View the recording here.
Now DMS is easy to use from smartphones and tablets with the LINK mobile app.
• Open an email & view an NRL attachment
• Send and email and File-to DMS
• Compose an email and attach a doc from DMS or SharePoint
• No VPN is used
Photo: Charles Forerunner/Unsplash
Inspired by data from “Mobile is Eating the World” by Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, aka A16Z.
Smartphones and the software which runs on them are changing everything we do. How we take photos has radically changed. We pay for lunch with our phones and order groceries from an app. It’s easy and efficient.
I am interested in enterprise mobility. Some of the data in “Mobile is Eating the World” should be a wake-up call to businesses. Below, marked with bullets, I have cited a few data points from “Mobile is Eating the World.” My thoughts on enterprise mobility are in blue font.
This year the ILTA SharePoint Symposium, June 9-10, is in Baltimore, right on the Inner Harbor at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel. The Inner Harbor is vibrant and a model of urban revitalization. I’m looking forward to both the SPS and exploring the Inner Harbor. Below is a terrific drawing of the Baltimore harbor in 1849 with the Washington Monument in the background.
Baltimore Harbor in 1849 with the Washington Monument in the Background – Public Domain
It flew by like lightning and now the carpet has literally been rolled up on the ABA TECHSHOW 2015. As always, the best part was the chance to network with lawyers who are not only tech savvy but tech enthusiasts and very generous with their knowledge. I attended the “60 iOS Apps in 60 Minutes Session”, which was deeply informative and lots of fun. A few of the top recommendations were:
TranscriptPad – Review and annotate transcripts. Per Jeff Richardson, @iPhoneJD, “at $90 worth twice the price.”
Overcast – Legal podcasts are a popular way to keep up with the latest in legal technology. Overcast is free for the basic version, but the $5 version is particularly productive. It removes the spaces between words and accelerates speed. Adriana Linares, @AdrianaL, especially likes that with Overcast you can send a colleague a link to a specific episode of a podcast.
Scannable by Evernote – An easy way to scan docs and business cards. Email docs or save to several apps including Evernote. Free. Recommended by Tom Mighell, @TomMighell.
Automatic App – This app provides data from your car, including mileage driven and service reminders. Joe Bahgat, @j0eybagodonuts, recommends it as it makes tracking business usage of your car a breeze. $99.95 for the adapter which plugs into your car’s diagnostic port.
There were 56 more apps, including Headspace, for mindfulness/meditation, and the Sonos speaker controller. Jeff Richardson will post them all this week on his blog, iPhoneJD.
Mobile Helix made two major announcements. We released the new version of our mobile app for lawyers, LINK 2.0. LINK 2.0 integrates with WorkSite/FileSite and NetDocuments so that lawyers can securely access their docs and email them to clients and colleagues from smartphones and tablets. With LINK, when you send a colleague a doc which is stored in WorkSite she will receive a viewable .nrl attachment.
Two terrific new features, doc editing and file to WorkSite/FileSite will be released later this quarter.
NetDocuments announced their new Apps Marketplace at ABA TECHSHOW. We are thrilled to be one of their partners. Using their APIs we integrated LINK with NetDocuments so that NetDocuments users can access their docs, Outlook, SharePoint, and other apps from one secure app, LINK, without having to sign-on to each app. LINK’s efficient integration makes it easy to draft an Outlook email, attach a doc stored in NetDocuments, and send it to a client from your smartphone or tablet.
You can test drive LINK for free. Download LINK from the App Store here and follow the directions to “Take a Test Drive.” Try composing an email and attaching a file from SharePoint. If you have a NetDocuments account you can login into NetDocuments from the LINK app and access your own docs in LINK.
Take LINK for a drive. We would love to know what you think!
–Maureen
maureen at mobilehelix dot com
@mobilehelix
Who doesn’t love to go to Chicago – the food, the music, the architecture and… ABA TECHSHOW.
If this is your first time to attend, be sure to read The First Time Experience Guide.
Have you heard of Taste of TECHSHOW? These dinners are unique to TECHSHOW and a fun way to meet people with the same tech interests as you. Each dinner has a tech theme such as the Cloud, security or mobility. Some dinners are sponsored but most are “dutch.” Check out the selections and choose your favorite tech topic or Chicago restaurant. Taste of TECHSHOW will fill up so don’t miss out – register today.
The EXPO at TECHSHOW buzzes with energy. We’d love to meet you and to show you a demo of our LINK mobile app. With LINK lawyers can:
Enter our drawing for an Amazon gift card – see you at Booth 113!
–Maureen (@MobileHelix)
Followers of technology know that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the invasion of the robots is a trending topic. One of the themes is that the robots are coming and they are going to take all of our jobs. Venture capitalist, Marc Andreessen, not a fan of the “sky is falling” thinking, tends to tweet humorous quips about the looming robot crisis.
On March 6th, when the latest employment data were released, Andreessen tweeted the chart below with the comment, “The robots are really dropping the ball.”
A few days earlier I had attended a panel on “The Law Firm of the Future” sponsored by CodeX and the Palo Alto Area Bar Association. CodeX is a multidisciplinary laboratory operated by Stanford Law School and the Stanford CS Department.
The arc of the meeting was set by the first speaker, Vivek Wadhwa, who presented research on the results of IBM’s Watson AI Engine in diagnosing cancer. Watson’s successful diagnosis rate for lung cancer is 90 percent, compared to 50 percent for human doctors. Wadha’s position is that an AI engine can easily store the entirety of legal case data and can be trained to make legal decisions, perhaps to make even better decisions than humans, also known as lawyers. This is a challenging stance for many of us to grapple with today.
However, in the audience the General Counsel of a local university made the point that their university frequently hires outside counsel. He routinely inquires as to the likely outcome of the case and what will it cost. The answers which he gets are along the lines of, “my gut tells me X.” The GC made the point, “If Watson or AI can provide better answers to those questions, I’m all for it.”
Other panelists illustrated how their organizations combined the strengths of man and machine in order to practice law more efficiently and predictably.
Attorney Natalie Pierce of Littler Mendelson P.C. presented their CaseSmart litigation management and analytics solution. Littler specializes in employment and labor law. Built into CaseSmart is their data from tens of thousands of their cases. In essence, they have data pertaining to case type, jurisdiction, judge, and opposing counsel, therefore, they can provide the odds of outcome and cost of a pending case.
Litigator Ray Gallo, principal of Gallo LLP and Gallo Digital, showed how human skills plus technology can expand a practice. Gallo has won more than 85% of his cases which were brought to verdict, demonstrating exceptional skills. But one person does not scale. He developed a way to use internet technology to support class action and mass action suits. These particular suits would not have been economically viable without automation of data collection and client communication. In doing so, Galli has won judgements for many plaintiffs who would otherwise have been unrepresented.
Another panelist, Derek Bluford, is the President and CEO of QuickLegal, which is an online and yes, mobile app, legal advice service. QuickLegal connects clients with lawyers via audio and video chat. Service is immediate – Derek pointed out that if one is in a car wreck or arrested, one needs help then and there. On the other side of the coin, there are many attorneys who don’t want to be tied to a desk 50 hours a week. They want to have more freedom and flexibility. Therefore, QuickLegal is an efficient market for highly qualified professionals and clients.
When I engage with the law firm of the future, will I pick up an app and be interviewed by an operating system, who will then exchange data with the opposing party’s OS? Will the two systems then calculate the outcome based on precedence? Probably not in my lifetime. Certainly, however, we can already see the big gains to be made by Business Intelligence, software supported client communications, and mobile apps. The changes in legal are well underway.
Kudos to PAABA President, Roger Royse, for putting together a diverse and interesting panel at CodeX.
–Maureen Blando
I tweet at @mobilehelix
No profession is immune from disruption. A business with a value of $400 billion per year is a attractive target for newcomers, ranging from financial institutions to startups. Can legal ward off its challengers? Not without changing.
“The Innovator’s Dilemma” refers to Clayton Christensen’s theory that successful companies are too focused on customers’ current needs and that they fail to adopt technologies that will fulfill customers’ future or unspoken needs. When the goose is laying the golden eggs, it can be challenging to focus on what happens after the goose is gone. Think of Blockbuster’s collapse to Netflix or Amazon’s decision to develop the Kindle. The question for the mammoth book retailer was whether they should dig in their heels and fight ebooks which threatened to cannibalize their hard copy book sales. Jeff Bezos was savvy to the Innovator’s Dilemma and chose to lead in ebooks. Today Amazon controls 67% of the ebook market.
But the Innovator’s Dilemma pertains to technology. The legal profession is not about technology…or is it?
For context, let’s look at the thoughtful internet debate over the past few weeks. The catalyst was the post, “The Profession is Doomed,” by Toby Brown, published in 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Toby had participated in a National Conference of Bar Presidents panel on the future of the profession.
One of the panel members described a change coming in Washington State where the first licenses to Limited Licensure Legal Technicians (LLLT) will be granted this spring. An LLLT is a new non-lawyer legal professional who may advise and assist clients. An LLLT must meet certain criteria but can qualify with an associate level degree. Approval of LLLT was opposed by the Board of Governors of the Washington Bar Association but was approved by the Washington Supreme Court. Brown writes that the focus of the conference presidents and executives was on finding ways to kill the LLLT.
Brown left the conference that day convinced that the profession is doomed because those in power in the profession won’t drive change, leaving it open to disruption from without.
Another compelling post on this topic, “Big Law as Legal Fiction and the Lack of Innovation,” is written by Ron Dolin who is with the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession. Dolin looks at how Big Law firms make decisions and how they decide to innovate, or not.
Dolin points out that the stagnant growth in 75% of the AM100 contrasted with the rapid growth in lower margin legal services startups such as LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer is evidence that change in Big Law is needed.
Dolin references Prof. William Henderson of Indiana University Law School who commends the innovation of Bryan Cave, Seyfarth Shaw, and Littler Mendelson, yet estimates that “only 10-15% of large law firms have embarked on strategic initiatives that take into account the ‘New Normal.’” Henderson has warned of a train wreck along the lines of the Innovator’s Dilemma coming in Big Law in the next 5 to 10 years.
So why are Big Law firms moving slowly? Per Dolin, Big Law grapples with various paralyzing questions: Is change really needed? Would it best to see if a few firms fail before action is taken? How significant will the costs be? It’s easy to see that PCs make sense, but how does one know how far to take new technology? And, will the benefits of these new potentially expensive changes be realized after current partners retire? Dolin points to the partner system as deterrent to innovation in Big Law.
Our view is far brighter. Today’s solutions can enable traditional legal to become more nimble and cost-effective. As a matter of disclosure, our company, Mobile Helix, provides a mobile app designed specifically for lawyers which allows lawyers to work with DMS, files, SharePoint and email from anywhere. In essence, we enable lawyers to be more responsive to clients and to get greater value from their time.
Mobility is a huge gift to lawyers. Every day we support firms which are earnestly working to provide more productivity to their lawyers. As one legal IT director stated, the ROI on any ten or fifteen minutes which a lawyer can recoup on the go is high and the personal satisfaction is great.
Mobility reduces costs because time is used more productively. Lightweight mobile solutions are a very effective way for law firms to drive efficiencies. There are technologies, including ours, which can be adopted today without massive investment. The ROI begins on the first day, not years from now.
Toby Brown did legal a service by raising the flag on this subject. Legal need not be doomed. But innovation and action is required…and the clock is ticking.
–Maureen
Lawyers, if “60 Apps in 60 Minutes” brings a smile to your face then you are likely a fan of the ABA TECHSHOW. “60 Apps” is one of the most popular sessions each April at the TECHSHOW. The iOS apps session will be standing room only. The apps session is followed by “60 Sites in 60 Minutes,” featuring the most useful websites for lawyers today.
This year TECHSHOW has 15 tracks with several geared toward the mobile lawyer, including “iPAD,” “Mobile,” and “Advanced IT.” TECHSHOW is especially valuable for lawyers in solo to medium-sized firms. If you are responsible for IT, litigation technology, or marketing, TECHSHOW is a wealth of information for you. TECHSHOW sessions will illustrate how to optimize today’s technology, for example:
The ABA TECHSHOW is a great place to meet new and long-time peers. The networking is as good as the content.
Our company, Mobile Helix, will be at ABA TECHSHOW again this year. Please stop by booth 113. We will be happy to show you our LINK mobile app for lawyers. LINK gives you access to your email and files in one encrypted app. With LINK, it’s easy to find a document, review it, and then email it to a client from your smartphone or tablet, no matter where you are located. LINK gives you a great mobile experience and lets you be productive even when you are not in the office.
See you in Chicago, April 16th to 18th!
–Maureen
Becoming a Mobile Lawyer
Wednesday, Feb 4, 2015 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM EST
We are excited to partner with the American Bar Association and present an Industry Insight Webinar on “Becoming a Mobile Lawyer”.
Join us to learn how lawyers at any size firm can work with DM – WorkSite, NetDocuments, Worldox, SharePoint, network file shares, Email and Calendar all from one integrated and secure mobile app and become truly mobile.
Follow simple steps to unlock major productivity gains and move beyond using mobile email only.
Please join us. Register for the Webinar here.
With 91% of lawyers using smartphones¹, Legal IT professionals are deploying solutions to expand mobile productivity at their firms. Here are three tips for mobile prosperity in 2015.
1. Files for the win.
Lawyers are all about billing. Their billable work is frequently related to electronically stored docs: contracts, briefs, and supporting research. Make sure that your mobile solution provides your lawyers with secure mobile access to their files.
The challenge is that files are stored in an array of repositories. Most often files are stored on-premises in a Document Management (DM) system such as WorkSite. Files may also be stored on-premises in SharePoint or Windows/CIFS file shares. At some firms, files may be stored in NetDocuments, which is a growing cloud-hosted DM. Use of public cloud solutions like Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive for file sharing is less common.²
Wherever your firm stores its files, from WorkSite to OneDrive, make sure that your lawyers can access their files from smartphones and tablets. A lawyer needs to be able to quickly find a file, review it, then to email or share the file, along with pertinent advice, to the client.
2. User experience will make it or break it.
If you work in legal technology, you are well-familiar with this dynamic. Lawyers have high standards. Consumer apps are easy and intuitive. Lawyers want the same at work. If your mobility solution does not provide an experience which is on par with consumer apps it won’t be adopted. A single workspace app with email, files, DM, SharePoint, calendar, and contacts is ideal.
Be sure to include lawyers in your trial. Poor user experience is the leading cause of failure of enterprise mobile apps.³ There’s precious little worse than deploying a solution which becomes shelfware.
3. Keep it simple.
The world has changed. Buying physical hardware is old school. Your mobility solution should not rely on proprietary servers. If it is to be deployed on-premises, look for a solution based on Virtual Machines, HTTPS, Exchange, HTML5, that is, infrastructure which you use today. Standard IT infrastructure will keep your costs and maintenance efforts low. If your firm is ready for a cloud-hosted mobility solution, that is often the simplest way to proceed.
At Mobile Helix we specialize in mobile applications which make it easy for legal teams to be productive from smartphones and tablets. If you are exploring ways to provide mobility to your lawyers we would be happy to discuss your needs and how we might be able to help you.
–Maureen
Twitter: @mobilehelix
2. Recent ILTA data indicates that 15% of law firms use Dropbox for large file sharing. This figure was down in 2014 from 2013.
3. Kony Enterprise Mobility Survey.