The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management magazine, January/February 2008 issue focuses on marketing technology trends. Heavy emphasis on social networking tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and podcasting. This is a selection from the full roster of articles:

Marketing Technology Trends
Today’s marketing arsenal features a vast array of tools—as well as technology practices that range from the truly cutting-edge to the archaic. Where does your firm fall on the scale? Here’s a look at some technologies that can really boost your business development efforts.
By John D. Bowers

Tracking Law Firm Marketing Technology
What are the technology needs of

I recently talked to a lawyer at a large Toronto law firm who was happily using voice recognition software to draft initial versions of long documents and to give voice commands to his computer.

Voice recognition technology has been around for a long time – my perception was that it wasn’t ready for prime time. Curious to see the vendor’s view of the software, I paid a quick visit to the website for Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Has this technology really advanced to the point that it’s ready for wider adoption? . . . [more]

Today’s Bloomberg News has a stimulating review by their architecture critic of Rafael Viñoly’s new Bronx County Hall of Justice. . . . [more]

The Canadian Bar Association Young Professionals International Internship Program is now taking applications for the 2008-2009 placements. The CBA administrates this program, which is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as part of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES).

Through this program, young lawyers are placed in eight-month internships (they are overseas for between six and seven of the eight months) to work with human rights legal organizations on issues such as women’s rights, labour rights, constitutional rights, children’s rights and indigenous people’s rights, in Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern and Central Africa and

New on LLRX.com is an article by Debbie Ginsberg and Meg Kribble called Social Networks for Law Librarians and Law Libraries, or How We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Friending. Great title, and a great article to go with it!

I enjoyed their discussion of how law librarians are using social networks to connect with communities and each other. My personal interest is how law firms are using social networks, so I found this little tidbit interesting: . . . [more]

Simon ((the other Simon)) reported from the Lexum Conference on Justice Bastarache‘s speech on the Supreme Court of Canada’s technology plans.

Completely unofficially, here is a picture from last Wednesday, showing the extent of the court’s commitment – every place at the counsel table is wired, the central desk from which counsel addresses the court looks like a command centre. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

I didn’t have a chance to peek behind the judges’ area – I suspect that is permanently off-limit to mere mortals – but I suspect that the bench will be similarly wired. . . . [more]

I don’t think Slaw has mentioned the International Judicial Monitor, an “international law resource for judiciaries, justice sector professionals, and the rule of law community around the world.” Published, or refreshed, every two months or so, this issue of the Monitor has a feature piece on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and notes on a dozen judicial developments in as many countries. There’s also a useful page of “international resources.”

The Monitor is published by the American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C. . . . [more]

Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to – could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright.

The New York Times is speculating that the big ISP’s may be getting ready to filter what passes through their server to and from machines in the U.S., at least. Such a prying would place a premium on law firms’ either being their own ISP’s or using encrypted data when moving it via a commercial ISP. . . . [more]

Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to – could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright.

The New York Times is speculating that the big ISP’s may be getting ready to filter what passes through their server to and from machines in the U.S., at least. Such a prying would place a premium on law firms’ either being their own ISP’s or using encrypted data when moving it via a commercial ISP. . . . [more]

At the Chicago office of Perkins Coie, partners recently unveiled a “happiness committee,” offering candy apples and milkshakes to brighten the long and wearying days of its lawyers.

No this is not a joke. According to Alex Williams, “The Falling-Down Professions” in Sunday’s New York Times, other firms are trying to retain associates with means that appeal not simply to a sweet tooth, means such as money, for example, while others use a simple, dignified “Thank you.”

This is all part of a broader examination in the article of the unhappiness of some lawyers and doctors under the . . . [more]

A piece in the TimesOnline got me thinking in that rambling, associative sort of way appropriate to the second day of the year. Patrick Hosking’s “The law is now an asset class” introduced me to the notion of litigation “as a separate asset class.” According to Hosking, some investors are financing European lawsuits that look like promising sources of profit. Indeed, a new company, (sadly) called Juridica has raised £80 million for such investments.

As you might expect, the article goes on to mention champerty ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champerty)), which, together with the other ancient wrongs of maintenance and . . . [more]

I just received a notice to the profession about an interesting innovation at the Calgary Courthouse of the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta. Online adjournments are now available for routine consent applications and applications not yet served:

Calgary Chambers Adjournments

Please be advised that a new online procedure is available in Calgary for consent adjournments and adjournments required where service has not been effected, for all morning Justice and/or Masters Chambers applications. The new procedure is effective January 1, 2008.

Online adjournments are not available for special applications.

The online adjournments are accessed through the Alberta Courts website at