I often get asked by lawyers: what legal tech should I purchase and, relatedly, how in the hell can I know what I need to know about tech and keep up with it. It’s an ongoing source of frustration: lawyers constantly hear they need to be tech savvy but are clueless how to get there.
That’s why I really like a new book by Sharon Nelson, John Simek and Michael Maschke entitled Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide. I’ve known Sharon and John for several years through the ABA’s Law Practice Division and admire and respect their knowledge about legal tech and process, so I was excited to see that they put their knowledge on paper for all to access.
In a nutshell, the book is consistent and reasonably well written. It’s divided into topical standalone chapters so if you’re interested in, say, cloud computing products, you can read that chapter and get a good idea of what’s available without having to read other chapters that you might not be interested in.
The book is pretty comprehensive with respect to legal tech needs of lawyers
The book is pretty comprehensive with respect to legal tech needs of lawyers, and includes sections on operating systems, printers and scanners, servers, hardware, security, case management, time and billing software, document management and remote access, among others. It even has suggestions for what a tech savvy lawyer should take on the road and where LegalTech may be going in the future.
As to the writing itself, the writing style is informal which is perfect for making a technical topic directed to a non-technical both readable and understandable. The authors share some good and pertinent stories which add to their explanations in a non-obtrusive and helpful way. There are a few spots where the