Food for thought for the long weekend.

[via TORT TALK: 10 Tips to Bolster Attorneys' Well-Being by Dan Bowling, Esquire]

In-housers of New York, this new Meetup group is for you:

Although professional networking opportunities for attorneys abound, few are geared specifically toward in-house counsel. The purpose of this group is to help change that by facilitating discussion and networking among New York area in-house lawyers. The group will enable us to share ideas, experiences, questions, anecdotes and even the occassional joke or random thought both online and in person. The group is open to area in-house attorneys and other practicing attorneys who were, at one time, in-house.

Did we forget to mention drinks? Their kick-off event is cocktails in Midtown on March 24th (place TBD). Head over and sign up today.

[via New York In-House Counsel (New York, NY) - Meetup.com.]

* Find an In-House Counsel Job @ GoInhouse.com *

Looking to add some new blawgs to your list? There is no better place to look than the ABA Journal’s list of top legal blogs for 2009. From news to practice specific sites, ABA Journal’s list is the place to look. If you are interested in issues facing law departments, we would strongly encourage you to check out Rees Morrison’s excellent Law Department Management Blog and don’t forget to vote for him at the ABA Journal!

[via The 2009 ABA Journal Blawg 100 - ABA Journal]

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Reid Trautz has done it again – for the fifth year in a row. Spread the word – the Holiday Gift Guide is out!!

Reid My Blog!: The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers

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The blawgosphere is abuzz with the news – Google has entered the legal research game. Learn more about the news by reading a recent post at Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites and then head over to Google Scholar to check it out.

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Microsoft Outlook isn’t perfect, but there is more to its e-mail and calendar functions than meets the eye. By combining some of Outlook’s best undiscovered features with a little ingenuity, lawyers can reduce their stress levels and perhaps add a bit of leisure time to their schedules.

[via Law.com - Mastering Outlook to Increase Productivity.]

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So you have a BlackBerry, iPhone or other PDA and can’t live without it. Whether it is checking emails or making a quick call to the office, your smartphone keeps you up to date on what is going on back at the office, the latest sports scores or helps you find a restaurant in a pinch. But what about legal productivity “apps”? Are you using your smartphone to help you get your job done more efficiently? Fortunately, the ABA Journal has posted a recent article that details 70 apps that might help.

[via 70 Sizzling Apps | ABA Journal - Law News Now.]

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If your email inbox looks like a war zone, you may want to take a look at this post from the Legal Ease Blog. It provides tips and links on how to effectively manage your email.

Legal Ease Blog: Email management tips for lawyers

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These days, little is of more concern to a company’s legal function than its ability to control the cost of outside legal services. The person who serves as the top manager of a company’s outside lawyers and law firms is often the law department business manager. If performed well, such a position will add significant value to the management of a company’s legal function, says consultant James Wilber, who describes how a manager with the proper skills and authority can be cost-effective.

[via How Law Departments Can Do More for Less]

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Looking to get up to speed quickly on e-discovery issues? You may want to check out the following recently released book:

E-Discovery Plain and Simple discusses Information Technology through the different viewpoints of two national experts in this field. Allison Brecher was one of the first corporate attorneys in the United States to manage electronic discovery. As the Director of Information Management and Strategy at Marsh & McLennan Companies, a publicly traded Fortune 200 company, Ms. Brecher manages all electronic discovery for litigation and other matters involving MMC’s more than 50,000 employees in over 100 countries. Shawnna Childress, an Associate Director of Navigant Consulting, brings more than a decade of expertise in Information Technology as a consultant to numerous companies. Ms. Childress is also the co-founder of Women in eDiscovery, a national network of female attorneys, consultants, and technology professionals with more than 3,500 members in more than 25 chapters worldwide. Ms. Brecher and Ms. Childress were also selected to membership on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown University Law Center E-Discovery Institute, a leading academic organization devoted to continuing legal education and policymaking in electronic discovery.

Visit the authors’ website to learn more.

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