♫ So go on, indulge yourself,
that’s right, kick off your shoes, put your feet up,
lean back and just enjoy the melodies.
After all, music soothes even the savage beasts.  ♫

Lyrics and Music by Dexter Holland, recorded by Offspring.

There is a time to work …and there is a time to kick back and take it easy.

We happen to be in that magical time between Canada Day and Independence Day for our cousins down south.

So our post this week is – seize the moment and take the time …to relax…to detune…to enjoy the company …

♫ Through the fire and the flames we carry on! ♫

Lyrics and music by: Herman Li, ZP Theart, Sam Totman, Vadim Pruzhaniov, recorded by Dragonforce.

Jo DeMars, of NetNeutrals (www.netneutrals.com)  spoke at the 2014 Online Dispute Resolution Forum at Hastings College of Law at the University of California in San Francisco.  This post is based on her most excellent presentation on Wednesday June 25, 2014. While her comments were presented in the context of resolving disputes that arise in e-commerce, her advice applies to virtually any consumer complaint, including client complaints …

I had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat on Monday about knowledge management with Canada’s reigning Information Diva, Connie Crosby.

The video of our discussion is embedded below:

The focus of our conversation was how Canada’s smaller law firms can utilize current knowledge management approaches to better identify, organize and access their own, valuable knowledge inventories – their precedents, checklists, document templates, research memos, and other key data.

Connie is principal of Crosby Group Consulting, a Toronto-based firm, specializing in knowledge management, information management, social media and library management. She is a law librarian, Slaw…

After much planning, and at least one eyeball fixed at all times on weather reports foreshadowing thunder, lightning, rain (and lions tigers and bears, oh my!) our Wise Law Office Backyard Retreat finally enjoyed its inaugural debut last Sunday.

I expect to have several SlawTips posts in the weeks ahead on the actual topics we discussed and the action plan that continues to emerge.

For today, I’m going to focus on the agenda, which is reproduced below.

WISE LAW OFFICE BACKYARD RETREAT AGENDA – June 8, 2014

11:00am – 11:15am – Introduction and objectives for the day (Garry)

11:15am –

♫ These are the people of Walmart
Through mark downs, roll backs, and shopping carts
These are the people of Walmart
Where we save money and shop smart only at Walmart…♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Jessica Frech.

They teach you in business school to carefully evaluate your ‘marketing mix”. When it comes to a law firm’s marketing mix, the discussion is typically centred around the 7 P’s of law firm service marketing:

• Product
• Promotion
• Place
• Price
• Physical Evidence
• People
• Processes

What is unique in North America is that there is a law firm – …

We’re going to try something different next month – the First Annual Wise Law Office Backyard  Retreat.

It will be a day-long, out-of-office session to explore planning and teamwork and to ask to ourselves some fundamental questions about what it is that we do as a law office.

There will, of course be food and festivity too, but ultimately, it will be an opportunity for our lawyers and staff to put our collective heads together to do some creative, directed brainstorming.

In the planning stages for this event, I’m having lots of thoughts as to the issues we should be …

♫  I want security, yeah
Without it I had a great loss, oh now
Security, yeah
And I want it at any cost, oh now…♫

Lyrics and music by: Margaret Wessen, Otis Redding; recorded by Otis Redding.

I have been giving a number of presentations lately that in part, deal with the (in)security of law firm systems.  This is based on the findings of the Legal Technology Resource Center of the ABA (“LTRC”) in their 2013 Legal Technology Survey.  They reported that 15% of reporting law firms acknowledged that they had a security leak.  43% reported being infected by a …

♫ I close my eyes, then I drift away
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer like dreamers do
Then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you…♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Roy Orbison.

Well we are heading into the Canadian annual right of spring – the Victoria Day long-weekend.

With images of heading to the cottage, heading to the condo at Whistler or just kicking back and taking a few days to relax, I thought I would share my tip for the best music website that I have found to relax…or work ..to.…

So, WalMart shoppers can now obtain $99 wills at four in-store kiosk locations in the Greater Toronto Area, with more to come:

Behind the plastic jugs of liquid Tide stacked near the entrance of a new Walmart in Markham is an innovation in discount retailing: Axess Law.

Founded by Toronto lawyers Lena Koke and Mark Morris, Axess Law provides fast and affordable legal services to time-pressed shoppers.

Simple wills are $99. Notarized documents are $25, plus $19 for each additional document.

This should come as no surprise to those of us who have been eyeing the tea leaves for some …

♫ You may think I’m strong
and I can do no wrong
but I’m vulnerable
so vulnerable…♫

Music and lyrics by Pet Shop Boys.

Microsoft has reported a vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer.  While Microsoft has posted security workarounds and US-CERT has recommended that users implement them, they only work for the two most recent versions of IE (10 and 11).  Moreover, they are reported to be technically complex.

:

The IE vulnerability is a big deal, said Will Dormann, vulnerability analyst in the CERT Division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburgh, Pa.…