Do a lot of keyboarding? (We're thinking yes.) Small City Law Firm Tech blogger Vivian Manning has an easy way to boost your speed and your accuracy, to boot. Text expansion software, she says, can free you from tons of repetitive typing—and can ensure that much of your keyboarding is error-free. Today she guides a nice round-up of your options, both plain and fancy ...

Sure there are plenty of project management apps to keep us on task, personally. But can project management software be used for managing others, too? In "Project Management: Easy as 1-2-3," Brett Owens highlighted products to help you manage your practice. So we asked him back to apply his "effective, yet simple" criteria to explore that intersection between the products and the people needed to get things done.

Attorney Bill Gibson still remembers the ordeal of making a transatlantic phone call back in the 1970s when his wife lived in Europe. You had to put in a request at the post office or American Express office, then return hours later at an appointed time for the call to be put through. Today, he’s taken groups of lawyers to China, and has seen people call their office in the US standing atop the Great Wall. Yes, things have changed, particularly with ease of communication, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do a little preparation before hopping that plane. Here are seven things you can do ward off potential problems abroad so you can focus on getting the most from your trip, whether it is for business or pleasure.

Obviously, Attorney at Work lives here on the Internet. As does nearly everything else in the civilized world. But sometimes—be it solar flares, high winds, an ISP blunder or a vast electronic conspiracy—you lose access for a while. An hour. A day. A week! And even though you’ve often said, “Sure, the Internet is addictive, but I’m no addict” … you are lost without it. Well, believe it or not, there are still a few things you can do offline. Enter this week’s Friday Five, unplugged. We’ve got some great ideas for you whenever you have new-found non-Internet time.

The cloud offers lawyers unparalleled software-as-a-service (SaaS) resources to manage their practices, organize documents and communicate with clients—but it can also blur the bright-line ethics rules. To safeguard the integrity of files in the cloud, you must think critically and creatively about the ethical and practical implications of using SaaS providers. State bar ethics opinions haven't kept pace with the issues. So for now, you have to devise your own strategy to keep out of trouble. Here's a set of guidelines regarding SaaS Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to help you do just that.

Stop right there! Before you take step one to create your law firm's new website, pause to figure out what it is you really want your website to do—and who you want it to attract. Define your intended visitors as narrowly as possible. Do you want to appeal to recently injured autoworkers, for example, or in-house counsel of global technology corporations? Those are two very different websites. Ready now? Here is a fistful of basic, but absolutely critical, things to keep in mind as you get started on your new website. ...

Business travel can be bad for your health. In fact, studies show that health risks increase as travel increases. Extensive travelers are 92 percent more likely to be obese and 260 percent more likely to rate their health as poor. They also have higher cholesterol, higher body-mass indexes and high blood pressure. Even people who […]

In previous posts, Ritchenya Dodd discussed how to break through inbox clutter to deliver targeted messages, and evaluated the template-building capabilities of online email marketing services. Today, she discusses managing email contact lists to ensure your messages reach the right people—and how to avoid becoming an accidental spammer. If you’ve decided to invest time and effort into […]

Nobody really likes packing, lugging around and living out of a suitcase, but luggage is a necessary evil for road warriors. Luckily, there are simple tactics to prevent needless luggage-related stress. This week's Friday Five brings you packing tips from Jason Womack, author of Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More. He says it’s easy!

Networking. You know you have to do it, but does the thought of engaging in endless awkward conversations at cocktail parties leave you cold? Does another round of seemingly irrelevant meetings of trade or civic or association groups make you want to scream? Do you find it difficult to engage in meaningful conversation with a client over lunch? If this describes your networking efforts then you’ve been wasting your time. ...