By Jim Calloway During the past year, many people got more Amazon deliveries than ever before. But on June 8 Amazon stealthily delivered something to you that you should reject. If you use Alexa, Echo or other Amazon devices, Amazon just enrolled you in a bandwidth-sharing service called Amazon Sidewalk. While it theoretically could have…

By Jim Calloway NEVER use BCC BCC is inherently clandestine. You are sending an email to someone while providing someone else a secret copy without letting the recipient know you’ve done so. The person you have BCC’d receives it in their inbox just like a normal email. If they decide to “Reply All” to that…

By Jim Calloway Keyboard shortcuts are real time savers, especially when editing documents in Microsoft Word. But keyboard shortcuts are only useful if committed to memory and the only way I’ve been able to memorize keyboard shortcuts is by using them. Practice management solution, Rocket Matter, has produced a pair of keyboard shortcut Cheat Sheets…

One of the creepiest things about modern technology is shopping for something with your phone and then ads for that product will be displayed on websites you visit and other apps you use for many days following. iPhone users now have a new tool to avoid this type of tracking and many will want to…

A major frustration with technology is knowing there is probably an easier way to do something, but not knowing what it is. Invest a few minutes reading 5 smart Windows 10 tricks to save time and space from Kim Komando in USA Today. If that is not enough for you, see this table of 30…

By Jim Calloway Sometimes it can be frustrating when the lawyer has completed a project except for the information that the client was supposed to provide. Perhaps our method of assigning tasks to clients could stand a review. Help Me, Help You: Getting Clients to Do Their Homework by North Carolina Bar Association’s Catherine Reach…

By Jim Calloway, Director OBA Management Assistance Program Online reviews are growing in importance where marketing is concerned. In a January, 2021 issue of Courts & More, I published Responding to a Negative Online Review. This is a challenging area for lawyers. So if you missed it before, here is another opportunity. Today I direct…

By Jim Calloway Ctrl + C and Ctrl+ V must be the two most used keyboard shortcuts. Even if you don’t know many other keyboard shortcuts, you’ve certainly memorized these two, which are used to copy a selection to the Windows Clipboard and paste the copied contents into another location. A few years ago, the…

By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program Would you invest just a few minutes doing something that will save you minutes each workday afterwards? Outlook users can quickly and easily automate several email actions to run sequentially. Open an email in Outlook and you see the Quick Steps in the Ribbon at the top….

By Jim Calloway A current TV commercial states in an uncomplimentary tone, “If you printed out the directions to drive here, you’re in the right place.” I resent that one. When I am driving around the state to meet with other lawyers, I always print out the directions, even though I rarely refer to them….

By Jim Calloway Director, OBA Management Assistance Program Lawyers have long had a love-hate relationship with office technology. Lawyers love tech tools that save time (particularly on tasks not being billed to clients) and money. So, long ago word processing software tools that meant not having to retype an entire document to edit it were…

ABA TECHSHOW 2021 was held virtually the second week of March and, by all accounts was a success. The virtual conference meant that many more expert presenters were able to participate than usual. Takeaways and Tips From ABA TECHSHOW 2021 from Attorney@Work featured comments from several TECHSHOW attendees, including me and a few other past…

Lawyers are trained to consider the negative implications of anything new. When the idea of chatbots on law firm websites first surfaced, many were concerned about the potential for malpractice liability based on poor advice from a chatbot. But giving legal advice is not something your law firm would ever want a chatbot to do….

Most security experts recommend storing critical data in the cloud. But such cloud storage must be safe and secure. It also needs to be easy to access. Microsoft OneDrive is one of the tools provided with business subscriptions to Microsoft 365. It provides one terabyte of cloud storage. This storage is not only secure, but…

Most lawyers worked from home on occasion. But the previous twelve months have changed the way we think of working from home. Home Office Setup: The Best Products for Comfort, Productivity and Joy from Attorney@Work highlights work-from-home tools ranging from a good chair to lightning tips to great slippers. Working from home is not going…

That helpful person calling from Microsoft Tech Support is most likely a scammer. The odds go up to 100% if they tell you they noticed a problem with your computer and are calling to help you fix it. You can easily test that premise by telling them they have just reached an FBI agent and…

Lawyers deal with confidential client information and we have a duty to secure that information. No matter who you are, you wouldn’t want to donate, give away or even discard a computer or phone with information still on the device. No one would want to transfer a computer or phone without making certain the personal…

By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance program. The “On Tech” newsletter from The New York Times typically has great content. I encourage people to subscribe to this. The current edition is Why Your TV Spies on You, which is a fact of life for most smart TV’s and streaming services. But while some lawyers…

By Jim Calloway, Director OBA Management Assistance Program Negative online reviews can hurt businesses and law firms are no exception. But other types of businesses don’t have to be concerned about confidentiality and attorney-client privilege if they choose to respond to a negative review. Here are some suggestions for lawyers on dealing with negative online…

By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program It is now a cliché to note that we have more computing power in our mobile phones than NASA had at its disposal during the moon missions. Today we’ll discuss harnessing one bit of that power. Suppose you are visiting with a client outside of your office…