InternetLawCommentary.com

Lawyers (and others) often send emails with large PDF and other attachment.

This article from the May 2011 Palm Beach Bar Bulletin will give you some tips and tricks to get around firewalls and other e-barriers.  

Have you run across the situation where you want to email PDFs, video or image files but they get caught in either the sender’s or recipient’s filter because the attachments are too large?

Problem solved.

This article from the May 2011 Palm Beach County Bar Association Bulletin explains how to create smaller PDFs in the first place, shrink existing ones, and use “cloud” services to email large files.

The article is here.

Here’s the link to the Amended Complaint filed in the Western New York federal court.  Thanks to Findlaw for the lead.

The Ninth Circuit federal court released its decision in Facebook v. ConnectU, the lawsuit made famous by the 2010 movie, The Social Network, regarding the creation of Facebook and the litigation it spawned.  The full decision is here.  The news coverage (already clocking in at over 800 stories in four hours) is here.

Internet Law Resource Center provides coverage in this case summary.

Meanwhile, another Facebook suit, Paul D. Ceglia v. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook et al. has been filed and amended in a New York court.  Ceglia claims 50% interest in the company based upon emails attached to this First Amended Complaint.  ZDNet’s coverage with excerpts of the emails is here.

A Kentucky court, in an unpublished divorce case opinion, held that under the circumstances of that case, there was “nothing within the law that requires [a party's] permission for the photographs to be published in that manner.”  See Lalonde v. Lalonde.  Case did not address other potential concerns over distributing photos.

Special thanks to the ABA Young Lawyer which ran a short article, Internet Marketing for Young Lawyers, in their April 2010 edition, available here.  Unfortunately, it is only available to ABA members and subscribers so I cannot link it here.   I can hint that suggestions included making your bio standout on the law firm website; maintain a complete online profile with your state bar; participating in lawyer rating websites (within reason, bar-permitting, and firm protocols); create a personal blog or website; and use social media.  This summary sounds obvious but likely you have not tackled each category (and there are more gems within those broad categories).  Hope it helps.

Thanks to the Palm Beach County Bar Association for hosting the “Dueling Smartphones: iPhone, Android and Blackberry Apps for Lawyers” presentation on March 11, 2011.  Also thanks to my panel members Marc S. Dobin of Marc S. Dobin P.A. and Joel Rothman from Arnstein & Lehr.

For those of you who missed the presentation, here’s our top ten lists and the rest of the handout.

The article, “Clean Your PC in 30 Minutes,” recently ran in the February 2011 Palm Beach Bar Bulletin.  It provides simple advice for lawyers, office managers, and paralegals on how to “clean” your PC, using free software, and to keep it running without viruses and malware at no cost.  

Whether you bought a new PC for the holidays, need to clean out the old one or perhaps switched jobs and have a “new” computer, this will fine tune any machine without cost… and it takes about a half hour.

Is the practice of uploading portions of depositions to YouTube as “widespread”?  Do you have the technology in your office to edit and post depos?  Will your ethics rules or judge allow it?  

Take a look at this December 2010 Palm Beach Bar Association “Bulletin” article for some answers.

Hit this link or click on “2010 Depositions on Youtube” under Articles along the right column of this site.

Thanks to the Palm Beach Bar Bulletin for running the article, No Email Friday?

Find yourself checking emails endlessly?  Being pinged by your cellphone, laptop, and PC?  Checking your iPhone at night or Blackberry in the a.m.?  Yes, that’s you.

Take this advice from a busy lawyer (who loves tech).  Set it aside and use good email management.  It’ll work.

Don’t allow the hype — or the technology — scare you from understanding what your child is doing on the internet.  Be a great parent in the real world and online!  Learn the techniques to avoid the risks, draw (and enforce) boundaries, and serve as a role model for your child.  In fact, some of these guidelines might apply to you!

Special thanks to Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida for the invitation to speak to parents.

The powerpoint can be viewed/downloaded here or follow the link under Materials (on right column on this site).

Concerned that all your texting and abbreviated communications on Twitter will poison your brilliant legal voice?  Might want to consider how out-dated expressions have a greater effect.

Thanks to the Palm Beach County Bar Association which published this article in their September 2010 bulletin.

Hit the link for the article, Will Twitter Ruin Your Legal Writing?, or look on the right column under “Articles.”

The increasingly long history of Facebook and privacy settings continues as users want an easy way to limit access to information on a system designed to exchange information (in fact, the reason it is free, after all, is because you pay with access to your information).  New changes are reportedly afoot (again).

Facebook is good for lawyers in the sense that accessible information about witnesses, opponents, and experts may be easy to find due to Facebook’s privacy settings.  On the flip side, like everyone else, lawyers want their own information nailed down.

The article, Facebook Privacy Settings, was published in the June 2010 Palm Beach Bar Association’s Bar Bulletin (also on the right column of the screen, under Articles).  Hope it helps.

Over the last several months, we’ve covered location-based Internet social networking sites, Foursquare and Yelp, as research and marketing tools for lawyers.

Special thanks to the Palm Beach Bar Association and co-author, Diana Martin, for running “Lawyer’s Guide to Foursquare & Yelp” in the May 2010 PBCBA Bar Bulletin.

For that article, you can follow the link or hit “2010 Foursquare & Yelp” under Articles on the right column.

The article was an idea which sprang from this prior February 2010 post, Foursquare & Yelp May Be New Research and Marketing Tools.  We emphasized the “marketing” part in a March post, Foursquare as a Promotional Tool for Law Business.

Foursquare may, indeed, be the next Twitter internet-phenom, with users creeping into seven figures and the number of check-ins getting over 20 million, well, ridiculous  (we broke ground on Foursquare in this February 2010 post).  Still a doubter?  Well, expect more articles and coverage about Foursquare, like this New York Times article.  Tech-heads, meanwhile, exclaim that its going to change the world.  So its good to keep an eye on it for use in legal cases, marketing or even a little fun.

While Yelp appears to have greater business functionality, Yelp has the edge on the “fun” aspect although the community-feel isn’t as solid as Yelp (we’re viewing the perky Gowalla as a third alternative, dwindling into a falling third place).

Foursquare is maneuvering and should be watched as a viable dominate force in this location-based trend.  Business Insider put together this piece on “How to Use Foursquare to Boost Retail Sales.”  Admittedly, the article and app is still directed at retail and consumer business but services, like law firms, are clearly around the corner.  To wit, check out BI’s thirteen step recommendations as to how business owners can use Foursquare.

Websites which integrate Foursquare are popping up.  Checkout 4SquareOffers.com, which allows you to see what businesses are offering deals for Foursquare users based upon your location.  Bing Maps is reportedly going to start sprinkling its maps with 4SQ commentary.

Are you a Foursquare fan?  Check out “Christopher H” in West Palm Beach and do a friend request.  If you are curious how to unlock the remaining badges, look no further than…. here.