Skip to main content

New Year’s resolution.


I have never been a fan of the whole New Year’s resolution idea. Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals. Multiple times in the past, I have tried to latch onto the idea and failed miserably. Not from lack of conviction or willpower but perhaps just from poor choices for my resolution. Therefore, this year I was trying to think of something I could make a real effort to fulfill. Something litigation support related which would enrich my career.

Then it dawned on me an area that often is over-looked in our industry. The use of applications and maintaining our proficiency with them. Everyone who uses a computer to conduct work knows how fast a skill set can vanish when not used on a regular basis. Sure, it can be likened to the bicycle adage but often that is just wishful thinking. In just a few updates or patches, you can be staring at an application, which looks very different.

Therefore, my resolution will be to delve back into my old friend Concordance. When still working as a litigation support analyst at a large Philadelphia law firm that was my main tool. Every day I was loading collections and managing databases in that application. Now after two years of consulting work my skills have become a tad rusty with my old friend. So I remain optimistic some of the old issues with irritated me with the software have been resolved.

With that in mind, I encourage anyone reading this blog to visit an old application and warm it up. Been a while since you worked with layers in Photoshop? Maybe you have not edited a load file using TextPad in ages. Whatever the application may be just remember the old adage use it or lose it rings very true in our industry. Often the distractions of our work take us away from education. Re-learning is just as important as learning something completely new.

In fact, self-enrichment and learning are what will keep your edge in the pirate waters of this economy. Setting aside time to maintain proficiency levels in a multitude of applications is imperative in this ever-evolving environment. Clients and colleagues are relying on us to maintain the technical expertise we have and to learn more. Consistent reading, a skill losing traction everyday, will assist with maintaining skill levels and education.

Some would argue to look forward in terms of technical education only. Things are changing rapidly in the technology world so perhaps some old skills are better left untouched. However, in most instances those old skills hover on the periphery of new skills. Moreover, it is those older skills, which may set you apart from the competition.

Reference

New Year's resolution. (2010, January 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Popular posts from this blog

Analogies and the courtroom.

"One good analogy is worth three hours discussion." - Dudley Field Malone Over the years I have seen so many complicated concepts vanish into the nether void of the courtroom. Moreover uncomplicated concepts or facts which became bogged down in lawyer speak. One of my jobs as a trial consultant is to assist with breaking down these concepts and facts. The end result is to use visual communication as a tool to help a jury absorb and understand this information.  One of the biggest tools in assisting with this goal is a good analogy. An analogy is defined as non-identical comparisons between two things, with a resulting similar explanatory effect. The best case teams I have worked with over the years have mastered the use of analogy in their presentations. This has been a constant tool and point of interest in my professional career. One of the first things I do when I join a trial team is read all the expert reports. This gives me an instant foundation of the case to...
Read more

Video Deposition Tips.

The witness is a doctor who had surgery duties today and he or she is exhausted. Opposing counsel prepped them while you waited in the lobby with the court reporter for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the videographer walks out to the lobby to verify the equipment is setup and the prep session is over. You sit patiently and wonder if the sound of your stomach rumbling with hunger pains will be captured by the microphone. What else could go wrong? Unfortunately, in a video deposition much more. My big break in the litigation support industry was about 15 years ago. I took what I thought was a summer job as a legal videographer. Little did I know what was about to happen in terms of my career path. I only lay that foundation because even now so many years later little has changed with video depositions. OK, sure now we have better technology but the basic underlying mistakes made are the same. So I just thought I would share a few tips and observations here on my blog. There a...
Read more

Technology and the Chewbacca defense.

Over the years, I have been asked by several case teams about the dangers of using tech in the courtroom. Most of these inquiries were founded in the belief that technology may be too slick. Or perhaps the jury may infer the client has a tremendous amount of resources to spend on the case. Of course, ten years ago those were valid concerns, but not in our current age of increasingly tech savvy jurors. However, there are also still many pockets of resistance amongst the general populace. Therefore, we must consider the ramifications of letting the technology overwhelm the audience. Interestingly enough, I am not referring to the technology you may use in your own presentation. Instead, those tools which are employed by your adversary. In my experience, there has been a very subtle increase in the use of technology to confuse the jury. The presentation could be an overcomplicated graph, animation, or demonstrative of some type. These examples are almost always supported by the tech/la...
Read more