Showing posts with label lawyer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lawyer. Show all posts
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Legal Jobs at ILR Linkedin Group

Monday, March 7, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linkedin opened up its job feature:

LinkedIn has made some upgrades to the Jobs section of LinkedIn groups that will make it much easier for group members and group managers to share LinkedIn jobs specifically tailored to your group. Group owners and managers can set up a keyword based feed of LinkedIn jobs into the group. Group members can also share relevant jobs into the group.

Organic postings from the old Groups "Jobs" tab are now in the Career discussions section.


We are excited about these changes. Be sure to visit the jobs section of your group and set up a targeted jobs feed for your group today.

Best Regards,

The LinkedIn Team


And so, the ILR Linkedin Group used this opportunity for its members to broadcast their talent-hunt. Join the ILR Linked Group here, and start posting your firm’s job offers.



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More on evernote for legal practice

Thursday, August 26, 2010

 

 

Here a list on what evernote can do to enhace your legal practice:

  1. As a blogging tool for legal bloggers (of course!)
  2. Research tool (collection of snippet and bookmarks) and digital filing cabinet.
  3. Customer relation management (CRM) tool
  4. Client tagging, note taking, auto forwarding from website contact form

I think evernote is good to be used for start-up lawfirms or those with SOHO (Small Office Home Office) practices. Recently I connected my inexpensive Lexmark s.305 Wi-FI printer to send scanned files (PDF or Pictures) directly to evernote so that it can sync with the system there. But if you have a scanner with autofeeder, I think it would be much faster and better to scan documents, deeds, contracts and all those boring stuffs :) No need to use expensive Knowledge Management softwares, its a waste of money!

Read our previous post: Evernote for Lawyers.



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Evernote for Lawyers

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

 

 

Many lawfirms are investing thousands of dollars for Knowledge Management software only to discover that their lawyers and workers find a hard time implementing it because they are not user-friendly. The reason why most KM software doesn’t work is because they are not embedded in your daily life; the inputs are tedious and time-consuming.

 

It’s time to liberate yourself. Someday you will quit working for that lawfirm and set-up your own (or do better things like enjoy your life) so you better have your own Knowledge Management system to satisfy your future need of information.

 

With evernote, you can write notes, clip web pages, take picture notes and voice notes directly from your desktop and mobile. Evernote has apps for ipads, blackberry, android and other OS. All of them are synced together in the cloud. The software is also equipped with integrated OCR (optical character recognition), so every text in the picture you take or document you scanned will be recognized. Some printers can also directly send scanned files to evernote.

 

Here’s a list of things that a lawyer can do with evernote:

  1. Take pictures of/scan business cards
  2. Use the voice note for interviews (using blackberry – silently :)
  3. Take a snapshot of important clauses
  4. Scan your meeting notes
  5. Scan legal documents
  6. Take pictures during site visit (and tag it in your project folder)

Evernote is linked with many other apps: your email (you can forward your mail to evernote), twitter and google reader, just to name a few. The most important of all: it’s free!
Click here to sign up.



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HOWTO: Tweet the right lawyers

Thursday, May 13, 2010

 

(and get a free advice on something)

Jennifer asked:

Who would be a good person to tweet for advise on Clemency and human rights? I support Australian Schapelle Corby who is mentally ill and her lawyer has appealed to the Indonesian president for clemency. I believe she is innocent and did not receive a fair trial but now her mental health is priority. She was sentenced to 20 years which is harsh by Indonesian standards with no testing of the evidence despite her demands to police and prosecution (these tests may of proved her innocence). She has suffered enough and needs to come home. Thanks, any info would be appreciated

Short answer: perhaps these people can help:

@taufikbasari @arijuliano @anggarasuwahju @TodungLubis @lisrasukur

Long answer: follow them on twitter, discover their network and give a shot. Perhaps it is better to drag people’s attention through your own twitter campaign. A lot of people is using twitter to extend their advocacy to the online world.  An important feature in this effort is in creating incentives for people to tweet their opinion. The incentive could either be external (from outside factors, such as a praise or a thank you note from other people) but they are mostly internal (they just feel good about tweeting). I will try to elaborate this further on my next post.


Related posts:

Twittering the Indonesian Legal Community
ABAnet Twitter Debate on Virtual Law Office
6 Free Collaboration Tools for Lawyers



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ABAnet Twitter Debate on Virtual Law Office

Friday, May 7, 2010

Quick blogging. Follow this hashtag #22TwDb

 



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Twittering the Indonesian Legal Community

Monday, May 3, 2010

Some of the most prominent figures of the Indonesian legal community is sharing their thoughts in twitter. Sometimes, when they are happy, they provide advices too, with 140 characters, that is.

(Hey, in this world, nothing is free, except for advices. And for lawyers, oftentimes, that is also not free. So, 140 characters is a good thing to start.)

So, who’s on Twitter? Here’s a list of those benevolent lawyers.

1. Taufik Basari often tweets about human rights law.

2. Pramudya tweets about Law and Economics.

3. Ari Juliano, who is the Indonesian Coordinator for the Creative Commons Project, often tweets about IPR

4. Faiz, our future Constitutional Court Chief Justice, tweets about, well, Constitution.

5. Arsil has his own Jurisprudence class in Twitter.

6. Anggara, our savvy Press Lawyer (he did several Judicial Reviews related to press law by the way) tweets here.

7. If you are a law student, keep an eye on Legal101 (from students, for students :)

8. Oh, I tweet too. You can find me here. I tried to organize my useful tweets, with this hashtag #lawtalk . Pram is also joining me in this hashtag. 

These people are quite friendly. So I think they will be happy to answer your twitter queries.

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6 Free Collaboration Tools for Lawyers

Sunday, May 2, 2010

You just start up a small law firm and can’t afford to pay expensive IT costs? No problem. There are tons of freebies out there which you can use to enhance your law firm’s productivity.

1. Delicious

Bookmarks cluttered your browser page? Use bookmarking sites. There are many free bookmarking services including google notebook and Digg, but I prefer delicious for my bookmarks. I have been sharing these bookmarks with colleagues in other countries working on the same issue. I don't lose anything by sharing what I found in the net and they don't risk the possibility of reinventing the wheel.
 

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In delicious, have a look at my Water Law bookmarks. If you do European Law, have a look at my EU Law bookmarks. For nanotechnology law, have a look here.
 
Important tip for delicious. In tagging, always use root words. Don’t use “nanotechnology+law” or “nanotechnologies”, unless you really have to.

2. Manymoon
Manymoon is a cool software for project management. It has project management features such as milestones, tasks, calendar, link sharing and progress report.
 
 
  













For example, if you are doing a merger, you can set the milestones into (i) Merger Plan, (ii) BoC Approval of the Merger Plan, (iii) Shareholder’s Approval for Merger and (iv) Notifications to Employees. You can add tasks to each milestones. For milestone (i) you can assign the drafting of a Merger Plan to a junior lawyer and a reviewing task to the more senior lawyer. You can set dates for these task, set a deadline and a reminder.
What I really like with Manymoon is its integration with Google Apps. Manymoon is integrated to Google Docs, Email and Calendar. It has a reporting tool too, but unfortunately, the free version only has one reporting for each projects.

Sign up to manymoon for free, here.

Oh, in case you are a time-sheet freak, yes, manymoon does track your lawyer’s time sheet.



3. Tungle
You are a very busy person with lots of schedules, but yet, your firm can’t afford to pay a secretary? It’s OK, not a problem. Tungle will help to sort out your scheduling problem.

 

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Tungle use google calendar to check the dates when you would be available. Clients can then propose several dates for a meeting or web conference or telephone call. Not clear enough, you can try scheduling a conference call with me, using my tungle here.


4. Dimdim
You are in Bali and too tired to go to Jakarta for a meeting, or you simply have a ‘virtual’ lawfirm and only work at the office if you have too. Besides, who needs an office these days, right?

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With Dimdim, you can always hold meetings online. Share presentations, share your computer screen, hold a web conference! Dimdim can record your meetings too. Again, no need for a secretary.


5. Offisync
The old school of doing review is by turning the track changes on and then sending it once you made the review. Well, there’s a more effective way of doing it.

Offisync, well, sync, your office files with Google Docs and allow instant, online collaboration with coworkers. However, there is a caveat. You may not be able to save the doc files in its original MS Word Format, unless you have a premium account with google apps. So, everytime you save docs in offisync, it save it in google doc format. If you have plenty of tables and footnotes, you might want to be a bit careful using the service. I hope they will sort out this problem soon. I will update you when they do.



6. Finally, Google Apps




Get 50 free (7GB each) email@yourlawfirm.com with google apps, integrated with calendar, docs and other google services such as video and sites. Yes, you get the email with your company’s name but using gmail services. Ain’t that cool? Sign up here.
All of the software I listed above (except for Delicious) are integrated into Google Apps. So when you sign up to google apps (the basic version) and go to the Marketplace from your domain management console, you can install those apps in your domain. Have fun! 

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Living with the Other Fishes

Monday, August 27, 2007

Finally I could meet Mr. P yesterday, after getting his rushed phone at the mid of this week. Currently, he dedicates his life to a mid-size law firm in Jakarta which hold an affiliation with the south-east law firm and America continent law firm.

Yesterday’s appointment was promised to him in order to clarify an important case. The case was, Ms. Z his boss, a foreign citizen got panic and little bit shocked with the news that appeared in the Jakarta Post dated 21 August 2007 with the title "lawyers meet to discuss roles in global arena". Under the news, president of the Indonesian Advocates Association (“Peradi”), Otto Hasibuan commented some following issues:

a. the Ministry of Law and Human Rights as the authority to issue work permits for foreign lawyer shall send report on foreign lawyers which has received the working permits in Indonesia to Peradi;

b. Peradi suspected that in addition to 37 registered foreign lawyers working in Indonesia, there are more foreign lawyers who work in Indonesia; and

c. Peradi suspected that there are some law firms actually owned by foreign lawyers while the Indonesian staffs only act as puppets.

Therefore, while she was abroad last week, unless something happened then she would not come back to Indonesia. He asked P whether she and her colleague have already a proper license to work in Indonesia as a foreign lawyer. Besides her query, she also noted that in this globalization era, Indonesian government has committed to become a member of World Trade Organization (as ratified in Law Number 7 Year 1994). Also, it is advisable for giving concern more on the development of domestic capability rather than putting the blame on foreign aspect. In line with the gathering that held in Jakarta by 10 lawyer associations i.e. from Indonesia, India, Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia, she thought that Peradi must also give a positive contribution to harmonize the role of lawyers in this era of inclusiveness instead of keep standing on the exclusivity.

After we ordered calamari to indulge us, Mr. P continued telling his experience during this week. Basically, it is so irresistible that an Indonesian law firm have an association with an international or regional law firm which already exists in some other countries through opening of branches or affiliations. It is merely a business action conducted by some firms’ owner to be affiliated (not be owned for sure) for the purpose of grabbing the potential market being captured by those regional law firm. Mr. P said, Ms. Z often receive the client that referred by the “affiliation” in which such client has trusted that his investment in Indonesia shall be backed-up by qualified legal assistancship as the client receive in their own country. Sometimes, Mr. P added, he should introduce himself as a lawyer from the “affiliation” instead of the “local firm” solely for assuring the client that they are not treated with the wrong person.

Yesterday, both of us had the same main course to satisfy our tongue in savoring the juicy half-done US ribs. While I was busy with cutting and chopping, he started again. It may be based on a true story that Peradi come up with the indication that there are some law firms which owned by the foreign lawyers and afterwards Peradi wants to do the direct investigation to catch them. Peradi’s stance is the consequence of prohibition stipulated under Article 23 Paragraph 1 of Law Number 18 Year 2003 regarding advocates in which foreign lawyers may not appear in court hearings, practice and/or open legal services office or representatives in Indonesia. However, in Paragraph 2 of the same Law, it is stated that the law firm may employ foreign lawyers as employee or expert staff in the field of foreign law based upon permit from Indonesian government with recommendation from organization of advocates. In addition to that, foreign lawyers who provide a legal services in Indonesia may be subject to criminal sanctions including imprisonment. Mr. P said, Ms. Z seems still in the corridor of stipulated laws and regulations. She only does the advisory role and provide her expertise in cases where prospective client from her country must be convinced that Indonesian law is quite different with their legal system. That Indonesian company must has a board of commissioners while theirs not, for example. In addition, Mr. P told that Ms. Z is employed by his Indonesian partner to become a marketing agent, to anchor client or as the receiver of referrals from the “affiliation” which coincidently has same citizenship with Ms. Z.

Then my hot pancake with vanilla ice cream and his single espresso became the end session of our yesterday’s meeting. Mr. P said, her boss is one of the 37 foreign lawyers that has been registered on Peradi. Also, as required by the Decree of Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Number Kep-20/MEN/III/2004 regarding the procedure in the obtainment of Permit To Employ The Expatriate Worker (Izin Mempekerjakan Tenaga Kerja Asing or “IMTA”), his law firm already obtained the IMTA for employing Ms. Z as the legal expert in Indonesia, furthermore Ms. Z consequently has obtained the limited stay permit card (Kartu Izin Tinggal Terbatas or “KITAS”) too. And, I am quite surprised that every expatriate who wants to work here shall pay in advance a monthly fee of USD 100 of skill and development fund levy (Dana Pengembangan Keahlian dan Ketrampilan or “DPKK”). Usually, the expatriate will apply for 1 year period of working and stay permit. It then translates to USD 1,200 (or equivalent to approx. 10 million Rupiah) per expatriate to be stored in the Department of Manpower and Transmigration’s account. If every month, for instance, such Department approves application from 100 expatriates, it means that there is 1 billion Rupiah in its account to be utilized and reported in accordance with accountabilty and transparency principle on every single month. What a great asset then. Mr. P also don't know if such financial report must be opened or closed to public.

In spite of worries towards Ms. Z’ permits, Mr. P actually really concerned about Peradi’s contribution to expedite the process for foreign lawyers who applies his application to work in Indonesia legally. Still fresh in his mind, that he needed 1 month only in order to obtain Peradi’s recommendation. When Mr. P pushed the lowest person in such organizational pyramid, they only keep saying that the required recommendation still has not been signed by the relevant authority because of his occupation as an active lawyer in addition to the activity in the Peradi’s organization. And, once the Peradi’s recommendation is obtained, it does not means that his job has completed even for a half way. The recommendation from Minister of Law and Human Rights shall be signed first by the Director of Public Administration Law from the Ministry prior to process the manpower utilization plan (Rencana Penggunaan Tenaga Kerja Asing orRPTKA”). From his experience, the Ministry recommendation will take 2 to 3 weeks to be obtained. One other thing that I knew from yesterday’s appointment is beside 2 main recommendations that must be obtained by each law firm, they must also secure the entire 13 other documents to be permitted working and staying in Indonesia.

The last slurp of his espresso had signaled me that Yesterday’s appointment must be continued some other time. Lastly, Mr. P said, it is quite awkward when Peradi utters that the Ministry of Law and Human Rights must coordinate with Peradi pertaining the report of all working permit already issued by the Ministry to each foreign lawyer. Because, the scheme is already clear that prior to holding the IMTA, that the local law firm sponsoring its foreign lawyer shall apply to Peradi for obtaining the recommendation is the first thing to do.

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Will blogs transform the nature of legal services?

Friday, January 26, 2007

It has been an honour that political analyst Fatih Syuhud reviewed this blog in his "blog of the week" feature. Here's a quote:
Some non-law students are just reluctant to read anything to do with law because the writer uses too rigid a language which is hardly understood by non-law student...

The stark substantial differences between modern people and "primitive" ones is not about the physical appearances, it's about how thirsty we are to acquire new knowledge and information, which are ups for grabs in front us. Al Afghani's blog content is one of those information that we should read regularly and joyfully to quench our thirst of knowledge just in case you are one of those modern and civilized persons.

Not only that the law is difficult to understand for lay people, it is also expensive and not reliable. Am I right or am I wrong? In theory, the law is created for the people, and not the other way around. Is there any way to bring the law closer to the people?

It is possible. Ever heard of "Law 2.0"? Click it if you are curious. Blog is a part of Law 2.0. Blogs can make legal services faster, better and cheaper. How?
  1. Collaboration. My researches and blog posts may be useful for the legal people. They can cite, improve and edit my article to create a legal memo. No need to do another research. There is no use reeinventing the wheel
  2. Better scrutinies. If you write a legal analysis alone and put in your desktop, only you and probably your partner knows if you made any mistakes. But if you publish it online, maybe other lawyers or me would be able to comment should you make errors, vice versa
  3. Niche-creation. If there are too many law blogs (US has so many legal blogs), bloggers will start creating niche content to attract visitors. This is positive for legal specialization
  4. Blogs will give opportunities for small and boutique lawfirms or even solo career lawyers. In light of regional autonomy, this is very good
There are barriers to these possibilities: (i) slow internet connection, (ii) reluctancy to write, (iii) fear in giving away opinions, (iv) materialism. Point iv is really something outdated, if you read Time's 2006 man of the year.