Un-Billable Hour: Business Management Strategies for the Busy Lawyer Around the Community Table

Today’s attorney can practice from anywhere at any time with the dramatic improvement in technology, most importantly, the rapid growth of smart phones. Smartphones made by Blackberry have been the big law phone, the iPhone, the hot tech geek phone, but for an affordable alternative we see the Android phones rapidly taking a substantial percentage of the the smartphone market. On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes Courtney Kennaday, Director of the Practice Management Assistance Program at the South Carolina Bar, to help explain what an Android smartphone is and how it can make practicing attorneys more productive.

How can legal professionals get better at getting things done in their practice? On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes Dr. David D. Nowell, a Clinical Neuropsychologist, to discuss his work with legal professionals and how he helps them reach their practice management goals. Rodney and Dr. Nowell touch upon working with professionals with ADHD, the perks to hiring help and how attorneys can persist and complete tasks in a busy practice.

Can you make your law office more efficient and profitable by using a DMS? On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes Danny Johnson, from NetDocuments, to discuss the use of Document Management Systems (DMS) by attorneys. Rodney and Danny talk about how DMS systems create efficiency and improve knowledge management and can improve case management by integrating with firm practice management systems. They also spotlight some of the players in the industry and provide examples of solo or small firms that have improved efficiency/profitability with DMS.

A sneak peek at ABA TECHSHOW 2011 with The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, and former chairs of the ABA TECHSHOW, Laura Calloway and Jim Calloway. They share what the highlights may be this year, plus hear some of their top law practice management tips from past ABA TECHSHOWS and how attorneys can implement what they learn at the show into their day-to-day practice.

Hear about important law office management issues on The Un-Billable Hour as host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes Attorney Alan J. Klevan, founder of Law Practice Strategies. Alan talks about how to analyze and update existing hardware and software and shares useful websites and tips on how to successfully select and maintain law office technology.

On this edition of The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes Attorney Ernie Svenson from the Svenson Law Firm in New Orleans, to discuss the best practices for moving toward a safe, paperless office. Rodney and Ernie take look at the operating system, certain principles for developing a paperless office and the steps a firm needs to take to move toward a paperless solution.

More attorneys are turning to a MAC instead of a PC for their office needs and want to know more about the critical tools for their practice. On this edition of The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, chats with Ben Stevens, from The Stevens Firm, P.A. and a blogger at the MacLawyer, to talk about using a Macintosh computer in your law office. Rodney and Ben look at the rise in popularity of the Mac in the legal community, how to set up a Mac office and the key software and hardware to make it run efficiently.

On this edition of The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, chats with Carole Levitt, President and Founder of Internet for Lawyers and Mark Rosch, Vice President of Internet for Lawyers, to talk about their new book, Google For Lawyers: Essential Search Tips and Productivity Tools. They discuss their inspiration for the book, overall thoughts on Google as a search engine for attorneys, free office applications and how Google, in the long run, can save attorneys time and money.

With the inception of YouTube, the video has skyrocketed in popularity from how-to videos to promotional videos, to marketing for businesses and law firms. On this edition of The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes Lu Ann Reeb, Co-founder and President of Legal Talk Network, LLC, to talk about the value of video and how firms and attorneys can gain exposure with a high quality video.

On this edition of The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, welcomes JoAnna Forshee, CEO of InsideLegal and Jobst Elster, Head of Content for InsideLegal.com, to take an inside look at the 2010 International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Conference and findings from the 2010 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey. JoAnna and Jobst discuss the collaboration between ILTA and InsideLegal, the strategy and marketing sessions offered at the ILTA conference and what these survey results mean to vendors.