Technology

Using Electronic Mailing Lists to Discuss Legal Technology

By Ross L. Kodner

If your personal quest is tracking down the hottest new laptop information or searching for the latest information on case management systems, you're reading the right article. Need to know how other law firms are addressing the laptop versus desktop personal computer issue for their lawyers? Wondering if the latest crop of voice recognition systems actually works? Anxious to enter the fray on the hottest legal technology wars? Then you need to subscribe to one (or more) of the legal technology Internet email lists, or listserves. (The spelling as "Listserv" without the final "e" is the trademark of L-Soft, a company that makes Listserv software.)

Email lists oriented to legal technology topics are some of the most heavily trafficked, and most useful. Thousands of lawyers, legal technologists, law firm administrators, information system staff, and legal librarians populate these lists. From the perspective of a heavy and regular participant, the net effect is that the "conversation" taking place on legal technology lists comes from a realistic cross-section of every kind of lawyer, practicing in every kind of setting imaginable.

A listserve is the ultimate in online information, delivered to your virtual mailbox. Postings to a list are sent just like email, except they go to every subscriber of the mail list instead of just one recipient, all of whom are put right in the middle of the ongoing discussion. Subscribe to a mailing list on legal technology, for example, and you'll find the latest discussions of email privacy, what's new with Windows NT, which laptops not to buy, and more.

Important Points About Mail Lists

Finding and Signing on to Mail Lists. The best place to find the listserve you are interested in is Lyonette Louis-Jacques' "Law Lists." (I offer some of my other favorites later in this article.) The compendium includes hundreds of law-related mail lists, with full subscription instructions for each list.

For example, for a description of the ABA's "Solosez" listserve, on the Louis-Jacques list you'll find: SOLOSEZ@abanet.org (open forum for lawyers practicing alone or in a small law firm setting, particularly firms with five or fewer lawyers; sponsored by the American Bar Association).

Full subscription information is included. When you subscribe, most lists will send you a return email confirming your subscription. I strongly recommend that you print and save the confirmation because it may contain important information about the list, such as how to post messages, contact the list administrator, unsubscribe to the list, and so on.

Mail List Addresses. Mail lists typically have two addresses: one for posting messages and one for subscribing, unsubscribing, and other housekeeping tasks. Don't confuse the two, or your subscription request will be posted for all to see. Messages sent to the subscribing address go either to the person managing the list or to an automated computer program that responds to commands it receives via email. (This is always made clear in the subscription information.)

How to Post and Reply to a Message. Just address your email message to the posting address provided for your group in the instructions (you did save your subscription confirmation, didn't you?) and send it. Some lists let you reply to messages posted in the list just by hitting your email "return" or "reply" button - your email will be posted to the list itself, not the individual. Check the instructions you received when you subscribed to your list for information specific to it.

Learn the Tone of the Group Before Posting Messages. If you're new to a mailing list, "lurk" (read without responding or initiating a post) for a while before posting to pick up its tenor. Try and learn something before commenting. Similarly, don't clutter up everyone's mailbox with lots of comments such as "thanks" or "I totally agree," which can be sent to specific individuals by private email. This is a sure way to irritate other participants.

Also, conversational threads between you and one other person are better taken to private email. It's the same with situations where you end up involved in a heated argument. And try to remember the list's charter before you post - no one appreciates a participant who tries to hijack an established list to meet his or her own needs.

Mail Volume Can Be Overwhelming. Some lists generate so many messages daily that you hardly can sort out your personal email from the pack. Consider subscribing to only one list until you feel comfortable with the procedure, content, and volume of messages.

Be careful what you subscribe to; you may get far more than you want. Rather than receiving scads of separate messages each day from your mailing list, you can ask to receive them in digest form - a single email containing all that day's or week's messages. Only automated lists can create a digest for you. It's usually as simple as typing "digest" or a similar command into an email and sending it to the list administrator. Check your list's instructions to see exactly how.

Sorting Your Email. Having all your email from individuals and mail lists jumbled together in one "in box" can be confusing. Sophisticated email programs can sort incoming email into topic-specific or source-specific mailboxes. Using a process called "filtering" you can create a mailbox for each mail list. The filter knows to route mail from that particular mail list into the specific mailbox set up to receive those messages. You can retrieve messages when it's convenient for you.

Unsubscribing From a Mail List. Signing off a list is accomplished by sending an email message to the same address you used to subscribe to the list (not the list's posting address). If it's an automated list, follow the instructions you were originally sent, which will likely ask you to type in "signoff" or "unsubscribe," followed by the name of the group and your name, in the body of an email message sent to the list administrator. If a human moderator runs the list, send the same request in a brief note to his or her attention. Consider stopping your email subscriptions for any period when you will not be checking your email, and then resubscribing upon your return. Otherwise you might find several hundred new mail messages waiting for you.

Tips on Netiquette. Get advice from someone who has become known as the "Emily Post" of the Internet, Arlene Rinaldi. Point your Web browser to: http://www.fau.edu/netiquette.

For more on netiquette, see the article written by Corel Legal Web Page columnists Courtney Kennaday, Ross Kodner, and Susan Ross, entitled "A Lesson In Netiquette: Mom Was Right - Manners Are Important - Even for Lawyers!" Here's an example of email list netiquette mentioned in the article:

Case No. 1: Terrorism by Autoresponse. Attorney Simon goes on a three-week vacation. An avid email user, Simon wants to be courteous and let his friends and clients know that he is unavailable and won't respond to his email until he returns. Using his email software, he sets up an automatic response function (autoresponder). With the autoresponder, whenever someone emails him, they get a response that says: "Hi. I'm in Europe for three weeks, but when I get back, I'll respond to all my email in the order it was received."

Unfortunately, Simon, who is subscribed to several legal-specific email discussion lists, forgets to unsubscribe to all the listserves to which he belongs before setting his autoresponder. So, every time he gets a message from a listserve, his autoresponder replies to everyone on the listserve. This causes an endless loop: Simon's email sends an autoresponse to the listserve, which goes out to everyone, including Simon. When Simon receives the email from the listserve, his email autoresponder function kicks in and sends another autoresponse, which goes to everyone on the list, including Simon, causing Simon's email autoresponse ... well, you get the picture. The proper netiquette dictates that Simon temporarily should have unsubscribed to all his listserves to avoid this problem.

Popular Legal Technology Listserves

There are five primary email lists for lawyers eager for serious tech-talk.

1) Network 2d. This is my personal favorite and one of the busiest of the legal technology lists. Network 2d is a companion list to the ABA Law Practice Management Section's flagship "Network 2d" newsletter. One of the older legal technology listserves, it has about 700 subscribers, many of whom are regular participants. Well-known legal technology experts abound here including Bruce Dorner, David Hirsch (a cocolumnist of "In Re Technology" in the ABA Journal), Dan Coolidge (coauthor of A Survival Guide for Road Warriors), Jerry Lawson (author of the new ABA Law Practice Management book, The Lawyer's Complete Guide to the Internet), and even occasionally Burgess Allison (of the original The Lawyer's Guide to the Internet).

The list is unmoderated, and conversation is sometimes on the frivolous side, but the list denizens are particularly good at policing themselves. Messages per day can vary dramatically. On busy days, there can be 10-20 messages.

Perhaps the greatest attraction to Network 2d is the feeling of shared camaraderie and community among its members. This undercurrent seems to promote familial conversation, enhances the communication, and is just plain fun.

Visit Network 2d, follow the instructions, scroll down to the listing for the Network2d list, click on subscribe, and fill in the information. Alternatively, you can subscribe via email, which is faster but doesn't expose you to all the various lists available through the ABA, an interesting "read" in itself.

To subscribe via email, send an email message; with body text as follows: subscribe network2d Your Name.

2) LawTech. This is another ABA list, sponsored and managed by the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC). Similar in tone to the Network 2d list, the volume of LawTech messages is somewhat lighter, typically averaging 10-20 per day. Lively discussion, sometimes rising to the level of being heated - as did a recent fracas regarding everyone's favorite legal billing "TABS v. Timeslips" - makes LawTech a must-read.

To subscribe via email, send a message, with body text as: subscribe lawtech. Or visit the ABA Web site and follow the instructions.

This list has roughly 900 subscribers and is semi-moderated, meaning that if the discussion gets too heated, the list manager will referee the combatants.

3) Netlawyers. The largest of the legal technology lists, this is run by legal technology/Internet folk hero Lew Rose, a lawyer at Washington, D.C. megafirm, Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn. Netlawyers is generally focused on issues related to law, technology, and the Internet, but topical coverage tends to be a bit broader in practice.

There are reportedly well over 2,000 subscribers to this busy list. Message traffic is sporadic, likely due to the fact that this list is completely moderated by Lew Rose. He reviews all messages sent to the email list and determines those that should be posted to the group. The messages seem to come in spurts - some days very few, other days 20-30 or more appear.

The tone of this group is more no-nonsense. For those wanting to cut to the chase, this is an interesting list to monitor. For those looking for an equal mix of fun, collegiality, and technology, the former two lists may be more to your liking. To subscribe, go online and follow the instructions.

4) Technolawyer. This is a private list with more than 2,000 subscribers run by New York lawyer and netrepreneur Neil Squillante. While unmoderated, there are specific topics for discussion that are posted and approved for each week. This tends to keep the discussion very substantive and informative. Interesting tidbits include Neil's TechnoPosts (awards for best postings), TechnoFeatures (articles submitted), and TechnoReleases (press releases from legal technology vendors), which are especially useful and innovative. To subscribe, go online.

5) Solosez. This is another great ABA list. Focused on the solo and small firm lawyer, this group has become one of the most interesting virtual legal communities around. While topics include plenty of substantive and procedural threads, technology topics are always floating about (this list isn't solely technology-oriented in focus). Message volume is fairly high at about 50-80 messages per day. The tone is fun and friendly, and members are most helpful. Some well-known Law Practice Management and General Practice/Solo-Small section people like Jennifer Rose (the list manager), Bruce Dorner, Reid Trautz, Sheryn Bruehl, and Ed Poll participate.

To subscribe, visit the ABA Web site and follow the instructions, or send an email message that says in the body: subscribe solosez FirstName LastName.

Conclusion

Email lists are great places to get quick answers from real people out in the trenches of average law practice. The experience is far more pleasant, and typically more enlightening, than the all-too-typical "permahold" one can experience on software and hardware makers' technical support lines. So remember, paraphrasing Ed McMahon, you can't win if you don't subscribe!

Wisconsin Lawyer