There are a number of tips and tricks that will make your time spent online more efficient and effective. The first tip is to use Feedly as your RSS feed reader—it’s a great tool that, among others things, makes it easy to read and share online content.
Many lawyers understand the importance of networking, but let’s face it — running a law practice takes time and no one ever seems to have enough of it. In fact, the lack of time is one of the main reasons lawyers offer as an excuse to avoid online networking. Read more…
Strategic inflection points indicate the astonishing ways in which the economics of industry change as time progresses.
I am reading Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of Intel. In the book, Grove focuses on dramatic changes to the economics of an industry, which he calls “strategic inflection points.” One “inflection point” he discusses is the disruption the PC brought to the computing industry.
There are many ways attorneys can make use of a virtual data room in their practice, including efficiently managing and storing data, securely transferring large volumes of documents outside the firewall and much more.
As I’ve discussed in the past, online collaboration platforms generally allow for far more secure communication than email and offer attorneys a secure online location for collaboration.
A virtual deal room is a convenient tool to securely organize and share large volumes of documents during the Private Placement process. An online document repository, or virtual deal room, is an attractive alternative to email for collecting and sharing this information in an organized fashion while keeping the data safe.
Recently, I have been talking to professionals that specialize in issuing private placements. A private placement is a funding round of securities that are issued to a select group of targeted, private investors. In my discussions, it has become apparent that there is an opportunity for professionals in this space to leverage the capabilities of a virtual data room, particularly if they manage more than one of these transactions annually.
Web-based scheduling applications can greatly simplify the process of determining a mutually agreeable meeting time.
One of the more annoying tasks that many of us encounter on a nearly daily basis is attempting to coordinate a meeting or phone conference amongst a group of people. Generally, an agreed upon date and time is arrived upon only after a flurry of emails have gone back and forth between participants.
Information gathering and note-taking apps can help busy attorneys manage the constant stream of information and avoid information overload.
In this new Web 2.0 world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with information. Organizing the flow of information, for both work and personal uses, is one way to manage the constant stream of information and reduce information overload.
Managing cloud computing risk using new products and services.
One of the primary concerns expressed by lawyers and other business owners when considering moving data and processes to the Cloud is risk. Understandably, business owners are wary of outsourcing confidential information and express concerns regarding the security of their data. Another concern involves the sense of lack of control over company data and the inability to monitor the software processes used to organize the information.
There is a strong correlation between the electrification of industry, a hundred years ago and the cloud computing industry today.
In 2008 Nicolar Carr published a bestseller called “The Big Switch: from Edison to Google,” it’s central thesis being the strong correlation between the electrification of industry, a hundred years ago and the cloud computing industry today.
The North Carolina State Bar offers guidance to lawyers interested in using SaaS-based platforms in their law practice.
The North Carolina State Bar (NCSB) recently issued a proposed formal ethics opinion (proposed 2010 FEO 7), which may assist lawyers in assessing the risks of using a particular cloud computing product in their law practice.
Firmex corporate clients are using their unlimited use virtual data room to share financial information with their auditors, setting up all their folders and documents online.
If anyone has ever had the pleasure of conducting a financial audit he/she is all too aware that it’s a time consuming process. The audit process has four main stages:
The process to take a new drug through pre-clinical and clinical trials is extensive. Since the Intellectual Property is so valuable and confidential, Life Sciences firms will generally limit the distribution of documentation in a secure virtual data room – they can watermark, restrict printing and save documents as required.
Many Firmex clients are Life Sciences firms developing new therapeutic medicines. What amazes me about this industry is the time horizon of 15+ years to take a drug from idea to market, costing millions, even billions of dollars. There are 3000-4000 early-stage research-driven firms funded by public markets or venture-capital that take on the technology risk of trying to develop new drug pipeline.
Virtual data rooms allow lawyers to store documents online, offering lawyers and their clients convenient access to important legal files.
In my last post we discussed how digital dictation systems can offer busy lawyers much-needed flexibility in the creation of legal documents. The next step, once you’ve created documents using digital dictation, is to store your documents online using virtual document management and collaboration systems. These convenient and efficient online platforms offer lawyers a 21st Century alternative to traditional document management systems.
Firmex is in the business of providing M&A advisors, lawyers and corporate executive staff a secure online data room for sharing critical operational, legal and financial documents with 3rd parties. Recently, a group of lawyers were convicted for trading insider information which was gleaned from picking through other lawyers’ client documents and another company was saved from losing all their documents in a fire by storing everything in their Firmex virtual deal room.
Firmex is in the business of providing M&A advisors, lawyers and corporate executive staff a secure online data room for sharing critical operational, legal and financial documents with 3rd parties. Not surprisingly, as the company’s CEO, I run into resistance from senior partners and executives about putting critical and highly confidential company information on the Internet. They are worried that it’s “not safe.”
Digital dictation is an efficient, time-saving alternative that offers lawyers many benefits over traditional dictation methods.
Most lawyers are familiar with old-fashioned analog tape dictation. First, you dictate into a hand held device, which records your voice onto a tape. Then you drop the tape, which holds an assortment of dictation projects, arranged sequentially rather than in order of importance, into your secretary’s desk. It’s a familiar song and dance and one that most attorneys despise. Eventually you receive the transcribed result of the dictation, which then needs to be reviewed, edited and returned to your secretary, who then must revise the document, return it to you, etc.
In order to reduce the possibility of a recurring financial collapse, the SEC wants to bring greater transparency to the rating of structured debt products. The Firmex deal room offers arrangers a simple solution to comply with the SEC.
A common complaint by participants in the recent credit collapse is they did not understand what they were buying, rating or selling. Part of the reason for this lack of clarity is that the structured debt products CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligations) and related derivates products were themselves convoluted, consisting of large volumes of mortgages and other forms of debt which were aggregated and sliced into tranches with varying risk profiles.
Tips regarding how the iPad can be used by attorneys in their law practice.
I’ve had my iPad for a few weeks now and am slowly but surely discovering how it fits into my daily routine. After using it for a while, I continue to believe that the iPad is primarily a media consumption device, but it does have some utility for lawyers and will become increasingly more useful as more third party applications are released.
In late 2008 we at Firmex were discussing strategy around enhancing our data room service for client satisfaction and planning for the future. We identified the need for a benchmark to measure our success in delivering our service to our clients. We also needed a better understanding of how clients feel about we deliver, and what they need in the future to enhance their experience.
In late 2008 we at Firmex were discussing strategy around enhancing our data room service for client satisfaction and planning for the future. We identified the need for a benchmark to measure our success in delivering our service to our clients. We also needed a better understanding of how clients feel about what we deliver and what they need in the future to enhance their experience.
Handy voice command apps that transform an attorney’s iPhone into an information gathering and transmitting tool.
A few really interesting iPhone apps were recently released that could prove very useful to lawyers, each incorporating speech to text dictation into their platforms in various ways.
Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM, refers to the ability to protect various types of electronic media. In recent years, DRM technology has become topical because of its role in protecting digital music and movies that make their way online. However, DRM also plays an important role in the financial transaction world offering security to those who share documents online in Virtual Data Rooms.
Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM, refers to the ability to protect various types of electronic media. In recent years, DRM technology has become topical because of its role in protecting digital music and movies that make their way online. However, DRM also plays an important role in the financial transaction world offering security to those who share documents online in Virtual Data Rooms.
Over the next few months, we will be making Firmex simpler for our clients to administer their virtual datarooms / workspaces and interact throughout the application
As developers we constantly focus our attention on the performance of our Firmex platform. While this concentration will always be an important aspect of what we do, it is imperative to direct our attention to exactly what we are developing and how it is being used. Since launching the new Firmex service-based architecture, our web application has experienced huge gains in speed and performance, paving the way for us to develop new ways to streamline workflow for our users.
Web-based law practice management software provides lawyers with flexibility and ease of use.
Law practice management software is crucial to managing the complexities of any modern law practice. However, traditional law office management software can be expensive, cumbersome to navigate and prone to such frequent glitches that your IT consultant becomes a permanent fixture in your law office.
An important consideration in the deployment of a Virtual Data Room is the question of who will serve as the gatekeeper to the Virtual Deal Room, determining what information is appropriate for posting and what level of security and access to assign to such information.
The use of a virtual deal room (“VDR”) has become commonplace in modern merger and acquisition practice, replacing the formerly prevalent document room. The advantages of a VDR include reduced cost; reduced security concerns; accessibility to multiple parties simultaneously and 24/7; reduction in actual deal time; and an electronic data trail establishing who saw what and when.
Virtual LegalTech is an economical, innovative way for busy attorneys to learn about and stay on top of the rapidly changing legal technology issues that affect their law practice.
On March 18th, 2010 ALM Media Events will be holding live CLE events at Virtual LegalTech for the second time ever.
Virtual data rooms offer law firms an encrypted method of communication that is far more secure than the unencrypted email currently being used by many lawyers.
As discussed last week, the unencrypted email systems used by most law firms are inherently insecure and place confidential client data at risk.
Firmex’s unlimited use virtual data rooms expand the use investment banks have for their deal rooms exponentially; hasten deals to close and help avoid unnecessary risk.
In any deal, time is risk. The longer it takes to close a deal, the greater the potential for the transaction to get derailed. Being prepared ahead of time is one way to avoid time delays and risk.
