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Management Assistance Program

Law Practice Tips

Jim Calloway’s Daily Tips on Practicing in a Crisis

COVID-19 is Brutal to Young Lawyers (August 28, 2020)

COVID-19 may target older individuals in terms of serious symptoms and fatalities. But the collateral consequences of this pandemic has wounded many different groups of people. 2020 was just a terrible year if you were graduating, job hunting, opening a new business, moving or had business opportunities driven by in-person networking. And that list of...
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Microsoft Adds Transcription of Sound Files to Word 365 (August 27, 2020)

A powerful new feature added to Microsoft Word this week is the transcription of sound files into text. Speech-to-text apps are often used by lawyers. I get many questions from our members on speech recognition tools. Given how powerful the Microsoft Dictate tool is, this is likely both useful and powerful. I tested it briefly....
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Hate Word? Change it (August 26, 2020)

Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as saying “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” The internet says he didn’t say that, but it is a good observation in any event. Those of us who work with lawyers on law practice process management are...
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Active Voice v Passive Voice — A Ten Minute Drill to Improve Your Legal Writing (August 25, 2020)

It’s back to law school time. So today’s tip to improve your legal writing is courtesy of Prof. Margaret C. Hannon, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. @mch_tweets Using active words and phrases will result in more powerful, more understandable and often more concise writing, whether in a brief or...
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Tour the TechnoLawyer Top Products Awards of 2020 (August 24, 2020)

Every year TechnoLawyer announces this set of awards, and I enjoyed reading the TechnoLawyer Top Products Awards of 2020. Before you click, understand the methodology here is a bit different. Products are featured in TechnoLawyer and the votes are the clicks on links from the TechnoLawyer subscribers. So, the products are limited to those featured...
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Check Out a Videoconferencing Guide for Oklahoma Lawyers (August 21, 2020)

My August Oklahoma Bar Journal Law Practice Tips column is A Videoconferencing Guide for Oklahoma Lawyers. It was written for print, so it was finished several weeks ago. In the interim, it has become a bit easier to buy webcams. But if you need one, I’d read the column and place an order now before...
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Reduce the Size of Those Huge PDF Files (August 20, 2020)

It happens too frequently even today. A legal team scans a huge document of 100 pages because the lawyers need a digital copy with original signatures or a court filing stamp. The result is a 45 MB PDF file. Their email system does not allow an attachment that large. But the team has dealt with...
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Improve Your Google Search Strategies (August 19, 2020)

In the early days of internet searching, I was reminded of an elementary school question and, yes, the search engines did penalize you for incorrect spelling. Today, of course, if you are typing a long search into Google and misspell one or more words, Google will typically just gently let you know it is searching...
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Office Sharing Has Both Potential Promise and Pitfalls (August 18, 2020)

Today we are going back into the archives for a timeless law office management tip. Many solo or small firm lawyers share office space with other lawyers without going into partnership or intending to do so. Oklahoma City attorney James Slayton and I wrote a pair of essays on this subject a few years back...
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Google Announces Many New Pixel Phones, Including One for the Bargain Shopper. (August 17, 2020)

This month Google announced release of Pixel 5, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 4A all at once (The Verge.) Fall is now the traditional time for release of new phone models. If you are a budget shopper, you may want to take a look at the Pixel 4A. You can pre-order the 4A now with...
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