New Video CLE from the Legal Tech Institute -- Legal Practice Technology

New Video CLE!

A new on-demand learning opportunity is available from the Harris County Law Library. Legal Practice Technology, presented by Emily W. Lawson (O'Quinn Law Library, University of Houston Law Center), is the latest addition to the Law Library's YouTube channel and Legal Technology Institute On-Demand CLE video collection. 

In this course, learn about trends in law practice technology, as well as techniques for staying up to date with the latest developments in tech. Learn about free and low-cost options, such as legal apps and software, that will assist you with tasks such as marketing, time management, information organization, and research. Information about how to research legal technology options is presented, along with recommendations for additional exploration. 

To access this and other on-demand legal tech courses, simply select the desired course topic, click the Play button, and learn! All LTI on-demand videos are accredited by the State Bar of Texas for a limited time. Watch the video and then report CLE credit at www.texasbar.com using the course number provided in the video.

While visiting the LTI pages on the Law Library's website, take a look at our Course Catalog to register for upcoming in-person learning opportunities, including the popular Hands-on Legal Tech Training courses, which are offered every Thursday afternoon at 2:00 pm in the Law Library's Legal Tech Lab. 

Women of Legal Tech

March is Women's History Month, and the Harris County Law Library is celebrating. All month long, we are paying tribute to a woman of distinction, Camille Elizabeth Stanford Openshaw. View our digital exhibit to learn about the achievements of this remarkable woman. Reflect on Ms. Openshaw's contributions to the field of law and the role she played in paving the way for smart, ambitious women to excel as attorneys nearly 100 years later. Take a moment to consider the tremendous evolution in legal practice over the last century and the role of technology in shaping the profession as we know it today.

Women have continued to make great strides not only in the practice of law but also in developing their knowledge and skills in the area of legal tech. Bob Ambrogi declared 2017 the Year of Women in Legal Tech, and the role of women in the legal tech sector is only continuing to grow.

In an effort to "celebrate the women currently in the legal tech space, and to encourage more women to join the ranks," the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center has recognized "Women of Legal Tech" annually since 2015. The nomination period for this year's honorees just closed on March 1st. The 2018 list of innovative, entrepreneurial, tech-savvy women will be announced later this month. Follow the LTRC on Twitter and Facebook, and the Law Technology Today blog to see the list of 2018 honorees as soon as they are announced.

March Hands-on Legal Tech Training: Find & Format Legal Forms

In fall 2016, Harris County Law Library launched the Legal Tech Institute, an ongoing series of free learning opportunities focused on using technology for more efficient legal work. Now, as we approach the end of February, we're gearing up for the second installment of our latest LTI venture, Hands-on Legal Tech Training. On every Thursday afternoon in February, we offered a session called MS Word for Legal Work. It was a success! And we're excited to move ahead with the next installment of our Hand-on Legal Tech Training series.

Click the image to register. Earn 1 hour of free CLE credit for attending.

On Thursday, March 1st, at 2:00 pm, in the Law Library's Legal Tech Lab, we'll offer a program called Find & Format Legal Forms. Like all Hands-on Legal Tech programs, this course will be divided into three sections, each covering a different skill level. We will "Get Started" by presenting the types of forms available for legal work, along with tips for finding them using the free online resources and databases available in the Law Library. Next, we will "Level Up" by exploring more advanced strategies for navigating O'Connor's, Westlaw, and Lexis Advance to find the best forms for specific legal needs. Finally, we will "Go Pro." We'll address techniques for formatting the forms we find and for creating reusable templates for routine legal work. As always, we will leave time to answer your questions during our Q&A session at the end of the program. 

We hope you will join us at the March Hands-on Legal Tech training session, Find & Format Legal Forms. To register for this event and sign up to receive one hour of free CLE credit for attending the course, please visit the course catalog (or click on the image above) and select the date for the session that works best for you. 

O'Connor's Online Federal Resources

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The Harris County Law Library provides access to an excellent collection of online legal resources, including Westlaw, LexisAdvance, and HeinOnline. These databases, whose subscription fees can be too costly for solo and small firm attorneys to maintain, are available to use completely free of charge in the Law Library.

One of our databases that many attorneys and self-represented litigants are using with increasing frequency is O'Connor's Online. O'Connor's is an established and trusted name in legal publishing, particularly in Texas. The O'Connor's print publications are well-known as go-to resources for expert commentaries, legal forms, and for annotated codes and rules. The O'Connor's Online database provides the same quality of information, covering the same content that's published in the print volumes, all conveniently packaged in a searchable format.

O'Connor's Online is not new to the Law Library, but the addition of federal sources is a recent upgrade. Law Library patrons can now access federal commentaries, forms, statutes, rules, and charts using the multiple search tools built into the database. 

For a broad overview of all the available federal content, explore the master menu: Click on the Pretrial & Trial Procedure entry on the Browse menu. This will provide you with a complete listing (shown in the image above) of all the federal and Texas resources available in each content category. 

For a more specific search, enter keywords to perform a full content search of the entire database. Then, narrow your search results by selecting the appropriate jurisdiction from the Filters menu on the left. As an example, you may search for the keywords employment discrimination and then narrow your search results to federal sources. Filter your results once more to view only forms. One of the results in your list will be a general complaint for an ADA violation, Form 2B:16. O'Connor's Online is a terrific tool for accessing all the content that's familiar to users of the print titles and a user-friendly platform for newcomers.

Final tip: Once you've located the form you wish to use, you will have a few options -- download the form to a USB drive, email the document to yourself as an attachment, print the form at our Copy Center, or open it as an editable Word (or Word Perfect) document. There's no better -- or easier -- way to use the O'Connor's forms! 

If you need assistance using O'Connor's Online, the Law Library staff is always happy to help. Further information about navigating the O'Connor's database is available here:

• Navigating the homepage - video
• Navigating the interactive panels - video
• What kinds of searches can I perform?
• Using the persistent Table of Contents in your research

Tech Tuesday: Library Technology Exhibit

The Harris County Law Library has seen many changes since it opened on October 1, 1915, including many changes in technology. This month's exhibit features several treasures from the past century representing the evolution of technology in the Law Library and in the practice of law. Don't miss the exhibit, which will be located in the library's lobby throughout January.

The electric light bulb was the first technology introduced to the Law Library, followed three decades later by a new development in sound recording technology.

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SoundScriber Dictation Machine purchased for use at the Harris County Law Library in the mid-1940s.

The Soundscriber Dictation Machine, which featured an amplified microphone and soft-vinyl recording discs was introduced in 1945. It allowed attorneys to dictate notes, letters, and other documents while conducting research in the Law Library.

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Westlaw Automated Law Terminal (W.A.L.T.) (c. 1982) - a similar terminal was available in the Harris County Law Library as early as 1985. {photo courtesy of Thomson Reuters}

In the 1980s, electronic legal research made its debut with W.A.L.T. (West Automated Legal Terminal), Harris County Law Library's portal to the Westlaw database. This dedicated computer terminal allowed users to access the Westlaw database over the Internet, but the cost of online legal research was prohibitive for most users. Electronic searching could cost up to $150 per hour, so print materials remained popular.

Demand for print resources guided the Law Library's collection development decisions throughout the 1990s. The library began purchasing books on computers and the law, but developments in tech quickly outpaced their usefulness. Fortunately, Westlaw and Lexis were becoming more accessible and robust. Today, the Law Library relies heavily on electronic resources. With 25 public legal research computers available for patron use, a great variety of digital content is readily available.Computers are Internet-connected, allowing for access to several databases, including Lexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline, O’Connor’s Online, and the State Bar of Texas Practice Manuals. 

The library's presence on social media -- Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram --  has also grown, providing users with up-to-date access to information about Law Library resources, services, and events, including the CLE sessions presented by the Law Library's Legal Tech Institute.

The Legal Tech Institute is an ongoing series of free learning opportunities focused on using technology for more efficient legal work. Since October of 2016, a new learning session has been offered each month with content designed for a diverse audience of legal tech beginners and experts. Microsoft Word for Lawyers, Excel Essentials, and Finding & Formatting Legal Forms are just a few of the courses that LTI has presented so far. Representatives from Westlaw and Lexis have rounded out the schedule with regular Vendor Visits.

LTI continues to grow with an ever-expanding menu of learning opportunities both in person an online. Earn CLE credit and improve your tech proficiency by visiting the LTI webpage where on-demand recordings of previous events are available. Look for even more offerings via our Hands-On Legal Tech Training courses which are scheduled to launch in 2018.