Some of us will have fond memories of grabbing a traditional book dictionary to look up the definition of a word. In grade school we had a smaller dictionary with big print and the occasional picture. Somewhere in most of our homes you will be able to find a big dictionary with lots of pages of very small print and no pictures.
In all likelihood, our personal dictionaries are all gathering dust. Why? There is no longer a need to go and grab a dictionary of the shelf to look up the definition of a word. Simply go to Google …

Edward Gibbon once said: “I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.”

In our prior posts we have looked at income projections from a couple of different perspectives.  This third post in our Cash Flow series starts to look at expenses in a bit more detail.

You can have billings (and fee collections) that exceed your wildest dreams, but if your expenses exceed your fee collections, you will be in financial trouble.

Accordingly, our tip this week is as follows:

#3 – Compare your Actual versus …

One extremely useful type of source for legal research is an annotated act. An annotated act looks at a piece of legislation and consolidates the interpretation of that section by section and sometimes they include expert commentary.

Annotated acts are not available for every piece of legislation, but when they are available, it is a great place to start. Most annotated acts are only available in print – some exceptions being the Canada Business Corporations Act and the Criminal Code. Check your local bar association, courthouse or law society library for annotated acts.

Sorry to all the students who have …

This is the second in a series of ten tips dealing with cash flow reports and cash flow management.

Gregory Nunn once said: “Never underestimate the value of cold cash.”

While our first cash flow management tip looked at comparing your actual billings as measured against your projected monthly billings, this week we are taking things one step further in terms of looking at how well you are doing in terms of collecting your billings as measured against your projected cash needs.

Accordingly, our second cash flow report that you should be generating from your accounting system is:

#2 – …

Today’s Tip: Monitor UN documents with RSS

Since I last looked, the United Nations Documents site has a new look and feel. For what the site is trying to deliver, it feels very browsable.
One new (to me) feature is the ability to have an e-Subscription.

At the UN’s e-Subscription page you are now able to select what documents you want to receive by email or RSS feed. Available documents include the UN Journal, as well as documents from the General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, Economic and Social Council and others.

Watch for those little RSS symbols.…

Last spring, Meritas’ Leadership Institute released a Social Media Guide for Lawyers. This helpful resource provided lawyers with an overview of the three main social media tools — LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter— and some tips on how to use them for networking and marketing purposes. The guide also include two sample law firm social media use policies – one strict and one permissive.
As you all know, technology changes almost as fast as the weather does, and to keep up, Meritas has just released an updated version of the guide: Social Media Guide for Lawyers v. 2.0. This great …

Following on our earlier Top 10 Financial Errors posts, this is the first in a series of 10 posts dealing with Cash Flow Reports and in particular, cash flow management.

Mark Ruffalo once said: Certainly, it’s very easy to fall in love with cash. If you’re going to make all your decisions based on cash, you’re going to have a pretty naffy career.

In my MBA days, I took a series of accounting courses. One of the courses was entitled ‘managerial accounting’ but it really was about how to manage cash. I still recall the professor walking in and saying: …

Today’s research tip is about facts.

When research is assigned to juniors (and librarians for that matter) it is important to share facts that are critical to the research. It can also be difficult to remember to share everything that might be pertinent.

This tip is a reminder to researchers to ask for facts. The ask might be looking in the file – whether electronic or paper, or it might be talking to the assistant who works on the file. It might be going back to the responsible lawyer to ask for more information. It may prove necessary to get …

If you are using Office 2007 or 2010, The Ribbon is now a part of your life. Some of you will be happy about this – some of you won’t.
The Ribbon was introduced with Office 2007. It replaced the standard Office toolbars and menus with a very large toolbar filled with graphical representations of control elements or commands. Commands are organized in logical groups by functionality and are collected together under tabs. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as writing or laying out a page.
There are good intentions behind the Ribbon – honest! It was …

Our lives as lawyers are hectic enough even before we factor in busy family events. Accordingly our tip is to create a ‘family’ calendar where every family member can enter (and see) the entire spectrum of upcoming family events. Schedule movie nights! Put in Grandmother’s birthday party! The school play (where your daughter is on stage!). Also enter the evenings where you have business events to let everyone know Mom (or Dad) won’t be available until later (no need to put in confidential client info – just a notation that you have a business meeting is just fine).

If the …