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State & Local News Vol. 20, No. 2, Winter 1997 Legally SpeakingTechnologyAre you one of those lawyers who thinks that computers are a fad just like the hula-hoop? If so, read no further. Just sit back and wait for that malpractice suit to be filed against you in the future. Now don't get me wrong, my mother didn't raise a computer geek, but the fact is that the practice of law as we enter the twenty-first century will become more dependent on computers as a necessary tool. According to an annual survey of the nation's largest law firms, 83 percent of lawyers in these firms now have desktop workstations, as compared to just 7 percent of computer-using lawyers when the survey began in 1986. To that end, we hope to feature a series of articles over the next year to help state and local government practitioners cross the online technology bridge into the future. The difficult question for some of you may be where to start. Now I could tell you to go out and get a state-of-the-art computer network situated on a Wide Area Network (WAN) along with a portable computer like me. Our attorneys and support staff use the WAN to communicate via e-mail to our clients throughout Broward County and to Internet users worldwide. WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows is the standard word processing package and GroupWise is the standard WAN e-mail package. We use a docket calendar system for appointment and action tracking which provides case management information. The docket calendar system is tied to the legal billing system, which is used to provide summary statements of work. But each of us has our own needs and situation, and our interest is not to focus on hardware preferences as that is question of cost and what you want your technology to accomplish. Our series of technology article will help you maximize the use of online computer technology in your practice. We're the ABA and we're here to help you this slogan really applies to the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC) in the area of help with computer technology. The LTRC will host an Internet Center at the Midyear Meeting in San Antonio to assist you in learning how to "surf the net" and will also take your calls relating to ABA Internet developments and assist you in getting online at 312/988-5465 or via e-mail to ltrc@abanet.org. If you've really got the "tech" bug, then attend the ABA's Section of Law Practice Management's TechShow 97 on April 10-12 in Chicago. Last year, nearly 3,000 people attended TechShow 96 to discuss client and public technology trends. Lawyers are using online capabilities for a variety of purposes including communication with colleagues and clients and conducting legal research. In this issue, Dale A. Bruschi has written an article on how to use the Internet for research through discussion groups and chat rooms and introduces the new Local Government Law Research Forum. The International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) also had a great program on Internet research and technology at its annual meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas. Materials from the IMLA program can be purchased by calling 202/466-5424 or e-mailing your request to imladc@aol.com. Okay, what if you are still confused about what the Internet can do for you as a practitioner? Some helpful reading should include The Lawyer's Guide to the Internet by G. Burgess Allison published by the ABA's Section of Law Practice Management. State & Local Law News, through this column, will also help you with a new feature listing web sites, a la David Letterman, of interest to state and local government lawyers. We start our Top Ten List with the following:
Top 10 List of Web Sites to SurfLook for additional web sites to surf in our next issue of the News. On to China What a great outpouring of interest for the CLE trip to China immediately after the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco! The trip, from August 5 to 16, 1997, will cover three cities: Beijing, Xian, and Hong Kong. In Beijing you'll visit the Summer Palace, Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs, and the Great Wall. In Xian, you'll see the terra cotta warriors at the world famous archaeological excavations and visit the Ban Po Museum. We'll arrive in Hong Kong right after the government has transitioned to the People's Republic of China next summer. We expect to receive up to eight hours of CLE credit for the trip and we are awaiting approval for the trip by the ABA Board of Governors at the Midyear Meeting in February. If you responded with a fax or e-mail, you should have received information already. If not, then contact me by Internet e-mail at jcopelan@co.broward.fl.us or by fax at 954/357-7641, and I will have the information sent to you. As an introduction to the trip, this issue contains the first installment of a two part article by Ying Zhang-White and Carol Castleberry on "Chinese Local Government and Land Use." In addition to providing all our readers with some useful insight into the Chinese local governmental system, we hope that the overview contained in the articles will give those of us going to China some background for our meetings with Chinese lawyers, academicians, and public officials. For those of you who have not yet decided to join us in China, it is not too late to sign up, so let us hear from you. Feedback Thanks for the cards, letters, calls, and e-mail on our first issue. Glad you liked our emphasis on recent Supreme Court and legislative actions affecting state and local governments! This issue focuses on privatization, an aspect of the theme of "Reinventing Government" of the Section for this entire year. Our newsletter needs your input and articles, so keep sending them! If you have favorite websites, send them to me and I'll consider theme for our Top Ten List. We'll be in San Antonio for the Midyear Meeting and hope you'll join us to discuss how you can get involved in our next newsletter.
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