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Without a Trace: Relational Databases Make Everything Better

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I’m not even exaggerating a little bit , when I say that, one of the reasons I left law practice was we could never find anything !  That was because, when I started out as a lawyer, paper files were still the norm .  Now , relational databases were available – they just weren’t in vogue yet.     Today , there’s no excuse for avoid ing the us e of relational databases in law practice.   I remember trying to screw around with Microsoft Access databases, back in the day .  These days, there are some great off-the-shelf, fully-formed products that you can lean on, to help you organize your law office .  At this point, most law firms have deployed a case management software, or law practice management software .  That’s how you corral your client matters .  However, far fewer law firms have adopted and implemented a customer relationship management software (CRM), which offers similar functionality for leads .  If you are missing...
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Buckle Up: Your Law Firm Needed AI Governance, Like Yesterday

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Don’t get it twisted – everybody is using AI .  That includes the people who work in your law firm .  And, that’s true even if you don’t have an AI usage policy – in fact, that’s especially true, if you don’t have an AI usage policy.     You see, if you don’t have an AI policy, the natural human inclination is for people to use a product that will allow them to complete their work faster .  And, in an environment in which there are no rules, you’re basically begging them to use it as often as possible, and to drop whatever information they need into those systems, to utilize them in the most effective way possible .   That likely means that they are going to be dumping as much information into the system as possible, probably including confidential information, which would potentially now reside in a freeware system, that will retain that data & train on it.     That ain’t good.     Not only is that a massive proble...
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Discussion Topic: Your Reports Don't Mean A Thing If You Don't Talk About Them

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Lots of lawyers are running lots of reports – or, having people run them on their behalf.     Then, they look at them & don’t do anything else.     But, that’s not why you run numbers.     If you’re running numbers just to run numbers, you’re simply checking a box.     You’re paying one kind of lip service; but, you need to pay another.   If you want your numbers (financial or otherwise) to be meaningful for your law firm – then, you need to generate conversations around them, so that you can recognize trends (stop backsliding, and promote positive outcomes) and make necessary changes.     Numbers are only impactful when you analyze them, interrogate them & actually revise what you’re doing ,based on them .     Nobody gets off on reporting, I get it.     But, it’s what you do with the reports that counts .     Like, counting money .       Stacks and stack...
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