WBA Tech Tip of the Month: Clean Up Email Folders to Improve Mail Performance

Whether you use Outlook, Outlook Express, or another email client program, performance is affected most by the emails contained in the main Inbox, Sent Items, and Deleted Items folders. Allowing these folders to reach thousands (for some users, tens of thousands) of emails can dramatically slow the processing of mail or cause the program to crash completely.

Empty your email Deleted Items folder frequently (deleted emails do not move to the Windows Recycle Bin). The Deleted Items folder IS NOT a storage location for your saved emails; if you want to hang onto your emails, create additional folders and save your mail there, not in the Deleted Items Folder.

Your Inbox should never have more than your most current emails. Whenever you access this folder, Windows regenerates the Œview¹; the more emails within the folder, the more memory needed to display the information and the longer the processing time required. Once you exceed a few thousand emails, processing time starts counting in minutes rather than seconds. The same is true of the Sent Items folder. Although people don¹t typically view this folder, every sent email gets copied here (assuming this feature is turned on). The greater the number of emails already in that folder, the longer it takes to add another one.

Create subfolders under Inbox and Sent Items and move older emails out of the main mail folders. In Outlook or Outlook Express, simply right-click on Inbox or Sent Items, create a New Folder, give it a name and click OK. Drag email(s) to the new folder. In Outlook, you can also us the email Archive feature, which automatically moves older emails from the Inbox and Sent Items folders to a separate Archive folder structure located below your normal folder list.

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Bench Bar - Not Too Late to Sign Up!

2009 Bench Bar Conference for Westmoreland Bar Association

Seven Springs Mountain Resort

Membership retreat for judges and lawyers with 4.5 CLE, entertainment, networking, activities

June 10th, 2009 8:00 AM through June 11th, 2009 5:00 PM

Call the Bar at 724.834.6730 to register

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PBA E-News: June 2009

Last Call: PBA Annual Meeting, Women's Conference and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section Annual Meeting

Foundation to Honor Philadelphia Judge Annette Rizzo with Goffman Award at PBA Annual Meeting

Savannah Is Site of July 16 - 19 PBA Family Law Section 2009 Summer Meeting

PBA Young Lawyers Division Hosts First U.S. Supreme Court Admissions Ceremony

State Legislature Gets Back to Business

July/August Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine Looks at Job Finding, Job Keeping Attention Writers: The Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine's Short Story Fiction Contest

Now Available: June 15 Bar News 'Court Summaries' PBI Presents 'Advocacy for the Ages' PBA Future Meetings

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The Ultimate Twitter Challenge: $25,000 for 25,000 followers

The ABA ran a story last week about Bill Marler, a personal injury attorney from Seattle, who offered to donate $25,000 to a charity if he receives 25,000 followers on his Twitter site.

The entire article can be found here:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/lawyer_offers_to_give_25k_to_charity_if_he_gets_25k_twitter_followers

Another article covered the increasing use of Twitter by attorneys:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/twitter_becoming_incredibly_mainstream_for_lawyers/

The WBA Blog's only remaining questions is whether anyone in the WBA ready to up the ante and offer $50,000 for 50,000 followers?

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ABA Journal: How Law Practice Will Become Like Off-the-Rack Suits

The following article was authored by Debra Cassens Weiss and reprinted from the March 2, 2009 online site of the ABA.

Law practice in the future will involve the mechanization of legal tasks into standard systems, creating job losses for lawyers who don't evolve, Richard Susskind argues in his new book The End of Lawyers?

Today law practice is like a custom-made suit—it is crafted to an individual client’s needs. But in the future, Susskind argues, standard legal tasks will be performed by software or done in a lower cost manner—they will be commodities like off-the-rack suits, explains a book review in The Lawyers Weekly.

Complex legal issues will be broken down into individual tasks, and lawyers will identify the best way to perform them. One this is accomplished, Susskind argues, these tasks may be handled by paralegals, by lower cost law firms or specialized overseas companies.

In this evolution, the “dominant species” of lawyer will be legal knowledge engineers who organize complex legal content and processes that will need to be analyzed and distilled into standard practice and computer systems, according to the book review.

“Adapt or die,” the review says. “That’s the stark option Susskind offers lawyers. The coming seismic shift in legal services will result in the demise of many law firms, the extinction of many legal fields, and will force many lawyers to scramble to find new lines of work.”


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Ned Nakles Inns of Court: April

Just a reminder that the Ned Nakles Inns of Court will meet on Thursday, April 30 at 5:00 PM

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PBA Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh

(reprinted from April edition of PBA E-News)

The 2009 PBA Annual Meeting takes place June 2 - 4 at the Hilton Pittsburgh. Members won't want to miss the chance to explore some of the latest legal developments highlighted in the following CLE programs:

-- "Basic Consumer Bankruptcy Issues," 1.5 substantive hours CLE credit

-- "Chapter 11 Fundamentals," 1.5 substantive hours CLE credit--

"Fair Debt Collection in Pennsylvania," 1 substantive hour CLE credit

-- "A Donation Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Fundraising Considerations in Challenging Times," 1.5 substantive hours CLE credit

-- "What's Hot in Elder Law and How It Affects Your Clients," 1 substantive hour CLE credit

-- "Developing and Presenting Your Case: A Case Study of 'A Few Good Men,'" 3 substantive hours CLE credit

-- "Family Law: New Rules, New Strategies in Tough Economic Times," 1 substantive hour CLE edit

-- "Saving the Family Home in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis Climate," 1 substantive hour CLE credit

The Annual Reception, Dinner and Dance welcoming Clifford E. Haines, incoming president, and honoring C. Dale McClain, outgoing president, begins at 6:30 p.m. on June 3. Dress is black tie-optional.

The House of Delegates Meeting begins at 9 a.m. on June 4.

Descriptions of CLE courses and a complete schedule for the Annual Meeting are included in the online brochure. Register soon. Hotel room group rates are $130 per room, per night, single or double occupancy. Group rates are guaranteed only until May 1. Link to the hotel Web site. Reservations received after May 1 will be accepted on a space available/rate available basis.

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