Michael Ferguson

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead One measure of success is the ability to do meaningful work with a lasting impact. A paralegal career gives countless opportunities to make a difference in the lives of many people. The role of the paralegal in the legal field often directly

The much-anticipated Clio Cloud Conference kicks off on Monday in New Orleans. As an official media partner, LexBlog used the week leading up to the conference to shine a light on some of the speakers for the event. We were even fortunate enough to feature guest posts from Clio employees who offered unique insights on the company, and the Clio Cloud Conference. Below you’ll find links to all these features, as well as links to connect with each of the speakers. An interview with Haben Girma, a disability rights advocate and the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School. She’ll be giving the opening keynote speech on Tuesday morning, and can follow her on Twitter ,  Instagram , and  Facebook . An interview with Doug Edmonds, the Assistant Dean of IT for University of North Carolina School of Law. He will be speaking on Tuesday with Andrea Stevenson, Mirriam Seddiq, and Chris Heslinga on “Access to Justice: Technology and the Justice Gap.” You can follo...

I am headed to New Orleans Sunday, accompanied by LexBlog’s CTO Josh Lynch and head of business development, David Cuthbert, for Clio’s Annual Cloud Conference, running next Monday and Tuesday. Clio has asked us to cover Clio Con and we’re honored to do so. Not only will be we covering the conference from New Orleans, via Facebook Live, but we’ll have people in Seattle conducting interviews (some are up on the LexBlog Network ) and “Storifies” of keynotes, presentations and events. Storify is a social network service that enables us to create stories or timelines using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as source. Tweet and tag . As you always do at Clio Con, Tweet and use other social media like crazy reporting on what speakers are saying and what you’re observing. Take pictures and shoot videos. Share them on social media – especially Twitter, using the hashtag #ClioCloud9. We’ll pick up the Tweets, including pics and videos at LexBlog Seattle and include them...

Twenty years ago, I terminated my firm’s Westlaw subscription and outsourced our legal research. How so? Law clerks attending law school whom I met on AOL message boards. A clerk did the research, using free Westlaw, drafted a motion, memorandum or brief, forwarded it to my assistant to be put on a case caption and reviewed by my associate. In a contingency fee case, a big savings of time for us. My associate could work on more valuable things. On hourly work, clients got a bill for a clerk’s time at $40 an hour while we paid them $15 an hour. Clients loved the savings and the innovation. Without the Internet and a willingness to be different, none of that would have been possible. Now I hear that a friend of mine, Attorney Steve Embry is doing a little bit of the same — except on a much larger scale that is likely to have a lasting effect on large law. For years, law firms have defended mass torts the same way. Put an experienced mass torts lawyer on the case to lead strategy a...

When Amazon built a digital department store, then competitor, Toys “R” Us licensed Amazon’s technology for the online sales of its goods. Toys “R” Us could not compete on software. When Amazon had surplus cloud hosting capacity, Amazon created AWS for the licensing of its cloud hosting services to third parties. AWS now represents over a third of Amazon’s revenue. When Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, the Post, at the encouragement of Bezos to follow the AWS model, built a digital publishing platform the Post could license to third parties. Arc Publishing, the name of the Post’s publishing platform, is now licensed to news publishers as large as Tronc, the owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun. Ironically, Tronc had claimed that its technology prowess would allow it to succeed whether other news publishers failed. It’s a nice model, develop the software platform you need to succeed and license your techno...

Maybe lately you have been second guessing your choice to be a paralegal.  Perhaps you have felt like just walking away from your  career.  Or, maybe it's not all that bad, but there are few things you wish you could change.  Demanding attorneys, endless work hours, the constant pressure of deadlines and the expectation of constant perfection can really put a dent in how happy and satisfied you