ANSWER: Among the best and often-overlooked resources are the publications offered by the Law Practice Management Section (LPMS) of the American Bar Association. For 25 years, LPMS, formerly the Economics of Law Practice Section, has had an active publication program. From its beginning, the section has followed technology trends and helped lawyers use them better through their publications. Early books included advice on organizing physical files and documents, such as Roberta Cooper Ramo’s How to Create a System. Other books were early efforts about document assembly with tools such as the memory typewriter.

As lawyers have embraced technology and recognized its value in helping keep up with clients’ needs, LPMS has focused much of its publishing effort on the software lawyers use. As author of one of the earliest computer books and one of the most-recent, as well as a contributing author to more than one dozen over the past decade, I am slightly biased toward this phenomenal resource.

If you go into any bookstore or browse one of the online book sites like www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com, you will find hundreds of general-purpose technology books. Among the best-known are the “Dummies” series with titles like Microsoft Office 2000 for Dummies and Quicken for Dummies. While the idea of a simplified approach to word processing, check writing or other commonly used software sounds appealing, my experience is that these books are too basic for the types of functions lawyers and their staffs need to get documents the way they want them to look or fool programs like Quicken into managing their trust accounts. While it might be argued these books can be good starting points, most busy lawyers don’t have the time or inclination to read through more than one computer book on a particular topic.

Popular books

Among the most-popular of LPMS’s offerings are the “One Hour” books. This series was launched with WordPerfect 5.1 in One Hour for Lawyers by Gerald Robinson. I wrote a companion book, WordPerfect Shortcuts for Lawyers: Learning Merge and Macros in One Hour.

As word processors became more complex and law offices became more computer literate, the “One Hour” books on word processing gave way to “Quick Guides.” These books, as the title implies, go into a little more depth and may take more than an hour to read, but are not heavy reference tomes.

Microsoft Word users should look at either Microsoft Word for Windows (versions 6.x and 7.x) in One Hour for Lawyers by Catherine Pennington Paunov or The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to Word 97/2000 by David Greenwald and Alan Adler. The “One Hour” book introduces Word with four simple lessons. The Word 97/2000 book is expected to be published in early 2000. This book has 11 lessons and provides more detail about specific functions such as footnotes, paragraph numbering and formatting.

When I trained lawyers at the New Jersey State Bar Association’s “Lawyer Friendly Training” classes, I focused on what I refer to as “survival skill-level training.” This book takes a similar approach and assumes the lawyer is working alone and needs to locate existing documents, make minor changes, print and save, and close them.

The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to WordPerfect 7.0/8.0 for Windows by David Greenwald and Guy Wiggins is similar in content to the Word 97/2000 book. Focusing on WordPerfect 7 and 8, the authors target busy lawyers who need a crash course in basic word processing using WordPerfect. The book discusses working with several programs and documents at the same time, editing text, formatting letters, creating briefs, and combining documents through cutting and pasting. The book comes with a diskette that includes pleading captions, several letter and fax templates, and fax forms.

Quick overviews

There are three other “One Hour” books that discuss currently available products: Quicken in One Hour for Lawyers by Robinson covers versions 5.0 and 6.0. While the book is at a pretty basic level, it gives a quick overview of the basic functions of the program. The lessons cover how to open a Quicken account, how to make entries in the check register and how to set up Quicken categories to sort records and make graphs and more-meaningful reports. The second half of the book gives all sorts of helpful tips and tricks. It discusses memorizing transactions so you don’t have to re-enter the information each month, making automatic entries for recurring transactions, setting up transaction groups and subcategories, splitting a check among several categories, and setting up date reminders for checks due in the future. Additionally, it discusses using Quicken to create reports for tax purposes and to bank online. Since it is a beginner book, though, it does not discuss using Quicken to manage lawyers’ trust accounts. This might be a good sequel.

Hot Docs by Capsoft Corp., a document assembly program, works with your word processor and turns existing documents into templates to assemble complex, fill-in documents with prompts. While your native word processor has a merge function that has many features to automate simple documents, Hot Docs adds fancier tools that are a little easier for most people to master. For example, you could use the Hot Docs template creator to ask multiple-choice questions and, depending on the answer, insert different paragraphs of text.

Hot Docs in One Hour for Lawyers by Bruce W. Miller includes four quick lessons and a helpful section of supplemental materials. The first lesson guides users through generating a document into a word processor using an existing Hot Docs template that comes with the program. The second lesson shows how to prepare and convert a document for use in a Hot Docs template. The third lesson covers modifying a template to ask for client-specific information and insert answers into the assembled document. The final lesson shows how to create documents from among several options.

The second half of the book discusses creating multiple-choice questions, calculated answers and clause libraries. The book ends with some advice based on the author’s years of experience working with document assembly projects. If you’re getting started with Hot Docs, this is a small investment of time and money to put you on the right track.

Tutorial

Time Matters in One Hour for Lawyers by Storm Evans is a guided trip that works with a tutorial accompanying the program. Time Matters is one of the most-popular — if not the most-popular — case management programs for small- and medium-sized law firms. Time Matters is an incredible program that includes a firm-wide contact list, a case list, individual and group calendars and “to do’s.” Additionally, it can be used to create documents from the information it contains and manage the records so that accessing documents when a client calls literally involves pushing a button. The program can be customized to each firm’s needs and can work with Word, WordPerfect and Hot Docs as well as link to Timeslips and PCLaw for billing and the Palm Pilot for portable access.

With all these functions, Time Matters can seem overwhelming to newcomers. Storm approaches the product by focusing on four basic functions for lawyers and assumes someone else in the office already has customized and implemented the firm’s system. First, she has you look at contacts, cases and notes. Then she walks you through the calendar and “to do” functions. The final two lessons show how to add phone messages and use Formattable Clipboard to create form documents from data already stored in Time Matters.

DATA.txt, manufacturer of Time Matters, recently released version 3.0 of its flagship product. While Storm’s book covers version 2.0, the basic information also applies to version 3.0.

More detail

As programs have become more complex, authors, including myself, have found it nearly impossible to winnow a program to four lessons that can be learned in an hour. As a result, LPMS offers many books that go into more detail about products popular in law offices. In addition to the “Quick Guides” for various word processors, the section published my book, The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to Timeslips, which covers versions 6,7 and 8. Although Sage has introduced Timeslips version 9 since my book was published, many of the basic concepts discussed in the book are applicable to all versions of Timeslips. The book has seven lessons and topics include handling flat fees and retainers. The second half of the book is devoted to tips and tricks for setting up the program.

While not product-specific, there are two other books the section offers related to billing and financial management. The first, How to Draft Bills Clients Rush to Pay by J. Harris Morgan and Julie Tamminen, is an enlightening book that will help you inspire your clients to part with their hard-earned money more quickly. Morgan is an LPMS founder and always has been willing to share what works for him. The book describes how to establish an honest, up-front relationship with clients. Many lawyers have trouble discussing fees, and Harris provides practical suggestions for confronting this issue directly at the beginning of the client relationship. He encourages lawyers to make sure they’re charging for all components of the work, including expenses, staff and use of technology. He gives tips that are easy to implement for changing bills to make them clearer to clients and better motivate them to pay.

Start-up tips

Jay Foonberg, is another LPMS founder and author of the award winning How to Start and Build a Law Practice. This amazing book is a must have for lawyers getting ready to start their own firm. It also should be considered required reading for any new lawyer, whether going solo or joining a firm. Advice about retainers, office space, office procedures, setting up bank and trust accounts, and filing systems are included. Now in its fourth edition, it has been updated to include advice about home offices and what equipment to buy.

Foonberg also wrote The ABA Guide to Lawyer Trust Accounts, which is intended to bridge the gap between the little we learned in law school about setting up and managing trust funds and the confusing materials generally available from the agencies empowered to enforce the trust account rules. In addition to helping lawyers avoid ethics violations, he includes a section on choosing and using computer programs for trust accounting, including Quicken, as well as more than 20 pages of forms for managing trust funds.

Practice areas

LPMS recently began addressing the technology needs of lawyers in particular practice settings. Among recent titles are: How to Build and Manage an Estates Practice and Wills, Trusts and Technology: An Estate Lawyer’s Guide to Automation, both by Daniel B. Evans; How to Build and Manage a Personal Injury Practice by K. William Gibson and How to Build and Manage an Employment Law Practice by Mindy Farber.

These books contain advice about managing and building a client base in these practice areas and sample fill-in-the-blank forms.

One of the most-popular LPMS books is A Survival Guide for Road Warriors by Daniel Coolidge and J. Michael Jimmerson, seasoned laptop owners who have traveled worldwide with their portables. Both authors have an excellent sense of humor and have filled this book with valuable tips about what works and what doesn’t when you’re on the road.

Computerized Case Management Systems by Andrew Adkins III is an informative book that helps lawyers wade through the decision-making process when selecting a case management system. Adkins begins with an explanation of case management, a review of the leading products and advice about implementing a case management program once you’ve made your decision. He includes a questionnaire, sample evaluation forms and proposed implementation and training schedules.

The Internet has become a popular subject for LPMS books. Starting with Burgess Allison’s The Lawyer’s Guide to the Internet, published in 1995, the section has published nine books on various aspects of the Internet as it affects lawyers. The Lawyer’s Guide to the Internet is one of the best books I’ve seen that introduces lawyers to the ins and outs of the Internet. If you have never read anything by Burgess, you’ve really missed out on one of the best writers on legal technology. His writing is filled with pithy and humorous comments making anything he writes enjoyable as well as beneficial. While the book is slightly out of date, particularly if measured in Internet years, it is still useful for someone looking for information such as what an Internet service provider is and how to find one.

Jerry Lawson’s The Complete Internet Handbook for Lawyers is a recent addition to the LPMS collection and makes a persuasive case why lawyers need to learn about the Internet. It begins with a discussion titled “Why the Internet Matters to Lawyers.” He explains what e-mail is and how to use it and has sections dedicated to using the Internet for research and marketing. He concludes the book with a discussion of ethics and security, including some interesting excerpts from other sources, such as a discourse on why Microsoft realized the Internet was important, predictions about where the Internet is going and top 10 sites offered by prominent lawyers well-versed in technology.

The section also has published several shorter books on Internet-related topics. Among them are: The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to Microsoft Internet Explorer and The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to Netscape Navigator by G. Burgess Allison and The Lawyer’s Quick Guide to E-Mail and The Lawyer’s Guide to Creating Web Pages by Kenneth Johnson. These are good tutorials to get lawyers started browsing for information, sending and receiving e-mail, and understanding what it takes to create a web page.

Research

There are several books that focus on the research side of the Internet including The Internet Fact Finder for Lawyers by Josh Blackman and David Jank, Computer-Assisted Legal Research: A Guide to Successful Online Searching, by Susan Cochard and Samantha Whitney-Ulane, and Law Law Law on the Internet: The Best Legal Web Sites and More by Erik Heels and Rick Klau.

The Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing on the Internet by Greg Siskind and Timothy Moses is a good book if you’re still trying to figure out why your firm needs a web site and its benefit to the bottom line. Web sites can help attract new business as well as allow better service to existing clients. With a lot of foresight and an Internet-appropriate practice area (immigration law), Siskind has gone from a sole practitioner to the leader of a national firm.

To get any of the books mentioned, contact the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section at 800-285-2221 or www.abanet.org/lpm/catalog. Books range in price from $15.95 to $79.95 with most $24.95.

Carol L. Schlein is president of Law Office Systems, a Montclair-based training and consulting firm assisting small- and medium-sized law firms with technology. She formerly chaired the Computer and Technology Division of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section and is an author of The Lawyer’s Guide to Timeslips, published by the ABA. She can be reached at carol@losinc.com.

Questions for Carol L. Schlein on law office technology may be faxed to New Jersey Lawyer at (732) 650-7010 or mailed to “Law Technology Questions,” New Jersey Lawyer, Edison Square, 2035 Lincoln Highway, Suite 3005, Edison, N.J. 08817.