LibGuides: Technology for Legal Practice: General Info

General Resources

Villanova law students, faculty, and staff can sign up for a Procertas account to receive training and practice their skills in specific tasks in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF editing. See the Procertas Libguide for more information.

All Villanova community members (including, but not limited to, law students) have access to LinkedIn Learning training videos and quizzes which cover a variety of office and legal technology including eDiscovery systems.

Working with another product? Check out our Software & Vendor Trainings Guide for user guides, videos and more on:

Legal Research Platforms like
- Bloomberg Law
- Checkpoint
- Fastcase
- Lexis+
- Ravel
- Westlaw
- Wolters Kluwer Cheetah (formerly IntelliConnect)
Practice Management Software (including Abacus, FirmCentral, MyCase, Practice Panther and many others)
Presentation Software (everything from Prezi to Google Slides to paid resources like Trial Director)

The Legal Technology Guidebook by Kimberly Williams; John M. Facciola; Peter McCann; Vincent Catanzaro
ISBN: 3319545221
Publication Date: 2017
Modernize Your Law Firm: Transform Your Law Firm for the Future by Lynda Artesani
Publication Date: 2024
Includes chapters on law firm work flows, automation, software, data security, legal accounting and block chain and more. From the Business Law and Corporate Risk Management Collection.
Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together by Dennis M. Kennedy; Tom Mighell; American Bar Association, Section of Law Practice Management Staff (Contribution by)
ISBN: 1641051604
Publication Date: 2018
The Science and Technology Guidebook for Lawyers by Joseph R. Carvalko; Cara Morris
ISBN: 1627226729
Publication Date: 2014
The 2019 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide by Sharon D. Nelson; John W. Simek; Michael C. Maschke
ISBN: 1641053755
Publication Date: 2019

ABA Tech Report 2019
ABA Tech Report 2018 (archived copy) Annual survey of ABA members regarding use of technology and software. Full report must be purchased but summary of each chapter's findings is available and linked above. Covers data security, law office automation, mobile technology and other topics including a section on solo and small firm use.
ABA Tech Report 2017 (archived copy) Annual survey of ABA members regarding use of technology and software. Full report must be purchased but summary of each chapter's findings is available and linked above. Covers data security, law office automation, mobile technology and other topics including a section on solo and small firm use.
ILTA/Inside Legal Technology Purchasing Survey Results of annual survey distributed to International Legal Technology Association members. Covers use of various technologies by firm type and location as well as tracks technology trends.
Lawyer's Ethical Duty of Technology Competence This blog discusses the change to ABA Model Rule 1.1 and continually updates with links to states that have adopted it or similar language.
Technology Solutions Small Firm Lawyers Use to Run Successful Law Practices Results of 2016 survey sent out by Law Firm Suites, a company that provides offices and conference rooms to law firm, to attorneys.
Kia's Legal Tech Audit Kia Motors in-house counsel developed a technology audit that is given to all outside counsel before they are contracted to work for Kia. Above article describes particulars of the assessment.

ABA Legal Technology Buying Guide
Search for a particular product or browse list by category of service/function. Most listings give brief overview of product, link to website and provide contact information for sales reps or company in general. Does NOT provide attorney reviews of the software
Evolve the Law Legal Tech Directory
Browse by type of technology category to view listing of companies, overview of each product including when/how it might be used and contact information for the company.

G2.com Software Review Site This link opens in a new window
Legal Software category has many subcategories including ediscovery, legal case management software, document drafting software, conflict check software and many more.

Consumer Reports Electronics Buyers Guide
Mostly hardware (printers, tablets, computers) but also includes guides for security software, streaming media players & services and telecom services.
Capterra
Search for product reviews by type of software or software name. Includes user reviews, list of features and other information. Can compare up to four products side-by-side at one time.
Legal Tech Assessment
Paid service that analyzes how efficiently attorneys and other time-keeping support staff utilize technology to serve clients. Cost is based on type of entity and number of employees to be assessed. Read more about legal tech audits here: http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/could_you_pass_this_in-house_counsels_tech_test

LEAP Whitepapers
Company that provides practice management products for solo and small firms. Do need to provide your name and email to download these discussion papers. Papers do include a sales pitch but also provide background on IT and related issues for small firms.
The Must-Have Legal Technology To Start a Law Firm in 2016
Article from Law Technology Today outlines what types of programs & technology attorneys should consider including in their practice, especially for small firms.
mycase Blog
Technology blog from mycase which offers cloud-based legal practice management software for solo and small firms.

ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
The Coalition of Technology Resources for Lawyers (CTRL) "Develops legal resources and scholarship designed to support technology-based initiatives with practical guidance." Conducts annual survey of corporate legal departments and their use of technology and offers a wiki of case management orders and predictive coding opinions. Focuses on eDiscovery but discusses other technology issues too.
International Legal Technology Association
Professional organization for law firm IT personnel.
Legal IT Professionals Website geared for those providing IT services to law firms but the site does offer video reviews of products, interviews with representatives from various software companies and articles and columns discussing legal technology issues such as security, eDiscovery and social media use by law firms. Sign up for weekly email newsletter for ongoing news.

Make Use of (MUO) Not specific to legal technology but is very plain-language and focuses on user experience of particular pieces of technology/programs/software. See the "Top Lists" link for "Best of" postings about everything from "Best Websites on the Internet" to the "Best Firefox Add-ons." Offers pages devoted to iPhone & iPad apps, PC and Mac programs & software, Android devices as well as security and hardware.
Mashable Site aggregates technology, social media and entertainment news into one platform. See the Tech tab for articles on Apps & software, mobile technology and other topics. A "Social Media" tab offers a "how-to" link that features social media posts and videos on how to do all sorts of things from how to crowd-fund projects to how marketers can maximize gmail features and even the proper way to build a video game console out of IKEA cabinets. Follow various topics and article areas using many different social media platforms--see http://mashable.com/follow-mashable/
PC World
Offers product reviews of hardware, software, mobile and other technology along with videos, how-tos and technology news.
Macworld
Provides product reviews, how-tos, videos, app reviews and other information for Apple and Macintosh products.
Wired
Widespread coverage of tech trends
Gizmodo Offers technology reviews and software commentary although also looks at design, science and science fiction topics. Sometimes leans more towards politics and popular culture coverage but legal IT professionals do seem to follow it (see ILTA survey results)
Engadget
Daily reviews of new technology and consumer electronics.

12 keyword research tools and creative ways to use them See Tip #3, using a brand name and "won't" to find help forums and other software or technology trouble-shooting forums or to locate potentially negative reviews when considering a product purchase. NOTE: to get to the "Google Instant Predictions" screen you have to first run a google search (any will do) and then click on the "settings" link at the top of the search results page.
Tiny URL
Have an extremely long URL that you want to share via email, blog, text etc? This site shortens your website address for free, no matter the length--you can even create a customized URL. Also available as a Chrome Extension or Firefox Add-on to make conversion even easier.
Bitly
Another link shortening site but also analyzes link to measure its reach and click performance, providing recommendations of how to change the link to optimize marketing strategies. Need to upgrade to paid version to customize links and access more advanced features.
Internet Archive/Wayback Machine
Snapshots of a particular website taken at different points in time. Good for showing information that has now been removed from a site or even a site that no longer exists. Simply enter the site URL in the search box.
How to Share Your Work Under a Creative Commons License
Article describes how to choose a license and properly share your licensed content with others.

Other Related Guides

Fact Finding Research Guide
Free Sites for Legal Research
Software & Vendor Trainings
User guides, videos and more for legal research platforms, presentation software, practice management software and others.
60 in 60 ABA Tech Show 2018
Slides from the ABA's 60 tech tips/sites in 60 minutes presentation.
60 Sites in 60 Minutes (2017) - Slides
Presentation slides from the ABA Tech Show rather than a list of links to individual resources.
60 Sites in 60 Minutes (2015)
List of links from program at ABA Techshow. Some are legal resources but many are general apps and sites.