New Features on Lexis Advance Coming in January 2017

Today, the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library hosted a training session called Introduction to Lexis Advance. This Vendor Visit provided a nice overview of basic search functions within Lexis Advance and featured many tips and tricks for more effectively locating cases and statutes. The session also offered a preview of upgrades that will be added to the Law Library's Lexis subscription in January. Upgrades include:

• National Primary Plus - National cases, statutes, administrative and agency materials plus all law reviews and journals
• National Briefs, Pleadings, and Motions - includes documents from the most dynamic and high-stakes practice areas of litigation
• National Verdicts and Settlements - including IDEX and American Lawyer Media (ALM) VerdictSearch
• News - robust collection of all LexisNexis news sources 
• Matthew Bender Federal Practice Forms - provides a complete range of litigation forms needed for practice in any federal court from federal district courts through and including the Supreme Court of the United States 
• Lexis for Microsoft Office

The Legal Tech Institute will offer training sessions in the new year to introduce these and other features of Lexis Advance. Check the LTI Course Catalog for details about Vendor Visits and the rest of our legal tech CLE programs. 

Blending Your Legal Research, a Legal Tech InStitute CLE

Join us at noon on Thursday, December 8, 2016 for a one-hour CLE entitled Blending Your Legal Research. This program, the latest course offering of the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library, will emphasize the value of using free online research tools to develop more effective research strategies, especially when combined with Westlaw and Lexis, two of the legal databases offered free of charge to Law Library visitors. This "blending" of legal research tools and strategies will be the focus of the hour, and we're happy to welcome two special guests from the Texas State Law Library to help us demonstrate this approach.  

Librarians from the TxSLL will talk about their Digital Collection, which includes a whole library of eBooks from Lexis. They will demonstrate how to access these resources remotely with a TxSLL library card, which you can register for onsite on the day of the program.

Those who attend in person or who view the live stream of this presentation on the Harris County Law Library's YouTube channel will be eligible for one hour of CLE credit.

To enroll in this course, please visit the LTI website. We hope to see you there!

On Demand Learning at the Legal Tech Institute

With the launch of its On Demand resource page, the Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library is continuing to grow. A collection of educational resources, including recorded CLE presentations and quick-reference screencasts, is available with the click of your mouse. The first LTI CLE, Social Media for Lawyers, was held in late October. If you missed it, please see our On Demand learning library to view the recording. You can then submit the CLE course number to earn one free hour of CLE credit, including .25 ethics credits. Visit the page again to view future recordings of our CLE events, or come see us at the Law Library and attend the programs in person. All are welcome and there is always more content on the way. 

Coding for Lawyers – Novelty or Necessity?

Should lawyers learn to code? Opinions differ widely. Those in favor, including David Colarusso and V. David Zvenyach, say that lawyers and computer programming are a natural fit. Lawyers are sophisticated information managers who acquire, process, organize and deliver content to meet clients' needs. They analyze, solve problems, and reverse engineer complicated issues. Lawyers have the skills and ability to read detailed instruction manuals, and they’re adept at complex file management.  They deal less in abstractions and more in practice, applying the tools at their disposal to the issues they confront. At the same time, lawyers must be systems thinkers who are skilled at conceptual thinking and able to see linkages between components. All are the traits of a good programmer.

However, despite this overlap in skill sets, encouraging overworked attorneys to dedicate the time and energy that a coding boot camp or do-it-yourself course of study requires is no small recommendation. Coding may be a nice skill to possess, like bilingual fluency or a second advanced degree, but it’s not a necessity, say skeptics like Edward Hartman, and unlike language skills or an MBA, computer programming does nothing to improve a lawyer's ability to provide competent representation, or so the argument goes.

Whichever side of the debate you might support, there's no doubt that technology is significantly changing the practice of law. Whether automating routine office tasks or harvesting evidentiary data from large files, technology has a role to play. Lawyers who have a baseline understanding of technical concepts and who understand how their computers operate will be better prepared to troubleshoot problems and to communicate more knowledgeably with IT staff when those troubleshooting efforts fail.

Our nation's legal documents have been described as the operating system of our country. Understanding how the judiciary and the legislative process work is akin to understanding how the Internet works. The better familiarity one has with these critical systems, the more intuitive they become. If building that kind of intuition is something you seek to accomplish, visit the links below. They are all god places to start your journey

Coding for Lawyers

Hello World! Should Attorneys Learn to Code?

Online Forms Meet Local Document Automation (Cut-and-Paste Coding)

Master Microsoft Word at the Harris County Law Library's Legal Tech Institute

The Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library is offering a free CLE program this Thursday, November 17th, at 12:00 pm. Join us as we present Microsoft Word for Lawyers and Other Law Types, and ramp up your productivity in just one hour. Learn time-saving tips for drafting legal documents more efficiently. Automate routine tasks, and eliminate the frustration of using Word in your daily practice. Become a Microsoft Word power user!

This practical, skills-based presentation will be customized for the needs of today's legal professionals and is guaranteed to make your work easier. Please join us!  For details and to register for this course, please visit the Legal Tech Institute Events page.