Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave. Image: zol87
The southeast exhibit hall at the ABA Techshow in the Hilton Chicago was more densely packed with vendors than the southwest hall. I was not able to get through it all in a day. I did, however, take time out to listen to David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times and Scientific American, declare the end of email and the rise of real-time apps on iPhones in his keynote address last week, sponsored by Thomson Reuters' WestlawNext.
Before I dived into the south hall, I met with Bill Doran, founder of Morning Waves, which makes Attorney Timekeeper and distributes it via software as a service. What sets Attorney Timekeeper apart from other timekeeping apps and applications is the ability to use the app to compete with colleagues in billable and nonbillable hours.
Once I logged into Attorneytimekeeper.com, the Timekeeping tab (see Figure 1) became my focal point to start timers to bill clients associated with matters, tasks, ABA billing codes, and preferred time increments (10, 15, or other minute-increments). If you select a client from the right window pane, an automatic timer starts and fills the client, contact, matter, task, and activity fields with data. For each time entry, you can add a description and an internal note. The history tab shows a general list of all timekeeping, but after you select a client the history tab is filtered on the client selected.
Figure 1 shows the Attorney Timekeeper tab to bill time. Click image to enlarge.
One-mouse-click applied to a client in the Timekeeping tab (or in any tab, actually) starts a timer. Touch another client and any current timer is stopped, the new client is loaded into the timer window, and a new timer is started. And when you return to a client, the app shows you where the last timer was stopped to continue or start a new time entry. Attorney Timekeeper supports automatic cell phone number capture from carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Timekeepers receive a call log from the carrier, which will match on client phone numbers that lawyers can review to mark billable items not previously marked.
Doran, an expert in time and motion studies who helped Walmart design its checkout counters so they would not be more than three customers deep at any one time, said he wanted to design a time-keeping application that would be more like a game than work. Timekeepers can set goals and report goal progress. With permissions, lawyers can run reports on colleagues' billable hours to compare and compete. See Figure 2.
Figure 2 shows an Attorney Timekeeper's standard report generated from a web form. Click image to enlarge.
Asked whether associates would share their billable hours with other associates at a firm in a competitive spirit, Doran hopes they will but explained other use cases to LTN. For example, a young associate may track the billable hours of law school buddies, friends, or colleagues from another law firm; a firm may set up games among practice groups .
Although associate attorneys are a competitive lot, in my humble opinion, pitting them against each other in games to achieve billable hours may lead to inflated client bills. Attorney Timekeeper's one-click timer and the integration of a carrier call log are sweet features that could use a native app, which synchronizes with a web account. I am not one to log into an online account to start my timer.
THE SOUTHEAST HALL
My first stop in the exhibit hall was at CDW's booth, which was staffed by partners. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Taz Abbas, sales and training specialist for Hewlett-Packard, was demonstrating the HP Officejet Pro X576dw multifunctional printer. The same printer I am testing in the San Francisco office. I was able to output up to 47 ISO pages per minute and approximatley the same speed with non-ISO printed matter, e.g., a court brief. But the printer is rated at 70 ppm. I asked Abbas if he gets the benefit of the full speed. Abbas said I need to change the printer setting to General Office quality.
Abbas gave me a couple of good tips on securing the print cartridges and setting the printer up in an multi-user environment. From the Embedded Web Server interface to the printer, you can register the printer's serial number to its ink cartridges. After you set up the registration, the cartridges will only work in the registered device. And when unloading the MFP in your law firm, deploy the printer software using the Universal Printer Driver, which has support for multiple operating sytems, Citrix and Windows Terminal Services, and can be configured in "Dynamic" mode to enhance mobile printing. The UPD supports all the features of numerous printers, including the Officejet Pro X576dw, and employs the use of printer lists to advertise available printers to users.
Elmo USA Corp. was also in the CDW partner booth. It was showcasing the MO-1 Visual Presenter and the P30HD Interactive Visual Presenter document cameras. Ed Holmwood, regional sales manager for the Midwest and Northeast, demonstrated the P30HD's high definition by pointing to a Techshow sign approximately 30 feet away. The document automatically focused on the sign and presented it up close and in high definition. Holmwood also demonstrated how to control the display remotely using a wireless tablet, which operates the visual presenters much like a mouse directed by a stylus.
Having spent much time with web-based practice management, I bumped into ADC Legal Systems Inc.'s Perfect Practice as well as PerfectLaw and ActionStep. All three programs are on-premise practice management software. Although none of the offerings had any new features released specifically for the Techshow, the offerings showed me that boxed practice management software is still ahead of web-based PM tools.
Like LogicBit Software Corp.'s HoudiniEsq, ActionStep has applied workflow to practice management. But in ActionStep's case, the workflow is the foundation to its practice management program, like social programs are the foundation to App Folio's MyCase. For each work type, such as bankruptcy and debt collection, ActionStep users define a workflow (in an object-oriented, drag-and-drop fashion) to meet client objectives in terms of assigning tasks, loading documents, sending email, filing documents, and creating invoices and setting them in a train to accomplish client goals.
Back in November 2011, PerfectLaw released iSlips, a native iOS app, which lets you capture time on the iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch, store it to a local database, and synchronize it wirelessly with a PerfectLaw time sheet back in the office. In comparison, mobile software for web-based PM applications is still fairly new. Case in point: MyCase Inc.
MyCase debuted its native practice management iOS app, with access to a client portal, at the ABA Techshow. Clients can use the app to access MyCase's client portal to communicate with their attorney and obtain information on the status of their case. The app is currently in version 2 (Beta), with internal messaging, calendar, tasks, matters, and time and billing entries, but no timer at this time. See Figure 3.
Figure 3 shows MyCase's iOS app with panel of features and one-click access to stored information. A panel on the right slides open to create new events, tasks, contacts, etc. Click image to enlarge.
SHORT TAKES
Sandcat Software Inc.'s Primafact, which provides trial lawyers with a SQL database running on Windows Server to store and access documents and review them in a binder view for trial has recently released a native iPad app, called Primafact 2013. The new app extends the core features of their desktop program to the iPad for trial work.
Figure 4 shows Primafact's Binder list with selected content. Click image to enlarge.
Figure 5 displays Primafact's annotation feature. Click image to enlarge.
Figure 6 reflects Primafact's search results with hit highlights. Click image to enlarge.
Sandcat, based in Toronto, Canada, designed their iPad app for trial. It has the ability to synchronize entire cases to the iPad to let you bring all your documents to court in a program with online and offline features so you do not have to rely on a network connection during trial. Other Primafact 2013 features include: perform full-text searches with hit highlighting; and mark up and annotate documents on demand. Primafact 2013 will be available later this year.
Sage Software Inc.'s Sage Timeslips has something new every time I see them. This ABA Techshow, the Timeslips program has a new calendar to keep track of dates and billing expenses. You can now simultaneously delete multiple time slips, forecast and report future earnings with more certainty, and input relative start and end dates that can change based on billing cycles and other requirements. Timeslips can now also limit slip entry reporting by a date filter and automatically trigger a related billing cost with "slip triggers" that create a new time slip when another slip tied to a task is saved or complete.
Austin, Texas-based SpeakWrite was at the Techshow showing off its cloud-based transcription workflow management and mobile dictation system for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS mobile devices. The free mobile apps allow you to record and edit dictation as well as record telephone calls, meetings, and interviews for SpeakWrite's U.S.-based transcriptionists. You can even integrate photographs with dictation. I will soon see how well the app stacks up against a dedicated mobile dictation system like the Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DS-7000. Stay tuned.
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Attorney Sean Doherty is LTN's technology editor.You must be signed in to comment on an articleSign In or Subscribe">
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