For those of you who have an interest in the open source movement of Linux , the ongoing litigation between SCO  and IBM  regarding SCO’s allegations that IBM used information owned by SCO in creating its own operating systems as well as in the creation of Linux.  This litigation has been going on for over 3 years and has been replete with comments from high profile members of the various companies involved as well as such Internet icons as Tim Berners-Lee the acknowledged "father" of the World Wide Web . 

During the pendency of this lawsuit, SCO officers went on the attack through the media making allegations against IBM and others regarding its claims including statements that the specifics of these claims would come out during the court proceedings.  Many believe that the reality of the statements made to the press apparently have not been borne out by SCO' s response to discovery requests and orders of the court which have gone against it. Much of the history and the ongoing court battle can be followed on the Groklaw website .

According to available information, Groklaw was started by Pamela Jones who describes herself as “…a journalist with a paralegal background.”  Her site is a cornucopia of information regarding this litigation and has earned her the ire of SCO including claims that the company's slow sales of its Unixware operating system are a direct result of information posted on the Groklaw website.

The latest information posted on the Groklaw website includes IBM's Memorandum in Opposition to SCO's Objections to the Magistrate Judge Wells' Order of June 28, 2006. The June 28, 2006 Order is arguably a major blow to SCO's case against IBM.  At over 80 pages, the memorandum is not a short document.  However, it does provide an interesting window into this ongoing litigation and details how attempts to litigate a matter in the press may not be of benefit in the actual court proceedings. 

To this attorney, the memorandum is interesting from the way counsel for IBM details its objections, often times in very plain, simple and straightforward language.  One rather humorous example of this language found on page 2 of the memorandum is the statement "…  an error is clearly erroneous where it strikes the reviewing Court as wrong ‘with the force of a 5 - week - old, unrefrigerated dead fish’."(emphasis added)

 
For those of us who have "been there, done that" the memorandum lays out IBM's objections in a straightforward and detailed manner.  What the ultimate resolution of this case will be no one knows; however, I think that all attorneys can find something of interest in these proceedings.

It’s been pretty hectic the last month and I’ve been remiss in posting. April found me in Chicago for the Practice Management Advisors Meeting immediately followed by the ABA TechShow  and associated events including:  LexThink Lounge, lunch with the makers of Amicus Attorney, dinner with Corel WordPerfect representatives and the 7^th Annual Consultants and Technologists Dinner.  Some terrific sessions at TechShow this year and it was nice being an attendee without any speaker or other duties. The vendors’ area was sold out and actually expanded; the majority of the vendors were there offering EDD services and it will be interesting to see who is still standing when the dust settles a year or two from now. Amicus Attorney demonstrated their new Version 7 for the PMA’s. Its use of SmartTags and .net integration is truly impressive. While I’ve always been less then impressed by its “pretty” interface, I have to admit that what I saw made me reconsider the product 9 as well as its new time, billing and accounting program).  I’ve also been impressed by the improvements and stamina of WordPerfect in the latest version X3 (this is really a unique way to call it version 13 without being blatant about it).

As usual, TechShow and its associated events was a great opportunity to see old friends and make new ones. Some of the folks I got a chance to spend some time with included:

Kevin Thompson

Ernie Svenson

Matt Homann

Jim Calloway

Dan Pinnington

Dan Coolidge

Bruce Dorner

Reid Trautz

Craig Ball

Ross Kodner

Dennis Kennedy

Mark Deal

Tom Mighell

And my fellow PMA’s of course!

The following week I was speaking at the Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin annual conference at Kohler, Wisconsin. April also witnessed the rollout of my program’s  Practice411 listserv in Wisconsin which now stands at over 350 members and growing. Then it was preparation for the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Annual Convention in Madison and the official debut of the Law Office Management Assistance Program. From Madison, I was off to St. Louis the following week for a meeting of the ISBA Committee on Legal Technology and attending its Legal Boot camp seminar on MS Word and Excel for Legal Professionals. I’m now in Toronto for PCLaw www.pclaw.com  training and ready to head back to the States to spend time in the office and catch up on work. However, I came across an interesting bit of news on Tuesday May 16 while in Toronto – LexisNexis has acquired CaseSoft the maker of CaseMap, TimeMap, NoteMap and the rest of the CaseSoft family of products. You read that correctly,  another successful legal software company has been snatched up by one of the legal industry behemoths.

CaseMap has taken the legal industry by storm the last few years based on the quality of its products, their ease of use and integration with other products. It hasn’t hurt that the product itself continues to improve and provides a number of useful features including its integral Adobe PDF Creation, ReportBook function and links to TimeMap and other programs. It’s easy to see why many consider this to be the premier cases analysis tool. 

Consolidation seems to be the current trend in the legal software industry with Thomson West and Reed Elsevier buying companies and products that they believe enhance their offerings to attorneys. So far, I think that the LexisNexis acquisitions including HotDocs, TimeMatters and PCLaw have proven to be better moves as these products appeal to a far wider user base than ProLaw and Elite. I understand the need for capital to continue funding new product development and can appreciate the owners of these products getting a chance to enjoy the fruits of their labor. However, a person does have to wonder if this is good for the industry to lose competition. In many ways this is becoming similar to the soft drink wars between Coke and Pepsi. As these companies continue to grow and absorb smaller companies, do we lose our choices and will they end up being opposite sides of the same coin?

The ABA TechShow celebrates its 20th anniversary this April 20-22 in Chicago, Illinois. Billing itself as “The World’s Premier Legal Technology Conference & EXPO”, TechShow offers a wide and varied mix of presentations, demonstrations and vendors. With 14 educational tracks, there should be something for everyone.

I’m proud to announce that the State Bar of Wisconsin is a sponsor for TechShow 2006 and information can be found at the WisBar website . WisBar members can obtain a $100.00 discount using the code provided. If you register before March 10, 2006 you can also receive an additional $200.00 early bird discount.

As both a past attendee and past speaker, I’ve found TechShow to be a worthwhile and valuable experience, not only from the information presented but also the chance to meet and network with other attorneys and technology professionals. There is no other gathering in the country that brings together the likes of Jim Calloway , Ross Kodner , Tom Rowe , Nancy Duhon , Sandy Adams , Dennis Kennedy , Sharon Nelson and other renowned practitioners and technologists all at the same time.

Put it on your calendar, book your rooms and see you their.

This past summer, I was asked to submit my favorite blawg post from Compujurist for consideration to be included in an eBook being assembled by Neil Squillante of Technolawyer . The ebook was to be called “BlawgWorld” and would feature favorite posts from the best legal blawgs and published this fall. I was honored to find out that my post on the need to backup computer data would be one of the 51 posts included in the BlawgWorld eBook.

The authors read like a “Who’s Who” of the legal blogging world including contributions from my friends Jim Calloway, Dennis Kennedy, Jeff Beard and Reid Trautz, as well as many others. Topics include tips and tricks, to sucesion planning and other topics of interests to lawyers and their staff. If you’ve ever wondered how to find legal blogging sites, this is a great place to start. I’m also impressed with the quality of the eBook. Each article includes an image of the blawg site (which is also a hyperlink to that site), a brief author bio and site bio. Neil and his staff obviuolsy put a lot of effort into this publication and it’s a great resource to have.

While available to the over 11,000 members of the Technolawyer community. If you aren’t a member of the Technolawyer community, you should be: it’s a terrific resource and the cost can’t be beat - its free. For anyone interested in obtaining this publication, you can visit the BlawgWorld eBook site and get your free membership to Technolawyer and a copy of a BlawgWorld.

BlawgThink 2005 is over and done and I predict that we will see BlagThink 2006. I’ll be thinking about what was covered for quite a while to come. Many things contributed to make this a truly unique event including the non-standard format, the all star list of presenters; and the use of MindJet’s MindManager software.

Day 1 was structured presentations by a veritable who’s who in the blogging community: Dennis Kennedy, Ernie Svenson, Sabrina Pacifici, Jack Vinson, Jim McGee, Jeff Beard, Fred Faulkner and Peter Flaschner just to name a few. Sessions covered the gamut from blogging basics to advance topics such as podcasting and more. The day ended with open sessions which were created by the attendees themselves. These open sessions continued through Day 2. The concept behind these sessions was amazingly simple: after a day of structured sessions, attendees could seek discussions on topics they thought were important or on which they wanted more information.

Each person who wanted to do this had to place their topic on a piece of paper and also put their name on it – this was to make them the “owner” of this item. They then announced who they were and their selected topic. After selecting a timeslot, they placed there sheet on the wall with the others. The attendees, who didn’t create an item, were free to move from session to session if they wanted to or stay at just one. I followed Peter Flaschner throughout Day 2 as he covered a range of topics including How to design a blog, and a discussion on the major software packages available for blogging such as WordPress, Movable Type and others.

While the format won’t replace or supplant traditional CLE, I think it will make a good addition to how CLE is presented. Blogging isn’t for everyone, but a basic understanding of the concepts and technology behind blogs can help you when considering how to apporach content management solutions and web sites. I think you would see things in a whole new way.

One of the best parts of this 2 day event was meeting the other attendees and getting to share ideas and get advice from them as well. Bonnie Shucha of Wisblog (who I am looking forward to working with as I take on my new position as Practice Management Advisor for the State Bar of Wisconsin), Tom Collins of morepartnerincome.com, and many others too numerous to meniton.

Dennis Kennedy and Matt Homann of LexThink should take great pride in creating this unique event. While I can’t speak for everyone there, I want to say thanks to both ofthem for having the vision to make this event a reality.