Seriously. Everybody uses Google, to the point that the verb “Google” has entered the lexicon as modern slang for performing an online search. But, there are far more Google Tools available than just the search website.
If you only use Google for search, you’ll be stunned, amazed and impressed (too over-the-top a description?--well, you may be the judge) over the amount of the robust Google tools available to you. Not only are most of these tools free, and generally useful, but it is not hard to make the imaginative leap as to how many of these resources can be made applicable to your practice life.
The College@Home Blog has a really tremendous post on 57 must-have Google tools.
If you have a short attention span, some of the highlights (as well as some additions), are as follows:
GMail. GMail is Google email. There are a ton of helpful features on GMail that allow you to use the program as a primary or secondary email account. GMail has tons of storage space: unless you’re scanning and attaching to emails the collections of the Library of Congress, you should be good. Conversation aggregation allows you to more easily track email threads. GMail also offers a robust search feature for finding lost or mislaid emails and email topics. GMail can also be integrated with the Google calendaring system, which comes complete with reminder options.
iGoogle. iGoogle allows you to create, in no time flat, your own Google homepage. You can send to this page, for your easy access, your GMail account, your Calendar and your favorite blog feeds. iGoogle is a great way (and an alternative to another Google product, the Google Reader) to organize your favorite blawgs, and to read new posts on your time, and at your leisure.
Google Maps. Google Maps is the website for accessing driving directions. Never visited a certain Registry of Deeds and need to find the quickest route from your office? All you need is a beginning and ending address to check Google Maps. It also works great on the run as an iPhone or as a Blackberry app. Never be lost . . . or be lost less.
GOOG-411. Don’t waste money dialing 411 anymore. Instead, dial GOOG-411. Google’s by-phone information service is free, and saves the nickel-and-diming expense of calling traditional 411. Google’s system is “manned” entirely by automated operators; and, if the automated operators just can’t make out what you’re saying (it’s only happened to me once, in a crowded and loud restaurant), you can still call the old school 411, and you’re still saving, based on all those other calls to GOOG-411 that are picked up.
Google Groups. Google Groups allow you to create private or open access points for sharing ideas and information, and for generating discussion. You can modify your page, add pages, tweak the settings and invite or add new group members. Document upload is also available.
Blogger. Blogger is Google’s free blogging platform; and, it’s what you’re using to read this very blog.
YouTube. Lest ye forget, Google owns YouTube, as well. YouTube is where I get most of my sweet music links. But, it’s also a great marketing opportunity for savvy attorneys who are seeking a direct client impression. Check out what Massachusetts attorney Gabriel Cheong does with YouTube: InfinityLawTV.
Postini. Google even offers web and email security through its paid service, Postini. Postini offers hosted security and archiving services for business. Like YouTube, this is another Google product purchase, that has made some company founder ridiculously, fabulously wealthy.
Google Earth. Download Google Earth for a free trip to anywhere on the globe. It’ll be the cheapest vacation you ever take. And, if you’re ever looking for lost relatives from Atlantis, Google Earth is available with Google Ocean. Don’t forget, either, about Google’s space options . . . if you wish to boldy go . . .
The Google universe is vast, and, apparently, ever-expanding. So, if anyone wishes to add any nifty Google tools I have left out (perhaps on purpose . . . perhaps), please feel free to use the comment space. You may also feel free to add, through the comments, some other good and useful, free or cheap online tools.
As Boston’s endlessly entertaining Mayor Menino famously (well, in a provincial sort of way) said, in paraphrasing Winston Churchill, “Give us the tools, and we will do the job.” Well, Google is your whole dang toolbox.
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Saturday, May 30, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Rosier Outlook: Microsoft Outlook Email Tricks and Treats
If you’re using Microsoft Office Outlook for your email, it’s a virtual certainty that you’re not using all of the robust features offered through the product. Of course, it’s also a virtual certainty that you will never have enough time to learn of all of those robust features anyway, even if you took two lifetimes. However, if you’re using Outlook only to send and receive email, there are some easy-to-use additional features that you can apply to your use of the program in order to increase your efficiency and in order to control your email flood. (If you have a deep interest in learning about email archiving and more about email control tips, I will be speaking on these matters at a June 1 Worcester County Bar Association program. The program will also feature Alan Klevan and Rodney Dowell on PDF, and Channing Migner and James Gavin Reardon, Jr. on Google collaboration/cloud computing. To register, contact the Worcester County Bar Association.) Some of these quick fixes involve creating email signatures, sending emails directly to designated spaces outside of your inbox and setting and resetting your junk email folder options.
You can learn about these features, and many others, at the clearinghouse for all things Microsoft Office (including Microsoft Outlook), the Microsoft Office Online homepage. From the homepage, you can search for specific topics, wend your way through how-to presentations and find particular product pages. Use your product homepage to maneuver through the learning options for your version of Outlook. Favorite your product page. Make it a point to learn one more new thing about Outlook every month. You use email everyday, all day long. A minimal time investment in training can produce big net results over time.
There are also a couple of other web hotspots you can check out, too, if you wish to improve your fluency with Outlook. The official Outlook team blog is a great resource, that’ll learn you straight from the horse’s mouth. Adriana Linares frequently presents Outlook tips (in a winning style, by the way) at her blog, I Heart Tech.
And, when you learn to embrace Outlook, you’ll heart tech, too.
You can learn about these features, and many others, at the clearinghouse for all things Microsoft Office (including Microsoft Outlook), the Microsoft Office Online homepage. From the homepage, you can search for specific topics, wend your way through how-to presentations and find particular product pages. Use your product homepage to maneuver through the learning options for your version of Outlook. Favorite your product page. Make it a point to learn one more new thing about Outlook every month. You use email everyday, all day long. A minimal time investment in training can produce big net results over time.
There are also a couple of other web hotspots you can check out, too, if you wish to improve your fluency with Outlook. The official Outlook team blog is a great resource, that’ll learn you straight from the horse’s mouth. Adriana Linares frequently presents Outlook tips (in a winning style, by the way) at her blog, I Heart Tech.
And, when you learn to embrace Outlook, you’ll heart tech, too.
Love in an Elevator: Convey Your Zeal, Competence and Confidence in Sixty Seconds or Less
Marketing is a difficult thing for attorneys. As we have implicitly covered in the annals of this blog, over its brief history of time, lawyers are taught only the theories of law in the halls, and mostly classrooms, of their law schools. Practice management is an art that lawyers develop their callused hands at after hard-won experience earned. And, if practice management is a topic that is left outside of the traditional stream of the legal education, the question of marketing a law firm is caste further off. Being released into the light of day, following three or four years of doctoral schooling, the law graduate is left with a significant amount of basic legal theory swimming around in his head, and the clouded perception that perhaps his law office will run itself, like something out of the Jetsons, which impression is yoked to the vague notion that perhaps otherwise unwitting clients will just wander into his office, having no other particular place to go, having heard that he had finally graduated from law school, and that he was open for business. After a short space of time, of course, illusion gives way to reality, and it becomes clear that a business plan is necessity; and, beyond that, that it’s a near certainty that a marketing plan, attached to that business plan, is a requirement for garnering the client referrals and clients you’ll need to earn the money to support your practice, and yourself. Of course, unwrapping a marketing plan, and determining what to include in said marketing plan, can be a groping forward in the dark toward a light, especially for attorneys schooled in discernable theory. And, once you settle upon what your marketing efforts will be, it feels an awful lot like you are dropping seeds into a deep, dark well: if they bloom, you shall never know how or why. How do you determine your return on investment? How do you know what is working and what is not working?
Here at LOMAP, our recent client discussions have been dominated by questions respecting the marketing of a practice; and, so, we have come here to help, in this specific regard. We have recently founded a marketing group, as an experimental endeavor. We are hopeful that it will take root as a permanent marketing and networking group, upheld by the group’s original members, and fed by future marketing group session members. If you have any interest in participating in future marketing groups session, or in joining the continuing marketing and networking group that we are hopeful will result from these first sessions, please feel free to email me at jared@masslomap.org for more information. In the meantime, this will be the first post in a series of posts on marketing, that are getting set to appear here at the LOMAP blog. We will be covering a new marketing-related topic every two weeks for the next three months, for your reading pleasure. Couple that with our previous marketing posts (on business cards; Twitter; client service opportunities; and, classic retainers) and you’re looking at a pretty nifty marketing crash course . . . nay, corpus . . . nay, curriculum (too strong?), by the end of the summer. Come read us; we shall show ye the light.
Naturally, the discussion covered in these marketing blog posts will track the course of conversations within the inaugural LOMAP Marketing Group. (Less thinking for me.) Our topic this past week was “Elevator Speeches”. Thus, our first blog posting will be all about elevator speeches.
Everyone knows what an elevator speech is. Everyone knows that the definition of an elevator speech is that it is a short pitch for the promotion of your business. Everyone understands the derivation of the term, that the delivery is one that might take place in an elevator, where you are traveling up a few short flights, with only precious time on your hands to convince a potential client or referral source to use or to recommend your services, before he gets off at his floor. Everyone knows that they should have an elevator speech. Not everyone knows how an elevator speech should be constructed, or delivered. Although an elevator speech should be unique to the deliverer, unique to the deliverer’s services and unique to the situation in which it is delivered, several general pointers can be derived.
Don’t be surprised if the creation and delivery of an elevator speech may not come easy to you. Although, as an attorney, you may feel as though you should be uniquely trained in drafting and advocacy, and you should be, that might not necessarily translate to the creation of a solid elevator speech, at least, not right away. There are some factors that you may not appreciate until you begin. For one, some attorneys are shy; yes, it’s true. For another, there is a disconnect between the technique of the law and the sale of a law practice. By that I mean that attorneys spend so much time working, and solely focused on their craft, that it is difficult to disconnect from the day’s mentality; but, you can’t present at a cocktail party by walking somebody through your steps for drafting an easement. They’ll be asleep in the cheese dip. There is also the fact that attorneys, generally, love to hear themselves talk. But, the proper delivery of an elevator speech contemplates the b side, and becomes the invitation to a conversation, such that you must recognize when it’s time to shut up, and to engage your subject. Ease of conversation comes naturally to some, but not to everyone.
The mortar for your elevator speech is your uniqueness. And, there are two forms of uniqueness that I am referencing here; those are: specialty in practice and specialty in person. Let’s take specialty of practice first. (What’s that you say? You don’t have a specialty? Get one, or get a few, areas of practice concentration. It’s 2009. In practice, specializing reduces errors and decreases exposure. Attempting to cover a multitude of practice areas in a world as administratively complex as ours leaves sprung many traps for your tripping. Better to select specific practice areas for which you have an affinity. Send off the rest, and take the referral fees. You’ll likely find that you’re wasting less time researching, that you are better at what you do and that you get more clients.) In a difficult economy, you must establish your niche, and present your specialty. You must show why it is that your services are better than another attorney’s. And that’s true whether you are seeking to gain clients directly, or to gain clients through attorney referrals. If your elevator speech tends to a run-on sentence describing your various practice areas, it’s not going to be memorable, or effective. Another attorney is not going to make a referral by saying, “Oh, you want a divorce? Well, you should go see Simon Simple. He does a bunch of stuff, one of which I’m sure is divorce. He’s all over the place.” No, he is going to say, “Oh, you want a divorce? Go see Cathy Competent. She specializes in divorce, has a flat fee option and offers mediation services, if you want to explore that route. And, you can find her across the internet: she blogs about this stuff all the time. She really knows her stuff.” Communicate your practice area, and attach to the conversation the unique services that you offer, that separate you from your competition. Remember, you are fighting to become top of mind within a specific sliver of consciousness. You have to pop.
The second area of uniqueness is your specialty in person. In point of fact, you are not going to get referrals from people who don’t like you. Folks just aren’t that equitable; you’re never judged solely on your skill set. You can’t come across stiff, and standoffish, like the third generation car dealer take on a local television advertisement. You have to be engaging, and, dare I say, even charming. You’ve got to have a hook. You have to be able to draw out a conversation and to have the confidence to meander along where it goes, even if it means retreating from your script some. In the end, it might not be anything that you say about your practice that gets you the client, or the client referral. It may be that your third cousin twice removed got a wart removed by your conversation subject’s wart doctor. You just never know. You should make it a point to be unafraid to reveal more of yourself than just what you do for work. You never know what connections you will share with another person until you bait your hook and cast it. Talking about things separate from work will also allow your conversation to flow more easily, more naturally. It will ease the tension of the underlying push for a business arrangement, and will likely disarm your subject enough to cause him to let his guard down. Presenting your personal uniqueness is a factor of perspective: being an attorney is what you do, it is not who are you. If you really know who it is that you are, you can talk about that person pretty fluidly.
Remember that your elevator speech is not a direct sales pitch. It is not your object to come off as smarmy, to the point that your hearer wishes to shower after speaking with you. Overt bragging just makes you look bad. Plus, nobody wants to hear it. The translation to “blah blah blah” is not what you want. And, although there are some folks out there who have no problem promoting their vast accomplishments, there are far more people who do not wish to brag in the least, and, in fact, do not want to talk about themselves at all. There is an easy fix for both personality varietal: sell your service, not yourself. Don’t talk about what you’ve done; talk about what you can do for your clients. That’s what they want to hear anyway.
Larry Bird was the greatest NBA player ever. (That’s right, I said it. Do yourself a favor, and watch this video from 5:12 on.) Nevertheless, he practiced constantly, obsessively. He always tried his hardest, but it was never hard enough. No matter how solid you think your elevator speech is, you can get it down better. You’ll play like you practice. Write your elevator speech down. Rewrite it. Remove unnecessary words and excess legal jargon. Trim awkward constructions. Take the time to create different versions of your speech for different audiences, and for different situations. You always want to tailor your speech to your audience, as what you are interested in, especially with an elevator speech, is telling them what it is that you can do uniquely for them that no one else can quite do. Remember as well that your written elevator speech should be a living document, one that you change and update over time, from time to time, so that the presentation you are making at any given time is the most relevant presentation that you can possibly make.
Beyond the crafting of your talk, there are certain communication techniques that you must be aware of when relaying your elevator speech. First and foremost, check arrogance at the door. Attorneys can be haughty. Don’t be one of those attorneys. Don’t treat anyone as if they are dumb. Value everyone you speak to. This is the one strain of commonality throughout the course of human history, religion and philosophy: from Christ to Kant. As we’ve covered earlier, when appropriate, ask questions, engage your listener, move your (sing.) speech to your (pl.) conversation. Make consistent eye contact. Smile. Don’t rush your speaking; maintain a cadence. Make sure you are as fluid as possible. And, watch your non-verbals, the ums, the ahs, the uhs. Eliminate those. You want your speech to appear as effortless, as if you are just chatting with a friend. It is all about creating an ease of atmosphere.
And, don’t just walk away when it’s all over. Instead, end on an “action item”. Give a business card. Better yet, get a business card. Make a separate contact, someone your engaged subject knows. Set a lunch appointment with this person you’ve been speaking to. And, when you get back to the office, send an email out, saying how nice it was to speak to you. Have something to hang your hat on. Then you can go meet somebody else.
. . .
Aside from this extremely well-written blog post, there are some other good resources out there that discuss elevator speeches for attorneys, most of which I have read or watched in deriving good information for the writing of this post: Dan Pinnington’s 2006 article in the ABA’s Law Practice Today has a great section on elevator speeches. Staying with the ABA, here’s a thread from the SoloSez archive covering thoughts on elevator speeches. This is an interesting article from Italy on the “espresso pitch”. Tom Kane’s Legal Marketing Blog has posted on elevator speeches on two occasions: one, and two. And, here is a clip from Kevin Houchin about attorney elevator speeches, and a main consideration.
. . .
So, I suppose I owe an elevator speech now. Well, okay.
“Hi, I'm Lyle Lovett. You may know me as Julia Roberts' ex-husband. And, I think I’ve appeared on the Simpsons. Some people say I look like Abraham Lincoln, if Abraham Lincoln had been beaten about the head and face with a shovel. But, that's certainly not charitable. And, I’m richer than all those people. What is charitable is the gift of music that I have contributed to the popular culture. I've been pigeonholed as a country artist, but my range is wide, and my depth is, well, deep, as exhibited by the following samples: bluegrass, gospel, prog pop. I'm the man. What do you do?”
Here at LOMAP, our recent client discussions have been dominated by questions respecting the marketing of a practice; and, so, we have come here to help, in this specific regard. We have recently founded a marketing group, as an experimental endeavor. We are hopeful that it will take root as a permanent marketing and networking group, upheld by the group’s original members, and fed by future marketing group session members. If you have any interest in participating in future marketing groups session, or in joining the continuing marketing and networking group that we are hopeful will result from these first sessions, please feel free to email me at jared@masslomap.org for more information. In the meantime, this will be the first post in a series of posts on marketing, that are getting set to appear here at the LOMAP blog. We will be covering a new marketing-related topic every two weeks for the next three months, for your reading pleasure. Couple that with our previous marketing posts (on business cards; Twitter; client service opportunities; and, classic retainers) and you’re looking at a pretty nifty marketing crash course . . . nay, corpus . . . nay, curriculum (too strong?), by the end of the summer. Come read us; we shall show ye the light.
Naturally, the discussion covered in these marketing blog posts will track the course of conversations within the inaugural LOMAP Marketing Group. (Less thinking for me.) Our topic this past week was “Elevator Speeches”. Thus, our first blog posting will be all about elevator speeches.
Everyone knows what an elevator speech is. Everyone knows that the definition of an elevator speech is that it is a short pitch for the promotion of your business. Everyone understands the derivation of the term, that the delivery is one that might take place in an elevator, where you are traveling up a few short flights, with only precious time on your hands to convince a potential client or referral source to use or to recommend your services, before he gets off at his floor. Everyone knows that they should have an elevator speech. Not everyone knows how an elevator speech should be constructed, or delivered. Although an elevator speech should be unique to the deliverer, unique to the deliverer’s services and unique to the situation in which it is delivered, several general pointers can be derived.
Don’t be surprised if the creation and delivery of an elevator speech may not come easy to you. Although, as an attorney, you may feel as though you should be uniquely trained in drafting and advocacy, and you should be, that might not necessarily translate to the creation of a solid elevator speech, at least, not right away. There are some factors that you may not appreciate until you begin. For one, some attorneys are shy; yes, it’s true. For another, there is a disconnect between the technique of the law and the sale of a law practice. By that I mean that attorneys spend so much time working, and solely focused on their craft, that it is difficult to disconnect from the day’s mentality; but, you can’t present at a cocktail party by walking somebody through your steps for drafting an easement. They’ll be asleep in the cheese dip. There is also the fact that attorneys, generally, love to hear themselves talk. But, the proper delivery of an elevator speech contemplates the b side, and becomes the invitation to a conversation, such that you must recognize when it’s time to shut up, and to engage your subject. Ease of conversation comes naturally to some, but not to everyone.
The mortar for your elevator speech is your uniqueness. And, there are two forms of uniqueness that I am referencing here; those are: specialty in practice and specialty in person. Let’s take specialty of practice first. (What’s that you say? You don’t have a specialty? Get one, or get a few, areas of practice concentration. It’s 2009. In practice, specializing reduces errors and decreases exposure. Attempting to cover a multitude of practice areas in a world as administratively complex as ours leaves sprung many traps for your tripping. Better to select specific practice areas for which you have an affinity. Send off the rest, and take the referral fees. You’ll likely find that you’re wasting less time researching, that you are better at what you do and that you get more clients.) In a difficult economy, you must establish your niche, and present your specialty. You must show why it is that your services are better than another attorney’s. And that’s true whether you are seeking to gain clients directly, or to gain clients through attorney referrals. If your elevator speech tends to a run-on sentence describing your various practice areas, it’s not going to be memorable, or effective. Another attorney is not going to make a referral by saying, “Oh, you want a divorce? Well, you should go see Simon Simple. He does a bunch of stuff, one of which I’m sure is divorce. He’s all over the place.” No, he is going to say, “Oh, you want a divorce? Go see Cathy Competent. She specializes in divorce, has a flat fee option and offers mediation services, if you want to explore that route. And, you can find her across the internet: she blogs about this stuff all the time. She really knows her stuff.” Communicate your practice area, and attach to the conversation the unique services that you offer, that separate you from your competition. Remember, you are fighting to become top of mind within a specific sliver of consciousness. You have to pop.
The second area of uniqueness is your specialty in person. In point of fact, you are not going to get referrals from people who don’t like you. Folks just aren’t that equitable; you’re never judged solely on your skill set. You can’t come across stiff, and standoffish, like the third generation car dealer take on a local television advertisement. You have to be engaging, and, dare I say, even charming. You’ve got to have a hook. You have to be able to draw out a conversation and to have the confidence to meander along where it goes, even if it means retreating from your script some. In the end, it might not be anything that you say about your practice that gets you the client, or the client referral. It may be that your third cousin twice removed got a wart removed by your conversation subject’s wart doctor. You just never know. You should make it a point to be unafraid to reveal more of yourself than just what you do for work. You never know what connections you will share with another person until you bait your hook and cast it. Talking about things separate from work will also allow your conversation to flow more easily, more naturally. It will ease the tension of the underlying push for a business arrangement, and will likely disarm your subject enough to cause him to let his guard down. Presenting your personal uniqueness is a factor of perspective: being an attorney is what you do, it is not who are you. If you really know who it is that you are, you can talk about that person pretty fluidly.
Remember that your elevator speech is not a direct sales pitch. It is not your object to come off as smarmy, to the point that your hearer wishes to shower after speaking with you. Overt bragging just makes you look bad. Plus, nobody wants to hear it. The translation to “blah blah blah” is not what you want. And, although there are some folks out there who have no problem promoting their vast accomplishments, there are far more people who do not wish to brag in the least, and, in fact, do not want to talk about themselves at all. There is an easy fix for both personality varietal: sell your service, not yourself. Don’t talk about what you’ve done; talk about what you can do for your clients. That’s what they want to hear anyway.
Larry Bird was the greatest NBA player ever. (That’s right, I said it. Do yourself a favor, and watch this video from 5:12 on.) Nevertheless, he practiced constantly, obsessively. He always tried his hardest, but it was never hard enough. No matter how solid you think your elevator speech is, you can get it down better. You’ll play like you practice. Write your elevator speech down. Rewrite it. Remove unnecessary words and excess legal jargon. Trim awkward constructions. Take the time to create different versions of your speech for different audiences, and for different situations. You always want to tailor your speech to your audience, as what you are interested in, especially with an elevator speech, is telling them what it is that you can do uniquely for them that no one else can quite do. Remember as well that your written elevator speech should be a living document, one that you change and update over time, from time to time, so that the presentation you are making at any given time is the most relevant presentation that you can possibly make.
Beyond the crafting of your talk, there are certain communication techniques that you must be aware of when relaying your elevator speech. First and foremost, check arrogance at the door. Attorneys can be haughty. Don’t be one of those attorneys. Don’t treat anyone as if they are dumb. Value everyone you speak to. This is the one strain of commonality throughout the course of human history, religion and philosophy: from Christ to Kant. As we’ve covered earlier, when appropriate, ask questions, engage your listener, move your (sing.) speech to your (pl.) conversation. Make consistent eye contact. Smile. Don’t rush your speaking; maintain a cadence. Make sure you are as fluid as possible. And, watch your non-verbals, the ums, the ahs, the uhs. Eliminate those. You want your speech to appear as effortless, as if you are just chatting with a friend. It is all about creating an ease of atmosphere.
And, don’t just walk away when it’s all over. Instead, end on an “action item”. Give a business card. Better yet, get a business card. Make a separate contact, someone your engaged subject knows. Set a lunch appointment with this person you’ve been speaking to. And, when you get back to the office, send an email out, saying how nice it was to speak to you. Have something to hang your hat on. Then you can go meet somebody else.
. . .
Aside from this extremely well-written blog post, there are some other good resources out there that discuss elevator speeches for attorneys, most of which I have read or watched in deriving good information for the writing of this post: Dan Pinnington’s 2006 article in the ABA’s Law Practice Today has a great section on elevator speeches. Staying with the ABA, here’s a thread from the SoloSez archive covering thoughts on elevator speeches. This is an interesting article from Italy on the “espresso pitch”. Tom Kane’s Legal Marketing Blog has posted on elevator speeches on two occasions: one, and two. And, here is a clip from Kevin Houchin about attorney elevator speeches, and a main consideration.
. . .
So, I suppose I owe an elevator speech now. Well, okay.
“Hi, I'm Lyle Lovett. You may know me as Julia Roberts' ex-husband. And, I think I’ve appeared on the Simpsons. Some people say I look like Abraham Lincoln, if Abraham Lincoln had been beaten about the head and face with a shovel. But, that's certainly not charitable. And, I’m richer than all those people. What is charitable is the gift of music that I have contributed to the popular culture. I've been pigeonholed as a country artist, but my range is wide, and my depth is, well, deep, as exhibited by the following samples: bluegrass, gospel, prog pop. I'm the man. What do you do?”
Friday, May 8, 2009
Rapping Paper: Whithering Paper Files Under the New Massachusetts Data Protection Scheme
There has been some, but perhaps not enough, recent consternation and handwringing over the Massachusetts Data Protection Act, passed in 2007, and set to become effectual, after a few false starts, on January 1, 2010.
Happy New Year.
The Act spawning, among other things, the Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93H, 201 Code of Massachusetts Regulations 17 and guidance pieces issued and other public information made available from the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation has created the coming Massachusetts date protection regime. We have covered the new regime, and the importance of your compliance, here previously at the LOMAP blog, specifically here, here and here. Underscoring these posts is the fact that you must be paying attention: the data breach law applies to all business, including law firms. Not only does the law affect Massachusetts businesses, it affects out-of-state businesses, when the record data of Massachusetts residents is breached. (What I am implicitly peddling: Don’t be boo-hooing, comply now!) There are other aspects of the statutes, regulations and guidance that are clearer; but, there are also those parts that are not so clear. There are some difficulties in reading here, the tea leaves; in particular: the statute suffers from a lack of definition (important terms, including “maintain”, “store”, “own” and “license” go undefined) and we are talking about a statute attempting to govern the uses of technology, which statute has been written by a bunch of lawyers, known technophobes. All this means that we can only make our best guesses as to what the darker portions of the law means, until the courts further define the rules. And, the trick will be to make your best efforts at compliance, in the hope that you may avoid breach, and not be one of those sacrificial lambs drug before the court to answer for the breach in the search for definition. Keep in mind that those violating the statute will likely be treated better if they have made reasonable attempts to comply, as against those who have made no, or unreasonable, attempts.
This is not to say that I don’t think the statute is a good thing. It is certainly important to protect the privacy of residents’ information, and to have the government standing guard to make certain that residents’ expectations for privacy of their sensitive data are reasonable. However, no legislation is perfect, and loopholes crawl over the best of intentions. So, in due course, we will analyze the thornier parts of the rules from time to time here at the Blog. You’ll not, then, find a general primer of the new regime now. If you’re looking for that, hit the MBA’s “Latest in the Law” Conference on May 13, 2009, and watch Alan Klevan, Mark Kupsc and I present on the topic.
In the meantime, you’re stuck with more focused analysis, stemming from my appearance on Wednesday night at a meeting of Leanna Hamill and Alexis Levitt’s Women Attorneys Network of the South Shore (WANSS). (PLUG: WANSS, in addition to having a cool-sounding acronym, is also a great (and very active) networking group for women attorneys on the South Shore; plus, they get Whole Foods for their meetings, which is pretty baller.) So, at the May 6 WANSS meeting, I was inundated (well, not really, but it sounds better for dramatic effect) with questions on what the new data privacy regime means for paper files. I must admit that I was sort of taken aback, because nearly the entirety of the statute deals with electronic matter and the protection of electronic data; and, this is all anybody seems to talk about it. So, I went home, and I puzzled and puzzled ‘til my puzzler was sore, and I looked at the statutes, regulations and guidance. And then I looked at them again. And, come to find out, there are few, yet still some, directives respecting what to do with paper files when the new regime becomes effective and enforceable on January 1, 2010.
With respect to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93H, the Section 1 definition of “data”, as in that data that would include personal information to be protected, is broader than perhaps expected, and goes beyond applicability to solely electronic matter, in providing that “data” is “any material upon which written, drawn, spoken, visual, or electromagnetic information or images are recorded or preserved, regardless of physical form or characteristics”. That definition is pretty darn broad, and would certainly include paper files. But, this definition, and following references to data, are the only places within that statute that paper files could be said to be implicated. Still, any references to paper files, in both the statute and the code, must not be far-reaching, given the focus of the laws. For example, provisions for wireless transmission of documents and documents accessed on PDAs necessarily refer to electronic matter. (Interestingly, the CMRs switch things up a bit. The same definition there does not apply to “data”, but to a “record”, or to “records”, instead; the effect of such a switching may be a topic for another day.)
The CMRs implicate paper files in a few different ways; and, the regulations provide some more explicit guidance, buttressing and expanding upon the statutory language, as CMRs should do. In section 17.03, the regulations indicate that a Written Information Security Program (WISP) should include physical safeguards for the protection of personal information. This is aimed, partly, after getting businesses to establish protocols for the safeguarding of paper files, as is more explicitly laid out later in 17.03, where the regulations indicate that businesses should (unless the business treats all records as containing personal information) identify all records (and recordholding media), including paper files, that are used to store personal information. The meat of the Section 17.03 requirements for paper files appears when reference is made to the requirement to place “reasonable restrictions upon physical access to records” (which reasonable restrictions should develop into a written procedure appearing in the company WISP). Storage of records, the section summarizes, should limit physical access, and paper files should kept in “locked facilities, storage areas or containers”.
The OCABR, in addition to the CMR, contributes a Compliance Checklist, which checklist is, in essence, a series of questions, aimed after a determination of how well you are complying with the personal information protection regime. Although this guidance does not have the force of law or regulation, it is valuable for assisting businesspersons in determining how to treat paper files, mostly because here is where you will the most blatant references to paper files. As I intimate, several of the checklist questions reference what to do about paper files. In summary, here is what you need to know that they are getting after (and all of the checklist questions are based on the law and regulations): Make sure you identify which paper files contain personal information to be protected, or treat all paper files as containing personal information to be protected. Make sure you determine reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to paper files. Make sure that physical safeguards are in place respecting access to paper files containing personal information. Make sure those safeguards are recorded in your WISP. Make sure that the implementation of physical safeguards for personal information in paper files includes the storage of those files in locked facilities, storage areas or containers.
Missing from, or undercovered in, a number of discussions I have come across on this topic has been analysis of the companion statute, Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93I, which provides minimum standards for the proper disposal of records containing personal information. This will likely come to be, or should likely be, the largest concern for attorneys with respect to their paper files holding personal information (although the statute refers to destruction of both electronic and paper matter). In addition to providing guidance for the proper destruction of files, the statute also subtly expands the personal information that is subject to the law, adding to the name-plus-one capture of 93H to include name-plus-any biometric indicator, as a fourth protected category. 93I smartly provides two destruction protocols: one for electronic matter and one for paper matter. For paper files, the statute indicates the ways by which destruction is proper: “paper documents containing personal information shall be either redacted, burned, pulverized or shredded so that personal data cannot practicably be read or reconstructed.” Here is some pretty specific guidance, which is helpful; and, this is as it should be, since fees for violations are not more than $100 per data subject affected and up to $50,000 per incident of improper disposal. Coupled with fines of up to $5,000 per incident under 93H, we are not talking chump change here, either. This disposal statute is generally important to law firms disposing of paper files in due course; however, this becomes a larger issue the more files you are destroying, and could potentially affect those firms going paperless, and destroying mass amounts of paper files in the process.
Now that you have been thoroughly frightened, the question becomes: What can you do about it? And, a reading of the analysis above yields some best practice suggestions, as follows:
Treat all of your paper files as if each contains personal information subject to the statute.
(This is the easiest way to comply, and cuts down on the painstaking task of reviewing all of your files to determine which have, and which have not, personal information to be protected.)
Keep your paper files in file cabinets that are locked when not in use. Restrict access to those files only to those persons who have a compelling business interest for using those files.
(Although the regulations here are quite vague, and could be read to mean that it would be alright if you segregated your files by putting them in a plastic bag in the middle of your waiting room, best to segregate in a way that will actually help you stay out of trouble. Comply to the fullest extent possible.)
Dispose of paper files in accordance with the mandates of 93I.
And, as always, should you have any questions remaining respecting the new Massachusetts data protection regime, please do not hesitate to contact us here at LOMAP.
Happy New Year.
The Act spawning, among other things, the Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93H, 201 Code of Massachusetts Regulations 17 and guidance pieces issued and other public information made available from the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation has created the coming Massachusetts date protection regime. We have covered the new regime, and the importance of your compliance, here previously at the LOMAP blog, specifically here, here and here. Underscoring these posts is the fact that you must be paying attention: the data breach law applies to all business, including law firms. Not only does the law affect Massachusetts businesses, it affects out-of-state businesses, when the record data of Massachusetts residents is breached. (What I am implicitly peddling: Don’t be boo-hooing, comply now!) There are other aspects of the statutes, regulations and guidance that are clearer; but, there are also those parts that are not so clear. There are some difficulties in reading here, the tea leaves; in particular: the statute suffers from a lack of definition (important terms, including “maintain”, “store”, “own” and “license” go undefined) and we are talking about a statute attempting to govern the uses of technology, which statute has been written by a bunch of lawyers, known technophobes. All this means that we can only make our best guesses as to what the darker portions of the law means, until the courts further define the rules. And, the trick will be to make your best efforts at compliance, in the hope that you may avoid breach, and not be one of those sacrificial lambs drug before the court to answer for the breach in the search for definition. Keep in mind that those violating the statute will likely be treated better if they have made reasonable attempts to comply, as against those who have made no, or unreasonable, attempts.
This is not to say that I don’t think the statute is a good thing. It is certainly important to protect the privacy of residents’ information, and to have the government standing guard to make certain that residents’ expectations for privacy of their sensitive data are reasonable. However, no legislation is perfect, and loopholes crawl over the best of intentions. So, in due course, we will analyze the thornier parts of the rules from time to time here at the Blog. You’ll not, then, find a general primer of the new regime now. If you’re looking for that, hit the MBA’s “Latest in the Law” Conference on May 13, 2009, and watch Alan Klevan, Mark Kupsc and I present on the topic.
In the meantime, you’re stuck with more focused analysis, stemming from my appearance on Wednesday night at a meeting of Leanna Hamill and Alexis Levitt’s Women Attorneys Network of the South Shore (WANSS). (PLUG: WANSS, in addition to having a cool-sounding acronym, is also a great (and very active) networking group for women attorneys on the South Shore; plus, they get Whole Foods for their meetings, which is pretty baller.) So, at the May 6 WANSS meeting, I was inundated (well, not really, but it sounds better for dramatic effect) with questions on what the new data privacy regime means for paper files. I must admit that I was sort of taken aback, because nearly the entirety of the statute deals with electronic matter and the protection of electronic data; and, this is all anybody seems to talk about it. So, I went home, and I puzzled and puzzled ‘til my puzzler was sore, and I looked at the statutes, regulations and guidance. And then I looked at them again. And, come to find out, there are few, yet still some, directives respecting what to do with paper files when the new regime becomes effective and enforceable on January 1, 2010.
With respect to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93H, the Section 1 definition of “data”, as in that data that would include personal information to be protected, is broader than perhaps expected, and goes beyond applicability to solely electronic matter, in providing that “data” is “any material upon which written, drawn, spoken, visual, or electromagnetic information or images are recorded or preserved, regardless of physical form or characteristics”. That definition is pretty darn broad, and would certainly include paper files. But, this definition, and following references to data, are the only places within that statute that paper files could be said to be implicated. Still, any references to paper files, in both the statute and the code, must not be far-reaching, given the focus of the laws. For example, provisions for wireless transmission of documents and documents accessed on PDAs necessarily refer to electronic matter. (Interestingly, the CMRs switch things up a bit. The same definition there does not apply to “data”, but to a “record”, or to “records”, instead; the effect of such a switching may be a topic for another day.)
The CMRs implicate paper files in a few different ways; and, the regulations provide some more explicit guidance, buttressing and expanding upon the statutory language, as CMRs should do. In section 17.03, the regulations indicate that a Written Information Security Program (WISP) should include physical safeguards for the protection of personal information. This is aimed, partly, after getting businesses to establish protocols for the safeguarding of paper files, as is more explicitly laid out later in 17.03, where the regulations indicate that businesses should (unless the business treats all records as containing personal information) identify all records (and recordholding media), including paper files, that are used to store personal information. The meat of the Section 17.03 requirements for paper files appears when reference is made to the requirement to place “reasonable restrictions upon physical access to records” (which reasonable restrictions should develop into a written procedure appearing in the company WISP). Storage of records, the section summarizes, should limit physical access, and paper files should kept in “locked facilities, storage areas or containers”.
The OCABR, in addition to the CMR, contributes a Compliance Checklist, which checklist is, in essence, a series of questions, aimed after a determination of how well you are complying with the personal information protection regime. Although this guidance does not have the force of law or regulation, it is valuable for assisting businesspersons in determining how to treat paper files, mostly because here is where you will the most blatant references to paper files. As I intimate, several of the checklist questions reference what to do about paper files. In summary, here is what you need to know that they are getting after (and all of the checklist questions are based on the law and regulations): Make sure you identify which paper files contain personal information to be protected, or treat all paper files as containing personal information to be protected. Make sure you determine reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to paper files. Make sure that physical safeguards are in place respecting access to paper files containing personal information. Make sure those safeguards are recorded in your WISP. Make sure that the implementation of physical safeguards for personal information in paper files includes the storage of those files in locked facilities, storage areas or containers.
Missing from, or undercovered in, a number of discussions I have come across on this topic has been analysis of the companion statute, Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93I, which provides minimum standards for the proper disposal of records containing personal information. This will likely come to be, or should likely be, the largest concern for attorneys with respect to their paper files holding personal information (although the statute refers to destruction of both electronic and paper matter). In addition to providing guidance for the proper destruction of files, the statute also subtly expands the personal information that is subject to the law, adding to the name-plus-one capture of 93H to include name-plus-any biometric indicator, as a fourth protected category. 93I smartly provides two destruction protocols: one for electronic matter and one for paper matter. For paper files, the statute indicates the ways by which destruction is proper: “paper documents containing personal information shall be either redacted, burned, pulverized or shredded so that personal data cannot practicably be read or reconstructed.” Here is some pretty specific guidance, which is helpful; and, this is as it should be, since fees for violations are not more than $100 per data subject affected and up to $50,000 per incident of improper disposal. Coupled with fines of up to $5,000 per incident under 93H, we are not talking chump change here, either. This disposal statute is generally important to law firms disposing of paper files in due course; however, this becomes a larger issue the more files you are destroying, and could potentially affect those firms going paperless, and destroying mass amounts of paper files in the process.
Now that you have been thoroughly frightened, the question becomes: What can you do about it? And, a reading of the analysis above yields some best practice suggestions, as follows:
Treat all of your paper files as if each contains personal information subject to the statute.
(This is the easiest way to comply, and cuts down on the painstaking task of reviewing all of your files to determine which have, and which have not, personal information to be protected.)
Keep your paper files in file cabinets that are locked when not in use. Restrict access to those files only to those persons who have a compelling business interest for using those files.
(Although the regulations here are quite vague, and could be read to mean that it would be alright if you segregated your files by putting them in a plastic bag in the middle of your waiting room, best to segregate in a way that will actually help you stay out of trouble. Comply to the fullest extent possible.)
Dispose of paper files in accordance with the mandates of 93I.
And, as always, should you have any questions remaining respecting the new Massachusetts data protection regime, please do not hesitate to contact us here at LOMAP.
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