Getting It There With Internet E-mail

By Dale Tincher

Maryann Crea, an attorney and director of the North Carolina Bar Association's CLE program needs to notify several people of an upcoming CLE program. She needs to confirm the dates and times with the speaker from Atlanta, Georgia. She needs to update Allan Head, Executive Director of the North Carolina Bar Association. Allan's office is down the hall from Maryann's office. However he is often in meetings and sometimes travels. She wishes to let Jack Stevens of Asheville, North Carolina and president of the North Carolina Bar know since he has been interested in this program for quite some time. In addition to notifying the individuals, she wishes to attach a copy of the agenda to their notice and she wishes to attach a copy of the speaker's credentials.

This series of tasks is not unusual for Maryann. In the past, accomplishing this meant typing, then mailing or faxing several memos and letters. Multiple personnel could be involved in carrying out the notifications. Additionally, mail or phone charges were involved.

Thanks to technology, Maryann can now accomplish these tasks by herself when appropriate. First, she can locate the speaker's credentials by locating his home page on the Internet and cutting and pasting his resume into WordPerfect 6.1. She can prepare to notify each person by using her mouse to choose the Novell Groupwise Electronic Mail (E-mail) ICON. Next, she can pull up an electronic address book and point to the recipient's names (the system inputs their E-mail addresses). She types the introductory message, pastes the resume into the message, points to the document name in WordPerfect 6.1 and clicks on "Send."

Novell Groupwise and Novell's Internet software do the rest. The message is sent down the hall to Allan. It travels to Jack Stevens in Asheville. It speeds to Georgia to the speaker and a copy is retained in Maryann's "searchable" outbox. (I like the searchable feature since I have not had much success "electronically searching" a sticky-note or memo). Each person immediately receives the message and attachments. The advantages over a fax include the ability to edit the documents in a word processor no transmission cost or consumables.

As the recipients confirm their agreement with the details, Maryann is notified visually and by sound of their response through a "beep" and a small message in the middle of her screen. She may be working in WordPerfect or any other Windows application and she will (if desired) be notified. The message lets her know who sent the message and the content. Once everyone is in agreement, Maryann can have a staff member update the CLE section of "Barlinc.com," The North Carolina Bar Association's home page. The course is quickly available for the world to see.

The parties to these messages are not required to use any computer standards to accomplish these communications. Some may use Apple computers. Others may use DEC or IBM computers. They may have a home based PC or a sophisticated network system. The common highway these travelers navigate on is the Internet, often referred to as the World Wide Web.

Guy Sodano of the North Carolina Bar Association and the members of the NC Bar computer committee were not alone in their desire to streamline communications. I communicate at least weekly with several local law firms in Greensboro and High Point. These firms communicate with other firms, clients and vendors through Internet E-mail. I also, incidentally, communicate with a lawyer in Australia whom I met when he inquired about one of my Internet articles that had come up during one of his searches. Users echo the ease, convenience and speed of Internet E-mail and they enjoy the absence of labor and long-distance charges for communications and multi-page document attachment.

In the past, E-mail was primarily an internal tool. It provided the capability to send (by typing) and receive (by opening the mailbox) messages through a computer network. Every user has an E-mail address. The E-mail network can be as simple as two computers connected together using a cable and two network cards and running Microsoft Workgroups, Windows 95, or Lantastic as the network software. Most North Carolina firms, however, use a "server-based" network and utilize Novell's Groupwise (formerly WordPerfect Office) or Microsoft Mail for their software. When a firm needs to send E-mail to a remote individual or branch office, they use software such as PC Anywhere, Reachout or a remote version of the E-mail software to accomplish the task. Communications to clients with disparate systems can quickly become complex and cost prohibitive for the internal E-mail office.

Internal E-mail packages have more variations and flexibilities than those offered with external programs. Most internal E-mail systems include calendars, task managers, and other related utilities. E-mail can typically be printed and/or exported into other software applications. Advanced features can include filters that will allow you to filter in or out certain types of messages. You can choose options such as "rules" to allow you to have smart mail. A rule can "automatically notify everyone who sends me mail that I'm at the beach, play taunting music, display a gorgeous palm tree fronted sunset, and forward my tasks to Sue and my junk mail to John." A nice feature of many packages is that you can rethink a message, get out of bed, dial into the network, enter your password and delete your "heated" message from the bosses' mailbox. (Two advantages - you felt much better after you sent it . . . and after you changed your mind, you still have a job.)

Novell presentations include an example that goes something like this. You can set up a rule that automatically answers your boss saying "great idea". "I'll get right on it". "You can count on me." A rule can then forward the task to another staff member. It's great, you have made points and the job is passed on and you haven't even been in the office.

The Internet introduced an inexpensive and easy way to communicate with outside parties. The Internet standardized on a common protocol called TCP/IP. This allows virtually all PC users, regardless of their PC and software type, to communicate. All they need is a PC, a modem, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as Nando-net, VNET, MCI, Interpath, AT&T, America-On-Line or one of the other ever-emerging choices.

Many providers now provide "browser" software such as Netscape (which includes mail) or the equivalent. If your browser or provider does not provide an E-mail program you can easily download Eudora Lite and many others at no cost or you can inexpensively purchase any number of them.

I won't get into the pros and cons of providers, browsers, and telephone line options, however if you wish additional information, please E-mail or call me. Users have found it wonderful to be able to E-mail all over the world - to clients, other firms, friends, children in college, etc., and only get charged twenty to thirty dollars a month. When firms discover that they can attach twenty and thirty page documents, files, sound and video clips to a message - deadline stress, postage, and overnight shipping costs are reduced. The excitement increases when they learn there is no cost involved.

You can obtain E-mail addresses by using free Internet services such as four11.com. If you don't find an address, try using switchboard.com to obtain their phone number and call for an E-mail address. I have used switchboard.com and four11.com to find several high school and college friends. (I will have to admit to having put "old" high school and college friends in the previous sentence and vainly deleting it.)

You can imagine the excitement of an attorney the first time he or she pastes a part of an Internet derived decision into a brief, locates the E-mail address and E-mails it to several parties. Several steps, much time, and considerable labor and telephone charge expense are saved by all parties.

Clients are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. As businesses discover the joys of Internet E-mail, they begin to wonder why they cannot send E-mail to their progressive attorney. The firm brochure said that the firm "uses state of the art technology to support their clients." "Why do we have to type a message, print it, fax it or pay nine dollars (and up) to overnight it, then wait for the attorney to retype the message and submit a response?" After all, more than 30 million people use the Internet with a growth rate of 10 percent per month. These are good questions and ones you will hear increasingly. One of our clients was recently told by a major client to send summaries of their meetings by E-mail. The client didn't say "can you or will you." They said to "do it."

In the past, disparate E-mail and computer systems made it difficult and expensive to communicate with outside clients. The Internet has changed all that. All Internet user E-mail messages are converted to a common language.

Combining internal and external E-mail is more challenging than having the two separated. Novell, through SMTP Gateway software, and Groupwise and Microsoft, through Exchange and Microsoft Mail, offer software that simplifies the design. I prefer this method to building a system with products from several different manufacturers.

The North Carolina Bar Association is an example of the Novell alternative. We have done several integrations at this point and have achieved a high comfort level with this exciting technology. Another advantage to the combination of internal and external mail is that you can combine the beneficial feaures of both.

Security is a concern. While not as open for eavesdropping as a telephone party line, keep in mind that a determined hacker can obtain your E-mail. E-mail should be treated like a fax message with the same care and disclaimers.

Your options are to send the message and take your chances, use encryption (converting the message to special coding), using services such as MCI's private E-mail network, or to utilize a combination of methods. Encryption schemes such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) are available for free downloading.

One of our clients, suggested trying to send a WordPerfect 6.1 document with WordPerfect's built-in password capability. If you have ever forgotten your password and tried to retrieve the document, forget it. It is virtually impossible to salvage a passworded document. I sent Todd a password protected WordPerfect 6.1 document from my home based Nando-net system to his America-On-Line address. Todd was unable to open the document in WordPerfect until he entered our agreed-upon password and then it worked perfectly. Todd reports that the chances of the client having WordPerfect are far greater than their having and being able to use a compatible encryption program.

To prevent problems for yourself, be sure to inform clients that encryption is available and ask them if they wish you to use it.

An extremely well written series article on security is available on the Internet. It is written by Robert L. Jones and is available at http://www.kuesterlaw.com/netethics/bjones.htm. If you don't have Internet access, please feel free to come by our office and review the article on-line. We have internet access at each office desktop and we can provide you a station from which to survey the net..

When considering which E-mail and gateway software to implement, talk to a legal integrator and to other law firms. You may wish for all client messages to be listed in or attached to the electronic client file. This can be accomplished. Consider whether you'll want to send and receive E-mail to and from the courthouse or other remote sites. Wireless E-mail and cellular laptops may be attractive for your application.

If you want to learn more, please call or send me an E-mail. Another option is to go to your Internet browser and type "E-mail," "Legal E-mail," "E-mail security" or similar search terms. You will have more reading material than you have time to absorb.

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