Who are you?  What firm are you with?  What is your role?

Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch. President and Vice President (respectively) of Internet For Lawyers. We are full-time MCLE program presenters.

What is your firms’ specialty/niche?  

Internet For Lawyers provides regional, local & specialty Bar Associations, law firms and corporations from Alaska to Alabama, with turn-key continuing legal education seminars covering free and low-cost research resources on the Internet, and technology tools for lawyers. We spend our entire days scouring the Internet to locate and test new sites and resources so we can point lawyers directly to the most useful ones.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the legal technology industry now and in the upcoming year?

The Internet has changed the way legal professionals conduct research.  Rule 1.1 of the ABA's Model Rules of Professional Conduct states that, "Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation." While it doesn't specifically say that, "lawyers have a duty to 'Google'," the reality's not too far from that. The legal technology industry needs to help practitioners differentiate and utilize the best options for caselaw, factual, public record, and other types of information that are now available.  

How can the legal vendor community work with you best?

We're always interested in learning about new technology tools that will help lawyers work "smarter, not harder" for inclusion in the "Technology A-Z" seminars we present on tools and tips lawyers can use in their practices. We also include articles about these kinds of tools on our Web site. For example, we were among one of the first sites to write about the ability to conduct caselaw research in Google Scholar and have received a lot of positive feedback from readers on the details we provided.

What advice would you have for legal vendors trying to compete in this crowded marketplace? 

Don't ignore the vast majority of attorneys in this country who work in solo or small firm practices. 

What associations are you active in?

Currently: ABA Law Practice Management Section; Association of Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA); Previously, Carole was Chair of the California State Bar Law Practice Management & Technology Section, and Vice President of the Southern California Association of Law Libraries.

What online resource (website, blog, etc.) is most useful to you (i.e., you use it everyday)? 

Carole: Google. It (almost) never fails to help me find the information I need. Mark: Twitter. It has been an excellent source of (professional) current awareness reading.

What are you speaking about at TECHSHOW?

We're doing one program together – a "Meet the Authors" session tied to the upcoming release of two new books published by the Law Practice Management Section. The first book, titled "Find Info Like a Pro" is a hands-on guide that shares the secrets, shortcuts, and realities of conducting investigative and background research using the sources of publicly available information available on the Internet. Written for legal professionals (but also useful for anyone who needs to conduct investigative and background research), this comprehensive desk book lists, categorizes, and describes hundreds of free and fee-based Internet sites. The resources and techniques in this book are useful for investigations; depositions; locating missing witnesses, clients, or heirs; and trial preparation, among other research challenges facing legal professionals. 

The second book, titled "Google: The Search Box and Beyond," is a step-by-step guide to using both Google's most-popular and also its newest and least-known search features, productivity tools, and services.

Mark is also co-presenting the "Google Tools for Lawyers" session separately with Dan Pinnington.  It will cover some of the material contained in our book Google: The Search Box and Beyond, such as Google's Web search, free productivity tools and services like Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Voice. 

Carole Levitt (clevitt@netforlawyers.com)
Mark Rosch (mrosch@netforlawyers.com)
Internet For Lawyers & Live CLE Seminars
Facebook 'Internet for Lawyers' Page 
Twitter @MarkRosch

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