I’ll admit – when I first got hold of an iPad it sat in a drawer for months at a time. I just wasn’t that into it.

But then I had a eureka moment: I realized that iPads, and tablets and smartphones for that matter, are cloud terminals. They’re access points.

They’re like those black and green computer terminals that used to connect to mainframes, but with more memory to store things. They’re the plug that goes into the back of your skull in The Matrix. (more…)

January is Get Organized Month, declared by the National Association of Professional Organizers (it used to be only a week, but since it takes so long to get organized they made it a month).

So we productivity junkies here at Legal Productivity are going to ride this month for all it’s worth.  And we’re kicking things off with a quiz. Total your points along the way and see how you rank organizationally!

So you got an iPad, or you’re looking to justify your new purchase. Let’s find out: are you an iPad-savvy legal professional?

We don’t often write about substantive law issues, but when the Supreme Court is about to address something near and dear to us – using technology to improve efficiency – we make an exception.

More often than not, we’re downright giddy when we find ways to use technology to dramatically improve a process (particularly a boring, repetitive, or annoying one)  but we’re all now starting to see applications that do start to cross a line from cool to creepy.

So, while the continuous, rapid evolution of technology makes smiley little Kurweils pop up on our right shoulders, at the same time we get flashbacks of 8th grade English and see a cautious George Orwell ominously spring up on the left.    Consider two very simple, equally plausible scenarios:

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Welcome to the inaugural legal productivity quiz!  So you think you’re a cloud ace, eh? Well…

Our normal Friday segment, the Legal Productivity App of the Week, is on hiatus to celebrate the man who brought us apps in the first place, Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs with an Apple II

I’m a big history nut, especially intellectual history. And like Woody Allen’s nostalgic characters in Midnight in Paris, I tend to romanticize the past and overlook the gritty present.

Steve Jobs, who as we all know stepped down as CEO of Apple Inc., is Hemingway, Picasso, and Edison all wrapped up in one bundle.

I remember learning about inventors when I was growing up (I used to read the World Book for fun, remember those?). So and so was famous for inventing this, another guy renowned for discovering that. Then along comes Thomas Edison, who brought us the phonograph, the lightbulb, the motion picture camera, and quite literally electrifies America. (more…)

The criminal trial of the decade – at least so far – is now over.  When I heard that the jury had reached a verdict so quickly, I knew (well … I was pretty sure …) what was coming.

It seems like a solid majority of the rest of the world wasn’t ready for it. They had formed their own (media-influenced?) opinion, instinct, gut feeling, intuition – call it what you will – and it didn’t match the jury’s verdict.  People were furious, and not just with the defendant – but with the defense lawyers and even the jury.

That is scary.

Verdict aside, there are two things we ought all be able to agree upon:

1.   Jury service is a critically important and honorable duty. Personally, I’ve yet to be selected to serve on a jury, let alone one that required being sequestered for more than a month.  (Last time I was called I got tossed during voir dire.)  One potential good consequence of the trial seems to be an increased interest in jury service. (more…)

"It's better to be a pirate than to join the navy" - Steve Jobs

At Rocket Matter, we have plenty of Apple customers and – in turn – Steve Jobs fans.

When he’s used as an example, the discussion usually revolves around one of his more prominent characteristics.  Genuine passion, great communication and presentation skills, and a willingness to take big risks are almost always part of the conversation.

However, while each of these traits are certainly worth studying – and there’s been a ton of great stuff written about each – there are other less prominent, though equally instructive aspects of his personality that are interesting to examine.

1.  Pursue Interests Outside Your Specialty; Broaden Your Horizons

In talking about Bill Gates, Jobs once famously said:

“I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

The drug reference aside (I’ll assume that was just … the 70s? …), the practical implication is pretty clear.   The broader base of education and life experience you have to draw from, the more potential you have to envision creative solutions. Coding 24/7 in a dark room can help make you a crack developer, just like being able to quote the UCC or Delaware’s General Corporation Law can show you have a certain competence level as a business lawyer – but neither contribute very much to overall professional development. (more…)

Jamming out to your favorite tunes while working out is one thing. It’s normal to see people at the gym with earbuds in, and for us gym rats it’s a key part of exercising.

But jamming out while you’re writing a brief or pouring over a contract?

As it turns out, some music, due to its sturctured or formal nature helps with your ability to concentrate. Some tunes, just by their association, can trigger states of deep thought.

So if you find yourself unable to concentrate in this world of distraction, think about cultivating a playlist you can fire up to put yourself into “thinking mode.”

As Ron Hale-Evans writes in “Mind Performance Hacks“, music has always been used to change people’s moods. And if you pick some music for the specific purpose working in a deep state of concentration, you’ll help condition your response when you listen to it:

Condition yourself to think while this music is playing so that it becomes a kind of musical thinking cap: put it on and you become a thinker for the duration.

Hale-Evans suggests Bach, as well as the ambient music of Brian Eno, specifically “Thinking Music, Part IV“.

Why Eno and ambient music (which isn’t for everyone)?  Put simply, according to Eno, “Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think.”

And you don’t have to make a big investment in a music library to see if certain music will do it for you. If you want to check out what Brian Eno or Tiesto can do for your mind, fire up Pandora and let the Music Genome Project create a radio station for you.

Mixed Media Dress from Jones of New York Collection Line

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area the weather just went from cool and rainy to 86 degrees overnight forcing me to think about my wardrobe. Here are some of my favorite online shopping sites and what styles and fabrics lend themselves to these steamy summer months:

Au Natural

My favorite summer staple is a natural fiber dress (cotton, silk, rayon). I wear it with sandals and a cotton cardigan to the office and keep a pair of shoes and a lightweight blazer in the office to top it off for a last minute court appearance or meeting. Jones of New York has a buy one at full price, get one 50% off as of this writing. This Mixed Media Dress is a nice option. (more…)