The Red Velvet Lawyer

It's Not Enough to Keep Abreast of  Changes in the Substantive Law Robert Ambrogie, blogger at LawSites, lists the 10 Most Important Legal Technology Developments of 2013 .  Two entries on the list especially caught my eye. The first entry discusses the ethical obligation to be competent in the use of technology.  The second entry discusses increasing efforts by some law schools to teach students about the use of technology in law practice. 3.  Competence in technology turned from dalliance to necessity.   In August 2012, the American Bar Association voted to amend the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to make clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent in technology . Specifically, the ABA voted to amend the comment to Model Rule 1.1, governing lawyer competence, to say that, in addition to keeping abreast of changes in the law and its practice, a lawyer should keep abreast of “the benefits and risks associated with relevant...

The Droid Lawyer Speaks So, I've been watching ALL the episodes of The Good Wife on Hulu over the winter break.  Yes, I know. They've been populated with ads for Chromecast, but the ads don't tell you a thing. So, you will find more information about Chromecast  here  and here  with descriptions of how lawyers can use it in their practices.   For a 2013 round up of articles on Droid and Android use in law practice, see Jeffry Taylor's blog: The Droid Lawyer   here . Dec. 30, 2013 Update:  Here's the 11th infographic :  How to Build a Credible Blog. 

"World-Class Project Management  and  Process Engineering" Yesterday, I made a short posting recognizing the impact on me (Wow!) of some recent research found here on the dramatic shift in the BigLaw staffing model over the last 25 years.  Interestingly, my experience as a BigLaw associate in 1985 corresponds to the time when BigLaw relied on a highly leveraged triangle staffing model, in which associates out-numbered partners significantly.  Most of those associates performed the grunt work I describe  here .   Today, I quote at length from Williamm D. Henderson's article:   Three Generations of U.S. Lawyers: Generalists, Specialists, Project Managers , 70 Md. L. Rev. 373, 384-85 (2011) .  It describes the increasingly dominant approach to document review and management using technology and specially trained professionals.  The system offers corporate clients better management of document reviews for litigation or du...