LTN Connected

Hold the Phone: Samsung Calling With the New Galaxy S III

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 18:11:00 GMT

Summer has barely begun and legal professionals are presented with their first "summer blockbuster" in the form of a smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S III. The new phone brings together a wafer-thin hardware design, the Android Operating system 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and 4G internet speed.

After looking at what the smartphone has to offer, the best part is the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

Are you a tablet or an ultrabook?

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 06:06:00 GMT

Tablet computers versus ultrabooks? In the new world of portable computing, writer John Edwards looks at which type of system represents the best all-around choice for lawyers. Indeed, I am an ultrabook for the keyboard and applications by day and a tablet for reading by night.

Dictating vs. Recording

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 01:11:00 GMT

I have written at some length on the differences in dictation machines and recording devices. My preference is to carry a dictation machine to dictate or record, depending on my need. I am now looking at high-end recorders for the law firm market. If you currently use a handheld digital recorder, can you write to me at sdoherty@alm.com and tell me:

1. What events or notes do you primarily record?

2. Do you transcribe your records or leave them in audio format?

3. What are your favorite features, e.g., automatic voice recording, one-handed operation?

I will be incorporating the answers I receive in a story scheduled for the August 1, 2012 issue of Law Technology News. If you prefer not to be a named source, please include that information with your answers.

I look forward to hearing from you! - Sean.

More on Multifunctional Printers: Epson Workforce Pro

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:57:00 GMT

Hewlett-Packard Development is not the only manufacturer of multifunction printers that copy, fax, print, and scan. I also reviewed the Epson Workforce Pro WP-4540 All-in-One Printer and found it comparable to the HP Officejet Pro 8600. The WP-4540, however, came with a second paper tray and a multipurpose paper feeder in the back of the unit where envelopes and heavy-bond or photo paper are input and output in a straight path. The Epson had a much faster two-sided printing action and was able to print directly from iOS devices on the same WLAN. Epson, like HP, also has cloud printing, so you can print to your office printer when you are outside the office. [MORE]

If You Don't Have a Multifunctional Printer, Get One

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sat, 05 May 2012 06:25:00 GMT

Whether you work in a law firm, corporate legal department, or engage a solo practice, you should have a multifunctional printer in your home office.

Compact units like the HP Officejet 8600 and the Epson Workforce Pro 4540 sell for approximately $300 and let you scan, copy, fax, and print. Most MFPs support optional two-sided printing and additional paper trays, so you can keep standard copy/print paper in one tray and letterhead in another.

A few nice things about the new Officejet 8600: the unit ships to you with the cartridges installed. But note that it is very easy to pop out the ink cartridges and insert new ones. The paper tray supports multiple size paper, from note cards to legal size paper, and the tray has easy guides to insert variable size paper and envelopes.

Both the Epson and HP multifunctional printers will automatically go to sleep after a period of inactivity. But they will both wake up when they receive a print job over the office network or the web. Another nice thing, a PC or Mac can find both the Epson and the HP multifunctional printers after the printer's IP address changes from a new DHCP assignment or other event.

Make sure your MFP choice can scan legal paper from the automatic document feeder atop the unit and that the glass area used for faxing, photocopying, scanning, and printing also supports legal size paper, especially if you engage real estate transactions.

End note: both of these printers can copy photographs in high-resolution for home use (4 x 6) and in 8.5 x 11for office use (brochures) and both printers can print from the web or cloud by sending the printer an email message. The printer will print out the body of the message and an attachment in Word, PDF, JPEG, or GIF format. And yes, there is client software for mobile devices, so you can print to these printers using your Android, iPhone, or Windows phone.

Predictive Analytics Requires Filtered Data and Advanced Search Tools

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:38:00 GMT

Predictive algorithms continue to get a lot of attention in e-discovery, but their application to litigation is relatively new. In other disciplines, predictive analytics has been used to forecast consumer behavior, even predict criminal behavior (see http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/at-work/innovation/can-software-predict-repeat-offenders).

The ability of predictive analytics to forecast adequately seems to require data controls, such as filters and controlled populations, and advanced indexing and search tools. Even then, data analytics is finding the easy, predictable cases. For example, find a relevant document from a group of documents that are more likely to be relevnant than not. The harder case is finding a relevant document from a group of documents that are not likely to be relevant.

Octane Can Be Addictive

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:33:00 GMT

I reviewed Index Engine's new e-discovery appliance, called Octane version 4.1, back in December and January and finally had an opportunity to publish the story.

One thing that is apparent to me, but not to some, is data extraction. IE is very fast at extracting data, which is part of its design. The new Octane version 4.x indexes, searches, and extracts the data from the original source, in a defensible manner, but it does not produce the native documents or files where you would need the native app or a viewer to review the content. It extracts the content for review in a text file, with metadata.

The Octane appliance automatically collects files from NFS shares (CIFS coming soon) and stores the native documents in a compliance archive according to a policy configuration, which can include a retention plan to defensibly delete documents. Octane can extract content from the corpus of the archive on demand.

Wolters Kluwer 'Securities Act Handbook' Is Online in RBsource

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:01:00 GMT

Wolters Kluwer in January of this year put its venerable Red Book, aka the "Securities Act Handbook," into an online resource called RBsource. I found the new resource provides a valuable "currency" in securities law over the looseleaf Red Book, issued only 6 times per year. Also, it was nice to access materials with keyword and citation searches, along with the ability to track time and bill it back to clients and matters. Although some areas of RBsource need to mature, e.g., filters when reviewing search results, the online resource is a nice add-on to the paper product for its easy access to up-to-date materials, but I wouldn't ditch the one-volume just yet.

Thomson Reuters Launches Accelus Compliance Manager

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:15:00 GMT

Thomson Reuters Governance, Risk, and Compliance group launched Accelus Compliance Manager, a single platform designed to track and monitor regulatory requirements and link those requirements to an organization's internal compliance and business processes. In effect, ACM incorporates regulatory information and the risk of noncompliance with business goals.

The Accelus Compliance Manager targets audit, compliance, finance, legal, and risk professionals in financial services, law firms, insurance, and other highly regulated industries. ACM brings together several stages of compliance that every organization needs to address, namely, to: 1) understand, evaluate, and map applicable regulations to business processes; 2) monitor and track regulatory change; 3) identify and communicate controls to mitigate risk and comply with regulatory schemes; 4) test, monitor, and audit risk controls; and 5) document and report on risk controls to management and regulators.

To help identify regulatory risk and changes to the regulatory environment, ACM includes international coverage of over 230 regulators and exchanges to track hundreds of regulatory events that may affect an organization. The ACM platform then helps the organization map laws, regulations, as well as policies and procedures to business structure, be it region, country, business unit, desk level, or individual. When regulations change, ACM tools provide alerts to stakeholders via email.

The Accelus platform is a suite of information products and software tools derived from Thomson Reuters' acquistions and in-house information products, such as Westlaw Business, Westlaw Compliance Advisor, West's Capitol Watch, and Oden Insurance Services, which operates as a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.

For more information, see Thomson Reuters' web pages on Accelus Compliance Manager.

Which law schools graduate future Big Law partners?

Sean La Roque-Doherty — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:30:00 GMT

Vivia Chen highlights research conducted by William Henderson, a law professor at the University of Indiana law professor, which reviewed job data from the National Journal to find the law schools that are most likely to graduate future partners in Big Law.