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Reviews of ActiveWords, TValue, dtSearch; Body Position and Tablets; Three New Questions

By Kathryn Hughes | Thursday, January 22, 2015

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Stephen Hayes, Review: ActiveWords for Naming Documents

Adron Beene, Review: TValue for Amortization Calculations

Carol Baker, Review: dtSearch for a Briefs Knowledge Base

Christian Onsager, Body Position and Tablets

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Accounting/Billing/Time Capture | Coming Attractions | Document Management | Furniture/Office Supplies | Laptops/Smartphones/Tablets | Litigation/Discovery/Trials | TL Answers | Utilities

Reviews of NaturallySpeaking 12.5, Jarte, Arkon Portable Fold-Up Stand; Height-Adjustable Desks; Using Downtime

By Kathryn Hughes | Friday, October 4, 2013

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Dave Migliaccio, Review: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12.5 Plus Dictation v. Typing

Steven Schwaber, Use Your Downtime Wisely and Get on Your Feet

Ernest Bruchez, Review: Jarte (Text Editor)

Jeremy Clark, Review: Arkon Portable Fold-Up Stand For Tablets

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Business Productivity/Word Processing | Coming Attractions | Dictation/OCR/Speech Recognition | Fat Friday | Furniture/Office Supplies | Gadgets/Shredders/Office Gear | Laptops/Smartphones/Tablets | Law Office Management

iPad Smackdown; Microsoft Word Tips; Baby Boomers and Biometric Security; Review of SoundFreaq Sound Kick SFQ-04

By Kathryn Hughes | Friday, July 26, 2013

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Ken Laska, Smackdown: iPad Versus Legal Leathers Carts

Yvonne Renfrew, Microsoft Word: Widows, Orphans, and Paragraph Numbering

Steven Schwaber, Baby Boomers and Thumbprint Security Like Oil and Water

Derrick Jackson, Review: SoundFreaq Sound Kick SFQ-04 Bluetooth Speaker System

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Business Productivity/Word Processing | Coming Attractions | Fat Friday | Furniture/Office Supplies | Gadgets/Shredders/Office Gear | Laptops/Smartphones/Tablets | Privacy/Security

Use Word's Track Changes on Your iPad Plus 151 More Must-Reads

By Kathryn Hughes | Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 152 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

How to Buy the Best Portable Hard Drive

The State of Smartphones in 2012

Review: The Best Office Chairs

Rainmaking Is as Much About Data as Handshakes (Video)

Congratulations to Jeff Richardson of iPhone J.D. on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: Review of Word-Compatible Track Changes in Pages for iPad

Don't miss today's issue or any future issues of BlawgWorld.

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Topics: Backup/Media/Storage | BlawgWorld Newsletter | Business Productivity/Word Processing | Collaboration/Knowledge Management | Coming Attractions | Furniture/Office Supplies | Laptops/Smartphones/Tablets | Law Firm Marketing/Publications/Web Sites | Law Office Management | Technology Industry/Legal Profession

A Special Report on iPad Stands That Don't Consume Desk Space

By Neil J. Squillante | Thursday, April 5, 2012

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

Every review of the 2012 iPad mentions that it weighs slightly more than the iPad 2 thanks primarily to the larger battery required to power the retina display. We mentioned it too in our TL NewsWire coverage, but it's a largely irrelevant datapoint because even the iPad 2 is too heavy to hold for long periods of time.

Accordingly, a vibrant after market exists for iPad stands. But the vast majority consist of desk stands. Don't we already have enough stuff on our desks?

In this special TL NewsWire article, I've rounded up some unique stands that don't consume desk space or that function in other use cases from your bedroom to your reception area.

Desk Stands That Don't Consume Desk Space

Monitors in Motion's Tablet Lift ($289) clamps to your desk without any screws. Once mounted, you can move and rotate your iPad with one finger. It has a maximum reach of 16.7 inches.

Twelve South's much less expensive HoverBar ($79.99) can attach not only to your desk but to an iMac (pictured above). In the latter configuration, you can position your iPad above or to the right or left of your iMac. You can even attach two HoverBars to an iMac (iPads sold separately as they say).

Floor Stands Offer More Versatility

Many lawyers use their iPads for both business and pleasure. In fact, the iPad truly shines away from your desk even for work-related tasks such as reviewing a deposition transcript. Steve Jobs purposely demonstrated the iPad while sitting in an easy chair to underscore its positioning as a "Post-PC" device.

Floor stands can work at a desk, but also in other locations such as an easy chair or even in bed. Stand For Stuff's SwingHolder ($239) weighs about 20 pounds and adjusts to almost any conceivable position. A USB cable runs through the stand so that you can use your iPad without draining the battery. This lamp-like wiring probably explains its hefty price tag.

Less expensive is the LEVO Deluxe Floor Stand ($159), which has the added benefit of casters for easy mobility. However, its iPad holder lacks the build quality of the SwingHolder. It also lacks wiring, but given the iPad's long battery life power doesn't seem like a critical feature.

Cheaper still is Standzout's Standzfree ($99.99). Because it weighs just six pounds, you could use it as a lectern in court. Just make sure you don't knock it over.

A Classy Touch to Your Reception Area

When you're next in New York City, have lunch at Birreria and dinner at South Gate to see the iPad in commercial use. Birreria uses an iPad to check in guests, whereas South Gate houses its wine list on iPads.

Why let restaurants have all the fun? An iPad can add a touch of class to your reception area — and it may save you money in the long run by enabling you to cancel your magazine subscriptions. Of course, most people wouldn't bother stealing a magazine. But an iPad could grow some legs even if you don't have a criminal law practice. Security is key.

Griffin will soon begin shipping Kiosk, a stand that locks down an iPad and eliminates access to its ports. A power cable resides within the stand. You can choose from a floor ($299) or table ($199) model. Both enable you to bolt the stand (floor, table, or wall) for further security.

For a different approach, you could use one of the many iPad locks — typically a case with a lock connected to a steel cord that you wrap around an immovable object.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
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Topics: Furniture/Office Supplies | Gadgets/Shredders/Office Gear | Laptops/Smartphones/Tablets | TL NewsWire

Legal Technology Is Doomed; Reviews of LastPass, Roboform, 1Password, Ergotron WorkFit; Private Cloud Versus Public Cloud Versus iCloud

By Kathryn Hughes | Friday, February 24, 2012

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Mazyar Hedayat, Is Legal Technology Doomed?

Jason Pink, Reviews of LastPass, Roboform, 1Password

Mark Mitchell, Review: Ergotron Workfit Station for Multiple Monitors

Nathan Schindler, Private Versus Public Clouds and How They Differ From iCloud

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Automation/Document Assembly/Macros | Backup/Media/Storage | Coming Attractions | Fat Friday | Furniture/Office Supplies | Monitors | Networking/Operating Systems | Online/Cloud | Privacy/Security | Technology Industry/Legal Profession | Utilities

SmallLaw: Five Things My Mother Didn't Tell Me About Solo and Small Firm Practice

By Yvonne Renfrew | Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Originally published on June 7, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

There are many things my mother didn't tell me that I had to learn the hard way — that is, in real life. In all fairness, however, my mother was not a lawyer so I cannot hold her accountable for not better equipping me for law practice when I was starting out. Having now practiced since Moses was a baby, I impart here a few handy hints (a la Heloise) from which lawyers starting their own practices who take heed will benefit greatly over the years. However mundane or retro these tips may sound right now, you'll thank me later.

1. Your First Purchase

You won't believe me, but your most important acquisition (definitely long before Black's) should be a business card scanner — preferably a small one that you can have at hand all the time, including when you go to conventions, professional programs, etc.

DYMO, which acquired CardScan, sells a variety of these with appropriate software that capture the information printed on the card, an image of the card, and your notes. The more annotations you add to each card the better (where you met the person, anything they said of note, brief physical description, existence or name of wife or kids if mentioned) because (1) you will not remember later, and (2) this information — and more importantly this store of information — will prove invaluable over the years.

If you're smart, you will not waste any time after the meeting dropping your new acquaintances an email (or even an old-fashioned snail mail note), and then from time to time stay in touch.

Of course now "there is an app for that" since iPhones (and others) can scan cards using their camera as the scanner. Just make sure the $5 app you buy works as reliably as the gold-standard CardScan. Either way, get back to your hotel room as quickly as possible to scan each business card before you forget anything.

2. Don't Run a Paper-Based Office, but if You Do …

A. Paper Punching

Buy one (or better yet two) GBC 150-sheet Electric Punches if you can find them. You can vary the punch location, so I bought two, set one up as a 3-hole and one as a 2-hole punch to avoid the annoyance of constantly changing punch locations. When I made the purchase, I suspected I might be losing my mind — nearly $600 with tax for a hole puncher! But I often thought over the years those had been, in the final analysis, two of my most astute purchases because they permitted my small law office to prepare (including punching) expeditiously huge paper submissions, and huge trial exhibit sets, for huge cases that we could not otherwise have handled.

Other electric two-hole punches will function only to place two holes at the top of the paper (as needed for court-filing), but will not place those two holes on the long edge of the paper (as is needed for European File systems and the like). But the GBC monsters can handle anything.

Nowadays, of course, your court filings can be uploaded to a service leaving all the pesky punching and tabbing to others, but at a significant financial cost. Similarly, you can engage services to assemble (copy, punch, tab, and insert in notebooks) your trial exhibits — but again at a rather fancy price.

Those who cannot afford such services will ultimately come out way ahead by investing in the GBC monster punches or their modern day equivalents.

For those with more modest budgets, high capacity manual punches are available, such as the Swingline Heavy-Duty High Capacity Hole Punch at $264.99 from Staples. Alternatively, for 3-hole punched trial exhibits and the like, purchase pre-punched papers and (assuming you have your exhibits already imaged) print your trial exhibits onto the pre-punched paper.

B. Exhibit and Declaration Tabs

Can't tell how much money you have invested in pre-printed exhibit pages that eat up storage space and yet never seem to include all the exhibit designations you actually need?

Buy what used to be called Redi-Tags and are now sometimes marketed as Medi-Tags. Each individual tab consists of (1) an area on which you can print (yes, with your printer or God forbid type) your exhibit or declaration designation, and (2) a gummed portion which can be invisibly affixed to the appropriate page in your papers, for either bottom or side tabs. These come in various sizes (suitable for just letters, numbers, or longer "Exhibit "#" or "Declaration of "#"). Because you can print them yourself, you can always have exactly the right tabs, and your entire collection takes up just a smidgen of space in a single drawer instead of an entire file cabinet.

3. Avoid "Groundhog Day" Scanning

For those who have switched over to scanning instead of squirrelling away paper, but have not yet fully succeeded, avoid the scanner's "Groundhog Day" trap of not knowing for sure (especially in the long run) what has already been scanned, and thus repetitively scanning documents "just to be sure."

The cure is simple. Buy an inked stamp (I use one which is just a red star). When a document has been scanned, stamp it with a red star on the front. If the document is "original," "certified" or otherwise unsuitable for stamping, then stamp a small post-it with your red star and staple the stamped post-it to the front of the document.

4. In Praise of Labels

While shopping at DYMO or the like, get yourself two printers (or a DYMO Turbo, which is essentially two side-by-side label printers in a single chassis) that you can set up so that your mailing labels print out on the left, while your postage stamps (from Endicia) print out on the right.

And now for the tip that will save you the most money and grief over the course of your electronics-buying career! While you are still dropping bucks at DYMO, buy yourself yet another label printer that creates vinyl labels with peel-off backs. Then, every time you purchase a computer or other electronic device, immediately (i.e., before you let yourself sit down and play with it) print and affix a label to every single cord and other accessory and miscellaneous piece — including most importantly the AC power adapter — that came with your new toy.

That label must show the name of the main product to which this piece is appurtenant, and its function. And do not forget to label the main gadget, including its serial number, and other essential information. This regime is the only cure known to man or woman for the calamity that will ensue when you move or otherwise need to store and later re-connect equipment.

5. Your Own Private Law Library

When conducting legal research on a particular point, I often stumble across really fabulous authority for other and different points which are likely to arise, either next Tuesday or a year from next Tuesday. For a while I deluded myself into believing that I would be able easily to find these authorities again. Not so — and especially not if the point appears nested in language that contains few distinctive words providing fodder for a future search. And even when I could find the desired authority again, it was only with the expenditure of significant additional time.

I constantly express thankfulness in my prayers for the day that it finally hit me that I should create a special directory that I could treat as my own personal law library (e.g., \LEX). Now I don't know about you Westlaw folks, but on Lexis.com I can download and save the single case authority containing my newly discovered nugget, and can do so without interfering with my ongoing research on the original point.

So now I save that little gem of authority while I have it in front of me. But think through and adopt a naming convention for your collection of downloaded cases, the idea being that you should make them easy to find by a simple file-name search when you need to locate "that great case that held X" or which "dealt with procedural scenario Y."

Now I am not, of course, talking about saving cases saying that it is possible to demur to a complaint, but rather cases (and statutes) which either (1) deal with points which have a high recurrence rate in your practice, or (2) which might prove difficult or even impossible to find again in the future. Even so, my own "private library" now contains over 3,500 cases and statutes.

Once again — you will thank me later.

Written by Yvonne M. Renfrew of Renfrew Law.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Copiers/Scanners/Printers | Furniture/Office Supplies | Gadgets/Shredders/Office Gear | Law Office Management | Legal Research | SmallLaw

SmallLaw: Top Five Tips When Setting Up a Home Law Office

By John Heckman | Thursday, April 21, 2011

Originally published on March 21, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Operating a law firm from your home is not for everybody. Two basic prerequisites exist for successfully setting up a home office.

First, if you enjoy day-to-day contact with colleagues, you may find yourself going stir crazy. On the other hand, if you just like to hole up and get your work done, it can be an ideal situation.

Second, you need to be reasonably computer literate. When working from home you will not have any onsite support. You can waste a tremendous amount of time trying to find a solution on the Web. After 14 years of working from my home office, I have many tips for lawyers considering this path. Below you'll find the five most important.

1. Use an Actual Room With a Door That Closes

Especially if you have kids, you need actual office space. You need to be able to leave all your papers and go have lunch and not have to clear off the dining room table. You need an "office environment" and avoid giving the impression that since you are "home" you can be interrupted at any time. If you have kids, you may actually want to post "office hours" on the door of your office.

2. Clients and Home Offices Don't Mix

Do you need to meet clients in your office? Obviously, if you plan to meet clients in a home office, you need to set it up much differently. Most people will have neither the space nor the desire to meet clients at home (and your clients probably feel the same way). You're better off renting an executive suite from companies such as Regus or subleasing unused office space in a local law firm. If you don't have many meetings, you can work from home and use an executive suite as a virtual office for its conference rooms and perhaps its call answering service as well.

3. Get a Virtual Assistant (Secretarial and/or Paralegal)

Investigate using online secretarial and paralegal services. They're widely available and frequently locally. Used in combination with Web-based collaboration tools such as Box.net you can easily share, edit, revise, and track documents. You upload documents to a secure shared space for editing. You receive an email message about any changes, etc. This arrangement is much more efficient than sending documents via email.

In a recent issue of BigLaw, Escape From the AmLaw 100, former Latham & Watkins partner Joshua Stein extolled the virtues of his virtual assistant when he set up a solo practice (though he leases office space and does not work from home).

4. Comfort First, Looks Second

Law office furniture is usually designed for show, not for functionality. Buy ergonomic and computer-friendly equipment. The ideal height for a computer keyboard is about 2" lower than the standard desk height. The "under the desk" drawers for keyboards are often flimsy and unproductive. Humanscale makes some of the most highly-rated keyboard systems.

Buy a good computer chair. TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante (who does not work in a home office) uses a Herman Miller Embody chair (pictured above — the chair, not Neil), which he describes as "expensive but worth every Benjamin." He purchased it with a few non-standard options for $957 from WB Wood, a local office furniture dealership. While online stores often offer the best deals, that's not true for Herman Miller chairs according to Neil. He suggests finding a local authorized dealer.

My fellow SmallLaw columnist Yvonne Renfrew used to sit on a Herman Miller chair in her home office, but praises her new Verte Chair in her recent column, Under the Technology: Desk and Chair Recommendations for Small Offices.

Some work is better suited for other chairs so in addition to a computer chair, consider buying a comfortable armchair for reading final drafts, using your iPad, or simply taking a break. Finally, don't miss Marin Feldman's evergreen BigLaw column, Top Five Ergonomic Problems at Large Law Firms, which applies equally to home offices.

5. Reliable, Secure Telephone Service

Consider me old-fashioned, but I still find landlines the way to go. About 75% of the time I can tell if someone is using a cell phone or even VoIP by the quality of the call. A crackly line, dead spots of a second or two, a call that sounds under water, etc. makes you seem and literally "sound" unprofessional. So I stick with my cordless Plantronics telephone and headset and nationwide calling plan. That said, many other options cost less.

Vonage is the leading VoIP company. VoIP services have the advantage of call hunting — ringing your smartphone and other phones when you're not in your home office. If you make a lot of international calls, Skype can save you a lot of money. I have used Skype for technical support and demonstrations with people in Egypt, India, and Vietnam. Given that the calls are free, the quality was perfectly acceptable. Lastly Google's Google Voice offers an array of services plus you can now port your Google Voice number to your smartphone. Yvonne covered these and other services in more detail her SmallLaw column, Everything Law Firms Need to Know About Switching to VoIP Telephone Service.

A variety of answering services exist — at a price. Decide what functionality you need before spending money on such services. Your practice may require nothing fancier than voicemail.

A related issue concerns the question of a fax line. With the importance of faxes declining rapidly, you probably will be better off with a scanner and an email/fax solution such as MyFax. I pay $10 a month and have yet to exceed the page limit. That's much less costly than a dedicated fax line.

Conclusion

As for everything else you need, don't skimp. When you hear yourself thinking "I can manage without that," stop. Within a very short period of time you will discover you can't manage. For example, you can't have a law practice today without a Web site. For email on the go, a smartphone is essential. Buy a dedicated laser printer and scanner rather than a multifunction inkjet printer. You get the idea. Considering what you'll save on rent, go for the best when it comes to the rest of what you need.

Written by John Heckman of Heckman Consulting.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Furniture/Office Supplies | Law Office Management | SmallLaw

11.6-Inch MacBook Air Reviews Plus 106 More Articles

By Sara Skiff | Monday, October 25, 2010

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 107 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

The Real World of Virtual Law Firms

Review: Laptop Magazine: 11.6-Inch MacBook Air

The Best Places to Take a Nap in Large Law Firms

Cracking the Facebook Code

Don't miss this issue or future issues.

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Topics: BlawgWorld Newsletter | Coming Attractions | Furniture/Office Supplies | Laptops/Smartphones/Tablets | Law Firm Marketing/Publications/Web Sites | Law Office Management | Online/Cloud

SmallLaw: Under the Technology: Desk and Chair Recommendations for Small Offices

By Yvonne Renfrew | Monday, October 25, 2010

SmallLaw-10-18-10-450

Originally published on October 18, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

A modern solo practice or small law firm requires rethinking (1) technological tools, (2) procedures, and (3) workspace. We start here in this issue of SmallLaw with the most fundamental and low-tech of these, yet one of critical importance to lawyers, especially those working from "home offices" — your workspace.

From a Traditional Office to One Less Office

It was serendipity that forced me to focus on workspace considerations. I broke, and then re-broke my foot, resulting in being in a boot/cast contraption for nearly a year. Until then, I had thought ideal my move to a downtown loft with living space upstairs and a huge (essentially traditional) office workspace downstairs. Suddenly, "downstairs" sounded like the other side of Mars. And it was not immediately apparent that I could set up an even temporarily efficient workspace in the far more accessible but relatively miniscule upstairs living area.

However, using a four and one-half foot square area in the corner of the living room, I was able to establish a workspace so efficient and so perfect for a technologically advanced practice that the downstairs remains essentially abandoned, except as the parking place for large printers and production scanners, all of which I use less and less as I'll explain in future columns.

Central to the workspace setup is, of course, the desk, and I owe TechnoLawyer my thanks for pointing me to Heckler Design which is the manufacturer of "OneLessDesk."

Heckler Design's desk, constructed of steel, is actually two separate desks forged of metal into the shape of an inverted "U." The larger has a footprint (including sliders) of approximately 39 x 14.5 inches with the other small enough to be snuggled completely within the shelter of the larger piece. The larger piece has what is, from the front, an invisible shelf which is ideal for out-of-sight storage of AC adaptor blocks and electrical cords, among other potential uses. When in use, the smaller desk slides out thus providing a two level workspace.

By way of example, I have sitting on the higher desk a dual 20" monitor set up, a USB postage scale, a Dymo LabelWriter Duo, and a Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo that prints mailing labels with one of its two print heads, and postage (using Endicia) with the other. There remains enough real estate on the larger component of the desk to place the charger for my Bluetooth mouse, to lay my iPhone while recharging, and other minor junk.

Various NAS (near area storage) devices, including a wonderful Drobo, fit neatly under the desk yet in plain sight and easily accessible.

The smaller slide-out component of the desk holds my gigantic Lenovo W700 laptop along with its docking station, a Polycom phone speaker, an external LaCie 1TB Drive, and myriad additional pieces of junk.

With OneLessDesk you can forget about the three most dreaded words in the English language — "minor assembly required." Nothing is required other than to unpack the components of your OneLessDesk, and then (which even I can do) screw on the non-skid sliders that permit the desk to move easily over any surface where the desk meets the floor.

Anthro Minicart and Verte Chair

I actually have two "OneLessDesk" sets (a total of four desk surfaces) that I have placed at a 90 degree angle, thus creating an "L" shaped work area. Because I wanted to fully use these desk areas, they do not overlap, which means I have a small square area in the "V" between the two desks into which fit perfectly a small Anthro "MiniCart" (under $300) to which I added an extra bottom shelf.

The MiniCart holds my ScanSnap, telephone base set, an extra large Bluetooth keyboard in its charging stand, another sizeable gizmo, a laser printer, a network switch, an external LightScribe CD/DVD burner by LiteOn, and a Vonage adapter (into which my phone base is plugged).

Rather than using a MiniCart to hold additional equipment, you can place your printers and/or scanners on Heckler Design's "OneLessStands," which is shaped precisely like the components of its "OneLessDesk," but small enough to be snuggled completely within the shelter of the OneLessDesk. Although I prefer always if possible to work with electronic documents, for those who cannot completely cut the cord to paper, or who are forced to deal with paper, Heckler Design also sells a "OneLessFile," which provides Pendaflex storage that fits neatly under the OneLessStand. After happily working for years without them, I have just now ordered both the Stand and File, which will increase my available workspace without adding to my 4.5 foot square "office" footprint.

Such a classy setup demands, of course, the perfect chair. For quite a while I used a Herman Miller Aeron with this set-up, and both functionally and aesthetically, it worked wonderfully. I have now moved on, however, to the Verte Chair sold (but apparently not manufactured) by Anthro, which is a bit odd-looking, in an industrial torture contraption sort of way and expensive ($1,500), but well worth it, especially to anyone with back problems.

Cost and Caveats

Heckler Design has bundled its OneLessDesk ($699), OneLessStand ($299), and OneLessFile ($149) into what, not surprisingly, it calls its "OneLessOffice" ($1047), all prices inclusive of shipping charges.

All of Heckler Design's office components appear incredibly well made and good value, and have that edgy industrial chic appearance so much in demand, but I have a few warnings: Do not stub your toe on the edge of the desk, and do not pinch any part of your body between something else hard and that edge, or it will hurt. In other words, not for klutzes. Also, the desk feet do not have levelers.

Creating a workspace like mine not only solves common space problems in a hip eye-pleasing way, but also encourages economical practices while discouraging reliance on "old-school" routines such as accumulation of paper and post-its and the bad work habits that inevitably ensue.

Written by Yvonne M. Renfrew of Renfrew Law.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Topics: Furniture/Office Supplies | SmallLaw
 
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