News: Member Benefits
Alabama State Bar Announces Smokeball as New Member Benefit
- Filed Under: Member Benefits
The Alabama State Bar is thrilled to announce a new member benefit from Smokeball, the leading legal practice management software for law firms. With this new member benefit, Alabama State Bar members…
Read MoreReal Life Financial Planning for Lawyers – CLE Opportunity
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
Whether you are brand new to the practice of law or have been practicing for a while, come learn about the barriers to wealth construction that lawyers face, how to get your…
Read MoreCosmoLex Offers Discount Through November 30th
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
CosmoLex, one of the Alabama State Bar’s newest member benefits, has just made it easier for you to stay on top of practice management functions with the release of CosmoLex Cloud, a…
Read MoreCasemaker Extended and Premium Services Added
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
If Casemaker looks a little different today, it’s because Casemaker’s premium services are now available to all ASB members without charge. As a part of our contract extension, you will now have…
Read MoreIs The Government Spying on Your Law Firm?
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
Ever since Edward Snowden began his revelations about the domestic spying activities of the National Security Administration, lawyers have had to wonder whether their emails and phone calls have been subject to…
Read MoreSay Bye-Bye to Windows XP
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
Unfortunately, when it comes to Windows XP, the party’s over. Microsoft will officially end support for XP Service Pack 3 and Office 2003 on April 8, 2014. This operating system has been…
Read MorePublic WiFi Just Got a Little Safer for Lawyer Use
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
A few days ago I posted about the ethical propriety of using free Gmail for confidential legal communications. Another somewhat unsettled issue is the ethical propriety of a lawyer using a public…
Read MoreFree Email Accounts: Surefire Ethics Violation for Lawyers
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
The last time I checked, 986 practicing lawyers in Alabama have an “@gmail.com” address registered with the bar and published in the bar’s online database as their office email address. Many more…
Read MoreDoes Your Firm Need Cybersecurity Insurance?
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
As seems to be happening more and more frequently, my credit card company recently cancelled my current card and sent me one with a new number because the old one had been compromised in a data breach. Hackers had gained access to the computer system of one of the merchants I charged something with and, suddenly, my account number was out in the wild and available for sale to the highest bidder.
In this case, it’s just an annoyance; I’ll have to update my information with a couple of online vendors and memorize a new set of numbers, but at the rate I charge things that won’t take long. I’m not out anything and neither is the credit card company. The merchant, on the other hand, has, to put it politely, more than a little egg on its face. I’ll have to think twice before I buy anything there again.
This incident, the second one I’ve experienced in three years, points up how prevalent hacking into what are supposed to be secure computer networks has become. Law firms should not assume that they and the confidential information their networks house are not already targets, too. In some instances confidential legal information can be equally as valuable, to the right purchaser, as a large block of credit card numbers.
Although Alabama currently remains one of only 4 states which does not have a law requiring notification in the event of a loss or theft of personal information, there are lots of good reasons why lawyers in Alabama should tighten up security for their computer networks and consider obtaining cybersecurity insurance to protect themselves in the event that their computers are lost or stolen or their computer networks are breached.
Are We There Yet? Is Email Really Still Different?
- Filed Under: Member Benefits, Practice Management
Attorney at Work is a great blog with lots of useful tips and ideas to improve a law practice. I highly recommend that you check it out. But a recent post by…
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