Follow the Leader

Provided by Matthew Spievak, Sarnoff Court Reporters, VP/GM Northern Region.  Matt is a member of NorCalPROS

There are a few childhood games that I still remember vividly. I loved Duck, Duck, Goose, Telephone and Follow The Leader. They all had an element of danger in them and the ability to really get a little kid's heart pumping. Duck, Duck, Goose because there was this anticipation in both being tagged as the "goose" and having to give chase around the circle, hoping to beat the tagger back to your seat. I never won, so my only hope was not to get tagged. Telephone because I lived in fear of being the one that screwed up the phrase that was being passed. That fear was born from an embarrassing revelation that came in first grade … the one time I recall being the leader was on the playground in second grade when someone got hurt. I thought it was a brilliant idea to lead my little troop up and over the teeter-totter. The third person in line pounced the teetertotter down to the ground and Kim Haggie, the fourth person in line, took that wooden playground apparatus on the chin, causing her to bleed profusely, which earned her a few stitches and me a chair in the principal's office.

Videotaped Testimony Synchronized with Transcript

A user-friendly tool for all phases of litigation 

By Marnie Levy, CLVS, Sky Blue Video and Jeff Koller, General Counsel and Client ServicesAdministrator, Hutchings Court Reporters, LLC.  Jeff is a member of the San Diego Chapter of SoCalPROS.

One of the most powerful tools for utilizing videotaped depositions is synchronizing the video and transcript.

Simply put, “video-sync” links each line of a deposition transcript with the video deposition so they play simultaneously. As you might imagine, video testimony and the written transcript scrolling side-by-side is a one-two punch of credibility!

In addition, the video-sync software has multiple features that make it a convenient, economical, user-friendly method for organizing, sharing, and presenting testimony before and during trial, arbitration, or mediation.  

Legal Expense Management -- Working Toward Solutions

by Sheila Okabayashi.  Sheila is President and Founder of Integrated Solution Design and is a member of NorCalPROS and the Orange County chapter of SoCalPROS.

We want to hear your voice!

http://www.legalexpensesurvey.com/

In Expense Reduction Analyst's efforts to find expense reduction solutions for the legal community, ERA Los Angeles and Orange County's managing director Marylou Garcia (and our newest member of SoCalPROS-OC) has sponsored research to hear from you, the professionals in the legal market that deal wtih expense and budget management issues, to share with us your insights, experience, challenges, and solutions that are specific to your culture, practice areas, and industry.
 
Let your voice be heard by responding to this survey, which only takes about 5 minutes to complete. Your input is vital. Please do not delay -- the survey is open through midnight (PST) February 21st. Go to: http://www.legalexpensesurvey.com/.
 
After analyzing the data, the resulting white paper compiled and analyzed by Integrated Solution Design will be released to the legal community on March 1st. Survey participants will be among the first to receive it!

Are you what your office eats? And is that a good thing…

by Laura Merrill, First Legal Network Account Executive, SoCalPro 2011 Secretary

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in my office thinking about what great new First Legal product or service to write about for this month’s SoCalPro’s BLOG entry. Let’s be honest, most BLOG Entries, while a great a opportunity to highlight a member’s service, are rarely written in a true ‘blog’ spirit; that is, a conversational topic that sparks further debate, discovery, discussion and general comments…So while I racked my brain on what topic might spark a discussion, at the same time not include religion, politics or your personal Super Bowl picks for who will run the coolest commercial (I’m routing for Budweiser over the GoDaddy girl)…I received the following email notification:

“It’s that time of year to join the First Legal O.C. “Biggest-Loser” Competition”

And there it was, my topic for this month’s Blog Entry…

Why is Records Retention Important?

by Cheryl Young, Records and Solutions Information Architect. Océ Business Services is a member of the San Diego Chapter of SoCalPROS.

An effective records management program can potentially save an organization – including law firms, their clients and in-house counsel – millions of dollars by preserving responsive records and disposing of obsolete records in systematic, consistent processes that can be defended. This helps avoid fines from courts or auditors. Ignorance of records retention requirements is no longer an excuse with the publication of the Sedona Guidelines, ISO 15489, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and state level adoption of the Federal Rules. So that begs the question: What are the elements of a good program?

Is Your Copier Secure?

by Karin Finley, Legal Solutions Specialist, California Office Systems, Inc.  Karin Finley is a member of the Orange County Chapter of SoCalPROS.

In mid-April, many viewers watched a CBS investigative report concerning the information stored on the hard drives of digital copiers. The report was titled, “Digital Copiers Loaded with Secrets, Your Office Copy Machine Might Digitally Store Thousands of Documents That Get Passed on at Resale”

Security is a critical issue in today’s business and legal environments. Undoubtedly, your firm has taken various steps to protect your documents from loss or unauthorized access and distribution, and steps to protect your network from various threats such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, malware, etc.

Have you considered the security of the multifunction (MFP) device you bought to handle your firm’s scanning, printing, copying and faxing needs?

Slowing Economic Growth Not Unusual

By Paul Single, City National Asset Management. City National Bank is a member of NorCalPROS as well as the Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County chapters of SoCalPROS.

The current economic expansion began about a year ago and, by most accounts, is still under way, although some sectors are moving ahead more rapidly than others. Aggressive monetary and fiscal stimuli, as well as costly government initiatives aimed at stabilizing the financial system, have all played important roles in guiding the economy out of the Great Recession. However, the economy has now entered a new phase, one that hopefully will take it past the stimulus-based expansion of the second half of 2009 typified by programs such as cash for clunkers and the homebuyer tax credit and into a period driven more by consumption and trade. It’s not there yet – economic growth has not reached the point where it is healthy and fully self-sustaining. This is not unusual as studies of past recessions show that cyclical downturns accompanied by financial crises tend to be far more severe and last much longer than most reces-sions. Recoveries from these types of recessions are also far more gradual, since the restoration of banking, business, and household balance sheets takes a long time.