Collaboration Tools for Lawyers

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Collaboration Tools for Lawyers
Collaborative Document Writing, Staffing
(workflow) and Repository

• DePaul University
• PM440 COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY LEADING PROJECTS
• Joint Effort Team (JET)

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Presentation Objectives

• Introduction
• Business Background
• Product Description
• BaseCamp
• CaseMap
• Acrobat
• Conclusion

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Team Composition

• Joint Effort Team (J.E.T.)
• Alan Christensen, Doug Dunmore, Himansu Mayani
• Advisor
• Daniel Mittleman

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Product Material Links

• JET Wiki Page
• Collaborative Document Writing, Staffing and
  Repository
• Adobe Acrobat Family Products
• Acrobat Products
• Acrobat Professional 8 Demo
• Acrobat Professional Download or Online Demo
• CaseMap
• CaseMap Download
• Basecamp
• BaseCamp Demo

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Business Background

• Collaboration has never been an option for
  lawyers
• In the legal profession collaboration takes many
  forms
• Attorneys and paralegals within the firm
• Opposing counsel and their staff
• Court personnel, judges, and regulatory agencies
• Experts and specialists (medical, accounting,
  forensics, et al.)

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Current Process Flow Model
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Business Problems

• Legal documents need to be accurate
• Requires a large collaborative effort
• Documents are inconsistent in content and style
• Turn-around time can take several days
• Requires large number of resource hours

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Proposed Process Flow Model
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Business Value

• Improve accuracy of the legal briefs
• Collaborative effort can move to a Parallel
  process from a Sequential process
• Legal briefs are consistent in appearance and
  accuracy
• Reduce Corporate work hours preparing legal
  briefs
• Reduce turn around time

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Selected Tools for Platform

• Acrobat Professional 8
• Collaborative Document Writing and Editing
• CaseMap
• Repository and Legal Website Access
• BaseCamp
• Intranet access and Project Management

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Acrobat Professional 8

• Pros
• Established company well known product
• Almost universal acceptance of PDF file format
• Acrobat Reader on most computers or can download
  for free
• Easy sell to corporate management because of the
  above
• User friendly interface
• Convert most file types into PDF format
• Merge into one document or package (separate
  files)
• Set different security to each file in package
• Edit files, add comments
• Apply electronic signature including encrypted
• Strong for Sequential and Parallel writing

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Acrobat Professional 8

• Cons
• Single license is 449 (volume purchase programs
  available)
• Each user would need a license copy to
  collaborate
• Web conference functionality requires purchase of
  Adobe Acrobat Connect
• Not suited for Reciprocal Writing
• Lack true Depository functionality (see CaseMap)
• Has trouble handling watermark in a Word document
• Restrictions based on functionality instead of
  roles
• Spell checks comments only not original text

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CaseMap

• Pros
• Able to import and store data of many different
  types of documents and identify the relationships
  to specific people (e.g. witness, expert, person
  of interest, plaintiff, defendant etc.)
• Lets you send all or partial information in a
  document directly to the tool due to ability to
  integrate well with 15 other software packages
  including Adobe Acrobat
• A number of features that allows user to conduct
  data analysis not present in other data
  repository tools
• Allows tagging, sorting and filtering of
  information for easy retrieval and organization
• Can create visual representations of timelines
  and show relationships between individual pieces
  of information
• Can export professional looking documents such as
  PDF reports, word processing and HTML (post to
  websites) for presentation to clients, sharing
  with colleagues, file with the courts or to
  publish
• Integrated with a suite of other tools developed
  by the same company such as TimeMap (a timeline
  visualization tool), NoteMap (an outline creation
  tool superior to typical word processors) and
  Total Litigator.
• The company makes formalized training for all of
  its tools available to purchasers of the product
  although the tool is user friendly with a
  familiar navigation similar to Microsofts
• Larger law firms either have their own IT staff
  or outsource will know how to install, support,
  upgrade and integrate a tool like this within
  their current environement.

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CaseMap

• Cons
• Software is designed to work specifically in the
  legal industry (appropriate because of our
  overall scenario) despite having a number of
  features that would work well with project work
  of all kinds including IT.
• When you scroll down through facts or documents
  the highlighted row moves with you so its not
  frozen like MS Excel letting you keep track of
  what row you were on as you page down
• Have to purchase other tools like at least
  TimeMap to get functionality that goes beyond
  text and images.

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Basecamp
Collaborative Document Writing Using Online
Project Management tool Basecamp
Everest Basecamp (Goddess of the Sky)
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Basecamp Background The basics of Project
Management

• What is project management?
• A project is a temporary or short-term endeavor
  that requires a team of individuals to achieve a
  particular result.
• Basic activities of a project manager
• Establishing project objectives.
• Identifying the steps needed to achieve those
  objectives.
• Putting together a team that will work on the
  project.
• Developing a project plan.
• Setting deadlines for completion of the plan.
• Reporting plan progress to team members.
• Reviewing project results.

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Basecamp Problem Resistance to Project
Management by Lawyers

• Terminology is important In this instance we
  are looking at the practice of law, so substitute
  client matter for project or plan.
• Lawyers see management work as something
  separate from or outside the scope of the
  practice of law.
• The best lawyers have exceptional project
  management skills, even if they do not
  consciously recognize or value those specific
  skills.
• Project management is a valuable legal practice
  skill not taught in law school.
• Legal project management tools dont get a lot of
  recognition.
• Many project management tools are high-end,
  expensive enterprise applications built on
  complex database software or programs like
  Microsoft Project (not part of the standard
  Microsoft Office suite).

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Basecamp Solution a web-based project
management tool - Basecamp

• Basecamp (http//www.basecamphq.com) web-based
  service from 37 Signals.
• Interface common to other project management
  tools, so becoming familiar with Basecamp makes
  it easy to migrate to other tools.
• Basecamp is relatively inexpensive to use and can
  have a good Return on Investment (ROI).
• Basecamp free for one project and is available in
  different packages that cost up to 149/month.
  Basecamp offers the following features
• Storage for file sharing from 250MB to 50GB
• Unlimited number of people or clients can access
  project pages
• Real-time chat
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security data
  encryption
• Time tracking
• Unlimited number of writeboards (online
  whiteboards )
• Campfire real-time group chat tool for
  businesses

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Basecamp DASHBOARD Gives access to all your
open projects
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Basecamp Navigation Easy to do on Project Pages
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Basecamp Navigation Explanation of Tabs from
Project Pages

• Overview A mini-Dashboard, showing all recent
  activity for that individual project.
• Messages A discussion board where team members
  can discuss issues and post files. The messages
  are threaded so conversations are kept together.
• To Do A place to create to-do items. You can
  filter the list to see only the tasks assigned to
  you.
• Milestones Major objectives of the project are
  posted here, with specific tasks for each
  milestone posted in the To Do area.
• Writeboards A Place where team members can
  create group documents. This is a handy feature
  but I recommend using a more full-featured word
  processor like Goggle Docs for sustained online
  document collaboration. Writeboards can be great
  for brainstorming, making initial outlines, and
  collecting ideas.

Continued on next slide
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Basecamp Navigation Explanation of Tabs from
Project Pages

• Chat Team members who are online at the same
  time can chat about issues in this area.
• Time Available to premium account members
  only, this feature helps to keep track of time
  that is being spent on an individual task, or the
  complete project.
• Files Any file can be uploaded to this area, so
  that all files for one project are in the same
  place, accessible to all team members. If you
  attach a file to a message in the Messages area,
  a link to that file will appear here.

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Basecamp Basecamp A Great Feature A Pro

• The best feature about Basecamp is its ability to
  notify any team member of new information
  whenever it is posted to the project page.
• Basecamp provides several methods of notification
  for team members of new information
• Email notification when you post a message or
  upload a file to the project page, you have the
  option to notify some or all of your other team
  members.
• Everyone who receives an email cannot reply to
  the email they must login to make a comment.
  This seems like a drawback but actually it forces
  all parts of the conversation to be kept
  together.
• RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for every
  project page created, dependent on subscription.

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Basecamp Basecamp A Feature Lacking A Con

• Basecamp provides a a calendar to keep you on a
  schedule and see when milestones are due.
• However, Basecamp lacks a calendar that
  integrates with your computers calendar
  something available in other collaboration tools.
• If you use a program that supports the iCalendar
  standard Outlook 2007, Apple iCal, Backpack
  Calendar (http//www.backpackit.com/calendar), or
  Mozilla Calendar (http//www.mozilla.org/projects/
  calendar/) you can subscribe to the milestones
  on any particular project page, and they will be
  imported directly into your regular calendar
  this can be a pain in the neck!
• There is also a Global iCalendar at the bottom of
  the Dashboard page, if you want to get milestones
  from all project pages at once.

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Basecamp Using Basecamp in a Law Firm

• How would lawyers use Basecamp or a similar
  online project management tool?
• Litigators could set up a project page for an
  upcoming trial, so that all issues, tasks, court
  deadlines, communications, and case files
  regarding the case could reside in one place.
• Transactional lawyers working on an acquisition
  could post different versions of transaction
  documents draft documents or share meeting
  minutes, ideas, action items and the like in the
  Writeboard area or chat about issues from their
  desktop.
• Sites like Basecamp allow groups of lawyers to
  work together on matters without ever having to
  leave their home office. In such situations,
  project management sites are superior to
  traditional forms of collaboration such as email,
  because they provide a centralized repository of
  information.
• Basecamp can serve as an extranet (secure
  website) for communicating and sharing
  information among clients, co-counsel, experts
  and other individuals.
• Access is 24/7 and can be regulated which can
  provide a competitive advantage.

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Basecamp Alternatives to Basecamp

• ActiveCollab (http//www.activecollab.com) an
  Open Source project management tool, with more
  flexible pricing options.
• Central Desktop (http//www.centraldesktop.com)
  more features than Basecamp, including the
  abilities to collaborate on documents in real
  time and to hold web meetings and audio
  conferences.
• GoPlan (http//goplan.info/)
• Huddle (http//www.huddle.net/) a U.K. service
  that offers similar to Basecamp.
• Project360 (http//www.project360.com) plans
  and pricing similar to Basecamp, but features are
  more robust.
• Project2Manage (http//www.project2manage.com/)
• Solodox (http//www.solodox.com/)
• Sosius (http//www.sosius.com) less a project
  management site, and more a site for storing
  information and sharing it with others.
• Zoho Project (http//projects.zoho.com) a free
  offering from Zoho JET TEAM used this one for
  the class project.

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Questions and Your Insights