Software and Technology

Aren’t we sick to death of new software and the constant bombardment of scary clickbait headlines? Headlines such as: Your Client’s Data Is Under Attack – Fight Back; How to Protect Your Data; 10 Ways You Are Making Yourself Vulnerable to Hackers!

Wave after wave of new software, patches and updates and the latest rounds of multi-factor authentication. I hate multi-factor authentication. The sheer volume of texts and/or emails is enough to make me want to run away screaming.

But alas and alack, here we are in the information age. We are not just bombarded by new software; we are in a constant state of software transitions and upgrades. Even the old software seems new as the way a software program works or where tools or functions are located is changed.

Additionally, in the past year, we have all gone through crash courses on Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms. Personally, I did two trials by Bluejeans. We fileshare; we encrypt; we program. As paralegals, the bulk of this technological work falls to us.

It falls to me to know how to use the programs we use, and how to teach the attorneys to use the programs we use. I’m the one who knows how the Zoom conferences work; I’m the one testing the limits of the Bluejeans platform. I’m the one who has done the training on the new document review software.

I am the one going through the online tutorials. Tutorials for both new software, such as: Zoom Tutorials, and BlueJeans Tutorials. And tried and true software, such as: Microsoft Office Tutorials. Tutorials can be a paralegal’s best friend, answering questions we didn’t even know we had and showing us better, easier ways to do things we thought we already knew how to do.

What I have learned in my time working for a law firm is that being able to work with, learn and use new programs, or upgraded old programs, exponentially increases my value to firm. This means that no matter how much I want to pull my hair out, I volunteer to be at the front of the line when it comes to software demos, trials, training sessions, and tutorials.