Criminal Defense Law With An Apple

Fellow blogger, mac lawyer’s notebook, has posted a survey from Marketcircle, for attorneys that use or are thinking of using Daylite. I strongly suggest everyone that reads this blog take a little time to respond to this survey (even if you only respond to some of the questions). Let’s show Marketcircle that we are interested in a solution and give them the tools that they need to help design a great program (for attorneys). Although Daylite does not meet my needs, as a criminal defense attorney, I wish that it did. Here’s hoping they implement some custom changes for attorneys.

The Mac Tech blog is providing an exciting new service: live training webinars. The next one is just a few days away. I have not decided whether I am attending but would love to hear from any readers on what they thought of the offering.

Update: From Mac Tech Blog, “Discounts will be offered for those who take advantage and sign-up for multiple webinars ahead of time. So save yourself some $$ and sign up early.I will post sign-up forms for each webinar as they become available along with payment options. All major credit cards and Paypal will be accepted.”

There was plenty of coverage of the big hits at Macworld. Obviously, everyone is excited (or frustrated) with the next generation in laptops. A number of my favorite attorney blogs mentioned the exciting potential of a real dictation software product. For my money, nothing was cooler than the Axiotron notebook.

Thanks for all the readers that made suggestions (both in comments and off-blog) for backing up data. I am experimenting with a couple different solutions. I will provide what solution is working best for me by the end of February.

Also saw a great post on Mac Sparky with his thoughts.

I have had a frustrating week with dotmac and was looking at some solutions for backing up and syncing my data. As any experienced computer user knows, if you lose your data, you lose hours and hours of time, energy and resources. I purchased dotmac for this reason. However, dotmac went from “it sorta works” to “it does some of what it is supposed to do.” Not really a slogan. Before giving up, I am going to see if I get get some help from Apple’s Customer Support.

I have looked into backing up our files with an Amazon S3 Account but would be interested to hear how quickly you can access data. I recently saw this address book solution on the listserve. There are also Web 2.0 solutions available. I am interested in hearing what other users have tried to use for case files, iCal and Address Book backup solutions. Leave your solution in the comments or you can contact me off-blog.

Update: This has been the topic of discussion on one of the list-serves. So far, this and this have been mentioned.

Update: Interesting article here that inspires.

Last day to enjoy the Mac Heist deals. $498 worth of software for just $49. App Zapper and 1password are worth the price of this package.

The list of programs: Snapz Pro X, Pixelmator, CSSEdit, AppZapper, Speed Download, 1password, CoverSutra, Cha-Ching, iStopMotion, Awaken, Tiki Magic Mini Golf, Wingnuts 2, TaskPaper, and the recently added Macworld Expo Best of Show Winner, VectorDesigner.

Go to Mac Heist to learn more.

I had a very difficult time finding an accountant to take over my books. I met with one accountant, who shall remain nameless, that insisted that I would not find an accountant that was willing to work on a Mac. He further added that Quickbooks for Mac was not compatible with PC. Well that compromised his integrity. I knew that files could be transfered from Quickbooks. It didn’t help that this accountant would not return calls and his final solution was to run emulation software and PC Quickbooks (eesh).

Another accountant and I spoke but he was concerned payroll would not cog properly in the Mac version of Quickbooks. This accountant actually put me in touch with a Quickbooks representative that explained that Mac support and the software itself made up for one tenth of one percent of Quickbooks bottom line. Hence, I shouldn’t expect much from using Quickbooks on a Mac. Frankly, the representative was very anti-Apple. I was incredulous.

I must have called 30 accountants and all of them were not interested in taking on a client that used the Mac version of Quickbooks. I found a few accountants that were interested in working with me but had never worked with an attorney before. I was about to give up when I stumbled upon Nelson Accounting Professionals. I had done a dozen google searches using various search terms before I found this accounting firm. They use Macs and they are here in Washington State. They work with clients that use Quickbooks on a Mac and MYOB. Best of all, they had worked with other attorneys and understood trust accounts. After talking with Kelly Nelson, I found out that they help Mac users with accounting from around the country. It has been great working with this firm. If you are looking for a great accountant, contact me off the blog and I will provide you their contact info.

From Kern Lewis:

I am VERY excited to announce that Adobe is sending Rick Borstein to speakon Acrobat for Lawyers to our Using Mac’s in Trial 2 seminar.

Rick authors a great blog on the subject which Bill Holt referred me to.

Check it out at: http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw

See January 14 post for full post on this upcoming event.

The folks from Bento just sent this email. I know some Criminal Defense lawyers are using Bento as a case management system. This may not be informative for those already versed in the product. If you are thinking of using Bento, this might be for you:

Join us for an informative web seminar to learn all about Bento, the new personal database by FileMaker that organizes all your information in one place. Designed specifically for Mac OS X Leopard, Bento helps manage your contacts, coordinate events, track projects, prioritize tasks, and more.

During this hour-long online event, you’ll get answers to questions such as:
What is Bento?
Who should use Bento?
How are people using Bento?
What are the differences between Bento and FileMaker Pro?
Space is limited, so be sure to register today to learn about the all new Bento!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008; 8:00-9:00 a.m. Pacific, 11:00-noon Eastern

Tuesday, January 29, 2008; 11:00-noon Pacific, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern

Where: On your computer over the Internet

HOW TO REGISTER
When you come to the registration page, click the “Enroll” button in the upper left portion of your screen and enter your contact information (Note: Do not click the “log-in” button). After your registration is accepted, you will be sent an email with the necessary event participation information, which will take place over your computer.