2016-08-22_winning_on_technicalities_for_linkedin

Winning on
Technicalities
High-Yield, Low-Pain Technology
Solutions to Enhance Your Practice
© 2016 Daniel F. Thornton

Technological Competence
“To maintain the requisite knowledge
and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of
changes in the law and its practice,
including the benefits and risks
associated with relevant technology,
engage in continuing study and education
and comply with all continuing legal
education requirements to which the
lawyer is subject.” — MRPC 1.1 cmt. 8

Technology, n., tech•nol•o•gy, tek-ˈnä-lə-jē
A collection of robotic servants
whose sole duty is to enhance
your productivity and quality of life.

Principles
• Simplicity
• Velocity
• Continuity

Roadmap
•Searches
•Shortcuts
•Services (Apps)
•Scripting

Search Operators
• Quotes
• Booleans
• Grouping
• Wildcards
• Proximity
• Document Fields
• Commands

Search Operators
• Quotes — “control exact phrasing”
• Booleans — not, and, or
• Grouping — (a and b) or (c)
• Wildcards — arbitra!
• Proximity — a /10 b
• Document Fields — title, author
• Commands — cite checks, shortcuts

Grouping & Proximity
party with burden of proof goes first
>> 137 cases
“burden of proof” and party and first
>> 844 cases
“burden of proof” /10 party /10 first
>> 14 cases

Wildcard & Proximity
public employee injured during commute duties
>> 41 cases
injur! /20 commute
>> 9 cases
>> 3 published
>> includes seminal case Kasper v. TPAF,
164 N.J. 564 (2000)

Proximity, Grouping & Wildcard
this injury was the straw that broke
the camel’s back and disabled plaintiff
>> over 10,000 cases

Proximity, Grouping & Wildcard
straw /10 camel /5 back and (disability
or disabled)
>> 15 cases
straw /10 camel /5 back and disab!
>> 15 cases
>> 6 published
>> Quigley v. PERS, 231 N.J. Super. 211 (1989)

Proximity = Power & Precision
evidence /10 time /10 memory>> 41 cases
>> 23 cases
>> 13 published
>> Montells v. Haynes, 133 N.J. 282 (1993)
>> State v. Burgess, 298 N.J. Super. 254
(App. Div. 1997)

testimony on a moot issue is irrelevant
>> 41 cases
moot /20 testimony /10 irrelevant
>> 1 case

an issue that the parties concede is moot
>> 57 cases
parties /10 concede /30 moot
>> 4 cases

Practical Combinations
moot issue evidence
>> 10 headnotes; 3 with “moot”

Practical Combinations
State v. Davila, 443 N.J. Super. 577, 584
(App. Div. 2016) (internal quotation marks
omitted) (an issue is moot when “the
decision sought in a matter, when
rendered, can have no practical effect on
the existing controversy,” and our courts
“do not resolve issues that have become
moot due to the passage of time or
intervening events”).

Document Fields
• Judge
– ju(smith) in West
– judges(smith) in Lexis
• Title/Caption
– ti(acme corporation) in West
– title(acme corporation) in Lexis
• Date Range
– West: da(aft 01-01-2011 and bef 01-01-2011)
– Lexis: > 01/01/2010 and < 01/01/2011

Commands
• Shepardize
–keycite:142nj520 in West
–shep:142nj520 in Lexis
• Source Selectors (West)
–State: njsa, njac, njr, njre
–Federal: usc, cfr, fre, frcp, frcrp, frap

Google—Fields & Commands
• define: — dictionary lookup
• filetype: — e.g. pdf, doc, txt
• intitle: — require term in title
• inurl: — require term in URL
• site: — limit search to website

Examples —
Google Field Operators
site:cdn.harvardlawreview.org
intitle:article filetype:pdf
site:virginialawreview.org
inurl:files filetype:pdf

Famous Disbarment
filetype:pdf “john bruce thompson”
and report

Roadmap
•Searches
•Shortcuts
•Services
•Scripting

Shortcuts
• General Hacks
–Distractions
–Peripherals
–Security
• Specific Hacks
–Operating-System Level
–File-System Level
–Application Level
Productivity Hacks

Distractions
• Alerts
– Cellphone
– Application
– Physical
• Application Selection
• Lookups

• Disable Outlook alerts
• Leave only alerts for important
messages
• My approach: high alerts for
messages from clients and managers
Managing Distractions

Two-Monitor Paradigm
Research
Work
Product

Passwords
• Entropy and entropic analysis
• Password policies
• Password generators
• Passphrases

Password Generators
• Passphrase + numbers/symbols
–I walk a lonely road!@34
• Sequence:
–I walk a lonely road!@34
–I walk a lonely road@#45
–I walk a lonely road#$56
(!Q@W3e4r)(I walk a lonely road!@34)

Operating-System Shortcuts
• Window manipulation
• Cursor manipulation
• Image manipulation
• Application selection
• Symbol Selection

File-System Shortcuts
• Folders
• Files
–Creation
–Naming
–Properties
• Shortcuts & Symbolic Links

Application Shortcuts
• Browsers
• Office
–Word
–Outlook
–Excel
• PowerPoint
• Adobe Reader

Metadata
• “Metadata” is embedded information in
electronic documents that is generally hidden
from view in a printed copy of a document
• It is generated when documents are created or
revised on a computer
• Metadata may reflect such information as the
author of a document, the date or dates on
which the document was revised, tracked
revisions to the document, and comments
inserted in the margins
• It may also reflect information necessary to
access, understand, search, and display the
contents of documents created in spreadsheet,
database, and similar

Metadata Shortcuts
• SHIFT-F10, R
–Displays properties for any file
• ALT, F, I, I, I, I
– Inspects your Office document for
metadata:
• Comments and revisions
• Properties and personal information
• Headers, footers, and watermarks
• Hidden text

Programming for
Dummies Lawyers
• What is a program?
• What is a computer program?
• What is programming?
• Shortcuts & Symbolic Links
• Scripting
• Macros
• Batch Files
Lawyers

echo "Hello, World!"
pause
exit
The First Program
• Goal: output the text “Hello, World!”

set url=https://www.acronymfinder.com/%1%.html
start "" iexplore %url%
exit
Search — Acronyms
• Goal: look up the possible meanings of
an acronym
Variable = storage area for dynamic information
>> set variable=value
Parameter = variable input to a program
>> a first_parameter second_parameter
>> a %1% %2%
>> a njac

Federal Rules of Evidence
• Goal: given a number, look up the
corresponding FRE
set url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_%1%
exit

Search — “I’m Feeling Lucky”
• Goal: directly open Google’s first search
result for your query
set url="http://www.google.com/search?btnI&q=%*%"
exit

set url=
"http://dolarchive.rjhughes.oag.lps.state.nj.us/
search/results.aspx?k=ALL(%*)
%%20(scope%%3A%%22DOL%%20DMS%%22)"
exit
Search — DOL DMS
• Goal: search the DOL DMS for documents
containing all of your query terms

Search — DOL Number
• Goal: given a DOL number (yy-#####),
open the corresponding DOL SharePoint
matter folder
set number=%1
set year=%number:~0,2%
set url=
http://lpsdms.rjhughes.oag.lps.state.nj.us/
dol/dms/Lists/Matters%%2020%year%/%number%
exit
Substring: truncates a string to the given characters
String: 16-50012
Chars: 01234567

matter folder
set number=%1
set url=
exit

matter folder
set number=16-50012
set url=
exit

matter folder
set number=16-50012
set year=16
set url=
exit

matter folder
set number=16-50012
set year=16
set url=
dol/dms/Lists/Matters%%202016/%number%
exit

matter folder
set number=16-50012
set year=16
set url=
dol/dms/Lists/Matters%%202016/16-50012
exit

Further Questions
Daniel F. Thornton, D.A.G.
Office of the Attorney General
609-292-2986 (work)
571-276-9447 (cell)
daniel.thornton@lps.state.nj.us

2016-08-22_winning_on_technicalities_for_linkedin

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