog, that’s no problem. Maybe you publish content directly to your website. For you, Zookoda’s free email service offers you an effective way of pushing content and attracting visitors back to your site. Although Zookoda is positioned for bloggers, Zookoda offers great benefits to » FULL STORY
Law students, like lawyers, have busy lives and a shortage of free time. That’s why this little tip to save time online is so helpful.
You may have wondered what RSS or this symbol 
means. It means the website you are reading has an RSS feed, which can be read by Google Reader or another RSS reader. But what is RSS? Watch this short and entertaining video explaining how an RSS reader will save you a lot of time on the web. » FULL STORY
Marketing skills are important to law students and new lawyers. This article will review one online advertising option for lawyers providing legal services: TopLawyersofAmerica.com.
Top Lawyers of America.com is a website designed for lawyers to advertise themselves or their law firm. This website features a wide variety of categories that potential customers can search to find an attorney to » FULL STORY
Tired of reading your law school cases? Or maybe you just want to reinforce what you read. Now you can listen to cases on your iPod. Just download the audio file of cases in your law school casebook at AudioCaseFiles.com.
Even better, AudioCaseFiles.com has case briefs, so you can listen to an overview before you read a case, or you can listen to the case briefs as a review for final exams.
The quality of the audio files is excellent, with professional voices that make for easy listening—which is quite an accomplishment for boring cases.
This is a great tool for law students seeking to utilize time while driving, exercising, or sitting on a bus.
Do you have friends who want to go to law school? They may enjoy the new LSAT Blog or the Princeton Review Podcasts.
Want to send a cell phone text message (SMS) from your computer? It’s easy, and free! And you can do it here.
Imagine you are sitting in your law school class. You think of something you need to tell your friend, and you want to send a quick message to your friend. The friend may not check e-mail for a while. What do you do? Send a text message using Google’s free “Send a Text Message” service. No login is required. Just go to the website and start typing your message.
A similar service is provided by Teleflip, but Teleflip can log your email address. WithTeleflip, you can send an email that shows up on someone’s phone as a text message. Try out this email to text message service.
In addition to these free computer-to-cell-phone text message services, here are 5 more free SMS services.
Losing your class notes before law school final exams could be tragic. Law students interested in free backup solutions can go here: How to Backup Your Documents Online for Free. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a current list of free online backup services.
In the old days, a cowboy could ride into town and no one knew if he was honest or a bank robber. Today, anyone can Google someone’s name to see what has been written about or by the person, and possibly learn about their involvements.
AELR Blog recently discussed this when mentioning a Washington Post article, Harsh Words Die Hard on the Web: Law Students Feel Lasting Effects of Anonymous Attacks, which discusses how one Yale law student’s job hunt was stunted by what was written about her online.
Even more concerning is a website called The Gorb, which allows people to rate and review other people. The reviews are available online like an Amazon.com book review for anyone to see. This site has been criticized by internet commentators. It also raises questions about how libel and defamation laws will be applied.
It will be interesting to see how the reputations of law students, lawyers, and other professionals are affected by the “information age” being applied to personal reputations.
UPDATE 1: Read what one blogger has to say about the legal implications of criticising people online at the Life is Risky blog here: Defamation of Character.
UPDATE 2:A website similar to The Gorb is Rapleaf, a site for rating buyers, sellers, and others.
Many law students use LinkedIn for professional networking and MySpace for social networking. Law students also use a number of other similar services. Wouldn’t it be great to view the pages of all your friends, family, and professional contacts? Now you can.
Using Upscoop.com, you just enter the e-mail and password to your Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, or Hotmail account. Upscoop compares your contacts and displays to you anyone with a page at these websites. It’s very easy and works great!
The process only takes about 30 seconds. If you have a lot of e-mail addresses, the service will e-mail you the results after it looks them up (which could take hours, or even days, if you have many addresses).
Upscoop will search Aim.com, Bebo.com, Classmates.com, Facebook.com, Flickr.com, Flixter.com, Friendster.com, Hi5.com, LinkedIn.com, MySpace.com, Ringo.com, and Tickle.com.
Update: For more information about Twitter, I highly recommend Caroline Middlebrook’s Guide to Twitter.
Wondering why everyone’s abuzz about the potential of Twitter? Chris Brogan offers 5 reasons why they’re not crazy. For law school study groups or merely law school friends, this appears to be an efficient new way to get quick answers from friends about a law school assignment or a reading assignment, keep in contact with old family and friends, or stay in touch for after-class socializing. What’s so great about it? » FULL STORY
Law students are professionals, but drawing the line between formal and informal can be difficult with technology such as instant messaging (IM). The problem is also present in e-mail, because the medium is inherently informal. Here is a quick list of tips to prevent from being annoying on IM. Do you do these? read more | digg story
If you are a law student using a mac, you will probably enjoy many of the useful tips at Mac Law Student. Law students with a Mac often feel like the minority. They shouldn’t. Here are a number of excellent recent articles that will make life easier for law students with a Mac.
Check out these Mac law student articles and many other more recent Mac tips:
Mac Law Student also provides some Mac template files specifically for law students.
Minneapolis Bankruptcy Lawyer Minneapolis Bankruptcy Attorney Minneapolis Attorney Minnesota Lawyer Minnesota Attorney
Recent Comments
Lawyer Advertising
Are you planning a Lawyer Advertising campaign? An attorney marketing campaign can help get more clients by using a vanity toll free number that assists the lawyer marketing effort. Attorney advertising with a vanity 800 number will help an attorney be more accessible to potential clients.