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Circuits – The First Issue of 2022 is Out!

Come one, come all. The first issue of Circuits — the famous e-Journal of the Computer & Technology Section — has hit the electronic press. This issue has five full-fledged articles. The Short Circuits section has two more (mini) articles of practical interest. You can download the issue here.

Enjoy

5th Annual Technology and Justice for All Webinar (Friday, February 11, 2022)

Dear Colleagues:

The past two years have been an unprecedented time for the adoption of technology by lawyers. From the use of Zoom and other video communication tools by courts, businesses, and individuals to the importance of disaster recovery planning, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the practice of law demands a new level of competence in technology for attorneys to meet their duties under Texas Rules of Professional Conduct 1.01 cmt para 8.

Start the new year with a better practice by joining the Computer and Technology Section for our 5th Annual Technology and Justice for All CLE webinar, and earn up to 4.75 hours MCLE credit, including 1.75 hours of ethics credit.

This seminar will be presented by law and technology experts bringing perspectives from a diverse range of practices including cyber law, litigation, government, in-house counsel, and IP. This program will be archived and available for replay for the next 30 days, until March 13, on the CTS Section website. BUT YOU MUST REGISTER AND PAY NOW to take advantage of the archived presentations.

Use the links below to register and view the program agenda.

5th Annual Technology and Justice for All CLE Webinar

When:

Friday, February 11, 2022
9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. CST


Registration

Section members: $75

Non-section members: $100

Legal Aid Providers/Justice Incubators: FREE

Up to 4.75 hours of MCLE credit, including 1.75 hours ethics

Join the Computer and Technology Section for $25 here and receive the section member price of $75!

Register

Program Agenda


Description:

From using software for automation and efficiency, to privacy and free speech in a digital world, to reaching and ethically representing clients when businesses and individuals are embracing a remote-friendly, on-demand economy and workplace, this course will advance your legal technology skills to make a tech-forward 2022 work for you and your firm. Attendees will learn:

  • How to think like an engineer and work smart, not hard, to harness technology for a more efficient practice
  • What it means to meet your ethical duties to your clients in the Zoom-enabled, smartphone-friendly, cybercrime-ridden practice environment of 2022
  • The latest developments in U.S. and global cybersecurity requirements impacting your firm and your client’s businesses
  • How to use the Texas Bar’s new, attorney-friendly Advertising Review Portal for faster guidance on how to market ethically and effectively
  • Key recent holdings on the application of the First Amendment to social media platforms like Snapchat and Twitter
  • 60 Apps to make your practice and life easier and more successful

Attend live streaming via Zoom on Friday, February 11 and ask presenters questions live via chat OR watch on-demand at your convenience for 30 days after.

A great value: Registrants for this seminar can earn up to 4.75 hours of MCLE credit, including 1.75 hours of ethics credit. It is only $75 for Section members, and $100 for others, including one year of free Computer and Technology Section membership.

Supporting Access to Justice: Registration is FREE for Legal Aid Providers or Justice Incubators.

Register now! Click HERE to register. Whether you’re a digital native or the PEBKAC, this CLE course will leave you better equipped for 2022.

We hope you will be able to join us!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Rogers, Chair
Computer and Technology Section
State Bar of Texas

ABA TechShow: Day One is a Wrap

ABA TechShow: Day One review

By Mitchell Zoll and Mark I. Unger

Mark and Mitch, Council-Members with the State Bar of Texas Computer and Technology Section, sat down (virtually) for a quick chat about Day One of the ABA TechShow. They miss the engagement, personal connection, and even happy hours normally associated with TechShow and tried to recreate the feeling with a sad dance break before they talked.

Mark: Hi Mitch, what are you up to this week?

Mitch: Well Mark, as you might expect, I’m chasing the TechShow Tiger with you again this year.

Mark: Well Mitch, I hate to tell you but for the first time in history, this year is Virtual so there is no free breakfast.

Mitch: The breakfast was never free, but the price was always worth it. I met legal tech leaders at the coffee bar and learned so much during the informal morning hours. I am still hoping to recreate that experience this year, but it is tough. In previous TechShows, the conference organizers used an impressive app to enhance the conference experience. The schedule was dynamic, and you could see class overlaps, session tracks, and even where other attendees might be if you are looking to meet up.

The previously used app has gone online, holding a lot of the features that the conference planners knew to put in our hands. The online schedule lets attendees walk through various learning tracks, plan the classes they want to attend, and acts as a virtual “lobby” where you can find up-to-date information.

Mark: Yes. l loved the Apps for conferences, and we used one of the first ones used by TechShow for the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting years ago. There are always some shortcomings, but the online version seems a little ‘sandboxish.’ To integrate with my schedule, it requires several clicks to download to my calendar and then open and assign it. Fortunately, the materials are a more easily accessible download.

Mitch: Agreed. It took a few clicks to realize I could add the sessions to my outlook calendar. Unfortunately, like many lawyers in an “online” conference, I am trying to stay engaged with the real world between sessions. Blocking the time on my calendar lets me also add in client calls and client emails. It dilutes from the TechShow experience, but it lets me be two places at once… from my chair.

Mark: From where I’m sitting Mitch, we’ve got a pretty good view.

Mitch: Mark, you are a TechShow veteran. What sessions did you pick and what did you enjoy about the presentations?

Mark: Every year, there is some of the same, usually, it’s core stuff that I forget so fast that the repetitive nature of it is invaluable. I’ve often said I sleep slow and that my brain leaks. It’s fantastic to be able to fill up again somewhat each year and this goes for my other yearly staple — State Bar of Texas’ Advanced Family Law seminar in the summer.

This year there were 18 tracks with an additional emphasis being placed on ‘well-being’ and ‘demo’ tracks, which are essentially what used to be vendor lunch n learn topics to sell their wares. The tracks are – Core Concepts, Cybersecurity; Disruptive Innovation, Well-Being, Micro Demo (Vendor presentations), Ethics, Diversity, Collaboration, Marketing, Virtual/Remote, Future Proof, Leadership, Industry, Next20, Business Plan, Automation, Lessons Learned, and Litigation.

Mitch: The tracks were helpful, but I planned my day by selecting the specific presenter or topic. The first session we attended was Collaborating: What is the Best Tool? (and is that the right question) presented by John E. Grant and Kenton Brice. It was a great lead off-topic as the speakers reframed their subject to move away from a feature-list shoot-out and more to the questions that we, as lawyers, need to ask ourselves before we start trying to choose technology. Not to miss the point of TechShow, they ultimately provided the session with a double-secret tip for choosing the right platform. Lucky for you, Mark and I met with John and Kenton and they gave us permission to share the tip with you in our recent interview.

Mark: I’m right there with you Mitch. I have known these two cats for several years now and as you astutely mentioned, while they addressed the Slack v. MS Teams choices they went off-script to delve into the esoteric, an exercise that shows their big intellects but also their focus on Teaching (Bryce) and Coaching/Consulting (Grant).

Grant is known as the ‘Agile Attorney’ (He likes to say, “Kanban is my jam,’) Brice is likewise focused on process improvement and it made for a great presentation. They touched on things like the bottlenecks in the legal office process, (i.e., If you can improve flow at bottlenecked stages, like client homework, you will improve the flow in all). They also talked about handoffs of casework. Grant referenced three types of handoffs that are killing your productivity–

  1. Internal Resource (between you and associate),
  2. External resource (outside co-counsel or client); and
  3. Future Resource (tricky because it’s usually yourself).

His point worth noting, that it is not about handing things off more quickly but reducing the total number of handoffs (i.e., requiring people to hold the baton until they’ve done the most they can do, not the least they can do). I have found this particularly true in document construction and drafting.

Mark: What was next up?

Mitch: TechShow provides high-level thinking about technology as well as opportunities for deep dives into specific products. The second session we attended was Wrapping Your Mind Around Microsoft Teams presented by Ben Schorr and Josh Leporati. The session was more of a working session on how to use Teams and explored tips lawyers might use in their day-to-day practice.

Mark: Again, as we seem to approach these things similarly, I was in this session as well. I remember getting ready to present one year on Creating documents on iPad. The session was slated for 2:00 p.m. At noon, Microsoft held a press conference and launched Word for iPad, now a part of their suite that allowed us, iPad users, to do (almost) everything we needed to do but from iPad. Microsoft has for the last five years simply destroyed the business model and made enormous inroads into ‘legal’ beyond Word on a desktop. They telegraphed this 6 or 7 years ago at the ILTA convention and simply have not let up. Ironically, I think we are back where we were 7-10 years ago when the big players were attempting to sandbox us into their word (and other) processing software. This was before the switch to a subscription model for software. Well, here we are again, and since that time, MS has not only launched Surface tablets to compete with Apple’s innovative touchscreen tech but owns the basic editable document assembly space.

My long story-short point is that Ben Schorr is an old-school veteran of TechShow and through his drill-down knowledge of MS systems (he went from law to consulting to now being with Microsoft), his two tracks on Day one “Wrapping your head around MS Teams” and my favorite “Secrets of MS Office 365” was invaluable.

Mitch: Ben is one of the reasons I love attending TechShow. You have experts in their field presenting on the apps that we use every day. Ben and others only had 30 minutes, but then went to a breakout session where they answered specific questions from attendees. If you have the time, you will get answers to questions you didn’t even know you had (ironically a topic for later in the week!)

The third session I attended was Adobe Acrobat DC: Exploring the Newest Features. Dan Siegal, presenter and author, provided a step-by-step walkthrough of Adobe in the ways that lawyers use the application. The tip per second count was as close to a 1:1 ratio as any session I have ever attended.  While there are presentations where it is best to sit back and listen to learn, Dan’s presentation had me working both screens to try to keep up with the settings and selections he was teaching.

Mark: Once again, agree, though I’ll be honest and this floats across all tracks– the degradation of the video or PowerPoint is more than distracting. It’s very hard to follow and learn when things are fuzzy. Adobe, like Microsoft is also killing it, especially as digital signatures become even more of the norm during Covid last year. While I use HelloSign v. Adobe Sign or major player DocuSign, Adobe tools are becoming absolutely necessary, especially given the virtual exhibit creation workflows for litigators during zoom hearings and trials. Signing is an add-on, but for Orders and agreements, everyone has to do it.

His coverage of what’s new or changed was particularly helpful, though at times a little hard to follow. His inclusion of Redaction (Professional version only), Protected Mode (to prevent security breaches), and Remove Hidden Information (i.e., metadata-ish stuff), is telling, especially as our legal workflows require uploading and exchanging PDF’s literally all the time. The focus on Bookmarks, a long-forgotten but incredibly significant function given Zoom hearings and direct or cross-examination, is significant. Sigel’s references also to new functions in signing, printing, and Sanitizing, really highlight Adobe’s hold on the majority of the market, not unlike Microsoft.

Mitch: Dan’s presentation is one I need to go back and watch again. The great thing about attending the full week of TechShow is that you have access to re-watch the programs after they complete. After leaving Dan’s presentation, we attended Secrets in Microsoft 365. Rather than diving into a single application, this presentation provided a high-level overview of the different Microsoft 365 items and important ways the applications work together for lawyers.

Mark: I agree. Ben Schorr (Microsoft), along with Annette Sanders (BigHand) touched on multiple functions, including Projects (in passing), Stream for internal video training, Planner, as well as the super sexy “Power Automate” (creation of automated flows from repetitive tasks, though once again limited saves mostly to One Drive, MS’s cloud Document Management System (DMS). They also mentioned connectors (automation akin to triggers and actions similar to IFTTT, Workflow, Zapier, and the like, which have been ramping up efficiency (even if we forget what we setup) for easily the last 3-4 years. One power tip – keep an eye out for Transcription, available on the Web now and coming in all modes, that seems to do what Apple has often tried to do and ‘sherlock’ or bake in the functionality of third-party apps like Dragon, or even Speakwrite (Austin transcription upload service) to allow you to have a true voice to text and transcription creation.

Also, and no less stunning, is the functionality of using ‘Ink Editor’ (ability to draw in documents first launched only on iPad in its PowerPoint version). And pay attention to “Sensitivity Labels,” which allow admin settings to be created to either lockdown files that contain sensitive or protected information or provide the option to do so to the user. For example, while Tyler Technologies finally rolled out a form of redaction in eFiling about two years ago, it’s still on us to protect this type of info, as we are the ‘covered entity.’

Additional playthings like Presenter Coach in PowerPoint, to give you tips in your practice sessions of a presentation; and Insights, which in Excel will allow you to highlight information and will then suggest a particular type of chart, pivot table, or the like to create graphics and be more persuasive.

They ended with a caveat — use the Templates feature and stop reinventing the wheel.

This, in and of itself seems to be a thread in the blanket of TechShow 2021, given all of the focus (again) on document assembly and automation, both in the Startup competition and baked into the software is legal.

Mitch: Working remotely, automation, and using the tools you already have were consistent themes in many of the presentations we attended.

Well, that’s our day one report.  We will be connecting with some of these impressive presenters and bringing you additional chats and interviews to be posted on the Computer and Technology social media accounts. Stay tuned for additional information soon.  If you missed this year’s TechShow, make sure to put next year on your calendar!

In memoriam of our friend and colleague, Josh Hamilton

Josiah Quincy “Josh” Hamilton

August 1, 1968 – February 3, 2020 (age 51)

Former Chair, App Developer, Council Member, Musician, Friend

It is with immense sadness that we share that Josh Hamilton, former Chair, passed away from glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor. Josh was as amazing a friend as anyone could have known. He was kind beyond words or actions, transcending this quality to an art that is so rarely seen that it appears to perhaps be endangered. In essence, he was quite literally the ‘nicest guy you might  ever want to meet.’ He was smart beyond knowledge, wise beyond years and gracious beyond anyone’s ability to ask. 

Josh was an integral part of the team creating the Computer & Technology Section app for its members, figuring out how to authenticate a user’s identity with the State Bar of Texas and writing the code to accomplish this that was adopted by the company that made the app. 

In 2011, he received The State Bar of Texas Presidents/Directors Certificate of Merit, State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting, and Computer & Technology Section Award of Merit for his work on the App and his contribution to the State Bar. 

Josh was a true husband and partner to his wife, Jane, devoted and loving father to his children, Bethany, Josiah, and Sophia and many other family and friends. How his children grew up, and how they are now is a testimonial of Josh as a father.  How his wife loved him is a testimonial of Josh as a husband. How he treated his fellow attorneys is a testimonial of Josh as a friend.

Those who knew him admired his ability as a first-class hacker.  He was easily the best Perl hacker that the State Bar could call their own.  He built his own home security system (from cobbled-together parts). He created spamgourmet.com (a great website that provided disposable email addresses that helped thousands of people avoid unwanted spam/corporate messages).  That’s what Josh did best. He used his considerable hacking skills to devise creative solutions for the common good — all on a shoestring budget. Practical as well as pragmatic. He was level-headed, and did not possess any of the idiosyncrasies common to geeks.  

We, the Council and section members, lawyers and friends, will miss him more than we have words. Thank you Josh, for what you were and what you have done to make us better. 

Memorial Service and reception: 

Friday, February 14, 2020 at 11:00 AM
Christ Church Cathedral
1117 Texas Avenue
Houston, Texas 77002

Tribute to Josiah “Josh” Hamilton.

2018 Strata Data Conference

Google saw fit to bestow a free ticket to a member of the Council to attend the Strata Conference (https://conferences.oreilly.com/strata) in New York City.  The Strata Conference is all about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science, as well as some attendant topics.  Size-wise, this conference is on a par with LegalTech and the International Legal Technology Association (“ILTA”) Conference .  However that is about where the similarity ends.  As far as I could tell, I was the only attorney in attendance.  They were curious to know why I was there, but when I described e-discovery, data breach situations and the like — they got it.  A very welcoming lot.  Here are some observations:

1. As with the legal conventions, AI was all the rage.  Not surprising, however, because the Strata conference is all about data, so Data Science (aka “Big Data”) plays an more important role.  AI is used to analyze Big Data.  There is just so much data that only a machine could cope with it.

2. Open source software applications dominate the field.  In fact, there was one presentation entitled “Commercial Software in an Increasingly Open Source Ecosystem.”  Large companies now insist on open source applications (for a variety of reasons).  So much so that when they go looking for solutions, they turn to the open source versions first.  Even Microsoft was touting how well you could run Linux and other open source applications on Azure.  Microsoft knows that it has a credibility problem in this area, but they are truly making an effort to make amends with the open source community (and by extension, corporate America).

3. AI and Data Science are quickly being institutionalized in corporate America.  Corporate networks are being modified to capture company data for use in AI-based applications (which have an insatiable thirst for data).

4. The pace of AI development is exponential, and that pace won’t slow down anytime soon.  Indeed, the pace of infrastructure modifications to take advantage of AI development will ensure that that exponential rate of GPU (graphic processor units) growth continues for the near term.

5. Moore’s law is officially dead — kind of.  The current rate of growth of *CPU* capability is 1.1:1, rather than the 1.5:1 during the heyday of Moore’s law.  Don’t despair.  The growth rate for *GPU’s* (favored by AI applications) is currently 1.5:1.  Moore’s law isn’t quite dead yet, but it has shifted a bit.

6. AI is getting easier to develop and use.  Software is being developed to abstract the process of creating AI.  This abstraction process is intended to insulate normal people from the nitty-gritty of developing AI.  I saw one Microsoft engineer build an AI-based chat bot in less than 5 minutes (he timed himself, right in front of us).  The point is, AI is getting easier to develop and use all the time.  Soon, even a lawyer will be able to do it.  What this portends is hard to fathom, but people would be wise to monitor the developments.  Even better, AI has now hit the “hobby” level, in that the tools to start developing AI are free (from a software royalty standpoint) and the hardware costs to do it (beyond a snail’s pace) are modest.

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