FindLaw drunk driving survey

As Labor Day approaches, FindLaw.com has released a survey that indicates many Americans on the roads this weekend admit they may be driving while under the influence of alcohol.

One in 12 American adults admit they may have driven while drunk within the last year.

7 percent of American adults say they have driven within the last 12 months even though they thought they may have been over the legal blood alcohol limit for drinking and driving in their state.

Driving under the influence (DUI) and driving while intoxicated (DWI) laws vary by state. All 50 states currently define drunk driving as having blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or higher, but a driver can still be arrested and convicted for a DUI if they have a BAC below 0.08% when there is other evidence of impaired driving.

A news release offers more details on the FindLaw survey.

Free information on DUI and other traffic laws, including a video explaining DUI laws, can be found at the FindLaw.com DUI/DWI Center.

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Adam Smith, Esq

Readers of the popular Adam Smith, Esq know that Bruce MacEwen is the man behind the blog. Or, as he calls it, a publication – one that gets more than 300,000 page views per month. He started it in late 2003 and now has more than 900 articles on it.

When he’s not publishing articles to his site, MacEwen is a lawyer and consultant to law firms on strategic and economic issues. His interests in Web 2.0 tools and law firm economics brought him to ILTA ‘08 as a speaker and attendee.

MacEwen is presenting the sessions “Web 2.0 – Law Firm Adoption” and “Law Firm Economics 103.”

He gave us some interesting insight on blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networking. For the record, he’s not a fan of lawyers choosing to be on MySpace and Facebook, as this video interview explains:

Doug Cornelius at KM Space blogged about MacEwen’s Web 2.0 session at ILTA.

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Disaster recovery and data hosting

None of us can truly know when nature will strike our lives, homes and businesses. So, in this digital age, planning for disaster is critical to a company or law firm’s future.

Disaster recovery and data hosting are at the heart of Managed Technology Services, part of Thomson Reuters. Todd Hauschildt, vice president and the head of this unit, was at ILTA.

He told us he was spending much of his time in back-to-back meetings with law firm CIO’s and directors of technology, explaining how Managed Technology Services can provide stable, reliable and cost-effective data hosting, leveraging the considerable resources and expertise of the West data center facility in Eagan, Minn.:

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Elite is at ILTA

Dan Tacone is a senior vice president for Elite. He’s at ILTA ‘08, spending time talking to clients about legal technology and the products Elite provides.

He also took a few minutes to tell us why ILTA is important to Elite and what it is doing to connect with clients during the conference:

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Case study: West km

We caught up with George May, vice president, West km, and Meredith Williams, director of knowledge management for Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC at ILTA ‘08.

Williams led the successful implementation and adoption of BakerKM – her firm’s knowledge management system using West km, and spoke about the rollout Monday to a group of km users. After the session, May asked Williams to talk to WestBlog about how Baker Donelson uses knowledge management technology. And, about her involvement with ILTA:

You can learn more about the Baker Donelson km rollout in a white paper published by West.

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“Vendor Grand Prix” at ILTA

Last night, the vendors in the exhibit hall at ILTA ‘08 welcomed attendees into their booths in an event called the “Vendor Grand Prix.”

We decided to have some fun with it for this video:

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The origins of ILTA

In talking with David Baker, the chairman and co-founder of Baker Robbins & Company, we learned he played a pivotal role in getting ILTA up and running.

Baker told us that he and three others set out in 1979 to develop a way to bring some people in a few law firms together to help work out some bugs on the first time and billing management software in the legal industry. The group realized there were benefits for getting people together to share ideas on legal technology so ILTA evolved, including the conference we see today.

We also asked Baker about a session he was participating in today at the ILTA ‘08 Conference titled “Future Tense – The Law Office in Three to Five Years.”

As he explained in this video interview (recorded Monday), the future for law firms has everything to do with new technology and was it may be useful and incorporated into their workflow:

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Using wikis in law firms

Wikis have become a common tool in many corporations for allowing employees to collaborate in ways that save time and share knowledge across their buildings, and across time zones. But how can they be used by legal professionals?

Here at ILTA ‘08, Doug Cornelius was part of a panel in a session called “Wikis in Law Firms.”

Cornelius is a senior attorney in Goodwin Procter’s Real Estate Group, and he’s based in Boston. He also is a member of the firm’s Knowledge Management Department and writes the blog, “KM Space.”

We asked him to give an overview about the benefits of using a wiki in a law firm:

Cornelius mentioned the wiki he and his fellow panelists used to prepare for their ILTA ‘08 session. The password for the wiki is: ilta08.

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The ILTA ‘08 blog

ILTA is maintaining a blog throughout its 2008 conference here in Grapevine, Tex. Monica Williams is doing the writing and managing of the ILTA ‘08 blog, which – much like WestBlog – offers text updates, videos and photos of events, sessions, attendees and vendors.

We interviewed Monica about the content on the ILTA blog and how it’s being used:

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Jenn Steele from “Leading Geeks” blog

We had a chance to meet Jenn Steele at ILTA ‘08. She’s Director of Information Technology at Morrison Mahoney LLP in Boston. She also writes the blog, “Leading Geeks.”

Steele participated in three sessions here at the conference about professional development in law firms, business continuity technologies and records management.

We asked her about what the ILTA conference offers to attendees:

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LiveNote at ILTA

We talked to Steve Priem, vice president of Litigation at West, about LiveNote’s presence at ILTA ‘08, the conference and his thoughts on LiveNote’s relationship with ILTA:

Also, LiveNote launched two products at the ILTA ‘08 Conference – West LiveNote Version 1 and Case Notebook.

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Tropical Storm Fay

Were you affected by Tropical Storm Fay? If so, West can help. Let’s hope you never have to call on us, but we’re here if disaster strikes – whether it’s a building fire, hurricane or other disaster.

West can provide you with disaster recovery services including: a special disaster recovery team; Westlaw temporary passwords and proactive alerts from our customer service representatives; contact with local bar associations to communicate availability of products and services to disaster-affected customers; a hold on mailings of subscriptions; order and direct mail if your address is undeliverable; assistance in recovering damaged print and CD-Rom titles should it be needed.

We hope all our customers are and remain safe and secure. But when the unthinkable happens, trust West to help you recover from the disaster, and get back to business.

As always, please feel free to call or email me with your comments.

Bob Azman
Vice President, Customer Experience Operations
West
Email: west.customerexperience@thomsonreuters.com
Phone: 1-800-249-WEST

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ILTA ‘08 is underway

ILTA ‘08 is underway. This morning’s keynote to kick off the conference featured Tim Sanders, best-selling author and business solutions expert who previously was the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo. Tim’s presentation, “Saving the World at Work”, touched on issues tied to being “green” in a law firm and corporate setting, from reducing reliance on paper to reducing the “round-the-clock-connectedness” feeling many employees have to their jobs. He had some good advice about managing email, too.

Sessions are now in progress around the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center here in Grapevine, Tex. for the ILTA attendees, setup of the product booths is underway in the exhibit hall and we’ve got several interviews that you’ll see here on WestBlog soon.

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New election law coverage on Westlaw

The presidential race in the United States is heading down the home stretch. Just in time for the election season, West is providing some new election resources on Westlaw. They’re free to subscribers, through the national elections.

A new Elections tab, which users can customize on their Westlaw interface, provides access to informatin like voter identification and campaign financing laws, and election-related news and legal filings.

Also, ”Election-2008″ content within the Elections tab provides researchers with trial filings relevant to election law – such as the right to vote and ballot validity – filed in state and federal courts, as well as court motions, memoranda, pleadings, trial briefs, non-expert depositions, discovery and non-expert affidavits, proposed court orders, agreements, verdicts, settlements and other trial filings.

Westlaw subscribers also will be able to review election-related topics as covered in daily newspapers, magazines, journals and transcripts.

Again, the Election-2008 database within the new Westlaw Elections tab is available free beginning today, and through the national elections, to all Westlaw subscribers.

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ILTA sessions featuring Thomson Reuters

Going to ILTA ‘08? The following sessions at the conference have connections to West and other Thomson Reuters businesses:

Tuesday, Aug. 26
Topic: CIO Roundtable – Challenges in Demonstrating IT Payoff
Speaker David Cunningham, Baker Robbins & Company
Time: 11 a.m.
Room: Fort Worth 5, 6, 7

Topic: Future Tense – The Law Office in Three to Five Years
Speaker: David Baker, Baker Robbins & Company
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Room: Fort Worth 5, 6, 7

Topic: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Versus Enterprise Relationship Management (ERM)
Speaker: David Gregson, Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Room: Grapevine 3,4

Wednesday, Aug. 27
Topic: Benchmarking 2.0
Speakers: Patrick Fuller, Thomson Business Of Law Group; and Mark Medice, Thomson Business Of Law Group
Time: 11 a.m.
Room: Grapevine 5, 6

Topic: Considerations for Implementing a Matter Centric Document Management System in a Corporate Legal Department
Speaker: David Rohde, Thomson Litigation Consulting
Time: 1:30 p.m.     
Room: Grapevine A

Topic: Thomson Elite E-Billing – Tales from Both Sides of the Fence
Speaker(s): Paul Zengilowski, IntApp, Inc.; Greg Coticchia, The eBillingHub; Daniel Garcia, The eBillingHub
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Room: Grapevine 5, 6

Topic: Developing Your In-House Litigation Support and E-Discovery Capabilities
Speaker: Laura Kibbe, Thomson Litigation Consulting
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Room: Grapevine A

Topic: Business Process Management (BPM) – Dealing With the Walls Between the Process and Information
Speaker: Nancy Manzo, Hubbard One
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Room: Grapevine C

Thursday, Aug. 28
Topic: Healthy Elite System
Speaker: Eric Garrity, Thomson Elite
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Room: Grapevine 5,6

Apologies if we left anyone at Thomson Reuters off that list. We also did not include a closed session.

More information about all the sessions, speakers and vendors is available on the ILTA ‘08 site.

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