Are You Receiving Communications and Publications from the ABA Forum on Construction Law?

The Forum regularly communicates with its members via email regarding upcoming programs, publications, webcasts and meetings.  Unfortunately, many of you are not receiving these important communications.  Our research has shown that it stems from three main causes: 

(1)    your company/firm spam blocker is blocking these important emails and until you “permit” or “allow” these communications, they will continue to be blocked;

(2)    you have opted out of receiving any ABA communications (knowingly or unknowingly);

(3)    out-of-date or inaccurate contact information.

All of these issues are easily remedied.  For those of you who are being impeded by a spam blocker, please reach out to our IT department and request that they permit these ABA emails to come through.  In some cases (depending on your spam software), you may be able to do this yourself.

If the spam blocker is not the issue, it may be that your contact information is incorrect, or you have opted out of receiving Forum or ABA communications.  This too can be easily remedied.  The fix is easy.  Simply go the Forum’s website at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/construction_industry.html and click on “myABA” at the top of the page.  This will trigger a login screen.  To login, you will need your email address and your password (hint:  unless you have affirmatively changed it, your password is your last name).    Once you are logged in, you will see your “MyABA” page.  Here, you can edit/update your contact information. 

If that is not the issue, it may be that you are inadvertently blocking ABA communications.  In the left hand margin of your MyABA page, you will see “Communications”. Click on it, and the subcategory of “Communication Preferences.”  As you will see, you can customize your ABA communications so that you will only receive communications from the specific ABA “groups” to which you belong (such as the Forum), or only communications that relate to your area of interest (e.g., “Construction”).   You will NOT receive general ABA email by doing this. 

Don’t miss out on any further Forum communications!  Update your contact information and communication preferences TODAY!  If you have any questions on how to do this, please reach out to the Forum membership chair, Wendy Venoit (860-918-5255, or wkvenoit@sbcglobal.net), or the Forum Director, Tamara Harrington (312-988-5674, or tamara.harrington@americanbar.org). 

A Litigator's Guide to Thriving in the Digital Age -- Recap of Division 1's Lunch Program in Austin

What applications should I buy?

How do I try a case without carrying 4 boxes everyday? 

Email - love it and hate it, how do I find a balance?

Karl, Rob, Drew, and Tom gave answers to D1 members in Austin.

Karl Seelbach, Rob Ruesch, Drew Harris, and Tom Dunn

* * *

Rob Ruesch, Division 1 Steering Committee Member, the lunch program for Divisions 1 and 2 at the Fall Meeting in Austin, Texas.  The topic maxed out the occupancy of the room given to us and there was active participation by the attendees during the program.  

During the presentation, Karl Seelbach talked about technology and the mobile litigator.  He highlighted the "go to" applications. I asked Karl to recap his presentation for Division 1 members who could not join:

Attorneys who want to stay organized and get a leg up on the competition should use technology to their advantage. Consider using a task management app (e.g., Todoist) to organize your projects, assign tasks to your entire team and monitor their progress. Stop printing reams of paper and carrying heavy boxes to depositions. Instead, use electronic exhibits (e.g., AgileLaw) to go paperless. Stop writing your notes on paper. Instead, use a note taking app (e.g., Evernote) to make your notes searchable and shareable with team members. Or at the very least, scan your handwritten notes for safekeeping (bonus:  some apps convert your handwritten notes to searchable text). If you’d like more free tech tips or a list of recommended apps for attorneys, contact me at karl@doyleseelbach.com or sign up for my monthly newsletter at http://www.doyleseelbach.com/. 

Drew Harris walked us through Trial Director for ipads.  He demonstrated the "must have" tools for a trial attorney's toolbox and conducted a live demonstration of trial he recently conducted.  By the end of the presentation, the vast majority of the attendees raised their hand that they will consider using an ipad for their next trial.

I (Tom Dunn) spoke about email practice management.  I went through the answers to the 10-Question survey of Division 1 members and shared my own experience / strategies to manage and control email and not let it control me.  Click HERE to view my presentation.  

Thank you to all of the Division 1/2 members who attended the meeting.  If you want access to some of the written materials provided at this program (or past programs), please contact Nick Holmes (nholmes@devinemillimet.com), Division 1 Chair, for access to the Division 1 dropbox account.  

If you come across new applications or strategies to deal with the "digital age" as a litigator or trial attorney, please contact one of the editors of The Dispute Resolver and we may be able to share it with Division 1 members.

#ABAConstruct #FCLAustin #TheDisputeResolver

Attend D1's Lunch Program at the Fall Meeting: Technology Is Making Things Better, Right? A Litigator's Guide to Thriving in the Digital Age

To submit questions/topics in advance of the lunch presentation, please contact the Moderator or Panelists at the email addresses listed above.  See you on October 8 at the #ADRSummit.  #ABAConstruct #FCLAustin

Please Take This Survey About Email -- Results Presented During D1 Lunch in Austin, TX

http://svy.mk/1MFUpWk

Division 1's Lunch Program at the Fall Meeting in Austin, Texas (10/8/2015) will focus on technology and the practice of construction law.
One aspect of the program will be about law practice management -- specifically email. 

How do Division 1 members manage/process/preserve their emails? Do we have it under control?  Or, are we overwhelmed by email?  

From avoiding losses in productivity to preservation/safely securing client communications, we will have an open dialogue regarding strategies that that we will be able to employ when we get back home from the meeting to reduce the stress involved with email. 

Please take this 10-question survey - http://svy.mk/1MFUpWk.   

If I receive sufficient number of responses, we will share the results at our lunch meeting in Austin. 

Thanks for your assistance and looking forward to seeing everyone in Austin!

Tom Dunn
Division 1 Steering Committee Member