I can’t remember how much I’ve written about it here, but I’ve talked at CLE’s about my strong recommendation of using a Microsoft Surface Laptop as a work computer. Wired has a review of the latest model, the Surface Laptop 2.

As far as options, if you are an attorney, you want the most expensive one. I’m quoting a professional technology consultant to law firms here.

And I agree. The problem for attorneys picking out how powerful of a computer they need is that the retail descriptions are written for the mass public–not attorneys. So the descriptions say things about gaming and playing a lot of videos and stuff, which we don’t do.

But we do run a lot of software programs at the same time. That’s why you want the latest and fastest processor and a lot of memory.

Do you really need 16 GB of memory instead of 8? Maybe not. But get it any way and don’t worry about it.

It took me a long time to figure this out, but you get what you pay for with computers. If you hardly ever use one then sure, you don’t need a high performance model. But if like most attorneys you are on it all the time, get a great one.

As far as screen size, go with 13″ instead of 15″. I’ve had both. I’ve researched it a lot. The 2 extra inches is not worth the weight and size difference. Plus, most people will dock it and use monitors most of the time anyway.

When I had a 15″ screen, it was too big and heavy to travel with. The 13″ Surface laptop is about like packing an I-pad.

This computer, Microsoft Office 365, Adobe DC and Clio case management software. I can’t recommend these enough.

Ernest Svenson is one of the most well known tech authorities in the legal profession. He has an excellent podcast, a blog and writes many articles on legal tech. He knows what he’s talking about.

In 12 Steps to a Profitable Law Practice, Svenson explains how he gained the knowledge to become a tech authority and offers advice for tech proficiency.

Many attorneys read this blog who basically delegate tech proficiency to staff. That’s a mistake. I know–that used to be me.

Even big firm attorneys need basic tech proficiency. They need it to understand what their staff is doing and so they can do it themselves in a pinch. In 2018, there should not be attorneys who can’t work unless they have staff also working to feed them information. Also, god forbid they have to leave big law, they will know how to operate their own practice if they need to.

Finally, clients demand it. I don’t know exactly when we hit the day when clients expect their attorneys to be tech proficient. But we’re there.

There is an over-supply of lawyers. If clients expect tech proficiency and you don’t have it, how will that look?

Legal professionals stare at computer monitors all day. Chiropractor officers are filled with legal professionals with sore necks. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I stumbled on a product that does wonders for my neck when working on a computer: the Varidesk Dual-Monitor Arm. It is a monitor arm that easily mounts on a desk and holds 2 monitors. It is super easy to adjust the position of the monitors.

In particular for many people with neck pain, it helps to raise the monitors to a higher height than available with monitor stands. As I write this post, the bottom of my monitors are 14 inches above my desktop. They are also closer to my eyes than I could get with standard stands.

I’ve been using the dual-monitor arm on my Varidesk at the office for two years. When I recently added a full office in my house, I though I could live without one there. That lasted about a week.

They are easy to install and mount on any desk–not just a Varidesk. The downside is the price: $195.

Yes, that’s a lot for something to hold your monitors. But chiropractors aren’t cheap and sore necks aren’t fun.

Bad news for lawyers who still have a fax machine. It’s a security risk that hackers can use to access your whole computer system. This includes all-in-one printer/copier/fax machines.

Here is a recent Washington Post article discussing the problem. It says the legal industry still relies on fax machines:

The re­port es­ti­mates that there are more that 17 million fax ma­chines in use in the United States alone. The legal and med­i­cal fields both con­tin­ue to rely heav­i­ly on fax ma­chines to con­duct busi­ness be­cause they are wide­ly con­sid­ered to be a more se­cure form of trans­mit­ting sensi­tive in­for­ma­tion and sig­na­tures com­pared with email.

It should have said the legal and medical fields continue to use fax machines because they are stupid.

You don’t have to get rid of your fax capability to ditch the fax machine. Open an account with efax or a similar service ($16-ish per month) and you can send and receive ‘faxes’ without actually having a fax machine. It uses the newfangled internet machine.

I’ve had an efax account for over a year. I’ve sent, at most, one fax. I’ve received, at most, 5 faxes. I’m thinking about ditching efax, but at $16 a month, it’s practically free.

You also don’t need faxes for signatures. Figure out how to use electronic signature software like SignNow. It’s easy.

Your documents will come back signed faster than you ever imagined possible. It’s particularly useful when you need something signed by someone who is not tech savvy enough to scan and return a document.

The funny thing is, I bet a high percentage of lawyers still using fax machines are afraid of the cloud because of the security risks.

I am uncomfortable writing about technology proficiency because many people who read this blog are more proficient than me. So there is a danger of sounding stupid to some readers.

But, I am often amazed at the lack of tech. proficiency many great attorneys have. Two examples:

1. Two years ago an attorney copied me on an email to his legal assistant asking how to save a spreadsheet he changed [if this is you, a button says “save”]; and
2. a few months ago an attorney complained about how he spent half a day finding deposition testimony to cite in a brief.

At the 2017 Mississippi Bar Convention, I talked to Jackson attorney Mark Chinn about how much I enjoyed an article he wrote in SuperLawyers Magazine about becoming technology proficient. The gist of it was that attorneys’ lives would be much easier if they learned the basics of the software they already have on their computers.

PDF skills are a prime example. Everyone has pdf software on their computer. Most use Adobe. Some prefer other software. I use Adobe DC. It’s Adobe’s monthly subscription cloud-based pdf software. I think I pay about $16 per month.

You are wrong if you think you are better off buying a license than paying the monthly subscription fee for Adobe or Microsoft Office. I will not explain it here. But that used to be me. The monthly licensing is better because it is cloud-based, can be installed on multiple devices and updates automatically.

Here are five pdf skills every lawyer should know:

1. downloading an ECF document as a pdf and save it to your firm’s pleading file;
2. extracting pages from a pdf and save them as a separate document;
3. running OCR (optical character recognition) to make a pdf searchable (save the doc. after you run OCR);
4. adding text to a pdf (for instance: “Ex. 1”); and
5. bates numbering pdfs.

If you don’t know how to do these things, learn. Just google “how do I OCR a pdf in Adobe (or whatever you use). It can take a few minutes for OCR to run on a long document. Otherwise, it takes seconds to perform all these tasks. Trust me. These are skills you will wonder how you lived without.

Meanwhile, for the people who think I’m an idiot, post a comment with an important pdf skill I left out.

The announcement in the Bar’s weekly email that it will provide Fastcase Legal Research Service for members is great news. I’ve been using Fastcase for a while and discussed it in this post.

Here is info. on the Bar’s website.

Fastcase has been a good alternative to the expensive and predatory billing and collection practices of Westlaw and Lexis. The fact I now will not have to pay $95 per month is great.

Fastcase integrates with Clio case management software, which offers a 10% discount for Bar members.

Fastcase is worth trying for attorneys still paying though the nose legal research.

Don’t be the person who takes pictures of documents with your phone. Install a scanner app on your phone and scan documents.

It will make it look like a document–not a picture of a document. It also allows you to easily ‘crop’ (adjust) the image size. It combines multiple pages into one document and automatically uploads it to a cloud folder of your choice.

When I go MC or the State law library I don’t have to make copies or take a bunch of notes. I use my phone app scanner to quickly capture the pages I need. It’s a big help.

My wife loves it because I can scan a document at home and text or email it to her. (I don’t have a home scanner yet).

A phone scanner is a simple tech tool that you will occasionally use that will make your life easier. Don’t be lazy. Install one and figure out how to use it.

And no, this is not a substitute for a real scanner. This is like a doughnut spare tire. You only want to use it when you have to.

I use the Scanner Pro app. It works fine. I’m sure there are others.

A lot of tech resources save both time and money. Going paperless is an example. Eliminate most paper from your office and you eliminate most office supply costs.

And office supplies are expensive. I had sticker shock on office supplies when I opened my office. Everything cost at least five times more than I would have guessed.

Here are a few things I am doing to save administrative time that solo and small firm lawyers may want to consider:

• use mobile banking app on phone to make bank deposits;
• pay as many bills as possible on business dedicated credit card;
• link credit card to Quickbooks to categorize expenses; and
• use Stamps.com to print stamped envelopes.

When you pay bills with a credit card you save time and money on checks and postage.

I advise against paying any bills other than your credit card bill through a debit to your checking account. If you aren’t going to pay with a credit card, use a check.

Once you turn over your bank account information to a vendor you run the risk of them charging your account for an unauthorized charge. If they do that on a credit care it’s easy to reverse. It’s hard and expensive with a bank account. For instance, never give someone like Lexis your bank account information. You’ll regret it if you do.

A month ago I converted from Quickbooks desktop to Quickbooks online for bookkeeping. Converting my data from the desktop to online version went smoothly. As with all cloud based software, it works better on the cloud than on my desktop. Now I don’t have to worry about Quickbooks desktop crashing my computer, which happens.

On the surface, Quickbooks online is more expensive than the desktop version. I think I paid $300 for a year and it will go up to $500 per next year. You can buy QB desktop pro for $300.

But desktop software is more expensive to run. Desktop Quickbooks is a bit janky. It requires regular updates. I had to get IT involved with it at least a couple of times a year. Those costs offset any savings from using the desktop version.

Online QB navigates differently. I am still getting used to that. But it’s a better solution than desktop.

A lot of tech resources save both time and money. Going paperless is an example. Eliminate most paper from your office and you eliminate most office supply costs.

And office supplies are expensive. I had sticker shock on office supplies when I opened my office. Everything cost at least five times more than I would have guessed.

Here are a few things I am doing to save administrative time that solo and small firm lawyers may want to consider:

• use mobile banking app on phone to make bank deposits;
• pay as many bills as possible on business dedicated credit card;
• link credit card to Quickbooks to categorize expenses; and
• use Stamps.com to print stamped envelopes.

When you pay bills with a credit card you save time and money on checks and postage.

I advise against paying any bills other than your credit card bill through a debit to your checking account. If you aren’t going to pay with a credit card, use a check.

Once you turn over your bank account information to a vendor you run the risk of them charging your account for an unauthorized charge. If they do that on a credit care it’s easy to reverse. It’s hard and expensive with a bank account. For instance, never give someone like Lexis your bank account information. You’ll regret it if you do.

A month ago I converted from Quickbooks desktop to Quickbooks online for bookkeeping. Converting my data from the desktop to online version went smoothly. As with all cloud based software, it works better on the cloud than on my desktop. Now I don’t have to worry about Quickbooks desktop crashing my computer, which happens.

On the surface, Quickbooks online is more expensive than the desktop version. I think I paid $300 for a year and it will go up to $500 per next year. You can buy QB desktop pro for $300.

But desktop software is more expensive to run. Desktop Quickbooks is a bit janky. It requires regular updates. I had to get IT involved with it at least a couple of times a year. Those costs offset any savings from using the desktop version.

Online QB navigates differently. I am still getting used to that. But it’s a better solution than desktop.