By Jim Calloway Many software tools have a huge variety of features and options. They are very powerful. But the more features there are, the more training is required. Some lawyers prefer simple apps that have more limited functions but accomplish them very well. A solo practitioner often can benefit significantly from implementing a personal...

By Jim Calloway No, it's not your imagination. You are most likely receiving more phishing emails and strange phone calls with people talking in the background this year. Attempted fraud is on the rise and the schemes are increasingly sophisticated. Soon we will see more artificial intelligence-aided scams, such as a deepfake voice message from...

By Jim Calloway Windows 10 has a 65% share of the US market, while Windows 11 has a 32% share. But that is likely to change. Microsoft has announced end of support for Windows 10 as of October 2025. Lawyers should not use any tool that does not have support and regular security updates. But...

By Jim Calloway Today the combined OBA Annual Meeting, Oklahoma Judicial Conference and the Solo & Small Firm Conference begins, followed by our Artificial Intelligence on Friday. One of our traditions at Solo & Small Firm Conference is a fast-paced session called 60 Tips in 60 Minutes that will take place on Thursday. So, in...

By Jim Calloway Last week in this space I discussed that the Snipping Tool can now extract text from images you snip. For many, the Holy Grail was when would text recognition tools be able to recognize handwritten notes, especially cursive, and extract the text. That day has now arrived. The tool to do so...

By Jim Calloway The Snipping Tool in Windows is a staple in my set of tech tools. It enables me to take screenshots of anything that appears on my screen. For instance, when I need to discuss something displayed on our website, I quickly grab a screenshot and embed it in an email to the...

By Jim Calloway We still learn of new Artificial Intelligence developments almost weekly. Recently Apple boosted their share price with an announcement that the company had made a deal with OpenAI, parent of ChatGPT, to incorporate AI technology into Siri with Apple Intelligence. One of the first things to learn about AI is developing good...

By Jim Calloway As all lawyers in private practice, understand, good clients and good client relationships are key to the success of a law practice. Author Jay Harrington outlines the  benefits that can occur from improving your client communication game in his post Client Conversations: You’re Not Bugging Your Clients If You’re Providing Value. In today’s law...

By Jim Calloway As you likely know, the OBA program, Artificial Intelligence: Shaping the Future of Law Practice, is set for July 12 at the Embassy Suites in Norman. One of our speakers is Ben Schorr, Senior Content Program Manager for Microsoft. He will discuss the many ways he uses Microsoft’s Copilot to save time...

By Jim Calloway This Traditional Method of Expressing Gratitude to Referral and Others Can Make Your Firm Stand Out Why Thank You Cards Matter Traditional thank you cards are a simple and effective way to show your appreciation and build rapport with the people who help your law practice grow. Emailing an expression of gratitude...

By Jim Calloway There have been several recent upgrades to the iPhone iOS operating system. Like many lawyers, I am sometimes a bit annoyed that an interface has changed. But I navigate past it and get back to work. This challenge is that I may be missing some very useful new features. A recent article…

By Julie Bays, OBA Practice Management Advisor Lawyers deal with confidential data which requires strong security measures, particularly when away from the office. Employing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is essential to protect client’s confidential information while working remotely or in public spaces such as coffee shops, airports, and hotels. Public Wi-Fi networks are particularly…

By OBA MAP Director Jim Calloway Are there some tasks that you do every day that require several computer operations? Lawyers can save valuable time and increase productivity by automating many of these repetitive tasks in Windows. One very interesting idea is setting up your computer to open several tasks every time it is turned…

By OBA MAP Director Jim Calloway This week’s tip covers a typographic symbol, the em dash, which is like a hyphen — but longer (see what I did there?). So why would a lawyer use an em dash? Here’s the definition of em dash from Thesaurus.com: “In general, the em dash is seen as being…

By Jim Calloway Most lawyers use Outlook for email. Upgrading to the “new” Outlook over the last few months has not been painless. Some functions require using the new version of Outlook and sometimes we must toggle back to the old version to get something to work. Perhaps the most frustrating thing has been the…

By Jim Calloway It is important for a lawyer to have their client’s trust, particularly when important decisions must be made. While we all appreciate what building trust with our clients entails, few have examined the elements of improving trust. In The Trust Equation: The Most Important Formula for Developing New Business, Jay Harrington discusses…

By Jim Calloway Most lawyers tend to use iPhones, based on my non-scientific observations. I believe that is true for many professionals. iPhones have a reputation for being the most secure device. But some of the security features require the user to set or enable them, like Activation Lock, which prevents others from using your…

By Jim Calloway Like many lawyers, I still sometimes take notes by hand on a legal pad. The challenge is that saving information in a non-digital format hampers reuse and searching. I have in the past “converted” the notes to a digital format by opening Word and using its Dictate speech recognition tool to create…

By Jim Calloway Have you ever received an email that required your attention, but you didn’t have time to deal with it right away? Maybe it was a project update, a client request, or a feedback form. You probably thought, “I’ll get back to this later,” and moved on to other tasks. But then, hours…

By Jim Calloway Edge is Gaining an Edge in the Browser Market Microsoft Edge, the successor of the infamous Internet Explorer, has been steadily increasing its market share. According to StatCounter, Edge surpassed Firefox in March 2020 and became the second most popular browser after Chrome. Statcounter notes that for January 2024, Chrome has a…