A few weeks ago, I started using Google Calendar to publish a free/busy version of my calendar on my website. I am so glad I did.

Scheduling—especially for busy attorneys—can be a royal pain. It often involves several phone calls or e-mails, at least, and it can be much worse when you are trying to schedule something with an attorney who sends scheduling information like “I am free at 2:00 on the 3rd” and nothing else. As if it is inconceivable that you would have anything on your calendar at that date and time. All that back-and-forth is a big waste of time.

Now, I just point opposing counsel, potential clients, and others to my public calendar and ask them to give me a couple of options when I am free.

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As I was waiting for my calendar to load on my Treo this morning to check my availability for an appointment, I had a moment of longing for the paper planner I used to use. No waiting for my Treo to crash, reboot, and connect. No tedious flipping through screens. Just open to the right page, check availability, and scribble a note.

On the other hand, it is awfully hard to back up paper, which is why I will not go back. And if you don’t have the paper calendar with you, you cannot use it. I am famous for leaving things lying around, so I need to be able to pick up where I left off with as little downtime as possible. And I love being able to access my calendar from any computer or phone anywhere in the world. Makes the waiting worthwhile, in the end.

As most readers of this blog know, I am in a constant search to find the “best” way to manage my practice. As everyone knows, there is no “best” way to manage a law practice, but there is always improvement. So here are the bits of technology and old-school hardware I am using to manage my practice.

As you may also know, I use Linux for my operating system more than half the time. But since I still use Windows at the office, all the software I use is available for both Linux and Windows. There are two exceptions: Outlook, which I don’t really use any longer, and Acrobat.

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For quite a while now, I have been using Plaxo to manage my contacts. The great advantage of Plaxo is that it syncs with a variety of software—I use it with Outlook (two different copies), Thunderbird (ditto), and Gmail. The mobile version of Plaxo is also fast enough that you can access it even from an older smartphone instead of your local contacts.

With Plaxo, you can also sync your Outlook calendar(s), tasks, and notes.

LinkedIn does much the same thing, along with the social networking aspect. Both LinkedIn and Plaxo will automatically update contact information for any of your contacts who are also members, which is a handy feature.

Enter a new player, Keepm, which focuses solely on contact management. It will import from Gmail, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, etc. For someone who just needs a central contacts repository and does not want to muck about with all the social networking that comes with Plaxo and LinkedIn, Keepm looks like a simple, lightweight, and central contact manager.

[via Lifehacker]

Beer companies sell illusions, not beer. They convince us that we will be smarter, more attractive, suave, etc., if we drink the beer. It rarely works. A screen-tanned blogger chugging Coors Light is no more attractive than a screen-tanned blogger without the beer. More tipsy, though.

Similarly, office supply companies sell us on the illusion that if we just had their neat product, we would be organized! Take the Chronotebook, one of the winners of last year’s Muji Awards.

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I consistently preach the gospel of procedures. Nothing works without good procedures. You can have the most cutting-edge computer, the best software, and the best intentions, but if you do not have solid, tested procedures in place, none of that fancy tech will do you a darn bit of good.

Behind David Allen’s excellent Getting Things Done (GTD) system is the idea–essential to a law practice–that everything we need to do should be tracked in a trusted system. In the GTD philosophy, that system is a set of lists with everything you have to do, from taking out the trash to scheduling order deadlines.

This kind of organization is essential to a solo or small law practice, but many attorneys still walk around with much of their “to-do list” buried in their brains. That is completely unhelpful. A “tickler” is helpful, but only if that tickler leads to a solid system where anyone can determine what needs to be done on a particular file.

Here is how I organize my practice.

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Free is better, and open source is superior. There are fantastic free and open source alternatives to the software lawyers use every day. Here are my top 5 most valuable free applications for lawyers:

1. OpenOffice.org

Office 2007 is pretty, but from a user perspective, it is an upgrade hardly worth the pricetag. Plus, Microsoft’s rejection of Open Document Format, which is becoming the world standard (and should be the courts’ standard, if they can de-Microsoft their thinking), is troubling. OpenOffice.org, or OOo, is a fantastic alternative. It is also in wide use worldwide, and sponsored by Sun Microsystems. This is a full replacement for Office, minus Outlook, and attorneys can make the switch and not look back. Among other things, OOo can save to .doc format, and makes it easier than ever to create PDF versions.

2. TrueCrypt

As I have said many times, encryption is no longer optional. Law firms that do not encrypt client data are risking lawsuits if and when client data is stolen. TrueCrypt is a serious piece of encryption software that makes encryption easy and convenient. My favorite feature is the ability to back up the encrypted container so that my backups are encrypted, as well.

3. AVG or Avast anti-virus

It is a bit eerie how much Norton and McAfee resemble the viruses they protect your computer in. Virus-like, they invade every nook and cranny of your operating system, bogging your computer down. Uninstall them and go with a free alternative that protects just as well and doesn’t slow you to a crawl.

4. GnuCash

Looking to move beyond your outdated accounting software? GnuCash is a double-entry accounting package that should do the trick just fine. If you like sending Quicken files to your accountant, you can do that, too will have to make do with printing out HTML reports (see comment, below).

5. UltraVNC

UltraVNC (and numerous other free VNC applications) lets you access your computer remotely from anywhere. Setup takes just a bit of knowhow, but once you are up and running, it is amazingly smooth. Best of all, you can access your computer using any VNC with any operating system for maximum versatility.

Finally, if you do use free, open-source software, support the project by donating.

I am going to be taking my first vacation since going solo this Friday, and I’m a bit nervous. About my cases, that is. Since I have no support staff, if something comes up (despite my careful preparation), there isn’t anyone who can pick up the slack. So I need to be able to check voicemail and make calls, check e-mail, keep up-to-date with my schedule, and have access to all of my files.

Also, we are going to be in Barcelona for a week, the most pickpocket-friendly city in Europe, so I would rather not bring along expensive toys, if I can avoid it. So the laptop needs to stay at home.

Here is what I came up with:

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Along with Ubuntu 7.04, Mozilla released Thunderbird 2.0 today. Thunderbird is Mozilla’s cross-platform e-mail client, and with the Lightning add-on, a full personal information manager (PIM).

If you prefer free software, or you don’t need a full-featured client like Outlook, give Thunderbird a try. I’ve been playing with it, and it really is a pretty sweet program. With a little monkey-wrenching, it is definitely good enough for a solo or small firm to use for managing e-mail, contacts, and calendaring. With custom contact fields and instant search capabilities, in some ways Thunderbird may be more flexible and workable for law offices, actually.