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Lawyers, Knowledge Management, and OPML
If you've ever worked in a law office, you might be familiar with a common problem: Lawyers often do similar things over and over again, but they don't always have a very good way to keep track of what they've done before so they can efficiently reuse that work the next time they need it. For example, if you're a criminal lawyer, you're going to write a lot of motions to suppress evidence. How do you keep track of the work you've done on those motions to suppress so that you don't have to do it all over again the next time you have a related issue?
Another problem in law offices is collaboration. If you're working a case with other attorneys, paralegals, interns, etc., how do you keep everyone updated on what you've done, and how do you follow what others have done?
I believe this is what some people call “knowledge management”—how do you “manage” the knowledge in your firm? And I understand that there are lots of commercial packages available that attempt to help lawyers with these tasks. Many are built around an hourly billing model and are very complicated. For example, the GW clinics use Amicus “practice management software.” I found it to be slow, inflexible (you work the program's way or no way at all), hard for users to use and understand, and really too complex for what we wanted to do.
So what if you want something simpler—something without all the billing and client tracking features, something that just helps you keep track of your research and your collaboration with others? Enter OPML and Instant Outlining.
If you don't read Scripting News I'm not sure why you would know or care about this, but Dave Winer has been building a new OPML editor, a sort of outliner on steroids that allows you to create what he's calling “instant outlines,” or outlines that people can subscribe to—almost in the same way that you can subscribe to RSS feeds.* I can't describe it much better than that because I haven't seen or used it, but from what I've read, it sounds like it could be a really awesome way for people in a law office to communicate about the cases they're working on.
To see what I'm talking about, read this thread describing how the outliner can work into a collaborative workflow. And here's another description of the outliner at work and some thoughts about how it compares to email, instant messaging, and other means of communication. With those descriptions in mind, imagine that you're an attorney in the lead on a murder trial. You've got two attorneys helping you out, and all three of you have interns doing research and investigation for you. Plus you have an investigator and a paralegal helping out with the case. How do you keep all of them informed about what's going on? Why not use an outliner to keep your notes and let them all subscribe? They can keep their own outlines so you can follow what they're all doing. This would mean you wouldn't have to repeat new news six times, and you could probably have fewer long meetings where everyone reports on what they're doing. I've only worked on a couple of cases like this, but in those cases, I really think instant outlining could have been a big help. Another big advantage is that it keeps time-stamped records of the case as it develops so it would be easy to go back through and see what you learned when and all of that should make it less likely that you'll lose or overlook any little aspect of the case.
In addition to its collaboration possibilities via instant outlining, this new outliner promises to be a great way to track legal research within a firm or legal office. Take those motions to suppress, for example. Every lawyer in your office could have a “motions to suppress” outline; when you needed to write such a motion, you could check in on those outlines and gather all the relevant research that people in your office have already done. In addition or in the alternative, the office could maintain one “motions to suppress” outline to which everyone could add. It could live on the office server so that everyone could access and update it. The top level nodes of these outlines could state a sub-issue related to suppressing evidence, and the subnodes could collect the relevant cites and points of law to deal with that issue. Then, the next time you have to do a motion to suppress, you scan through the outline for related issues and jump right to the research. If you find anything new about that issue, you add it to the outline.
Finally, this mythical outliner (which is still just in beta testing, apparently) can also be a blogging tool. I've long been jealous of the way Scripting News can combine little one-line posts w/longer, multi-paragraph posts -- each with its own permalink. Now the tool used to create that sort of blog is going to be available for everyone (or at least to all Windows users; maybe Mac users soon). This won't necessarily be great for lawyers or knowledge management or whatever, but it's certainly interesting.
* OPML is the format most feed aggregators use to keep track of your RSS subscriptions, and it's also the format used by outliners like Omni Outliner or Aquaminds NoteTaker. Its great virtue as far as I can tell is the ability to expand and collapse different levels of your outline, and to move those levels around easily so you can organize and navigate through a lot of information quickly and easily. I've found it to be a great format for taking notes in law school.
Posted 12:51 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | law general opml
Kelo v. New London
Because I can't resist throwing in my two cents: When I first learned yesterday that the Supreme Court said it's ok for the government to take private property from small, individual owners and give it to large, conglomerate owners so that those big owners can make tons of money from it, I was honestly a little conflicted.
On one hand, I'm happy to see the government exercise its takings powers for the public good. We take private property to an insane extreme in the U.S., and I like the government's takings powers because, theoretically, they put the public good over private profit in a very blunt and inescapable way.
That said, this decision is deeply offensive because it appears to turn that spirit of the takings clause and turn it against itself in a very perverse way. In short, Kelo basically builds trickle-down economics into the law of takings, and if you grew up in the 1980s under Reagan's “voodoo economics” (which is what George H.W. Bush called it) you'll know what that means: They're pissing on us! Or if you prefer another metaphor, the Supreme Court has said (once again) it's ok for government to give all the cake to those who already have the largest portions and we'll just hope that everyone else can survive on the crumbs that fall.
Awesome.
Ahem. If you'd like more erudite and measured discussion of the decision. don't miss the SCOTUSblog's metablog on Kelo. The decision itself is here from the LII.
And speaking of the LII, it is currently seeking donations. As far as I know, the LII was the first to have the Kelo decision available online, and that's just one of the invaluable services the LII provides. In the let-them-eat-cake economy of legal research, the LII is one way to make sure we get more than just crumbs, so please do your part to keep it healthy.
Posted 07:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | law general
Dating Industry
My email box was shouting at me this morning. “Men Needed!” it said. Sounds like spam, doesn't it? Of course, it is, but this message was not trying to sell me viagra or some other drug; instead it's trying to recruit me to a dating event—my “chance to experience a dozen first dates in one evening, and to have a friend along to help!”
I really don't know what to make of that, except that, well, I'm glad I have no reason to go. Now I just want to know: How did these jokers get my law school email address? Is it possible GW sells its students' email addresses to marketers?
Posted 05:35 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | life generally
Wexis and the Sheeps
Reader “Charlie” recently left a lengthy comment on a post from nearly two years ago in which I complained about how Lexis and Westlaw get special opportunities at law schools to get law students hooked on their services from the beginning of their legal careers. Charlie says I'm stupid and lack business experience and just plain wrong—and more! He suggests I do some research before posting “stupid statements about something you know little or nothing about.”
I guess Charlie doesn't know that I actually have done quite a bit of research into this topic. He and others like him might be interested in some of that research, such as this 1994 article from Wired magazine explaining how West essentially stole a public database and took it private—with the implicit cooperation and approval of the DOJ, of course. Some might say West has earned its preeminent position in the online legal research market; others might say West just took it.
This page links to the 2nd Circuit cases in which West attempted—unsuccessfully—to claim it owned (and could control via copyright) the page numbers on which cases and other legal materials are printed. What you don't see there are the 8th Circuit cases that said West could copyright its page numbers. See e.g. Oasis Publishing Co. v. West Publishing Co., 924 F. Supp. 918, 39 U.S.P.Q. 2D (BNA) 1271 (D. Minn., 1996). According to my research, this split between the 2nd and 8th Circuits has not really been decided because the dispute was ended by a consent decree before it could be resolved by the Supreme Court; that decree ordered West to allow competitors to license its page numbers for a stipulated fee. U.S. v. Thomson, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2790; 1997-1 Trade Cas. (CCH) P71,75.
But while I have done some research into this issue, that doesn't mean I know it all and I'm always interested in learning more or to be corrected where I've made a mistake. To that end, I figured readers like Charlie might enjoy more of my stupidity about Wexis, so here are more posts in which I mention Wexis and its antisocial effects on society and the legal profession:
- The ABA Is Broken (8/12/03)
- Procrastination (links to discussions of the topic elsewhere; 10/04/03)
- Week In Review #1 (5/24/04)
- Five Things (6/24/04)
- Wexis Data, Anyone? (2/26/05)
- Wexis the Pusher (2/28/05)
(And, of course, I say that knowing full well that I'm a sheep too and it's only my illusion that I could be otherwise since, as L. is fond of saying, power is everywhere intentional and nonsubjective. Also, as I am often reminded, there is no Zion outside the matrix.)
Posted 06:13 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | law general
Sum Sum Summertime
I'm pretty sure today is the official start of summer. It should also be just about the longest day of the year, since it's the summer solstice (I think). The weather here in D.C. is beautiful! I wish it would stay like this for the next three months... But anyway, happy summer!
Posted 07:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | 2L summer
Drama What?
What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com |
Just for the record, I was never in any sort of dramatic performance thingy. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it, but I never had the, um, as Popeye would say, noive. Otherwise, this looks more or less right, although probably I was a lot less stoner than 44%. [link via SuperD]
Posted 06:10 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | life generally
Ten Miles
Yesterday was something of a milestone on the road to running the Marine Corps Marathon this fall—we ran ten miles! That explains why my legs hurt and I'm walking around like I'm an 80-year-old man. Of course, the fact that I did none of my “maintenance runs” (we're supposed to do 2, 30-40 minute runs during the week between long weekend runs) last week, and didn't do the long run (9 miles) last weekend might also have something to do with the 80-year-old achy feeling.
But minor aches aside, the fact that I could do ten miles yesterday and feel mostly fine with it gives me a great deal more confidence that I'll be able to make it to 26. I was pretty skeptical that the training program would be sufficient to get me into marathon shape—running 30-40 minutes twice weekly, plus a long run each weekend, just didn't seem like it would be enough. But it's working so far. I'd never run 10 miles before and now I'm not too worried about the 12 coming up next weekend.
Honestly, it's looking like the really worrisome part of this whole marathon thing is going to be the fundraising. Thanks to the generosity of some of my readers, my fundraising is moving along a bit, but I've got a long way to go. As I mentioned here, if you've ever wanted to do something nice for the imbroglio, now is your chance—donate today! Your donation is also totally tax-deductible and goes to an excellent cause, so you win, Whitman-Walker Clinic wins, its clients win, we all win. Win win win win. Don't you want to be a winner? ;-)
Posted 06:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | marathon
About that Journal Thing
This weekend was a beautiful one here in D.C. After the last week of brutal heat and humidity, the last three days or so were absolutely heavenly—temperatures in the 70s and low 80s, relatively low humidity. . . to me it felt like October, which is often my favorite time of year. All of which explains why I am so not a friend of the journal right now, because instead of spending the weekend out and about enjoying the terrific weather, I spent it inside at my computer grading procrastinating grading journal write-on competitions. (And look—DG had to do it too!) Oh yeah, sure, I could have done this weeks ago so I would now be free to enjoy this wonderful weekend, but come on—would I do something today that I could put off until tomorrow? Of course not. That would just be too easy and make too much sense.
But hey, instead of feeling bad about being such a pathetic procrastinator I'd rather project my faults onto a terrific little scapegoat and say: Journal sucks. Don't do it.
p.s.: I'm on what is possibly the easiest journal in the history of journals and will actually end up doing very little for my four journal credits and that line on the resume, so in the bigger scheme of things I recognize that this whole journal dealio isn't bad. But I'm not thinking big scheme right now, ok?
