“Just go away.” “Get out of my face.” “I don’t practice law so would you please stop thinking you can practice IT?” You cannot deny that you have thought these things, more than once. Although, given the bright person that you are and your strong sense of job preservation, you’ve never said them so they could be heard. But all of us in law firm management, whether in IT or elsewhere, deal with the frustration of lawyers who are happy to tell us how to do our jobs, and are fully confident that they are knowledgeable enough to do so. Even when they aren’t.

I have been through a lot of mobile devices.  When I started with Kraft Kennedy nearly 14 years ago, I was given a SurePager and it was a fantastic device.  People could send me text messages and I could reply with one of 5 pre-canned responses.  Technology was amazing.  Then I moved on to BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, back to BlackBerry (what was I thinking switching to Windows Mobile?) then finally to iPhone.  Once I got used to the on screen keyboard, I was a happy camper.  I have become quite entrenched with Apple products in the past couple of years having an iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook and an AppleTV.

As many in the legal industry are aware, Dropbox has had it's share of security concerns and issues.  The concerns stretch from security breaches to iOS app flaws to an FTC complaint alleging outright deception about its security and privacy policies.  And to a law firm, they should be reason alone to stop using the service - failure on the part of an attorney to use adequate security measures to protect client confidences may be committing malpractice.  However, there are many attorneys out there that will still use it, because Dropbox provides a solution to a very common need -- sending large files to external clients.   Besides Dropbox, there are several other utilities out there that cater to this need: YouSendIt, Microsoft SkyDrive, and the just-announced Google Drive.

In a XenApp 6.5, Windows 2008 environment, there is a software conflict between Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1.671.4971 and Workshare 7 (including fix pack).  With SEP installed first, there was a generic Workshare error during installation of Workshare,and if you installed Workshare first then SEP, launching Workshare would throw an application error.  To remedy the issue, an Application Control exception policy was added under Exceptions in SEPM.  It is understood that the new update of Symantec will not cause this conflict.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]
"fDenyTSConnections"=dword:00000001

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]
"fDenyTSConnections"=dword:00000000

The global economy is causing many firms to explore inbound and outbound international practices as rich growth areas. Victims of our own success, it is no wonder that the lawyers demand the same level of technology and service whether in Kabul or Kuala Lumpur. However, these foreign offices present particular challenges for the firm’s IT staff, especially when it comes to roll-outs and enhancements. While the technical issues are not insignificant – latency, bandwidth – there are management aspects to consider when supporting and upgrading technologies in far-flung locations.

Beginning with XenDesktop 4, Citrix did away with concurrent user licensing and implemented per user/device instead. With this model you may find it necessary to enumerate licenses in use, or to free up licenses as users turn over. This post describes how to use the UDADMIN tool to accomplish these tasks.

After testing the Clamcase - a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard case for my new iPad - I plan to use the case only periodically, for special use situations. It will not be part of my daily commute. If you are going to be sitting down with a place to set the case (your lap or a desk), and if you will be typing heavily, then snap your iPad into the Clamcase and hit the road. If you won't be doing heavy drafting, leave it behind.

UPDATED 4/10/12

Click here to download the PDF version of this article from the January/February 2012 ALA New York City Newsletter!