Digital Practice of Law

E-mail Marketing Director

Over the last 5 years I have downloaded and reviewed more e-mail distribution software programs and services then I care to admit.

Recently, I have come across an excellent program for those of you who are providing e-mail newsletters and other news alerts to your clients.  The program is Email Marketing Director (US$495) from Ariel software. (http://www.arialsoftware.com/). 

Its features inlcude:

• Easy to use and works from your PC
• Email personalization
• Built-in database to manage lists
• Unlimited lists
• Subscriber's filter
• Handles bounces and removes automatically
• Built-in email newsletter templates
• Works with your existing ISP mail settings
• No monthly fees like email services
• Use for email newsletters, announcements, etc.
• Free trial

Though you can find other programs for less money, this one is definitely worth its price.

Reviews of Adobe Acrobat 7.0; ZoneAlarm Security Suite 5.5; Diskeeper 9 and Norton SystemWorks 2005

Burney's Gadgets for Legal Pros "Software Rundown Adobe Acrobat 7.0; ZoneAlarm Security Suite 5.5; Diskeeper 9 and Norton SystemWorks 2005 . . ."

Comment:  Must read article on these 3 products from an expert reviewer.

Screening Suspected Terrorists

"NEW SOLUTION FROM LTC HELPS LAWYERS MAINTAIN COMPLIANCE WITH OFAC REGULATIONS REGARDING CLIENT SCREENING.  "Legal Technology Consulting, Inc. releases web-based “Sentinel” tool to assist the legal community in maintaining compliance with mandatory OFAC regulations for screening clients against the Federal SDN list of suspected terrorists. . . Legal Technology Consulting, Inc. today announced the release of a web-based service called “Sentinel” that enables lawyers to meet OFAC requirements by screening their clients against the list of Specially-Designated Nationals and Blocked Entities online. The SDN is a list of . .."

24/7 Support

(6-22-04) iMergent Adds 24/7 Chat and Email Support to Customer Service Initiatives; Company Reiterates Focus on Customer Service. "iMergent, Inc., (OTCBB:IMGG) a leading provider of eCommerce and software for small businesses and entrepreneurs, announced it has expanded its chat and email customer support services to include 24 hour, seven days a week support. . . Many of our customers are starting new online merchant ventures in addition to their careers and primary sources of income. This forces many customers to work on building, maintaining and operating new merchant web sites outside regular business hours. We believe increasing our availability for customer service support and continuing a high level of assistance and education will increase customer satisfaction and lead to additional sales opportunities in the future."

SEC Compliant Messaging Solution

SEC Compliant Messaging Solution (2-23-04)
"FivePoints (formerly Opus-i) today announced the debut of its SEC compliant messaging solution. The FivePoints solution provides a cost effective way for financial services firms to rapidly comply with SEC, NYSE, NASD and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations for electronic communications (E-mail and Instant Messaging.)

Comment: An excellent example of how technology is being developed to assist in managing electronic information for regulatory and other litigation support purposes.

New Buzzwords - Utility Computing

IDC bullish on utility computing spending - January 14, 2004

"As technology suppliers ease systems management, spending for products that deal in utility computing will surge in coming years, analyst firm IDC is predicting.

Spending of $1 billion in 2003 is expected to double this year and to increase to about $4.6 billion in 2007, IDC said in a conference call Tuesday.

An idea sweeping the computing industry, utility computing--known by various labels such as on-demand, adaptive or organic computing--has spurred all large technology suppliers to action. The companies are seeking ways to address customer complaints about the complexity of installing, operating or changing their computing gear.

IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard are hard at work, increasing the automation of their gear so that a collection of servers, storage and networking gear will automatically reconfigure themselves to adjust to changing work loads or equipment failure. Related software is emerging from companies such as EMC, Computer Associates International and Microsoft. Even Intel is getting into the act, planning technology called Vanderpool to make it easier for one processor to handle multiple tasks simultaneously."

Comment: About time!

Links to Computer Sites

The following are just a few of the technical journals staff should be reviewing monthly.

http://www.infoworld.com/
http://www.networkcomputing.com/
http://www.iwsubscribe.com/newsletters/
http://www.techweb.com/
http://www.zdnet.com/
http://www.nwfusion.com/
http://register.microsoft.com/regsys/
http://www.tsif.com (includes speed test for your computer).

Print Virtually Any File Without the Native Application - Quick View Plus

"Quick View Plus 7 lets you view, copy and print virtually any file without the need for native applications. Click here for Supported File Formats. The cost is $35 for a software copy.
COMMENT: This is a must have software application!

Searching Audio Files

iCite (http://www.icitelegal.com/audiodiscovery.html).

"Legal discovery isn't just about retrieving the data from electronic documents like word files, email, and accounting spreadsheets. It's about retrieving all the data—including audio recordings from answering machines, call center backup tapes, and trading floor transactions. . . AudioCite(sm) is iCite's own audio indexing, hosting and retrieval capability. . . AudioCite's unique phonetic search technology can retrieve any word, name, or phrase from audio data, regardless of speaker or dialect, with up to 98 percent precision. . . It can:

Convert proprietary formatted audio information to .WAV or .mpg files phonetically
Index the .WAV or .mpg files phonetically
Provide a powerful phoneme-based search engine
Create .mp3 files for streaming retrieval over the Internet
Host the audio files on its secure network. "

Other links: NEXminer from Nexidia (http://www.nexidia.com)

Summation and Electronic Evidence

Working With Electronic Evidence with Summation

"Traditional 'paper' documents have been sought in the legal discovery process for hundreds of years. Yet an attorney fifty years ago – or five years ago, for that matter-- would have been perplexed as to how to introduce the emails around Merrill Lynch into evidence. . . And those involved in litigation need a way to deal with it!

The latest generation of litigation support products from Summation – Version 2 of Summation Blaze® LG -- include new tools for working with electronic evidence. I’ll explain those tools in a moment. However, it might first be useful to explain how non-electronic evidence – which is to say, old-fashioned paper documents – are stored and searched in Summation."