I recently had the opportunity to talk with AZ Family TV about what was and wasn’t OK to talk about on Facebook — particularly in a workplace setting.
We’ve all heard the warnings. Chances of having an accident and injuring yourself and others increase substantially if you’re talking on the phone, texting, or whatever else your “smartphone” is capable of doing for you while driving. The U.S. Transportation Department describes the growing problem as “epidemic.”
Now the courts are raising the penalty. If it can be shown that the call you were making, or the text you were sending or reading, was “work related,” your employer may be held liable for the injuries caused to others or property damage resulting from the accident attributable to your diverted attention – even if your were driving your own car or the accident occurs after normal business hours.. The legal basis for holding employers responsible could be direct negligence or the doctrine of “respondeat superior.”
In response, increasing numbers of companies are establishing policies that prohibit employees from using their cell phones for business purposes while driving. But having a written policy alone may not be enough. To avoid liability, the employer may have to show that, in addition, it has taken reasonable action to stop the conduct it knows is occurring.
Does your company have a formal policy about phone usage while driving? If not, you might want to bring this corporate risk to the attention your company’s in-house counsel.
Florida trial lawyer, Ira H. Leesfield, has an informative post about these issues on Law Technology News.
If your law department hires outside counsel, chances are some of the law firms you use offer “extranet” access on their websites so you can view case files, billing status and other related information pertaining to the work the firms are goind for your company.
In fact, ten years ago, Professor Richard Susskind (whom some regard as the most important thinker and writer on the subject of the legal profession today), author of Transforming the Law: Essays on Technology, Justice and the Legal Marketplace (Oxford 2000), predicted that law firms would need to offer extranets to their clients just to remain competitive in the legal marketplace.
Now, if your law department enagaes only one or two law firms to work on corporate matters, surely having fingertip access to related documents and billing information would be helpful. But what if you regularly retain a dozen or more firms as part of your normal operations?
And suppose only half of those firms offer client extranets – each requiring a different username and passwork, and each with a different look and feel. What’s the likelihood that members of your in-house legal team will log into all of those different portals to check the status of outside counsel work? And, isn’t any efficiency you might gain by having access to the work product and billing information from some firms lost by the failure of others to provide similar extranets?
When you think about it, what really makes much more sense is for your law department to have a secure website (or worksite) where you require your outside counsel to centralize their communications to you and upload the documents and other information you want to have about the legal matters you assign to them. See, for example, the recent article in InsideCounsel magazine, “Extranets Cut Costs in Law Departments“ and the ACC Value Challenge Tool Kit white paper, “Implementing an Extranet for a Corporate Law Department,” describing the worksite Wyndham Worldwide Corporation has constructed for its legal team.
Forrest Morgan, President of Law Department Desktop Services (LDDS) and formerly Associate General Counsel at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, agrees. As Westinghouse’s second ranking attorney in the early 1990s, Mr. Morgan was tasked by corporate management to bring the legal team into the age of computers. Developing a dedicated website to serve as a central repository of legal work product and connecting the company’s 130-plus in-house lawyers to dozens of outside counsel was at the heart of t project.
Mr. Morgan believes that Westinghouse was the first company to create a law department extranet “designed by in-house counsel for use by in-house counsel.” At a recent program in support of the ACC Value Challenge hosted by the ACC Mountain West Chapter in Boise, ID, Mr. Morgan outlined these elements of the ideal law department worksite:
As to direct benefits, according to Mr. Morgan, the well-designed law department worksite will
LDDS offers the “Law Department Efficiency Desktop,” a web-based law department portal built on a 2010 Microsoft SharePoint Services platform. For more information, you can contact Mr. Morgan at 804-306-3558 or email forrest.morgan@lawdepartmentdesktop.com.
With ongoing pressure from corporate management to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and gain more value for the their legal spend, more law department leaders are looking at how state-of-the-art technology can help them achieve these goals.
Larger law departments may have a marked advantage with greater financial and human resources to acquire new tools and devote personnel to deploy and administer them. But don’t count small law departments out.
Technology for Small Law Departments. There is a new collaborative effort under way to determine the best approach for small in-house legal teams to take advantage of the same technology available to those with more extensive resources. Leaders of the southwest regional law firm of Fennemore Craig, Law Department Desktop Services, LawPartnering, Minneapolis-based Legal Research Center and Ron Peppe, Vice President of Legal and Human Resources of Canam Steel Corporation-U.S., are involved in a collaborative effort to develop a model for implementing technology at small law departments (SLDs).
Please Provide Your Ideas. The parties involved in the SLD/Canam Steel project have identified the questions listed below as concerns law department leaders may have in implementing new technology.
What do you think? In your experience, are these questions spot on? Have you encountered other concerns when contenplating implementing new technology at your law department?
Further Information. Please contact Peter Jenkins (928-776-4600 or email peter.jenkins@LawPartnering.com) if you want more information about the SLD/Canam Steel project or would like to track its progress. There is opportunity for additional participation.
There is good advice today from Yahoo Finance: “7 Tips for Staying Off the Chopping Block,” offered to avoid unwanted layoff in today’s uncertain economy.
Nothing really surprising here, but it’s always good to remember what keeps you valuable in your employer’s eyes. Paraphrased and in a nutshell –
Be a Team Player. It makes sense, of course, to be viewed as someone who plays well with others. See too our recent post about making others look good.
Stay Positive. Although you might feel you’re aligning with your coworkers when they grip about work and related challenges, negative comments and association with employees who have perpetual negative outlooks will not win you points with your supervisors.
Get Evaluated. Make sure you know what your superiors and coworkers think of you. Seek to have your performance reviewed regularly and look for opportunities to upgrade you work.
Work Hard. Go the extra mile. Offer to do more than your job description requires. Maintain a list of your accomplishments so you can highlight these in performance reviews.
Stay Up-to-Date. Make sure you stay at the cutting edge of your professions. Anticipate and acquire knowledge and skills that will make you more valuable to your company.
Be Professional. In short, take your career seriously. Importantly, look and behave the part. If you were in your employer’s shoes, would you hire someone like you? If not, consider what you might do to make yourself an ideal candidate for your position.
Keep Your Job Search a Secret. Don’t tell colleagues at work you’re looking for a new position; and be careful where you post your resume. Learning that you’re wanting to move on may motivate your current employer to show you the door.
You can review the entire Yahoo Finance post by clicking here. Also, please take a moment to let us know your best tips for keeping your job.
