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Denise Howell Denise Howell
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Dennis M. Kennedy Dennis M. Kennedy
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Tom Mighell Tom Mighell
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Marty Schwimmer Marty Schwimmer
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Ernest Svenson Ernest Svenson
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Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs, Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law. "Sound Policy" is Denise's show at IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at dhowell@gmail.com.

Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his gmail address.

Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at tmighell@swbell.net.

Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at marty@schwimmerlegal.com.

Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally, to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at esvenson@gmail.com.
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Between Lawyers provides just-in-time group commentary on the issues raised when technology, culture and the law intersect. We take you behind the firewalls and conference room doors to show you how experienced lawyers deal with these issues and help you prepare for the new challenges we all face. For more, see our introductory post.
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« Denise re: Real Estate for Lawyers | Main | Dennis re How is a Blog Like a Legal File? »

June 16, 2005

How Is A Blog Like A Legal File?

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Posted by Marty Schwimmer

A blog and a legal matter file are both piles of documents with the oldest on the bottom.

To which I add three observations:

-blogging software seems to have reduced the marginal cost of a single blog to zero;

-desktop search programs such as Google Desktop search create links to emails and Word documents on your hard drive; and

-Dave Winer is working on group outlining software application named OPML Editor.

So here is my question.

Can blogging software, RSS, Desktop search and OPML be stitched together to serve as a prototype for a paperless file management system?

Imagine that that a single (internal) blog is named [client name][matter name][file number].

Memos to file are posted directly to the file blog.

Emails, Word docs and PDFs are linked to (or cut and pasted into the file blog).

Outlining software is used to index the file.

If a file is updated, it shows up in the supervisor's RSS reader.

What do you think?

Comments (5) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Virtual Lawyers


COMMENTS

1. Denise Howell on June 17, 2005 12:03 AM writes...

WANT it. Bad.

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2. Lawgirl on June 17, 2005 12:47 AM writes...

Intriguing. Can you explain in more detail how each of these components work and how you propose they be stitched together? thanks.

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3. Steve Matthews on June 17, 2005 11:12 AM writes...

This is where I think your firm extranet should be going: a blog built in, RSS feeds from the DMS, website content, internal KM collections... with the ultimate goal of complete file transparency for the client.

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4. Douglas Sorocco on June 17, 2005 2:04 PM writes...

Interesting but too complex. I think an internal Wiki that is capable of generating page, group and site-wide RSS feeds would be an easier way to go. Keep files in a centralized place and simply link to them within the Wiki document. If the file is changed - automatically update the Wiki.

Good discussion.

Permalink to Comment

5. Joe Gratz on June 17, 2005 5:52 PM writes...

The Basecamp project management service operates on precisely the theory you propose:

http://www.basecamphq.com/

Messages, files, due dates, and tasks are all organized in a bloglike fashion and are available to each user on the web or in a custom RSS feed.

I've been using it to run the administrative end of Constitutional Commentary, published by the University of Minnesota Law School. It's really rather nifty.

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