Learn To Excel at Microsoft Excel

The Harris County Law Library Legal Tech Institute is offering a hands-on CLE learning opportunity this Thursday afternoon at 2:00pm. The course is Excel for Legal Work, and it has quickly become one of the most popular classes we offer, so don’t hesitate to register today while seats are still available.

Why is it important for lawyers and self-represented litigants to learn about Excel? For starters, the potential for embarrassing and costly errors in compiling, manipulating, and presenting data is enormous. Cautionary tales abound about the spreadsheet blunders committed by major business and financial players, including, for example, Lehman Bros., Fannie Mae, and the London Olympics Committee. Simple clerical mistakes or incorrect cut-and-paste actions can have serious consequences, impacting the reputation, credibility, and bottom line of those who commit them.

For lawyers the risk is just as great, and the consequences are equally harmful. By maintaining an awareness of the risks and benefits associated with using technology in the practice of law (See: ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.1, Comment 8 and the Texas Supreme Court Order that added the rule to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct in February 2019) and by developing one’s tech proficiency over time through CLE opportunities like those offered by the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library, solo and small firm practitioners can develop the skills they need to minimize the dangers of tech flubs, while maximizing efficiency and productivity for the benefit of those they serve.

Additional Reading from Ex Libris Juris:

• Microsoft Excel For Lawyers: Potential Pitfalls and the Promises of Proficiency

• How to Master Microsoft Excel

Legal Tech is not optional

Check out the latest on-demand video CLE from the Legal Tech Institute at the Harris County Law Library. Nationally-recognized innovator, Casey Flaherty, Principal at Procertas, LLC, stopped by to talk about the market pressures and ethical duties that make adopting legal tech a priority for all attorneys and allied professionals. Texas attorneys can earn 1.0 hour CLE and 0.5 ethics.

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2019

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies encourages everyone to take “proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity at home and in the workplace.” For lawyers in Texas, who have an ethical duty to keep up with technology, that means learning about the practical aspects of delivering legal services and protecting client data in a digital environment. If that sounds like a daunting task when you’re already practicing law, earning CLE credit to maintain your law license, and running the business side of a law firm, the Legal Tech Institute at the Harris County Law Library is here to help!

Visit our Learn On-Demand page to find free video CLE, including Practical Cybersecurity for Lawyers. Guest speaker Dustin Sachs, Senior Forensics Cybersecurity Consultant, provides an overview of cybersecurity considerations and practical advice for protecting data in law firms of all sizes. The recording is accredited by the State Bar of Texas, so Texas attorneys can earn 1.0 hour of CLE as their schedule allows from anywhere.

Celebrating the 104th Anniversary of the Harris County Law Library

This day, October 1st, marks the 104th Anniversary of the founding of the Harris County Law Library. Every day, we are committed to promoting open and equal access to justice for all, including self-represented litigants and the local legal community.

Since the celebration of our Centennial in 2015, the Law Library has continued grow and evolve. We are especially proud of our expanded digital offerings.

Our Legal Tech Institute (LTI) now provides even greater opportunities for hands-on learning about the effective use of technology in the practice of law. One hour of free CLE instruction is provided every Thursday at 2:00 pm at the Law Library in our Legal Tech Lab. We offer nine classes on rotation, and all are welcome to attend.

Additional learning opportunities are available in our Digital Education Nook or DEN, where library visitors can select from a full menu of videos to watch in a convenient and comfortable setting. There’s something for everyone! Licensed Texas attorneys can earn CLE credit by viewing previously recorded LTI presentations. The general public can get familiar with basic civil procedure and learn about the experience of filing a lawsuit and representing oneself in court.

These are just a few of the resources we offer to our many library visitors. We also provide access to heavily used print resources, including a wide variety of practice guides and form books, as well as an extensive collection of online content. Increasingly, the Law Library has expanded its selection of digital information available through Westlaw and Lexis. We also offer database access to HeinOnline, which includes a comprehensive collection of digitized law reviews and other legal journals. We are especially happy to offer access to the new Lexis eBook Collection, which is available to anyone connected to the Harris County wi-fi network. This Digital Collection contains complete searchable sets of several popular titles, such as the Texas Transaction Guide and the Texas Litigation Guide, along with a wealth of other materials published by Lexis for legal practitioners.

With so much growth in recent years, we are excited to see what the future holds. We are eager to implement a number of new ideas as we begin our next year of service to the Harris County community. As technology and legal technology, in particular, continues to develop and evolve, we will embrace and be responsive to those changes for the legal community and the residents of Harris County.

Three Underutilized Text Editing Features in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a powerful tool with many features that never get fully utilized. The Harris County Law Library Legal Tech Institute offers a class called MS Word for Legal Work as part of our Hands-on Legal Tech Training Series. Please consult our online schedule to register for the next session of this class, which will be presented on Thursday, August 29, at 2:00 pm the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. As a preview of the types of features we demonstrate in the course, read on!

Paste Special

Use the Paste Special feature to Keep Source Formatting, Merge Formatting, or Keep Text Only.

Once you’ve copied a selection of text, you can simply type CTRL+V on you keyboard to paste it into your document. You can also click the Paste button in the Clipboard sub-ribbon, located on the Home tab. However, if your selected text is specially formatted and you wish to either retain that formatting in your pasted text or strip that formatting from your copied text, you can also use the Paste Special feature. This feature gives you the option to either Keep Source Formatting, Merge Formatting, or Keep Text Only.

Format Painter

The Format Painter allows you to easily copy the formatting features of one text selection onto another text selection. For example, the formatting characteristics of a section may display the text as 12 point Times New Roman font with bold, blue, italicized lettering. If you wish to apply these formatting characteristics to another section heading within your document, simply place your cursor in the source text, click on the Format Painter button on the Clipboard sub-ribbon, located on the Home tab. Your cursor will become a small paintbrush which you can them use to “paint” over the destination text, simply by highlighting it. The formatting features of the two section headings will now be identical.

Clear All Formatting

The Clear All Formatting button, which is located on the Font sub-ribbon of the Home tab, acts as a text eraser, so perhaps that same 12 point Times New Roman font with bold, blue, italicized lettering needs to be stripped of all its embellishments. By simply placing your cursor within the text and clicking the Clear All Formatting button, you can return the selected text to its basic, plain, default format. It’s a quick and easy way to restore simplicity to your document and save you the trouble of manually changing each feature individually.